If you’re dancing and jingling, doing the 10 minute mozzie wipeout right now, I apologize for the misleading title. If you’re not, here’s a #throwback to the fairly successful campaign of the NEA.

While quirky dance moves, and cheesy lyrics may not be the best way to engage youths, it is definitely a very family-friendly PG13 approach to appeal to the masses. Or shall I say annoy. Or whatever floats your boat.

Coming to the main point of this blog post, I decided to pen down and share this interesting issue after reading this article.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/mosquitoes-are-deadly-so-why-not-kill-them-all-1472827158

As the title suggests, eradicate all mosquitoes since they’re causing so many problems to humans. Like dengue, malaria, zika, itch and many more. Frankly, that sounds so egocentric. Ewww. So we destroy an entire species just because they serve no benefit to us? What about for the other animals? Like insect eating carnivores? Or the many fish which feeds on mosquito larvae? What most people don’t understand is that all biological relationships are intertwined closely with one another.

Fortunately the article also explains why we shouldn’t and cannot do just that. I’m afraid, however, that just like how the mozzie wipeout jingle perforated the masses, this incorrect notion of kill-them-all may be falsely inscribed onto the mainstream minds. Thus I feel the media should disallow such click-baiting headlines to be published, be it mosquitoes, environment or anything else. Mainstream media has great influence, and I feel they should use their power for the good, especially for environment, where ignorance of the severity of our actions have prevented greater measures from being put in place. (cite here) Only with the public enlightenment can we push for stronger measures to protect and preserve, and advocate what is sustainable. As people in the know, we have the duty to educate and tell those in the dark that they’re stepping off a cliff.

Coming full circle, now, let’s still not forget to do the 10 minute mozzie wipeout, as the Zika virus currently is really rampant, picking up speed in our lovely island Singapore. But don’t worry, we still have a looong way to go before the 10 minute jingle can possibly wipe out all mosquitoes in the world.