Positivity and Violence - Bhoomi Magazine

October - December 2014 Eternal Bhoomi 1

BANGALORE VOLUME 5, ISSUE - 4, OCTOBER - DECEMBER, 2014 Rs. 80/-

F o r E a r t h C o n s c i o u s n e s s a n d S u s t a i n a b l e L i v i n g

Positivity and Violence Satish Kumar Thich Nhat HanhShiv Visvanathan

Madhu Suri Prakash Prof. Sue L.T. McGregor

2 Eternal Bhoomi October - December 2014

Eternal Bhoomi is a magazine published by Bhoomi Network, a unit of K.N.A.Foundation for Education, a Public Charitable Trust registered in 1995.

Eternal Bhoomi Magazine is printed on wood-free paper using soy based inks.

Cover design by Nidhi Aggarwal

Dear Reader,

We are happy to bring to you the 20th issue of the Enternal Bhoomi magazine... Five years have gone by since we began our journey; during these years we can say that we have learnt a lot, focussed on critical and holistic thinking about our world today and fostered a community that is committed to caring for our Earth and making a difference.

We are thankful to all the writers, photographers and illustrators who have donated their work to make every issue of Bhoomi a bouquet of stories, perspectives and visual delight. We are thankful too to all our subscribers and readers who have continued to encourage us by appreciating our work.

Do keep supporting and walking with us in our journey - in these times of ecological confusion and crises, we need a collaborative and cooperative approach that welcomes multiple ways of shifting to a more sustainable way of life.

Let us celebrate Mother Earth and the expanding community of people who want to bepart of the solution!

With warm regards,

Bhoomi team

Celebrating...Five Years of Eternal Bhoomi


Seetha Ananthasivan

([email protected])

It is generally easy to take sides, or sometimes take action, when we see direct physical violence being perpetrated. We see it every day in family squabbles and in the millions of cases pending in our courts. The world witnessed it on a massive scale when President Bush attacked Iraq, and the whole world seemed divided into those who supported him and those who did not.

But the greater continuing violence today seems to be structural violence which is difficult to see – violence embedded in the things we buy, the vehicles we use, the food we eat, in the processes by which they were made. Even the schools and other educational institutions which are supposed to exist for our wellbeing are encouraging violence through fostering competition and mindless learning. Hospitals and the medical system encourage corruption through excessive profiteering, cruel lab testing and more.An even more invisible kind of structural violence is our economic system that makes equity and justice impossible for most of the world population. While the poor remain poor and the rich 10% use 80% of the world’s resources, the violence of the economic system is by and large, neither comprehended nor objected to by even its victims.

Such structural violence is hidden – we do not see the children suffering in sweat shops when we are buying a smart dress. We may even justify it saying that at least it is giving the child some money. To dig deeper and know the truth is not something that most of society would like to do. Why should we dwell on so much gloom and doom? Why be so negative? The problem is too big and complex, what can we do… so business as usual is fine. These are sometimes the honest reactions we have received to many of the articles in this and other issues of Bhoomi. Also, once the enormity of what our modern civilization does to the world hits us, it is often difficult to believe in engaging in positive action. We feel all too small and helpless.

In this issue, as we complete 5 years of the Bhoomi magazine, we felt the need to look at the challenge of holding on to positivity as we witness the violence – a theme to honour the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Professor Sue McGregor, in the opening article of this issue, spells out the ways in which consumerism is inflicting violence on us; but also points out the hope with which a growing movement of people are challenging consumerism and advocating ethical and non-violent consumption.

The Vietnamese monk, Thich Naht Hanh, predicts the possible collapse of our modern civilization within 100 years as a result of runaway climate change. Since it is difficult to change the behaviour of those with vested interests, he says a grassroots movement is essential; and that we need mindfulness and compassion to mobilize ourselves for positive action.

Satish Kumar, the eco-philosopher and editor of Resurgence magazine is a tireless promoter of organisations and groups who are working for sustainable living. Again he believes there may be a civilisational collapse, but we need many life-boats then, to move ahead with the skills and wisdom needed in the future – and hence it is important for us to be positive, become ‘eco-literate’ and work together for sustainability in our own ways.

In India, it is only a miniscule percentage of people who are not enamoured by the goodies of the globalised economic system. There seems to be an irreversibly strong wave of psychological, social and political sentiment that is crying for western style ‘development’ no matter what the cost. Can we stop for a moment and realize that we are actually demanding violence in this land of Buddha and Gandhi?

Positivity and Structural Violence


EternalBhoomi Issue No. 20 October - December 2014

Eternal Bhoomi is committed to bringing you holistic perspectives on Nature and sustainability from renowned writers and thinkers as well as practical ideas and examples of earth conscious living from people around the world.

Positivity and ViolenceWe need to go beyond looking at violence as warfare or physical or verbal cruelty alone - although that too

is a reality. Our economic and socio-political systems today as well as modern technology have violence

structured into them, such that piece-meal solutions will not work. We need to look for systemic solutions

and question many of aspects of life today very deeply.

6

9

12

16

20

22

24

Consumerism Inflicts Structural Violence Prof. Sue L.T. McGregor

Thich Nhat Hanh: Only Love can save us from Climate ChangeInterviewed by Jo Confino

Gandhian EcologyVinay Lal

Violence and our EnvironmentChris Williams

Environmental Values, Policy and Conflict in India Shiv Visvanathan

The Tao of ToolboxMickey Z.

Materialism and MiseryGraham Peebles

Vantage Point

28 Reduce your Violence Footprint

Poster

30 The Great ChallengeSatish Kumar

Deep Ecology

32

34

35

36

Saving our Tigers Shreya Pareek

Koodankulam Anitha S.

Reviving GangaIndia Water Portal

Desert Healer Ruhi Kandhari

Stories of people and organisations taking initiative for meaningful change...

Positive Initiatives - India

27 Non-violence as a strategy


52

54

56

Announcements

Bhoomi Programmes

Bhoomi College

Food 46

48

49

50

5 things you should know about CalciumSejal Parikh

Ancient Vegan Wisdom Dr. Will Tuttle

My Edible Garden Shyamala Mahadevan

More Millet RecipesA. Santhilaksmy

42

43

Book ReviewInquiries into the Nature of Slow Money (Author: Woody Tasch)Jonathan Rowe

Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea(Author: Mark Kurlansky)James Trimarco

Bhoomi’s Panel of Advisors:

Shri Satish Kumar Eco-philosopher, co-founder of Schumacher College and Editor, Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine www.resurgence.org

Dr. Vandana Shiva Scientist, Eco-activist and Founder of Navdanya www.navdanya.org

Dr. Madhu Suri Prakash Author and Professor of Education, Pennsylvania State University www.yesmagazine.org

Shri G.Gautama Director, Chennai Education Centre, Krishnamurthi Foundation of India www.pathashaala.tcec-kfi.org

Shri Narayana Reddy Organic farmer and promoter of sustainable agriculture

Shri Ashish Kothari Founder of Kalpavriksh, activist and author of books on bio-diversity and globalisation www.kalpavriksh.org

Dr. R. Balasubramaniam Founder of SVYM (Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement) www.svym.org

Shri Devinder Sharma Author and Food Analyst; Chairman, Forum for Food Security www.devinder-sharma.blogspot.in

Dr. Harish Hande Magsaysay Award Winner, Founder of SELCO, a pioneer in rural solar electrification www.selco-india.com

Helena Norberg-Hodge Founder and Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) www.localfutures.org

44 Compost Toilets and Self-Rule Madhu Suri Prakash

Sustainable Practices

Climate Change 45 Climate Change affects

Cities, Fish and Alpine Plants

For latest updates visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/BhoomiCollege

You can log onto www.bhoomimagazine.org

to register/subscribe to Bhoomi Magazine.

The Bhoomi Magazine

Join in to celebrate five years of

38

40

PerspectivesSpeaking from the Heart Bridget Belgrave

Ashoka s Dream Philip Grant

‘

Look forward to the Bhoomi Get-together in January 2015


Vantage Point

The interests of a consumer society are in deep conflict with the interests of the commons, justice, peace, and the human condition. Majority World citizens experience the fallout of the violent consumer infrastructure. In today’s consumer society, conflict manifests as structural violence and, to a lesser extent, direct violence against each other (e.g., children killing each other for brand name clothing).

The violent consumer infrastructure emerged out of the tensions of perceived scarcity, one of the main determinants of conflict (Homer-Dixon, 1991). The ideologies of capitalism, top-down globalization and neoliberalism are predicated on the notion of scarcity rather than abundance. With perceived scarcity comes competition for resources (land, water, labour, money, time), leading to winners and losers and the possibility of conflict and violence. Ironically, scarcity is not necessarily the problem; rather, it is often the uneven distribution of resources that is the problem. There is enough to go around, but unfair access to political, economic, and other resources - because of

CONSUMERISM INFLICTS STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE

Billions of people suffer from the rich world’s overfed appetite. Consumerism violates human rights and ravages the environment.

Prof. Sue L.T. McGregor

involuntary membership in certain ethnic, racial, religious, gender, or other groups - leads to exploitation, repression, and alienation, as well as denial of basic needs. This is structural violence.

The term “structural violence” was first coined by Johan Galtung in 1969. He was looking for a construct that respects the reality that, even though a nation is not a war, its citizens can still be experiencing violence due to a lack of justice, security, freedom, and rights. Unlike visible violence and war, indirect structural violence is almost invisible. It is embedded in ubiquitous social structures, normalized by stable institutions and regular experience. The results are unequal power and unequal life chances. Because these inequities are long-standing, they usually seem ordinary, the way things are done, and always have been. Still worse, the people who are victims of structural violence often do not see the systematic ways in which their plight is choreographed by unequal and unfair distribution of society’s resources and power, or due to human constraint

caused by economic and political structures. Unequal access to resources, to political power, to education, to health care, or to legal standing are all forms of structural violence.

Structural violence can also occur in a society if institutions and policies are designed in such a way that barriers are built into society that result in lack of adequate food, housing, health, safe and just working conditions, education, economic security, clothing, and family relationships. Such is the case with consumerism.

People affected by structural violence tend to live a life of oppression, exclusion, exploitation, marginalization, collective humiliation, stigmatization, repression and inequities, and face a lack of opportunities due to no fault of their own. The people most affected by structural violence are women, children, elders, and those from ethnic, racial, and religious groups, and sexual orientations that differ from the mainstream.

Because they, and others, may not see the origin of the conflict and

The entire consumer infrastructure is a key source of structural violence, meaning people are harmed somehow due to no cause of their own. This violence is enabled by consumers who, knowingly or not, embrace the ideology of consumerism in a market system that, intentionally or not, creates huge systems of injustice; infringements on human, labour, and environmental rights; gender inequities; threats to peace, human security and freedom; and massive encroachments on the human condition and the commons.

Phot

o: jo

hnhr

enfe

ld.co

m


violence, people negatively affected by structural violence often feel they are to blame – or they are blamed -- for their own life conditions. This perception is readily escalated because people’s normal perceptual and thought processes divide people into in-groups and out-groups. Those outside our group lie outside our scope of interest and justice. They are invisible. Injustice, which would be instantaneously confronted if it occurred to someone in our group, is barely noticed if it occurs to strangers or those who are invisible and irrelevant.

It is easy to morally exclude those who fall outside our group. This exclusion leads to the others becoming demeaned or invisible, meaning we do not have to acknowledge the injustices they suffer, even if we are the cause.

The entire consumer infrastructure is a key source of structural violence, meaning people are harmed somehow due to no cause of their own. This violence is enabled by consumers who, knowingly or not, embrace the ideology of consumerism in a market system that, intentionally or not, creates huge systems of injustice; infringements on human, labour, and environmental rights; gender inequities; threats to peace, human security and freedom; and massive encroachments on the human condition and the commons. Following are some stark examples of the structural violence entrenched in the consumer society and global marketplace:

� Even though Northern consumers comprise only 20% of the world’s population, they consume more than 86% of the world’s resources. They have 87% of all automobiles, 74% of all landline phones (does not include cell-phones), use 84% of all paper, consume 58% of all energy, eat 45% of all fish and meat, and get 94% of all bank loans. This reality means that eight of every 10 people in the world share just 14% of all global consumption activities, representing a great divide in power and resources.

� Total global consumption levels exceeded the planet’s ecological capacity in the late 1970s. We would need more than five planet Earths to sustain the world if the world’s population consumed at the level of just two countries, the US and Canada (Worldwatch Institute, 2004). What is even more telling is

that citizens of these two countries are the least likely to pay more for organic, environmentally friendly, or fair trade products (Global Market Insite, 2005).

� The consumer class spends more on luxury products, such as cruises, perfume, makeup, and ice cream (let alone necessities) than it would take to fund and achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, which deal with poverty, literacy, hunger, child and mother mortality, environmental sustainability, gender equality and empowerment, and disease (Worldwatch Institute, 2004).

� By some estimates, 83% of all clothing purchased in the United States and Canada is made elsewhere. That means that 8 of 10 clothing items hanging in your closet are not made at home. The same reality holds for 8-of 10 toys, 9-of-10 sporting goods items, and 9-of-10 pairs of shoes in your closet. This is an issue because less than 1% of the final cost of a product is paid to the worker, who makes, on average, 15-25 cents U.S. per hour. If you pay $50 for an item, workers in another country receive less than 50 cents for producing it, and this amount is far below what they need for even the most basic sustenance (New Community Project, 2005).

Nearly 4 of 10 clothing and apparel items for sale in the United States and Canada are made in China, where workers are forbidden to organize to improve work conditions (sweatshops and child and prison labour). If people wanted to consume more fairly, it would be difficult, as less than .01% of world trade is in the form of fair trade.

Phot

o: w

ww

.glo

gste

r.com


� Nearly 4 of 10 clothing and apparel items for sale in the United States and Canada are made in China, where workers are forbidden to organize to improve work conditions (sweatshops and child and prison labour). If people wanted to consume more fairly, it would be difficult, as less than .01% of world trade is in the form of fair trade. That is even less than 1-in-100. And even when people are aware of these facts, most are not willing to pay more for a fair trade product. The system and consumer attitudes preclude consuming differently (Global Market Insite, 2005; McGregor, 2006a).

� 8 of 10 products purchased by members of the consumer class are made by girls aged 12-14. Typical sweatshop employees, 90% of them women, are young and uneducated (aged 16-25). Sweatshops are businesses that regularly violate wage agreements, the rights of women and child labourers, and many health, environment, and safety laws (Woolf, 2001).

� There are 2.2 billion children in the world, and 1.9 billion of them (9 of 10) live in “developing countries.” Nearly 250 million of them (13%) work in sweatshops, meaning one in every eighth child is not receiving public education, a reality that does not bode well for their future well-being and quality of life or the human condition.

These examples illustrate massive infringement of the principles of non-violence: exploitation, dehumanization, lack of respect, social and economic injustice, harm to others, impoverishment leading to oppression, stressed human relationships, exclusion from power, lack of opportunities, and ecological disharmony. People in a consumer

Professor Sue L.T. McGregor, PhD, is a Canadian home economist with a keen interest in transdisciplinarity, integral studies, moral leadership and transformative practice. Having worked in higher education for 30 years, she is recently retired from the Faculty of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was one of the lead architects for the university’s recently launched interuniversity doctoral program in educational studies. She is a TheAtlas Fellow (transdisciplinarity), was recently appointed Docent in Home Economics at the University of Helsinki. In 2009, she was awarded the TOPACE International Award (Berlin) for distinguished consumer scholar and educator in recognition of her work on transdisciplinarity. She has published four books: Creating Home Economics Futures (2012, co-edited with Donna Pendergast and Kaija Turkki), Transversity (2011, with Russ Volckmann), Consumer Moral Leadership (2010), and Transformative Practice (2006).

She is a Principal Consultant for The McGregor Consulting Group http://www.consultmcgregor.com.

society live a relatively comfortable life at the expense of impoverished labourers and fragile ecosystems, often in other countries.

The veil of consumerism enables consumers to overlook the connections between consumerism and oppressive regimes (governments, world financial institutions, and transnational corporations) that violate human rights, and increase drug trade and military spending. This disregard is possible because consumerism accentuates and accelerates human fragmentation, isolation, and exclusion for the profit of the few, contributing significantly to violence. A consumer society values this new form of slavery and the resultant disposable people. It also ignores the implications of Northern consumption decisions on Majority World citizens, the next generation, and those not yet born.

Worse, as Northern, privileged consumers experience inner conflict and lack of peace as a result of living in a consumer society, they deal with the fear and anger emanating from this conflict by consuming to the point that consumerism is also a form of slavery for those doing the consuming. People behave as they do in a consumer society because they are so indoctrinated into the “logic” of the market that they cannot see anything wrong with what they are doing. Because they do not critically challenge the neoliberal market ideology, and what it means to live in a consumer society, they actually contribute to their own oppression, becoming slaves of the market and capitalism.

This enslavement happens at the same time their consumption decisions oppress others who make the goods, and the natural ecosystem (see McGregor, 2001). Strong and unsustainable consumption patterns

have developed and gone unchallenged, to the point that consumerism and structural violence represent dominant forces in human social interaction. These forces are transforming human life in powerful and destructive ways.

This situation is not without hope (defined as a connection to the future). There is a growing movement of people who are challenging the fallout of consumerism as structural violence, including the CCPA and contributors to and readers of The CCPA Monitor. These social change agents are advocating for ethical and moral consumption, for non-violent consumption, and for a culture of peace rather than a consumer culture that is predicated on alienation, dissatisfaction, disenchantment, misplaced self-identity, and false relationships. These citizens are focusing on positive peace, on justice, human rights, freedom, human responsibilities, solidarity, equality and human security -- on the absence of structural violence.

The social change agents are advocating for ethical and moral consumption, for non-violent consumption, and for a culture of peace rather than a consumer culture that is predicated on alienation, dissatisfaction, disenchantment, misplaced self-identity, and false relationships. These citizens are focusing on positive peace, on justice, human rights, freedom, human responsibilities, solidarity, equality and human security -- on the absence of structural violence.


“Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.”

Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation


Thich Nhat Hanh: Only love can save us from climate change

Interviewed by Jo Confino

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the world’s leading spiritual teachers, is a man at great peace even as he predicts the possible collapse of civilisation within 100 years as a result of runaway climate change.

The 86-year-old Vietnamese monk, who has followers from around the world, believes the reason most people are not responding to the threat of global warming, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, is that they are unable to save themselves from their own personal suffering, never mind worry about the plight of Mother Earth. He says it is possible to be at peace if you pierce through our false reality, which is based on the idea of life and death, to touch the ultimate dimension in Buddhist thinking, in which energy cannot be created or destroyed.

By recognising the inter-connectedness of all life, we can move beyond the idea that we are separate selves and expand our compassion and love in such a way that we take action to protect the Earth.

