An Autobiography: Approaching Full Circle

"What A Wonderful World" - A powerful 2 minute video that sums up what it is that we are going to lose if we don't change or get involved 

If we were to compare the Earth's habitable environment to a good family inheritance, we are not only spending it away faster than all the time it took our ancestors to save up, we are also borrowing credit from what might have been the inheritance of our descendants. As world's population increases and moves towards development, we have exceeded the Earth's natural capacity to supply in relation to the existing demand. Of course, we don't contemplate on this on a regular basis so the normal tendency is to passively navigate ourselves around the tell tale signs (and the not-so-obvious ones) towards comfortable and profitable goals that often provide instant gratification.

I'm guilty of it too.

Looking back from where I am now, my yearning to get involved in the conservation field has, somewhat ironically, taken me to United Arab Emirates and Singapore. These two countries topped the globe in terms of their ecological footprints (UAE at No. 3 and Singapore at No. 12) according to the WWF Living Planet Report of 2012. Not only that, I am currently an employee of the Oil and Gas industry which is largely responsible for the depletion of the Earth's natural oil and gas reserves and indirectly responsible for increased Green House Gas emissions in recent history. This is just one example of how our sophisticated lifestyles – just as they are interconnected with the Earth's biological ecosystems – are also dependent on activities setting the planet on an irreversible course of destruction. The way I see it, we are all (to varying degrees) part of the problem and part of the solution to this environmental crisis.

Sri Lanka is a country with abundant natural resources having one of the highest biodiversity densities of Asia and I called it home for the first 18 years of my life. As a child, I loved spending my time outdoors, doing regular rounds of “garden patrol”, observing various plants and animals that were a common sight and spending time by a river that flows beside my house. One of my greatest joys was rescuing injured, sick or abandoned animals and nursing them back to health. It was a role I took up very seriously and for which I had the full support of my parents. 

I was also fortunate to spend various phases of my childhood with my two grandfathers, from whom I have learned much about using resources in a "sustainable manner" - a term I didn't come across until many years later. My maternal grandfather was an advocate of “reduce, reuse and re-cycle” policy where he carefully made the best use of all paper, plastic, metal, glass and wood until they had no more uses. My paternal grandfather supported the livelihood of local farmers and he himself was a passionate planter who selflessly left behind the fruits of his agricultural labour for the benefit of his future generations. With those early influences, among others, caring for the environment that sustains us may be associated to me with a sense of obligation rather than being just a passion. 

Since arriving in Singapore in 2004 to do my undergraduate studies, I've had all my basic necessities and creature comforts. However, growing up was a slightly different affair in Sri Lanka. We had to live in a sparing manner since most basic resources such as water and electricity were limited and we were constantly affected by power outages and periods of drought. My village didn't have the infrastructure to tap into the national water supply, but we were fortunate enough to have naturally occurring wells and a river nearby for basic needs for water. 

Dubai was my home for a brief 2.5 years while I completed an overseas work assignment from 2010 onwards. The United Arab Emirates is a rapidly developing country and Dubai is a melting pot of foreigners from all over the globe. The new environment, new challenges, new acquaintances and my new-found sense of independence suited me well. My boss who was a co-owner of the company took an interest in my potential and supported me in becoming a certified ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems Internal Auditor to audit company policies and procedures, although it was not my main scope of work. After trying out various responsibilities within the company, I realised that my personal strengths and continued interest in relation to a career would lie in work that required careful observation, attention to detail and doing lots of writing.

It is easy to assume that a rich desert city such as Dubai which is heavily dependent on the abundant natural oil and gas resources in the region to maintain its luxurious artificial splendor would have zero interest in conservation. However, even there I found active conservation groups such as EWS-WWF and the Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG) which organises environmental awareness and conservation activities (most notably their turtle rehabilitation and release programs). On a hopeful note, both these groups had a substantial number of passionate volunteers, young and old, supporting their causes. Within the UAE, I also managed to travel to places such as Fujairah (one of the seven “emirates” or states making up UAE) which had better weather compared to Dubai and coral reefs to be explored. Also within driving distance was Musandam (Oman) which was a popular location for dolphin watching. One interesting place that I could not visit in my time there was Bu Tinah Island - an official finalist for the “New7Wonders of Nature” competition in 2011.

