My old friend from Singapore, Linda, sent me the following post. I have done minor editing to avoid offending anyone. Do read it, smile a bit and laugh a lot although some may be painfully true. Do leave a comment if you wish. I would love to hear your views. Next socio-political post is still in the oven and should be up by 9ish or 10ish tonight. Take care and have a lovely evening.
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1. A typical young Malaysian can name all the players from a top English Premier League club, but ask him to name one football player from Malaysia, he cannot!
2. When StreamyX come, you complain StreamyX is too slow. When Maxis Broadband come, you complain Maxis Broadband always disconnects. When WiMax come, you complain Wimax too expensive. In the end, you say StreamyX still the bestlah.
3. When highway toll price increased, you complained. When petrol price increased, you also complained. When you go Starbucks and pay more than RM10 for your coffee, NO COMPLAINTS.
4. When you cannot find parking in a shopping mall and have to walk very far, you complain. When you go inside the shopping mall and there's SALE, run from one end of 1Utama to the other, you make NO COMPLAINTS. (Perhaps your husband or kids might complain!)
5. You are always late. And the excuse you give when you're late is always either: (a) traffic jam (b) no transport or (c) cannot find parking.
6. You have a parent who forces you to take science stream in high school, study engineering in Uni, then when you graduate, they ask you to forget everything you learnt in Uni and do commerce.
7. You know someone who can specially develop an angmoh accent when speaking to an American / British /Australian.
8. You complain against the government in kopitiam, you talk loud loudly. When leaving comments on blogs, you also talk loudly. When attending ceremah by DAP, you shout loudly. Then when Opposition organises a protest and asks you to go, you don't want to go. Why? Scared later kena tangkap by ISA.
9. Every year on the 30th April, you might be one of the those queuing up last minute to submit your tax return at the IRB.
10. When you pay RM10 for something that costs RM1, you blame the Chinese. This should not be the case. It is not a race issue.
11. When a government service is too slow, you blame the Malays. Again, this should not be the case because it is NOT a race issue.
12. When a building is not good and collapsed, you blame the Indians. Again, this should not be the case because it is NOT a race issue.
13. When a Chinese student won a scholarship, one may say 'Wah! Very clever hor?' When a Malay student won a scholarship, one may say 'Aiya! Of course lah! He Malay mah!' And why is this the case even though it should not be a race issue?
14. When an angmoh stranger kisses you on the cheek to say hello, you very happy. When a Malaysian guy kisses you on the cheek to say hello, you react negatively.
So what makes a Malaysian so Malaysian? :-) Do leave a comment! Have a lovely evening.
When I graduated decades ago :-), I first worked as a writer with an environmental NGO. Then, my colleagues were completely sold out on campaigning to defend the environment and many other issues. Since then, I have been a greenie and am most concerned about the many environmental threats that we face today, one of which is the impact of the bottled water industry.
Even in Penang where I live, it is a well known fact that waste management is a serious problem. Landfills have grown to monstrous sizes while recycling remains a rare habit. If you were to look at any rubbish dump, you can see the number of plastic bottles discarded by consumers!
According to Wikipedia:
The global bottled water market valuation grew by 7% in 2006 to reach a value of $60,938.1 million. The volume of bottled water grew by 8.1% in 2006 to 115,393.5 million liters. In 2011, the market is forecast to have a value of $86,421.2 million, an increase of 41.8% since 2006. In 2011, the market is forecast to have a volume of 174,286.6 million liters, an increase of 51% since 2006.Allaboutwater.Org has this to say:
The global rate of consumption more than doubled between 1997 and 2005.
The major criticism of bottled water concerns the bottles themselves. Individual use bottled water is generally packaged in Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). According to a NAPCOR study, PET water bottles account for 50% of all the PET bottles and containers collected by curbside recycling, and the recycling rate for water bottles is 23.4%, an increase over the 2006 rate of 20.1%. PET bottled water containers make up one-third of 1 percent of the waste stream in the United States.
The International Bottled Water Association also reports that the average weight of a plastic bottle water was 13.83 grams in 2007, compared to 18.90 grams in 2000, representing a 26.7% decline. Pepsi-Co has since introduced a bottle weighing 10.9 grams and using 20 percent less plastic, which it says is the lightest bottle of its kind that is nationally distributed.
An estimated 50 billion bottles of water are consumed per annum in the US and around 200 billion bottles globally.
Bottled water processed with distillation or reverse osmosis lacks fluoride ions which are sometimes naturally present in ground water. The drinking of distilled water may conceivably increase the risk of tooth decay due to a lack of this element.
According to a 1999 NRDC study, in which roughly 22 percent of brands were tested, at least one sample contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits. Some of the contaminants found in the study could pose health risks if consumed over a long period of time. However, the NRDC report conceded that "[m]ost waters contained no detectable bacteria, and the levels of synthetic organic chemicals and inorganic chemicals of concern for which were tested were either below detection limits or well below all applicable standards." Meanwhile, a report by the Drinking Water Research Foundation found that of all samples tested by NRDC, "federal FDA or EPA limits were allegedly exceeded only four times, twice for total coliforms and twice for fluorides." CLICK HERE to read more.
Besides the sheer number of plastic bottles produced each year, the energy required to manufacture and transport these bottles to market severely drains limited fossil fuels. Bottled water companies, due to their unregulated use of valuable resources and their production of billions of plastic bottles have presented a significant strain on the environment.
The authors of the WWF report suggested that water bottles be washed and reused in order to lessen their negative impact on the environment. Unfortunately, reusing plastic bottles further compromises the quality of the water, due to the fact that more and more phthalate leaches its way into the water as the bottle gets older. In another suggestion, the authors recommended that bottled water companies use local bottling facilities in order to lessen fuel expenditures for transportation needs. Regrettably, local bottling further compromises water quality due to the reduced health standards for in-state bottled water production and consumption. It seems there is no feasible solution to this problem. The bottled water industry causes a severe strain on the environment, but solutions to this environmental damage significantly lessen the quality of water in the bottles. CLICK HERE to read more.
Incidentally, Bundanoon in New South Wales has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact. Click here to read more.
So the next time you want to buy bottled water, think again carefully. Try to bring along your own water bottle from home and love the environment by not buying bottled water unless it is absolutely necessary.
Here's a video clip to make your day. Enjoy! I really love it and wonder if I grooved like that as a baby haha! I bumped into it while visiting one of my reader's blog. Take care and have a nice day.
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