Nellai Suresh puts in black and white

My colleagues here rather forced me to accompany them to watch a base ball game at the Arlington Ballpark stadium in Dallas between Texas rangers and Minnesota Twins. I picked up a few learnings about the game, how the scores are made and what are some of the nuances. More tnan the match, it was the festive atmosphere that was more interesting. As it happens with all live matches, the crowd was ecstatic. I even participated in the Mexican waves that swept the stadium. The food was good. Americans enjoy life king size. The food they eat, the colas and beers they drink and any eatable are all king sizes. And more than anything else, the happenings on the sides were quite interesting, games for children, charity activities etc etc. As I said to my colleagues, I can watch a base ball game on TV with more understanding.

I was struck by the spate of advertisments in the US TVs (I am now in Dallas TX)about Mesothelioma - cancer induced by exposure to asbestos and the lawyers trying to help the victims to get compensation from govt. Not long ago, 45 years probably, we were made to thrill at the wonder sheets called asbestos which replaced the thatched sheds in slums and gave a neat and exuberant look to the slums. Factories started sprawling manufacturing asbestos in India. Lo and behold, after 40 years, I am pained to see the advertisments saying that the attorneys are experienced for more than 30 years in this Mesothelioma litigation. My God, another instance of unsustainable development. Are we learning from our ancestors? The thatched sheds are there from time immemorial, the roofings are made of either coconut or palm leaves (a renewable source) and will be replaced normally once a year. These roofings never gave any disease to those below them.

I read an article in Swaminomics about how Pope Benedict has done injustice to the black, brown and yellow labourers by talking against outsourcing as something that goes against the stakeholders to protect the shareholders. He explained very lucidly how Pope tries to protect White labour aristocracy by not talking about outsourcing that is done in Latin America and Poland but mainly against China, India and Philipines. He also takes us back in history by pointing out how all the textile labour was shifted to UK during the British rule of India much against the welfare of Indian labour and no voice was raised against it at that time.

My reaction is as follows:

Pope has simply parrotted the words of his financiers ignoring that there is a vast population of Christians in India too who are working in all these outsourced jobs. The best reply to him would be for all Indian Christians to echo their rejection of this idea and I am sure they will not go to Hell for that one reason alone.

Today I saw a bicycle rally in Marina, Chennai, India organized by a school here against global warming. The chief guests, some local actors arrived at the scene in a car. What is that they are fighting against, global warming? And they add to it by using their car when they could have come by other means, least of all a bicycle.

Again along the way, the students were serving drinking water. And how? In plastic cups. And the users were forced to throw the cup on the beach. What a mockery of ideals and ideas. The organizers could have exercised a little more discretion.

We seem to have forgotten the sustainable development model. Though some faint voices are being raised now and then, they are drowned in the din and bustle created by the development mania. Let me analyse how in the past 2 centuries, we have messed up with Nature (with a capital N) and are facing the music apart from bequeathing a damaged and bruised earth to the future generations.

It all started with the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. The world was a lovely place till then punctuated by the man-made wars now and then. Factories started belching smoke, textile mills created more and more tuberculosis patients and the global warming had started by then. Pollution control was thought of after almost two centuries of abuse of Nature and environment.
====Added on 25th Aug 2009
An article by Sunita Narain in CSE magazine says that the gases emitted since 1800 (start of industrialization) are still collected in the atmosphere and they continue to damage the ozone layer. This has strengthened my argument against industrialization. One generation or two have benefitted forcing the entire humanity towards extinction
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Our ancestors (not necessarily Indians but also Chinese and the Egyptians and Mesopotamians and even the Europeans) were living in comfort. They did not exploit the natural resources but used it for their comfortable living. I am sure they would have known about the coal deposits below the earth and the crude deposits also. So many saints and visionaries were roaming about the Himalayas in the Kamaroop (present Assam)) and they would have definitely identified that there were huge deposits of crude below. Those who could identify the Aluminium ores, Gold and Silver Ores and other metals, is it not logical to assume that they would have known about the coal and crude deposits? But I am sure they did not bring it to light for the one reason that these are non-recyclable whereas metals are recyclable.

