NEWS

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Residents of Hye Keat Estate are up in arms. They cannot understand why a 21 storey project is coming up next to the old Ayer Itam reservoir and filtration plant, which with its clock tower is a landmark of Ayer Itam. The reservoir is first to filter water in Penang, hence its name. For years developers have steered clear of the area knowing it was taboo to them. The sudden change of policy seems to suggest an about turn by the Water Authority and a rejection of  the avowed aims of "sustainable development". Whatever the truth of the matter, the tower crane and gouged out hill have inflicted  a severe dent to the reputation of the state government. 
 

Malaria

Penang is suffering from a malaria outbreak with more than 54 cases reported. Fogging is to be intensified

 Its not only Malaria. TB has been on the rise since 1995 when there were 699 cases.  Since then there has been a steady climb: 788 cases in 1996, 816 in 1997, and 874 in 1998
 

Glut
 

The surplus in office and retail space is said to be huge, due to overbuilding and  expanding the land bank to tempt analysts to recommend a buy on the company.  The complaint is that developers do not look at their, to use the jargon, catchment which is saying that developers tend to aim at the same market, and commit the sin of ignoring location. . Star gazers are glum on the future of building which they think will be a downward slope the next few years. Some think that part of the solution is to encourage foreigners to buy; if they can buy shares, the argument goes,  why not landed property? Others  think there is too much zigging and zagging in policy  In Penang some 40 per cent of office space is vacant
 

Tortoise

The Star's reporter Jessinta Tan reports that an old tortoise has been rescued from the filthy 200 year old well of the Temple of The Goddess of Mercy at Pitt Street (now Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Keling). She reports that the SPCA did the rescue and had planned to release the old reptile into the area of the Botanical Gardens or the Youh Park. We wonder what the MNS has to say about its chances of survival. The  Temple complains of the public habit of throwing things such as left-over food into the well
 

Deadly Matters

The Star reporter Cheah Ui-Hoon reports cock fighting activity at the old cemetery at Sungai Dua. Graves have been flattened to provide a suitable battle ground. The fighters are housed in cages nearby. It appears that Brown of Brown Estate had donated the land for a graveyard when he was alive The cemetery has over 1000 graves

Good News

Penang hopes to be the production  and distribution hub for Information and Communications Technology products, parts and components for high-tech multinational corporations. It hopes also to serve as an ICT nerve centre for start-up companies in the US and other nations. Penang has an excellent infrastructure and highly skilled workforce and a well established supporting net work of electronic suppliers and component makers and above all cost competitive. KOMAG the supplier of advanced thin-film media for computer hard disk drives has transferred its entire manufacturing activities to Penang, a feather in the cap to Penang. These and other facts have armed Dr Ko Tsu Koon for his campaign in the USA to being in more companies