Thrive Connect
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THRIVE CONNECT LINKAGES IN EVERYDAY LIFE THRIVE Connect: Linkages in Everyday for our future, it is clear that inclusiveness Front cover: Life features images from Malaysian will continue to be critical as we move THRIVE Connect Photo Contest cities, including the winners of the THRIVE forward. THRIVE Connect features the Young Photographer category: Entry Connect photo contest. Each contest visions of ordinary people, gathering image illustrates a connection between scenes from everyday life in Malaysian Nur Aisyah Farhanah Sustainable Development Goal 11 on cities to tell stories about sustainable Proud to be Malaysians Kuala Lumpur Sustainable Cities and Communities and development, in preparation for the 9th one or more other Goals. World Urban Forum, Kuala Lumpur, The Petronas Twin Towers are the tallest The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Malaysia, February 2018. twin buildings in the world. This iconic Development and the Sustainable infrastructure will always be synonymous Development Goals were developed THRIVE Connect can be downloaded: with Malaysia. through an extensive participatory www.thriveurban.info process involving diverse stakeholders. Symbols can serve as a source of Recognising the value and importance inspiration, beckoning us onward, and a of every voice in creating a shared vision point of commonality, drawing us together. The symbols we choose reflect who we are and help us picture who we want to be. We must choose symbols that represent and speak for all of us, that unite rather than divide, and that help us ensure that no one is left behind. Connecting Sustainable Development Goals A Folio of Photographs and Text Kuala Lumpur • Malaysia THRIVE CONNECT THRIVE CONNECT LINKAGES IN EVERYDAY LIFE José Siri You Must Be Bananas… Food has always been a focal point for community, A Folio of Photographs and Text camaraderie and conversation, social interactions that are critical for our wellbeing. Kuala Lumpur • Malaysia ii iii Acknowledgements THRIVE Connect THRIVE Connect Photo Contest Linkages in Everyday Life Organizers A Folio of Photography and Text • International Institute for Global Health, Kuala Lumpur • Malaysia UNU-IIGH Building, UKM Medical Centre, Jalan Yaacob Latiff, Bandar Tun Razak, Editors José Siri and David Tan 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA Writers Uta Dietrich, Lee Yi Yi, José Siri • Think City Sdn. Bhd., Bangunan UAB, and David Tan Gat Lebuh China, 10300 George Town, Designer John Reid Penang, Malaysia Publisher United Nations University, • Sustainable Places Research Institute, International Institute for Global Health, Cardiff University, 33 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2018 3BA, Wales, United Kingdom ISBN 978-92-808-8108-0 THRIVE Partner • World Urban Campaign © 2018 Copyright resides with the photographers and writers The organizers would like to especially thank: • All THRIVE Connect photo contest THRIVE was produced for the 2016 Urban participants Thinkers Campus on Health and Wellbeing • THRIVE Connect Supporters: The British in the City We Need, Sarawak State Library, Council Newton-Ungku Omar Fund and Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia Cardiff University 24 - 27 January, 2016 • ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, for funding the THRIVE 2, a second edition of THRIVE, included translation of the Kuching Statement The Kuching Statement, the main output of the Kuching Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC), Further information as an addendum together with photographic Email [email protected] documentation of the Kuching UTC participants Web http://www.thriveurban.info/ http://www.iigh.unu.edu/ THRIVE GLOBAL was a translation of The Kuching Statement into the official United Nations languages, Portugese and Bahasa José Siri Hold on to the Past Our heritage defines us in so many ways; it connects us to our past, Malaysia offering a critical repository for solutions to the problems of our particular places. iv v THRIVE Connect Contents THRIVE Connect Photo Contest iv Acknowledgements Young Photographer category: Entry ix Foreword Syah Marais 2 Seeing Linkages: The THRIVE Connect Photo Contest Old but Gold Malacca 5 The Modern Sustainable Development Framework Quality education is important, both in and 11 THRIVE Connect Winning Photographs outside of school, and from youth to old age. We are never too old to learn something 19 An Interconnected World new and share our sense of discovery with 25 The SCHEMA Project others. 