From A Hill To A Valley

I always drive pass through the piece of land, now that I am living and working in Damansara, and since I am an avid user of the NKVE highway, I can see the area almost every day. I remember passing through the piece of land when I was still a small girl, about 11 years of age. It was a large and lush area of greenery. A hill with trees as tall as it could grow, of primer jungle not a secondary jungle. Everything was so picturesque, if I have a talent like Monet, I could have drawn the breathtaking scenery on rolls and rolls of canvas. But, everything was left to my heart and memories to picture it now. Yet, it was 12 years ago, at present the development really takes it toll on the mother earth’s precious treasure.

Development monstrously consumes the hill. It is, at present, a valley, a bare land with hardly any trees left and the only color one can see now is the brownish color of the earth. Soon it will be a ‘paradise’ to hundreds or families. It is now a housing area under construction. Yes, I know I can’t be this melodramatic over a destruction of a hill, by the way it is only a hill.

And Malaysia has endless mountains and hills. People need houses to live in. So that is how the hill and mountain come into the picture; we need granite and cement and marbles to build houses. We end up consuming excessively on the prime resource discounting the facts that it took billions of years for the nature to form a mountain. I strongly believe that hills are to be viewed and marveled at not for us to live on it and annihilate the ecological structure.

Let me re-phrase, NO, it is not that I am against the development.But I do think that in developing the nation it should be done in a more structured manner. I have been observing this trend which is healthily practiced everywhere: the developer wants to develop an area, they uprooted every tree, flattened every hill and Walla~~ once the houses are raised, they will plant new small twigging little trees. This explains why mostly new housing area is always so humid and comprise excessive ray of light. Despite, the slogan, “Nature at its best” when promoting a real estate property, it actually looks more like an abandoned town.

I realized that unstructured development is not the only reason why more and more hills and lush greeneries are disappearing from our country geographical map. It is also closely related to people mindset and attitude. Usually, after buying a house, some people blow half the structure of the house and build up new structure. Renovation: that is supposed to give the house a more stylish design. This process sometimes goes on and on until one acquires the satisfaction of having the so called dream home.

Sure, I have no right to comment on this, as it merely a personal choice. I myself would consider doing renovation once I have the chance of buying my own house. But the most important thing is not to go overboard with the idea or activity of renovation. Excessive renovation is only a total waste of resource. What make we think that we own the mountain and the jungle, that it gives us the right to demolish the precious treasure in order to make way for our ever escalating material desire? We all should think that our act have consequences. All of us need to realize that it is also a habitat, a home, a sanctuary, to other co-habitant on this planet. We all should be a protector not a selfish consumer of the precious treasure.

As more and more hills and mountains are disappearing, all left are memories which bring solemn to the heart. What can I tell my child in the future is that: “Dear, there used to be a high and scenic mountain once on this piece of land but it is no longer here, I wish you could see how beautiful it was”. Well, I think it will make a great bed time story for my kids, or when my husband and I are traveling, as we pass along the road it sure going to be a journey of good long nature talk for the children.

Original Entry was made on November 24th 2005