talfryn.net » Campaigns & Causes

B.A.D.

Husky — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:41:14 +0000

It’s Blog Action Day today. I’m not going to talk about climate change per se, since I’ve recently been accused of writing ‘too much like a scientist’ (no, not on my blog… never on my blog, I hope) and I can’t really talk about climate change (you know, CO₂, atmospheric gases and all that. But of course we know there’s much, much more to it…) without the science, so I’ll just write about what has been bugging me this week.

I don’t need Jiminy Cricket to sing me song about what’s right or wrong, or how I should be feeling bad. I am feeling bad.

In the process of assisting in the preparation of an upcoming major regional biodiversity conference, I have been churning out more waste paper, one-sided printouts, unused colour copies, than I have done so during the entire year so far. Not just paper… but other resources too. Sigh – that quest for quality, precision, perfection. It is difficult to enforce personal pro-environmental attitudes when situational influences impose constraints. Still, we try. Or those of us who really care enough, do.

A reminder from the wise talking cricket: “Conscience is that still, small voice that people won’t listen to. That’s just the trouble with the world today.”

Perhaps we could all be Jiminys. Perhaps our voices (reinforced by suitably disapproving looks (Fig. 1)) would lend weight to consciences, and perhaps people would then listen…

Fig 1. Man demonstrating a Suitably Disapproving Look

I’m gonna scavenge the office for any bits of unclean paper and plastic tomorrow. I’m gonna make sure that the recycling bins remain generously fed. I’m gonna…

Singapore Blue Plan 2009

Husky — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:36:19 +0000

The latest (Draft) Blue Plan has been released! From the IYOR08 blog:

The Draft Blue Plan is a proposal to the Government and people of Singapore from the members and organizations that form “International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008 Singapore” – interested members of civil society concerned about the conservation and management of Singapore’s coral reef heritage. Contributions and advice from the leading marine biologists in Singapore have been incorporated. It was released on 23 April 2009. Members of the Public can download a copy of the Draft Blue Plan here.

Comments and suggestions from members of public are invited. You may email us at blueplan.singapore@gmail.combefore the closing date, 14 May 2009. The Blue Plan will presented to the Government with the collated and edited comments in late May 2009.

Earth Hour

Husky — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:37:07 +0000

Our parents were out for the night, so my sis and I ‘turned off the lights‘ and tried to do our little bit, having our dinner in the semi-dark dining area (the world out there was still quite brightly-lit) and away from our compts. Having no candles in the house, we used torches when necessary while in the living room. Banjo looked on curiously, and I had the idea of doing some light painting. Jane joined in, and so did Dofu who was quite clueless as to what was happening, really.

Tibet – Support the Dalai Lama

Husky — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:21:17 +0000

Dear friends,

After decades of repression under Chinese rule, the Tibetan people’s frustrations have burst onto the streets in protests and riots. With the spotlight of the upcoming Olympic Games now on China, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change.

After decades of repression under Chinese rule, the Tibetan people’s frustrations have burst onto the streets in protests and riots. With the spotlight of the upcoming Olympic Games now on China, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change.

The Chinese government has said that the protesters who have not yet surrendered “will be punished”. Its leaders are right now considering a crucial choice between escalating brutality or dialogue that could determine the future of Tibet, and China.

We can affect this historic choice–China does care about its international reputation. China’s President Hu Jintao needs to hear that the ‘Made in China’ brand and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing can succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention–and we need it in the next 48 hours.

The Tibetan Nobel peace prize winner and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama has called for restraint and dialogue: he needs the world’s people to support him. Click below now to sign the petition–and tell absolutely everyone you can right away–our goal is 1 million voices united for Tibet:

Click the link below to sign the petition >>
http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/6.php

We will deliver our petition directly to Chinese officials in London, New York, and Beijing, but it must be a massive number before we deliver the petition. Please forward this email to your address book with a note explaining to your friends why this is important, or use our tell-a-friend tool to email your address book–it will come up after you sign the petition.

The Tibetan people have suffered quietly for decades. It is finally their moment to speak–we must help them be heard.

With hope and respect,

Ricken, Iain, Graziela, Paul, Galit, Pascal, Milena, Ben and the whole Avaaz team

Here are some links with more information on the Tibetan protests and the Chinese response:

BBC News :: UN Calls for Restraint in Tibet
Human Rights Watch :: China Restrain from Violently Attacking Protesters
Associated Press :: Tibet Unrest Sparks Global Reaction
New York Times :: China Takes Steps to Thwart Reporting on Tibet Protests

Making noise about global warming

Husky — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:46:47 +0000

A wet day… a wet week, in fact. We were planning on shooting the main Climate Change march this afternoon but it was raining too heavily. I brought my kit along to lunch just in case… and since Bond St was just a few stops away, I hopped onto the Tube and popped out over the other side just to grab a few shots of the rally participants and to see exactly what this whole ‘protest’ was about. Banners and posters a-plenty, slogan-bearing hippies, students, right-wingers, political activists, and the young and old from the odd family group. Looked like they were out to have a day of fun more than anything else.

