One Person
Friday 12 August 2011
Can one person bring lasting change to many people? To change even one person in a positive way is a wonderful occurrence. To assist many is remarkable and may like any positive move, bring good to thousands for long periods of time.
In the 3 July Weekend magazine the current driving desire of Gina Prendergast is described in an article ‘My Year Without Plastic’ written by M Moscaritalo.
Try to go a day – scratch that, an hour – without touching plastic. Go on, bet you can’t do it. You won’t be able to lean on your laminated benchtop, brush your teeth, pick up your shampoo bottle, button your shirt, put clothes in the dryer, switch on the kettle, touch your computer keyboard or use the TV remote.
To go a normal day without touching this man-made marvel, you would pretty much have to live in the early 1900s before World War II’s voracious appetite for scarce resources opened the floodgates on plastic products. (A few, such as PVC and polystyrene, were actually “discovered” in the 1800s, but the materials weren’t viewed as having any purpose for decades).
In Melbourne, Gina Prendergast has gone one very big step further. She has set herself the daunting task of living one year without buying anything using ‘virgin’ plastic. Under her self-imposed rules, recycled plastic is OK at a pinch and, if she has to buy something new, she has to keep the container for a year so that it doesn’t become part of the waste stream. (She plans to make a sculpture with it when the year is up and maybe auction it for charity).
“Where I drew the line was (that) I don’t create individual demand and my dollar isn’t going towards supporting virgin plastic being created,” Prendergast says.
The trigger for Prendergast’s decision was watching documentaries about the destruction plastic was wreaking on ocean life and society’s poor. “I haven’t realised that by purchasing plastic I was also participating in something that was destroying people’s lives.”
Prendergast, who lives in Tarneit in Melbourne’s outer west, started her year without much planning but says she hasn’t had to make significant life changes – though she does have to be more organised, less impulsive and less wasteful. Hosting dinner parties takes more work because she can’t buy commercial dips, cheese and crackers as appetisers.
“For me, any plastic bag that I come across that’s second-hand and someone else doesn’t want, the value of that has gone up.That plastic bag is not waste to me and more, it can provide a huge convenience for me and I look after it.”
When the year is up, Prendergast reckons she’ll maintain most of her newfound habits but will accept 5 per cent sneaking back into her life – such as food in cans (with their plastic lining) and vitamins.
This could easily be regarded as a rather futile effort except for its obvious sincerity and the common sense that is shown by working within certain parameters that can bring some success.
Gabi Hollows, wife of the legendary Fred Hollows has made the following comments about her life as an orthoptist and founding director of the Fred Hollows Foundation.
My dad had a very strong Catholic ethos and our family had a great sense of social justice. My mother came from a very big, open, warm family and always had a place at the table for mystery guests. I had very early exposure to the concept of giving back.
Fred gave me my first optics lecture in the early 1970s, and the rest is history. We had 18 years and five kids together. Fred was “all-consuming”; a very gentle but demanding person who expected the best from everyone.
I was so privileged to gain a true understanding of our Indigenous people and culture with Fred during the trachoma program in the 1970s. We travelled to 465 communities and looked into literally thousands of eyes.
Millions of people are blind because they don’t have access to a 15 minute cataract operation that can cost as little as $25. The Fred Hollows Foundation is part of a global fight to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020.
No matter how many times I witness the miracle of someone having their sight restored, I’m still overwhelmed with emotion. When the eye patch comes off just 24 hours after surgery and you see that smile light up the room, you are witnessing life being transformed.
I’m the cluckiest person that ever was. I love little babies and I love little kids and I love big kids and I love teenagers. Being a mother is just in my guts.
You have a huge ache in your heart when you lose someone you love, and it never goes away. Whenever the anniversary of Fred’s death comes around, I think of how much we’ve achieved since we lost him, but most of all I’m sad because Fred hasn’t been around to see his kids grow into such beautiful, loving and giving adults.
Fred said humankind’s greatest attribute was our ability to help each other and I’m reminded every day he was right. I can’t thank people enough for their donations.
The work of Fred Hollows is now worldwide and has continued beyond his death. His inspiration and absolute single minded desire to give sight has been communicated to us all.
Sylvia Walton AO
Principal