I am an ordinary woman.I am a mother and a housewife.

I have tried to lead an ordinary life.

After university graduation in Anthropology, I have served as a community environmental volunteer for over 20 years in Hong Kong and China.

I’d like to highlight challenging moments from my long green march.

I have ups and downs moments. Working against the tide of materialism and economic optimization that permeate government policies and decision making, it was a marathon uphill battle.   Advocacy fatigue, lobbying fatigue, consultation fatigue and defeat fatigue.... there were low moments in a lonely journey.

Changing mentality and life values is an uphill battle.It demands patience and total commitment.Ignorance, apathy, selfishness and greed are the enemies of the environment.I need to continue pressing the alarm bell to wake people up to the ecological crisis that is happening around the world.

I need to demonstrate that it is sensible and fun to go green.I need to set the example of being a good citizen who is helpful, thoughtful and grateful.That other people's well being is as important as our own.I need to be an ethical and responsible consumer to manage our need and freeze our greed.  

My Green Long March has taken me from meeting rooms to pollution hotspots, from protest podiums to legislative chambers, from recycling sweatshops to landfills, from congested streets to country parks, from consumer wasteland to green homes, from kindergartens to university lecture halls, from freezing air-conditioned offices to wind farms in Southern China, from urbanized Hong Kong to over 16 provinces and villages in developing China.

Giving up?No. When I recall the face of the dying child from pollution-linked cancer, the specimen of extinct species and the sorrows of fellow environmental campaigners in China who defended China's fragile and threatened environment, I rose again and marched forward.

Light a candle rather than curse darkness.

I have no regrets.  I have re-written my life story.  In so doing, I hope I could re-write the sad ending of pollution victims' unfortunate lifestories.

If only I could save ONE more breath of clean air, ONE more drop of clean water, ONE more tree, ONE more life, it is worth it.

I’d also like to share insights on green enlightenment.

I am still learning to master the art of ordinariness, i.e. being an ordinary person to pursue ordinary goals to help ordinary folks to lead ordinary lives.

My Encounter with Ordinariness

Case Study #1

Women Power into Green Power

Women…pigs… wastes…toilets…firewood…logging… pollution… hygiene…livelihood…village reform.

Shaanxi Green Mothers Volunteers empowers village folks to turn pig wastes into biogas, liberate village women from firewood gathering, preventing logging, soil erosion and deforestation, reducing animal waste pollution, improving quality of life by retrofitting pig sties, toilets and kitchen stoves and to herald a new village reform and China’s green revolution.

As a project partner with the Shaanxi Mothers, I am inspired by their ordinariness of purpose and their down-to-earth engagement with ordinary folks. The Sunflower Project aims to empower village women to self-help and self-sustain.Above all, it brings back self-esteem and village pride.www.cuncaoxin.org

Case Study #2

Cry My BelovedRiver

Dongjiang river source…villages…farmers…children…drinking water…trees…livelihood…sacrifice…uncertain future.

On my recent pilgrimage to track the source of the DongjiangRiver, I visited the DongjiangRiverSourceVillage, in JiangxiProvince.Dongjiang supplies Hong Kong’s drinking water.It’s our MotherRiver.In order to safeguard clean water supplies to downstream cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, a policy ban on polluting development was imposed.In another words, the Dongjiang source villagers sacrifice their livelihood.I visited village homes and the 2-classroom village school.These ordinary folks demonstrated a true sense of magnanimity.They did not indulge in self-pity and helplessness.Life simply goes on.

Partnership with ordinary folks to promote water security and village sustainability at the Dongjiang Source Region, I am inspired by their attitude of “not-taking-life-for granted”.They have to live with what they got.They refuse to indulge in the sense of entitlement.All they are asking is the right to live and let live.

In search of normalcy in an era of uncertainty, ordinariness makes sense.

* In the Age of Entitlement----ordinariness gives us a sense of contentment.Goodbye to IOU and UOI.We are responsible for our own ordinary lives.

* In the Age of Uncertainty---ordinariness provides a sense of security.We can let go and let live.

* In the Age of Superficiality----ordinariness incubates honesty and genuine bonding.

* In the Age of Apathy----ordinariness inspires common purpose and common interest.

* In the Age of Conflict----ordinariness narrows differences and highlights commonality.

* In the Age of Discontent----ordinariness promotes balance and harmony.

* In the Age of an Upside-down World---ordinariness brings back sanity and humanity.

* In the Age of Super Size Me---ordinariness brings us down to earth.

Ordinariness breeds normalcy in a maddening world.

Women of Ordinariness are Women of Courage.

Blessed are those who live simply, so that others could simply live.

Welcome on board the green awakening.

www.cuncaoxin.org

meing@foe.org.hk

Speech delivered at the International Women Day 2008