Post by uptowndragon on Jul 9, 2007 10:06:17 GMT 7
Not Such A Green Concert After All!!!
@ Suria FM's Green Every Day Concert 2007
The good thing about the Suria FM Green Every Day Concert was that it managed to showcase the talents of so many mainstream, up and coming as well as independent artistes in one single massive concert. It also featured several popular stars from our neighbours Indonesia & Singapore. It was very commendable that more than 50 celebrities turned up to give support to such a worthy cause and churn out an exciting and rocking evening for the fans, and it was grand that a star studded tribute was paid to the late Loga (Alleycats) during the event, but unfortunately that was all it was.
The organisers failed completely to get the message about the environment across. In fact, I was wondering whether they actually even knew what the message was supposed to be, or even bothered with it. It seemed more like an opportunity to promote their brand and their sponsor¡¦s brands by just jumping on the eco bandwagon.
What was the message they were conveying? Did they even know? Just because we attach words like Green or Environment as taglines to an event does not make it an environmental event. It was just a regular concert in disguise. What did the audience take home after the event? Did they take home knowledge about their actions being detrimental to the environment? Any firm action plans to counter the decline? Any pledges to be better citizens of this dying earth? In fact instead of taking anything back, they certainly left heaps of environmentally unfriendly stuff behind.
Slapping a sticker on oneself and claiming lets save the environment is not gonna do a d**n thing, which is exactly what happened here at the Green Every Day Concert. It was ill conceived and poorly executed, as it did absolutely nothing about the environment or even educating people about it.
Yes they had a few of the stars on parade etch out some rudimentary ¡§Save the Planet¡¨ comments in between gigs (although the official media would like you to think that everyone had something to say). But did anyone actually think that was going to make any monumental changes. I was looking at all the booths that were set up around the venue, and what they peddled was simply more stuff that damaged the environment. The organisers had included in their line up, the internationally renowned Tree Theatre Group (www.treetg.com) comprising of 2 dozen kids singing and pleading vainly to save trees, but ironically had a booth handing out tons of surplus Seventeen & Eh magazines to all concert goers. So much for saving trees. One of their main sponsors Borneo 1 had a booth promoting a big commercial project in Sabah, but mentioned nothing about how it was helping improve the environment. TM Net was there to sell us more communication products, Astro was busy selling its subscription and the AFC was there to promote the Asian Cup, which is really hilarious as this country seems to be running out of ¡§green¡¨ padangs for our kids to play any football. Even a fan club had a booth there to promote their tees (not trees), and buttons of the favourite artiste. And of course there were at least 50 stalls leading up to the venue selling all manner of food & beverages in all forms of environmentally unfriendly packaging, which eventually found its way evenly distributed across the concert arena. Amazingly there was not even a single bin within the concert area for anyone to dispose of the unwanted, let alone any that were marked ¡§recycle¡¨. And there certainly were no booths set up to educate the public on the environment or even any eco-friendly NGOs to brief visitors? Did someone conveniently forget?
So can anyone tell me what this concert was all about and how it was supposed to achieve any of its goals (if there were any), cause it hardly seemed like it was about the environment. Perhaps I couldn¡¦t see the forest for the trees. Hey, wait a minute, the forest has already long gone except for those few trees. All I can see now is the garbage left behind, which even this expensive over the top eco-concert failed to prevent.
My comments may seem a little harsh since they did put up an excellent concert in terms of production quality and the outstanding line up of performers, but it can hardly be claimed as an eco-centric event. Good intentions but half baked ideas do not save the environment.
A picture in an official media had Suria FM¡¦s CEO Engku Emran Engku Zainal handing a bonsai plant to Federal Territories Minister Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique, and proclaimed proudly that ¡§Artistes come together for Mother Earth¡¨, and the ¡§Crowd joins in the act¡¨. But no where in the report was anything mentioned about what affirmative actions were being taken to help heal the environment. Frankly I do not know what a single symbolic Bonsai plant is going to do for the environment, and from what I could see the crowd was there mostly to see the FREE concert although the artistes may have had nobler intentions. The report also claimed many came in green to support the cause, but I only saw about maybe 6 people in green. Even so, I cannot fathom how coming in green will help the environment if the actions of the people do not reflect a need to do something more real about it. The saddest fact was it was not really that many Malaysian¡¦s who flocked to the venue but mostly Indonesian migrant workers who were there to simply catch their own superstars such as Titi DJ, Yuni Shara, Slank, Element, Nicholas Saputra & Samuel Rizal. And when the frenetic crowd dispersed eventually late at night, looking at the surroundings and the mess that was left behind, it was clear that Mother Earth suffered another heartless blow.
My worse fears for the planet were further compounded when I remembered watching (earlier in the day) a local TV crew deeply engaged in an interview with a local Rastafarian looking ¡§artiste???¡¨ with long dreadlocks who had proudly emblazoned the words ¡§Marijuana¡¨ on his tee. Perhaps this was his idea of going green. Whatever it was, our planet certainly looks like it will be going up in ¡§smoke¡¨ sooner or later.
Footnote:
I did some referals to understand what the World Environmental Day was all about, and the info can be found at the official UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) site:
www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/About_WED_2007/index.asp
Surprisingly the above event that is supposed to be associated with the World Environmental Day is not even listed at their site:
www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/Around_the_World/AsiaPacific.asp
Well so much for that.