But the Industrial Revolutionists went in search of more and more of coal deposits and today we get estimates of deposits that will last for a couple of hundred years more. In the history of mankind, couple of centuries is a very miniscule part and no development should be started which can sustain itself only for such a short time.

Another culprit for the present mess is the Crude oil. Earlier mankind was extracting oil from vegetation and was sure that this is a non-exhaustible source of energy at least for a few millenniums. We turned it upside down. We created energy out of the crude oil and the coal, two of the most polluting elements today.

Let me list out all the other “epoch-making” inventions and show how they are unsustainable:

1. Trains and motor cars that transported us very fast and are transporting the mankind itself very fast to oblivion by creating holes in the ozone layer and by being the cause of so many diseases afflicting us.
2. Our ancestors were also wearing clothes. They were not roaming around naked. But the textile mills we invented were the source of despair for the workers there.
3. Medicines like Penicillin, considered life-saving just 50 years ago are life threatening. Antibiotics come and antibiotics go each with varying degrees of damage to human body.
4. Our ancestors were not stinking. They were using soap like materials, aromatic beauty aids and ornaments. But now, the soaps and detergents are found to be eco-unfriendly and you find notices and appeals in all hotel rooms to help them reduce the use of detergents. The deodorants and the other beauty aids of modern day are again damaging the ecology.
5. The biggest of all offending inventions is the plastics. Considered as one of the greatest inventions, again in the fifties and sixties of 20th century, now they the most dreaded. They are getting banned in place after place.
6. Chemical fertilizers are another case in point. You heard in your childhood (if you are now in the fifties and sixties) that they created the green revolution. But within fifty years, they are now considered villains to the Mother Earth. You start hearing about “Organic fertilizers” and vegetables grown with them. You pay a higher price where as even 70 years ago, our farmers (and so also worldwide) were using natural manure and were growing healthy food. A development which turns villainous within 50 years cannot be called a sustainable development.
7. Creation of towns and cities is another example. A city like Madurai created thousands of years ago is able to sustain itself even now whereas cities like Mumbai with a history of just 300 years are bursting at the seams. Those who built temple towers of unimaginable height (many towers are much taller than the sky-scrapers of today), were not unaware of building dwelling units of that size and height. But they refrained from doing so because they were aware that it was not sustainable. Another point to note is that those churches and temples are living for thousands of years whereas the modern buildings’ lives are calculated in tens of years. I recently visited the ancestral home of my relative and was astonished to see the polish on the walls even after 2 decades of disuse. Note that the walls did not have “ceramic” tiles but just simple brick and mortar (not even cement).
8. Can you find one allopathic drug without side effect? How is that our traditional medicines and medicines from Homeopathy are attacking just the disease?
9. Weaponry is a sure recipe for disaster of mankind. People have been fighting wars ever since they started living as a society. Take Mahabharat war, even though it may be a mythological war for those who do not believe, it was conceived a few hundred or thousand years ago. It has not wrecked mankind just as a Hiroshima or for that matter any war up to the 19th century. You don’t develop something to destroy mankind. That is not development, leave alone Sustainable Development.
10. The latest to join the list is e-wastage. Oh! 1981 - the year when PC was launched by IBM is a landmark year in the history of mankind. Oops! that is the year when e-waste started accumulating. Read Dr Gpalji Malviya in this URL
http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2009/07/16/ArticleHtmls/16_07_2009_011_002.shtml?Mode=1
Take asbestos, mercury and many other items which were developed without an eye on sustainabilty.
11. (added on 20th Aug) Asbestos is another. I have written another post on this. http://nellaisuresh.blog.co.uk/2009/08/19/mesothelioma-6762450/
12. (added on 24th Sep 2009) Pollution of rivers across the globe is another outcome of industrialization. We invented erecting industrial plants but never planned for treating the effluents especially leather tanning and chemical industries. Also fertilizer industries and ammonia based industries polluting the air and making the lives of nearby villages and towns hell, is common knowledge. I was speaking with my friends in Katowice Poland when they said that they were having enough of water for use but it was polluted by the industries. This problem is global. Left to himself man will pollute moon and mars also, now that Chandrayaan-I reports that there is enough traces of water in moon.

This is not an exhaustive list. I will be updating it as and when thoughts come to me.

