While walking along the streets of Melbourne with a plastic bag of groceries in hand, a couple made a comment on how I was contributing to the global warming with the incessant use of plastic for groceries.
In the background I could hear the vroom of F1 engines. It was Formula One racing week in Melbourne but I have been found guilty of robbing the world from the lap of mother earth with my humble plastic made out of petrol. Not wanting to be walloped for being an Indian and a nature destroyer at it, I wandered away in guilt pondering on my ignorance.
A diplomat in Singapore suggested that companies should stop using bottled water during meetings or limit its use. A senior editor from well known newspaper lamented on how he was flabbergasted each time he saw the bakery using plastic to bag each croissant instead of lumping them all under one.
The list is never-ending.
In Tasmania, there is an ever-growing concern of lost forests and implementation of carbon offsets. And we are looking everywhere for answers to save our mother earth from destruction. So let us all ponder. Why are we bent on destroying what we own? Are we ignorant to the core? Or are there higher orders within us that are preventing us from knowing the obvious. Industrial revolution created an insatiable appetite for resources – all for the same reason of mass producing something for the masses. Now how many of those produced were necessity goods? Or which were those produced that altered our consumerism.
Let’s look at this analogy. I bought my nephew an IPod shuffle about 3 years ago with laser printed happy birthday message. Today he wanted a similar device that he claims to be latest from Apple. (with the same laser prin t- yes it is his birthday) Within 3 years he wanted a similar device; with just the addition of more geeky stuff. The fundamental function hasn’t changed.
There are so many products to stimulate our desires …to tempt us to reach and grab them.
It all comes down to desire … and the mind is so powerful that whatever that has been desired is materialised.
But on the other side of the ledger the resources the earth can produce to offset the desires are running low. Hence the imbalance creates what we call homeostasis. It happens in our body, when it’s too hot we sweat to cool us down. And what do you think the hole in world is all about. Nature is indeed adjusting itself. And it is not reversible but it can be slowed down not by looking at all directions … including the plastic. And for a moment turn away your attention from plastics for one.
We are one with nature! Man is not a different entirety. We are interdependent. The mind is made to believe what it wants to believe. And when something goes awry in our economy we artificially stimulate it for further growth. And after each harvest the soil feels spent. And we stimulate it to the point that its output negates its growth. Nature is telling us to slow down. And that’s why I love Tasmania. It’s as if Mother Nature’s summer residence is in the backyard of this pretty island. But then when the family gets hit no child is left alone. The factories in China are burning coal because my nephew desired something they could satisfy.
So can we therefore stop this carnage of desire in our mind? I can’t for one reason. I can’t just do without getting my next fix of shopping. And how can I ever avoid the visuals I get from media avenues on what I would be missing should I not desire to have what my nephew wanted. And yes I am ordering my next fix of desire online so that it would play the “Love Love me do” from the Beatles … the same way my father’s 60 year old gramophone did.
Vasanthan Govindasamy was born in Singapore 43 years ago. He is married to an elementary teacher. Currently located in Dallas, Texas, Vasanthan, his wife and little girl (3) are moving to Tasmania later this month. “I work with the disabled. I studied in University of South Australia majoring in communication and media management. I loved Tasmania when I last visited … and seriously hope it remains the way it was.
