Earthy hours

8.30 pm - 9.30 pm : Earth Hour / The hour I spent sleeping

Yes, I spent earth hour sleeping. While the rest of the earth either;

a) Were making a hallabaloo over it offing lights but wasting more electricity by having a concert.
b) Were in confusion as to just off the lights or all electrical items
or
c) Were totally unaware of what was going on when they saw their neighbour in the dark with candles, "Got new cult ah..."

But seriously on my side of town, no one gave a damn according to my mom. I for one slept through it making me a very good participant since I was too tired to even turn on the fan, I slept in the absence of electricity.

So for the past week surfing about the Internet a whole bunch of people are making comments on whether or not Earth Hour (EH) is basically just a sham which defeats its cause on a whole by being over advertised (wasting paper), having a concert (waste electricity) and so on and so forth.

But the thing is we can't deny that the earth is falling apart while we are still on it, a fact that many don't grasp. To put it into context, imagine you are on a piece of ice on the lake in the middle of nowhere and you start stabbing the ice with a fork. Sure the ice is thick, but slowly it cracks then you move to the other spot...Slowly you will be on a single steak of ice stranded. Now imagine 2 billion people on it with you.

Worried yet?

I mean sure they are trying to find out if it is possible to live on Mars, but seriously you don't want to live on earth, but Mars?

I agree with a large point that many are making in that EH is not going to help much if it is all just one out of 8760 hours in a year. The solution is very much in the way we live.

I'm not saying go out and find yourself a contractor and in these times of economic difficulty build an eco-home, but it's the little things.

1. The next time your appliance breaks down, go for a green appliance. Sure it's 50 bucks more than the non but in the long run your electricity bill goes down too.
2. The next time you bust a light bulb go for a green light bulb; come on it's 50 cents.
3. Turn off the water in between brushing your teeth and washing your face; alternatively use a cup. Also during your shower.
   
4. Don't try to multitask by having the TV on, your laptop on and talking on the phone all at the same time. Even without the phone, you only have a pair of eyes.
   
5. Turn off the lights and fans once you leave a room. Even if it is to get something from the kitchen, 5 minutes makes a difference.
6. Don't turn on the air conditioner and cover yourself up to the head in a duvet. Does it even make sense? Okay it's hot we are on the equator, turn on the air cond, cool the room down with the door closed, brush your teeth come back turn it off and on the fan. Sleep.
7. Pay attention to boiled water. Now with the electric kettle you go to the kitchen you turn it on go to the living room watch TV, 20 minutes later you remember you were boiling water for tea, you go back to the kitchen the water's lukewarm, you boil it again. There you just wasted electricity. It takes a whole 2 1/2 minutes to boil 500ml of water with an electric kettle. Would it kill you to prepare the teabag and sugar.
8. Don't open the fridge unnessesarily, you open it think, nah... 2 minutes later you open it again. Don't open it, saves not only the earth but calories too.
9. Say no to plastic bags. Come on that bottle of water needs a plastic bag? That mascara stick?
   

I mean this list it's what I do too. And I realised that it does in fact happen for me. I'm a afraid of the cold, why do I turn on the air conditioning? It is do-able.

Challenge yourself, save the earth.

Racism.

There are stereotype for everyone, don't deny it because you hear it all around you. The Chinese are kiasu (afraid of losing out), the Malays are lazy and aimless, the Indians are violent and uncouth. Have you not seen a lazy, violent and uncouth Chinese? Have you not seen a Malay who's diligent and full of drive? Have yoou not met an Indian who looks like a giant but is as gentle as a feather?

Problem is, we usually meet the "bad" ones first; or rather we remember most strongly our bad experiences. That paired with our handed down stereotyping of people by their colour leads to prejudice.

Why do we decide how people are by the colour of their skin? It's not as if they were given a choice. It is not fair to segregate people by the colour of their skin, look beyond the skin, what is inside there?

I am not a person who has not encountered people of other races who have acted less than civil and behaved shamelessly in public. In fact, it is precisely because I have just experienced such an audacious act that I began thinking about the way I thought of people.

The story is, two Indians stepped on the bus and headed all the way to the back of the bus, and one exclaimed that he was going to play the music that he likes and proceeded to blast his player loud enough to cause the person who is in front of the bus (note: 2x long SMRT bus) to turn back and glare. But did they care? Not. They just cursed in the typical F*** ing.. %&£^@(. Insulting everyone insight,

I won't deny that for a moment I thought, "bloody Indians again..." Then I stopped myself. I thought of all my Indian friends, they weren't like that.

Later on in teh journey, another Indian sat in front of me, and as he grabbed the hand rail of the chair to sit down, he flashed me a smile. Not in the hamsap (note: perverted) way, but just a, "Good morning, nice to see you at 7.40 am on Deepavali" smile.

So in conclusion, the next time you see a person that fits a stereotype of a certain race, imagine him/her in a different colour. Does that change your opinion?

I think I can fairly say that I still do judge people by their colour, but am not ignorant to people who are of those colours of prejudice that have been wonderful to me. One great example is my baby sitter.

Anyone who knows me well enough will know that for the first part of my life I was taken care of by my malay babysitter. Her family became mine, I call her "mak" (note: mother in malay), her mother and father grandpa and grandma. When my "grandfather" passed on i could clearly remember all the things we did together and how he loved me. Till today, of my maternal grandfather I have nothing good to say.

