Category Archives: Environment

Eeeks! Missing days.

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So I’ve managed to miss two days on my 30 day challenge. Let’s blame the stupid workshifts I’m on at the moment. :S

Anyway, here’s a catchup …

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Dia Diecisiete – A photo that makes you want to cry.

This polar bear has been spray painted “to help with identification.” Sometimes I hate how much humans turn a beautiful thing into something ugly.

 

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Dia Dieciocho – A letter to someone you miss.

Do you remember when we used to write poems and letters to

Each other like this?

And I’d come to visit you and my little childhood notes and pictures were pinned up all over your walls?

Remember when you’d come to every one of my school concerts and clap and cheer me on whether I played bad or good?

Nana, I miss you so much. I want to tell you about all my dreams and plans for the future. I wanted you to see me graduate.

And, eventually, get married.

Nana, you and grampa visit me in my dreams sometimes and they feel so real. I’m looking after Mum for you both.

And will always make sure everyone knows that you were the most loving and inspiring grandparents anyone could wish for.

 

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Dia Diecinueve – A habit you wish you didn’t have.

I have a horrible habit of procrastinating. You can pretty much pinpoint the moment I started developing this habit if you look at my school records. Around the ages of 12 and 13 I was getting up to 100% on exams and tests. Then, all of a sudden, adolescence kicked in and everything went downhill from there.

It’s a habit that’s followed me from school to college to university to now. And it has no intention of leaving.

Don’t get me wrong. I think, in the grand scheme of things, I get the important stuff done pretty quickly (credit card bills, rent, etc.) But it’s those little things that I put to the side, think ‘I’ll do that on the weekend’ and completely forget about. My room is filled with clutter thanks to how much I’ve put off sorting through it and my paperwork’s started to morph back into a tree.

Then again, I don’t think I’m the only one guilty of excessive procrastination.

What’s the one habit you wish you didn’t have?

I didn’t want to do this …

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But nobody seems to be leaving me a lot of choice.  I honestly feel like I’m about to speak to a bunch of toddlers.

This BP oil spill isn’t the first. In fact, oil spills are a daily occurence. Maybe not to the extent of the one we keep hearing about. But it happens. It has happened since then. And it will continue to do so. You’ve only got to  follow Greenpeace or WWF to know that natural and man-made disasters occur every single day. This isn’t a unique situation.

So here’s my question:

Where the fuck was the media, the government, the politicians, the support, the money raising, when all of this happened before?

Covering the iPad? Or Britney Spears’ upskirt shot?

I have been observing a few things over the last year or so and have come to realise that those of us from the Western world seem to be suffering from what a friend of mine described as ‘selective compassion.’ Is it any wonder that President Obama and the American  media are covering this oil spill so well? I mean, it happened on their turf.

What happened to Haiti in January was an absolute tragedy. But did you know that a few months earlier the Samoan Islands were hit by the biggest earthquake of 2009? In fact, this earthquake caused a tsunami so horrendous that it claimed many lives from the citizens of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga?

No, I didn’t think you knew that. And you know why you didn’t? Because the Samoan Islands are on the other side of the world and our media – our world media – seems to also suffer from an unhealthy dose of selective compassion.

I can’t help but shed a tear for how unbelievably giving and thoughtful we can be when it comes to rallying around to raise money and doing what we can for certain causes. We have that amazing ability to want to want to support others. But, believe it or not, we live in a world where there are always going to be reasons to get together and fight. And why don’t we?

Haiti was the ‘in’ cause a few months ago. Now we’re talking about the BP oil spill. What about the Chilean earthquake in February? (One of the largest ever recorded!) Or (two of the first things I learned about our world in school – 20 years ago!) the fact that the rainforests are still being destroyed and the famine in Africa hasn’t actually been brought to a halt?

That extra bit of money you spend on a new piece of jewellery or a new DVD or even a cup of coffee … Why not give it to something that actually matters? Think of all the things you really don’t need … Those things that aren’t essential to your survival. Think about what that money could be doing.

We’re also living in a world where information is at our fingertips. Start subscribing to news places that you wouldn’t usually have access to. Not only am I subscribed to a daily BBC News update email, but also one from The New York Times, The Australian, and Albawaba.

We have no excuse to live in ignorance. Join the church of Google.