Look beyond fear Thay has written about how people

spend much of their lives worrying about getting ill, ageing and losing the things they treasure most, despite the obvious fact that one day they will have to let them all go. When we understand that we are more than our physical bodies, that we didn’t come from nothingness and will not disappear into nothingness, we are liberated from fear. Fearlessness is not only possible but the ultimate joy. Speaking at his modest home in Plum Village monastery near Bordeaux, he states:

“For us it is very alarming and urgent, but for Mother Earth, if she

suffers she knows she has the power to heal herself even if it takes 100m years. We think our time on Earth is only 100 years, which is why we are impatient. The collective karma and ignorance of our race, the collective anger and violence will lead to our destruction and we have to learn to accept that.

And maybe Mother Earth will produce a great being sometime in the next decade ... We don’t know and we cannot predict. Mother Earth is very talented. She has produced Buddhas, bodhisattvas, great beings. So take refuge in Mother Earth and surrender to her and ask her to heal us, to help us. And we have to accept that the worst can happen; that most of us will die as a species and many other species will die also and Mother Earth will be capable after maybe a few million years to bring us out again and this time wiser.”

Confront the truthThay suggests that our search

for fame, wealth, power and sexual gratification provides the perfect refuge for people to hide from the truth about the many challenges facing the world. Worse still, our addiction to material goods and a hectic lifestyle provides only a temporary plaster for gaping emotional and spiritual wounds, which only drives greater loneliness and unhappiness.

Having just celebrated the 70th anniversary of his ordination, he reflects on the lack of action over the destruction of ecosystems and the

rapid rate of biodiversity loss:

“When they see the truth it is too late to act ... but they don’t want to wake up because it may make them suffer. They cannot confront the truth. It is not that they don’t know what is going to happen. They just don’t want to think about it.

They want to get busy in order to forget. We should not talk in terms of what they should do, what they should not do, for the sake of the future. We should talk to them in such a way that touches their hearts, that helps them to engage on the path that will bring them true happiness; the path of love and understanding, the courage to let go. When they have tasted a little bit of peace and love, they may wake up.”

Thay was a prime mover in the creation of the Engaged Buddhism movement, which promotes the individual’s active role in creating change, and his mindfulness training – an ethical roadmap – calls on practitioners to boycott products that damage the environment and to confront social injustice.

Given the difficulty of convincing those with vested interests to change their behaviour, he says a grassroots movement is necessary -- citing the tactics used by Gandhi -- but insists that this can be effective only if activists first deal with their own anger and fears, rather than projecting them onto those they see at fault.

Vantage PointPh

oto

Cour

tesy

: Pau

l Dav

is


Awakened consumers can influence how companies act

On companies that produce harmful products, he says: “They should not continue to produce these things. We don’t need them. We need other kinds of products that help us to be healthier. If there is awakening in the ranks of consumers, then the producer will have to change. We can force him to change by not buying.

“Gandhi was capable of urging his people to boycott a number of things. He knew how to take care of himself during non-violent operations. He knew how to preserve energy because the struggle is long, so spiritual practice is very much needed in an attempt to help change society.”

He believes that while it is difficult for those holding the strings of power to speak out against the destructive nature of the current economic system, for fear of being ostracised and ridiculed, we do need more leaders to have the courage to challenge the status quo. For business and political leaders to do that, they need to cultivate compassion in order to embrace and diminish the ego.

“You have the courage to speak out because you have compassion. With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.”

A moment of contemplationWhile many people are becoming

disorientated by the complexity of their lives and by the overwhelming array of choices offered by our consumer society, Thay’s retreats offer a profoundly simple alternative.

Over Plum Village’s three-month winter retreat, Thay repeatedly instructs the hundreds of monks, nuns and lay practitioners about switching off the non-stop noise in their heads and focusing on the core of mindfulness; the joy of breathing, of walking, of contemplation in the present moment.

Rather than searching for answers to life in the study of philosophy, or seeking adrenaline charged peak

experiences, Thay suggests that true happiness can be found by touching the sacred in the very ordinary experiences of life, which we largely overlook.

How often do we fully appreciate, for example, how hard our hearts work day and night to keep us alive? He suggests it is possible to discover profound truths through concentrating on something as basic as eating a carrot, as you get the insight that the vegetable cannot exist without the support of the entire universe.

“If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.”

Despite meditating every day for the past seven decades, Thay believes there is still much to learn:

“In Buddhism we speak of love as something limitless. The four elements of love which are loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, have no frontiers. Buddha is thinking like that. His followers call him the perfect one but that is out of love, for the truth is you can never be perfect. But we don’t need to be perfect. That is a good thing to know. If you make a little bit of progress every day, a little bit more joy and peace, that is good enough. There is no limit of the practice. And I think that is true of the human race. We can continue to learn generation after generation and now is time to begin to learn how to love in a non-discriminatory way because we are intelligent enough, but we are not loving enough as a species.”

A life lived away from the public eye

Thay has avoided the trap of being surrounded by celebrities and will give interviews only to journalists who have spent time beforehand meditating with him -- on the basis that mindfulness needs to be experienced, rather than described. Yet he is no wallflower and has led an extraordinary life, including a nomination for the Nobel peace prize from Martin Luther King for his work in seeking an end to the Vietnam war. He set up Plum Village 30 years ago after being exiled from his home country and has since added monasteries in

Thailand, Hong Kong and the US, as well as an applied Buddhist institute in Germany. He has continued to work for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world, including holding several retreats for Israelis and Palestinians.

Despite all his achievements, including a recent stint as guest editor at the Times of India, Thay is modest when he looks back at his life:

“There is not much we have achieved except some peace, some contentment inside. It is already a lot. The happiest moments are when we sit down and we feel the presence of our brothers and sisters, lay and monastic, who are practicising walking and sitting mediation. That is the main achievement and other things like publishing books and setting up institutions are not important.

It is important we have a sangha [community] and the insight came that the Buddha of our time may not be an individual but it might be a sangha. If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow. The Buddha is not something far away but in the here and in the now.”

If you make a little bit of progress every day, a little bit more joy and peace, that is good enough. Now is the time to begin to learn how to love in a non-discriminatory way.

Jo Confino is an executive editor of the Guardian and chairman and editorial director of Guardian Sustainable Business. He was Wall Street correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and subsequently the finance and business news editor for the Guardian.

Originally published at: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/zen-master-thich-nhat-hanh-love-climate-change


It is tempting to think that Gandhi may have been an “early environmentalist”, and yet there appear to be insuperable problems in embracing this view. His views on the exploitation of nature can be reasonably inferred from his famous

Gandhian EcologyVinay Lal

pronouncement that the earth has enough to satisfy everyone’s needs but not everyone’s greed. Yet Gandhi appears to have been remarkably reticent on the relationship of humans to their external environment, and it is striking that he never explicitly

initiated an environmental movement, nor does the word ‘ecology’ appear in his writings. The 50,000 pages of his published writings have relatively little to convey about trees, animals, vegetation, and landscapes, with the notable exception of pages devoted to the subject of cow-protection and the goat that Gandhi kept by his side.

It is also doubtful that he would have contemplated with equanimity the setting aside of tracts of land, forests, and woods as “wilderness areas”, though scarcely for the same reasons for which developers, industrialists, loggers, and financiers object to such altruism. Though an admirer of Thoreau’s writings, such as the essay on “Civil Disobedience”, Gandhi would not have thought much of the enterprise, rather familiar to him from the Indian tradition, of retreating into the woods. He was by no means averse to the idea of the retreat, but Gandhi spent an entire lifetime endeavoring to remain otherworldly while wholly enmeshed in the ugly affairs of the world. The problems posed, for example, by the man-eating tigers of Kumaon, made famous by Jim Corbett, would have left less of a moral impression upon him than those problems which are the handiwork of men who let the brute within them triumph. It is reported that when the English historian Edward Thompson once remarked to Gandhi that wildlife was rapidly disappearing in India, Gandhi replied: “wildlife is decreasing in the jungles, but it is increasing in the towns.”

Thus neither ‘ecologist’ nor ‘environmentalist’ seem to sit on Gandhi’s frame with ease. And, yet, few people acquainted with Gandhi’s life, or with environmental movements in India, would cavil at the suggestion that Gandhi has been the inspirational force behind the ecological awareness of contemporary Indians. It may be mistaken to speak of the Chipko movement and the Narmada Bachao Andolan [“Save the Narmada Movement”] as “Gandhian”, since any such reading perforce ignores the traditions of peasant resistance, the force of customary

To comprehend the ecological dimensions of Gandhian thinking and practice, we shall have to go well beyond the ordinary implications conveyed by the categories of ‘ecology’ and ‘environment’; indeed, we may not even find much in these words, as they are conventionally understood, to bring us close to Gandhi, unless we are prepared to concede that ethics, ecology, and politics were all closely and even indistinguishably interwoven into the fabric of his thought and social practices.

Vantage Point

Phot

o: w

ikim

edia


practices, and the appeal of localized systems of knowledge, but the spirit of Gandhi has undoubtedly moved Indian environmentalists. Not only that: far beyond the confines of Indian environmental movements, exponents of deep ecology have spoken glowingly of the impress of Gandhi’s thought upon them. Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher with whose name deep ecology is inextricably intertwined, has testified that from Gandhi he learnt that the power of non-violence could only be realized after the awareness of “the essential oneness of all life.”

To comprehend the ecological dimensions of Gandhian thinking and practice, we shall have to go well beyond the ordinary implications conveyed by the categories of ‘ecology’ and ‘environment’; indeed, we may not even find much in these words, as they are conventionally understood, to bring us close to Gandhi, unless we are prepared to concede that ethics, ecology, and politics were all closely and even indistinguishably interwoven into the fabric of his thought and social practices. If, for instance, his practice of observing twenty-four hours of silence on a regular basis was a mode of conserving his energy, entering into an introspective state, and listening to the still voice within, it was also a way of signifying his dissent from ordinary models of communication with the British and establishing the discourse on his own terms. Similarly, Gandhi deployed fasting not only to open negotiations with the British or (more frequently) various Indian communities, but to cleanse his own body, free his mind of impure thoughts, feminize the public realm, and even to partake in the experience of deprivation from which countless millions of Indians suffered. Gandhi deplored the idea of waste, and fasting was a sure means of ascertaining the true needs of the body and preserving its ecological equanimity.

The ecological vision of Gandhi’s life opens itself before us in myriad ways. First, as nature provides for the largest animals as much as it provides for its smallest creations, so Gandhi allowed this principle to guide him in his political and social relations with every woman and man with whom he came in contact. Gandhi’s close disciple and attendant, Mirabehn, wrote that while he worked alongside everyone else in the ashram, he would carry on his

voluminous correspondence and grant interviews. “Big people of all parties, and of many different nations would come to see Bapu, but he would give equal attention to the poorest peasant who might come with a genuine problem.” In the midst of important political negotiations with senior British officials, he would take the time to tend to his goat. Gandhi remained supremely indifferent to considerations of power, prestige, and status in choosing his companions; similarly, he was as attentive to the minutest details as he was to matters of national importance. One of his associates has reported - and such stories proliferate - that when news reached Gandhi of the illness of the daughter of a friend, he wrote to her a long letter in the midst of an intense political struggle in Rajkot, detailing the medicines that she was to take, the food that she was to avoid, and the precautions she was to exercise. His own grand-niece, pointing to the meticulous care with which Gandhi tended to her personal needs, all the while that he was engaged in negotiations for Indian independence, perhaps showered him with the most unusual honor when, in writing a short book about him, she called it Bapu - My Mother.

Secondly, without being an advocate of wilderness as it is commonly understood today, Gandhi was resolutely of the view that nature should be allowed to take its own course. Arne Naess has written that he “even prohibited people from having a stock of medicines against poisonous bites. He believed in the possibility of satisfactory co-existence and he proved right. There were no accidents . . .” There is far more to these narratives than his rejection of modern medicine. Gandhi scarcely required the verdict of the biologist, wildlife trainer, or zoologist to hold to the view that nature’s creatures mind their own business, and that if humans were to

do the same, we would not be required to legislate the health of all species. On occasion a cobra would come into Gandhi’s room: there were clear instructions that it was not to be killed even if it bit Gandhi, though Gandhi did not prevent others from killing snakes. “I do not want to live”, wrote Gandhi, “at the cost of the life even of a snake.” Gandhi was quite willing to share his universe with animals and reptiles, without rendering them into objects of pity, curiosity, or amusement.

Thirdly, Gandhi transformed the idea of waste and rendered it pregnant with meanings that were the inverse of those meanings invested in it by European regimes, which represented the lands that they conquered as ‘unproductive’ and ‘wasteful’, and requiring only the energy and intelligence of the white man to render them useful to humans. Gandhi, contrariwise, was inclined to the view that man was prone to transform whatever he touched, howsoever fertile, fecund, or productive, into waste. His close disciple and associate, Kaka Kalelkar, narrates that he was in the habit of breaking off an entire twig merely for four or five neem leaves he needed to rub on the fibers of the carding-bow to make its strings pliant and supple. When Gandhi saw that, he remarked: “This is violence. We should pluck the required number of leaves after offering an apology to the tree for doing so. But you broke off the whole twig, which is wasteful and wrong.” Gandhi also described himself as pained that people would “pluck masses of delicate blossoms” and fling them in his face or string them around his neck as a garland.

Yet this alone was not wasteful: there was also human waste, around the disposal of which an entire and none too savory history of India can be written. While it was a matter of shame that Indian society had set

The spirit of Gandhi has undoubtedly moved Indian environmentalists. Not only that: far beyond the confines of Indian environmental movements, exponents of deep ecology have spoken glowingly of the impress of Gandhi’s thought upon them. Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher with whose name deep ecology is inextricably intertwined, has testified that from Gandhi he learnt that the power of non-violence could only be realized after the awareness of “the essential oneness of all life.”


apart a special class of people to deal with the disposal of human excrement, whose occupation made them the most despised members of society, Gandhi found it imperative to bring this matter to the fore and make it as much a subject of national importance as the attainment of political independence and the reform of degraded institutions. Unlike the vast majority of caste Hindus, Gandhi did not allow anyone else to dispose off his waste. His ashrams were repositories for endeavors to change human waste into organic fertilizer. Moreover, during the course of the last twenty years of his life, he was engaged in ceaseless experiments to invent toilets that would be less of a drain on scarce water resources. If Gandhi had done nothing else in his life, one suspects that he would still find a place in histories of sanitation engineering in India; he would also be remembered as one caste Hindu who did not hesitate to wield publicly the toilet broom.

Fourthly, and this is a point that cannot be belabored enough, Gandhi did not make of his ecological sensitivities a cult or religion to which unquestioning fealty was demanded. One writer credits him with the saying, “I am a puritan myself but I am catholic towards others”. His attitude towards meat is illustrative of his catholicity in many respects: Gandhi was a strict vegetarian, some might say in the “unreflective” manner in which many Indians are vegetarians from birth. He was aware, as his writings amply demonstrate, of the cruelty to animals, but he may have been unaware of the argument, which is widely encountered in the ecological literature today, about the extreme pressures upon the soil and water resources induced by the meat industry. In this matter, as in many others bearing upon critical elements

of his thought and ethical practices, the anecdotal literature is more revealing, more suggestive of the extraordinary notion of largesse which informed every action of his life. Once, when he had an European visitor at his ashram, where only vegetarian meals were prepared, Gandhi had meat served to him. This surprised everyone, but Gandhi, who had come to understand that his visitor was habituated to meat at every meal, construed it as unacceptable coercion to inflict a new diet upon him.

Gandhi himself partook of milk and milk products, unlike those who style themselves ‘vegans’ in the United States, and his reverence for life and respect for animals did not border on that fanaticism which is only another name for violence. Jehangir Patel, an associate of Gandhi, has written that one day his intimate disciple and attendant, Mirabehn, came running to him in an agitated state of mind. “Bapu [the affectionately respectful term for Gandhi] won’t be able to eat his breakfast”, she said. “Some one has put meat into the fridge where his food is. How could you allow such a thing?” The cook, Ali, explained that he had gotten the meat for the dogs, and offered to remove it at once. Jehangir asked him to let the meat remain there, and Gandhi himself was fetched. Jehangir then apologized to Gandhi: “I did not think of speaking to Ali. I did not realise that this might happen.” Gandhi replied, “Don’t apologise. You and Ali have done nothing wrong, so far as I can see.” Gandhi took some grapes lying next to the meat, and popped them into his mouth; turning then to Mirabehn, he said: “We are guests in our friend’s house, and it would not be right for us to impose our idea upon him or upon anyone. People whose custom it is to eat meat should not stop doing so simply because I am present.” Similarly, though Gandhi championed prohibition, he would not prevent anyone from drinking alcohol, and he condemned altogether the principle of drinking on the sly; as he told Jehangir, “I would much rather you were a drinker, even a heavy drinker, than that there should be any deceit in the matter.”

Though Gandhi was, then, no philosopher of ecology, and can only be called an environmentalist with considerable difficulty, he strikes a remarkable chord with all those who have cared for the environment, loved flowers, practiced vegetarianism, cherished the principles of non-violence,

been conserving of water, resisted the depredations of developers, recycled paper, or accorded animals the dignity of humans. He was a deep ecologist long before the term’s theorists had arisen, and one suspects that even the broadest conception of “deep ecology” is not capacious enough to accommodate the radically ecumenical aspects of Gandhi’s life. He wrote no ecological treatise, but made one of his life, and it is no exaggeration to suggest that he left us, in his life, with the last of the Upanishads or “forest books”. This is one life in which every minute act, emotion, or thought was not without its place: the brevity of Gandhi’s enormous writings, his small meals of nuts and fruits, his morning ablutions and everyday bodily practices, his periodic observances of silence, his morning walks, his cultivation of the small as much as of the big, his abhorrence of waste, his resort to fasting -- all these point to the manner in which the symphony was orchestrated.

Vinay Lal was born in Delhi and now teaches at UCLA a broad range of courses in Indian history, comparative colonial histories, and subaltern history and Indian historiography. Vinay is a member of the editorial board of nearly ten journals, including Journal of Social History, Culture, Theory and Critique. He has written regularly for periodicals in the US, India, and Britain, including the Economic and Political Weekly, The Little Magazine and Social Scientist. This article has been adapted from the much lengthier version published as, “Too Deep for Deep Ecology: Gandhi and the Ecological Vision of Life”, in Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water.

Original article: https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/Gandhian_ecology.html

Gandhiji wrote no ecological treatise, but made one of his life; and it is no exaggeration to suggest that he left us, in his life, with the last of the Upanishads or “forest books”. This is one life in which every minute act, emotion, or thought was not without its place.


Rema kumar shares a poem inspired by this bhajan. She feels this hymn is as relevant today as when it was written and can lead us to finding answers to questions that we struggle with .

In search of Vaishnav Jan…Soul stirring strains of the bhajan

keep playing, flowing my mind

Touching a chord, tugging at my heart

As images and reports keep pouring in

Of violence of varied hues and shades

From around the corner, from across the world

Questions abound without a break

How do I/we feel another’s pain?

How do I/we share another’s sorrow?

Is there hope? Are we doomed?

Can I/we take another path?

Can I/we feel into the essential oneness of all life?

