Animal's People and Environmental Heroes!

For over three weeks now, I have been rooting for Indra Sinha to win the Man Booker award for his disturbing but compelling "Animal's people". So Friday the 18th was a big day and as soon as I got off the plane from Jakarta, I checked news on my phone only to be disappointed , one of the best told stories about the Bhopal disaster, that makes you angry, really angry, did not make it.
But before I hit my usual watering hole in Bangkok to drown my sorrow, I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me in the latest issue of Time magazine on Environmental heroes of the planet, to find my cook at the apartment, boss at work, and good buddy Von Hernandez featured in the activist heroes section. A Goldman award winner, Von like Indra, has experienced anger empathetically. The garbage mountains of Manila ,the lives of the poor folks amongst them and the ill advised plan of greedy politicians to set up dioxin spouting incinerators, made him angry enough to lead a campaign that concluded with the first ever national ban on waste incineration in the Philippines. I have been to Smoky Valley, the garbage mountains of Manila, to assist Von and Greenpeace in 2000 and I remember feeling the same anger that I feel every time I am with my friends in Bhopal or Vapi.
Indra may not have won the Booker, but his book is a must read, and a good buy especially from the UK Amazon website because each copy bought from here, earns 1 euro for Bhopal Medical Appeal. And all of you are invited for dinner where my excellent cook and environmental hero will dish out Mediterranean fare.
(Von's photo courtesy Anna)

You are in deep peat!

Wanted to write this earlier and be the first one to file on Blog Action Day but was dragged for a live interview on the breakfast show of Metro TV of Indonesia to discuss deforestation, illegal logging, peatland clearances , biofuel boom and the UNFCCC meeting on climate change scheduled to be held in Bali in December 2007. The pretty anchor and her fluttering eyelashes were a major distraction but I managed to get the key messages through. Believe me, no media training in the world can prepare you for pretty woman asking you tough questions.

Last few weeks, many of my friends in Indonesia and from around the world have been setting up camp in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, called Forest Defenders Camp. These valiant friends, many of whom should have been home with their families celebrating Id ul Fitr, have foregone parties and family gatherings after a month of fasting, to bring the story of the ongoing destruction of Sumatran rainforests by pulp, paper mills and timber industry. Legal and illegal logging in this critical pristine forest by national and multinational corporations continues, while the authorities turn a blind eye to the massive biodiversity loss.

The worse is yet to come, the modern day gold rush, for bio-fuels, palm-oil, in case of Indonesia to feed the global demand for green fuels, is set to destroy the last home of Orangutan, Sumatran Tiger, Rhinoceros, Elephants, over 1500 of birds and thousands of plant species, if the world governments do not bring a halt to this stupendous stupidity.

Wait, if you don’t care for animals and plants, here’s what should have you sitting up and paying attention. Forest fires set by logging corporations (after they have extracted the valuable timber) and drainage and burning of peatlands, is the biggest addition to greenhouse gases that causes climate change - which will bring the next storm, cyclone, typhoon in your region wherever you are, dry up your water supply and bring environmental refugees at your doorstep.

My friend Abu, a researcher, informs me that 1 hectare of palm oil plantation will produce 10 tonnes of fruit, and 5 tonnes of fruit will produce 1 tonne of crude palm oil. He also tells me that India imported 1893813 tonnes of palm oil from Indonesia in 2006. I am dyslexic but you can figure out how many hectares of forests were destroyed by Indian imports alone. So we cannot blame the Europeans alone, India and China (the largest importer) are already responsible for the destruction of the Indonesian forests.

There are number of groups like Forest Watch, Sawit Watch, FFI, Friends of Earth, and number of local ngos like Jikalahari, besides Greenpeace that are fighting to save the forests and peatlands of Indonesia, but maybe you can help too, by simply being aware and telling others about it…so the word spreads and reaches the deaf and dumb governments of the world.
(Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

Idle Indian Idolatry

Back home in India for three weeks, I had the opportunity to get a grip on the eternal question, who is the real Indian idol?
If the media gurus of the increasingly colorful newspapers (finding editorial content amongst the advertisements is a challenge for the future Indian Idol) and sensationalist television (exercising their democratic right to misinform and mislead the public with their stings), are to be believed then the current contenders are as follows. MS Dhoni (T-20 Captain Cool) ; Prashant Tamang(Indian Idol singing sensation);Rahul Gandhi (Nehru-Gandhi heir-saviour of the congress).
A dashing cricketer from 'backward' Bihar, a bollywood singer from 'neglected North-East', a politician from the 'nehru-gandhi' clan. Hmmm....
Mrs. Karnad, my sociology professor at Elphinstone college, once said that the diverse peoples of the Indian Republic maybe governed by the constitution and its cogs including judiciary, parliament and bureaucracy but what really binds them together is cricket, singing bollywood songs and idolatry politics. I remember getting into a fickle debate...countering her argument, offering the Indian railways, Indian Postal service and All India Radio as the true binders of the nation. Remember this is way before Sardar Manmohan Singh liberalized the markets and Swami Chidambaram corporatised the corridors of power, when Ambassador was the only car on our street, Lambretta the only scooter, Hero was our cycle and Vada pav was our favorite snack. Mrs. Karnad of course indulged me as always before reminding me about my assignment on the role of Mohandas Gandhi and his political parleys to get buy-in for the Quit India movement from diverse leaders from across the country. I beat a hasty retreat to the library and quietly sat down to study the speeches and writings of the only Indian hero of any consequence. Mr. Mohandas Karmanchand Gandhi. 1869- forever.