EVERY INDIVIDUAL MAKES AN IMPACT - HANGING ON TO OUR SOCIAL CONSCIENCES AND 'HANGING OUT' WITH JANE GOODALL with Guest E-LENE KEE IN MALAYSIA
Smitten By Faith Issue # 00029 19th February 2022
I have been fortunate to have many God-Children all over the world and their sparkling personalities bring me great joy and inspiration. E-LENE KEE is my ‘God-Child’ from Malaysia – delightful, accomplished and a polymath. As many of you may know, being a God-parent in the Asian sense is a loose terminology – quite different from the western (Christian) concept which begins at a child’s Baptism when the parents of the child choose the right God-parent to guide the child morally as he or she grows up. In Asia it’s a loose relationship where God-Parents and God-Children actually choose each other ! This special connection is one of mutual respect and love. Both E-Lene and I ‘chose’ each other when as a fresh law graduate from Nottingham University, UK she was about to start her legal career in Kuala Lumpur. Today, more than 35 years later the bond between E-Lene and me is as precious as ever and over the years, I have celebrated with such joy, the interesting trajectory of her unusual life. As a teenager, this very smart and energetic kid swam for the Malaysian national team and when E-Lene went to boarding school at Marlborough College in the UK, she became Head of House. So impactful was E-Lene that a business studies prize ( the ‘Kee Business Studies Prize’ ) in her name is still awarded each year at her former school. E-Lene whose talents, interests and passions are diverse indeed has now blossomed into a beautiful woman, lawyer, educator, entrepreneur (with a social conscience) and a proud mother of two amazing teenage boys.
Left : E-Lene and me in Lisbon
Right : E-Lene and me in Kuala Lumpur at the amazing photographic exhibition on monkeys
Left : E-Lene with Jane
Middle : E-Lene with her mother, Datin Seri Kee Ming Yuet and her sister, Shih-Lene Kee
Right : Jane is with E-Lene and her father, Dato’ Seri Kee Yong Wee
After some years spent as a corporate lawyer in Kuala Lumpur E-Lene moved on to multi-task some portfolios and interests including education, serving a senior management position at PRIME College, a tertiary education college; working on a retail mall development called CITTA Mall near Kuala Lumpur and as an Independent member of the Board of Directors of Kian Joo Group Bhd, one of South East Asia’s largest packaging manufacturers. Most notably since 2017 E-Lene has been an Advisor to ‘Roots & Shoots Malaysia’, the NGO founded by the iconic Dame Dr. Jane Goodall. E-Lene says that in 2020 during the Pandemic when together with her sister Shih-Lene Kee she co-founded her social enterprise ‘Abundant Ventures Sdn Bhd’, this was entirely due to the immeasurable inspiration from the dynamic and indefatigable Jane Goodall who opened eyes and hearts to the importance of never losing track of the needs of others; hanging on to our social consciences to benefit one another.
Let’s now join E-LENE KEE as she “hangs out” with Jane.
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HANGING OUT WITH JANE GOODALL
By E-Lene Kee Kuala Lumpur 19th February 2022
I must confess that I had a vague recollection of the name ‘Jane Goodall’ when my good friend and neighbour TP Lim, the founding President of Jane Goodall’s youth-led action movement ‘Roots & Shoots Malaysia’ brought up her name. I knew she was famous and well-known for her work with chimpanzees and that was all. But I soon discovered that the little I knew was just the tip of the iceberg.
Left : Jane with TP Lim at the USM event
Middle : Jane with E-Lene and her best friend, Nori Abdullah
Right : TP Lim and Peter Ong at the Project Monyet Exhibition opened by Jane
Jane and I first met up close and personal in 2016 at the home of my friend and neighbour, TP Lim. By 2017, needing no further convincing I joined Roots & Shoots Malaysia as an advisor. This article is about how I was able to “hang out” with Jane for 5 blissfully hectic wonderful days when Jane Goodall visited Malaysia in November 2019 for the ‘Reasons For Hope’ Tour. When I look back at that amazing time together I feel ever so grateful to TP Lim for persuading me to work with him at Roots & Shoots. 4 months after Jane left, Malaysia entered its first lockdown in March 2020.
Jane had a punishing schedule for her 5 days Malaysia Tour. It was so packed that in all, the 85-year old Jane Goodall had only one afternoon off. First on her itinerary was as a key note speaker at the Employees Provident Fund ( the 7th largest global fund ) event which was attended by our then Prime Minister.
