drKMS

I was photographing Podocarpus trees in the parking lot when I saw this guy relaxing on his bike, far far away. Then I quickly changed my macro lens to a 300mm and then took few shoots.  When I showed it to some friends they thought this might be interesting, may be a local newspaper may buy it if I want to sell.

Well I am a botanist, never dream to be photojournalist per se

Ng Suang-Beng and Faizi spent 10 days of their semester break in Cameron Highlands, just days before Christmas, going up down several peaks and trails to map out Balanophora papuana and B. latisepala in the area for Suang-Beng’s thesis. On their final days of that trip, they went up to check the other population of Balanophora near the border of Kelantan that has not been photographed before. They took some specimens and photographs back to campus.

When I was shown the photographs in my office upon their return, I know for sure that it was not the familiar common red B. papuana of Cameron Highlands (see my previous note: Me and My Balanophora). I then called Prof Dato’ Noramly who was in his office. He was so excited that slam-locked his door shut out keys still inside, and rushed to my offic. Upon consultation with other experts, particularly Dr Todd Barkman in Michigan, we think that this is the new population of B. fungosa ssp. indica var. indica.

The photo was then posted to my Flickr account and was later selected as UBC’s Botany Photo of the Day (see my other entry in R-i-B and RRMT). I and Faizi went back to the site on 6th Jan 2008 to take more photos (Suan-Beng could not get good photo of male flowers then) and Prof Noramly, Prof Laily and Mr Kali, local tour guide were with us.

After hiking for about 2 hrs, we managed to locate and spent the entire afternoon photographing the populations

So this trip complete my wish to be photographed with all three species of Balanophora in Cameron Highlands, male and female flowers

Close-up photo of Balanophora fungosa ssp. indica

More photos in my Flickr collection 

Well, I don’t know? Do you ?

If you switch on your CNN, Aljazeera, CNBC etc… there are many theorists and pundits throwing their conclusions, some are very funny. Don’t talk about science and logics lah. If you surf the ever overloading Internet, the discussion on this topics are rather hot. So panas lah you know, from people of many camps accusing others but themselves.

However, I got some facts about Bhutto family, not just Benazir that possibly you want to know:

1. According to Wikipedia, Benazir is a shia muslim, not sunni. Her mother, Nusrat is Kurdish Iranian who married his the late father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, also a shia muslim. The Bhutto family name is adopted after the town they came from, Bhattu Kalan or Bhatto Kalan, a village in Fatehabad District in the state of Haryana, India^. Her grandfather, Sir Shahnawaz Bhatto, migrated to Sindh before the partition and used his native village name “Bhatto” in his name. This was later changed to Bhutto by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

2. She is extremely rich. One source (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071227065720AApZnwl) wrote that she is worth USD 1.5 billion. They don’t know where she got the money from, but they came from wealthy families. However Benazir was convicted in the Swiss Court in 2003. Some cases are still pending. Details are in the Wiki

3. Although many people worshiped her as the first female Prime Minister of the muslim country, some wrote that she was not in the same league as her father. Arthur Herman, a leading U.S. historian, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on 14 June 2007 described her as “one of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia”

4. The reason on why islamists in Pakistan was to eliminate her was because of her too western and anti-mullah stands. Even though she hate Musarraf, she supported him for his action against the islamists, leading to the infamous the Red Mosque incident. Her remark about the Red Mosque was seen with dismay in Pakistan. This and subsequent support for Musharaf led Elder Bhutto’s comrades to criticize her publicly.

5. Benazir was the Prime Minsiter when his brother, Murtaza, the elder of the two sons of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was killed by the police. The brother and sister were estranged at the time and were political opponents. To date the assassination of Murtaza Bhutto remains an unsolved case. Murtaza was an arch-enemy of  Benazir’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari and wanted him removed from the the PPP. However, Benazir was said to take side with her husband, and his brother became a strong critic of Benazir government. One of the leading critics of Benazir is Fatima Bhutto, Murtaza’s daughter and the rising star of Pakistani politics. Read what she wrote in Los Angeles Times in November 2007 entitled “Aunt Benazir False Promises“, here.