Interviews from Horqin Desert, Inner Mongolia!

I learnt so much from this trip from the conversations I had, things I witnessed, and the hands-on hard work to plant, water and prune plants in the desert. It's an experience I will never forget!

Here are the FACES behind the VOICES you hear on my Greening of the Horqin Desert series of interviews on 938LIVE.

Yoshio Kitaura, Executive Director of Green Network, a Japanese environment NGO that has been working to green the Horqin Desert for a decade.

Kitaura-san could not speak a word of English! But because I wanted the interview so badly, I got an interpreter from the Japanese team to help translate!

What has the local community witnessed? 52-year-old chief of Maninchu Village shares how he has seen the Horqin Grassland become desert.

Steward Whitney is the VP & MD of Timberland Asia Pacific but what a down-to-earth & funny man! He shares about Timberland's Earthkeepers Movement.

COMING SOON....

Me & Janet Hsieh, host of Discovery Travel & Living's 'Fun Taiwan' and 'Fun Asia'!

Catch that interview on 938LIVE this coming Friday 27 Aug, 10am-11am, with a repeat broadcast at 10pm-midnight, as well as on Channel NewsAsia, 2am-3am.

You can also listen to us online at xinmsn.com/938LIVE,

or on your iPhone by downloading the free app, MeRadio!

Back from Horqin Desert!

For the past four days, I was away in Inner Mongolia to help green the Horqin Desert. This area, which covers 400,000 sq km (the size of Switzerland!) used to be a grassland - the way you'd imagine a Mongolian grassland to be - but due to climate change, over-cultivation, and over-grazing, Desertification has taken place. Today, the Horqin Desert is expanding at 6 million hectares a year - that's 1,900 sq km per second!

I studied Desertification as a Geography student for 6 years, but that was only a concept I understood in theory. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine myself witnessing this process first-hand... and better yet, to do something within my capacity (albeit small) to help reverse it.

I feel really privileged to have the opportunity to join Green Network (Japanese environmental NGO) and Timberland's Earthkeepers movement to head to Horqin Desert to plant 1,400 trees over 2 days, to water them and prune them. Here's some background to the Earthkeepers initiative, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year:

And I have many stories to share now that I'm back, as well as four interviews to air on The Living Room in the coming week! Stay tuned to find out when we'll be airing this Greening of Horqin Desert series on 938LIVE!

For fast & regular updates, join us on our Facebook page. I'll be uploading lots of photos & videos there in the coming days! *wink*

But first, here's a vid to whet your appetite: Here we are arriving at Horqin Desert in "cattle transporter" vehicles, and the girl you see reporting is Discovery Travel & Living's Janet Hsieh, whom you will also hear me profile on our show this week! *grin*

At 45, Singapore You're Fabulous!

It's so easy to take Singapore for granted. Sometimes, I complain about our rules being too stringent, too many fines (carpark, speeding, littering), the standard of living being too high... the weather too hot, the education system too tough for our kids...

But at the end of the day, I am thankful that I live in such a safe, clean, peaceful & corruption-free country. Think about it, how many countries in the world are there like Singapore?

Pam's sheep Baaabara is originally from Hong Kong, but she considers herself whoolly Singaporean and is bent on celebrating National Day today.

So celebrate with Stan & me (and Baaabara!) today as Singapore turns 45! And don't forget to catch the National Day Parade this evening... Our colleague Bharati Jagdish will be commentating on TV!

At 45, Singapore you're fabulous!!!

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