deadpris

My last outburst on Singaporeans being selfish was a little, too much… I suppose.

I understand why many would have such strong resistance against the government’s attempt to make Singaporeans more aware of being environmentally friendly. I am not a zealous environmentalist and I am guilty of not bringing my own bag to the supermarkets. Although, I do make an effort not to take plastic bags if I have less than 5 items.

When I was studying in Australia, I don’t recall Aussie government or supermarkets imposing such tactics. But I do remember many many shoppers bringing their own green canvas bags to ‘Coles’ (Aussie equivalent of NTUC). It was quite weird at first, what motivates these people to bring their own canvas bags to the supermarket instead of having the “convenience” of getting plastic bags free? I vaguely remembered that my mother was denied an extra plastic bag from the Aussie supermarket. You know how in Singapore, we always tell them to give extra plastic bags when we’re buying heavy items in case one plastic bag isn’t strong enough to hold? Well, the supermarket lady refused to give an extra plastic bag and my mother was mildly irritated.

Maybe, just maybe, there are other alternatives that would be as effective as charging one dollar for every plastic bag on a specific day of the month. But I suspect educating Singaporeans, especially the older generations like my mother or your mothers, would not suffice. Simply because, the mindset of their generation is to ignore what they don’t know, to not find out what they don’t know, and to not care about what they know.

I am sure many supermarket aunties would find bringing bags to the supermarket a bigger hassle than destroying the Earth. The latter requires less effort - just go about your normal lives asking for more plastic bags.

Perhaps we should start offering paper bags instead - which is a smaller baby step than asking people to bring their own bags. But in the long run, we’ll run out of paper to make paper bags.

Plastic bags aren’t only nuisance waste, when we incinerate the plastic, it produces many harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. Do we really want our children and their children to be paying for the price of us not making an effort to bring bags to supermarket? Do we?

This more or less confirms my suspicion that Singaporeans are Republicans at heart fighting for a Democratic government (this is with reference to U.S. politics).

Earth dying? Cannot be la, they keep saying everyone going to si (die).. Si Si Si so many years, the Earth still fine what! Waste my money and time on stupid plastic bags.. Even if the Earth die is many years later, that time I already shang qing tian (go up to heaven), why I care so much now?

Let me end this post with my favourite environmentalist comedy song act I saw on TV a couple of years ago…. From Melbourne Comedy Festival 2006 Gala Night

Tim Minchin’s

BRING YOUR CANVAS BAGS TO THE SUPERMARKET

Tags: australia, canvas bag, environment, plastic bag, singaporean, supermarket