pelf-ism is contagious

Yea I was in Redang for a night, but not exactly for a cleanup

When we arrived at Redang, we left for the turtle nesting beach almost immediately as we arrived later than the scheduled time. Upon arrival, we learned that the other diving group was at nearby waters and since it was their “time-slot”, they landed on the beach. So we had to handle over 150 people at the same time.

Those who came onto the beach listened intently at the briefing given by my Supervisor, except for some of them who have either heard about turtles, or wouldn’t give two carrots about what was going on.

After all the briefing and showing-around, we all went back to Long Beach. We had lunch at a different resort, and stayed at a different one. Another lecturer sent a few of his students to Redang to join their underwater cleanup, and he also put up some exhibits to raise some funds for his project. I spent the first half of the afternoon napping in the room, and another half manning the booth and educating people spreading the awareness on the importance of conserving not only our animals but or ecosystems as well.

We had another session at night where more talks were given and a videoclip was shown as well - the videoclip had numerous topics all squeezed into one, so I don’t know how to refer to that apart from calling it “the videoclip”, hahaha

Quite a number of our turtle souvenirs were sold - the turtle collar pins, the car stickers, the T-shirts and surprisingly, there were about 25 adoptions too!

Which reminded me that I should be getting back at processing the adoptions..

I will be away tomorrow and Sunday - not that I have been around since the last couple of weeks But I thought it must be rude for not telling my blogger friends that I will not be around and make them come back repeatedly over the weekend. See? I’m nice *smiles*

I will be at Redang for 2D1N to entertain (with my Supervisor) two separate groups with a total of 180 guests from a diving company and Malaysian Nature Society HQ. I am not quite sure what the itinerary would be like, I just knew that the diving group would be at Redang for an UnderWater cleanup in conjunction with World CleanUp Day, which is held on the 3rd weekend of September every year.

Both groups have written in to express their interest to visit the sea turtle nesting beach where a long-term saturation tagging, nesting and in situ egg protection programs are carried out. And that practically explains why we would be going in to Redang tomorrow

Which reminds me of a MAJOR cleanup we organized and conducted in 2003 or 2004, I can’t remember. With the help of my Supervisor (my then-lecturer), the more proactive of us in the course organized a major beach and underwater cleanup in Redang Island. Our lecturer got hold of the forms and plastic bags and contacted Berjaya Resort to sponsor us food and accommodation, which they happily and willingly did.

If I remember correctly, all 20 of us participated in the cleanup. About one third of us participated in the underwater cleanup, during which they retrieved a washing machine, a bicycle and a TV from underneath the water, and of course with lots of rubbish la. Those of us who did the beach cleanup did not lose out to them either.

At the end of the cleanup day, we had to analyze the rubbish by sorting them according to groups and items. We had to sort the cigarette butts from the plastic bags, papers from wood, glass from aluminium cans etc. And we had to weigh the rubbish separately for an idea of how much of each item was “uncovered” during the cleanup.

We were very exhausted at the end of it, no doubt, but what kept us going was the fact that Berjaya Hotel “promised” us a treat of buffet dinner at the restaurant! And trust me, until now, many of us still speak very fondly of that night when we ate to our hearts’ content.. *yum* *yum*

It has been a few years since we did something like that. My Supervisor entrusted her students to conduct a cleanup at the hostel beach last year but apart from bringing sufficient plastic bags and getting the MPKT trucks to come, they did not analyze the rubbish collected from the beach. I was there to write about the event, but was dissapointed that they did not manage to follow simple instructions - which made the efforts “quite meaningless” as the standard procedure for any cleanup would be to analyze the rubbish collected.

Anyway, what would YOU be doing this weekend? Why not join the millions of people worldwide in a cleanup and clear THAT mess on your table as well as those hidden in your wardrobe? *winks*

Note: Sticky post.

I hate how the authorities make use of the strayed dugong to gain their own political mileage. I hate how the authorities pointed fingers at each other when it comes to shouldering the responsibilities to keep the strayed dugong alive. I hate how the politician gave press statements when approached by pressmen if he had never seen the dugong with his own eyes. I hate how the leader of the state government laid the directive that the dugong must be kept alive, no matter what.

I have not figured out how to tell the whole story behind this, so this should be it for the time being.

Update: The dugong calf died. F*ck those silent and indecisive people. Now I am too distressed to write anything.