The next phase of my life brought me back to Singapore in 2012 where I am currently employed as an ISO Quality Auditor. My work revolves around quality assurance for fabrication of FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) units and assisting with statutory/ regulatory compliance for these units sailing to offshore oil fields such as Brazil, Angola and the Gulf of Mexico. From an environmental perspective, my work contributes to ensuring that vessels leaving the port comply with the standards of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) – most notably the MARPOL (Marine Environment Protection Committee of the IMO) Standards - to minimise marine pollution resulting from the vessels' gas emissions, sewage, garbage, oil discharges, ship recycling, ballast water and use of anti-fouling substances. 

But ideally, I want to do more.

In the past, I have enjoyed short volunteering stints with Nparks at Pulau Ubin, assisting the staff with guided board walks at Chek Jawa and conducting forest patrols to remove traps and snares. As a SEC Earth Helper, I once participated in a Horseshoe crab rescue and rehabilitation project which required the assistance of volunteers to remove the crabs entrapped in abandoned fishing nets at the Mandai mudflats and at the same time, doing a population survey of the two species of horseshoe crabs (mangrove and coastal) in the area. 

After trying out a few similar experiences, I've settled as a volunteer Docent at the Singapore Zoo (in the Reptile Realm) where I feel quite at home. For the past 2 years, I've been part of a team of volunteers that engages the public and spreads awareness of animals (in my case, reptiles) and help spread the conservation message. This activity brings much meaning to my personal mission as I get to share my knowledge with a growing number of members of the public who come in search of meaningful encounters with wildlife rather than mere entertainment. Not only that, I get to stay close to animals (such as during my Keeper Attachment) and meet and learn from people as passionate as I am (or more even) about wildlife and the environment. 

Decades later, though much has changed in my life in terms of location, occupation and attitudes since my time in Sri Lanka, working towards animal welfare and experiencing natural habitats still brings me the same joy. I feel a sense of relief every time I visit a nature reserve or a wildlife sanctuary or read about passionate conservationists like Sir David Attenborough or Gerald Durrell, or see someone throwing a trash into a recycle bin or hear of an innovative technology that uses sustainable energy sources - because despite the odds, there still is hope.

This environmental crisis that we face today is a grave one, with consequences already showing and affecting most of us. It helps to have passionate and conscientious people uniting and lobbying for climate change, loss of biodiversity and such, but without the support of governments to enforce adequate legislation and environmental management systems governing our industries, we may have already lost this battle to conserve biodiversity, reverse climate change and ensure a habitable planet for our future generations. Besides spreading awareness, on a personal level there is much we can do like volunteering, taking a little extra effort to recycle trash, reducing/ reusing the products that we have taken for granted, getting involved in pro-environment community activities and, for those who can, supporting conservation efforts financially.

Mother Earth, which we have stressed beyond her capacity, has the ability to heal herself given our support and time. But the question remains: how willing are WE to do what is required of us?

New beginnings

My adventures in the Arabian peninsula are now just a dream. To me, the 2.5 years of "borrowed time" turned out to be a myriad of (mostly) positive experiences, realizations and transformations. I miss so much things about Dubai, mostly family and then the friendships of the remarkable people I considered close. I am not the biggest fan of children for obvious reasons, but I do miss my piglet and I'll miss watching him grow and change. I'll miss his mother very much too. She's always been there for me and watched over me since the beginning of my time. I feel deeply indebted for all that so a tiny part of me does not feel too good about leaving her behind.

But then, my time there was up. I have moved closer to the equator, to a tropical rain forest climate - that is Singapore. The natural environment here is incredible. Compared to a desert environment with sandstorms, extreme temperatures ranging from 10 to 50 degrees Celsius and little biodiversity, this place, with no varying seasons, uniform temperatures, ample rainfall and lots of greeeeen trees, is heaven!

