Your Voice: Clockenflap must do more to reduce plastic waste; high intelligence isn’t everything (long letters)

After a four-year wait, the return of Hong Kong’s biggest annual arts and music festival, Clockenflap, created quite a buzz. Hong Kong fans rushed to purchase tickets, making this year’s event the first to sell out completely in its 15-year history. It is no wonder that many international artists, such as the Arctic Monkeys, Phoenix and the Cardigans, all rocked the city with their powerful performances.

However, a dark truth behind this music festival – and many others around the world – is barely mentioned. Having visited Clockenflap myself, I saw the environmental pollution in person.

After the crowd moved on when a performance was over, countless plastic cups and other pieces of rubbish were left on the ground, polluting the environment. What’s more, large numbers of people were smoking at the festival, making the air foggy and unhealthy to breathe.

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Clockenflap has previously been criticised for its excessive usage of single-use items, such as plastic cups, straws and food packaging. These items are frequently thrown away after only one use, adding to the festival’s incredible volume of plastic waste.

To address these complaints, Clockenflap launched a “green initiative” to lessen plastic trash. In addition to using biodegradable cutlery and cups, this also involved the installation of recycling bins. Unfortunately, as seen at this year’s festival, these measures fell short of being sufficiently effective in reducing the festival’s plastic footprint.

This shows the pressing necessity for events like Clockenflap to put more effective environmental safeguards in place. However, this will require cooperation between the organisers and the fans of the festival.

One solution to the plastic waste problem could be to encourage festivalgoers to bring their own reusable bottles and cups. The amount of single-use plastic disposed of would be greatly lessened. Composting food scraps and instituting a “leave no trace” policy, where visitors are encouraged to pick up after themselves, are two further sustainable measures that could be undertaken.

The task of reducing plastic waste is on everyone, not just festival organisers. We can make a difference by choosing to go to events that place an emphasis on sustainability and by being aware of how much plastic we use.

By working together, we can ensure that festivals like Clockenflap are not only fun but also environmentally friendly. This is a message to all fans, organisers and citizens: let’s cherish the planet and be responsible for our actions.

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Charmaine Wong Cheuk-ying, St Paul’s Co-educational College

In Hong Kong’s competitive society, our perceived intelligence has always been determined by how accomplished our academic results are.

But if you’ve been feeling incompetent, think again. No bread is buttered on both sides, and being intelligent may not always mean smooth sailing.

According to Mensa International, the intelligence quotient (IQ) is a score that identifies how far above or below someone is compared to others’ mental abilities. While there is no “standard” IQ test, the scoring tends to be similar across the various versions, with 100 being considered an average IQ and anything 140 or above considered genius territory.

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Many children have heard from their parents that having a higher IQ means better grades, better jobs, higher pay and even longer life.

But that might not always be the case.

A study led by Ruth Karpinski of Pitzer College surveyed more than 3,700 members of American Mensa. To join this highly selective group, people are required to have an IQ in the top two per cent, typically about 132 or higher. The researchers discovered that mood disorders and anxiety disorders were more common among Mensa members than in the general population.

Karpinski and her colleagues developed the hyper-brain/hyper-body theory. This describes how a high level of cognitive ability is associated with an overexcitable emotional and behavioural response to one’s environment. Due in part to this increased awareness of their surroundings, people with a high IQ tend to experience an overexcitable, hyperreactive central nervous system.

The results showed that participants were 20 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, 80 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, 83 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety, and 182 per cent more likely to develop at least one mood disorder.

When it comes to physiological diseases, people with high cognitive abilities were 213 per cent more likely to have environmental allergies, 108 per cent more likely to have asthma, and 84 per cent more likely to have an autoimmune disease.

A minor trigger such as a sound or clothing tag could cause a low-level, chronic stress response that activates a hyper body response. “When the sympathetic nervous system becomes chronically activated, it finds itself in a continuous fight, flight or freeze state, which triggers a series of changes in the brain and the body that can dysregulate immune function,” the study authors explained in the literature review.

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However, be cautious when interpreting this study. “Showing that a disorder is more common in a sample of people with high IQs than in the general population doesn’t prove that high intelligence is the cause of the disorder,” wrote David Hambrick and Madeline Marquardt for the Scientific American magazine.

Regardless of what this study says, remember, no test measures your inherent ability or potential. Colin Powell once said, “A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” Indeed, your intelligence quotient is not in the marking scheme of what you have achieved in life, and neither should mental disorders be a constraint. Don’t forget that the work you put in for your dreams to come true is what matters most!