Temptations & Ambitions

Differing from the previous post, this would be a short and light post of a few pictures.

While many saved on electricity during Earth Hour, there were many more vehicles on the road in particular, to celebrate the Earth Hour. Switching off the non-essential lights would be the way to go, but Malaysians typically do it in the extreme manner, whether you let loose all the lights or you turn off all of them. While each household may seem dark, most of the occupants had gone out to party in the streets, leaving a full blast lighting in the shops who'd rather cash in during this period, where more people roam the streets to be "compliant" to the Earth Hour.

Kudos for those who stayed indoor, but later I'd found out that while many stayed indoor with their lights off, the people chattered their way in the dark comfortably as the air-conditioner were working at Artic temperature, along with the faithful companions of PC's as well as TV's. Just to add a pinch of ironic salt, each of our fluorescent lamp consume minimal power as low as 12-14W per hour while your computer and TV may be sucking up to around 100-500W per hour. So, unless you are a rich brat who stays in a mansion, it is very much unlikely for your fluorescent lights to edge your PC and TV on power consumption. You'll need to do better than owning a few more fluorescent tubes. But then again, I doubt a place as big as a mansion would be having just a single PC operating with a single or 2 occupants.

On the other hand, there are of course zealots in this sense, as I'd seen some residents really took the effort to turn off everything. They basically sat outside of the house chatting under the street lamps, just as in any blackouts that we Malaysians would experienced any day. Kudos to them for their passion.

As for petrol stations, I'd noticed Shell stations were dark during Earth Hour. Some Shell stations took it too literally as they closed for business for that one hour while some may open up a station, rather than allowing other "non-compliant" petrol stations such as Exxon and BHP to cash in on their "withdrawal" from business.

Anyway, I'd managed to contribute to the carbon emmision and made my way to Titiwangsa to take a few good shots and many bad shots of the twin towers. Here are they:




It must have been a beauty to watch the skies in dark. I wonder how long have I not done it, apart from ceileinged by the task of hospital?

It has been more than 6 months since I really looked at myself in the mirror. The face got a bit tad rounder. The tummy had an extra bulge of Michelin material. Never mind my butt, it has been large all this while with my torso giving a better ratio.

Reality sinks in.

I AM becoming a TRUE medical student.

DAMN....

Let's hope not being sent into certain departments which could even make us all the fatter...

A year ago, Earth Hour was publicised to be international event, and I'd 'partake' sceptically in my post (click to read) on the event. While I do appreciate the good nature of the cause, I could not see this as a real impact on the world apart from creating awareness and education. True, it is after all still an effort, better than doing nothing than crossing their arms, but human beings, as a whole, is a resistant lot. If the figures were true that emission of tonnes of carbon dioxide can be reduced from Earth Hour, have you ever wondered how many hours are there in a year? For your information, there are 8760 hours in a year. Let's give the benefit of the doubt to Earth Hour that they manage to reduce carbon dioxide emission to zero during Earth Hour, then the reduction is only 0.011% of a difference of the world's total emission!

But please mind you that electricity generation is NOT the sole source of CO2 emission. Industrial production next top the list followed by open burning, forest fire, smoking, vehicles on the road, and even humans breathing can contribute to the cause. The neverending list would expand in the face of the threat of extinction of the earth population as more technological inventions are created at the expense of more and more CO2 emission. By then, even Earth Week or Earth Month would not be able to curb the demise of the very existence of mankind and the other inhabitants of the Earth.

So, what do we do then? Is it feasible to just cut down electricty consumption regardless of usage? Yes, we should do it more on a long term basis. Imagine this: Sydney celebrated Earth Hour with fireworks last year. Wouldn't that defeats the purpose of reducing CO2 emission? Nelly Furtado held a free concert in Toronto for Earth Hour, and it sure used up more electricity. There are more to say but I'll leave it that you get my point. Turn off the TV or computer when you are not watching it. I'm sure that would do more in a year than what you did on Earth Hour alone.

