Tweet18-12-2009 om 14:00 by Sueli Brodin
Imagine that you’re making rice for dinner and that you suddenly spill all the contents of your measuring cup on the kitchen floor… What do you do?
If you’ve had a Japanese grandmother like me, there’s only one choice. You kneel down… and start picking up all the grains of rice, one by one, even if it takes you half an hour, because you can still hear her gentle voice in your head telling you: “Mottainai…” (“What a waste…” in the sense of “What a pity it would be to waste this perfectly edible rice...”)

My little brother and I with our Japanese grandmother in Tokyo, Japan
I thought of my grandmother again when I read in the news last week that the average Dutch consumer wastes about 50 kg of fruit, vegetables, meat, bread and other food products every year. “If we were to load all the food that we Dutch people waste every year into trucks,” the Dutch Minister for Agriculture Gerda Verburg commented, “we would get a 9000 km long traffic jam, from Amsterdam to almost as far as Cape Town.”
My mother was raised in the spirit of “Mottainai” and so was I. It is one of the Japanese words my children have grown accustomed to hearing me say when they don’t want to finish their plate or when they “accidentally” damage a new toy: “Ah mottainai…”
Interestingly, the concept of “Mottainai” has been gaining worldwide notoriety thanks to the “Mottainai Campaign” launched by the Kenyan environmentalist and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai, who was so impressed when she heard about it during a visit to Japan in 2005 that she decided to promote the expression in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States as a common keyword for conserving the environment.

Kenyan environmentalist and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai
Her campaign website says that the strength of the word “Mottainai” lies in the fact that it captures in one term the "Four Rs" urged by environmentalists worldwide: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Respect.
Wangari Maathai this week again referred to the spirit of “Mottainai” during her speech at COP15 in Denmark and I wouldn’t be surprised if her ideas were soon to spread in the Netherlands as well. They might even find resonance in the Maastricht region, which has made sustainable development one of its strategic priorities and where the “Cradle to Cradle” concept is being supported and adopted by an increasing number of businesses and designers.

In fact, although I do notice examples of unnecessary waste in my everyday life among the Dutch, my overall impression is still that considerable effort is put into the sharing, recycling and reuse of products.
This will perhaps sound strange but one of the most meaningful milestones in my feeling of being settled in the Netherlands was when Dutch friends and neighbours started giving me second-hand but still perfectly flawless and undamaged clothes or toys for my children, or sharing produce from their vegetable gardens with me. I experienced it as a sign that I had been accepted in the community, and I know that my grandmother would have smiled and been happy for me if she had been able to witness these moments.

Our neighbours often give us produce from their vegetable gardens
In my eyes, through these simple and generous gestures, my Dutch friends are also putting the Japanese concept of “Mottainai” into practise.
“Mottainai” is often described as an intrinsic Japanese word, difficult to translate in any other language, but I believe that it has a Dutch equivalent. The Dutch often use the word “zonde” with the same meaning, for example in the expression “Dat is zonde” (“It’s a pity”). The word “zonde” in Dutch however also has a heavy moral connotation since it also means “sin”. This, perhaps, can be linked back to the Dutch Calvinistic precepts of economy and frugality.
What I like about the spirit of “Mottainai” is that it reminds me time and again to be careful not to unnecessarily waste earthly resources, and I also enjoy the aspect of sharing that goes with it.
I experienced it again this week. My daughter Naomi, who is rather small for her age – at least according to Dutch standards, went to play at a friend’s house and when I picked her up, her friend’s mother asked me: “What is Naomi’s size? Can she use an extra coat? Wait a second, I think I have a very nice winter coat for her...”
Comments
19-12-2009 at 11:11
Like yourself Sueli, I also had a grandmother who taught me the spirit of 'Mottainai' although we never had that word back in Singapore. I lived with her for the first 10 years of my life and during my young years, she used to bug me into finishing my food by telling me that the rice (our staple) would cry if it wasn't being eaten and/or that there were so many poor children in the world who couldn't afford the luxury of daily rice and how embarrassed I should be that I had the privilege but chose not to uitlise it. Her words have stuck me and you can be sure that I'll be the one to finish up everyone else' plates during dinner. It's not good for my figure so I haven't done it so much now but my grandmother's lessons will always stay with me and I always make sure I finish my leftovers the next day!
19-12-2009 at 08:43
Lovely article, Sueli. I like how you write. I agree that mottainai should be more actively exercised. I have to admit though, I am also guilty of wasting fruit and vege every week...try not to....real mottainai! Will be more diligent in my efforts from now on :-) Oh..and love the photos!
19-12-2009 at 01:20
In the old tradition of the catholic church in Limburg we committed three 'sins' if we dropped a cup with food on the floor. The first one is because of being not alert and was punished by hunger: no edible beans, no meal. The second sin was because of the loss of the cup. You had to pay for a new one. And the third sin was because of being ungrateful to God. Because God was generous with food. That same evening you had to pray a lot and ask for forgiveness. On your knees ;-)
Fortunately times have changed, but I hope that the four Rs will find there way to Limburg soon. This blog is a beautiful and remarkable contribution Sueli.
18-12-2009 at 20:54
I've read all your blogs with great interest and pleasure, but this one is really a "petit chef d'oeuvre". Once again you demonstrated how different and at the same time how similar traditions and customs can be in the different parts of the world. For instance, my Limburger grand-mother never said “mottanai” and we never had to pick rice grains, but if we dropped for instance a dish of peas she used to say “niks sjènnich maake”...
The fact that it didn’t made such a profound impression on me, is probably not related to cultural differences but more to differences in size between the pea and the grain of rice.
18-12-2009 at 15:47
An absolutely elegant piece-lovely language matched by critical commentary. Thank you, Sueli, for sharing your life and wisdom.
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Sueli Brodin has been living in the Maastricht Region since 1994. She is the website editor for the European Journalism Centre (EJC) in Maastricht and produces the EJC's daily Media News digest. She is also a team member of PechaKucha Night Maastricht, an informal English-language initiative where creative people get together and present their ideas in a concise format. View Sueli's video portrait on www.zuidlimburg.nl.
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19-12-2009 at 23:35
When I was small I was never pestered with expressions like 'zonde' or 'what a waste'. Spoiling food was simply impossible in our prostestant household. Before she started to cook, my mother would interrogate all other five family members about how hungry they were. Using some mysterious algorithm, she managed to always cook exactly the right amount and as a result there WOULD never be any left-overs. She must have done it well, because I don't remember ever having left the table hungry. Actually, she still practises this method when my wife and children are visiting her. The only problem is that my wife feels quite uncomfortable to be honest when she's really very hungry.....