Inactive activism

I badly need to embark on a cause, or something to champion for. I was reading Urban a couple of weeks back and looking at the BAG page. ( I love Urban and I love the BAG page .. for the obvious reason of knowing what bags personalities use, but hmm I also love the quirky personalities featured ) And there was this Malay lady who was the head of Unifem Singapore and her job includes visiting countries such as Cambodia and Indonesia to implement a range of programmes such as imparting business know-hows and setting up crisis centres for abused women. I have always been fascinated by all these UN sounding organisations .. .. Unesco, Unifem , or by the things that personalities such as Angelina Jolie does, such as creating awareness of refugees or promoting humanitarian causes ( whether or not it is for mere publicity is a different issue altogether .. i shall not dwell into that. To be able to do such things is good enough for me )

And so suddenly what I do on a daily basis are so insignificant. I am not saying that I should start packing my bag to work for Greenpeace or raising awareness for landmine victims. It is just that I want to do a bit of social activism too, something small, yet significant.

When I was a SAHM with Iffah, and so into the whole mothering thing, I did dabble in perhaps what I could call breastfeeding advocacy. Became a la leche league and BMSG member, attended a couple of La Leche meetings, attended talks and events like setting the world record for simultaneous breastfeeding and even got the opportuntity to share my experience with new mothers at KKH ( thanks Su for that chance ) . Well, I did believe that all babies deserve the best, so I was just doing my part to share the benefits of breastfeeding. And yes, life seems to be more meaningful when you have something to champion for.

Alas, when I started teaching , my breastfeeding activism sort of died down. Time was a factor, plus I was also not very comfortable with the idea of my naive 15 year olds seeing me appearing in the papers, breastfeeding my kids . To them, breastfeeding merely equates baring boobs I suppose. Also, I felt a renewed interest in teaching ... teaching became my cause, I do not need another cause. Far more importantly, I also felt that breastfeeding was, a very much personal choice. There are so many factors at play as to why someone chose to breastfeed or not. I do not like being told what to do, so I shall not be telling others what to do.If you want to breastfeed then good for you. If not, then it is fine with me too. Since then, if anyone is interested to breastfeed, I will answer any questions or help in any way i can but even though I've breastfed for 4 years non-stop now, I am les gung ho about extolling the virtues of breastfeeding to those who feel that they can't.

So right now, I am without a cause again. Or maybe I do have many causes, just that there are no great sounding names to go with them. Oh well, till i discover what they are, I better get some sleep cos Iffah has been complaining that I am always so sleepy in the day.