Youths talking to Youths about going Green

I have made student environmental activism my pet project under Kampus Sejahtera (well, at least until March 2009, when my term ends). And today, a small group of like-minded students got together at the Lecture Hall S to conduct workshops about what they want to do and what USM should do for sustainability. It is still going on right at this moment as I type. I spent the morning with them and left them to do their own thing in the afternoon. We hope that this will become an annual event.

I was asked to talk to them to sort of give them a warm-up.
I talked about "A Future Without Cars" using the above concept map. Click on it. Go ahead, I dare you!
I spoke for about 50 or 55 minutes. Most of them were locked on to what I was saying. A few took the opportunity to catch up on a few winks. I was worried that I was too "academic". But the general consensus from the students (OK, if you must be fussy, a few students) was that it gave them some food for thought.

Here's me blending in with the crowd.

Here's the crowd, about 60 - 70 stutents of USM, various years of study and disciplines.
They sacrificed their weekend to do something for the Earth.
Actually, it was a challenge trying to get the crowd. Out of the 72 Clubs and Associations the student organisers managed to get only 9 participants. One of things many student leaders from the clubs ask is "is this compulsory?". Yes, I can understand. Sometimes I see the student leaders walking around in a "zombie-state". There's just too much demand on their time. But we are happy with the numbers because they are all the committed ones. Next year maybe we can get 500? Oh, wait, this time next year ... hmmm, where will I be? what will I be doing?

Lunch was on me. I paid for it mah. OK, the university paid for it.
It was all vegetarian (well, meatless lah) and all the participants knew why and there was no protest.
Taking a break and networking. I know you see the plastic bottled water. They are learning.

These are the organisers and facilitators, all students of course.
We had some preparatory meetings, I met with them and talked to them. And they talked amongst themselves. We talked about how to facilitate. And each group (six in all) went back and did some homework. So, now we wait for their report.
So what is youths talking to youths without the youths talking?
Above is one of the twins (Kah Hing, I think) and below Abe. Desmond (the other twin) and Mervin also did their bit to motivate and inspire. And these guys were good.

In the centre is Kwang Soo, a lecturer from Korea spending his sabbatical in USM.
He is the Presiden of EcoBuddha, an NGO. Seems to be enjoying every bit of the student environmental conference. He seems to have a fascination for nasi kandar.