Youths nowadays are pretty tired of the ‘Green-wash’ that is sometimes portrayed by some environmental groups in Singapore. We do get feedback from them that ‘It’s NOT FAIR” Why must they ‘face the music’ for all the environmental woes when their parents/teachers/adults are actually the ones who caused all these.There are some half truths on this…
For one, the environment is shared by all, whatever the age is. And that is why we sometimes stop “telling” the youths what to do but rather get them to suggest what they want to do. Getting the youths to realized that humanity is one; we all share a common environment and pointing fingers and feeling a sense of hopelessness aint going to help. As the movie “HOME” rightly portrays; it’s too LATE being a Pessimist. It’s only with hope and positive thinking are we able to influence more people to change like consumption habits; be it Electronic gadgets or Food choices.
The Kampong Spirits has a huge role to play in this respect. The feeling of interconnectedness with Nature is certainly very much embedded in a Kampong environment. An environment where our ‘Wants’ are sometimes put on hold for the common good of the community. In modern, fast paced societies like in Singapore, we sometimes just need to pause for a moment to rethink the fundamentals; basic stuff like what is a NEED and what is a WANT. Kampong life is about going back to basics, appreciating simplicity and the group spirit instead of the “instant gratification” phenomenon which is very prevalent in many youths these days.
In a kampong environment; daily practices like reducing and reusing is very much a common practice as sharing with our neighbours and friends are very much an ingrained quality of the kampong spirit. Many people still think they should just Recycle but in fact, recycling is the least important among the 3Rs as any form of recycling still continues to use energy, water, chemicals and has a positive carbon footprint instead of the Reducing and Reusing. In fact, many environmental movement have added 2 more Rs even before we start to practice the conventional 3Rs. That is to Rethink and Refuse. Rethink how we such be mindful of our consumption habits and Refuse what we do not need.
Increasingly, many affluent societies have shown that material wealth do not equate to mental well-being or happiness. In fact, there is a new thinking that maybe countries should be measured in terms of the Gross National Happiness (GNH)instead of the conventional Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the United States, experts have showed that their happiness index peaked during the 1950s; around the same time this craze over excessive consumption caught on. Americans are faced with over 3000 advertisements a day compared to 50 years ago (www.thestoryofstuff.com) and 2 very powerful tool subliminally infused into most modern societies are Planned Obsolescence and Perceived Obsolescence. So increasingly so, not only is the kampong spirit diluting, we are increasing living in a endless rat-race to mindlessly consume to feel happy.
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