Indian system consists of three phases for every action, whether it is life or pooja or anything. Aavahan, Utsarjan and Visarjan corresponding to the Hindu triumvirate Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva meaning Creation, Maintenance and Destruction. Nothing will be systematised unless it can go through these 3 phases and without consequences. But the modern world does not bother about the disposal. It is interested in churning out more and more inventions irrespective of whether they are sustainable or not. We are running faster into extinction than ever before.

Karunanidhi has become a laughing stock across India for the blatant and crass manner in which he sought ministerial berths for his kith and kin. But shameless as they are, these politicians do not get any lump in their throat while giving out a lie or seeking a favour. Impunity again, to the sentiments of millions who voted them to power. A cartoon in Times of India today beautifully depicts. Karunanidhi is standing before Manmohan Singh with a baby in his hand and the latter says that he would not hesitate to accommodate the former's great grand child also but they did not have any baby-seats in the cabinet. Nothing can be more disgusting than this. Even Dr Ramadoss looks very graceful in demanding a berth for his qualified son in the face of this man demanding a cabinet post to his son who is neither educated nor experienced. Fortunately, the hands of the PM are strengthened so much that he can keep these elements in check just like he showed the door to SP and RJD. May God give him more strength in disciplining the criminals and the corrupt in his regime.

Talking of the hypocracies, we saw many during the great Indian tamasha called the General Elections 2009. We saw losers being ungraceful - I don't say disgraceful - in inventing all sorts of reasons for the debacle, voting machine frauds, counting frauds, money play etc. But the best aspect of this election is the door shown by the Indian electorate to all sundries who were having a field day during the last 5 years, like the Communists, Lalus and Mulayams, Ramadosss and Pawars. All those who created havoc during the last term were put in their places. This will be a stable set up - be it Congress or BJP, all the tails that wagged the head have been chopped off. Even DMK could not talk from a position of strength. It had to go abegging. The initial signals are encouraging to indicate a cleaner rule.

Another piece of news that attracted me was US asking China to help Pakistan to train its forces to face terrorists. Are they trying to take coal to Newcastle? The country which for well over 5 decades specialised in training terrorists and sending them to India needs training to counter it - best joke of the millennium. Instead of pulling the pipeline of supplies of arms and money which everyone in the establishment knows where it lies, they are beating around the bush. Somebody has to call their bluff.

Obama does not want companies in US to outsource on a large scale. He wants to give jobs to Americans first. But when it comes to war in 'AfPak' region, he blissfully outsources it to Pakistanis and Afghans by throwing in a few dollars more. Taliban who were created by Americans are now being fought by Pakistanis and Afghans at the bidding of Americans. Long live American hypocracy!!!

Nearer home, DMK is another champion of hypocracy. Karunanidhi will preach atheism to every one in his party. He will have a jibe at those who believe in God (only of they are Hindus - Muslims and Christians can believe in God, he has no temerity to mock at that). But his son Azhagiri starts his election campaign after offering obeisance at Narasimhaperumal Temple near Madurai. This temple was selected because it was believed to be good for those who were born in the start Swati and Azhagiri is one. So for the father of rationalism in Tamilnadu (he seems to have replaced EVR), his son believing in astrology and God is not objectionable whereas other Hindu believers are objects of mockery. Long live DMK's hypocracy!!!

And if you start recording the hypocracies of the Indian politicians during these elections, probably a new server is needed to blog all of them. Advani calls Manmohan a weak PM when he released a terrorist and cried over the demolition of Babri and Manmohan talks of Advani melting. Mulayam wants computers and English to go whereas his children and his wheeler-dealr Amar Singh live out of them. Mayavati talks of uplifting the poor when all she has done is uplift herself. The MPs from the suicide-ridden Vidarbha in Maharashtra have incresed their wealth over the past five years when farmers have resorted to more and more suicide out of poverty. The list goes on and on and on.

