ASEAN Scouts Pledge to Care for the Environment

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The song Heal the World by Michael Jackson could be heard wafting from the green tent. Around 30 scouts from nine countries participating in the ASEAN Jamboree were singing to the lyrics projected on the overhead projector screen. Earlier, they watched a movie on global warming and how to make biopores and recycled paper, and herbal energy drinks.


Later, they pledged to care for the environment and use the energy at their homes more frugally. "I will turn off the television when I'm through watching," promised Guo Jing Yang, a scout from Singapore.

Windi Utami, a girl scout from Medan, North Sumatra, said she separate her home garbage from inorganic and organic to be made as fertilizers. Her pledge, written on a piece of paper, was glued on a tree branch.

Guo Jing and Windi were attending the Global Warming Workshop, held by the National Scout Movement yesterday. The workshop was one of 50 events in the ASEAN Scout Jamboree taking place from October 19 to 26 October, in the Cibubur Camping Site, on East Jakarta. As many as 3.000 scouts aged 13 -16 years old participated in the event, which was officially opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"There are nine key activities in the jamboree," said Susi Yuliati, chief of activities. Among them are scouting skills, trekking, art performances, culture classes, traditional sports, religion, and global issues such as the environment, environmental health and environment-friendly technology. A number of government and non-governmental departments took part in the global issue activities. The Agency for the Assessment & Application of Technology (BPPT) for instance, exhibited a power plant using natural resources like the wind, the sun, vegetables, biogas and a car radar to monitor the rain.

UNTUNG WIDYANTO