The public forum I attended yesterday – “The Chek Jawa story, its lessons and applications story” was indeed humbling. On the panel were the following folks:
Dr Chua Ee Kiam, is a photographer and author of many natural history books on Singapore including Chek Jawa - Discovering Singapore's Biodiversity. He has spoken tirelessly to individuals, groups and grassroots organisations about connecting to Chek Jawa as a Singaporean and subsequently as a Chek Jawa guide and an instructor in guide training workshops. http://www.simplygreen.com.sg - you can find his coffee-table photography books in Kinokuniya and Borders.
Mr Joseph Lai brought Chek Jawa to the attention of many for the first time. He galvanised volunteers and found expert help to execute a study of biodiversity at Chek Jawa, submitting a well-researched document as feedback to the government. He is now committed on a solo bike trip around Singapore until 2012 - the year until when Chek Jawa is reprieved from reclamation. http://www.eart-h.com/ - very philosophical guy.
Mr N. Sivasothi (Research Officer, NUS Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research) conducted a series of research collection trips and submitted the results to government. He then coordinated a series of public education field trips to Chek Jawa, which resulted in a public feedback document to the government. The Museum relied heavily on volunteer help and the internet. http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/ - calls himself the "scruffy guy" and "murderer".
Dr Geh Min (President of Nature Society (Singapore) worked behind the scenes by dropping a word in every ear she came across, often senior figures that she had access to. As Singapore’s oldest NGO, NSS has adopted a more consultative approach where it constantly seeks to represent and balance the diversity of independent attitudes in its advocacy of nature conservation. http://www.nss.org.sg/ - she impressed me with her ability to see both sides of the "conservation story".
They spoke fast, hard and with great commitment, yet belittled their personal individual contributions to the tremendous work they had done. From them, we gained insight into the challenges that face nature conservationists in Singapore, particularly from a government which consists of a mix of hard-headed pragmatists but also “closet environmentalists”. One message that stood out tremendously for me was Joseph Lai’s almost Zen-like philosophy about the importance of the ‘Individual’ in the saving of nature. To him, saving nature was not merely a “responsibility”, but also an “expression” of our deep regard for ‘Nature’ as an abstract notion.
Another great thing was, I also got to meet Ria Tan (http://www.wildsingapore.com), whose amazing close-up photographs of sea stars and soft corals first inspired me to go down to Chek Jawa to take a look myself. This photographer was nuts enough to troop down to these muddy swampy areas at 2 to 3 am many nights all by herself to photograph what she felt was the last of Singapore’s wildlife, to share with others so that “when these places disappear, there will be others to cry with her”. See her other journal on Sungei Buloh here. she's an incredibly inspiring individual.
When we are able to transcend our mundane daily existence and view our life and work with “new eyes”, to see how we fit into the whole “scheme of things” beyond just working for our next pay check, that’s when we will truly find our purpose and meaning in life and develop the morality to live life in the right way. Some thoughts after chatting with a friend online last night and after listening to BBC just now on the responsibility of the media to highlight social concerns and issues.
The events of this weekend are proving to be tremendously rewarding.
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