The ghosts of the whistleblowers

A tribute to Shehla Masood and all the whistleblowers of India who speak out and are silenced, assaulted and murdered in this great democracy. And the amazing fact is that there is no law in our country which will safeguard them. (Published in Dec 07, 2011 edition of Mint: http://bit.ly/tqIrgG). With Manta Ray Comics.

The curious case of food safety and factory farming.

The poverty line.

The latest comic for Manta Ray. Published full page in the newspaper Mint on October 12, 2011.
Here is the hi res from the epaper.

India's poverty line

 The Planning Commission told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that anyone spending more than Rs 965 per month in urban India and Rs 781 in rural India will be deemed not to be poor. Updating the poverty line cut-off figures, the commission said those spending in excess of Rs 32 a day in urban areas or Rs 26 a day in villages will no longer be eligible to draw benefits of central and state government welfare schemes meant for those living below the poverty line. 
From TOI.

A bright and rosy death of our nations' food security.

Project Sunshine, Golden Days, Rainbow, Golden Rays. Sound bright and optimistic? Brace yourself for the most important stories of this year. Which, if not paid attention to, will become the obituary of our nation's food security. (Click on the image to know more).

The death of the environment ministry.

Today you were killed by the government.
You had been in coma for years before. Until a man called Jairam Ramesh came and breathed life into you.
He said he was doing things “in enlightened national interest”. And he did. He thwarted Monsanto’s attempts at contaminating our biodiversity.
He said no to Vedanta who would have us believe that Niyamgiri was their jagir and the tribals their slaves.
This man tried. Failed. Stumbled. Bumbled. Got pushed over. Made mistakes. Did wrong. Did right.
He was a human after all. Standing in the crossfire between the development debate and the environmental concerns.
It’s a damn tricky place to be in. Try talking to your rich friends about tribals and mining and see how red eared and how blood pressured you become. And this man was making policies and making decisions that not only angered the rich friends and industry but the corrupt politicians as well.
And when they clipped his wings, he still pranced around, making noises.
Then, with one move they chopped off his head. And said they promoted him.
A country where the environment ministry isn’t the most important ministry has lost its bearings. To take away the ministry from a man who cared, is not promotion. It’s murder.
Of the environment ministry.
Monsanto, Vedanta, POSCO, you win this round. There is a chink in our armour.

You

Turn up the volume.

Description: The Great Indian Clearance Sale isn't about the corrupt people. Not about Monsanto. Not about coal. Not about mining. Not about environmental disasters. It is about one person who will be most affected by it. You.

The Other India's 2011

January

haunted by the ghost of the year gone

cold woebegones

hangover of consumerism

the corrupt plan their loots for the year

nothing about the next eleven months looks promising

something should disrupt the black

but nothing does

February

The corporate plunder

claws at the heart of my country

ghosts of the dead rise and question

the spring season in the capital

the nasturtiums in bloom

could almost make you come out

of your self imposed exile

and if you do

the mixed smell of diesel, blood and perfume

will intoxicate you

to a sleep that the 350 million

are only too content to sleep

So, whose water problem is it anyway?

(This is an interactive article. The sentences marked in red will lead you to interesting links, videos and resources. Please feel free to use them in the war against the biggest crisis of our times.)

Those of us who buy bottled water without thinking twice should shut up about the water problem. We deserve it. And we deserve what is going to happen in the future. We deserve the water mafia. We deserve corporatisation of water. We deserve the foul smelling water dripping from taps. We deserve to pay a hundred times more for water. With every litre consumed.

Why, you ask.

For if we had questioned that why don’t we get clean water in our taps we would not be here in the first place - throwing our hands in despair while a handful of people hold our water supply to ransom.

Those of us living in cities where monsoon is aplenty deserve to pay hefty sums for water tankers and fill our tanks with worm infested water. We deserve the trickle supply from the municipal corporation.

Why, you ask.

Why indeed the question would come back to us. Why isn’t our building or house equipped with a water harvesting system? Who will come and do it for us? If we don’t know how water harvesting can solve our water problems, whose fault is it? We have access to more information than any other generation of people in any other age. What stops us from googling water harvesting and finding out just how we can benefit from it.

Those of us living in cities where rivers used to run fresh, deserve the gutters these rivers have become. We deserve the Yamuna and the Mithi and the Ganga and the Chambal. Polluted and out of breath.

We deserve the gutters and our complains should end up like bags of degraded plastic thrown in the river at 2000 per second.

Why, you ask.

Why indeed the question will fill our nostrils like stench. Why don’t we come out in numbers and protest. It’s our rivers. If the land mafia would rather they run dry then take the land mafia to task. If the industries would rather they carried effluents and not water, then let the industries know that there are far bigger things than profit.