Above : Jane at the EPF Event in Kuala Lumpur
And the message the tireless Jane shared at that event - the same wherever she goes – but bears repeating was :
“I started the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots s program in 1991. And it now involves young people from preschool, mostly kindergarten through university. It’s in 67 countries and it’s grown during the pandemic. The main message is that every individual makes an impact every day. And the main message of Roots & Shoots is you choose projects to make the world better for people, for animals, for the environment, because we’re all interrelated, and then roll up your sleeves and get out and take action. So it’s the taking action. It’s leading by example. It’s showing that you can play a letter in a huge area. It’s showing that you can save a mangroves forest. It’s showing that if you all write letters together to legislators, you can change the legislation. So it’s not just protesting. It’s not just saying you owe us a different future. It’s actually doing the action and showing your capability in making change.”
Jane Goodall on Covid, Climate Change and Animal Resilience – Bloomberg 2021
Whilst this appears to be a simple enough message and perhaps nothing new to many, Jane Goodall’s magic is her ability to engage with the audiences - from Prime Ministers to conservationists to students as well as ground staff. She spoke from her heart. She has a way of reaching deep into your heart to “shake you up” but ever so gently to ask this one question “ what is the difference you have chosen to make”?
After 48 punishing hours in Kuala Lumpur, followed by a night at the magnificent, Belum Forest in Perak, we arrived in the island of Penang and our next stop - the world renowned sanctuary, ‘The Habitat’ in Penang Hill. Jane’s magic was most evident when we all squeezed into what I think must be one of the most beautiful and unusual outdoor auditoriums set in the midst of a majestic rainforest reaching upwards to the sky. The Founders, Dato’ Harry Cockrell, Datin Rosna Cockrell and their son, Reza Cockrell had created this unusual and amazing outdoor space in the midst of the rain forest in the highest spot of Penang island and that day, they named it ‘The jane Goodall Amphitheatre’ in her honour. Unlike the crowd of movers and shakers Jane had addressed earlier in Kuala Lumpur, this time the founders of The Habitat had insightfully requested that Jane address just their small group of members of staff – researchers, botanists, gardeners and others who helped operate The Habitat . This was to inspire and at the same time thank their staff for their enormous work in creating what CNN described as “a world-class rainforest discovery centre that offers guided walks and zipline tours” and voted by CNN as one of the top destinations to visit in 2022. Jane was then treated to a quiet peaceful tour of the trees and flowers of the Habitat led by the General Manager of The Habitat, Allen Tan who needed no encouragement to show off, to this legendary lady, the lush rain forest of his beloved Penang. The tour ended with a delicious meal at the home of the Founders.
©The Habitat, Penang Hill, Penang
Left : Jane with the Founders of The Habitat - Dato’ Harry Cockrell, Datin Rosna Cockrell and Reza Cockrell
Middle : Jane at the Habitat with their staff
Right : A quite tour of the mountain top rain forest, the Habitat with Reza Cockrell and Allen Tan
©The Habitat, Penang Hill, Penang
Left : In the midst of the Habitat’s rain forest, here is Jane taking a whiff of the wild flowers
Right : High up overlooking the Jane Goodall Amphitheatre - Jane with Reza Cockrell
Finally, after a morning event at The Habitat, Jane had one clear afternoon. We had a team of 4 of us following Jane whom we had nicknamed, “MOTHERSHIP”. The team decided to proceed with some much-needed R&R but I decided to stay behind with the Mothership. I had thought that surely Jane would take a much-deserved rest. Instead, she sat down at the far corner of the living room where we were staying in Penang Hill and began writing personal thank you notes. Everyone - from the maid that made her tomato soups, to her supporter who provided a bottle of whiskey, to the organisers of the Universiti Sains Malaysia ‘USM’ ( the Science University ), the Chief of the Employees Provident Fund – all received personalised thank you notes and autographed photos of our beautiful primates, professionally shot by Peter Ong, founder board member of Roots & Shoots Malaysia. There were easily 50 such hand-written and customized thank you notes. After that, Jane finally retired for a short nap before getting ready to go that very evening to USM where she held a 2000 strong audience under her spell.
© Universiti Sains Malaysia
Above : Jane at the Universiti Sains Malaysia ( USM ) Event in Penang
Watching Jane work so hard in front of audiences and behind the scenes clearly demonstrated how powerfully passionate she is about the causes, advocating for nature and for greater social consciences. No voice was more ardent than hers when Covid 19 hit the world and Jane sternly exclaimed “we have only ourselves to blame”. Instead of her pre-Covid days of travelling every 3 days on an aeroplane to spread her message, Jane was soon behind the camera reaching out to an even bigger audience and was busier than ever during the Pandemic ! This made me think about her relentless passion. How does she keep going? This year she is 88 and instead of slowing down, she is speeding up. In fact, when we were in Penang enjoying a quiet evening overlooking Penang bridge from our Penang Hill villa, sitting outdoors on the terrace floor enjoying some durians…. YES - Jane absolutely loves durians - the 4 of us were emboldened to gently chide Jane who was then 85 for not slowing down. We suggested that perhaps she would be wiser to look after her health, take on less engagements so she could rest her body ; so she could last longer. Being Asian, we thought our message of care and concern would resonate well. Instead, Jane gave us a “telling off” when she said, “ No..No..NO! I am in my 85th year, I don’t know how long I have. I am getting closer to the end. Therefore I have to speed up. I have to move even faster! I have to do more; a lot more- a lot faster! I need to get out there and give people HOPE. Would you bother to do anything if you didn’t have hope that you would make a difference?”
