One of the Palangkaraya pilots was at the house this morning trying to get the school computer fixed. I began asking him about the smoke situation. He told me that the past two years, the government has intervened. Australian helicopters were leased to dump water on the fires. Then the military went around to the villages near the fires, attempting to find out who had started them to threaten them with imprisonment if it happened again. But this year, the pilot said, the government hadn't interfered at all, possibly for two reasons: first, they were claiming that there was no money for it this year. Which is feasible since the economy is bad world-wide. Second possible reason is that this is an election year and the politicians don't want to antagonize voters. The people starting these fires depend on this method for clearing their land. They really don't have an alternative at this point because machinery is too expensive for them. "It's just the way we do it; there's nothing to be done about it." I was told that when the smoke gets really bad, there is tension between the neighboring countries of Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. This morning the wind was right out of the south blowing the smoke up our direction. It isn't so bad that we need to wear masks. Hope it doesn't get to that point. I asked what it will take to end the problem and he said rain and lots of it. A little bit won't help. The rain has to go deep into the peat where the fires are smoldering. If you want to pray for us here in Tarakan, pray that God would send rain.
BTW, the school computer didn't get fixed. It's a problem that is going to require throwing money at it. :o)
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