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NBT Managing Director.
"We also encourage our
customers to send their vehicles for regular servicing
to further reduce motor emissions on Brunei roads," he
added.
While the initiatives
made by these admirable few are commendable and
exemplary, Brunei's efforts have been far overshadowed
by the vast efforts in the neighbouring countries
leaving Brunei, a country that makes up one third of the
Heart of Borneo, far behind in eliminating complacency
and ignorance of climate change and its devastating
effects on the Earth.
Earth Hour 2009 will
take place tonight between 8.30pm and 930pm local time
and one can only hope to see the capital and the rest of
the country plunge into darkness for a mere hour.
HSBC will be switching
their lights off at its main branch in the capital as
well as their roadshow to be held at The Mall, Gadong,
later tonight.
Orchid Garden Hotel,
the Empire Hotel and Country Club and the Sheraton Hotel
will also join in and switch off for a full hour
tonight.
According to the
Straits Times, more than 10,000 people and 450 schools,
malls, hotels and companies have signed up in Singapore
to turn off their lights for an hour on Saturday from
8.30pm.
A local hospital in
Singapore will also be switching off their lights in its
wards, along some corridors and those on the facade of
its building, the Straits Times reported.
Zahir Latif, a
25-year-old Singaporean said that ubiquitous
advertisements and government-produced public service
announcements have been circulated for weeks prior to
Earth Hour which will be held today at 830pm local time
worldwide.
Zahir will be just one
of the thousands in Singapore who will be switching off
their lights later tonight, meanwhile, in neighbouring
Malaysia, similar events have been organised across the
country.
Syu'aib
Rafie, a Bruneian student at the Lim Kok Wing University
of Creative Technology in Kuala Lumpur, is impressed by
the efforts of the Malaysian government in banding the
people together in support of the event.
"They're switching off
the lights for a whole hour in the city!" he exclaimed.
"My university is doing its part by having a candlelit
cookout and an acoustic concert."
"All these efforts
encourage me to do my part for the earth. My lecturers
and friends will also be watching the Earth Hour DVD as
an awareness incentive prior to the "blackout"," he
added.
So has Brunei done
enough to match these efforts as they announced their
participation on the eve of the event?
A 19-year-old local
student studying at Maktab Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee
Billah admitted to being ignorant of Earth Hour.
When told of the
efforts of schools in neighbouring Malaysia and
Singapore, she said: "They never mentioned anything
about Earth Hour in school let alone what it is about."
The absence of local
public service announcements has also left much of the
public "in the dark" on the significance and importance
of Earth Hour 2009.
"I would love to see
the Brunei capital go dark for the event but other than
an informed few I don't think the average Bruneians
either know or would want to switch off their lights,"
one local commented.
Few, however, have
started their own initiatives in support of the global
fight against climate change. --
Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
Related News:
Lights
Off Brunei! |
