Mum who cares for ailing Earth - for children's sake
By Koh Joh Ting
MRS. Shen Jegathesan, 36, is the type of friend the ailing earth is dying to have.
This mother of three brings home photocopies of articles on the environment’s plight for her children to read.
She also keeps her dressing table free of products with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which harm the earth’s protective ozone layer.
But in being concerned about the environment, Mrs. Jegathesan, a public affairs assistant at Hong Kong Bank — which is caring for the environment by recycling paper in the office — is one of a rare breed.
She is driven to do this out of concern for her children, whom she sees as the ones who will have to live with the environment.
And happily for her, this sense of responsibility for the children’s future environment is shared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
This is shown by its choice of "Children and the Environment" as its theme for this year’s World Environment Day, which falls today.
As Dr Mostafa K. Tolba, executive director of UNEP, said in expounding the theme: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
By this, he means that if planet Earth were to be fit for future generations, people must now take responsibility to achieve "harmony" with the environment.
Explaining her concern, Mrs. Jegathesan told The Straits Times yesterday: "It’s because of the children, who would be more affected by the time they grow up and when I’m gone."
To do her bit, she only uses deodorants, mousse, hairspray and pesticides that are ozone-friendly, and visits a hairdresser who uses CFC-free products. She has switched from cosmetics packed in plastics to those that come in glass.
(Plastics, which are extremely stable materials, tend to choke up landfills and the environment for a long time.)
And she and the family keep away from fast-food restaurants which use styrofoam boxes because "styrofoam takes hundreds of years to degrade and are not recycleable".
She uses biodegradable diapers, which are said to degrade more readily than ordinary plastic ones, for her two-year-old daughter, Sheralynn, and sees that her children only use toys made of cardboard and other recycleable materials.
Agreeing with Dr Tolba’s comment, she said: "As a parent, I would say we owe the children the earth.
"Educating our children about the needs of the environment is only a small interest we pay for the debt which we owe them."
However, the other 10 people The Straits Times spoke to yesterday were less pro-active in giving the environment a fighting chance.
Instead, all of them said the Government should restrict the production and use of environmentally-damaging products such as styrofoam and CFC-products.
"We all know about ozone-depletion and such, but it’s not something we would actively do something about," said a working mother of two, who did not wish to be identified.
FairPrice plastic bags to go 'friendly' today
SHOPPERS at NTUC Fair-Price stores will walk away with environment-friendly plastic bags today.
And all 36 stores will soon have photodegradable bags as soon as present stocks of plastic bags run out. Photodegradable bags break up when exposed to light over a period of time.
The stores will also have special discounts on ozone-friendly products for a week, starting today.
A statement from the cooperative yesterday said that the launch of photodegradable bags coincides with World Environment Day.
"It is the policy of Fair-Price as a caring organization to support activities that contribute towards a safe and healthy environment," the statement said.
All new plastic bags ordered by NTUC FairPrice after today will be photodegradable, it added.
The co-operative withdrew all products containing CFC from their shelves in conjunction with Earth Day, on April 22.
Source : The Straits Times, June 5, 1990
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