Do Something! 

before it is too late…

We are constantly being reminded by the media on the unceasing problem of our environment. Buildings in Singapore are blanketed by haze. The water that we drink, merely a bunch of chemicals and toxins poured freely from acid rain. Cities filled with people roaming about wearing facemasks like from an episode of the Walking Dead. Even poor Merlion has to wear a gas mask to prevent choking on haze. They hacked down tropical forests from which the haze is derived from and for what? PAPER. The very paper that you are reading now.

Paradise is now scarred and one wonders how many forest reserves must be built to ease the burning of trees in Sumatera that assault the purity of this planet and health of us, the human beings. Innocent people suffering from asthma, bronchitis and amnesia. Buildings crumbling from acid rain. These are the unwanted mementos of a world I want to forget. We should not have to suffer in the hands of human idiocy.

I have spoken to my mates in Bali and Sumatera and they sound genuinely frightened and hopeless. But I cannot from my ivory tower in Kuala Lumpur city, complete with the understandable yet futile rhetoric, describing the culprits to this dreaded haze as mindless. Nor do I want to dwell on the sadness of our beautiful cities being covered by haze, shops tarnished from acid rain and people being hospitalized for breathing in too much of it. The tragic effects of this illegal and eco-destructive activity ought to be left for eulogies and grieving.

The only question on everyone’s mind I can legitimately ask is who is to be blamed? Well, when looking for the culprits and who to prosecute, we should look for the ones with higher authority, power and money; they are the people that are criminals. Those are the people that need to be prosecuted. And whilst to a degree we have to consider the culture and rituals of the indigenous people of Indonesia, don’t you think it has happened a bit too many times that the government can behave in this ignorant manner to just let it be, while ordinary people of the neighboring countries continue to suffer.

If you have read the Stamford prison experiment, it shows that good people do bad things, if the system lets them do it. With this in mind, I wonder how much the system is to be blamed rather than the individuals. In other terms, how long will it take for the government to realize that the act of local farmers practicing their rituals by burning down trees is affecting the lives of innocent people and the purity of this planet? After all these years I still don’t know if the Indonesian government ever got tired from being harassed for sanctioning their local’s eco-destructive activity.

On the other side of this debate, according to the Star Newspaper, the Malaysian government has a say in this as well.

I think to resolve this ongoing problem, we need to seek punitive measures and alternative methods so that we do not continue to wear facemasks every single year. Predominantly, the Indonesian government needs to examine the activities they are pursuing to meet economical growth and sustainability. This pursue of wealth and status, this illegal activity of lighting trees on fire, this ecological and economical matters and try to aspire to something more beautiful. Perhaps if we are more in tune with more beautiful things, perhaps we wouldn’t prioritize wealth over health. Perhaps if we could popularize through the techniques of environmentally friendly ways, a different idea, a different narrative to benefit a country in terms of both wealth and health, perhaps the world can change. After all, it changes constantly. It is just that the perceptions that we have are governed by people with self-interest that are not in alignment with the health and safety as us individuals or as a planet.

—Xcape The Tempest