Choy Kim Lee stands up for her planet

BY NATALIE HENG
star2green@thestar.com

One youth stands up for her planet.

AN APPRECIATION of nature comes easily for Choy Kim Lee, who grew up on cold showers straight from the well in the town of Malim Nawar, Perak. Life just seemed more integrated with the outdoors there, where people were green without even trying to be. Louvre windows and traditional skylight hatches allowed natural wind and sunlight into homes, while motorbikes and bicycles were common modes of transport in a landscape shaded by an abundance of greenery.

Choy left this idyllic life behind when she moved to the city in 2007, to pursue a degree in Biomedical Science. It was during her years at Universiti Malaya, a green enclave amidst the rush and traffic of Kuala Lumpur, that she came across a documentary that changed her life –Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the 2009 feature movie which captured the Earth’s beauty and degradation, from the air.

Doing more: Choy Kim Lee wants youths to be more vocal about conservation.

It convinced Choy that she should be part of something bigger. That is why attending the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June was a big deal for her. From tree planting to hosting workshops on composting for local residents in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, the 24-year-old has been taking baby steps to care for the planet. But at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the conference was held, she got to see how her efforts are amplified amidst similar initiatives by youths from all over, each trying to make a difference in their respective corner and all collectively making a difference across the world.

The sea of voices present at the World Youth Congress which she attended at Rio was in her words, “Huge”. Hearing how outspoken and certain of their position these youths were has inspired her to continue being involved in raising Malaysia’s environmental consciousness.

Lending a hand

Choy is a busy bee. She spends most of her time working as a part-time research assistant in the Department of Social and Preventive Health at Universiti Malaya’s Faculty of Medicine. In between, she sources for funds to do volunteer work. The list of affiliations on her name card include the Smile Action Team, a non-governmental organisation she helped establish, which offers free dental health care to orphans. Over the Hari Raya break last month, she flew to Cambodia to offer such help to children in need.

Then there is MyCorps, a platform for youths to participate in community welfare and humanitarian activities. She went to Lebanon with the group in March to work on a community development project for Palestinian refugees. Aside from her interest in humanitarian issues, what drives her is protection of the environment, which was why she joined the Malaysian Green and Blue Environment Protection Society back in 2010.

The group, which only has about 20 members, organises screenings of environmental films, exhibitions and other green-related events in an effort to increase green-literacy amongst city folk.

In addition to being active at the grassroots level, Choy feels that pushing for change at the policy level is equally important. Hence, she has been a participant of the Global Model United Nations Conference for the last couple of years. Last year, at the South Korea gathering, she learnt about negotiation policies on the topic of “How to advance human progress in harmony with nature”. Since then, she has joined the United Nations Association Malaysia (UNAM) Youth Circle. Later this year, she will be going to the United States for a workshop that will equip her and other Youth Circle members with the knowledge and training on how to host a Model United Nations Conference in Malaysia next year. It was also through UNAM’s sponsorship that she and a fellow active member of the group, Eng Khim Sheng, managed to make it to Rio.

Learning from Rio

Certain things struck Choy whilst she was in Rio. Aside from the assault on her senses from a bustling landscape filled with shanty towns, the human warmth – a local at a bus stop offered her a bed in their family home when all the hotels in town were fully booked – and the outspokenness of youths from around the world took some getting used to. Her experience at the World Youth Congress, which took place from June 4 to 13 was inspirational.

“Many of the youths have had more exposure in this kind of stuff (environmental issues). I was really impressed because they were so outspoken. They had opinions about things. The Asian participants were a lot quieter and didn’t seem to have their own stand.”

This is something Choy wants to change, about herself and other Malaysians. She thinks the lack of interest in green issues among youths here has to do with a lack of exposure, and she believes that teachers should encourage students to read about current global issues and be involved in extra-curricular activities and volunteerism.

Since returning from Rio, Choy has been busy leveraging on her contacts and affiliations to change things. Firstly, she has proposed to the Economic Planning Unit, which is running a post Rio+20 workshop next month, to include a youth representative.

She is also doing coordinating work for a post-Rio+20 stakeholders’ forum to be held in November, organised by UM Care, a loose volunteer group of like-minded individuals at Universiti Malaya, which she is a member of. At this gathering, people can voice their opinions on the country’s sustainable development programmes.

At the end of the year, UM Care will organise an environmental conference on various issues.

“People interested in water issues, for example, can run a workshop or discussion group on the subject and discuss what they want Universiti Malaya to do about it. All proposals and solutions will be compiled and submitted to the Chancellor or some other decision-making body.

