hullabaloo
live earth kicked of slightly over 3 hours ago first in sydney australia and, soon after, in tokyo japan. the us and london are due to start their own respective concerts soon and with the likes of madonna and r.h.c.p. who are expected to grace the stage, it'll probably be one heck of a party.
singapore, unfortuntely, is probably less important to warrant a globally televised concert on its shores but 'organisers' have encouraged people to wear green over the weekends and all the television logos on the top right hand side of your screen has gone (insanely ugly) green to lend their 'support'to this noble cause.
all this hullabaloo is aimed at raising awarness to the fact that the deadly global warming is upon us and we have to do something about it now or risk the very real threat of melting icecaps, raising sea levels that will probably wipe out low lying countries and our ever increasing endangered wildlife. as if most of the developed/ing world (where the concerts are being held and televised) didn't know about it already.
if you ask me, this whole thing, albeit cool and interesting, is just the same old story; only now it's nicely wrapped up, with one of those perky ribbons on the front, like a christmas gift from crabtree and evelyn.
will this concert actually do anything other than be one of those events that will undoubtedly go down in history?
in singapore, other than the concerted effort to raise awarness and the pledges of support that are being made both on television and at plaza singapura, this seems to be nothing more than a promotion for a unique concert, that we're not directly a part of.
furthermore, 3 out of the 7-part live earth pledge reads:
To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store CO2;
To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable sources and reduce dependance on oil and coal;
notice they all begin with 'to demand' or 'to fight'? i hate to say this (and i hope that i'm proven wrong), but i doubt that most singaporeans will bother to even step up to this challenge and keep the pledge that they make. most just dont want to shoulder more responsibility and many will probably just wash their hands of the whole thing and go back to their normal lives. another factor might be a well fostered fear of not meddling in politics and letting the big guns deal with these matters. to demand or fight for anything in this country might very well result in you being incarcerated.
the best that the concert can do for singapore is to raise awarness. the next step is up to the goverment to make it easier for singaporeans to take their first step to do their part. to be honest, wearing green during the weekends is actually really stupid. must we really wear green to show our support? does that do anything remotely helpful? does the shirt absorb carbon dioxide as we walk about? to me it sends out a bad message: wear green to support live earth (FULL STOP).
instead i think that the government or other organising committees should instead give out compact fluorescent lightbulbs to folks and encourage them to switch to these better, more energy saving bulbs. they could also encourage carpooling at work at least once a week.
i know it sounds like i'm being one of those people that are shirking responsibility, waiting for the government to do something before i do, but the concept of live earth is to globally monumental to totally apply to a small island like singapore. we need to cut it down to size. we need to come up with something that is more applicable to us singaporeans, something that we can do.
live earth kicked of slightly over 3 hours ago first in sydney australia and, soon after, in tokyo japan. the us and london are due to start their own respective concerts soon and with the likes of madonna and r.h.c.p. who are expected to grace the stage, it'll probably be one heck of a party.
singapore, unfortuntely, is probably less important to warrant a globally televised concert on its shores but 'organisers' have encouraged people to wear green over the weekends and all the television logos on the top right hand side of your screen has gone (insanely ugly) green to lend their 'support'to this noble cause.
all this hullabaloo is aimed at raising awarness to the fact that the deadly global warming is upon us and we have to do something about it now or risk the very real threat of melting icecaps, raising sea levels that will probably wipe out low lying countries and our ever increasing endangered wildlife. as if most of the developed/ing world (where the concerts are being held and televised) didn't know about it already.
if you ask me, this whole thing, albeit cool and interesting, is just the same old story; only now it's nicely wrapped up, with one of those perky ribbons on the front, like a christmas gift from crabtree and evelyn.
will this concert actually do anything other than be one of those events that will undoubtedly go down in history?
in singapore, other than the concerted effort to raise awarness and the pledges of support that are being made both on television and at plaza singapura, this seems to be nothing more than a promotion for a unique concert, that we're not directly a part of.
furthermore, 3 out of the 7-part live earth pledge reads:
To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store CO2;
To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable sources and reduce dependance on oil and coal;
notice they all begin with 'to demand' or 'to fight'? i hate to say this (and i hope that i'm proven wrong), but i doubt that most singaporeans will bother to even step up to this challenge and keep the pledge that they make. most just dont want to shoulder more responsibility and many will probably just wash their hands of the whole thing and go back to their normal lives. another factor might be a well fostered fear of not meddling in politics and letting the big guns deal with these matters. to demand or fight for anything in this country might very well result in you being incarcerated.
the best that the concert can do for singapore is to raise awarness. the next step is up to the goverment to make it easier for singaporeans to take their first step to do their part. to be honest, wearing green during the weekends is actually really stupid. must we really wear green to show our support? does that do anything remotely helpful? does the shirt absorb carbon dioxide as we walk about? to me it sends out a bad message: wear green to support live earth (FULL STOP).
instead i think that the government or other organising committees should instead give out compact fluorescent lightbulbs to folks and encourage them to switch to these better, more energy saving bulbs. they could also encourage carpooling at work at least once a week.
i know it sounds like i'm being one of those people that are shirking responsibility, waiting for the government to do something before i do, but the concept of live earth is to globally monumental to totally apply to a small island like singapore. we need to cut it down to size. we need to come up with something that is more applicable to us singaporeans, something that we can do.
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