To heal our wounds, to clean our filters

To tune in with another, to see from another point of view

To walk in peace, to be at peace

To exercise restraint in the face of violence

To know that what we do to another, we do to ourselves!

In search of Vaishnav jan … within, around, amidst.

Vaishnav literally means one who worships Vishnu. But the word really stands for a person who has the qualities of an ideal human being; one who knows the pain of others, reaches out to those in misery, accepts and praises the entire world and sees everyone equally.

Vaishnav jan to tene kahiye, is the immortal composition of the 15th century Gujarati poet Narsi Mehta, emphasises the virtues of the Vaishnav code of life. The poet at the end states that he would like to see such a person, by whose virtue goodness prevails in the world. This bhajan was one of Gandhiji’s favourite hymns and was included in his daily prayers.

Vaishnav Jan ToVaishnav jan to tene kahiye jePeed paraayi jaane rePar-dukhkhe upkaar kare toyeMan abhimaan na aane re (Vaishnav...)

Sakal lok maan sahune vandeNindaa na kare keni reVaach kaachh man nishchaL raakheDhan-dhan janani teni re (Vaishnav...)

Sam-drishti ne trishna tyaagiPar-stree jene maat reJivha thaki asatya na bolePar-dhan nav jhaalee haath re (Vaishnav...)

Moh-maaya vyaape nahi jeneDridh vairaagya jena man maan reRam naam shoon taali laagiSakal tirath tena tan maan re (Vaishnav...)

Van-lobhi ne kapat-rahit chheKaam-krodh nivaarya reBhane Narsaiyyo tenun darshan kartaKul ekoter taarya re (Vaishnav..)

Rema Kumar is an educationist with over 20 years of experience of teaching in schools in different parts of India. She has been involved with Prakriya Green Wisdom School Bangalore, since its initial years; co-creating the institution, partnering in the visioning and living out the dream of humanizing education in tune with nature’s principles. A passionate teacher, she has a keen interest in deep ecology and education for sustainability. An avid reader, a sporadic writer and a story teller, she thrives on stories of ‘Hope’ and generously shares them with others.

Gandhi’s Vaishnava Jan to_


An increasing number of environmental activists regard the word “environment” with

some suspicion, generally preferring the term “ecology.”

The word “environment” posits the idea that nature

is something that surrounds humans and something that we

are fundamentally outside of and separate from. “Ecology,” on

the other hand, embeds humans back within the external world as

a natural component of it.

Violence and our Environment

Both the words “environment” and “violence” have so many meanings that they require some definition of how they can be of use in the context of a struggle for social justice. Regarding the word violence, according to Merriam-Webster, one definition is “the use of brute strength to cause harm to a person or property”; a definition that doesn’t seem to have an immediately obvious connection to ecological issues associated with climate change, loss of biodiversity and various forms of pollution.

An increasing number of environmental activists, myself included, regard the word “environment” with some suspicion, generally preferring the term “ecology.” The reasoning behind the change in emphasis is because using the word “environment” posits the idea that nature is something that surrounds humans, but at the same time, something that we are fundamentally outside of and separate from. The separation of nature from humans is the ideological position underlying capitalist orthodoxy; namely, that the biosphere is a subset of the economy, rather than the other way around. Capitalists can freely take “natural

resources” from outside of the economy as inputs, and dump waste from the production process back into the environment as outputs. Mainstream economic theory then pronounces that the ramifications of such an outlook will have only limited impact on the planet as a whole, and, thereby, economic accumulation and growth can continue indefinitely.

“Ecology,” on the other hand, embeds humans back within the external world

as a natural component of it, the same as any other organism. The use of tools such as microscopes, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging devices, can then be seen not simply as humans investigating nature in order to understand it, but that we are concurrently investigating ourselves, because tools are merely mechanical extensions of our bodily senses. No doubt Karl Marx would very much approve of such an attention to the hidden social meaning of words, particularly with regard, in this example, to his very important concept of “metabolic rift”: the devastating and unnatural split or break between humans and nature, forced on us by capitalist social relations.

Given these issues, and the importance of words to explain and communicate thought, how should those of us engaged in a struggle against capitalist environmental violence, conceive of that fight? If we are to argue that the social, economic and political system known as capitalism is the root cause of environmental violence, what are we arguing it is responsible for?

Intersetingly enough, but perhaps unsurprisingly given the prevalence

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis and a participant in the ecosocialist coalition System Change Not Climate Change, examines how the capitalist priorities causing climate change do violence to the lives of ordinary people.

Vantage Point

Phot

o: M

icha

el C

lear

y


of overt violence in our world, the dictionary gives almost 50 related words for “violence.” These begin with words such as “coercion,” “compulsion,” “constraint,” go on to “barbarity,” “brutality,” “damage,” and continue with “onslaught,” “tumult” and “upheaval.”

Putting these words into a human context and joining them up with the word “environment” now starts to make significant sense. It is no longer possible to restrict violence to an act that is immediate and causes direct and obvious harm, whether that is in the most commonly thought of cases of warfare, police brutality, or state-sponsored torture such as waterboarding, or racist, sexist or homophobic language and bigotry.

Capitalist environmental violence rests on the dual exploitation of humans and nature, which were regarded by Marx as the twin sources of all wealth. Exploitation of the natural world, driven forward by the never-ending hunt for profits, is merely the flip side of the exploitation of humans, put to work to turn the source of sustenance into money.

Viewed this way, socialists fighting for social justice and a different world cannot avoid integrating a fight for ecological justice, as the two are inseparable components of the same fight.

In this broadened understanding of violence, capitalism is an intensely violent system, as it depends on the systematic coercion of workers who are daily faced with the choice of working for “a living” or starvation and homelessness; their life choices for education, health and human fulfillment are hugely constrained by the unyielding ferocity of class exploitation and racism. Billions of people’s lives are stunted and foreshortened by the daily violence meted out to them via the dictates of a system that prioritizes profit above all else. In Volume I of Capital, Marx’s words resonate as much in our day as his:

In its blind unrestrainable passion, its werewolf hunger for surplus labor, capital oversteps not only the moral, but even the merely physical maximum bounds of the working day. It usurps the time for growth, development and healthy maintenance of the body. It steals the time required for the consumption of fresh air and sunlight. It haggles over a meal-time, incorporating it where possible with the process of production

One can only have nutritious food, health care or decent housing located in an unpolluted neighborhood,

if one has the money to pay for those things. Lack of access to these necessities by some, where others

have access, makes the violence explicit.

itself, so that food is supplied to the laborer as to a mere means of production, as coal is supplied to the boiler, grease and oil to the machinery. It reduces the sound sleep needed for the restoration, reparation, refreshment of the bodily powers to just so many hours of torpor as the revival of an organism, absolutely exhausted, renders essential.

But for Marx, the violent treatment of humans by capitalist social relations, in shortening and hamstringing their lives through overwork, poor housing, inadequate food and pollution, was directly analogous to capitalist farming practices:

“Capital cares nothing for the length of labor-power. All that concerns it is simply and solely the maximum of labor-power that can be rendered fluent in a working-day. It attains this end by shortening the extent of the [worker’s] life, as a greedy farmer snatches increased produce from the soil by robbing it of its fertility.”

One can only have nutritious food, health care or decent housing located in an unpolluted neighborhood, if one has the money to pay for those things. Lack of access to these necessities by some, where others have access, makes the violence explicit.

Furthermore, there is the violence of institutionalized racism, and a culture saturated with sexism that turns women’s bodies into objects, doubly exploits them through unpaid domestic labor, and in the United States, refuses to allow women control over their own reproductive organs.

There is associated psychological violence done to humans against our own sociality, whereby we are forced to live, in Marx’s emotive phrase, in “dot-like isolation,” as the primacy of the individual over the collective is sanctified. Few have written of the social alienation and environmental degradation suffered by working people with greater effect than Frederick Engels, in his classic study The Condition of the Working Class in England.

Engels highlights the contradiction engendered by capitalism, between bringing millions of people together in giant urban conglomerations, which, rather than fostering collective solidarity and companionship, instead produce its opposite - an unfeeling and solitary individuality that corrupts the human spirit: After roaming the streets of the capital a day or two, making headway with difficulty through the human turmoil and the endless lines of vehicles, after visiting the slums of the metropolis, one realizes for the first

Phot

o: A

lon


time that these Londoners have been forced to sacrifice the best qualities of their human nature, to bring to pass all the marvels of civilization which crowd their city; that a hundred powers which slumbered within them have remained inactive, have been suppressed in order that a few might be developed more fully and multiply through union with those of others.

For Engels, this produces feelings and a mode of living that is profoundly alienating of all that is good about humans:

“The brutal indifference, the unfeeling isolation of each in his private interest, becomes the more repellent and offensive, the more these individuals are crowded together, within a limited space. And, however much one may be aware that this isolation of the individual, this narrow self-seeking, is the fundamental principle of our society everywhere, it is nowhere so shamelessly barefaced, so self-conscious as just here in the crowding of the great city. The dissolution of mankind into monads, of which each one has a separate principle, the world of atoms, is here carried out to its utmost extreme.”

Of course, there is the more overt and immediate violence of the state against people trying to protect their land from environmental degradation and ensuing displacement and poverty associated with fossil fuel extraction. From the Ogoni people in Nigeria fighting Shell, to indigenous people poisoned by Chevron in the forests of Ecuador, the paramilitary arm of the

state serves corporate priorities the world over.

In North America, this was brutally demonstrated as members of the indigenous Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nation, alongside local residents, blockaded a road in New Brunswick, Canada. They were trying to prevent fracking exploration and were assaulted and tear gassed for their protest by paramilitary police.

The group, which had never been asked about whether they wanted their land used in this way, had blocked the road to stop shale gas exploration by SWN Resources Canada, a subsidiary of the Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. As Susan Levi-Peters, the former chief of the nearby Elsipogtog indigenous group, told reporters, “The RCMP is coming in here with their tear gas - they even had dogs on us...They were acting like we’re standing there with weapons, while we are standing there, as women, with drums and eagle feathers.”

There are myriad ways in which environmental violence plays out, especially when it is compounded by climate change. So, for example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, lack of tree-cover from ongoing deforestation, means even when rain comes, it runs off the land and carries fertile topsoil with it. As a result, women and girls, who are responsible for over 70 percent of water collection, have to travel further and further to obtain it. The UN estimates that women in Sub-Saharan Africa spend 200 million hours per day collecting water for food and farming

purposes, or 40 billion hours annually.

In 1992, Lawrence Summers, who was at the time chief economist of the World Bank, later to become Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary, president of Harvard, and most recently one of Obama’s key economic advisors in his first cabinet, wrote in an internal World Bank memorandum published by The Economist, in which he stated, “Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the [least-developed countries]?”

By way of answering his own question, he gives three reasons. Here’s the first:

The measurement of the costs of health-impairing pollution depends on the forgone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health-impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. The fact that a major establishment actor is able to advocate and rationalize the dumping of toxic waste on poor communities is a perfect illustration of the inhumanity of the thought process behind capitalist decision-making.

As I have argued, we need a much broader definition of violence than is allowed for by limiting its meaning to a physical and immediate brutal act of aggression, and one that includes an environmental dimension.

The fact that a major establishment actor is able to advocate and rationalize the dumping of toxic waste on poor communities is a perfect illustration of the inhumanity of the thought

process behind capitalist decision-making.

Phot

o: H

ugh

Bell


Violence can happen over extended periods of time. Exploited workers in unhealthy conditions and poor communities exposed to toxins gradually succumb to a worsening quality of life, through a compendium of often intersecting long-term ailments. Due to financial restrictions on health care (itself a violent act), they often can’t treat these illnesses by going to the doctor, seeking another job, or relocating to a different neighborhood.

A broadened definition of violence is exactly what Rob Nixon, Rachel Carson Professor of English at the University of Madison, argues is required in his book, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor:

By slow violence I mean a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all. Violence is customarily conceived as an event or action that is immediate in time, explosive and spectacular in space, and as erupting in sensational visibility. That is to say, the unplanned, shorter and shorter time frames upon which capitalism operates, clash with the longer and longer term effects of the actions taken on those shorter time scales. Human-induced climate change is arguably the primary and perfect example of just such a contradiction between the short-term priorities of capitalism to make profit from continuing to burn fossil fuels, and the longer term implications for future generations of humans, and planetary life in general, due to the now well-known side-effect of increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

One could reasonably debate whether climate change, or the irradiation of the atmosphere from atomic tests and the need to deal with nuclear waste from nuclear power plants--waste that remains toxic and deadly for hundreds of thousands of years--is a more disruptive and long-term negative impact of capitalist social relations.

In the more immediate sense, while we currently produce enough food to feed everyone on the planet, over 1 billion people suffer starvation and hunger. In discussing why people starve in England, when food was in fact abundant, Engels posed the question of who should be blamed for the extreme violence of death by starvation: “The English working-men call this ‘social murder’, and accuse our whole society of perpetrating this crime perpetually. Are they wrong?”

In answering Engels’ question, one must blame the system for the long-term “social murder” of our planet, and the daily degradation and violence of life under capitalism. Given the critical state of the biosphere and an exploitative and constantly growing economic model based on profit and fossil fuels for energy, which is bringing about global climate change, Rosa Luxemburg’s assertion, that we face the choice of barbarism or socialism, rings true now more than ever.

If we accept that premise, to return to where I began, one cannot be a social justice activist without equally being an ecological justice activist; and link arms with all those fighting racist environmental violence the world over.

Ultimately, all of this can only be solved by the self-emancipation of

humanity and putting in place a system that prioritizes long-term human and planetary health; real, bottom-up democracy based on cooperation; and production for human needs at its center. We need a system of cooperative and meaningful production, whereby the goal of society is social equity and ecological sustainability, and where environmental violence, in all its manifestations, is a thing of the past.

To bring this about will require a social and ecological revolution. While we organize and fight for that future, we must simultaneously work to bring about the small victories, necessary to make people’s immediate lives better and less polluted under capitalism, organize, and gain confidence for the larger, longer-term, and more profound and revolutionary battles to come.

We need a system of cooperative and meaningful

production, whereby the goal of society is social equity and ecological sustainability, and

where environmental violence, in all its manifestations, is a

thing of the past.

Chris Williams is a long time environmental activist and professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University. He is also the author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis and a regular contributor to the International Socialist Review.

This article was first published in The Socialist: http://www.thesocialist.us/violence-against-our-environment/

Phot

o: M

icha

el C

lear

y


The first case study is about shifting cultivation. I’ve found one of the most interesting things about Orissa is that there are one million people engaged in shifting cultivation there.

You can look at the history of shifting cultivation as a policy document, and there’s no indication of its policy. You’ll find in colonial documents that shifting cultivation is classified as “waste.” The second way it is classified is “primitive.” The third is “pre-modern.” The minute you use any of these three categories, you’ve pre-determined the subject to the language of museums. The minute you museumize the practice of shifting cultivation you give it a certain kind of value. But by placing that antiquated value on it, you devalue any current worth because you place it in the past that you have already gone through, rather than the future that you are going to encounter. The genocidal impetus of social science has to be taken into account in these situations. If you create these dualistic languages, you will not have the kind of discourses that can create the alternatives we are looking for.

The existing groups that practice shifting cultivation today have no language of defense. They are often defended by anthropologists who “go native” and not by members of their own community. In fact, the Bastar shifting cultivation case study is being conducted by a student of mine who went so native that it took us some time to bring him back. It’s very interesting to look at what happened to him. He had this notion that the Bastar way of life was a state of absolute perfection. This is the same thing Leo Strauss once said to a teacher of mine: “Your caste system is so perfect, why would you want to change it?” But the thing is, it is changing. The language of Leo

Environmental Values, Policy and Conflict in India

Shiv Visvanathan argues that the very language of modernity does injustice to traditional knowledge; it is a modernity that does not value the multiplicity of discourses that exist.

Presented below are excerpts from his paper presented in the seminar by the Carnegie Council-sponsored project “Understanding Values: A Comparative Study on Environmental Values in China, India, Japan and the United States.”

Strauss and anthropology can’t defend it from this change. The question is: What kind of a language will defend populations that are dying out? What kind of language do we use beyond the language of genocide or ecocide to defend a way of life within everyday terms?

It is in this context that shifting cultivation becomes interesting. I want to emphasize this again and again: there is no essentialism to many of these languages. You can’t actually invent the language of ecologism to protect a way of life. What you can have is two sets of tactics, both coming from modernity. On one level, you have the universities, which tell you the only right thing for India is rice cultivation. You have the calendar, which only looks at a linear notion of time, going against other varieties of time in which shifting cultivation functions. What you have within the discourse of democracy is the notion of the standard citizen, living in linear time—that is, living outside of agricultural time,living outside of ecological time. I don’t think that the current notion of citizenship has a notion of ecological time. A citizen is born in industrial time. A citizen is born in clock time. In fact, today a citizen is recreated in digital time.

Until you bring back what I call the wider embodiments of citizenship, which the feminist movement in a way is trying to do, as is the ecology movement, you cannot discover the kind of discourse of environmentalism associated with shifting cultivation. It is necessary to be aware of the different discourses that democracy has lost: the varieties of time; the varieties of embodiment, a different relation between work and nature.

Our second case study looks

at fishing trawlers. A lot has been written about this issue. What we have is Marxism and ecology, my two preoccupations for a long time, which, similar to the shifting cultivation case, have no notion of citizenship that allow for the kinds of marginalities that exist. If you are tribal, if you’re a woman, if you’re a peasant, if you’re an old person, there is no logic of citizenship for you; there is only the logic of obsolescence.

The fishing struggle come into prominence because there were unorganized workers. The problem is a very simple one between groups of traditional fishermen versus modern trawlers. The question is one of mediation between modernity and tradition, between ecology and justice, between two different notions of value.

Let me give you a simple example. At spawning season, the fishermen in Alappey will starve, but they won’t go out to fish because they know that at that time they would insult and hurt the fish catch. The trawlers, however, will go in. Here are two frameworks of value: one which actually allows for fasting and feasting, allows for cycles of time, and another which only conceives of linear time. If there’s one thing we have to emphasize today in our theories of democracy, it is the multiplicity of notions of time. Notions of multiplicity of time allow for a new meaning to the notion of death and obsolescence than you have today. In the modern theory of democracy no citizen actually dies. This conception of citizenship doesn’t work in the notion of death in a systematic way. What these new discourses do—and I will give you a simple example—is to bring science back in an interesting way. The interesting question is not “big trawlers versus small trawlers,” “traditional fishermen versus modern fishermen,” but, “How does science

Vantage Point


intervene ecologically and non-violently in these discourses?”

I want to talk about a friend of mine who died recently. He was addressing this problem when he was in Madras. He said, “You’ve got these small fishermen, you’ve got the kind of resources they have, you’ve got the kind of communicative system they have, and then you’ve got the ‘big guys’ who don’t need your help, because their idea of science is the latest Japanese invention. How do I intervene?” And so he started by looking at anthropological records. What he found was that many of these fishers used to carry a coconut trunk on the back of their boats and the fish used to be attracted to it. He said, “If that can be scaled up, I’ve got an artificial coral reef.” Fish are always attracted to a coral reef, or to junk piled into the sea. They find these places secure, so they come and lay eggs there. What he did was build fish aggregation devices the size of this building in order to attract more fish.