You really don't have to be related by blood to be family and you really don't have to be a certain colour to be a certain way.

levels

It's scary to understand the fragility of life but lose the desire to protect it. It's frightening to know that a person can lose all hope in life, all desire to go on. It's petrifying to realise that, that is the person you're turning into.

lovely

Just getting a random SMS from you, talking to you, seeing pictures of you; it makes me smile. It's a random feeling, something new not even vaguely romantic.

It just settles me, you give me something I don't even care to describe. Thanks for being a friend. Thanks for appearing in my life.

There is a place I often escape into, a place which often appears when I'm bored, tired, sad, happy, it appears at almost all junctures.

It's called my imagination.

In that place the world revolves around me, in that place I can live, die or want to die without "bothering" the people around me.
In that place I can cry for a reason that is detached from reality, I can cry without "bothering" people.
In that place I can love and be loved mirroring an alternate reality, I can love and be loved without bothering other people with the burden of loving me back.

In the alternate reality of my imagination I can live out a life fast forwarded past this troublesome stage I am at, or this difficult juncture where the journey to where I want to be I so long that I can't even see the finish line.

In the alternate reality, the "ending" can be multifaceted, it can change every time.

Killing spree

Case 1Case 2

"He has reportedly told police that he took 10 times his prescribed dose of tranquillisers yesterday in an attempt to kill himself. He said he had attempted suicide many times and wanted to be executed."

Takuma was unrepentant, telling the court: "If I had attacked a kindergarten I could have killed more than 30. Since I will get the death penalty either way it's a shame I only got eight."

What do you say to someone like that? Is it enough that he is diagnosed with a mental instability. What and who made him become this way?

It is sad what emptiness and loneliness drives people to do, how does someone wake up one day and say "I'm going to drive into town today and stab a couple of people."

Credits & Further Reading

• Murderer of eight hanged by Collin Joyce
• Knifeman kills eight children by Collin Joyce
• Temp worker stabs 7 to death, injures 10 in Akihabara by Kyodo News
• 
  

Ethics vs Professionalism: Can you do it?

I remember clearly my first encounter with the words "killing fields" I was 9 in my mothers office crouched in a corner with a copy or TIME magazine. I remember the photo-louge and how often since then those two words have always fascinated me. I sought out many books mainly using photos to explain and then in documentaries where the memorials and the killing sites were filmed.

They say there is a strange coldness in the air, a discomfort from deep within and in a place where millions died not one thousand years ago, but a mere thirty odd years, it is not hard to see why. I remember dreaming of going there with a bunch of people holding the bones in my hands, this has yet come to pass.

I wonder if the sheer presence of history there will shatter me and I will remain standing outside unable to go in.

I was reading on The New York Times, on the highly reliable wikipedia; one link lead to another and soon I was reading up on the various photojournalist that have braved the war to record history. Both, dead.

One of them is Eddie Adams who is famous for this photo
The story behind this is that the general seen holding the gun here shot the prisoner on an open street and why Adams said that it was an unfair portrayal is his interview with TIME magazine, he said, "The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?'"

Other ethical issues surround 'famous' photo's.
Like this one by Kevin Carter in Sudan 1993. This photo was quoted to have epitomized the war in Sudan then, Carter won the Pulitzer Award for that photo, a few months later he committed suicide. He waited 20 minutes for a 'good' photo, shot this one, chased the bird away but left the child there.

Many questions were raised on why didn't he carry the child to the feeding centre? Why did he wait 20 minutes?

I have been toying with the idea of being a photojournalist or at least a journalist, but a sudden surge of reality has hit me. Will I be able to seperate myself as a morale human being to doing my job? Sure if I was Carter I would have taken the shot and then carried the child to the centre.

But what if it was something more than a starving child? What if it was the about to commence killing of someone? What if I was covering the war and one of the terrorist was but a 10 year old boy holding on to an AK-47 he barely knows how to use? Am I to take the shot of the boy waiting to be shot by the soldier or jump in front and stop it?

In all professionalism, I am supposed to take the shot, not take the bullet. Problem is, can I do it?

Quoting an article in TIME magazine, "Carter was painfully aware of the photojournalist's dilemma. "I had to think visually," he said once, describing a shoot-out. "I am zooming in on a tight shot of the dead guy and a splash of red. Going into his khaki uniform in a pool of blood in the sand. The dead man's face is slightly gray. You are making a visual here. But inside something is screaming, 'My God.' But it is time to work. Deal with the rest later. If you can't do it, get out of the game." Says Nachtwey, "Every photographer who has been involved in these stories has been affected. You become changed forever. Nobody does this kind of work to make themselves feel good. It is very hard to continue."


Despite being overused, a photo does say a thousand words. This photo below changed the lives of the people on that boat, Adams said he would have prefered to have gained fame over than photo than that of the general.
Because of this photo, 200 thousand Vietnamese refugees stuck at sea were given refuge.

I want to be able to take pictures that will change the world, capture a moment in history, I want the courage to step up to the job. I want to meet people that influence, that I admire for their work:

But what I don't want is to say this at the end of my life: "The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist."-Kevin Carter

Credits & Acknowledgements:

• There Are Tears in My Eyes. Eddie Adams & the Most Famous Photo of the Vietnam War: By Jonah Goldberg
• The Life and Death of Kevin Carter: By Scott Macleod
• Monroe Gallery of photography
• BBC UK In Pictures, Eddie Adams

A similar sentiment of confusion on ethics on this persons blog.