Fresh water is disappearing fast from the face of this planet. And in India we used to have enough. We wasted it. We are wasting it. Millions of litres every second. There is only one thing we must remember. It’s not government’s water. It’s not municipality’s water. It’s not Coca-Cola’s water. It’s our water. It’s our problem. And we will have to solve it. Unfortunately it will require more than us using 5 litres less water every day. It will require us asking some serious questions. Addressed to ourselves, to begin with.

Further reading:

India’s Imminent Water Crisis

http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/wbp/global-water-crisis/606

Water Pollution in India

http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/taxonomy/term/28

Hello, tiger conservationists

The death of the tiger points to a bigger, more sinister problem. The problem of people’s rights caused by our greed for land, and hunger for money. And the ease by which the creators of this problem divert our attention.

In the name of development we are violating human rights with an abandon only seen in savages of past. While poor people are being driven away from their lands, all sorts of justifications are available.

If Vedanta wants a tribal hill, it is necessary in the name of development to drive tribals out of there.

If Tata wants a factory land, they are given fertile land and farmers driven away from it.

The tiger is on the verge of extinction. And who do we blame? Tribals.

While the tribals right to forest bill has been passed (and diluted), the dissent in tiger conservationists voices is apparent. They have been crying hoarse that the tribals should be driven out of these forests.

And most of us believe and buy that argument.

It’s too easy to believe. Tribals crowd the forests, hence tiger dies. Foolproof.

Or, is it?

Here is an amazing story of how tribals and animals co-exist. And why we must go back to their culture if we want to preserve our country.

http://infochangeindia.org/Environment/The-paradox-of-environmentalism/The-tribal’s-right.html

The tribals aren’t stupid people. Their knowledge and ways of co-existence with the environment is what we need.

People’s rights to their land and environment are not conflicting issues. The conflict is brought about by corporate greed. And the blame falls on indigenous people.

In this confusion caused by short term solutions, we will not only lose the tiger, we will lose our country and all that it ever stood for. To the lowest bidders. The Great Indian Sale is on.

Don’t let them tell you that tribals are the sole reason for tigers going extinct.

http://infochangeindia.org/Agenda/Reporting-conflict/Is-it-really-tiger-vs-tribal.html

The Down to Earth story about tigers:

http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/node/40407

And some more news on the Forest Rights Act:

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20080131&filename=news&sec_id=4&sid=1#

And here's how they kill animals for fur in China. If you read the Time magazine story here, you can well imagine this is what the poachers do to the tigers in our own backyards.

So you'd rather save water when it comes to a choice?

Just in case you didn't notice, according to NASA's new and detailed study, North India's groundwater levels are depleting rapidly. "If measures are not taken to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, consequences for the 114 million residents of the region may include a collapse of agricultural output and severe shortages of potable water."
Oh and tigers are about to become extinct.
So what's the relation between tigers and water? Click on the poster to read. This isn't fiction, this is science. You may recognize the logic from primary school.

Fairy Tales we will be telling our children

You can read the fairy tale if you click on the image and make it bigger. And should you feel you can't read it, it is reproduced below in three parts, which you can click and read. And fresh off the press is a "proof" of this fairy tale: click here.

Worried about power cuts? They will soon be solved.

The Great Indian Clearance Sale is on and the only thing in short supply is common sense.

We are getting away with this delicious sale because no one in our country listens to sense. Here are two people who can lead us into the future with our heads held high, but then, we love hanging our heads in shame don’t we?


First up, here is Sunita Narain:
Another big-ticket concern is dryland and rainfed agriculture. Most of India today, after years of public investment in surface irrigation structures, remains dependent on increasingly variable rain. The monsoon is the true finance minister for most poor Indians. We must recognize multipurpose agriculture as practised in dryland areas—combining coarse cereals with animal care and its products all mixed with off-farm products like artisanal craft—is one way to build affordable and resilient economies. Today our policies discount and destroy these local economies. Tomorrow, our strategies must build on their strengths. For instance, fiscal policies must recognize crops that minimize the use of water—more crops per drop —and include ‘coarse’ cereals in the public distribution system. Simultaneously, we must build local water security, to enhance productivity. We must do this not by increasing costs of cultivation but reducing costs and investing in resilience.

Here is the powerful editorial:

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/editor.asp?foldername=20090615&filename=Editor&sec_id=2&sid=1


The dispossessed in India have nowhere to go to. Vandana Shiva

If you have THREE minutes of your precious time, here is another amazing lady, Vandana Shiva. You will see how the west will sell us clean coal and other such, and we will lap it up, and we will get sold:



Oh and while you are on the internet, why don’t you check out some other videos of Vandana Shiva, and read what Ms. Narain says.

Good luck, if you don’t.