“I think Malaysian youths should try to get more involved in things like this. Nowadays, it’s easy to explore the issues affecting the planet through the Internet. It doesn’t matter if you are studying or working on something unrelated to the environment. I did biomedical sciences, for example. I think there needs to be a sense of urgency (about the state of the planet) which will drive people to look up these issues and get involved in things outside of their every day lives.”

Choy Kim Lee Stands Up for Her Planet

Timeless in Brazil 2: Greatest architectures of all

Yesterday we visited several buildings in  São Paulo, today I'll show you more interesting places that you 'must-go'. 

São Paulo Se Metropolitan Cathedral
São Paulo Cathedral has a Neo-Gothic styled structure, built in 1913 and completed after four decades. Despite having a Renaissance-styled dome, the São Paulo Metropolitan Cathedral is the largest cathedral in  São Paulo and it's considered by some to be the 4th largest neo-gothic cathedral in the world. Located in
Praça da Sé (Se Square), there is a Marco Zero monument (ground zero) in front of the cathedral. Marco Zero is considered to be the center of the town. The hexagonal prism coated marble represents the geographic center of the city, where all distance measurements situated on signposts stuck to it are established. During the evening I visited this site, there were religious group of people performed mass in front of the cathedral (It was closed on Sundays). However, while admiring the building, beware of the pickpockets and street people who would come and ask you to buy toys or for money.

The Great São Paulo Cathedral 

 The São Paulo metro or rapid-transit system is the largest in the city and in Brazil. It was built in 1970s with length of 74.3km. Due to high population of this city, its traffic is terribly congested too. So, it's best to visit the city with metro.

Avenue Paulista
A famous and an important avenue in Sao Paulo metropolitan, Avenue Paulista is home to headquarters of a large number of finance and art institutions. There are banks, stock exchange, branded shops, TV and radios antennas, the landmark MASP, and of course, people. Since it's an important center of business and finance, the expenses in this area is rather high! Note that the avenue is also famous for its Gay Parade which held in May/June. According to wiki information, the city has 2.1 millions of opposite sex couples and 5,700 same-sex couples. Though it has more than 70% of Catholic Christians, Brazil is a secular state, and the LGBT people enjoy most of the same legal protections available to non-LGBT people. According to the Guiness World Records, the Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade is the world's largest LGBT Pride celebration, with 4 million people in 2009.

The busy and famous Avenue Paulista

Oi!! I'm calling from the space!

The municipal collaborate with Telephone company 'Vivo' to run a decorate public phone booth campaign. Their creativity are shown in each phone booth along the Avenue Paulista.  In Brazil, people use colours to portrait art brilliantly. I especially enjoy seeing each piece of art that could be found everywhere in the avenue. 

A collection bin to collect recyclable items. It tells you what is recyclable and what is not. 

There's a nature urban forest right in the Sao Paulo city, it's located right next to the Avenue Paulista where a  road is dividing the forest. Not bad, they have a green lung in the city!

Sunday market where people sell many cute and nice handicrafts. Brazil is famous with their minerals, stones and gems. 

 Ibirapuera Park
Open since 1954, Ibirapuera is the city's largest and most popular park. Its buildings are designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer (born in Rio de Janeiro, a Carioca, he designed Penang State Mosque in Malaysia too!) and landscaped by Roberto Burle Max (Yes, a Carioca, he's the one who designed the landscape for KLCC Park in Malaysia, and the famous Copacabana black and white promenade!!). In the midst of its eight pavilions, three lakes and many streets and lawns are the Museu de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Museum), the Pavilhao da Bienal and the Oca. Many people likes to do outdoor shows and sports mournaments (like marathon) there and the park is full of runners on weekday mornings. On Sundays, people will picnic with families, some foreign workers would also spend their off day at the park too. No wonder I have the feeling to relate it with our KLCC park when I was in the park!! I admire Brazilian artwork so much now.

Pedro Alvares Cabral, 'discoverer' of Brazil, began the age of Portugal occupation in Brazil. 

Monumento às Bandeiras, commemorating the pioneers from São Paulo who opened up the interior - a magnificent work by Victor Brecheret with imposing and heroic figures

Mercadao Municipal 

The Municipal Market, known affectionately as the Mercadao or 'Huge Market', opened in 1933. The towering roof is dotted with skylights and glass tiles that provide natural lighting. There are also 55 stain-glass windows imported from Germany. Originally, the market was supplied with fruit and vegetables that arrived by boat from local farms via the Tamanduatel river. Currently it employs about 1,600 people and some 300 stands. These sell 350 tons of produce to about 14,000 customers per day: fruits, vegetables, food and spices from all over the world, the tobacco stands, the huge variety of seafood, meat and fish, tea, drinks, and many more. The Bar do Mane, renowned for its Italian mortadella, prosciutto and roast pork sandwiches. 

friendly worker let me tried this sweet custard apple fruit -释迦果

roast pork and cheese sandwich!