The trawlers sank these devices. They could not accept that something that came from the traditional fishing culture would increase their catch. The only language they understand is that of science. This is a clear example of modern science ignoring what could be useful techniques culled from “traditional” knowledge in its focus on technology.

When you come to the Delhi pollution case, our third case study, what you confront is something new.

It’s very interesting that when you

look at the logic of cities today, it is the Indian middle class that is the greatest proponent of environmentalism, without understanding the genealogies of it or the political implications of it. In the Delhi pollution case, which was the attempt of one judge, Kuldip Singh, to create a “green” city, the first thing you realize about the judge is that he had decided in advance to be a “green” judge.

Singh wanted to beat the link with the criminal empire, so he became a “green” judge. In this vein, he presented a series of cases, which had the effect of overloading the Supreme Court. Today you have a Supreme Court which is passing laws not just on traffic, but on why you shouldn’t spit betel inside government offices. When you overload one agency of the government that performs all these functions, then it takes over the complete civics of a modern discourse. From spitting to vehicular traffic to whatever. You create problems about education, politics, pedagogy. You create problems with the sort of knowledge base within which the Supreme Court is functioning. Is it going to rely solely on one discourse for its recommendations or is it going to look at the variety of discourses within which law comes to play? Is law just a hammer for pounding one little nail, or is it a repertoire of choices within which different kinds of discourses are articulated?

The Supreme Court rulings collectively became a critique of industrial pollution, even when industrial pollution only constitutes

ten percent of the pollution of Delhi. The real source of pollution is vehicular pollution. But the Supreme Court was not able to make a single stand on it, because no man in Delhi is ever going to give up his scooter or his car, but you can throw the poor across the city or further. So this is the problem. You have today a Supreme Court which is trying to create a “green” city without having a notion of the city, without having a notion of labor, without having a notion of industry. At the same time, the Supreme Court sees itself as a modernizing body. The greatest beneficiaries of these Supreme Court rulings have been the old industrialists who have put investment into the first industrial revolution industries and now want to shift their finance capital into the third industrial revolution industries. They love it because each one of them has closed down these industries on ‘green’ terms, and then re-invested in them as real estate, which is the real source of money in Delhi.

I will say it again that when we look at this multiplicity of discourses, we have to look at a frame. What we see today, especially when we look at this notion of modernity in itself, is that we have a modernity that lacks any sense of self-reflection. A modernity which has no sense of the genealogy of its own values, and an elite middle class that sees itself as a vector of globalization, without any sense of what that vector involves in either magnitude or direction. We must put this new discourse back into a certain kind of political picture. Otherwise, what we have is the antiseptic nature of an environmental discourse happier on American campuses than on the ground in India.

Shiv Visvanathan is a Social Science Nomad. His work has explored the question of alternatives as a dialogue between the West and India. His writings have explored the psychological, cultural and political relations of science; the growing control of society by technology; and linkages between scientific establishment and authoritarian structures of state. Courtesy: Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. www.carnegiecouncil.org

If you are tribal, if you’re a woman, if you’re a peasant, if you’re an old person, there is no logic of citizenship for you;

there is only the logic of obsolescence.

Phot

o: w

ikim

edia


Vantage Point

Mickey Z.

THE TAO OF TOOLBOX

The clothes we wear and the gadgets we worship also contain myriad toxins and these ubiquitous items are usually manufactured by the equally ubiquitous sweatshop labor, prison labor, child labor, and slave labor.

One “debate” that never seems to end centers around the vague concept of “diversity of tactics” - a discussion that fast devolves into a puritanical struggle between those who claim to be pacifists and those who claim undying devotion to direct action—with virtually no middle ground.

My take: Debating violence vs. non-violence in today’s culture is like debating wetness vs. dryness as you ride the Titanic to the bottom of the ocean.

To all those who identify as pacifists, I submit:

The vast majority of “food” we eat results from unspeakable animal cruelty, environmental devastation, and the use of exploited human labor. This “food” contains toxins and chemicals and pesticides and GMOs that rain violence down upon ourselves and all living things and the system that controls access to such “food” perpetrates the daily - hourly - brutality of poverty. Every single bite you take contains the not-so-hidden ingredient of extreme, lethal violence.

But you practice Ahimsa?

The clothes we wear and the gadgets we worship also contain myriad toxins and these ubiquitous items are usually manufactured by the equally ubiquitous sweatshop labor, prison labor, child labor, and slave labor.

Yet you’re the non-violent type?

The products we use to clean (sic) ourselves and our homes don’t just contain toxins, they are toxins sold in toxic packaging - and they typically involve the scientifically specious and morally indefensible practice of animal experimentation.

And you shudder in horror at the mere mention of diversity of tactics?

Every time you flick on a light switch, you can thank the mining companies literally blowing the tops off mountains to reach coal and then dumping the toxic waste into the valleys below, polluting the headwaters of rivers that

To follow is an excerpt from Occupy this Book: Mickey Z. on Activism

provide drinking water to millions of earthlings. (Other violent energy options: fracking, nuclear plants, tar sands, off-shore drilling, etc.)

Meanwhile, your life is peaceful?

Do you live in America and pay taxes? If so, you are not only funding all I’ve mentioned above (and much more) but also the well-armed Blue Bloc of law enforcement from sea to shining sea - and their Prison-Industrial Complex accomplices. You help finance the criminal regimes we call “allies,” all across the globe. Then, of course, roughly half of your tax dollars are openly used to subsidize the most violent institution on the planet: the U.S. Department of Defense (sic).

Still... somehow... you remain a pacifist?

Don’t flatter yourself.

Reality: We are not yet in position to influence the parameters of this struggle we’re engaged in. You may opt to call yourself “non-violent,” but that designation will do nothing to stop the other side from using force—often in your name. The 1% has relied on violence for centuries and will continue to do so until it runs out of weapons.

To claim pacifism is to ignore the implicit daily violence of modern human culture. The primary reason why so many of us play along with the current system (pay for food and water, pay rent, etc.) and often tolerate the intolerable (toxins in our food, reduced civil liberties, etc.) is because if we didn’t, we’d eventually face violence from the State (eviction, arrest, detainment, prison, etc.). Taking things to an even more interconnected view, simply using a computer to type this article means I’ve agreed on some level to the mining of coltan (a major component of computer circuitry) by child labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where mining profits are used to fund a ruthless and bloody civil war and the ongoing slaughter of the world’s largest primate (Eastern Lowland Gorilla) to make room for coltan mines.

Every keystroke I make is an act of violence.

I could go on (the examples are virtually without limit) but it’s easier to sum up for now: Industrial civilization is built on, and based on, and functions on, overt and covert violence. Any discussion of non-violence that ignores this reality is an exercise in deep denial. Before you run and tell MLK on me, please note that I’m not advocating violence. Then again, I’m not advocating non-violence. The only thing I’m advocating is that members of the 99% maintain


Mickey Z. is a vegan and the author of the novel Darker Shade of Green. He is also a regular contributor to Planet Green, ZNet, CounterPunch, OpEdNews, Countercurrents.org, Animal Liberation Front, and other websites. With only a high school diploma, he has authored 12 books and has spoken and lectured in venues ranging from MIT to ABC No Rio, from Yale University to Occupy Free University.

Original article: http://worldnewstrust.com/the-tao-of-toolbox-violence-non-violence-mickey-z

Successful activism is never either/or. When allies bicker over tactics, you can be certain vanity is ruling the day. Whether you want to sign petitions or engage underground direct action, go right ahead—but please understand that such diversity of tactics advances the cause. Please also understand that deriding others for not adhering to your finely tuned sense of purity (violent, non-violent, or whatever) is more about soothing your ego than about creating the changes we all seek.

a big picture purpose, holistic solidarity, and a commitment to a wide range of sustained actions. We need a far more holistic view of our culture in order to pursue a far more holistic approach to change.

Successful activism is never either/or. When allies bicker over tactics, you can be certain vanity is ruling the day. Whether you want to sign petitions or engage underground direct action, go right ahead—but please understand that such diversity of tactics advances the cause. Please also understand that deriding others for not adhering to your finely tuned sense of purity (violent, non-violent, or whatever) is more about soothing your ego than about creating the changes we all seek.

Let’s say you’re a handy man/woman/person and you get hired for a job. I’m guessing you’d bring your full toolbox to the worksite. After all, you can never be sure what’ll pop up and what tools you might need. In other words, if you have a job to do, it would be self-defeating to decide beforehand that certain tools are off limits, no matter what. Keep all your tools at your disposal - even if some remain permanently untouched - just in case. As for tactics, why not let each activist decide which implement best suits her

or his style? There’s so much work to be done so please, stop worrying about what everyone else is or isn’t doing. Let’s all perform a daily ego-check and focus on the urgent tasks at hand.

It’s a long and exhilarating road ahead. Choose process over purity.


Materialism and Misery

Unequal societies have higher degrees of distrust, alienation and division, says Graham Peebles

Vantage Point

Phot

o Co

urte

sy: m

onke

yc.n

et

London: We live under the omnipresent shadow of a political/economic system, which promotes materiality, selfishness and individual success over group wellbeing. It is a model of civilisation that is making us miserable and ill. Dependent on continuous consumption, everything and everyone is seen as a commodity, and competition and ambition are extolled as virtues. Together with reward and punishment this trinity of division has infiltrated and polluted all areas of contemporary life, including health care and education.

It is a system that denies compassion and social unity, unhappiness and mental illness, as well as extreme levels of inequality (income and wealth) flow from the unjust root, causing social tensions, eroding trust and community. Over half the world’s population (3.5 billion people) live in suffocating poverty on under $2 a day (the World Bank’s official poverty line), whilst the wealthiest 10% owns 85% of global household wealth. This level of inequality is growing, is unjust and shameful, and has far reaching consequences. Materialistically obsessed societies such as America

(where income and wealth inequality is the highest of any industrialised nation), have higher levels of drug and alcohol dependency, mental illness, crime and incarceration, as well as child pregnancies and homicides, than more equal nations. People in unequal societies are suspicious of ‘the other’ – that’s anyone who looks thinks, and/or acts differently – and generally speaking don’t trust one another. A mere 15% of people in America confessed to trusting their fellow citizens, compared to 60% in less unequal parts of the world. The resulting divisions aggravate social tensions, fuelling criminality and a


cycle of mistrust and paranoia is set in motion.

Focus on the material, on self-fulfillment and success places us in competition with one another and strengthens feelings of distrust, alienation and division. All of which run contrary to and move us away from our underlying nature, resulting in the inculcation of fear and insecurity. Mental illness, including anxiety and depression – a worldwide epidemic claiming 5% of the global population – are further consequences of this dysfunctional social model. Millions are hooked on pharmaceuticals (legal and illegal), much to the delight of the multi-national drug companies whose yearly profits in America alone nestle comfortably in the trillions of US $. Suicide, according to a major report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is the third highest cause of death amongst adolescents (road accidents and HIV are one and two), and the primary cause is depression.

Desire division discontent

Over 2,500 years ago, the Buddha taught that desire and attachment to the object(s) of desire is the root of all suffering. His message of moderation and balance is more relevant today than perhaps at any other time.

Those who love material objects are less inclined to love other people and the natural environment. So says Tim Kasser of Knox University, Illinois in ‘The High Price of Materialism’ after various studies. Love of objects strengthens the desire principle, causing fear and dissatisfaction, giving rise to anxiety, stress and unhappiness. Desire entraps: insatiable, it breeds fear and is the underlying cause of discontent and all manner of associated sufferings. “Abandoning all desire and acting free from longing, without any sense of mineness or sense of ego one attains to peace.” [Bhagavad Gita 11, verse 71] Such perennial truths expressed by the Buddha, Christ and other visionary teachers as well as Krishna are ignored in the search for immediate happiness derived from sensory pleasure.

The neo-liberal model promotes such short-term artificial goals: goals that strengthen desire, greed and dissatisfaction, pre-requisites for encouraging consumerism and materialism and the perpetual expansion of the ubiquitous ‘market’. In

Love of objects strengthens the desire principle, causing fear and dissatisfaction, giving rise to anxiety, stress and unhappiness. Desire entraps: insatiable, it breeds fear and is the underlying cause of discontent and all manner of associated sufferings.

a detailed study by Baylor University, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience Jo-Ann Tsang found that materialistic people “are more likely to focus on what they do not have and are unable to be grateful for what they do have, whether it is their family, a nice house or a good job.” Contentment is the natural enemy of the system; discontent is it’s life-blood, serving well the ‘Masters of Mankind’ as Adam Smith famously tagged the ruling elite and their ‘vile maxim ‘ – “all for ourselves and nothing for other people.”

In ‘ The Good Life: Wellbeing and the New Science of Altruism, Selfishness and Immorality’, Graham Music refers to a study at Berkeley University that seems to demonstrate Smith’s truism. “The higher up the social-class ranking people are, the less pro-social, charitable and empathetically they behaved … consistently those who were less rich showed more empathy and more of a wish to help others.” [ The Guardian ] Self-centered behavior, motivated by reward, not only erodes any sense of community and social responsibility, it breeds unhappiness. Music, a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in London , makes the point that our “monetised western world is going to make us more and more lose touch with our social obligations.”

With its focus on the material – including the physical aspect of our-selves – the ‘monetised’ system encourages vanity, selfishness and narcissistic behavior. Further strengthening division, separation and aloneness, feelings that are in opposition to the underlying truth of human unity. “All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.” [ Swami Vivekenanda ] This is the view repeatedly enunciated by those great men – divine men some would say – who have freed themselves of all limitations and have shared their wisdom with us.

We are one, brothers and sisters of One Humanity. As Mahatma Gandhi famously declared: “all humanity is one undivided and indivisible family.” Separation from one another, from the natural environment and from that which we call God is an illusion. This is the perennial lesson proclaimed loud and clear by an army of Teachers of the Race, who have sought to guide us.

A materialistic value system with its focus on the individual as opposed to the group, inevitably feeds a consciousness of separation, strengthening what Esotericism calls ‘The Great Illusion.’ If humanity is in fact one, it follows that our nature is to be unselfish, socially responsible and helpful. In a series of fascinating behavioral studies The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology observed that 14-month-old babies spontaneously acted with kindness when an adult in the room needed help. Children love helping, and they do not need a reward. Actions, which are inherently selfless, offer an intrinsic reward because they facilitate relationship with our true nature. In fact when material rewards were introduced the children’s focus shifted, they lost interest in the act of kindness and became fixated on the object of reward. Their action became conditioned and in a very real sense polluted. Observing this fact, Graham Music concludes that, “ rewards don’t make anyone happy and something very fundamental is lost when we


Graham Peebles is an artist, writer and director of The Create Trust, a UK registered NGO he founded in 2006. He has run education projects and teacher training programs in Palestine, India and Ethiopia. He is currently working on a book project about Ethiopia where he spent two years working with local groups in Addis Ababa.

Contact: [email protected]

reward for certain behaviors.” And adds that, “ other studies have shown that toddlers feel happier giving treats than receiving them”. [ Mercator Net ]

With reward and punishment come desire and fear, desire for the reward and fear or anxiety over possible punishment if we fail. The effect is individual discontent and collective disharmony. Selfishness is strengthened, and, in opposition to the underlying impulse to be helpful, kindness is sacrificed, creating the conditions for depression and stress. Studies undertaken in San Francisco found that those members of the community who “ volunteered and engaged in other forms of giving when they were adolescents were much less likely to become depressed, even as they got older. New research suggests there may be a biochemical explanation for the positive emotions associated with doing good.” [ Healthy Living ] Serving the needs of others is de-centralising, it shifts ones focus away from the self, with its petty, albeit painful anxieties.

Reward and punishment are major weapons of neo-liberalism, which

has infiltrated almost every area of contemporary society. The destructive duality is a methodology common in many areas of education, and of course saturates corporate life. Goals bonuses, commission, perks: these are the language of business, the motivating force for and of activity.

The present unjust economic model has fostered a value system rooted in materiality that is a major cause of unhappiness, anxiety and depression. Change is urgently needed; change rooted in justice and the wellbeing of the group and not the individual; change imaginatively designed, which sees the economy as a way of meeting human rights and addressing human need, not one that plays on and inflames human desire.

The materialist may hold that mankind is naturally selfish, and that competition, reward and ambition are necessary and good. Without them we would do nothing and society would grind to a dysfunctional halt, goes the narrow reactionary argument. This conveniently cynical view of man’s nature (usually one held by those who

The present unjust economic model has fostered a value system rooted in materiality that is a major cause of unhappiness, anxiety and depression. Change is urgently needed; change rooted in justice and the wellbeing of the group and not the individual; change imaginatively designed, which sees the economy as a way of meeting human rights and addressing human need, not one that plays on and inflames human desire.

are more or less economically and socially comfortable) is fundamentally wrong and is used to perpetuate the divisive model. The damaging effects of this model are being revealed by a range of studies, which substantiate the ancient message that human kindness, selflessness and community service are not only positive attributes to aspire to, they are the healthy, natural and peaceful way for humanity to live.

Phot

o Co

urte

sy: R

ober

t Sch

rade

r


Nonviolence As Strategy

Everything you do has an impact on other people, on the planet and on the animals with whom you share the world. Living Nonviolence as a way of life means making the connections - making the right choices so that your impact is in line with your moral values.

Nearly all the problems in the world today stem from the fact that people have forgotten who they really are. Nonviolence offers direction so you can remember who you are and act in a reconnected way. It’s a win-win way of living -- you’ll build a better life for you and a better world for everyone. Being aware and aligned with your values makes you conscious, complete and more powerful. And when millions of conscious, empowered people join together through Nonviolence, it will create a movement the likes of which the world has never seen.

Nonviolence works toward long-lasting, uplifting change where everyone is involved in building a better society. Nonviolence values the life and liberty of all.

• Nonviolence is available to everyone. You don’t need big muscles or guns or money to use Nonviolence. Nonviolence brings power back to the people… where it belongs.

• Nonviolence honors truth. There is no need for secrets or lies. Our purposes are clear, our motives are clear, and our methods are clear and announced.

• Nonviolence connects you to everyone -- you are never alone.

• Nonviolence cannot be marginalized. And if it is co-opted by the opponent, everyone still wins.

• Nonviolence is an expression of our interconnection.

Source: www.nonviolenceunited.org

Non-violence can be a way of life. And non-violence can be a strategy. But for powerful long lasting change, non-violence as a way of life is the strategy.


Reduce your Violence Footprint - through...What You Eat

What You WearAnything from 40% to 60% of carbon emissions come from the food we eat. Many thinkers predict that the future wars will be over water... How can our food get less violent?

Eat more millets:

Millets are more nutritious, have more protein and minerals and need much less water - 1350 litres of water is needed to produce 1 kg of wheat and 4000 litres of water to grow 1 kg of rice - but millets are rain fed crops and need no irrigation.