More photos here.

Avaaz calls on the Singaporean community

Husky — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:09:11 +0000

Dear Singaporean friends,

The Myanmar generals brutalising their people depend on Singapore — for banking and trading, private hospitals, even luxury Armani clothes. The government has now condemned the military dictatorship. It’s the first step. Now we need not just words, but action. Let’s send Foreign Minister George Yeo an urgent message of support and encouragement: demand dialogue without conditions in Myanmar, and prepare to act unless real progress is made.

Click below now to send your own email message direct to George Yeo — then tell all your Singaporean friends to do the same, we need an avalanche of messages urgently to persuade the government to act:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/time_to_act_singapore/b.php/

Can we get to 3000 messages within 24 hours? In a democracy, our voices make the difference: everyone can send an email to the foreign minister, everyone can wear red this weekend to show our solidarity with the popular movement now regrouping in Myanmar!

Senior General Than Shwe’s Myanmar cronies (like drug lord Lo Hsing Han and his son Steven Law) trade through Singapore, and the government has invested billions in Myanmar. Singapore has real power over this dictatorship. Used wisely, that power can help free the popular heroine Aung San Suu Kyi, bring about dialogue and reconciliation for Myanmar, and avert a civil war. We need to do all we can to support the UN envoy’s mission.

Foreign Minister George Yeo led the regional grouping ASEAN to its unprecedented statement of “revulsion” over the Myanmar regime’s crackdown. George Yeo has said, “Our credibility is at stake… Unless we put things right, and set Myanmar [Burma] to a new course, we will all be affected and dragged down.” Lee Kuan Yew himself has spoken out. But words are easy to ignore. Will Singapore be shamed, as Myanmar’s generals shrug off the international statements and reassert control? Or will we act?

Let’s send a strong message to George Yeo and the whole government. We must do all we can to put things right — and the next step should be to put Myanmar’s generals on notice: unless they talk to Aung San Suu Kyi, they will not be welcome here. If the bullies of Myanmar and their families feel their haven in Singapore is threatened, they will surely feel the squeeze — and maybe they will see the writing on the wall.

There’s strength in numbers. 700,000 people have already signed a global petition in solidarity with the Burmese people — thousands from Singapore alone. Let’s send the government a message so loud it can’t be ignored — click here to send your own email to George Yeo via the webpage, then tell all your friends:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/time_to_act_singapore/b.php/

With hope and determination,

Paul, Ricken, Galit, Graziela, Pascal and all at Avaaz

PS this weekend, let’s all wear something red as a simple public symbol of solidarity with the people of Myanmar — people around the world have been wearing red to show their support!

This Reuters news article explains the power Singapore might have.

And here’s a blog posting from Singapore Patriot calling for action not words.

Subdued voices? Not on the web!

Husky — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 04:39:19 +0000

Dear friends,

Today, our petition to China and the UN Security Council to stop the brutal crackdown on peaceful Burmese protesters is being delivered to the world in a full page ad in the Financial Times worldwide — but the ad was rejected by other newspapers like the South China Morning Post and the Singapore Straits Times. Our message is an invitation to China to do the right thing in Burma, not an attack — yet even that seemed too much for media that fear Chinese reprisals.

We won’t let our voice be silenced like this. We’re taking our message to the streets, in an international day of action on Saturday — details are on our petition page, and below. And we’re redoubling our efforts to make our voice louder: our petition is approaching 600,000 signatures, closing fast on our 1 million goal.The petition link is below – send this email to all your friends and family and help us reach 1 million voices by Saturday!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/w.php

I will say no more on this, but know that Singapore does rank in the bottom 20 in a 167-country index of press freedom.

And the ad in question:

Some links:
A Burmese student at a NUS vigil speaks about his country
It’s business as usual for Singapore Inc.
S’pore must distinguish itself by having better governance: MM Lee
One Country, Two Systems
Singapore’s government and its involvement with the Burmese generals

Stand with the Burmese Protesters

Husky — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:57:05 +0000

Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world. For decades the Burmese regime has fought off pressure–imprisoning elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and democracy activists, wiping out thousands of villages, imposing forced labour, creating refugees.

But last Tuesday Buddhist monks and nuns, revered in Burma, began marching and chanting prayers. The protests spread as hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and public figures joined in, finding the hope they’d lost. The Burmese protests are widening, the international response is building–and the Burmese generals are panicking. Today the Burmese junta banned gatherings of more than 5, and sent thousands of troops to take control of the street–but still the monks and protesters march. Desperate officers have beaten, tear-gassed and fired on their own people, reportedly shooting five monks in Rangoon.

In the past, Burma’s military rulers have massacred the demonstrators and crushed democracy. The world must stand with the Burmese people at this time, to show the military rulers that the world will not tolerate repression and violence.

The next 36 hours are crucial. Leaders have called an emergency session of the UN Security Council–but only a decisive initiative will prevent a massacre like the one from 1988. Already 85,000 people from 192 countries have signed our emergency global petition.