30 The THRIVE Urban Series Lifelong learning is critical for navigating a rapidly-changing world. When we fail to The Kuching Statement invest in the elderly, we create a self-fulfilling 36 English paradigm of obsolescence which burdens 40 Bahasa Malaysia all of society. A community that supports 46 Chinese all its citizens in growing, learning and changing will reap the benefits of their work, experience, and wisdom. Connecting Sustainable Development Goals vi vii THRIVE Connect Foreword THRIVE Connect Photo Contest At the threshold of the Anthropocene, a photography competition designed to Top 10 we look out onto a gauntlet of our own illuminate connections among the United making. For all of humanity’s progress, Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Benjamin Ong it remains fragile, cocooned on a single Sponsored by the British Council Newton- A Connection to Catch Bahru Johor blue planet facing mounting stresses. This Ungku Omar-funded SCHEMA project The new grey transport hub represents world demands new vision, a new spirit of (“Systems Thinking and Place-based connectivity and integration. The old yellow collectivity, new ways of living in harmony Methods for Healthier Malaysian Cities”), train station reminds us that in our pursuit with our environment, and new benchmarks it focuses on cities in Malaysia, but the of progress we must not forget the basics: for success, if we are to survive and thrive. connections uncovered here are universally a bus sports smileys while a vulnerable Most of all, the continued flourishing of relevant. We hope THRIVE Connect will pedestrian navigates a three-lane road. humankind will depend on the connections engage your senses, motivate your spirit, we forge: of person to person, nation to and spark your determination to achieve a Dedicated buildings, by themselves, aren’t nation, people to the world around them, healthier, more connected world. enough to achieve the potential benefits cities to hinterlands, and, not least, science of multi-modal transit. Rather, they should be integrated with road design that is bus-, to other domains of human knowledge. José Siri bike- and pedestrian- friendly. Integrated For in the new world, the science must not Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia infrastructure for multi-modal transit will settle for sweeping the mists from before 15 January 2018 increase physical activity and provide our eyes—rather, it must become integral transport for those less able to afford it. to our decision-making, to our strategy and tactics, to our collective intelligence, as Connecting Sustainable Development Goals never before. The THRIVE Urban series of texts juxtaposes science and art to prompt a new awareness of cities and how we live in them, seeking deeper understanding and healthier actions. The text you hold, THRIVE Connect, is the culmination of viii ix THRIVE Connect Seeing Linkages: The THRIVE Connect Photo Contest THRIVE Connect Photo Contest The Sustainable Development Goals Top 10 (SDGs) address many different issues, but are strongly interconnected. These Danny Lee connections, however, may be obvious A Fish Eye View of Putrajaya Putrajaya or subtle. Real-world problems often relate to more than one Goal, and actions If fish could talk, what stories would intended to achieve one Goal can make they tell of us, our cities, and our reaching another easier or more difficult. impact on them? Some connections between SDGs are well- understood while others remain hidden, The impacts of cities don’t stop at their and local context can change the nature of boundaries. Cities draw resources from the relationships involved. Seeing the full faraway places and impose costs on picture depends on inputs not just from ecosystems around the globe. If we governments and policy-makers, but also want to preserve life on land and below water, we must reduce the environmental from scientists, entrepreneurs, members of footprint of our cities. civil society, and citizens. The THRIVE Connect photo contest Connecting Sustainable Development Goals was launched by the SCHEMA project in collaboration with Think City in November 2017. It invited participants to submit images of Malaysian cities highlighting linkages in everyday life—photographs that illustrate the connections between SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and the other SDGs. The entries tell stories 1 2 THRIVE Connect about how critical connections are to THRIVE Connect Photo Contest Other Photographers THRIVE Connect Photo Contest healthy, sustainable communities, and how Photographers Top 10 recognizing them will help us achieve our José Siri Pages 2, 5, 9, 22, 23, 27, goals. Open category Winner 35, 39, 45, 48 Barry Newell A panel of six judges from the United Khan Tan Page 11 Yi Yi Lee Pages 10, 49 Greening the City Penang Nations University International Institute Jessie Cheah Swee Neo Page 28 Open category Runner-up Humans have a fundamental need for for Global Health (UNU-IIGH), Cardiff Jessie Cheah Swee Neo Page 15 contact with nature. Even people with University’s Sustainable Places Research limited means take steps to