Mottainai Grandma Coming to Subang Jaya

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

Mottainai Grandma Coming to Subang Jaya

Panasonic Malaysia brings conservation message to Subang kids
MOTTAINAI! Forty pre-school kids from Subang Jaya will get a taste of what it’s like to Mottainai for a good cause this month.
They are the first batch of young Malaysians to participate in this pilot project– “Mottainai”, a community-driven campaign to raise children's awareness of resource conservation especially in Recycling, Reducing and Reusing.
Panasonic Malaysia will give the kids of Beaconhouse Pre-School a taste of what it’s like to be eco-friendly by introducing Mottainai to them.
What is Mottainai?
The expression "Mottainai!" can be uttered alone as an exclamation when something useful, such as food or time, is wasted. The word closest to Mottainai in English is "What a waste!", "Do not waste!"
The participants will be introduced to the animated character “Mottainai Grandma” from a book of the same title by Japanese author Mariko Shinju. In the drawings, Grandma looks a little stern with her hair up in a bun and cane in hand. And there's no avoiding her eyes.
"Mottainai!" she says to her grandson, who is brushing his teeth. "One cup of water is enough!"
The children will be given ideas on how they can conserve water, electricity and even food. Panasonic Malaysia’s key facilitator Cik Normah will take the lead in getting the kids all jived up in the various activities planned out for them.
Panasonic Malaysia corporate communications & branding general manager Azizah Wahid said the program is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility on education and environment at the grass root level targeting the pre-school children.
“Our approach is on a softer note and emotional. Educating children on the aspect on how to be eco-friendly can be very wide and dry and may not interest them. Through the Mottainai approach and understanding we hope children will learn in a fun way and remember them through activities conducted,” she said.

Mottainai
Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, has promoted the concept of mottainai as a term that is roughly equivalent to the English phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle".
Maathai visited Japan for an event related to the Kyoto Protocol in 2005. At this time, she learned this word through coverage of the event in the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. She was impressed by the depth of similarity between the Japanese meaning of the word and equivalent concepts in English and Swahili concerning people's responsibility to respect the earth through frugality and conservation. Since learning the word, she has promoted its adoption in the international lexicon as a symbol of the traditional worldwide concept of respect for the environment. She has used the word in numerous speeches on a world lecture tour, and while addressing the UN Commission on the Status of Women, she led the audience in a repeated chant of "Mottainai."