Katy Kat, her other half and their little furry son, Hans have welcomed me to their home and given me a very comfortable space to stay. I'm immensely grateful for their hospitality.

My flight was pleasant although it had no entertainment whatsoever. A lot of intermittent sleep. Good food. No irritating neighbors. The only thing I found mildly amusing was a guy in front of me asking for biscuits and Chinese food, which were not in the menu and unopened canned drinks (probably to take home). I have heard so many horrific accounts from cabin crew on the different types of queer personalities they meet onboard. I sympathize people in this job especially when having to deal with demanding passengers. I try not to ask them anything so that it's one less passenger for them to worry about. Also, I find that as I get older, I meet lesser and lesser irritating people on flights. Guess I look more intimidating now. GRRRRRR.

I knew that Singapore was spotlessly clean. But when I walked into a toilet at the airport, my mind wasn't prepared  for THAT much of cleanliness. And I had the SAME emotions run through me as I had back in 2004 when I came here the first time; despair at not having the luxury of bidet showers anymore and being spooked with the auto flush feature when I bent to pick a call from my mother. On a positive note, the exit had a touch-screen device to rate the services of the cleaner in charge of the toilet and I gave her an "Excellent" remark because she did a wonderful job of impressing visitors with Singapore's cleanliness standards.

I have also done a little bit of exploring around the local community in the past two days. It feels very liberating to walk around in shorts and not feel like I'm committing an offence, because this culture is less conservative when it comes to dress sense. Incidentally, I walk more now than I used to and I realize that Singapore is quite HOT and humid! Up until a few weeks ago, the most walking I did was from my home to the parking lot and from the parking lot to my office and vice versa (and the occasional mall). My old gal, Chariotte was given to away to a lovely Omani family. A bit too late into my stay in the Middle East for this realization I suppose, but that Arab family changed so much of the close-minded and negative stereotype of Arabs that I held previously. Funny, that.

So yeah, back to what I was rattling on about. I came mentally prepared for BAD vegetarian food, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found a nice Chinese vegetarian food stall with a good variety of colourful vegetables with flavour. I have also been binging on peach green tea, with and without pearls. Shopping for toiletries was rather disappointing. They only have GIANT-sized bottles, as if they strategically corner consumers to go for bulk savings. Where's the variety and choice to change one's toiletries and try out new types often?? I really wanted a Dettol Cool shower foam, but I had to compromise and go for a different brand with an average-sized bottle because the only Dettol shower foam that came in a decent size was one for men, and thinking a little ahead, I decided against buying it. [After note: Ryuu made an interesting comment to this saying that men's shower gels did not contain any testosterone in them.]

There isn't much cultural diversity here. The people here, well, aren't too friendly outright. They like to mind their own business, which I respect and find admirable, actually. My people back home are way too interested in others and it can get very unpleasant. Thing is, I've found a lot of the people here are nice, but you would only know this if you made conversation with them, which is not often. This is a very-South Asian trait. So walking among them, one feels invisible. And while I am at it, I can't help but feel a little negative (as a foreigner) about Singlish. I understand it's something that's evolved over the years and fused itself into the culture and that it is an accepted way for locals to understand each other. But, where the English is grammatically wrong, my insides roll with horror. I do sincerely hope that, at least, the grammatically wrong parts of S(E)inglish won't brush on my usage of English while I'm here.

When my friends saw me off at the airport, one of them jokingly asked "Why, doesn't Singapore have good hairdressers?". I thought it was a good idea to get a haircut before I went there. Should have thought harder, Shu, you idiot! The woman who chopped off my hair mercilessly was having a bad day at work and she took it out on my head. Oh well. Hair always grows back.

One of the highlights of my day was going for a swim. I must be half-fish.

Looking forward to meeting several old friends in the days to come. I have not seen them in AGES!

It feels good to be unemployed for awhile. So much less stress.