The D word

It's strange how even at 30, my mama's grumblings about my papa get to me; I get all flustered just 30 seconds into her rants. And it's not at all surprising afterwards when I thought about it later. It's like this: If I were to get all edgy and bothered simply by these harmless naggings, just how bad does it get for the kid who's undergoing his parents' divorce? Of course, the D-word wasn't unheard of in my household while I was growing up, but it never materialized (thank God!). And perhaps, I suspect, the time spent on the chaise lounge at the shrink's later in life may not even justify the trauma of a family break-up.

The world is sick too, literally. In just 11 days, we celebrate Earth Day (or do we really?). With talks like global warming, rising sea levels, greenhouse effects, El Nino, freak weathers and the like going on for decades, one can't help fear armageddon. And we do not need Hollywood to remind us about D-day. Watching The Core on telly last night gave me an awakening, that it takes only 6 heroes - 4 dead, 2 alive - to save the earth. Yeah, right! But what is it that's in us that's believing this, that if we don't do something, our planet is going to get so sick that it'll take a few heroes, usually from America, to save the world, and us? Why aren't we doing our part? For decades, scientists have debated on the issue of non-biodegradable plastic bags and many parts of Europe and Australasia have either adopted a no-bags policy or biodegradable plastic bags and here we are still complaining about our leachy authorities on their charging 10 cents for one plastic bag on the once-a-month no-plastic-bag day at the major supermarkets.

Did you know that a world population of 6 billion people is too much for the earth to handle? I didn't know that until I chanced upon Planet Earth: The Future on telly (yes, the telly again) that the optimum population size is between 500 million to 1 billion.

"Nature is infinite, but man has caused it to become finite."

And it should come as an insult to every (educated, especially) earthling with this once-a-year celebration. Do we really think that being environmentally-conscious for 1 day out of 365 days is enough to save our beloved earth?

So the question here is: Are we doing anything to save our families and our earth?

What's in your soup?

Do you like shark's fin soup? Do you know how it taste like without the Ajinomoto to give it flavour? Socially perceived as dangerous marine animals, many adopt a tit-for-tat attitude on man's killing of sharks for their fins. But do you know that out of the thousands who are attacked by sharks a year, 10 persons actually die? In comparison, over ten million are killed to be served on our [Asian] tables. How fair is that?

I've been laughed at countless times over the last 3 years for being silly and not knowing how to enjoy this "delicacy" - these sharks have been killed anyway, I've been told - but I just can't make myself eat it anymore. Can you save the sharks too?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/06/0603_020603_shark1.html

Movers

Movers are a life-saver if you need to move, house that is. But the bad part about movers is, oh no, I'm not referring to the exorbitant price tag that comes with the service, but all those paper that's wasted during the packing. Saving Gaia? Definitely not in this industry.

The irony of it all

I love the Earth. I try to recycle whenever possible - newspapers, plastic bottles, you name it. I bring my own bag when I do grocery shopping. I hate those red, blue or green non-biodegradable plastic thingys that take forever to disintegrate. Funny that I should say something like this...

Okay, so what's so funny? Well, yours truly brings over loads of Fairprice plastic bags from home for my rubbish bins here in HK. Ironical ain't it? It almost seems as if I'm spreadiing the pollution across countries! Oops...

But I love the Earth. I really do.