6 December 2007
at 19.39 UTC +0800
One of my best friends back home, Erik, works for SR Metropol, the somewhat newly formed local radio station, and as some may know, I do some corresponding from Singapore every tuesday morning at 8.30, Stockholm time (that’s 15.30 Singapore time). What I do is basically compare what Singapore is like to what Stockholm is like in different areas. This week there was no show, but last week we talked about interior design and the week before that it was about fashion. You can find most of it in SR’s 30 day archive.
Next week, the subject is the environment, and here are a couple of questions that I’ll try to answer:
- Hur mycket skrivs och pratas det om det i media?
- How much is being written about the environment in the media?
- Hur mycket är det en snackis privat? På jobbet, på gatorna.
- How much is it being talked about privately? At work, in the streets
- Sopsorterar folk?
- Do people recycle?
- Köper man miljöbilar?
- Do people buy environmentally friendly cars?
- Hur är det med dubbelmoralen? Ex. man köper en bil och försvarar sig med att det är en miljöbil. Eller man pikar sin kompis för att hon slänger en glasflaska i soporna, men tar själv gärna flyget på semestern.
- What about double standards? For example, if you buy a car and defend it by saying it’s environmentally friendly? Or if you give a buddy a hard time for throwing a glass bottle in the garbage, but take a plane when going on vacation?
Any ideas?
hey! just a funny contribution here….
here some of my thoughts on the questions for your radio show, albeit a bit late.
# How much is being written about the environment in the media?
- Hardly anything…unless it is about the forest fires in Sumatra (in late 2006), or about floods in Malaysia or Indonesia…there was maybe something about the Bali Summit recently, but in general, there is almost nothing about environment. The exception is when environment becomes an economical issue, then there is some attention to it.
# How much is it being talked about privately? At work, in the streets
I would say it is a topic everyone is aware of, but which is isn’t very much discussed privately at all. In some classrooms these issues are being pushed as an awareness-raising issue, but as a society, there is still a bit of silence in the issue.
# Do people recycle?
I venture to say no. In my building, I was shocked to find people throwing trash ‘in natura’ down the chute, without using as much as a plastic bag. I also realized, by observing, people do not separate wet from solid trash, or cans from paper and plastic and glass. There needs to be some major awareness campaign here.
# Do people buy environmentally friendly cars?
Not at all. Singapore is somewhat polluted because of diesel-run taxis and public transport. It will take a while until taxis use natural gas, or public transport becomes electric. Or even have a bicycle path in the city, which would be perfect since Singapore is flat and the distances are relatively short, despite the heat. But the best beginning is if people could start relying more on public transportation - it would save on the environment and minimize traffic which is very bad in one of the most densely inhabited cities in the world.
Hi Isabel!
Thanks for your comments! Too bad it had already been broadcast. Nevertheless, it was all very good thinking! I have received the next batch of questions, this time about Christmas. Will post them later tonight.