 Today's content is rather random with buildings again, next post I'll write about the people.
(To be continued)

Timeless in Brazil 1

One good thing about being in a foreign country is you'll get to know about different cultures and history from that country. 

Apart from the Rio+20 and World Youth Congress report, I would like to share a bit of my journey in Rio and Sao Paulo. This time, I'll take you to Sao Paulo and have a look for its enriched history, architectures, people, art and culture. 

The  São Paulo City

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and Americas, with more than 10.6 million people residing in the city and it's the world's seventh largest city by population.  São Paulo is also one of the ten largest metropolitan areas on the planet with its strong regional influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment. The metropolis has significant cultural, economic and political influence both nationally and internationally. Today we will go through briefly several magnificent sites that show the depth of this big city. 

Skyscrapers

The first impression about the São Paulo city is its skyscrapers. Since I'm staying in a high-rise condominium, I could view the city with its magnificent view - skyscrapers in East, West, South, North, it's everywhere! No hills or forest as seen in Rio de Janeiro, this city is really, really big! 

Sao Paulo City stretched to the far far end.

Museu do Ipiranga

This huge neo-renaissance-style palace, whose Baroque gardens take after Versailles, opened in 1890 on the site where Dom Pedro I declared Brazil independent of Portugal. The huge, 125,000-piece collection ranges from 16th to the mid-20th century. It includes sculptures, paintings, documents and weapons, and so on. The great hall features the famous painting Independencia on morte, by Pedro Americo. In front of the museum is a beautiful Baroque-style garden, with fountains where people jog, walk their pets, play skate boards and sunbathing in there. Further in front of that garden, is the monument to Independence in the Independence park. Daniel the marvelous traveller said there was once a very, very huge Brazilian flag located in the center of the park, but somebody, with some capability, stolen the flag. We have no idea how could he/she/they do that. 

Museu do Ipiranga, a huge neo-renaissance-style palace.

Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo

MASP, as it's called, contains the most valuable collection of paintings in Latin America. The current building was designed by Lina Bo Bardi and constructed in 1968 with concrete and glass. The box-like structure is supported by four pillars, creating a 74 meters span. The 5500-piece collection includes paintings by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Valezquez, Goya, Rembrandt, as well as collection by Edgar Degas. It is also considered a landmark of the city which is located at the famous Paulista Avenue (like Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur). The art museum, institutes and library in MASP played important roles in shaping and conserving the Brazilian art!

MASP, a box-shaped building

 Estadio do Pacaembu

This stadium is also known as Municipal Stadium of Sao Paulo. They have a football museum in the lower ground floor beneath the stadium where football fans can find historical photographs along with visits to the playing field, sport center, the great hall, the radio and TV broadcasting booths. It's a place for Sao Paulo football club fans to go on weekend on any matches of their favourite clubs. Basically, most of the Brazilian have their own cup of tea, since there are soooo many sport clubs in Brazil. So, Daniel the marvelous traveller said he preferred Corinthians Paulista which based in Sao Paulo, second most famous team in Brazil and have 24-26 million fans. The winning club in national championship could represent in the national team in international sport events like World Cup! 

This is the stadium! Pacaembu!

Edificio Italia

The 42-story Edificio Italia is one of the tallest buildings in Sao Paulo, at 165 meters. It is designed by the famous architect Adolf Franz Heep, and has the highest observation point in the city. Like KL Tower, it has Terraco Italia restaurant on the top two floors where we can view the Edificio Copan and sunset. However, there are charges to enter the restaurant and so we just take some photos from the 33rd floor. 


 Edificio Copan
Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the building opened in 1966, fifteen years after the plan was first drawn. It's the greatest example of modernist architecture in Sao Paulo. Its signature features are the serpentine structure  and the horizontal lines. The Copan is one of the largest reinforced concrete structures in the country.

Teatro Municipal

Opened in 1911, this eclectically-styled 1464-seat theater was designed by Francisco Ramos de Azevedo's after the Paris Opera House. It is the home of several municipal music and dance companies, including two orchestras (a full-scale symphony orchestra and a smaller one dedicated to experimental music), a string quartet, two choral groups, and a ballet company. Note that there are many ancient buildings in Sao Paulo city center, Se, they are all well maintained. This municipal theater is still well function and maintained. Look at the sculptures on paints on this building, they are especially delicate and distinct. 

Youth dress in punk gathered in front of the theater for some activity. 

Today we have seen buildings of neo-renaissence-style, ecletic style and modern style, tomorrow I'll show you other magnificent buildings and places in this city!

To be continued. =)