Cross-Cultural Conversations

Observations by a Malaysian studying in Australia

Go Ride A Wave

I just came back from an hour of surfing, or more correctly, learning how to surf at Anglesea where we had our Boarders' Camp. Thankfully it was a sunny day, which was unexpected as it's been raining the whole week. The wind, however, was extremely strong, which I think was the reason why I was a total failure at surfing, although it didn't explain why my friends had little difficulty balancing themselves on their surfboards.

What I really liked about the whole learning-how-to-surf experience was that, at the end of it, our surf instructor asked us to clean our sand-filled surfboards. Of course, the manual labour of washing our surfboards is nothing to be excited about, but I like the concept of being responsible for your actions. Too often, we have fun and expect others to clean up the mess we leave behind.

I have always placed a huge emphasis on civic-consciousness, and I really dislike the way some people indiscriminately throw rubbish all over the place. Who do the expect will take that rubbish of theirs and place it in the bin? God? The powerful force of the wind?

They probably expect the garbage collectors and roadside sweepers to pick up the rubbish they throw, after all that's what those people are for aren't they?

posted by: Tembaga2 at 09:36 | link | comments |