Our Palm Oil... Threats From Lush

Freezing morning today... bila ckp berasaaap.. fuh! Its kinda nice & sunny outside now but its still cold. How deceiving.. but I'm thankful of the sun shining out there.. at least it isnt gloomy.

I've been wanting to talk about the brand Lush for quite sometime but was distracted with some other things. Its a quite well-known brand here in Melbourne with only 13 shops all thru out the country; being 2 in Melbourne only (Chadstone & Melb city). When I last went back to M'sia, there's still no Lush branch there (thank God for that) & i think there's 1 or 2 in S'pore. For those who doesnt kno wat Lush is, just walk pass the store & you'll be pinching ur nose fainting gasping for air. Ala-ala sesak gitu. haha. That's their trademark lah.

Their latest campaign since end of last year if I'm not mistaken, especially now, is to boycott palm oil, especially those from South East Asia, namely Indonesia & Malaysia. It is clearly stated in their latest summer 2009 catalogue edition.

Their main reason: oil palm trees plantations are hurting the environment.
Their arguments (tak tau la diorang ni bangang ke apa, tapi yg pastinye article tu menunjukkan diorang ni either ignorant or kurang berpengetahuan sebelum meng-war-war-kan pemboikotan ni): rain forest being cleared for each season of plantations, the trees are set to fire, killing natural flora & fauna especially the orant utan habitat & of course contributing to environment disaster.
Hmm... diorang ni org zaman batu la agaknye.

Funny how they dont include this campaign on their webbie.

Well, tak dinafikan, zaman dolu2 cam ni la org tanam apa2 pun, termasuk la kat Australia nun. Kerajaan kita dah maju sket dp ni, with the hutan simpanan for orang utan & other animals, also ruther research of oil palm trees plantation & better use of the whole tree rather than buahnye saja, and so on. Dunno wat the Indonesian gov is doing, but I'm sure diorang pun dah maju sket & there must be some measures are being done as we speak. Tak dinafikan jugak, masih ada di Indonesia & di M'sia (harap2nye takde or kalau ada pun, minimum & bakal dihapuskan) yg bakar2 hutan utk their plantation.

Lush UK has successfully stopped using palm oil in all their soap production. Lush Au & NZ are following closely behind, with them actively seeking alternatives to palm oil thru their forum A.S.A.P. (Actively Seeking Alternatives to Palm), and them supporting the Sumatran Orangutan Society thru their global product sales. Bagusla tu buat menda2 charity ni thru their profit, but the boycotting US? hmmm....

Menda yg buat aku sket berasap (bukan berasap sejuk pagi tadi) ialah they widely & openly do this campaign of boycotting our palm oil. Kinda outrageous when they dont get the facts right & senang2 nak hurt our economy, thus those who rely on the palm oil industry esp. kat kampung2 sana. Do they care about world economy or world food crisis at all?

Latest readings of wats going on in M'sia now: research of palm oil for replacing petrol use, pelepah palm utk oil spill on the coast, oil palm for skin care, new ways for environment friendly plantations, and some other very impressive researches of the whole palm trees.

Well, dolu2 masa mula2 sampai sini, aku ada gak guna some of their products, despite the stinking shop. My hubby dreads going there with me, he gets bad migraine each time we pass thru. hahahhaa... I dont deny that some of them are quite good..blablabla natural ingredients (that I dont really care..as long as my skin is supple & brilliant). They are expensive. Well, lotsa other cheaper products are 'natural' & very good, so tak rugi pun tak guna these Lush products. Whats even better is, we can all make some of them ourselves e.g. the facial mask, soap, shampoo, etc if we kno & have the time to make them.

Therefore.. in conclusion, marilah kita sama2 menjayakan industri kelapa sawit kita sambil totally AVOID Lush products no matter how tempting it is to try. Dlm erti kata lain... pulaukan Lush!
Hidup Malaysia & South East Asia! hahahahhahahahha..

(for reviews of skincare/beauty products try this excellent webbie: www.totalbeauty.com)

Oh well, its time to toss the stoopid Lush catalogue right into the recycling bin, my deed for the environment.

Sources: Lush.com.au, Lush webbies, Lush summer 2009 catalogue, www.totalbeauty.com, google for palm oil industry