Eat Less Meat:

16000 litres of water is needed to produce 1kg of meat. 1/3 of worlds arable land is lost to factory farms. Unbelievable cruelty is inflicted on animals and chicken crammed in factory farms; They get sick with the stress and unnatural conditions and 80% of antibiotics made in the world are used on livestock and poultry... which finally enter human bodies and make us an obese and sick society.

Avoid Processed Foods:

Processed foods - or food like substances - have little or no micronutrients and are good only for the companies that make profits out of them. Processed foods also destroy the livelihoods of innumerable small food makers, and are responsible for huge landfills and carbon emissions.

Say No to Bottled Water:

Water denied to rural people is bottled and sent to people in cities thousands of miles away. (example: Plachimada, Kerala). 17 million barrels of oil (enough fuel for 1.3 million cars for a year) are used in the producton of plastic water bottles per year in the US only. Less than 30% of plastic water bottles are re-cycled.

Isn’t it easy to carry your own water bottle?

Clothes that look pretty and cool can have violence embedded in them... Check where clothes are made:

Clothes made in sweatshops in China, Bangladesh, India etc., wreak violence particularly on women and children. Sweatshop labourers work 60 to 80 hours per week, even when sick, with no benefits and low wages; 85% of these labourers are women in the age group 15 to 25. Low cost factory made clothes often mean that some woman somewhere has suffered the violence of illness caused by the heat and stress of work with machines in unhealthy conditions.Avoid leather:

Most leather comes from India and China where animal welfare laws are not enforced. 85% of the fur industry skins come from animals from factory farms where animals are skinned and slaughtered in violent ways. Buy local, hand-made and Re-cycle:

Demand sweatshop-free products where you shop. Buy less and buy local, and secondhand. Raise awareness at the retail level and the manufacturing level. Switch to plant based and hand made fiber clothing and bags which provide more liveliboods and help you live with elegant simplicity and peace. Also, recycle and re-use.


Reduce your Violence Footprint - through...

What You UseInnumerable things that are a part of our

lifestyle have embedded violence in them, even

while they have a superficial sheen of beauty,

elegance - and even compassion.

Think about medicines :

Over a 100 million animals die every year

because of testing done on them for a range

of medicines. Yet today wrong medication is

officially the third highest cause of death in the

US.

Learning to build immunity, thereby falling ill

less and using alternative medicines wherever

possible are ways to reduce our violence foot

print through the health industry.

Avoid factory made cosmetics:

Animals suffer from convulsions, seizures,

paralysis, bleeding from the mouth and more as a

result of testing for cosmetics. Ask for non-animal

tested products. Do cruelty-free shopping.

Fly and Drive less:

Refuse to take the plane as much as possible.

Less than 1% fly every year but aviation accounts

for 12% of carbon emissions from transport. Just

one trans-atlantic flight uses as much fuel as a

small car over 80 years.

Reduce your dependance on your car. Walk,

cycle and take public transport. The car has

caused wars for oil and is one of the biggest

ecological and social problems of our time.

the Gizmos You BuyDon’t let gizmos rule your life... use them

judiciously, or not at all.

Find freedom from the TV:The TV dumbs us down as nothing else.

It is the primary means of reducing you to a consumer - passive, immune, with mind colonised by standardised ideas of development that is unsustainable. It is violence to yourself too!

Better to enjoy life through creativity, chatting with friends, spiritual search, music, reading, gardening, community activities and more...

Get Rid of video games:The video games that keep children busy may

make you glad that they are not annoying you... BUT, beware of their potential to corrupt their minds, make them insensitive to violence and even affect their learning ability.

Read up on the dangers of video games and get kids onto the playground or enjoy any activity with them to keep yourself young and fresh too. The Sad side of the Mobile Phone:

Nearly 6,000,000 people have been killed or raped in Congo since 1996 - all for the rush for coltan (ore of Tantalum used in cell phones and laptop). A bit of the great suffering, poverty and human rights violation of people in Congo is embodied in every cell phone and laptop.

To reduce demand for cell phones or laptops. Buy used or second hand. Don’t go in for the latest models for the heck of it. Use the land-lines more - they are better for your brain-mind as well!

Use less Electricity:When you switch on a gizmo, remember that

to supply you with electricity, thousands may have been displaced to build that hydro-electric or nuclear power station.


Satish Kumar

The Great Challenge

We all know right from wrong and so what we must do now is as simple as doing the right thing.

Caring for our environment is a moral imperative. At the moment everybody’s mind seems to be more exercised by the imperative of economic growth. Policy makers, politicians of every colour and journalists of almost all newspapers appear to be obsessed with economic growth.

The spectre of debt, deficit, recession and unemployment now hovers over much of the Western world. Caring for and protecting Nature is seen as a luxury for the good times. For the moment, concern for conservation is considered an impediment to economic growth. Therefore the environmental agenda has been pushed to the bottom.

The priority for politicians, industrialists and business leaders is to

No ethical standards would permit us to fill our oceans with plastics and our biosphere with carbon dioxide. And it is the moral responsibility of every generation to leave the land in as good a shape – if not better – than when we inherited it from our ancestors.

build more airports, more motorways, more high speed railways, more office blocks and more housing estates.

This presents a great challenge to the ecologists and environmentalists. Our task now is to show that ecology and economy are not in contradiction with each other. Environment and employment can – and do- complement each other. You don’t have to be a genius to see that there must be a limit to the number of airports, motorways and business parks that can be built.

What will we do when we have covered all our land with concrete, all our fields and farms with industrial parks and shopping centres, and when we have cleared all our forests to make way for those airports, motorways and all the other urban developments?

Sooner or later we will reach saturation point.

Therefore we need to think of an economic system that is durable and sustainable. We need a system that will provide livelihood and wellbeing for all people, not just for the next five years, 56 years or even 500 years, but for the next five million years. In other words, for ever.

This means that, instead of a linear economy, we must think in terms of a cyclical one. If we base our economy on health and well being of our forests, they can provide our fruits, fibres and timber for evermore. If we protect our green fields, they will produce the food we need to feed ourselves until the end of time. If we harvest our energy from the sun, rain and wind – instead of from dwindling fossil fuels- we will never run out of renewable power.

If we utilize manual labour – human hands, arts, crafts and creativity – then our muscle power will remain inexhaustible. And of course, even with these natural resources, we must be careful to develop and maintain a human scale with zero waste and with unpolluting industries and technologies that exist to serve human needs.

If truth be told, the Western world is not in economic crisis. The banks have vast reserves of finance. The Bank of England has a staggering capacity to create quantitative easing. What we have lost is any skilful, means of managing money.

Perhaps we have too much money and so no longer know how to count it, how to handle it, how to use it, how to distribute it. We are lost in a financial jungle but the Western world is not in economic crisis. The land is still producing food; the trees we have left are still producing apples, pears and plums. Olive trees have not stopped bearing olives; cows are not refusing to produce milk.

The problems of drought, floods and crop failure have all been caused by human induced CO2 emissions leading to climatic calamities. So the answer is not more of the same old paradigm and

Vantage PointPh

oto:

Wik

imed

ia


more of the same industrial economy dependent on fossil fuels, but progress towards a natural, sustainable and low - carbon economy. And with this new perspective, the environment automatically becomes an economic imperative.

But if we continue to pollute, damage and destroy our environment we will end up causing an economic crisis of a scale we cannot even imagine.

The environment is more than an economic imperative. It is also a moral imperative. We, the present generation, have no right to take the forests, fields and fisheries from future generations. It is morally wrong to deprive our children and grandchildren of the security of natural resources.

No ethical standards would permit us to fill our oceans with plastics and our biosphere with carbon dioxide.

And it is the moral responsibility of every generation to leave the land in as good a shape – if not better – than when we inherited it from our ancestors.

And I would say this moral imperative goes even further than our responsibility to coming generations. We have no moral right to impinge on the integrity of the biotic community. The human species is not the only species inhabiting the Earth, but due to our expanding industrial economy and its emphasis on unlimited economic growth we have been endangering the lives of millions of creatures, large and small.

Diminishing biodiversity through industrial and economic activity is wrong on both ethical and moral grounds.

And it is simple as that.

Satish Kumar has been the guiding spirit behind a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures around the world. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine and the co-founder of the Schumacher College, U.K.

He is also a member of the Panel of Advisors of Bhoomi College.

‘The great Challenge’ featured in issue 276 of Resurgence, and is reprinted here courtesy of Resurgence & Ecologist. All rights to this article are reserved to Resurgence & Ecologist.

Visit: http://www.resurgence.org

The problems of drought, floods and crop failure have all been caused by human induced CO2 emissions leading to climatic calamities. So the answer is not more of the same old paradigm and more of the same industrial economy dependent on fossil fuels, but progress towards a natural, sustainable and low - carbon economy.

McK

enzi

e M

ount

ain

from

Ose

etah

Lak

e, N

Y


Positive Initiatives

Positive Initiatives in IndiaThe Bhoomi magazine has been regularly bringing together inspiring stories of individuals and organisations

from all over India as well as the world. These are stories of people who continue to do their bit and who have the ability to respond proactively to the situation at hand in whichever manner they can.Together, they seem to form a wonderful, heartening groundswell of action....

As per the National Tiger Conservation Authority only 1411 tigers are left in India which is less than half of the 3642 tigers as per the census 2001-2002. The situation is no doubt alarming. If the trend continues, tigers will soon be a thing of the past and will only be seen in pictures.

So, what are we doing about the situation? Is worrying and saying “only 1411 tigers left, save them” enough? There are only a few who take the effort to go out of their way to make a difference, Conservation Wildlands Trust (CWT) is one such organisation, with a mission “to protect in perpetuity sensitive habitats by engaging and educating local communities as custodians of their

Did you ever think a library in a remote village

could save our tigers? Shreya Pareek

natural environment.” A community-based initiative that works toward regeneration of forests in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the trust is taking the long term route to saving the tiger and its forest home.

Conservation Wildlands Trust has started an initiative called E-Base which serves as a classroom for the students from the many villages surrounding the reserve and the visiting tourists. “Our objective is to create a fraternity of champions of sustainability in these villages to help the communities adopt sustainable practices in the long run, which in turn will help protect the tiger’s home,” says Pooja Choksi, who heads the E-Base Project. Armed with an environmental curriculum that

focuses on issues such as water, energy, biodiversity, waste and climate change, the trust makes environmental and conservation studies hands-on and practical.

Getting the kids involved“The situation can’t change in a

day. It requires time. The children that reside on the fringes of the Pench Tiger Reserve will grow up and play an important role in conserving the wildlife. We are educating and preparing them for that,” she says.

The E-Base, which runs completely on solar energy, is where the trust conducts various workshops, exhibits, reading sessions, school projects etc. for students living in the Pench region. Located in the Interpretation Centre at the Turia Gate of Pench Tiger Reserve, Seoni, M.P, the E-Base program has involved around 1,200 students so far in its various initiatives.

It wishes to highlight the link between forest conservation and water scarcity, food security and land degradation. Simultaneously, the trust wishes to instill a sense of wonder, respect, understanding and concern for nature in the students and the general public.

Using the E-Base library to conserve the tigers’ home - The villages in the region of Pench have few middle schools, and a library is unheard of; resulting in a considerable impact on their literacy levels. A semi mobile E-Base library will encourage the students to read as books will be very accessible.


Conservation Wildlands Trust has started an initiative called E-Base which serves as a classroom for the students from the many villages surrounding the reserve and the visiting tourists. “Our objective is to create a fraternity of champions of sustainability in these villages to help the communities adopt sustainable practices in the long run, which in turn will help protect the tiger’s home,” says Pooja Choksi, who heads the E-Base Project.

An education is also almost incomplete without the inclusion of a gamut of books. Through a robust reading program and a choice of books on biodiversity, science, environmental conservation, Gondi folktales and encyclopedias, in both Hindi and English, the library will augment the literacy level and the students’ general awareness and knowledge of their surroundings and its relation to the world.

“We’ve learnt and read about the tiger and the importance of its forest home. These students haven’t had the chance to read these wonderful books. A library will create a wealth of knowledge in these students which we hope translates into action to preserve the forest that sustains us,” says Choksi.

The biggest threat“The biggest threat to the wildlife

is humans. Habitat destruction, fragmentation and other effects of human activities like industrial and residential development,” she says

Another threat is poaching. As per the investigation carried out in 1993-94, 36 tiger skins and 667 kilos (1470 pounds) of tiger bones were seized in northern India.

The impact“Though it has just been a little

over 2 years, the impact is small but significant. Children have started asking questions and have become more curious about the wildlife around them,” Choksi says.

The curriculum that focuses on

Shreya Pareek - born with a hobby to travel, talk, express and write, Shreya gets to do all of that and is even paid for it! Interested in rural development and social issues, she dreams of actually bringing a change in society and writing a book of her own one day. When she is not preaching others about a better India she is busy watching movies and playing video games.

This article was first published in The Better India (www.thebetterindia.com) and reprinted here with permission. The Better India is an online media platform that uses positive journalism for showcasing the good side of India and for catalysing social change.

issues related to water, waste and energy has also made these kids aware of their surroundings and how they can contribute to improve the situation. The students have begun realizing their footprint on their surroundings. A small example of the impact the E-Base projects have had is that students now consciously manage their waste. They know how to compost and now also manage their plastic waste.

Lessons learnt“Conserving forests and preserving

wildlife is not only about the generic practice of ‘protection’. Education is the strongest tool conservation has, and it is only recently that people have understood this. Conservation cannot take place in isolation; it requires a

dynamic intersection of sustainable livelihoods, education and the likes. Educational interventions will take long to show their worth and one has to be patient while working in such a field and such a landscape. Village life is completely different from what you are used to in the cities. There will be connection problems, lack of transport facilities and other such issues which would just delay your work,” she says.

Choksi also believes that you constantly have to keep trying as changing a situation as severe as this takes time.



Koodankulam: To Think, Live And Act Non-Violently

Interacting with people’s groups involved in spreading new thoughts on slow, healthy food and ways of treating our body softly reinforced our resolve to continue our fight for a nuclear free world. We, the women of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy based in Idinthakarai village near the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, travelled all the way to Kochi in Kerala to address a large gathering of people on the path of healing their bodies through natural means, without drugs and medicines. We also interacted with Michael Nagler of the Metta Centre of Non-violence which promotes peaceful resistance in California. They were especially keen to meet the people involved in the peaceful protest against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant for so many years. We felt honored to see the team from California which knew so much about us.

This trip was special for us as we were able to be with two unique, powerful and crucial struggles in Kerala against unjust development similar to ours with reference to the participation of the community especially women and children. The first visit was to inaugurate the 1000th day of struggle against the Waste Treatment Factory of Vilappilsala near Thiruvananthapuram where the people were able to shut down the toxic factory that the Corporation set up to treat the city waste. The untold distress of the community and the impact on soil, air and water had been in the news for a decade. In November 2012, some of us had come to Thiruvananthapuram to attend the Women’s Meet from Koodankulam To Vilappilsala where 300 women from various women’s groups listened to the women’s voices from both places. Xavieramma who was jailed for almost three months last year after the attack by the police on our village, inaugurated the Vilappilsala meet. The resolve of the people of this village, their co-operation and with the support of the local Panchayat made the meet a success story.

The second area where we visited was Katikudam where the notorious Nita Gelatin Company had been polluting the air, water and land of Katikudam, in Thrissur, a village along the river Chalakudy and many villages downstream. The

By Anitha.S

horrible stories of the stench which have offended children along with the rise in bronchial problems and cancers ever since the factory started discharging untreated effluents into the environment was scary to see. The recent attack by Police and the Company on the peaceful protestors including damage to property reminded us of the carnage last year on us. The pollution of drinking water and the river along with irreversible damage to the soil and air with chemicals whose levels were much more than permissible was shocking. The support that Government and agencies like Pollution Control Board were giving the Company functioning in the area without the permission of the Local Panchayat was an eye opener for us.

We were surprised at the way the four groups that we met - the Metta Centre and Michael Nagler from as far away as California, the people healed by the Nature Life Movement in Kerala, the People’s Movement against toxins of Waste Treatment in Vilappilsala and the impact of pollution by Nitta Gelatin Factory in Katikudam were linked to us through the message and means of non-violence and peace while addressing issues that have violent and cruel impacts on human lives, water, air and soil that sustain life and livelihoods. We felt reassured that there exists so much of hope and determination in spite of many setbacks and failures that bound us together. The people suffering from many ailments spoke of the non-violent way in which the body can come back to life without toxins. The women of Vilappilsala shared the way in which they joined the struggle front each evening sacrificing a share of their daily income. The people of Katikudam boiled tapioca for us grown in their still fertile land while remembering the lush and rich crops that used to cover the riverbed.

We would like to share with you the disturbing news that many attempts have being made by forces to break our strength and unity. Each day many bombs made locally are implanted in our villages to fuel and fire our age old community clashes, all of which had disappeared with the Anti-Nuclear Movement. The cases against us have not been removed in spite of the Supreme Court directive.We are in the midst of uncertainity as the lies about operation and production are being spread all over. Yet we stand strong.

This trip has given us new energy and strength. We carry back with us the message of Gandhiji written on the brochure of the Metta Centre: “The undreamt of is daily being seen. The impossible is ever becoming possible”

The four groups we met were linked to us through the message and means of non-violence and peace while addressing issues that have violent and cruel impacts on human lives, water, air and soil that sustain life and livelihoods.

Anitha S. has been working as an independent environmental educator in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala for the past two decades. She has collaborated with Kalpavriksh, ATREE and WWF-Kerala in many education activities at school and college levels. She has also been part of content development for education modules on oceans, coral islands and wetlands and documents the role of women in environmental movements in Kerala. She is currently involved in an initiative called TREE WALK- attempting to look at urban green spaces anew. Anitha.S in conversation with Melrit, Xavieramma, from Idinthakarai at Kochi.


The newly formed Ministry must take into account the entire canvas of river science before it creates another action plan to rejuvenate the Ganga.

Scene one, pertaining to promises to clean and revive the Ganga is over. The country is now watching the more complex and challenging scene two unfold. The challenge is for those who are directly involved in fulfilling the promise made by India’s fifteenth Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

It may be recalled that in 1985, when Rajiv Gandhi launched the Ganga Action Plan, the country hoped that the initiative will bring change, clean the river, improve its environment, revive its flow and bestow its past glory. The Government of India (GOI) spent nearly Rs. 27,000 crore in the past 29 years but the river deterioration continues. GoI, in 2009, declared the Ganga as a National River and constituted the Ganga River Basin Authority but even five years after its constitution, the authority has failed to bring about the expected change.

The holy river continues to flow carrying filth, pollutants, hazardous chemicals etc. The investment on the development of sewer networks, sewage treatment plants, electric crematoria and community toilets has not yielded the desired results. In this context, it is logical to argue that without a paradigm policy shift

and without a new road map, the new project is uncalled for. We must learn from our past mistakes. This appears to be the real challenge before the newly formed Water Resource, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry. It needs to take into account the entire canvas of river science before it formulates another action plan.

