Connect to share and comment  Slash-and-burn a way of life on
Indonesia's Sumatra   The ground was still hot and smoke hung in
the air when Saparina set out to plant her spinach in the ashen
remains of rainforest on Indonesia's Sumatra island, where
raging fires triggered Southeast Asia's worst smog crisis in
years.  The farmer waded through ankle-deep ash as she laid out
her crops in fire-blackened earth among charred tree stumps on
land cleared by the illegal method of slash-and-burn.  "I give
thanks to God, now I can easily plant vegetables and oil palms,"
said the 36-year-old, who only gave one name, her feet still
dirty after planting the crops in her half-hectare (1.2-acre)
plot of land in Riau province.  While the blazes last month
cloaked Singapore and Malaysia in toxic haze and provoked howls
of outrage from environmental groups, many on Sumatra, from
plantation workers to villagers like Saparina, are die-hard
supporters of using fires to clear land.  It is the quickest and
cheapest method of clearan