One Person’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure.

There Is No Such Thing As Rubbish

 by the children playing in the street corner. Siem Reap, Cambodia

Picture by Luisa Go Shah

 

Point to Ponder: ‘If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.' Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Story Line: During our recent trip to Siem Reap, we saw these five little kids playing in a street corner. They had just released the model UC; convertible, all-wheel drive, thread controlled human pull car with the capability of carrying heavy load. Each one of them was taking turns in test driving this new model.

Reflection: The model UC (Unlimited Creativity) was the product of these kids’ imagination and the excellent team work. They had engaged in the creative use of resources (milk bottles, caps, wood sticks, pebbles themselves etc). All materials used in building this product were domestically produced and obtained at no cost from garbage can, trees and river bank.

And they seemed to be very happy enjoying their Made in Cambodia product.

For the more curious, watch this 30 second video about children and imagination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZD_PBvLFbo

 

Comments

[Save our Planet]

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce.

[Wortied]

Don't let this Benchmarks get to our management.
Soon they will replace us all, last of the survivors, with Cambodian kids.

[Suresh Shah]

We experience it in Pulp industry in Indonesia (or anywhere else). Pulp production produces good and poor quality pulp (off grade). Our Norwagian Pulp mill manager announce there's no off grade in my Mill. Off grade has its uses like using for brown papers, Cartons, paper bags, etc. It has a price.

[Rajan]

Make Cambodia Great Again initiative? 😂

[Lonnie Hurst]

Imagination, Visualization and Creativity are skills that are all different and some children are allowed to learn them, some learn them on their own and some it is just part of their DNA.
Imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. Imagination and dreaming can coincide to help people feel something they want to do. Visualization is the formation of mental visual images or actually sting pictures in your mind of what you are want to do, say or build. Some people have a hard time visualizing, some have a difficult time visualizing in color or more than two dimensionally but kids allowed, taught and encourage learn to take what they imagine and put it in mental pictures in three dimensions and /or put it on paper or express it through art. Many adults have lost that skill. Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination. Many children and some adults are creative but many are taught to "stay within the lines" or "don't imagine things you can't, shouldn't or don't have the ability to do. Children in the right environments learn all three more easily than adults mostly because they have learned that they "can't."

[Jason]

For you every encounter is a learning experience.

Thanks for continuing to share your experiences.

[Madhuri]

Anand - I applaud your creativity along with that of these kids. I may have seen a similar scene several times on a trip to India- but I could never have "seen" it in the way you have, much less described it in this way.
Fun can be had without high tech fancy gadgets. Its great to see that these kids actually are outdoors- and looking around at the surroundings-( vs. a screen) and creating - without parental interference :)
I second the sentiments from @ Jason

[BHSC]

This is such a great reminder/lesson… we spoil our kids when we don’t need to and we ruin their natural imaginative powers.

Take care

[Levi's]

I noticed this photo among a set that you shared among a group of friends. I was very impressed but didn't mention it to you. So how nice to see the photo given a spotlight in FridayReflections!

I am reminded of an adage I once heard about parenting, which is attributed to Dear Abby (Abigail van Buren, real name Pauline Phillips):
“If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money.”

[Auto Fan since childhoodh]

Pardon me but the model in above picture seems two wheel drive.
Still a great idea and superb reflection. Thanks

[Mark Dennen]

Today, or so it appears to me, time for children is too structured (art, gymnastics, sports, dance, scouts, music, etc. ) and although some of this is needed, there needs to be time for kids to just learn how to entertain themselves doing things like: playing in the creek, climbing trees, breaking glass bottles in an illegal dump, knocking down bees' nests, building tunnels with hay bales in the barn, riding your bike to the fishing hole. As Levi posted above, all these things can be accomplished with little or no money. When I was a kid, when we went fishing, we each bought a can of soda and a big of chips for $.25 to take along with us for the 4+ mile ride.