A small reflection I had

This is really a belated blog… I have been pestered by my president for a long time and have no time to really pen down something. Well I have some insight after attending on lecture on conservation of biodiversity and would wish very much to share it around. What has conservation to do with the Catholic Faith? Well conservation of biodiversity is very much part of our Faith since in Genesis we are made stewards of this earth; we are masters of the birds of the air, creatures of the sea and beast of the earth (Do you notice how I leave plants and insects out ahaha… don’t really like plants and insects but yeah they are very much important). Yet if you take time to admire the natural world around, you would very much be left with awe and wonder (I know of a person who would disagree haha… but really most would) and thus I always thought that it is really a privilege for us to be made masters of this wonderful world that we are indiscriminatingly destroying. I would not elaborate the wonder of nature (as that can bore some of you) the purpose of this blog is to share with you about that lecture.

The lecture is on the conservation of biodiversity in Singapore and it was delivered by Mr. Sivasothi (aka the otterman; he studied otters u see). The case in study was Chek Java and as many will know, it was planned by Urban Redevelopment Authority to be reclaimed. Chek Java is a jigsaw of many different coastal habitats (from seagrass lagoon to coral reefs and mangrove habitat). When nature lovers (led by Mr. Sivasothi) heard about the plan to developed Chek Java, they hastily self-organised numerous nature tours to Chek Java, thinking that if the place is to be reclaimed at least the beauty of that place is shared with as many people as possible. People came in drones and were utterly amazed at the beauty of that place (I can attest to the beauty of that place). This spark a chain reaction which got the whole nation involved. A scrapbook containing the reflection of the public on Chek Java was complied and sent to the government in hope that they could initiate to save the place. Guess what? It works! It is a historical moment for Singapore, where plans to develop a place is halted to preserve the natural environment. How did Mr. Sivasothi do it? Well firstly he loved cycling and blogging. Riding on that, he used his hobbies to interest his friends about the beauty of nature and the importance of saving it and his friends helped him spread it around. In time to come numerous people became aware of it and thus took active step towards saving the environment.

Guess what I’m going to say next haha… Well I was very much amazed at his sharing because it dawned upon me that was not it the same for us legionaries or even ordinary catholics? Just as how Mr. Sivasothi managed to spread the message of saving the environment to all his friends through his hobbies, shouldn’t we too as ordinary catholics try to spread the message of the Love of God to all our non- catholic friends. Surely each of us has a hobby or two and each of us has a bunch or two of non-catholic friends. All we need is the zeal that Mr. Sivasothi has (he has it for the environment, we have it for our God). He (the otterman) was telling us that we should use every means to reach out to people about the importance of saving the environment. As an example, he said that if we like food, we should join a food club and then inspire people about the environment. I think then as legionaries we can add on further and to inspire them about the Love that God has for each one of us too =). Cool eh we can learn from the secular world too! Can imagine Dom nodding his head for he once told me secularity (the way of the world) do not equate to secularism (absence of God).

http://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/index.html
http://otterman.wordpress.com/