Introduction to The Kampung Blog

November 13, 2014 Ismail Yahya Uncategorized

Before we even start, you’re most likely wondering about what “kampung” really means, and I don’t blame you. A malay word for village, the word kampung is widely used in the Malay archipelago –containing Malaysia, Singapore, and parts of Indonesia. However, such a world tends to hold different connotation, strictly depending on the changes of the landscape due to urbanization.

Rapid urbanization has influenced the people who have been raised in the cities to undervalue the people that have been raised in small towns, often calling them names such as “country pumpkin”, which is used to describe less cultured and not modern people. However, the rapid growth of the cities have also seen a strong increase in the demands of living in a city – it now requires far more energy and produces more waste, thus it has also become much more unsustainable.

With scientists and grassroot groups recently putting a strong emphasis on sustainable living, the idea of conscientious living has been put forward as key and necessary. On that regard, the kampung way of living is that of creating awareness of natural living. Through our blog, we are hoping to spread our views and ideas on how to live sustainably while also not compromising the modern living. Our idea is that we are more than able to make a “kampung” type of living within the cities as well. Thus, let’s start with the 3 ideas that you can already do today in order to live more sustainably:

• You can mix and create your own absolutely natural products for cleaning your house. Through a very simple and step-by-step recipe, you are one step away from considerably helping save the nature. In order to create an all-purpose cleaner, you will have to simply mix half a cup of vinegar and one quarter a cup of baking soda into 2 liters of water. You now have 2 liters of cleaning material, which you can use for removing water deposit stains on shower panels, bathroom mirrors, chrome fixtures, and windows among others.
• Enough with the artificial air fresheners and other hygienic products and get some plants all over your house already. Plants, especially flowers, do not only
  beautify your home, they are also known to fight air pollution and keep a fresh air throughout the building. In fact, some plants are known to remove up to 90% of chemicals within 24 hours. In other words, plants may help decrease the risk of asthma, cancers, allergies, and other diseases.
• And last but not least, you must carefully follow tips on how to save energy, especially while cooking. To begin with, you must make a habit of matching the pot size to the coil size. You should never be wasting valuable energy in having a small pot on large coils. You also want to use your kitchen appliances, especially oven, effectively.
  Be careful with the types of appliances and way of cooking, as each food
  is cooked differently – the more you adapt, the less energy is going to be wasted.
  Lastly, you want to measure the water before boiling. Heating water takes an extremely lot of energy, and you should be careful in boiling just enough that you need.

Living sustainably and being responsible about the environment is nothing short of impressive for a human. However, you will need to really feel it in order to effectively do it. You don’t just want to try changing your ways for the sake of it, as it will barely work at the end. Try to think of all the environmental goods, or even read a bit about all of that, and you will be surprised at how much of a good feeling you will get when you know you are helping the environment.