The above mentioned is one of the methods of elimination of Co2 emission, one that should be on top of the list in hierarchy. Other ways include curbing on the smoking activities(no medical treatment for them and let Darwin's natural selection does its wonders) and open burning. We cut down anything which is possible. Perhaps we might as well breathe at a slower rate and cut down on exercise. :P (Just kidding on the last part)

Next would be substitution. Electricity consumption can't be avoided at all costs, so research shoud be done to look for alternative sources instead of relying on fossil fuel combustion methods. Solar energy and windmills might do the trick in certain climates with sufficient R&D, but fusion power or nuclear power might be needed in the future. Different industrial materials can be researched to gain the same yield without compromising the pollution factor.

Now and then, I'm seeing myself dwelling into the Medicine and Society syllabus of hierarchy of control which I find useful in all aspects of control at such. I'll stop here while letting you think of other possible solutions. Among them are: (According to hiearachy)

1. Elimination
2. Substitution
3. Isolation
4. Barrier
5. Engineering Controls
6. Administrative Control
7. Personal Protective Equipment

Good luck! :P

P.S: Don't mind me, I'm just blabbing more than I can. n_n

Thursday was the 3rd day we spent in MAB. While we have been spending the past 2 days in the library, we shifted to the administration part for the day. We helped out in inserting donation appeal brochures and a return envelope into a bigger envelope addressed to the 4 corners of Malaysia. There, we met Mr Taslim and Mr James, who were in charge of the work there.

The 3-in-1 job or so they called it was a simple but equally as challenging as our previous job. The challenge lies in the numbers, not the quality. While both of us could manage inserting 1000 donation appeal letters in 4 hours, both Mr Taslim and Mr James could manage 1000 each on their own. If you'd think that eyes would be an advantage for us, perhaps you are really wrong. Both of them somehow manage to do it faster despite the fact that we had apparently the same speed while inserting the letters. Consistency perhaps was the key that made the difference in the long run.

While doing the daunting and routine task, we did had a chat with Mr Taslim and Mr James. Mr Taslim was a very friendly man. He was blind since childhood, as his parents were ignorant of the medical problems, as they were illiterate and feared of the unknown Western medicine. Coupled with the belief that their son may die if sent to the hospital, Mr Taslim ended up blind without really knowing the cause.

He told us of the stories when he was young, his education in the school for the blind, and how horrid and missful of his home while being at the boarding school. It wasn't easy for them, as he mentioned, for they had to study in English, when the Malays in rural areas like him could only speak in Malay while the Chinese from rural area only speaks Chinese. "Dumped" in the school for the blind at such a young such was rather harsh on them, but it was for the better cause and it trained them to be independent and self-sustaining.

He recalls of his school breaks when he returns home for a warm welcome from the family, the days when weeks felt like seconds as it passed, knowing that he'll have to return to the school. It was, as he mentioned, a "rainy day" for all the kids of his age when they are to return. As he spoke, I could hear the nostalgic tone, and somewhat puzzled as there was a drop of tears rolling down his cheeks from the edge of his eyes. Nevertheless, it was just for a while.

As time goes by, he told us more of his stories, where he worked in the government department, and living in PJ. Mr James had a similar childhood fate, but he was more of a reserved type, thus he did not talked much. He worked in a hospital before, as an admin staff, though not a doctor, as Mr Taslim joked about.

Despite being blind, both of them had never gave up on life. They were the fine examples of those who had persevere in life despite their visual impairment. Perhaps, it was because they had never treated it as a disadvantage, for despie being blind in physical sense, their hearts weren't, unlike many of us in the society, whose hearts were blinded by greed, ignorance, and many things else apart. As Mr Taslim mentioned, those who were greatly devastated were those who went blind at a later stage of life, when everything in the world seems crumbling down on them. He added that there was a medical doctor who had just finished her housemanship and went blind due to retinitis pigmentosa. A cruel ending after a series of torture in medical school. How ironic can the world be? Despite that, she persevere as well, and ended up as one of the volunteers in MAB. Those in MAB are those who helps the others to stand up after what may seem to be a devastating nightmare to the sufferers and their family. Rehabilitation and training are the essence of the MAB center.

All in all, there are much to be learn from MAB, seeing it as a different perspective of the community. There are always things to be learnt as we step out of the house, but whether if we truly treasure it, is another whole different story. After all, we are all blind in a way or two, ain't we?