And Jane was deadly serious when she spoke these words. She did not pause; she was fast and furious with her words tumbling out. And her usually soft looking eyes had turned steely. Okay. We got the message loud and clear! In fact in a recent interview she gave, she had said almost the same things except now, she is in her 88th year!
As a practising Buddhist and having read about the various Buddhist concepts, I could see that Jane has a great deal of loving-kindness.
“The mental quality that is most attributed to loving-kindness (metta) is patient endurance (khanti). When there is no patient endurance, there is no kindness because kindness comes from a patient mind.”
Mothers have a great deal of loving kindness towards their children. A mother can put up with the great deal of difficulties that occur with raising a child. As they say, mothers love their children so much - they are willing to die for their children.
“They (mothers) have hearts full of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity”. Nothing will stop a mother from doing her very best for her child.”
(Above quotations from the book “OVADA -The Exhortations of Luang Pu Opart”)
In this way Jane is the same. Her passion for animals, humans and the environment is unmatched. She has spent most of her life advocating for them. None more so; none more urgently than this very time. Jane has spent time speaking to the G7, the EU and government leaders.
“Governments are beginning to put climate change and biodiversity loss as a central pillar of their programs for the future. I’ve talked with the G-7 group and the EU, and the same thing is happening under the Biden administration. These governments are beginning to realize that we have to change the mind-set. We’ve got to stop thinking that business as usual can carry on, because it can’t. Business as usual says there can be unlimited economic development. But the planet has finite natural resources. In some places, they’re being used up faster than nature can repair them.
So we have a new mind-set. We have to stop thinking in terms of gaining power and wealth. We’ve got to start asking ourselves: What should we aim for in life? What is a good life? Is it getting richer and getting more money? Unfortunately for many people, it’s a struggle to survive. But this new mind-set says what we should aim for is to have a life where we have enough, where we can feed our families, where we can enjoy our families, where we can enjoy the natural world, where we can help to conserve the natural world, because it is shown that even a short time out in nature is incredibly beneficial to our mental and physical health. We’ve got to start asking ourselves: What should we aim for in life?”
Jane Goodall on Covid, Climate Change and Animal Resilience - Bloomberg 2021
Jane leads an amazing life! And I was so blessed to have spent those 5 magical days with Jane! She is a hard worker; she is laser focussed but when she lets her hair down over durians or whiskey, she is like a warm-hearted grandma! Full of love and compassion! She wants everyone to have hope; to make a difference. That must have rubbed off somewhat because when the Pandemic hit Malaysia and we went into multiple lockdowns, we too, like so many countries were faced with acute unimaginable problems. Our farmers in the highlands who usually supply our capital city of Kuala Lumpur with fresh vegetables could no longer get their produce down to Kuala Lumpur due to a very harsh but necessary lockdown. Hence the farmers had to throw away their fresh produce whilst the urbanites were increasingly losing their livelihood and their ability to find fresh produce at affordable prices. When the lockdown partially lifted we saw that soup kitchens and pawn shops had longer queues. This was not something we had ever experienced!
Hence, my sister, Shih Lene and I founded a social enterprise in 2021 called, ‘Abundant Ventures’ (AV) based in Kuala Lumpur and its social mission is to “Grow Livelihoods”. Over the last 16+ months, AV through its network of donors donated over 2000+ vegetable and fruit seedlings planted by the urban poor who harvested it for themselves and other NGOs; rescued and donated over 11,000 kilos of fresh produce equivalent to 31,000 + meals to feed the poor; and we reached out to a poor urban farming community to teach them to plant watermelons and chilli, an Asian staple.
Above : E-Lene with her sister Shih-Lene. Their joy in their Abundant Ventures is evident.
If not for the “Jane Magic”, I don’t think Abundant Ventures would have materialised as a socially conscience enterprise – focussed entirely on benefiting society. Whilst Shih-Lene and other members of my family have always had a culture of giving financial support to many causes from education to health to the arts, we had never set up a specific outfit to organise our “giving” and run it hands on! Abundant Ventures has benefitted from Jane’s many mottos, one of which is to always engage with people. To never have a “them and us” attitude. To always get out there and understand what is in their “cup” and to see how one can make a difference.
I am grateful for those 5 magical days with Jane and for her inspiration which led to Abundant Ventures. Now both my sister and I feel empowered that each and every day we are making a positive difference in someone’s life; that each day we have a choice of what kind of difference we wish to make. We cannot think of a better way to live on this planet, since there is no Planet B.
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