How does a river system work?It is interesting to understand the

river system vis-a-vis the unnoticed role of the hydrological cycle. The hydrological cycle or water cycle is a process by which water travels from the surface (ocean) to atmosphere by changing its state of matter from solid to liquid to gas form. Every year flowing monsoon waters (part of the hydrological cycle) clean the entire river basin, remove the unwanted material and hand it over to river system for further removal into the sea. In non-monsoon season, ground water flowing in rivers, removes the dissolved chemicals from the upper layer of the earth - home for water table aquifers. This is the function or natural responsibility of a river. This responsibility requires flood waters for removal of sand, silt, gravel, rock fragments, weathered material etc and groundwater contribution in the form of non-monsoon flow to remove dissolved chemicals.

The way ahead to revive the Ganga

What should the Ministry do?The River Development and Ganga

Rejuvenation Ministry should conceive, frame and declare a National River Policy. River revival schemes should be framed on the vision provided by the river policy. In the past, schemes and action plans have been undertaken without a long term vision. The Ministry could call for the draft and finalize it soon.

This story was first published on India Water Portal - www.indiawaterportal.org, an initiative supported by Arghyam, an organization which supports sustainable water management towards meeting the basic water needs of all citizens, especially those from vulnerable communities.

The holy river continues to flow carrying filth, pollutants, hazardous chemicals etc. The investment on the development of sewer networks, sewage treatment plants, electric crematoria and community toilets has not yielded the desired results.

We must learn from our past mistakes. This appears to be the real challenge before the newly formed Water Resource, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry. It needs to take into account the entire canvas of river science before it formulates another action plan.

Phot

o: P

rave

ena

Srid

har



Negi lives in a cave and follows traditional wisdom to grow food and fodder in the nude hills of Himachal PradeshIt was 3 pm. I was on top of a mountain in the middle of the only green expanse in the cold desert in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. For the last 50 km I saw only mountains of stones and sand, and I would see only desert for the next 100 km or so. In between was this village full of trees. Lush greenery, herds of sheep feeding on clover and ponies carting compost offered a view far removed from what the name of the village evokes; Thang Karma means white open field in the Himachali language.

A frail-looking man wearing a monkey cap emerged from a cave. Rubbing his eyes, he walked towards me; he had woken up from an afternoon nap. The meeting was unplanned. I had trekked across a mountain, crossed a river and then climbed another mountain to meet A D Negi. He has been living in the cave for over a decade. He looks after several cows, donkeys and a herd of 300 Tibetan goats. A retired bureaucrat, he lost faith in the government’s Desert Development Programme, for which he worked in the finance department.

Desert HealerRuhi Kandhari travels to a cold desert in Himachal Pradesh to see

how a former bureaucrat is greening it...

Negi, 63, has developed 90 hectares (ha) on top of a mountain. On 60 ha he has planted and nurtured 30,000 trees, cultivated kidney beans, peas and apples. On the remaining 30 ha, he grows clover of the leguminous pea family. People from villages as far as 50 km bring their sheep to Thang Karma, a village of just three people, after trekking for two hours from where the metalled road ends; the clover here is considered the best fodder. Orchard owners come in search of compost for their apple trees. Residents of Chango village, known to have the sweetest apples in the district, had come to buy compost made by Negi and his team of two volunteers. On the way, I came across several ponies carting sackfuls of vermicompost. A sack (50-60 kg) costs Rs 100.

Despite the absence of cell phone signal, the internet, postal service and a track that leads to Thang Karma, Negi’s reputation for harvesting water in the desert and growing crops has travelled far. The flow of visitors has also increased. “Earlier, people from other villages would rarely trek all the way till here,” Negi said.

Negi’s popularity was confirmed by

a food stall owner in Nako, ; it was the only eating place in the 50-km stretch from Pooh, the town where Negi had a house. She told me Negi usually stopped to drink tea at her stall on his way home, and that he must be in Thang Karma. “Unseytoh sab registaanke log khetiseekhnachahtehain (All desert people want to learn farming from him),” she said.

“Bureaucrats and scientists from the Desert Development Programme never spent time here,” Negi said. Each time the Comptroller Auditor General of India asked why the project failed, they would say there is no technology to develop plantations on cold deserts, Negi told me. “It is only after I spent time experimenting with different kinds of plantations here, I have been able to develop this desert,” he added.

The Central government programme was launched in 1977-78 to mitigate the adverse effects of desertification in cold and hot deserts. In 1999, Negi took it upon himself to develop the desert and implement the biggest and most prestigious cold-desert programme. He took leave of absence that year and in 2003 he took premature retirement to spend all his time in Thang Karma.

Negi, 63, has developed 90 hectares (ha) on top of a mountain. On 60 ha he has planted and nurtured 30,000 trees, cultivated kidney beans, peas and apples. On the remaining 30 ha, he grows clover of the leguminous pea family.


Negi travelled across villages in the desert to learn traditional wisdom. “I am a farmer’s son, and I believe in traditional wisdom,” he told me.

The approach he adopted included channeling streams from the glaciers, 25 km away, to irrigate the area. “Since the soil here has sandy loam, it is better that water flows quickly through the channels. So we made narrow channels and dug them on steeper inclines,” Negi said. “The government’s plans of concrete irrigation channels were bound to fail in such cold weather.” Negi also harvests water using the traditional system of zings, where channels end in a small pond where glacial melt is collected. These ponds raise the level of humidity in the air and keep groundwater recharged.

Clovers are planted along the irrigation channels; they retain water and also divert hare that destroy crops. Hare love clover, so instead of attacking plantations they go for clover.

The bark of tree saplings are covered with scrap wood to protect against the freezing cold. Saplings are planted a little below ground level in pits to shield them from the wind. Negi is now trying to plant conifers. Conifers

serve as an excellent windbreak when they mature.

Negi’s two volunteers have often tried to talk to him about chemical fertilisers and pesticides, but he would hear nothing of it. “Even the scientists who sometimes visit to see our work try to convince us that agriculture is not possible without chemical fertilisers but I feel compost is all my land needs,” he said.

Negi envisions showcasing Thang Karma as a model to scientists so that they can replicate it in other regions. Residents of the sparsely-populated tribal region, who were earlier reluctant to take up farming, have applauded Negi’s approach and are following suit.

After spending most of his savings in the desert, Negi is waiting for results. “The idea of the project was to know if it can be sustainable,” he said. Negi had planned the years from 1999 to 2009 as research period when he tried to grow whatever he could in the desert. After a decade of experimentation, he has found that only peas can be grown in a sustainable way in Thang Karma. “Pests, birds and cold waves spoil every other crop here,” he said.

Negi’s two volunteers have often tried to talk to him about chemical fertilisers and pesticides, but he would hear nothing of it. “Even the scientists who sometimes visit to see our work try to convince us that agriculture is not possible without chemical fertilisers but I feel compost is all my land needs,” he said.

He wants to hand over the asset he has created to the government and work on more failed government projects. “We have created an asset worth almost Rs 4 crore, mostly from 30,000 trees valued at the government’s rate of Rs 1,000 a tree,” he said. If the government funds Negi’s work in another desert region he would go back to understanding nature and its ways.

Phot

o: h

ttp://

alla

bout

kinn

aur.b

logs

pot.i

n

Ruhi Kandhari has a Master’s degree in Development Studies and has previously written for Down to Earth magazine and The Economic Times. She is also a researcher with the London-based Pension and Population Research Institute.Originally published in the Nov 15-30, 2010 issue of Down to Earth magazine


“GIVE ME ALL your money now!”

“Are you desperate and needing money to survive?”

In a narrow alley in London, this was how Aniruddha responded when, late one night, a tall man jumped out of the darkness and blocked his path. Aniruddha was staying in the UK while training as a Nonviolent Communication (NVC) trainer, before returning to India to bring NVC to the vast community of Dalit people with whom he is connected, the people who used to be labelled the ‘untouchable’ caste.

In 1999, the World Bank conducted a survey amongst 60,000 people living on less than a dollar a day. When asked what they felt would make the greatest difference to their lives, the number one answer, above even food and shelter, was access to a voice. Our need to express ourselves and be heard, to have a voice, is absolutely fundamental to human beings. But which voice will build a nonviolent world?

If Aniruddha had responded (or even thought), “Get off, you scum! You don’t deserve to even walk on the streets!” what would have ensued? It is not hard to imagine.

Yet around the world people use their voices to express judgemental thinking, labels, stereotypes, accusations, threats and defensiveness. This language creates and perpetuates violence. Marshall Rosenberg caught sight of this, and set about unpeeling

Speaking from the HeartThe power of Nonviolent Communication in practice.

the disconnecting, violence-provoking aspects of language, to find the core of the language that connects humans in respect, trust and willing co-operation. He then found a way to make this core language learnable. He called the process that emerged Nonviolent Communication (NVC), to align his work with activists for nonviolence. NVC offers a practical ‘how to’ guide to creating the quality of consciousness and relating that is living nonviolence, a quality that can also be described as compassion in action. Around the world people from all walks of life are learning NVC and using it in an extraordinary range of situations.

That night in London Aniruddha was not yet convinced of the power of NVC. Through his Buddhist spiritual practice he was committed in his heart to nonviolence, yet he was sceptical that something as simple as NVC could be effective. But he couldn’t think of anything else to do. His legs were frozen with fear, and images of a friend who had recently been attacked when he tried to run away from a mugging were flashing through his head. So he tried what he knew of NVC. He accessed that voice.

First he connected with himself, in particular his feelings and the universal needs underlying those feelings: “I’m scared, vulnerable. I need safety, security, courage.” This gave him enough inner strength to focus outwards on the man’s feelings and needs: “Are you desperate and needing

money to survive?”

“Don’t talk to me. Just give me all your money. Aren’t you scared?” The man could immediately sense that if Aniruddha talked to him in this way, the spell of disconnection that put him in a state where he could attack another person would be broken. In fact he was already awakening from this spell, to ask about the feeling of the human being he was trying to rob.

“Of course I am feeling scared and shaky. At the same time I want to help you and meet your need for money.”

The man tried to re-establish disconnection, “I said don’t talk to me. Just give me the money.” But he didn’t manage to disconnect entirely, and revealed more of himself. “I’m hungry and I want some chicken.”

Aniruddha, now in the flow of connection, empathised, “So you are feeling hungry and need to eat?”

He took the £9.50 he had in coins out of his pocket and, giving it to the man, said, “There you are, have your chicken. I wish I could give you more.”

This expression of care again broke the spell of disconnection and the man again enquired, “Aren’t you scared?”

“I am feeling scared. I am also feeling concerned about how I will get home. I haven’t got any money left.”

“You are a very generous person. I need only £2 for my chicken. Take your money back,” and the man poured the

“GIVE ME ALL your money now!”

“Are you desperate and needing money to survive?”

In a narrow alley in London, this was how Aniruddha responded when, late one night, a tall man jumped out of the darkness and blocked his path.

Perspectives

Bridget Belgrave

Pho

to: j

effre

y be

nnet

t


£9.50 back into Aniruddha’s hands. Aniruddha, still holding out his hands, said, “Take the £2 for your chicken.” The man refused. So Aniruddha picked out £2 and put it into his hands. The man said, “God bless you!” and disappeared into the darkness.

The profundity of this exchange is astonishing. Instead of an outcome where one person meets their needs at the expense of another, and both people are left dehumanised and needing help to restore their trust in people and in life, both are left more humanly connected, and with their immediate needs met. Even more astonishing is that this is a reliable outcome of relating with the NVC process.

JAMES TEACHES AT a primary school in east London. He had been learning NVC for a few months when he was called to deal with an eleven-year-old child who was in the wrong playground. Ms Cade, the teacher on duty, was shouting at the child because he was refusing to follow her instructions. James noticed that both child and adult seemed annoyed and angry. He said to the child, “You seem annoyed and angry.”

“Yeah…she keeps moaning and shouting.”

James had learned enough NVC to know how to listen through this comment to hear the universal human needs being expressed. “And you need to be talked to quietly and with respect?”

“Yeah.”

James then asked the child to walk over with him to the teacher, who was still angry. “Luke, can you see that Ms Cade is angry?” Luke nodded. “And that is because she needs order and fairness. Is that right, Ms Cade?”

At each interchange James checked if his guess was right, not assuming he knew better than them about what was going on for them. This quickly created trust in his intervention.

“Yes. He knows he is not meant to be

in the young children’s playground. All the older children will turn up if they see him here.”

“So you need everyone to be treated fairly and be safe in their own playground?”

“Yes.”

Luke indicated that he understood Ms Cade’s needs and said that he also wanted everyone to be treated equally. James then suggested, “Luke, would you be willing to ask the teacher on duty before you visit the young children’s playground?” Hearing this, Ms Cade stopped shouting, lowered her voice and said, “I’ll be happy to see Luke if he comes to talk to me first.” Luke nodded and strolled off, whistling and relaxed.

IT CAN BE SURPRISING how quickly and naturally everyone shifts their focus to needs, once one person does. And to experience how hostility dissolves and understanding grows. Needs – such as safety, respect, love, justice – are drops of the essence of life that nourish all human beings. They reveal our common humanity. Focusing on needs resolves conflicts and awakens the urge to co-operate.

It doesn’t take two to make this shift – it takes just one. One who has access to this voice of nonviolence. This voice is not always a quiet and calm one. Teachers, parents, couples, activists, anyone using NVC, sometimes

raise their voices. Their volume reflects the intensity of their feelings, or sometimes is simply a practical choice, to enable them to be heard above the hubbub. There is a world of difference between yelling out blame, labels, rules and demands, and yelling out personally owned facts, feelings, needs and requests. This is heart-based information, and everyone can hear when someone speaks from their heart, whatever the volume.

Needs – such as safety, respect, love, justice – are drops of the essence of life that nourish all human beings. They reveal our common humanity. Focusing on needs resolves conflicts and awakens the urge to co-operate.

Instead of an outcome where one person meets their needs at the expense of another, and both people are left dehumanised and needing help to restore their trust in people and in life, both are left more humanly connected, and with their immediate needs met. Even more astonishing is that this is a reliable outcome of relating with the NVC process.

Bridget Belgrave’s work is influenced by her training in and teaching of: mathematics, philosophy, Cecil Collin’s approach to life drawing, the Alexander Technique, Energy Healing, Psychosynthesis, Effective Intelligence and Nonviolent Communication (NVC). She was involved in introducing NVC in the UK and India, and also leads workshops in Europe and North America. Bridget founded Life Resources, based in Oxford, in 1997. For more information visit www.cnvc.org

This article was featured in issue 246 of Resurgence. All rights to this article are reserved to Resurgence & Ecologist.

Visit: http://www.resurgence.org

Pho

to: c

oura

geou

scom

mun

icat

ion.

wor

dpre

ss.c

om


To Uphold the World is much more than a scholarly re-examination of a legendary leader who extended his empire’s influence from Egypt to China. It is also a persuasive call for our own generation to challenge the central assumptions behind economic globalisation and replace them with policies grounded in an ethics of reverence and transcendence. If we attempt to do this much-needed work, the Dalai Lama writes in an afterword to this book, “To Uphold the World should serve as a source of great inspiration.”

Bruce Rich was moved to write his study of Ashoka after visiting the famous battlefield of Dhauli in Orissa, India, where hundreds of thousands perished during the annexation of the republic of Kalinga in 261 BCE. A well-known environmental lawyer and the author of Mortgaging the Earth, an insightful study of the World Bank, he was stunned to learn that after the slaughter at Dhauli, Ashoka renounced the primacy of force and wealth as the currency of empire in order to embrace policies based on veneration, compassion and nonviolence.

Ashoka’s Dream

Rich suggests that re-examining the thinking behind Ashoka’s change of heart might allow our own generation to similarly reverse course. He believes this is necessary because champions of globalisation commit terrible violence by assuming that questions of global policy can be answered through first calculating their consequences and then following the ethic that the end justifies the means. This leads policymakers to tackle global problems with complicated institutional mechanisms powered by greed and fear, like the WTO and NATO.

Ashoka’s immense, multicultural empire was originally constructed upon a similar set of assumptions. The chief architect of the state Ashoka inherited had written a comprehensive manual of government in which he declared: “material wellbeing alone is supreme … for spiritual good and sensual pleasures depend upon material wellbeing”. As in today’s world, public policy was conducted through a combination of self-interest and coercion.

After the Kalinga War, Ashoka “attempted to transcend [this] view …

through a new social ethic and politics of nonviolence and reverence for life”. In doing so he completely refashioned the traditional model upon which Indian kingship was based. Ashoka proclaimed performance of moral duty rooted in compassion as the primary value to be attempted by each member of his realm. Since people are deeply connected with each other and with every form of life, their social ethics must encourage them to create communities that “expand simply as an environment in which we may all engage in a common quest for the general good”.

Ashoka’s conviction that a spiritual centre lies at the heart of all human beings led him to endorse the search for truth, not systems of institutions, as the key to creating his secular version of an ideal Buddhist community. His essential doctrine was inscribed on pillars and symbolised through stupas raised throughout his long domain.

Ashoka’s doctrine taught welfare over warfare, redemption over punishment, universal healthcare for humans and animals alike, an

As Indians we can be proud that Asoka lived on our land, belonged to and shaped our culture. - the only king in the world who renounced war after winning the Kalinga war.

Ashoka renounced the primacy of force and wealth as the currency of empire in order to embrace policies based on veneration, compassion and nonviolence says Philip Grant.

He emphasises in this article the relevance of Emperor Ashoka’s transformation to our own age of global discontent.

Pho

to: T

ahir

Has

hmi

Perspectives


Ashoka’s conviction that a spiritual centre lies at the heart of all human beings led him to endorse the search for truth, not systems of institutions, as the key to creating his secular version of an ideal Buddhist community.

Ashoka’s doctrine taught welfare over warfare, redemption over punishment, universal healthcare for humans and animals alike, an environmental policy reflecting what we now call the principles of deep ecology, and a foreign policy based on nonviolence.

Indian Monument - Sanchi-pillar

environmental policy reflecting what we now call the principles of deep ecology, and a foreign policy based on nonviolence. His belief that truth is the only sure foundation for these goals also committed him to absolute freedom of conscience, “toleration for all religious and philosophical sects”.

Rich quotes Octavio Paz, a former Mexican ambassador to India, who was inspired by Ashoka to call for a recommitment to reverence for life as the keystone of our emerging global society: “We venerate the world around us and that veneration spreads to all things and living beings, to stones and trees and animals and humans … The ecological movement … insofar as it is a call to different social values, expresses our yearnings to participate.”

Rich concludes his homage to Ashoka by quoting the great Indian poet Tagore: “When the twentieth century was still young, Ashoka’s thought had been standing on the wayside for all these ages longing to find a refuge in the mind of every human being.” This moment may now be arriving.

