I left it too late but after 3 months of hearing "PHhheeeuuuuuuuuuuuuush" as a house mate used the tap on full power to wash anything from a fork to a plate, and he washes a lot of stuff all together...
I walked up to him and looked on, as he noticed me he turned (leaving the tap running on full power) he gawped at me.
I said we can drink that. You are wasting a valuable resource that this country does not have a lot of. I'm not trying to say anything bad (Thai's lose face easily and you must be very polite to them) but please take care with the water.
He has not spoken to me for a week, 3 nights he did not come home and stayed with a friend instead, and we feel he is probably in the motions of moving out.
I wonder if it helped at all. We now have a bad vibe in the house and he will just move his bad habit to a house where they don't complain.
Each morning my not so random act of kindness is to put away all the washing up that people leave draining, empty the bins they leave overflowing, my wife cleans the bathroom and folds up clothes they put out to dry and forget about.
Kindness that goes consistently unnoticed or a voice of reason? Perhaps the kind acts of no reward are best as speaking upsets the nest.
I want to find someone/thing to blame as this is not the first time. Allow me to rant - feel free to close this page and go and read something more rewarding instead.
[Note that these people are "good Buddhists" they have pictures of Buddha, pray at night and are very polite in normal conversation] We have had a burned rice cooker - no one, not even those who last used it knew who did it. Things go missing, no one knew who or where. The shower is the type that sucks on to the tap with a rubber wazzit and it falls off, they leave it and the resulting gush of water and go about their day. Two members of the house enjoy cooking deserts and this involves (with not one ounce of exaggeration) 3 gas hobs, 3 pans and over 3 hours of slow cooking. Admittedly they can be cooking curry and other things along side but the fact remains, long drawn out cooking time.
We pointed out that if you boil just enough water in a kettle, then place it in the pan, with a pan lid, that cooking is both quick and efficient. They cook with no lid and do not use the kettle. We pointed out that boiling a full kettle for a cup of tea is silly for many reasons, your time being one that may relate to the selfish minded, but of course, the kettle is often found half full of tepid water. We have a sign over the rice cooker that says to turn it off when not in use (yes this actually had to be said)...
The list unfortunately does go on and gets no more interesting. The basic premise being absolute wasteful, mindless behavior.
Ok, one more. They shower, extendedly, then blow dry their hair. The girls who have a larger room and its own bathroom used to have the bathroom lights on all the time, simply closing the bathroom door to shut out the light from their bedroom. When my wife saw this happening one day she asked. They replied with a smile that 'yes, what a good idea it was as the light was always on when they needed it'.
This level of, can I say, stupi.. lack of awareness, selfishness, is just so shocking to the greenie in me who would like to see us care for the planet.
I can't take them to the depths of my philosophical reasoning on any one point but even on the simple level of "if we all did that, then what?" I feel would go over their heads.
My wife has overheard conversations in Thai that say how we, especially me, are tight, Australia is a rich country and they all pay their rent so should be free to do as they like. And this would be lovely if water was made from money and gas and electricity broke down after use to form rice and cake - but the harsh reality is that, while we all love the idea of getting on, freely enjoying our life, that man is at war with nature.
Man's prime weapon is selling power to those with no education and importantly no gumption.
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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao
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6 comments:
The eternal question: How can I be at peace with people who just don't get it?
I share your frustration.
All of us -- including green-minded folk like you and me -- get so used to the conveniences this "modern" world has to offer that we tend to sleepwalk through portions of our lives.
Ya know, I try very hard to live an earth-conscious life, but for all my positives, I fall down in a lot of areas.
I write this not to excuse your roommates behaviors and actions -- many of which might drive me berserk -- but just to remind that we each lose hold of the center.
I was on a desert island, one of the Andaman Islands, and all water came from a well.
It was such effort getting water that we all recognized the importance of the resource and used it wisely.
Except one girl, who tired of lifting water for use, decided instead to wash her hair, with shampoo, directly in the well.
I wonder, as well intended as we are, how to get around these cases of selfishness.
None of us are perfect but that imperfection is unfortunately amplified by modern conveniences.
Oh well, there is little that can be done it seems. On the grand scale it doesn't really matter but in the here now it is an issue.
Especially as I don't like upset and feel here that I have been the cause of someones upset - but I felt like it had to be said.
Fay - Has such a beautiful point! I mean how can we not be bothered by other peoples problems? Those kinds of things you described in your post, goes on every min around me. I am not going to let it continue, I will be taking myself out of that kind of situation.
Roommates. I'm glad I dont have them anymore. The problem with co-existence is that you have to compromise alot. You do learn a fair amount about yourself and what pushes your buttons, but I'm glad I dont have to learn those lessons anymore.
I can sit in silence as they waste and waste (I did for 3 months) or I can stand up and make a simple point about water use. To be honest the silence was easier, gallons of water went to waste but it was easier.
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