The Haze Season ⌛A 5 Minute FreeWrite⌛

kaerpediem (70)in #freewrite • 6 years ago

Taken from my backyard @ 9am

After reading @scribblingrama's FreeWrite on the prompt The Sky Is Clear, it got me thinking of the haze situation in Malaysia. This has been an annual concern over a decade now, and a couple of years back, it was so bad, that schools were shut, we walked around with face masks, and we could literally smell it in the air with a thin layer of ash settling on surfaces.

Over in Indonesia, plantations were being set on fire, a cheaper way of getting rid of the old to make way for the new. And while these fires were raging, causing damage, and even killing poeple on their land, the winds would blow the smoke towards ours.

We were up in arms. We cried foul. The cheap way of clearing the plantations was becoming our problem and it made us angry. They had to watch their fires! It was affecting our young, our old and the weaker ones in between. We wanted justice. They have to find a better way.

Then we found out that some of these plantations belonged to Malaysians. Oh dear! Of course, there was a lot of finger pointing, accusations, reasons, it-wasn't-me's!

It didn't matter. At the end of the day, it was the people who suffered on both sides. We continued to voice our frustrations. And the fires continued raging every year.

Yes, the haze is back. Not as bad as it was in 2015. And sadly, we have become used to it. We joke about it. Around this time of the year, we say it is the Haze Season.

This is when we hope for rain so it will wash away the haze. The picture above was taken this morning. It rained over the weekend, close up you don't see it, but you see the haze in the horizon. I just checked the reading, and it tells me Air Pollution Index is moderate. So, I guess don't believe everything you see?

This is my 5 minute Free Write for the prompt The Sky Is Clear. Want to find out more, head on over to @mariannewest where you can also read more from the prompt.