Heart Bottles Oceans cannot withstand the irresponsibility of humans, Every action compounds irreparable damage over time. ......
Rumah Botol is a gallery that showcases the bottle collection of Pak Ali. I learnt so much about bottles in my time there. Pak Ali was busy clearing some bottles when I stepped in. He asked me where I was from. Upon learning that I came from Tanjung Malim, he shared that he spent some time there when he did his military training in the Kuala Kubu Bharu barracks nearby. After his military service, Pak Ali worked as a driver at a hotel in Marang. Later on, he decided to retire in his hometown, the most beautiful place in his heart. Today, he feels that his hometown is like a bottle that has been crushed into a thousand pieces due to human pollution. It is absolutely heartbreaking and gut wrenching. ...... Some of the garbage has accumulated into a few “garbage” islands in the Pacific Ocean. These “garbage” islands are constantly expanding, rendering serious damage to marine ecology. It is a sobering reflection of humanity’s selfishness and irresponsibility. Pak Ali: “In the past 10 years, humans have been increasingly damaging the planet. The number of fishes caught and turtles returning to lay eggs along the coast of Terengganu decrease year on year due to marine pollution and climate change challenges. The coral reefs are also dying. If we don’t prescribe the right medicine to solve these problems in time, there will come a day when there will be more garbage in the sea than fish. Humans pay the price sooner than they imagine!” ...... Pak Ali worries that shards from broken light bulbs or bottles may harm those enjoying the beach thus he decided to clean them up to keep his children and tourists safe. As he cleaned, he came across bottles in different and unique shapes, most of which he had never seen before. He felt reluctant to throw them away and this was how his bottle collection started. He walks an average of five kilometres a day along the Penarik beach to pick up trash into his sack. Sometimes he even drives to other nearby beaches in Kelantan and Pahang to do the same. Treating trash as treasure Collecting bottles turned into a daily routine that Pak Ali could not miss. Many people think that he is crazy, but there are some like-minded locals who clean up the beach with him. Upon learning about his hobby, his friends and relatives began gifting him with bottles to add to his collection. Soon heaps and heaps of bottles filled up his store room. With the encouragement and support of his wife and friends, Pak Ali decided to transform the small wooden hut next to his house into a gallery to showcase the “garbage” he had picked up over the years. His collection comprised bottles that used tohold local carbonated drinks, beer, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce and ketchup. He also has exotic bottles from all over the world including China, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and Mexico. ...... Message in a bottle Suddenly, Pak Ali remembered that he had once picked up a bottle with letters! They were a form of ancient communication where a message in a sealed bottle is released into the ocean carried out by the Greek philosopher, Theophrastus. Some believed that a wish written in a bottle would be carried by the waves to the sea gods and that wish would be materialised. Others would write their thoughts in hopes that someone across the ocean may understand their feelings. I thought messages in bottles only ever existed in movies. I did not expect to have the opportunity to see one in Rumah Botol. In the past few decades, a group of people started to throw bottled messages in hopes of finding a pen pal across foreign shores. Sometimes miracles do happen and these friendships blossom into love and finally a lifelong partner. The notion of finding a friend or a lover through a message in a bottle is deemed as romantic or at the very least, a fun activity to some. However, do consider the consequences of your actions on the environment before participating in such activities. ......
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AuthorLam Ching Fu Archives
January 2024
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