Friday, March 20, 2009

ISA HK/China --- Virus Attack on our Computer System

国内朋友请使用翻译软件阅读本文。
*** Our weekly Station Mail is for the information of Station Members only, but Station Mail has given up copyright & can be freely circulated. For administrative reasons, comments from outsiders are usually not entertained & may be circulated within our system locally & overseas
. Please note Station Mail is sometimes given in Blog at http://isahkchina.blogspot.com , although images are usually not attached due to size. ***

Dear All,

It is an unfortunate event for ISA HK/China to inform you that our computer system has encountered a massive virus attack on Monday 16.3.09 from which, about 20% of our Station Membership has been lost even after we have fixed the problem earlier today. The groups which have been affected are the Contractors, CEDD, LCSD & HYD primarily, although a few individuals in the other groupings may also be affected due to this unfortunate incident.

In order to put our e-mail listing back into place, we have reviewed from past correspondences & written record to try to reinstate. It is possible that a few individuals with correspondences with us in the past but not our Station Members are also accidentally placed into our Station Mail circulation.

Therefore, if anyone of you is receiving our Station Mail but not wanting to receive it for any reason, please kindly accept our apologies & advise us at the same time that you want to be removed from our Station Mail circulation. ISA HK/China will be obliged to remove your good name from our listing immediately & you will not be disturbed any further.

For those of you who are not our Station Members but are now receiving our Station Mail & is willing to carry on receiving it, you do not need to do anything & we shall seek no further confirmation from you.

Please note it is a Station policy that anyone can withdraw from ISA HK/China at an e-mail notice anytime & we have only 9 withdrawals from our +780 Station Membership in the past 4 years.

This message will be put on our Station Blog for public notice. We shall be grateful if any of you knowing anyone who is not receiving our Station Mail starting next week to advise us to reinstate their status for continuous mailing.

In the coming Station Mail, ISA HK/China will release our review on the important Parks & Trees Act of Singapore, & the international definition of a tree for broadening the knowledge of our Station Members.

Thank you for your understanding & continuous support for ISA HK/China always.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

"Trees are good for the community. Trees need care like human beings. Arborists are the Tree Care Professionals."

Sunday, March 15, 2009

ISA HK/China --- HK Tree News (Tree Failure in Cheung Chau)




国内朋友请使用翻译软件阅读本文。

*** Our weekly Station Mail is for the information of Station Members only, but Station Mail has given up copyright & can be freely circulated. For administrative reasons, comments from outsiders are usually not entertained & may be circulated within our system locally & overseas. Please note Station Mail is sometimes given in Blog at
http://isahkchina.blogspot.com , although images are usually not attached due to size. ***

Dear Station Members,

As the rainy season approaches southern China, Urban Trees begin to fail as a traditional routine in our territory.

Attached is an insignificant piece of Trees News in a local newspaper showing a 10m tall tree of unknown species, failed at 8 am of 6.3.09 after heavy rain, to hit the buildings next to it. Balustrades of the 2 buildings were damaged & luckily no one was hurt. From the picture so shown, the fallen tree rested upon the balcony of a building & the chance of hitting a casual visitor would be high if at the wrong time of the day, say, evening after a meal.

It appears that our public may not have accepted the concept of 'Prevention is Better than Cure' when it comes to Tree Care, especially for potentially hazardous trees of mature size. Certain ailing trees have been kept in place out of compassion, but without regular inspection by a trained Arborist. A lot of people appear to love trees in so far that they do not have to spend money on it. Regular Tree Inspection at a 6 month interval is considered unnecessary, & trees health & safety are judged by looking at the foliage alone.

Then when the tree failed, as long as the incident does not kill, the media coverage is usually insignificant & the fallen tree would be quickly removed out of convenience. An Independent Arborist would hardly be called in to carry out post mortem for future prevention or recommendation. The case would be regarded by the public as an Act of God which should happen from time to time, because trees are doomed to fail one time or another. Any legal liabilities would be the problem of the insurance company. The case would look after itself well in our social structure with maybe a few whisper among the Tree Lovers to be just another unfortunate incident. Memories would fade in time until a bigger case would come up again.

With attitude as such in our society, trees are likely to carry on failing because they are expected to fail. Information on Tree Failure will continue to feed into ISA HK/China & Tree Failure Report will become a never ending story in our Station Mail to when ?....

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

"Trees are good for the community. Trees need care like human beings. Arborists are the Tree Care Professionals."