In The Name Of A Good Cause

Some highlights of the day... participants and winners of the colouring contest...


Indah Water's En Ahmad Budaya taking a mundane subject...


...and having us in stitches several times as he entertained.












Finally, Bernard getting the money from Alam Flora for our recycled goods. I'm sure the next one will yield a lot more.


Gosh, this may sound sheepish but I felt proud having co-organized the first big community event in Casa Desa. Being a proud environmentalists I always believe actions speak louder than words. Thus, when fellow committee member Bernard proposed the Recycling Day I jumped on the chance to work with him.

Trust me, it was a hell of a lot of work. Organizing, learning, communicating and even putting in the hard work like carrying chairs and speakers from our cars to the condo.

We learnt a lot and that's the best thing about it: the next ones will be better and better. We had a few nervous moments though.

The morning started really well and we had most of the furniture set up in our vacant restaurant/common area by 9.45am. Then the weather threatened to intervene. The clouds got dark and started coming our way. After a few minutes it finally gate-crashed the party by introducing gale-force winds. The buntings and exhibition panels that Indah Water put up were inadvertent sail boards for a wind force right out of Wolfgang Petersen's A Perfect Storm.

Running for our lives, we grabbed everything and turned our outdoor fair into an indoor one. Within half an hour it was settled.

The colouring contest (organized by Bernard's wife Celine) next door was a hit with families but everyone seemed diverted from the Indah Water talk that was scheduled to go on so I ushered the parents and got as many people as I could to sit in. Some might have been moaning internally about a perceived 'lecture' heading their way. But Indah Water's rep En Ahmad Budaya gave a remarkable and funny explanation on the state of the nation's wastewater and the role Indah Water plays. The man himself is a hilarious character, part-comedian, part-educator.

Alam Flora, Hong Leong bank (who were our main sponsors), Streamyx and a few others played their part in the event. Committee president Lai Fong was there, as were other members Alifah, Ramlan, Jonathan and my beloved Nim too.

Of course, we wanted people to come down with their recycled goods; or we'd even go to them if they needed help. Which is what Bernard and a few committee members did, going from block to block. My good friend Charles helped me out too, although he found our second-hand book sale too good to ignore at times.

Due to some technical problems our planned movie screening didn't get underway but we managed to get people involved, meet some new friends and collect over RM200 dollars worth of goods to raise for our residents' leisure needs.

Malaysians can be a shy lot but it was great to meet a few people concerned about their neigbourhood. It's a start for us. And a good one at that.

Recycling Day - 20th June

It might sound silly but this is something I've always wanted to do. Okay, considering my track record it's obvious that this is what I would do. Bernard, my fellow Casa Desa committee member is a like-minded person too, with his environmental engineering background to boot. Plus, it was actually his idea in the first place. Proceeds actually go towards eventually buying a ping pong table.

So if you're keen and willing, do come down and help recycle unwanted plastics, glass, aluminium and newspapers/magazines.

In fact, we're hoping to make Casa Desa a model residential project for people to look up to. Where waste is regularly recycled, or better still reduced and reused (that's the result of Bernard constantly remind me about the 3Rs; now I had to repeat it myself).

We discussed putting recycled bins around for people to do so at their own initiative, rather than to wait for specific days. I'm all for it. However, there was talk at the planning stages of our event that people would misuse the bins and throw solid waste in there too. Uuggh. Some councils go the the trouble of building fortifications to put the bins in - these look like immobile tanks or bunkers that could withstand a few drone attacks. I'm still wondering if some Malaysians are that bad. Or are we really just imagining all this stuff?

When we visited the management office last week, we were given their blessings too. The irony of it was that the lady at the office even told us we could print multiple flyers and distribute to cars and people that came in to visit! Maybe she missed the point. Probably, it was Saturday and she needed to be at home getting some rest. We just quietly pointed out that a posted sign at the guardhouse and at each block's noticeboard would be good enough.

We're also going to make sure that the soon-to-be-operating restaurant in CD, and other tenants, will have a grease trap installed in sinks and readily prepare recycle bins for customers in the premises.

I don't know. But I hope our recycling day effort pays off. That it becomes a waste effort rather than a wasted effort. Stay tuned for updates and the eventual pictures.