I HAD believed the anti-lock braking system (ABS) on my car made driving safer and provided some sort of guarantee against uncontrollable skids. So I was disconcerted to find this view challenged recently (快猫短视频, 2 March, p 3 and p 9). It seems that far from making driving safer, ABS could be encouraging drivers to go faster and to brake harder, effectively causing more accidents. I asked David Jamieson, the junior minister at the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, for a comment.
Jamieson said that the DTLR鈥檚 view is that ABS has many benefits. It allows the driver to steer while braking in an emergency and reduces stopping distances in wet and slippery conditions. This, he added, is supported by the department鈥檚 research, which shows that if used properly, ABS can cut the number of accidents.
The DTLR is sufficiently confident in the benefits of ABS that it has recently extended the legislation that requires it to be fitted to some vehicles during production. This now covers all new goods vehicles heavier than 3500 kilograms and all new buses and minibuses. The European Commission is now discussing with car manufacturers a voluntary agreement to fit ABS to all new passenger cars, said Jamieson.
Advertisement
That positive ministerial response makes this driver feel much better about his ABS.
CONSUMPTION of bushmeat is on the rise in places as far apart as Mongolia and Brazil, not to mention many African countries. While some of it may be from non-endangered species, most of it comes from illegal hunting and trading. As a result, it is difficult to know the real extent to which poor people rely on bushmeat for food and income. The worry is that many endangered species, including some of the great apes, simply won鈥檛 survive the growing onslaught.
Hilary Benn, the junior international development minister, says it is bad enough that these creatures face the loss of their habitat, but worse that they are also hunted for food and profit. The problem is exacerbated by corruption, poor law enforcement, weak governance and widespread poverty. And the links between the bushmeat trade and poverty are not well understood, he adds. Certainly, when I visited Zaire in 1990, it was all too clear that the slaughtering of rare animals was a result of desperate hunger.
Benn says the Department for International Development (DFID) has no 鈥渂ushmeat initiatives鈥� as such, but works indirectly on the problem in many countries through its support for sustainable forest management. This is key to ensuring the survival of non-endangered bushmeat species, because illegal logging is a major factor in the bushmeat trade. Illegal loggers often not only trade in bushmeat themselves, but also make it easier for other hunters to access the habitats of rare animals, Benn says.
The DFID funds research into links between bushmeat and poverty in Ghana, and participates in the UK Tropical Forest Forum鈥檚 bushmeat working group, which provides an open forum in Britain for discussing bushmeat issues.
This is a matter that the West can do something about鈥攁nd it is likely to achieve much in terms of goodwill among Third World countries.