Event pictography up shortly. Watch this space
@ Suria FM's Green Every Day Concert 2007
The good thing about the Suria FM Green Every Day Concert was that it managed to showcase the talents of so many mainstream, up and coming as well as independent artistes in one single massive concert. It also featured several popular stars from our neighbours Indonesia & Singapore. It was very commendable that more than 50 celebrities turned up to give support to such a worthy cause and churn out an exciting and rocking evening for the fans, and it was grand that a star studded tribute was paid to the late Loga (Alleycats) during the event, but unfortunately that was all it was.
The organisers failed completely to get the message about the environment across. In fact, I was wondering whether they actually even knew what the message was supposed to be, or even bothered with it. It seemed more like an opportunity to promote their brand and their sponsor¡¦s brands by just jumping on the eco bandwagon.
What was the message they were conveying? Did they even know? Just because we attach words like Green or Environment as taglines to an event does not make it an environmental event. It was just a regular concert in disguise. What did the audience take home after the event? Did they take home knowledge about their actions being detrimental to the environment? Any firm action plans to counter the decline? Any pledges to be better citizens of this dying earth? In fact instead of taking anything back, they certainly left heaps of environmentally unfriendly stuff behind.
Slapping a sticker on oneself and claiming lets save the environment is not gonna do a d**n thing, which is exactly what happened here at the Green Every Day Concert. It was ill conceived and poorly executed, as it did absolutely nothing about the environment or even educating people about it.
Yes they had a few of the stars on parade etch out some rudimentary ¡§Save the Planet¡¨ comments in between gigs (although the official media would like you to think that everyone had something to say). But did anyone actually think that was going to make any monumental changes. I was looking at all the booths that were set up around the venue, and what they peddled was simply more stuff that damaged the environment. The organisers had included in their line up, the internationally renowned Tree Theatre Group (www.treetg.com) comprising of 2 dozen kids singing and pleading vainly to save trees, but ironically had a booth handing out tons of surplus Seventeen & Eh magazines to all concert goers. So much for saving trees. One of their main sponsors Borneo 1 had a booth promoting a big commercial project in Sabah, but mentioned nothing about how it was helping improve the environment. TM Net was there to sell us more communication products, Astro was busy selling its subscription and the AFC was there to promote the Asian Cup, which is really hilarious as this country seems to be running out of ¡§green¡¨ padangs for our kids to play any football. Even a fan club had a booth there to promote their tees (not trees), and buttons of the favourite artiste. And of course there were at least 50 stalls leading up to the venue selling all manner of food & beverages in all forms of environmentally unfriendly packaging, which eventually found its way evenly distributed across the concert arena. Amazingly there was not even a single bin within the concert area for anyone to dispose of the unwanted, let alone any that were marked ¡§recycle¡¨. And there certainly were no booths set up to educate the public on the environment or even any eco-friendly NGOs to brief visitors? Did someone conveniently forget?
So can anyone tell me what this concert was all about and how it was supposed to achieve any of its goals (if there were any), cause it hardly seemed like it was about the environment. Perhaps I couldn¡¦t see the forest for the trees. Hey, wait a minute, the forest has already long gone except for those few trees. All I can see now is the garbage left behind, which even this expensive over the top eco-concert failed to prevent.
My comments may seem a little harsh since they did put up an excellent concert in terms of production quality and the outstanding line up of performers, but it can hardly be claimed as an eco-centric event. Good intentions but half baked ideas do not save the environment.
A picture in an official media had Suria FM¡¦s CEO Engku Emran Engku Zainal handing a bonsai plant to Federal Territories Minister Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique, and proclaimed proudly that ¡§Artistes come together for Mother Earth¡¨, and the ¡§Crowd joins in the act¡¨. But no where in the report was anything mentioned about what affirmative actions were being taken to help heal the environment. Frankly I do not know what a single symbolic Bonsai plant is going to do for the environment, and from what I could see the crowd was there mostly to see the FREE concert although the artistes may have had nobler intentions. The report also claimed many came in green to support the cause, but I only saw about maybe 6 people in green. Even so, I cannot fathom how coming in green will help the environment if the actions of the people do not reflect a need to do something more real about it. The saddest fact was it was not really that many Malaysian¡¦s who flocked to the venue but mostly Indonesian migrant workers who were there to simply catch their own superstars such as Titi DJ, Yuni Shara, Slank, Element, Nicholas Saputra & Samuel Rizal. And when the frenetic crowd dispersed eventually late at night, looking at the surroundings and the mess that was left behind, it was clear that Mother Earth suffered another heartless blow.
My worse fears for the planet were further compounded when I remembered watching (earlier in the day) a local TV crew deeply engaged in an interview with a local Rastafarian looking ¡§artiste???¡¨ with long dreadlocks who had proudly emblazoned the words ¡§Marijuana¡¨ on his tee. Perhaps this was his idea of going green. Whatever it was, our planet certainly looks like it will be going up in ¡§smoke¡¨ sooner or later.
Footnote:
I did some referals to understand what the World Environmental Day was all about, and the info can be found at the official UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) site:
www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/About_WED_2007/index.asp
Surprisingly the above event that is supposed to be associated with the World Environmental Day is not even listed at their site:
www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/Around_the_World/AsiaPacific.asp
Well so much for that.
Event pictography up shortly. Watch this space
![jEn-[X]- a.k.a jEn-ToLaK Avatar](http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e96/L_jEnX/DSC02775.jpg)