This is a mail from a very young friend of mine
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When people who wallow in gutters scream for help, it doesn't necessarily mean they want to be rescued. Instead in many cases, when someone on firm ground reaches out compassionately but naively, they get dragged into the muck themselves. And what does one do then? You first swim away from the person who dragged you down, since as long as you are next to them, they'll never let you get out. Once you are at a safe distance, you pull yourself out, cleanup, and move forward. The next time someone else reaches out, don't ignore the person; don't lose out on your compassion. Instead look for the signs to determine if the person genuinely wants to be rescued; and if you can't figure it out, err on the side of compassion rather than caution. But make sure that you are smarter this time and have your feet firmly on the ground, so that if you start feeling dragged, you can pull away before it happens. Of course there's a possibility that the person is very strong and you end up getting dragged despite your best efforts. Go through the process again since the person will loosen the grip on you when they find somebody else to drag; and rest assured they'll find another one.

I do not believe or disbelieve in God as of today. But if I was a believer, then I would also like to believe that God took the form of these people so that he could be my teacher. And I bow down and salute them for making me realize that I'm not as intelligent or strong or wise as I think, and pushing me in the direction of being a better human being in all these respects. And I'm grateful to them that most of my hurt has been emotional - not financial, physical, social, or legal. Because, as of today, I feel that only with emotional hurt comes a strong guarantee that it can be overcome.
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This is not from any book - this is a thought which has germinated in my mind as I'm trying my best to forgive some people whom I loved and cared for immensely, and who instead hurt me back because I was capable of giving. Though I'd never claim that this is a completely original idea - I'm very convinced that years of reading, listening, pondering, and conversing have lead to this moment. I'm hoping this will help me overcome my current sense of loss, and the pain from my past which still lingers.

The last para of an article by M J Akbar in TOI dated 08.03.2009 detailing how the state of Pakistan failed.
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On the day that terrorists attacked Sri Lankan cricketers, I had a previously arranged speaking engagement at a university in Delhi before largely Muslim students. I began with the suggestion that every Indian Muslim should offer a special, public prayer of thanks to the Almighty Allah for His extraordinary benevolence - for the mercy He had shown by preventing us from ending up in Pakistan in 1947. The suggestion was received with startled amusement, instinctive applause and a palpable sense of sheer relief.
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I exclaimed twice when the TV bludgeoned that Gandhiji's memrablia had been purchased by the Liquor Baron Vijay Mallya and that they would be given to the government. Once, after knowing the amount (just $1.8 m or INR 90m), because there was not one soul in this country who could afford this much of money for saving a memory whereas parties spent billions in elections and advertisements. The Congress Party which had the greatest opportunity of claiming Gandhiji as its own just did not wink an eyelid. The government was mired in its bureacracy and lethargy rather than acting quickly. No other businessman who has amassed wealth from this country could think of shelling out just 90m rupees or was not willing.

I shouted the second time because the saviour is none other than the industrialist Vijay Mallya and the irony is that most of his income comes from the liquor business which Gandhiji wanted people to move away from. As the Tamil proverb goes, the money got by selling a dog will not bark. But more than that by such an act, can we treat Mallya to have wiped out a significant part of what we consider as 'Sin' of manufacturing liquor? My biggest cheer for this man is that he did it without publicity and very discreetly whereas many chatter boxes were making huge noise of participating in the auction and bidding for the items. Hats off to you Mallya or will this be better --- Three cheers to you Mallya!!!!

(The writer is a teetotaller but has moved a lot among 'drinkers')

When I look at the late night news, Ambika Soni, the Culture (definitely not Cultured) Minister says that The Indian Government was always in touch with Mallya's representatives and got it executed through him. Promptly comes the denial that no one ever contacted him before or after the auction. Just like he took back Tipu's sword, out of his own interest, Mallya has taken this. Shameless creatures, these!!!

==== Article by Santosh Desai in TOI dated 8th Mar 2009
"Now that India is affluent, who dare buy our ancestral heritage even if we do not fully care about it personally? Gandhi is ours to ignore, and by god, we shall put good money to protect that right."
"We treat Gandhi as many parts of the world treat their women, with an air of proprietary indifference"
"For there is no question that we have no particular desire to be reminded of Gandhi and his ideas. Buying back his glasses for crores of rupees is an act of naked tokenism. But the manner of doing so is richly symbolic. As it turns out, what this symbol points to has nothing to do with Gandhi. Could we have bought back Gandhi’s things and sold Gandhi down the river? "