Trees, Glorious Trees

      One of the most lovely things about Penang, in my opinion, is the lovely trees that arch gracefully over many of the streets of George Town.  There's actually a boulevard called "Green Lane" that is a joy to behold.  

      And then you have portable trees, like this one, complete with a hand of bananas on it, being transported in a very legal manner, red flag dangling lawfully off the back. 

Someone actually abiding by the red flag law!

    In the past few months, there's been quite a controversy raging, about "tree torture," as the newspaper called the very barbaric pruning campaign that was carried out all over town.

Some would call this "tree torture"

What do you think?  Will this tree ever recover?  I hope so! 

    There's also been some nasty grumbling about nefarious developers who want a certain tree removed to make their construction process easier.  They aren't legally allowed to take down trees without permission.  So, one approach, I've heard, is to just cut the offending tree down and apologize afterward.  Another more sneaky technique is to "girdle" the tree.  This means killing a tree by removing a strip of bark from around its trunk. After a while, the tree dies because nutrients can't get from the soil to the top part of the tree. At least now people know about it.

It fell very neatly, right down the driveway

It did bring down the electric wires, though.

   The other day I was passing by the Penang Buddhist Association, and noticed a huge tree that had crashed down just minutes before. Miraculous- ly it had taken down nothing more than the electric lines.  A foot or two to either side and it would have crashed into one of the Buddhist buildings.  If it had fallen in the opposite direction from what it did, it would have completely blocked Burma Road, one of the major traffic arteries, not to mention taking out a few hawker stalls on the way.

      




 A fellow watching the goings-on with me expounded on the tree fall.  He seemed to feel that the ""tree-huggers" refuse to let any trees be cut down, but that some are rotten inside and really do need to be removed.  I commented that it was lucky the tree had fallen precisely where it did, managing to miss both of the Buddhist buildings, neatly aligning itself down the driveway.  He shrugged and said, "Of course -- the god is inside!"  I had to agree . . . .