7th Sabah International Folklore Festival 2012 : Schedule

Also known as Festival Kesenian Rakyat Antarabangsa Sabah, the seventh edition of this international event is currently ongoing. Scheduled to kick of on July 8, but as we drive through the main venue, Sabah Cultural Centre yesterday there was nothing much going on yet.


Hunting with blowpipe is one of the rituals during the local ethnic Murut traditional dance.


I wrote earlier on the competition schedule during theFestival 2012, highlighting the details of both local folkdance and international folkdance competitions. There will be 18 folk dance troupes from 18 countries showcasing their own unique folk dances and promoting understanding and goodwill through culture. They are from:

1. Brunei Darussalam
2. Czech Republic
3. East Timor
4. Finland
5. Latvia
6. Philippine
7. Poland
8. Thailand
9. South Korea
10. Sri Lanka
11. Kuwait
12. Egypt
13. Nigeria
14. China
15. Indonesia
16. Taiwan
17. Papua New Guinea
18. Kazakhstan

The following itinerary is the latest information gathered from the local daily, and are not stated initially in the brochure:

* Cultural Parade, Wisma Budaya to K.K. Community Hall, 10 July 2012

* Folk Art Exhibition, Ming Garden Hotel, 10 - 15 July 2012

* Sabah Traditional Food Fair, Sport Complex Penampang, 10 - 15 July 2012

* Local Folkdance competition, Sabah Cultural Centre Penampang, 11 - 12 July 2012

* Prime Show, Magellan Sutera Harbour, 13 July 2012

* International Folkdance Competition, Sabah Cultural Centre Penampang, 14 - 15 July 2012


KK City Folklore Parade (10 July 2012)

The cultural parade is jointly organised by Sabah Cultural Board (SCB) and Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK), and is to be flagged off at Wisma Budaya starting at 1.30pm by SCB Chairman, Datuk Wenses Anggang.

From Wisma Budaya, the parade will proceed to Lintasan Deasoka for 'pocket show' via Jalan Laiman Diki and Jalan Tugu, in front of City Hall. All the participating international troops and local cultural groups are expected to participate in the parade. Only the international troops will perform in Lintasan Deasoka though.

The parade will then proceed through Gaya Street and will end at Kota Kinabalu Community Centre. As such, roads mentioned above will be closed in stages to make way for the troops.

This is actually a very good opportunity for the public and especially photographers to make full coverage of the event. I've done one earlier this year during the Universiti Malaysia Sabah annual parade along the streets of Kota Kinabalu.

Lastly, tickets for the cultural shows are available at:
1. Wisma Budaya Building (088-268836)
2. Sabah Cultural Centre, Penampang (088-715464)

Why do we get electric shocks from static?

Static builds up on the surface of good electrical insulators like glass, Teflon, paper, plastics, to name a few. Such materials build up charge readily because they don't conduct it away.

Natural example of static discharge. Shot with Nikkor 24-120 F4 at 120mm | f/7.1 | 30sec | ISO-200 |

It is called static because accumulated charge gets ever greater until something comes along to conduct it back to earth. We become that conductor when we feel the shock from touching the object. If the accumulated charge become so great, the discharge through the conductor - in the case that it is the human body - can be fatal.

Renewable energy from acacia tree

The Acacia Manguim is believed to have originated originated from Australia but later distributed to many South East Asian countries, including Malaysia. The plant is highly adaptable and it can invade secondary forests very fast. In some instances this tree species was blamed for erosion of other hardwood specie in Sabah forest.

If you travel from Tamparuli to Ranau this plant is a common sight along the road and in particular as you start ascending and nearing Pekan Nabalu, the site to get your first close up view of the beautiful Mount Kinabalu.

Flower of the Acacia Mangium. | 6mm | f/4.5 | 1/250 sec |

1MW renewable energy

Recently a local daily carried a special report about Sabah Softwood Berhad's (SSB) effort to generate 1 megawatt (MW) of renewable energy from the burning of acacia mangium woodchips. The 1 MW is enough to power the entire operations of one of the estates belong to SSB.

The 1 MW renewable  energy Gasification Plant managed by SSB has been in operation since 2010 and the use of acacia woodchips and  other wastes ensure that the company's operation sites, such as Dumpas Estate achieve almost zero waste.

More than 25,000ha have been planted with tree species, mainly on acacia mangium

[Source: SSB website]

SSB's chipmill is the region's most sophisticated and it is the largest integrated woodchip mill in Sabah and Malaysia. The chipmill is the only mill in the country designed to process high volume of man made forest plantation timber at low cost. The woodchips are mainly exported to Japan, China and a few other countries in South East Asia.

With a well managed operation, SSB's chipmill received the globally recognised Forest Stewardship Council  - "Chain-Of-Custody" (COC) certification for woodchip manufacturing in Accacia Mangium woodchip products. This COC certification provides a guarantee that the production procedures are in place to track raw materials from the source, all stages of processing and eventual distribution.


Gasification Plant

Gasification is a process that converts timber - in the SSB case woodchips - into wood gas, a syngas consisting of atmospheric nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, traces of methane, and other gases, which can then be used to power an internal combustion engine or for other purposes.

In the absence of petroleum, gasification plants can be used to run internal-combustion engines, or gas turbines, using wood which is a renewable resource.