Philip Grant has been teaching politics and global affairs for over three decades. After receiving his PhD from UC Santa Barbara, he organized a series of three annual international forums for the UCSB Associated Students Program Board on “World Community in the 21st Century”. From 1990 to 2000 Dr Grant was a professor of comparative politics at various universities in Kyoto, Japan. In 1997, he helped found “Group 21” and the “Youth at the Millennium Program” to organize events drawing attention to the impact of globalization on the young. Since 2000, Philip has taught in California and organized holistic educational forums and retreats that bring together young student/activists with global visionaries and scholars. In 2001, in cooperation with Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence Magazine, Philip founded The Institute of Reverential Ecology in Santa Barbara to explore the interconnection between spiritual, social and environmental issues.

‘Ashoka’s Dream’ featured in issue 275 of Resurgence, and is reprinted here courtesy of Resurgence & Ecologist. All rights to this article are reserved to Resurgence & Ecologist. Visit: http://www.resurgence.org


Book Review

Jonathan Rowe was a writer who wrote about the commons, diseconomy, economics, economic indicators, corporations, and many other subjects.

Jonathan was an editor at the Washington Monthly magazine and a staff writer at the Christian Science Monitor. He contributed to Harper’s, the Atlantic Monthly, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, American Prospect, Adbusters, and a host of other publications.

http://jonathanrowe.org/

Woody Tasch’s book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, isn’t really about money. It is about investment, and how to channel it in directions of slower and more patient gain. Reviewed by Jonathan Rowe...

Title: Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money

Author: Woody Tasch

Reviewed by: Jonathan Rowe

Published by: Chelsea Green, 2008

THE AMERICAN ECONOMY was built not for stability, but rather for appetite and yearning. The corporation, the money system—our basic institutions are rootless, placeless, and encoded solely for financial gain. Every new dollar that enters the economy comes laden with interest, which becomes a silent taskmaster that drives the machinery at an ever more frantic pace.

As Woody Tasch points out in his new book, the financial system is out of sync with the natural system. The algorithms of finance are oblivious to what the rhythms of nature can support, and the relentless quest for yield is exhausting the substrate of the entire system. “As financial time contracts,” Tasch asks, “how can we maintain a healthy relation with natural time?”

Tasch’s book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, isn’t really about money. It is about investment, and how to channel it in directions of slower and more patient gain. Tasch is a former venture-capital investor who was treasurer of a foundation that supports environmental causes. He watched while foundations generally invested their collective $550 billion in ways that produced the very problems that their environmental grants—some $1 billion a year—were supposed to fight. He brooded over the way high-tech startups attract gobs of money, while small food-based enterprises scrape for every dollar.

It is a familiar dilemma, and Tasch is eloquent on it. He invokes E. F. Schumacher, Wendell Berry, and others, and his exhortations have echoes of Thoreau, often to good effect. He proposes a number of solutions, such as a venture-capital fund geared to small farms and food-related enterprises. Perhaps it could buy development rights from farmers and thus provide working capital while keeping subdivisions at bay. Another possibility is a new kind of foundation to provide seed money to such enterprises as grants, with no expectation of return.

I wish Tasch had lingered more on such proposals. We need to be “impelled by sudden irrepressible insight toward beauty and nonviolence,” he writes. Well, yes. But a human economy works more on habit than inspiration. Our lives flow pretty much where the roads already go. We need

Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered

a new normal, and this will require not just new investment vehicles, as Tasch says, but also new kinds of money for the transactions of daily life.

Economies with a sane temporal rhythm generally have had a means of exchange suited to this purpose. Account books from merchants on the American frontier, for example, show that people often paid in work barter along with cash. The centripetal force of one-to-one relationships provided a counterweight to the centrifugal force of money. The last time such relational currencies flourished here was in the Great Depression. In financial crisis, there may be hope.

The centripetal force of one-to-one relationships provides a counterweight to the centrifugal force of money.


Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered

From the war resistance of the early Christians to the celebrated struggles of Gandhi, Kurlansky’s stories show the stalwart determination nonviolence requires. Its practitioners must confront their opponents armed with nothing but their courage, solidarity, and tactical creativity.

Especially courage. Early Christians who refused to join the army risked jail or torture at the hands of the Romans. During World War II, the U.S. government imprisoned so many conscientious objectors that they made up a sixth of the federal prison population. Gandhi’s followers braved British gunfire during peaceful strikes and protests, while members of the American civil rights movement, who borrowed many of Gandhi’s methods, took repeated beatings at the hands of police.

Under this pressure, many nonviolent activists turned their backs on their principles. Examples include William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist and advocate of peaceful resistance who later embraced the Civil War, and members of the Students for a Democratic Society, who resorted to bombings under the leadership of the Weathermen. Kurlansky sees these lapses as tactical mistakes that prolonged the problems they were supposed to solve. “History teaches over and over again that a conflict between a violent and a nonviolent force is a moral argument,” he writes. “If the nonviolent side can be led to violence, they have lost the argument and they are destroyed.”

The primary appeal of nonviolence, then, is its effectiveness. Against all conventional wisdom, Kurlansky argues convincingly that the most successful campaigns in the battle for American independence were the boycotts and acts of civil disobedience, like the Boston Tea Party, that took place before the shooting war. “It seems quite possible,” he reasons, “that British withdrawal could have been achieved by continuing protest and economic sabotage.”

He offers similar views on the American Civil War, World War I, and even World War II. “More Jews were saved by nonviolence than by violence,” he argues. In Denmark, for instance, the government in 1943 refused to enact anti-Semitic legislation, hid its entire Jewish population, and protected 1,500 foreign Jews, while its population engaged in strikes and destroyed German trains. Jews in France and the Netherlands, countries where the resistance was largely armed, fared worse. Meanwhile, U.S. bombers failed to disrupt concentration camps, because the American government believed they were of no military value.

Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Book Review

Non-violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Author: Mark Kurlansky with a foreword by Dalai Lama

Reviewed by: James Trimarco

These lessons from history not only show how great a resolve nonviolence requires, but help to develop that resolve in the reader. Kurlansky never pretends it will be easy, but he makes an eloquent case that a courageous, faithful, and active nonviolence is the best way to bargain with power.

Nonviolence practitioners must confront their opponents armed with nothing but their courage, solidarity, and tactical creativity.

In Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea, best-selling author Mark Kurlansky describes the movements—often religious in origin—that have denounced war in favor of active nonviolent resistance. Reviewed by James Trimarco...

James Trimarco wrote this review as part of Purple America, the Fall 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. James is a consulting editor for YES! Magazine.

He wrote this review as part of Purple America, in the Fall 2008 issue of YES! Magazine.


The ecological toilet is one of today’s most hope-filled expressions of people’s power and people’s science. These toilets—which celebrate Gandhian simplicity and ecological sensibility—recover and honor traditional practices of healing and agriculture, related arts of non-violent living.

In contrast, the abuse of water via flush toilets renders it toxic as well as globally scarce. More than 40 percent of the water available for domestic purposes is used for transporting shit.

Mixing three rich, marvelous substances—water, urine, and shit—turns them into a poisonous cocktail. At a very high cost we seek to separate them again with dangerous chemicals and exotic technologies in “treatment plants.” We reduce our sacred waters into chemically treated H2O that pollutes our bodies and soils and waters.

Ecological toilet users cannot but smile with a certain sadness as they observe how their “free” and “civilized” flush toilet peers’ stomachs are attached everywhere to the prisons of centralized, violent bureaucracies—the kinds Gandhi-ji resisted.

Returning our waters to the pristine purity of our ancestors’ sensibility and sense of the sacred affirms the dignity and political autonomy of those who

Compost Toilets and Self-Rule

Madhu Suri Prakash

Compost toilet on an organic farm on the isle of Eigg, Scotland. Photo by Andy Wright, www.rightee.com

resist addiction to the technologies of professionals, bureaucrats, and centralized sewage agencies.

Just as Gandhi-ji’s radical act of making his own salt at the culmination of the famous Salt March taught us about power and autonomy, a bucket-ful of soil collected from our own backyards, combined with some lime, can end our addiction to the chemicals and pipes of sewage empires. Incarnating our Mahatma in my own little mud hut, I enjoy the freedom I find in following him, taking hope from his first steps in humble living over a century ago.

And I take hope also in the initiatives for ecological toilets that are sprouting everywhere. Abby Rockefeller, the granddaughter of John D., for years has been championing the use of alternative toilets in New England. A few years ago, a town in Sweden stood first in the return to hu-manure, by rendering illegal continued addiction to the flush toilet.

True, it is not easy to abandon the addiction to flush toilets, and I can well imagine the challenge in places like Chicago or New York. Despite the difficulties of such struggles, serenely engaging in them is easier than continuing our blind race to the ecological, economic, and political disaster toward which we are currently running.

Madhu Suri Prakash wrote this article as part of Liberate Your Space, the Winter 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Madhu studies grassroots initiatives that celebrate people’s power in her books Grassroots Postmodernism and Escaping Education. She professes at Pennsylvania State University. Madhu S. Prakash is also a member of Bhoomi Network’s Panel of Advisors.

Gandhi was among the first to discover in the beginning of the 20th century that to follow in the economic, industrial, or political footsteps of England, we were joining in the global enterprise of violating and stripping the Earth bare like locusts. Honoring our “shit work” with Gandhi’s regard for bread labor, we re-skill our hands and stop making waste, while offering golden soil to our garden’s vegetables and fruit trees. Shit and food, no longer schizophrenically separated, come together organically in the great circle and web of life and daily living.

Just as Gandhiji’s radical act of making his own salt at the culmination of the famous Salt March taught us about power and autonomy, a bucket-ful of soil collected from our own backyards, combined with some lime, can end our addiction to the chemicals and pipes of sewage empires.

Sustainable Practices


Climate change worsening cities’ airIn the world’s already smoggy metropolises, pollution is likely to grow worse, a phenomenon scientists have taken to

calling the climate penalty. Ozone is a key culprit. As the climate heats up, it is projected that more ozone will form in polluted areas on sweltering days.

Ozone, formed by a sunlight-aided reaction of volatile organic compounds with nitrogen oxides, is created more quickly at higher temperatures. China, home to megacities like Shanghai and Beijing, is likely to see an increase in ozone problems. The phenomenon of an increase in climate-linked ozone is likely to hold true for other big, polluted Asian cities, like those in Japan or India. Scientists are most certain of the trajectory of ozone, but climate change will increase other health-damaging air pollutants such as soot and other fine particles, which can lodge in the lungs and cause long-term harm.

With the threat of a climate penalty looming, added impetus is on the world’s nations to reduce their emissions of air pollutants from factories and motor vehicles.

Courtesy: INYT

Climate change may turn fish friendlessClimate change models predict that carbon dioxide levels and

ocean acidity will more than double before the end of the century, researchers said. It is thought that carbon dioxide interferes with the functioning of neuroreceptors in the fish brains, researchers said.

Higher carbon dioxide levels change the concentration of ions (electrically charged atoms and molecules) in the fishes’ blood, altering the way that the neuroreceptors work. This impairs basic senses, such as sight and smell, which are vital for recognition in fish. These results could have serious implications for tropical fish, whose habitat is already threatened by climate change. They could lead fish to lose their ability to recognise each other and make them “friendless” wanderers who will hang out with just about anybody, a new research suggests.

Like humans, fish prefer to group with individuals with whom they are familiar, rather than strangers. This gives numerous benefits including higher growth and survival rates, greater defence against predators and faster social learning.

Scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, Australia found that juvenile fish normally require three weeks to recognise their school-mates, however elevated carbon dioxide levels significantly impaired this ability.

Courtesy: PTI

Climate change threatens Tibet’s rare alpine plantsEvery spring in south-west China, there is an explosion of colour in the Daxue Shan, a mountain range on the eastern

Tibetan plateau. Western botanists have travelled to mountainous corners of China, India and Myanmar since colonial times in search of rare plants and flowers. A handful of scientists are probing the effects of climate change and other factors on alpine meadow ecosystems. Their emerging research suggests that alpine shrubs are colonising the meadows, and that alpine plants are essentially walking up mountainsides in search of cooler temperatures and new habitats.

Brandt and other scientists charted a nearly 70% decline in meadow area from 1974 to 2004 in China’s Jiuzhaigou national park, in Sichuan province. Brandt said that in her study sites, climate change appeared to be one of several causes of meadow shrinkage, along with overgrazing by yaks.

Alpine meadows, which lie above the tree line but below the snow line, function as “sponges” by absorbing melting snow and acting as natural water towers.

Emerging research in Asia appears to support the emerging hypothesis that climate change is a key factor contributing to shrub encroachment in alpine meadows, and that further warming may threaten the survival of rare alpine plants.

Courtesy: www.thethirdpole.net

Climate Change


5 things you should know about Calcium

When it comes to bone health, calcium is the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind. And why not? After all 99% of calcium in the human body is stored in bones and teeth! A sizable number of people today suffer from calcium deficiency related issues. And despite the fact that over two dozen plant based foods that have more calcium than cow’s milk, the only solution they are generally offered, unfortunately, is a glass of milk and calcium supplements. Pregnant women, lactating mothers, growing teens, those suffering from bone related diseases, middle aged people, those in their early thirties and even one year old babies are on calcium supplements these days! So, quite clearly, a glass of milk in the morning is doing no good to anyone!

There exists a lot of misinformation and misconceptions when it comes to calcium and having healthy bones! Here is an attempt to demystify the maze through some basic facts:

Dairy isn’t always the answer!

“Animal protein tends to leach calcium from the bones, leading to its excretion in the urine. Animal proteins are high in sulfur-containing amino acids, especially cystine and methionine. Sulfur is converted to sulfate, which tends to acidify the blood. During the process of neutralizing this acid, bone dissolves into the bloodstream and filters through the kidneys into the urine. Meats and eggs contain two to five times more of these sulfur-containing amino acids than are found in plant foods,” explains Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).

Moreover, most plant based sources have much higher calcium absorption

A vegan’s attempt at demystifying the maze of calcium deficiency

than dairy, and do not have harmful side-effects. Plus, as stated earlier there are plenty of calcium rich plant based foods such as all legumes, peas, lentils, leafy greens, tofu, ragi, seeds like sesame or flax, etc. At least two dozen of them contain more calcium than dairy as shown in the chart below.

Besides, how do some of the largest and strongest animals like elephants, horses and rhinos build their strong bones? Through a 100% vegan diet, primarily consisting of leafy greens!

Sejal Parikh

Food

20 Calcium-rich plant foods in Indiawith their calcium contents per 100 gms

(Calcium content in cow’s milk: only 120 mg)


Calcium ‘intake’ is not the primary concern today

Ever pondered why, even after being on supplements for long periods, osteoporosis patients never get cured? The reason is that very few of us pay attention to the issue of calcium loss. Calcium is present in more or less quantity in every food that we take. So instead of calcium intake, we should be worried about the diet and lifestyle changes that can minimize its loss and maximize its absorption. Here are some of the factors that cause calcium loss (through urine):

• All animal foods

• Excessive consumption of salt, especially packaged foods with high sodium content

• Refined carbohydrates such as white sugar, white flour, etc.

• Alcohol and Caffeine

• Carbonated drinks

• Drugs such as antibiotics, steroids, thyroid hormone

• Vitamin A supplements

• Nicotine

• Aluminum containing antacids

(Sources: “Eat to live” by Dr. Joel Furhman, “Eat right, live longer” by Dr. Neal Bernard)

Vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin D plays an important role in calcium absorption and reducing urinary calcium loss via kidneys. Most people today find themselves deficient in this vitamin because of lack of proper exposure to sunlight. Many times, addressing the vitamin D deficiency solves problems like joint pain. Unfortunately, no amount of fortification of foods can provide an adequate quantity of vitamin D, hence people need to depend on either sunlight or supplements.

Role of Vitamin K

Dr. Walter Willett in Eat, Drink and Be Healthy writes, “Until recently, vitamin K was thought to be necessary mostly for the formation of proteins that regulate blood clotting. It turns out, though, that this fat-soluble vitamin also plays one or more roles in the regulation of calcium and the formation and stabilization of bone. So too little vitamin K may help set the stage for osteoporosis. In the Nurses’

Health Study, women who got more than 109 micrograms of vitamin K a day were 30 percent less likely to break a hip than women who got less than that amount.” Vitamin K can easily be obtained from all the dark leafy green vegetables, spring onions, dried herbs, spices, carrots, etc.

Work your bones!

Today’s sedentary lifestyle is also one of the reasons for poor calcium absorption in the bones. The calcium that you get through food needs to be distributed to the bones properly, and this happens only with physical activities such as household work, exercises, weight lifting, swimming, walking, cycling, etc.

Here are a few ways to boost calcium in your bones through healthy foods:

• As discussed earlier, calcium loss is a primary concern than its intake. So eat healthy and avoid foods that deplete the calcium stores of your body. Ensure some type of physical workout activity once in a day.

• Green smoothies (blend 2 bananas with 1 cup of mixed greens)

• Nutritious calcium-rich laddoos: Blend nuts and seeds (sesame, flax, sabja, fennel, watermelon, pumpkin, sunflower, etc.) of your choice with soft dates, cardamom and coconut powder. You could also add cocoa powder or puffed amaranth/jowar/ragi to it.

• Try a variety of dishes made from ragi, such as idly, dosas or porridge

• Add a variety of leafy greens to your foods. They can even be added to your dal, roti or curry.

• Try more beans and legumes like rajma, chana, peas and lentils.

• Include calcium-rich seeds like sesame, flax, sabja in your dishes.

• Add sesame seeds powder to your curry or salad.

• Many lentils are high in calcium. So use variety of them to make your dal.

• You can make all the conventional paneer dishes with tofu. It’s healthy and cholesterol free too!

Sejal Parikh - An engineer by profession, she used work with MNCs until she found her interests venturing into environmental & social issues. She then traveled through the country, primarily in rural areas. During this time she discovered more about veganism and also developed an inclination towards nutrition, leading her to pursue a certification in nutrition from Cornell. She’s a steadfast vegan, a feminist and a freelance writer, at the same time trying her best to be a green mamma to her 15 month old son.First published on The Alternative (www.thealternative.in), an online magazine on sustainable living and social impact.


Ancient Vegan WisdomWill Tuttle, Ph.D.

Veganism is the essence of inclusiveness and nonviolence: seeing sacred beings when we see others, never reducing them to commodities for our use.

What sort of world will our children inherit from us?

With every passing day, it seems to become more obvious: the mentality that underlies our culture’s socio-economic system is destroying the biodiversity, climatic stability, and ecological integrity of our earth and poisoning human health and damaging communities and relationships. This underlying mentality is mandated and continually reinforced by our culture’s daily meals, in which we’re taught as children to disconnect from animals and the suffering we cause them, and see them as mere commodities. We are taught to eat like predators, and the industrialized factory farms and slaughter plants permeating our culture are actually systematized predatory mechanisms that have co-evolved with other

predatory mechanisms—the massive corporations and financial institutions that prey on the earth, animals, and vulnerable people being one example. Our meals and institutions reflect each other and reinforce the delusion that we are violent and competitive by nature.

