Clutter or Memento It’s a daily struggle.

Friday, August 31, 2oi8

My 500 Words Short Story (653)

Clutter or Memento It’s a daily struggle.

Whenever I do research and find an old antique or memento, it becomes a time-capsule item that takes me back to my old days. Some people think I love to stay in the old days and live in the past. In fact, when I pick up something from my time-capsules (boxes) I remember distinctively what I was like back then compared to what I am today. It is a confluence of memories against the present reality that creates energy I draw on to propel me forward to Make Money & Love Safety.

The word "Research" here is simply searching for something a few times. An example is when you search for something and you can't find it, then you backtrack to search it again. Therefore you are doing research for that item. Hence, the word research came about.

Although @62, I am on a subtraction journey but still a hoarder of mementos in me. I am in the Crossroads of Clutters and Mementos.

Most of us wouldn’t consider ourselves hoarders. Perhaps to be more honest with ourselves, we would actually find that a lot of the things at home never been use anymore but can’t bear to throw them away. Technically speaking that is hoarding!

Most of us tend to have an annual spring cleaning in December or before the Chinese New Year. It is generally to throw out the old so that we can buy new things for the New Year.

If we consider ourselves to be reasonable tidy people, then why is it still a struggle to totally declutter or become a minimalist? What about those items that we never seem to be able to throw out? There are some genuine proofs that it is really difficult to throw away or let go even when I downsized from a 5 room to a 3 room apartment.

There are a few things that might be hardest for me to let go like Books, Clothes, Music, Keepsakes & Childhood mementos, you can add on to this list

Books that hold sentimental value which I enjoy re-reading them and still keep with me. As for the rest of about 80%, I left them with a friend in his Johor’s house.

Clothes that I still keep are the Hard Rock Café T-shirt which I collected during my travelling trips. I visited around 33 Hard Rock Café around the world.

During my time, we used to play music with vinyl (Phonograph) record. Sadly to admit, I have thrown them away when we have to shift from kampong living to HDB apartment. Then the disk size dimension is around 12in (30 cm). Technology has shrunk it into CDs and today’s digitization and online streaming has done away with the need to keep physical copies of our music. Although I lost all my vinyl records, this time around I am keeping all my CDs to remind me of the time I first heard my favourite bands and artists on them.

As for keepsakes, I hardly have any trophies or artworks to keep. Only have a few artworks of our children done for us. Most keepsake items are my old notebooks and journals from my work. These are items that brought back memories on different stages of my working history.

Childhood mementos – I still keep a few boxes of small toys we bought for our 3 children. Though our children have outgrown these small toys, it somehow helps me to reminiscent on a simpler time and feel like these things would be painful to be thrown away.

Workshop materials are my biggest pile of junks consisting of materials for my workshop activities. Thank Buddha, managed to keep 80% of them in my friend’s factory. My decision is to give them away by end of 2018. 

I am in the Crossroads of Clutters and Mementos. It has been a daily struggle! Are you?

Zero plastic bag usage is an impossible mission, but half the usage is possible.

Zero plastic bag usage is an impossible mission, but half the usage is possible.

In the supermarkets, fruits and vegetables are prepacked with plastic bags.

In the wet markets, fruits and vegetables are openly displayed - Zero Plastic bags are used


Finally, my article is published in ST Forum (Bottom Right Hand - Learn from wet markets in cutting plastic use)

ST Forum 
Email to me 
Dear Mr Foo

Thank you for your letter. We have published it in today's Forum Page.  You can also read your letter on the Straits Times website at https://www.straitstimes.com/forum

We look forward to receiving more of your contributions.


Best wishes,


ST Edited Version
Learn from wet markets in cutting plastic use

When I visited the wet market recently, I found that fruits and vegetables were displayed openly without being prepacked in plastic bags.

In supermarkets, fruits and vegetables are all prepacked.

Customers are encouraged to use our own bags for grocery purchases.

But the purpose of doing so is defeated when plastic bags are used in prepacking.

Our supermarkets could go back to basics and adopt wet market concepts to reduce the use of plastic.

Sales personnel could assist customers with the produce.

We need to study the complete supply chain process, starting from the farm to the warehouse to the supermarket, and innovate.

Zero plastic bag use is an impossible mission, but cutting the usage significantly is possible.

It must start with the corporation, not the end users.

Foo Siang Yian
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 03, 2018, with the headline 'Learn from wet markets in cutting plastic use'. Print Edition | Subscribe



FSY Original Article
Title:

Zero plastic bag usage is an impossible mission, but half the usage is possible.

