Sunday, December 09, 2007
While I was browsing yahoo, a news article caught my senses. It was about an oil spill that happened in South Korea. According to the news, there were about 7,500 volunteers that grabbed their shovels and buckets to clean up the mess. There were also 105 ships along the coast cleaning up the sea. You can find the full news article by clicking here.
I could not stop myself from comparing South Koreans with Filipinos. I just felt ashamed with what I read. South Koreans outlive Filipinos.
South Koreans showed more care for their environment. Whenever such incident happened in the Philippines, there will be very few or no volunteers. I am not saying that we don't have care for our environment. It's just that it is not our primary priority. We consider other things before it.
I think it that this is one of the reason why we frequently encounter mass fish kills. Our government's hired workers don't have that enough man power to finish it before it spreads.
Our volunteerism in such issues is not limited with oil spills alone. It concerns all environmental related issues such as the illegal capturing of protected animals, illegal logging, and so much more. Yes, it is a known fact that there are still concerned citizens. but we must also consider figures. Obviously there are more "unconcerned" citizens.
The simple act throwing candy wrappers in improper place is a big issue already. Yes, it is just a candy wrapper, but gather all the candy wrapper thrown all over and see what amount will it count. That simple act is also alarming. It is because if we can't discipline ourselves in throwing our trash, then how much more can we handle big things?
I really felt ashamed of what we are when I read the news article. Ashamed in a way that we are the one that should be environmentally oriented people. For the fact that we are surrounded by beautiful natural surroundings it is just that we are acting the opposite. Sooner or later our title "Pearl of the Orient" may be replaced with "Slums of the Orient". I'm not being rude here, I'm just saying what I feel right. If we don't like to be called that way, we should do something now. Even now is too late, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't do anything. We shouldn't wait for the time that we really can't do anything, because they are all gone.
I could not stop myself from comparing South Koreans with Filipinos. I just felt ashamed with what I read. South Koreans outlive Filipinos.
South Koreans showed more care for their environment. Whenever such incident happened in the Philippines, there will be very few or no volunteers. I am not saying that we don't have care for our environment. It's just that it is not our primary priority. We consider other things before it.
I think it that this is one of the reason why we frequently encounter mass fish kills. Our government's hired workers don't have that enough man power to finish it before it spreads.
Our volunteerism in such issues is not limited with oil spills alone. It concerns all environmental related issues such as the illegal capturing of protected animals, illegal logging, and so much more. Yes, it is a known fact that there are still concerned citizens. but we must also consider figures. Obviously there are more "unconcerned" citizens.
The simple act throwing candy wrappers in improper place is a big issue already. Yes, it is just a candy wrapper, but gather all the candy wrapper thrown all over and see what amount will it count. That simple act is also alarming. It is because if we can't discipline ourselves in throwing our trash, then how much more can we handle big things?
I really felt ashamed of what we are when I read the news article. Ashamed in a way that we are the one that should be environmentally oriented people. For the fact that we are surrounded by beautiful natural surroundings it is just that we are acting the opposite. Sooner or later our title "Pearl of the Orient" may be replaced with "Slums of the Orient". I'm not being rude here, I'm just saying what I feel right. If we don't like to be called that way, we should do something now. Even now is too late, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't do anything. We shouldn't wait for the time that we really can't do anything, because they are all gone.