Spiritual and religious teachings say otherwise. The Bodhisattva ideal that Buddhists emulate, for example, embodies the understanding that our true nature is wisdom, loving-kindness and cooperativeness. Our greatest joy comes in helping others and blessing them, and we hurt ourselves the most when we harm others for our own gain. This universal understanding has been suppressed in our culture, and we find the predatory violence of our daily meals projected in technologically magnified ways as cluster bombs, universal wiretapping, genetic engineering, whale-killing sonar blasts, and the commodification of the earth and her inhabitants.

It’s becoming obvious that our culture’s predatory mentality is blindly self-destructive. Veganism is ancient wisdom whose time has come—with a vengeance! Though the word vegan is relatively new—coined in 1944 by Donald Watson—the idea behind it goes back many centuries. I lived in a Zen monastery in Korea, for example, where people had been practicing veganism for over 600 years, following a tradition going back at least 2,500 years—eating no animal-sourced foods, wearing no animal-sourced clothes, and practicing nonviolence to other beings for ethical reasons.

This ancient idea of veganism is growing and even flourishing in our culture—a recent headline in the Tucson Daily Star proclaimed that “Veganism Creates $2.8 Billion Market”—and there is nothing more essential we can do than contribute to its propagation, and nothing more healing to our world than to be practicing vegans. Veganism is the essence of inclusiveness and nonviolence: seeing sacred beings when we see others, never reducing them to commodities for our use.

Our culture’s dilemmas mount because our cultural mentality is obsolete. Our technology boosts this outmoded mentality in its task of predation and thereby reinforces it. Powerful high-tech weapons, bulldozers, fishing fleets, and surveillance systems are obvious examples of this. Of course, if lab-grown “meat” becomes available, that will reduce our killing and waste of resources. And it may help us move toward veganism, since our meals will no longer require us to disconnect from the suffering we’re causing animals. However, there are countless ways we oppress and abuse animals besides eating them, and if our culture doesn’t evolve to the vegan ethic of compassion to all beings, and continues to use and prey on animals, our technology will magnify our violence and we’ll do the same to each other.

Veganism, the ancient wisdom of the interconnectedness of the welfare of all, is also the dawning mentality that is foundational to sustainability, freedom, and lasting peace. Our children’s world will be vegan, or the alternative is unpleasant to contemplate.

Dr. Will Tuttle, author of the best seller, The World Peace Diet, is a recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award. He is the creator of several wellness and advocacy training programs, and co-founder of Veganpalooza, the largest online vegan event in history. A vegan since 1980 and former Zen monk, Dr.Will is a frequent radio, television, and online presenter and writer. With his spouse Madeleine, a Swiss visionary artist, he presents lectures and conducts workshops throughout North America and Europe.

Food


Gardening

My Edible Garden: Unravelling the mystery of the green patch

Watching the tenderness of the young greens or when a little shoot breaks its way above the soil are but a few joys of having a green patch, says Shyamala Mahadevan...

What started as two pots has spread to about 40 in the past one year – big and small, round and square, plastic and mud, brown and green – all spread out on the three lucky balconies that we have. The fervour of gardening is felt like a sweet tingling smell spreading at slow pace – a tingle produced by a medley of fragrances each indistinguishable from and as necessary as the other.

The medley starts when miniature life decides to make their home in the pots. A few of them are ants, caterpillars, spiders, and of course bugs! At any time, there is a brigade of ants marching on duty with a sincere expression.

One lady chose the pudina (mint) plant to propagate her fortune. Lots of caterpillars were soon having fun munching the mints and the Indian palak (spinach) greens. We welcomed them and also tried feeding some curry leaves so that some of the mint could be spared – but they were strict about their diet. If only all of us could be careful about junk food!

They are interdependent – the greens and their inhabitants which have made them their place of dwelling. As much as there is an ecosystem above, there is an ecosystem powering the soil below. That’s the essence of natural farming. There are millions of microbes who pretty much love their space – recycling nutrients, breaking them down to make it accessible for plants and giving back to the nutrient cycle.

Some of the plants are from seeds hidden in the vegetables that we buy – bitter gourd, musk melon, pudina, tomatoes, chilies and finally capsicum! Capsicum is one tough seed – very fussy and not ready to germinate. There must have been 300 seeds that I have put in the pots – every time a capsicum goes into our tummy, her seeds are sown in multiple pots hoping that at least one of the catch the zest for life. At last, here is one guy who decided to sprout and is growing one leaf at a time with not much hurry.

That’s one more thing – unpredictability. Learn to relax, trust in nature’s growth theories, and let go. We are all here to have fun while gardening, aren’t we? There will be trials and tribulations.

There are a few individuals who do create commotion though – Mealy bugs love our sangu poo (butterfly pea). This bush is beautiful – her twines grow fast with multitude of green shades, and the vivid blue flowers stand out in the green. This one plant make the entire patch look fuller and brighter. Our guests think that too – they love to lay their eggs and tap into the energy of the twines. Sometimes neem spray works. Other times, I just have to cut down the entire creeper and leave it to spring back to life again.

Feeding the garden has been mainly through water and compost. Lately, the plants are experiencing compost tea once in two weeks. I read about this first in the Organic Terrace Gardening

Pudina – was home to 10 caterpillars

Tomato – Feasting on compost

A thoughtful decision has been to keep the garden as natural as possible: organic – yes; natural – pretty much. This we learnt in our Organic Terrace Gardening workshop at Bhoomi College. Mulching, watering, forest in a pot, companion planting, leaving the plant alone are some of the methods that we try. We try, plants enjoy; some plants don’t like, we learn, and that’s how the cycle moves forward.

Facebook group, and promptly bought an aerator to extract the vermi-compost nutrients. A bag full of compost and some jaggery is suspended in water with constant air circulation for 48 hours. The resulting mixture is a good supplement for the plants.

This tiny tomato is spreading his roots on the first batch of home-made compost formed in the Daily Dump khamba. It is a simple 3-storey pot structure which, on rotation, yields good-quality compost from kitchen waste. The kambha has had its issues too - maggots! However, regular turning of the contents, adding neem powder, and reducing the water content, has helped the khambha go back to producing her ‘black gold’ to feed the garden.

We have enjoyed the fruits many times – soups, salads and juices have been cherished. But most of all it is the time spent staring at the young leaves, comforting the seedling shifted to his new place and that feeling which makes us automatically gravitate towards the balcony to have a hurried first look in the morning, that are priceless.

Shyamala Madhavan is a nature-enthusiast and a volunteer at Bhoomi. She is on a path to find out how she can reduce her environmental footprint by making sustainable choices everyday.


More Millet RecipesA. Santhilaksmy

Food

Millets in Our Daily Meals

Millet is one of the oldest foods known to humans and possibly the first cereal grain to be used for domestic purposes. It has been used in Africa, China and India as a staple food for thousands of years before rice and wheat became popular.

Various cultures consume millets in many diverse ways – as a cereal, in soups, and as bread. In Eastern Europe millet, is used in porridge and kasha, or is fermented into a beverage, in Africa it is used to make bread, as baby food,

and as uji, a thin gruel used as breakfast porridge.

In India, we use millets to make kanji, rotis, and dosas, and many other everyday dishes. Infact, it is so easy to replace the staples with millets that there is no reason why these nutritious grains cannot fit into our daily meal plans.

Here are some familiar recipes that replace rice or wheat with millets. Try them, and experiment with your own recipes, and do write to us and let us know about your millet journey.

Food

INGREDIENTS:• 1 cup Foxtail Millet

• 1 cup Little Millet (Samae)

• 1 cup Whole Urad dal

• ½ cup Channa dal

• ½ cup Toor dal

• A handful of sprouted Green gram dal

• 6 to 8 Peppercorns

• 1 tsp Jeera

• 2 Green chillies

• 3 dry Red chillies

• A little hing/asafoetida

• 1 sprig Curry leaves

• 1 tsp salt or to taste

Tip: the millets must be ground fine and the dhals coarsely for crispier adais.

MIXED MILLET ADAI

METHOD:• Soak together both foxtail and little millet in a vessel for 5 hours.

• In another vessel soak the dals for the same time.

• After 5 hours, finely grind the millets and set aside.

• Next coarsely grind the dals along with peppercorns, jeera, green chillies, dry Red chillies, and hing.

• Mix the dhal batter with the millet batter and leave to ferment for 8 to 10 hours or overnight.

• Just before cooking add some salt and the curry leaves and mix well.

• Pour the batter on hot tawa and make crispy adais.


A. Santhilakshmy is passionate about making health foods delicious and working with school children on the importance of connecting with our planet through food.She is also the Director - Programmes at Bhoomi College, Bangalore.

INGREDIENTS:• 3 cups Kodo Millet Rava

• 1 ½ cups Whole Urad Dhal

• 1 tsp Methi/Fenugreek seeds (optional)

• Salt – to taste

METHOD:• Soak the whole urad dhal for 5 hours, and grind it

well in a wet grinder.

• Transfer the urad dhal batter into a large vessel and add the kodo millet rava into it.

• Mix well and leave the batter for fermentation for upto 10 hours.

• Once the batter has risen, add salt and mix well just before pouring into the idly plate.

KODO MILLET IDLY

Tip: the Rava can be replaced with kodo millet rice, but the rice needs to be soaked separately and ground before being mixed with the urad dhal batter.

FOXTAIL TABBOULEH

INGREDIENTS:• 1 cup Foxtail Millet, sprouting is an

option

• ¼ cup roasted & crushed Peanuts (without the skin)

• 1 large Onion, chopped finely

• 1 large Tomato, chopped finely

• 1 tbsp Coriander, chopped finely

• 1 tbsp Mint, chopped finely

• 1 tbsp Pomegranate seeds

For the dressing:• 2 tbsp Lemon Juice

• 1 tbsp cold pressed sesame or groundnut oil

• A little crushed pepper (optional)

• Salt to taste

Method• Sprout and steam the foxtail millet.

• In a salad bowl, mix the chopped onions, tomatoes, coriander and mint, along with the steamed millet.

• Whisk together the oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper for the dressing.

• Pour the dressing over the salad, and toss.

• Garnish with the crushed peanuts and fresh pomegranate seeds.


NAVDANYA Earth University / Bija Vidyapeeth Courses 2014

Navdanya/Research Foundation for Science Technology & EcologyA-60 Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016 INDIA

www.navdanya.org

Gandhi, Globalisation and Earth Democracy November 21st - 30th, 2014

Faculty: Sri Satish Kumar, Venerable Samdhong Rimpoche*, Dr. Madhu Suri Prakash and Dr. Vandana Shiva, Arun Gandhi

We live in the midst of multiple crises – ecological, economic, social, political. The current economic model has pushed most ecosystems to the verge of collapse. Species are disappearing, and climate catastrophe is overtaking people’s lives from the Himalaya to the Rockies, from the Bay of Bengal to the Philippines.

Not only are ecosystems collapsing, economies are collapsing. We are at a turning point of a crisis. A crisis is also an opportunity and during this course we will discuss how this crisis can be turned into an opportunity. The course is not only about information and knowledge but also complimented with experience, by being on the Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm and participating by doing.

Globalization has also led to the unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of a few global corporations. The course explores the relevance of the four Gandhian principles of swaraj (self-governance), swadeshi (locally production), sarvodaya (wellbeing of all) and satyagraha (non-violent civil disobedience based on the force of truth) to create and defend people’s economic and political freedom.

Bhoomi College Programme: Sustainable Cities and Communities

January 20 to February 8, 2015

What can we do about the inter-connected and escalating crises of water, waste, energy, building, transport and lifestyle in cities? What positive examples of living sustainably do we have in cities today? Who are the pioneers we can learn from?

These are the questions that we seek answers for during this programme and hope to provide participants a mix of perspectives, hands-on work, field-trips and interaction with experts to support our journey of living sustainably in our communitites / cities.

About 40% of India’s population lives in her cities today – and cities account for the bulk of carbon emissions in our country.

This course will also focus on understanding root level and long term issues - personal, political, economic and others that have contributed to ecological problems in urban areas.

Resource persons for the course will include Dr. Harish Hande (SELCO), Ms. Molly and Babloo Ganguly (Timbaktu Collective) Mr. Vishwanath and Ms. Shubha Ramachandran (BIOME), Ms. Bhargavi Rao (Environment Support Group), Mr. Satyaprakash Varanasi (Eco Architect), Kuldip (Reap Benefit) and others.

Last date for registration: 15th January 2015

For registration: [email protected]

The Bhoomi CollegePhone: 080 28441173 / 094498 53834


EternalBhoomiOctober - December 2014

Editor:Seetha Ananthasivan

Editorial Team Adil BashaRema KumarK.G. ParvathiA. Santhi LakshmyPreetha RameshShyamala MadhavanAlton Fernandes

Production Support: Ananth Somaiah

Design & Layout Artist: Nidhi Aggarwal

Design Consultants:Chinmay Dholakia

Research Assistants: Preethi Narayanan

Marketing and DistributionPrema B. P.

Issue: October - December 2014 Pages 56: Including CoverPrinted and Published By Seetha Ananthasivan (Editor) On behalf of The Bhoomi Network for Sustainable Living P.B. No. 23, Carmelaram Post, Off Sarjapura Road, Bangalore – 560 035 [email protected]

Printed at: Colours Imprint 150/9, 1st Cross, 8th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore - 560095. Ph: +91-9945640004 Website: www.coloursimprint.com

Published at: Bhoomi Network for Sustainable Living c/o Prakriya Green Wisdom School Campus, 70, Chikkanayakanahalli Road, Off Doddakanehalli, Carmelaram PostOff Sarjapura Rd, Bangalore – 560 035Ph: 080 [email protected]

Editor: Seetha Ananthasivan

Sharavathi Valley AdventureDecember, 2014

Trek through the Sharavathi ValleyThe Western Ghats is one of the Bio-diversity hotspots of the world-

an area for all of us to experience, explore and cherish. The trek through Sharavathi Valley will include breathtakingly beautiful routes along the Sharavathi River.

Gudlugundi and Dabbe Falls

Take in these magnificent untouched waterfalls hidden deep in the mountains of the dense forests of the Western Ghats

Water ActivitiesThe magical space of the vast Sharavathi river valley is where you learn

to swim in the water with life jackets, row a canoe, go kayaking, take a ride in coracle and learn to build a raft from scratch. These activities will help you gain confidence, build trust within a team and make the entire experience of the Sharavathi valley much more enjoyable.

Explore the Western Ghats and the North East, and the African Plains...

Email: [email protected]

For registration: [email protected]

The Bhoomi CollegePhone: 080 28441173 / 094498 53834


The Bhoomi College- a participative space for deep, holistic, and practical learning

Calendar of Short Programmes at Bhoomi College:October 2014 - February 2015

• October 11 - 12 Sharavathi Adventure

• October 25 Terrace Gardening Workshop

• November 1 to 6 Inner and Outer Ecology;

• November 1 to 6 Leadership through Eco- Psychology

• November 15 Organic Gardening

• November 29 Millets in your Daily Meals

• December 27 - 28 Wilderness Learning in Sharavathi

• December 26 - 29 Bhoomi’s Children Camp

• Jan 20 - Feb 6 Sustainable Cities and Communities

The Economics of HappinessThe Economics of Happiness

shows how globalization breeds cultural self-rejection, competition and divisiveness; how it structurally promotes the growth of slums and urban sprawl.

Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh

It is much more than a film about Ladakh. It forces us to re-examine what we really mean by ‘progress’ - not only in the ‘developing’ parts of the world, but in the industrial world as well.

View,Think, Feel, Share !Two great award winning documentaries by ISEC

(International Society for Ecology and Culture)

Buy DVD @ Rs. 150 or Order online @ bhoomimagazine.org

For latest updates visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BhoomiCollege

For more information on our short programmes visit: www.bhoomicollege.org/short-programmes

You can log onto www.bhoomimagazine.org to register/subscribe to Bhoomi Magazine.


Release of the 1st issue of Eternal Bhoomi Magazine by Shri Satish Kumar (December 2009) at 1st Bhoomi’s

Conference - Food, Health and Climate Change

Cele

brat

ing

5 ye

ars o

f Bho

omi

Bhoomi’s second Conference - Bhoomi Magazine turns ONE!

deeply reflecting on the question“What’s a Good Life?”

The First Bhoomi Utsav in October 2011 - Celebrating

Soil, Food and Simplicity Bhoomi is EIGHT issues old!

The First Bhoomi Unconference - convergence of ideas, perspectives to

make a difference The launch of Million Eco Projects

Economics of Happiness Bhoomi s first

International Conference

The milestone 20th issue Lets celebrate the movement!

We request you to take up a membership

Log onto www.bhoomimagazine.org to subscribe.

We look forward to your positive response.

Join us to discover the significance of community action, togetherness and fulfillment.

For forthcoming programmes log onto: www.bhoomicollege.org

’


Bhoomi College offers two exciting programmes:

Explorations in Inner and Outer Ecology

Dates: 1st to 6th November, 2014Venue: Bhoomi Campus, Bangalore

The Bhoomi College70, Chikkanayakanahalli Road, Sarjapur Rd,

Carmelaram Post, Bangalore - 560035

Registration:For more information:Contact: [email protected] Or call at 09449853834/080 28441172 Please register before 25th October 2014

Leadership through Eco-Psychology

For whom: Students, teachers, members of NGOs and individuals -

a) who would like to explore eco-psychology as a path to well-being and eco-wise living.

b) who would like to be facilitators of workshops on Eco-Psychology, Inner and Outer Ecology, etc.

c) who are (or plan to be) leaders of communities, NGOs or groups working for a cause.

The Purpose of these Programmes:Today what we need is not just the technical knowledge and skills for green living. The greater challenge is fostering new kinds of leaders with the vision and ability to co-create groups, organisations and communities that focus on positive action collaboratively and creatively. We need leaders who can respond to local issues, create space for joining in by others and strategise for collective well-being.

These programmes aim to introduce those interested in green careers / activities to ways of working with communities that mimic nature’s processes of sustainability.

Focus Areas: � Participative self-enquiry sessions to explore

Nature’s principles as applied to ourselves.

� Frameworks and processes that help us deal with our thoughts, feelings and behaviour regarding the ecological challenges we face today.

� Nature meditation and connecting with the land.

� Going beyond structured ways of learning with pre-determined ends; learning from wild nature and emergent reality.

Become a Facilitator: These are the first and second in a series of 6 workshops; all of these need to be completed to apply to become an accredited facilitator. Inner and Outer Ecology is an introductory workshop and Leadership through Eco-Psychology is open to those who have done the earlier workshop.

Venue: The programmes are residential ones at the eco-friendly and serene campus of Bhoomi, which includes an organic garden and spaces for concept sessions, hands-on work, reflection and relaxation. Twin–sharing accommodation and delicious, nutritious vegetarian food will be provided.

12

RNI No: KARENG/2009/33927

Positivity and Violence - Bhoomi Magazine

Documents

Transcript of Positivity and Violence - Bhoomi Magazine