  

Plastic bags are everywhere in our supermarkets but not in our wet markets.

I did a small “Research” this morning by going to the wet market and supermarket (refer to my pictures, Tuesday, July 31, 2018)

The wet market has an open concept where fruits & vegetables are displayed openly without being prepacked with plastic bags. Unfortunately, the supermarkets are doing it differently. Almost every fruits and vegetables are prepacked with plastic bags.

We are encouraged to bring our own bag for our grocery purchases but doesn't it seems contradicting by prepacking produces with plastics bags?

We cannot eliminate usages of plastic entirely because it has been in our DNA.  However, if we can half the usages by going back to the basic in adopting the wet market concepts in our supermarket then it might works!

Lately, many renovations are done to our supermarket by transforming checkout counters to self-checkout points. This directly cut operating costs for them and indirectly transfer the “process cost” to the customers.

To be a smart nation moving to a cashless society is great but not smart enough to save the environment is a worthless effort to the society at large.

Why not spend some resources into applying the wet market concept in a modern supermarket that prepacking with more plastic bags are eliminated?

Another Skill Future initiative by upgrading redundant cashiers to new jobs to be sales personnel assisting customers with the produce.

To really half the usage of plastic bags, we need to study and innovate the complete supply chain process from the farm to the warehouse before reaching the supermarket.

Zero plastic bag usage is an impossible mission but by taking the first step to half the usage is possible. It must starts within the corporation, not the end users.

Another cost savings for the Supermarket is to stop printing the big corporate logo on the plastic bag. It is wastage of ink on the plastic bag where hardly anyone bother to read it. Saving ink is also directly saving the environment!

Foo Siang Yian 

With gratitude

Thank you / Terima Kasih / 谢谢 / நன்றி 

Daniel Foo

符昌轩

TEAM RETREAT TITLE: “MANAGEMENT APPRECIATION & TEAM BONDING”

TEAM RETREAT TITLE: 

“MANAGEMENT APPRECIATION & TEAM BONDING”

Wednesday, August 1

One of the biggest mistakes leaders made is getting so wrapped up in achieving results and they forget to ensure that people are having fun along the way.

Indeed, having fun is a key ingredient of keeping employees’ morale up and inspiring them to continue working aggressively toward a common set of objectives.

You can choose your friends but you cannot choose your colleagues. Yet, you need them in more ways than one. Firstly, you need their goodwill and cooperation in order to perform your own job well. Secondly, studies show that disagreements with colleagues and bad working relationships deflate morale and impair performances even more than rumours of redundancies. Thirdly, if you are like most people, you will spend more working hours at work more than anywhere else. Reaching out to your colleagues or extending an olive branch if need be, can make your working environment a much nicer place to spend many hours a day. You do not have to be best friends with your colleagues, but you do need to be friendly and working amicably together. This half day’s Team Retreat will refresh new ways to make work a happier place to be.

This workshop answers the question “Why does this Fun approach work?” Also it teaches participants on how to improve their relationships by building trust through the FUN way and redirecting energy when things get off track. The approach illustrates to co-workers, managers, and employees that by building a FUN working environment and positive relationships, they will become more productive in achieving greater results, and create an environment where everyone is genuinely excited about the work they are doing.

During the workshop, participants will complete a variety of individual and group activities that explore the following topics:

This is an activity-based Team Retreat and the key take away will be the ”LOVE” Framework
• Listen
• Observe
• Verbalize &
• Engage
The team will be working on an activity which will demonstrate how the team applies this framework to achieve the common goal.

The payoff here is that progress doing something better is constantly being noticed, acknowledged and rewarded. We need to do the same thing with people, catch them doing things better if not exactly right, and praise progress. That way, you set them up for success and build from there.

Creating a fun working environment where people are challenged. They will learn new skills, they grow, they seek opportunity and advancement, they take risks, they asked forgiveness and not always permission.

The only way to benefit from what we learned is by applying them. If we do not apply it then it will be like the person who goes to piano concerts hoping to learn playing the piano. That person could go to any concert every day for many years, and he will never learns to play the piano. He will only learn when he applies by practicing the techniques of playing the piano. Only the knowledge of the musical sounds and notes do not make a pianist. Similarly, just knowing about the benefits and the many ideas of fun at work will not create the benefits of actually having fun at work. We need to apply and practice what we learned in order to make it real in our lives. So, please apply as many ideas as you can so that you will feel naturally comfortable doing it.