Beginning task 2

I begin researching on the issues relating to Christmas. I found that, as with many other traditional festivals and celebrations around the world such as the Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Aidil Fitri ( festival after Ramadan ) and others, we see a huge rise in waste over these periods of time. The Guardian called it “the most wasteful time of the year” in one of their articles on the topic of waste, e-waste, over-consumption and recycling written in 2013. Most consumer electronics such as toasters, phones, televisions have a “built-in obsolescence” which is the reason why such products last only a couple of years. Of broken, out-dated, ugly and unwanted items, the UK produces around 915,000 tones of e-waste each year.

According to London’s waste clearance company Enviro Waste, 20,000 tonnes of turkey, 4,200 tonnes of aluminium foil, 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper, 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, 6 million trees, and 1 billion Christmas cards gets thrown away over Christmas. These numbers are extremely huge and makes for a totally unsustainable festivity. “Having a Merry Christmas could end in a rubbish New Year”, warns the Independent in one of their articles entitled “High environmental price of a very merry Christmas”.

But Christmas isn’t the only festive culprit behind our over consumption and destruction of planet Earth, many other major festivals and celebrations around the world are to blame as well. Realistically, it is very difficult to tell people to buy less food, many are just trying to be good hosts, the tradition of giving presents is so vital in the modern Christmas it would be impossible to ask people to stop. ‘Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop shopping’ in the documentary film “What would Jesus buy?” tries to do exactly that. This movie recommended by Marianne during our briefing of Task two was very entertaining, funny, and to me, a foreigner who has never really celebrated Christmas, eye opening. The movie shines light on the issues of the over-commercialization of Christmas, excessive consumerism and materialism. It isn’t surprising then, that the statistic that struck me the most is that according to Triodos Bank, people in the UK spend 2.6 billion pounds worth of unwanted gifts for Christmas. 32% of the people receive at least one unwanted present every year with an average value of 155 pounds. A very high personal and environmental price to pay for nothing gained.

To try communicate this issue, I began by wandering into malls, toy stores and retail outlets with the aim of photographing the worrying activity of intense Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, this task turned out to be extremely difficult. I was kicked out by security of almost every shop or mall I went into. Leeds Trinity, Smyths, The Entertainer and a few others. The reasons were consistent throughout. Photographing children was the security threat I was causing. Even their parents consent, which I verbally asked for and received, was not enough, I still was not allowed to. I was asked each time to delete the photos I took, but because I shot I film, I got away with the photos which I will attach below. I knew that there was some sort of sensitivity around photographing children, but it was only through this experience that I realize truly how sensitive of an issue it is here. The case is different in Malaysia.