I’m talking about Earth Hour.
People keep on saying more should be done, more should be done, yada yada yada. But tell me, what do you have in mind? I know switching off the electricity for one hour will not make a person a tree-hugger but it creates awareness, doesn’t it? People realize that okay, there’s this thing called climate change and we are all going to be affected by it. At the very least, that’s what the whole thing would achieve. So what if it’s once a year? So what if it’s commercialized to the core? All I’m saying is that, it’s better than nothing. Anything is better than nothing. So what if ‘hati tak ikhlas, support just because there are celebrities involved’? Niat is a different thing all together. That will always be something between you and God. More importantly, it’s an act of solidarity. For one hour, if everyone could just stay in darkness, then we are all on the same plate. We are all united for one cause. Even if it’s just for one hour – it’s better than nothing. No matter how many campaigns, walks, talks organized by NGOs throughout the year, the response have always been slow. People don’t feel the need to participate. So what if it takes commercialization to get people to play a role, albeit a small one? So what if it's turned into a festival? So what if KLCC is giving out free coffee to its customers? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Look at the events organized by Random Acts. Take for example that ‘freeze’ thing that was all the rage last year. Why did people participate? Sometimes, there is no need for a reason at all. It’s a blatant show of solidarity. And isn’t that achievement enough in our country especially considering the current political climate? Bak kata one of the tag lines, 'switch off to show Malaysians are united'. Again, that's the least you can do.
I don’t understand people who expect more to be done. Before that ‘something more’ could be done, we must start from scratch. We must start small. We cannot jump to conclusions and start ranting ‘oh why can’t we all stop smoking to stop pollution? Why can’t we stop the rivers from being polluted first? Why can’t we stop this and that?’ Can we go and clean the rivers now? Would you want to spend this weekend cleaning any random river you come across? Let’s start by doing something simple that we ALL can do. Don’t be too idealistic. Even you can’t stop smoking for one day, let alone forever, to save the earth and that’s something even simpler than cleaning rivers, stopping trees from being cut down. Oh well, I don’t know, it seem like a simple thing to me but it may be difficult to them smokers. Hmm, maybe next year they should have a campaign where everyone can participate in cleaning the Klang River.
People have different ways of being reached out to. The fashion-conscious would have been allured by Anya Hindmarch’s I’m Not A Plastic Bag series. And maybe upon purchasing the bags, they realized that oh, okay, we can stop using plastic bags to save the environment. I don’t know whether it was effective or not because I wasn’t one of those people who queued for hours just to get that bag. Again, it was just a marketing ploy. Plus I have yet to see a single lady toting that bag to the grocery store. But it certainly created awareness and I can only speak for myself. Because I was more aware of the amount of plastic bags we use when we go out to buy groceries or food. So, I took whatever grocery bag we have at home and used it for quite some time especially during Ramadhan. (to begin with, I hardly buy groceries pun..hehe) I mean, if I were to be cynical, I could have just not make any effort at all. I could just have this attitude – “I’m only one person, what difference could I make to the entire world?” But is that the kind of attitude that we want? Or are we just going to sit and wait for the big guns to do something drastic and major before we say… ahh, now that’s something for the environment. You keep on waiting while I bask in the glory of all things commercial. ;p
It’s only for an hour. If you can smoke 5 packets per day, accept plastic bags from the stores, drive a non-hybrid car, throw rubbish out of the window, print hundred sheets of paper daily, then you can switch off your lights for one hour kot.
People keep on saying more should be done, more should be done, yada yada yada. But tell me, what do you have in mind? I know switching off the electricity for one hour will not make a person a tree-hugger but it creates awareness, doesn’t it? People realize that okay, there’s this thing called climate change and we are all going to be affected by it. At the very least, that’s what the whole thing would achieve. So what if it’s once a year? So what if it’s commercialized to the core? All I’m saying is that, it’s better than nothing. Anything is better than nothing. So what if ‘hati tak ikhlas, support just because there are celebrities involved’? Niat is a different thing all together. That will always be something between you and God. More importantly, it’s an act of solidarity. For one hour, if everyone could just stay in darkness, then we are all on the same plate. We are all united for one cause. Even if it’s just for one hour – it’s better than nothing. No matter how many campaigns, walks, talks organized by NGOs throughout the year, the response have always been slow. People don’t feel the need to participate. So what if it takes commercialization to get people to play a role, albeit a small one? So what if it's turned into a festival? So what if KLCC is giving out free coffee to its customers? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Look at the events organized by Random Acts. Take for example that ‘freeze’ thing that was all the rage last year. Why did people participate? Sometimes, there is no need for a reason at all. It’s a blatant show of solidarity. And isn’t that achievement enough in our country especially considering the current political climate? Bak kata one of the tag lines, 'switch off to show Malaysians are united'. Again, that's the least you can do.
I don’t understand people who expect more to be done. Before that ‘something more’ could be done, we must start from scratch. We must start small. We cannot jump to conclusions and start ranting ‘oh why can’t we all stop smoking to stop pollution? Why can’t we stop the rivers from being polluted first? Why can’t we stop this and that?’ Can we go and clean the rivers now? Would you want to spend this weekend cleaning any random river you come across? Let’s start by doing something simple that we ALL can do. Don’t be too idealistic. Even you can’t stop smoking for one day, let alone forever, to save the earth and that’s something even simpler than cleaning rivers, stopping trees from being cut down. Oh well, I don’t know, it seem like a simple thing to me but it may be difficult to them smokers. Hmm, maybe next year they should have a campaign where everyone can participate in cleaning the Klang River.
People have different ways of being reached out to. The fashion-conscious would have been allured by Anya Hindmarch’s I’m Not A Plastic Bag series. And maybe upon purchasing the bags, they realized that oh, okay, we can stop using plastic bags to save the environment. I don’t know whether it was effective or not because I wasn’t one of those people who queued for hours just to get that bag. Again, it was just a marketing ploy. Plus I have yet to see a single lady toting that bag to the grocery store. But it certainly created awareness and I can only speak for myself. Because I was more aware of the amount of plastic bags we use when we go out to buy groceries or food. So, I took whatever grocery bag we have at home and used it for quite some time especially during Ramadhan. (to begin with, I hardly buy groceries pun..hehe) I mean, if I were to be cynical, I could have just not make any effort at all. I could just have this attitude – “I’m only one person, what difference could I make to the entire world?” But is that the kind of attitude that we want? Or are we just going to sit and wait for the big guns to do something drastic and major before we say… ahh, now that’s something for the environment. You keep on waiting while I bask in the glory of all things commercial. ;p
It’s only for an hour. If you can smoke 5 packets per day, accept plastic bags from the stores, drive a non-hybrid car, throw rubbish out of the window, print hundred sheets of paper daily, then you can switch off your lights for one hour kot.
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