Show your solidarity to this movement for peace and democracy and sign the emergency petition supporting the Burmese people. It’ll be delivered to UN Security Council members and the UN press corps all week:

“We stand alongside the citizens of Burma in their peaceful protests. We urge you to oppose a violent crackdown on the demonstrators, and to support genuine reconciliation and democracy in Burma. We pledge to hold you accountable for any further bloodshed.”

Show your support – sign the petition now!

'Blessed Unrest'

Husky — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:06:41 +0000

I knew that picking this book up would mark the start of a period of time in which I would be rendered incapable of accomplishing anything remotely constructive… other than reading the book… which is precisely why I only picked it up after I had (more or less) finished writing up my thesis (it’s still not to satisfaction, but I’m so tired of it I simply couldn’t be bothered anymore). I love this new release more than Hawken’s Natural Capitalism, and I thought that was good!

A snippet from the first chapter, The Beginning:

I sought a name for this movement, but none exists… … after spending years researching this phenomenon… I have come to these conclusions: this is the largest social movement in all of human history. No one knows its scope, and how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye.

What does meet the eye is compelling: coherent, organic, self-organized congregations involving tens of millions of people dedicated to change. When asked at colleges if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t have the correct data. If you meet the people in this unnamed movement and aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a heart. What I see are ordinary and some not-so-ordinary individuals willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in an attempt to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

Blessed Unrest is an exploration of this movement – its participants, its aims, its ideals.

From the back cover – Advance Praise for Blessed Unrest:

Blessed Unrest is exciting, compelling, and very important. It describes the growing unrest that I encounter around the world, the frustration and courage of those who dare to challenge the power of the political corporate world. Paul Hawken states eloquently all that I believe so passionately to be true – that there is inherent goodness at the heart of our humanity, that collectively we can – and are – changing the world. Please read and share Blessed Unrest, a celebration of the awakening of the human spirit. It will inspire and encourage millions more to take action.
- Jane Goodall, UN Ambassador for Peace

This is the first full account of the real news of our time, and it’s exactly the opposite of the official account. The movers and shakers on our planet aren’t the billionaires and the generals–they are the incredible numbers of people around the world filled with love for neighbor and for the earth who are resisting, remaking, restoring, renewing, revitalizing. This powerful and lovely book is their story–our story–and it’s high time someone’s told it. Nothing you read for years to come will fill you with more hope and more determination.
- Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and The End of Nature

Blessed Unrest is a beautiful, soulful, crucial book. It is a manifesto of hope for the 21st century grounded squarely in the hearts of engaged people around the planet. Paul Hawken chronicles and testifies on behalf of this “movement with no name” with his charismatic intelligence and insight. This book makes the invisible visible. I believe Hawken when he says we are part of the Earth’s immune system each time we exercise our active compassion in the name of social justice and ecological health. I love this book. It is a field guide for all that is possible.
- Terry Tempest Williams, author of The Open Space of Democracy

Edit: Watch the Blessed Unrest video at its site!

This week

Husky — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:34:08 +0000

Socials, meet ups, talks, and the outdoors. What a fulfilling week… that has now cumulated in quite a number of tasks on my plate.

* * * * *
A couple of days ago, I attended a talk by CSR Asia on the findings of their recent survey on business and stakeholder perceptions of CSR, based on studies done in Singapore and Hong Kong. A few surprising results there, but generally most of the trends can be explained with some analysis. The people who attended where mostly corporate executives, and I had also pulled my dad along. In conversations after the talk, most had expressed the needlessness and lack of practical applicability of such survey results – it is all good and dandy to know, but how are businesses to put the knowledge into action? Thus the frustration expressed at the inability of academia (most of the researchers were academics) to contribute in practical terms to the corporate world. Academics love comparing sets of stats, and discovering where they significantly differ, but "so what?"

* * * * *
As a result of one of the chains of coincidences as mentioned in the one of the previous posts, I had gone down to meet up with Ivy Singh-Lim, owner of Bollywood Veggies and president of the Kranji Countryside Association. Some urgent action is needed to tackle the issue of granite stockpiling on the agricultural land in Kranji, with potential environmental effects and impacts on the surrounding farmlands – she is running a petition (have you signed?) to the government, and I am to play a major supporting role, one that I am struggling to deliver but I will try as best as I can.

The land has already been bulldozed…

Dropped by Sungei Buloh whilst I was at that side of the island. Ahh, the feeling of being back where my adventures all began. After milling about the office a bit, helping a little and chatting up with the staff, I headed out for a while and was greeted by Storky.

* * * * *
Was down at Buloh again this morning for the launch of the new interactive wireless feature for the boardwalk, and the wireless network coverage at the reserve. Bumped into Siva there, who was happily surfing on his Mac and has already posted on Habitatnews.

Launch of the new wireless learning trail

Learning on the move with the Ultra Mobile PC units

The migratory waders – some early arrivals (Common Sandpiper aka Ricky Martin)

A handsome mantis, posing as if he were in my studio

And a first for me (us?) in Buloh – a mantis shrimp in the mangroves!

* * * * *
My relatives from Hong Kong are now in town, so I’ll be expecting to play the host these few days.