Spreading the green word
July 26 - August 1, 2010
“I DID it because I was paid for it. When I found out that my efforts were used to indirectly encourage destruction of the environment, I felt quite bad,” says graphic designer and photographer Soe Win Nyein, recalling one of his advertisement designs created in 2005 for a machine import company.
The advertising campaign was hugely successful and the company contacted him again the following year to create a new design. “I turned them down,” he says.
“Since then, I’ve paid attention to environmental issues and in 2006 attended some environmental trainings. I’ve participated in activities seeking to inspire people to change their habits for a greener world,” he adds.
Part of this is through his involvement in the environmental group Green Heart, which was set up in 2009 by artists, cartoonists, designers, poets and photographers with one thing in common: a desire to promote environmental awareness. Among its activities, the group has held exhibitions in Yangon and Mandalay, plants trees and raises funds by selling eco-friendly products such as cotton bags.
The designer says that environmental awareness among those in the creative fields really kicked-off following the publication of books such as Kyunma Chit Thaw Myo (The Town I Love) and Kyunma Chit Thaw Kabar (The World I Love) by Ju.
As a prominent example, he points to the film Thu (He), about a young man’s obsession with preserving the environment and helping people. As a result some artists made performances under trees and others created art works relying on natural materials. Some also held exhibitions to promote green habits.
“Creatives have an innate love of nature,” argues Soe Win Nyein, “They send the message to love nature through their works. In my opinion they put more effort in their work when they find that the nature they love is deteriorating quickly. In educating people about the environment, their efforts are more effective than ordinary people’s,” he says.
Cartoonist Aw Pi Kyeh, whose own work is often inspired by the environment, believes that environmental activities by creative types have increased in the past three years.
“The number grew after Nargis especially,” he says. “We love truth and nature; maintaining the environment is also a means of keeping true natural beauty. We don’t want this natural beauty to disappear,” says the cartoonist.
As there aren’t many environmental organisations, he said they are doing what they can do. “In nature conservation, organisations can work systematically and spend money from their funds. For us, we can only inspire people with our works to feel that they should love the environment and participate in the activities.”
Efforts to promote greater environmental awareness are not just limited to Yangon. In Mandalay a group of artists, writers, musicians and other creatives started a program on June 5 called “Sein Yaung So Hlote Shar Hmu” (Green Activities) to reverse the decline in the city’s number of trees.
“When we were young, there were many large, shady trees at Zay Cho market that provided shade for the whole market,” says writer Nyi Pu Lay, a member of the group. “There were some vendors like cobblers under the trees... When the trees were cut down to upgrade the market, the vendors lost their spots and the whole market started to suffer from the heat because of the lack of shade,” says the writer.
He believes that the loss of trees is affecting the microclimate of the whole city. “Mandalay used to be misty most of the time in winter; people had to wrap up warmly and use fires for heat. It was certainly hot in summer but this summer hundreds of people died because of the heat and even the mortuaries were full. Such a kind of tragedy has never happened before,” he says.
“It’s a concrete forest; as the city becomes more developed, the citizens have to suffer the heat produced by cars, buildings and generators. Here, the electricity is not regular and many people use generators, which helps to raise the temperature,” he adds.
The group recognises that it will take a long time to improve the urban environment, with the biggest challenge being to change people’s attitudes.
“All citizens should participate in environmental conservation, not only experts and creatives. The time for action is now.”
