alternative india

2009-01-01T12:00:00.003+05:30

India is more interesting than Vietnam... inside india
environmental issues down to earth greenpeace india centre for science and environment root cause suicide by pesticide navdanya the rainwater club social/environmental issues samanvaya politics of indian farm suicides mera bharat mahan - issues around indian agriculture/farming

alternative media and press asia
open space india
infochange news & features
india together
oneworld south asia
books for change
network of women in media, india
independent media center india

films
south asian issue based film forum
films for freedom
breakthrough tv

ngos in india
ngo list - aids and gender issues
indian ngos
find a ngo

caste and equality
india together
dalit network

gender issues
women's organisations in india
working women's forum
network of women in media resources
blank noise project - eve teasing

human rights - women and children
human trafficking
captive daughters
coalition against trafficking in women
child rights and you - child labour
anti slavery org
acting for women in distressing situations - SE Asia

access to technology
enable child bangalore

donate india
give india - ngo portal

child rights and you
save someone's sight

buy organic
conscious food mumbai
khandige herbs south india
list of organic outlets in india

india activism
mera bharat mahan - issues around indian agriculture/farming
friends of vedic culture
youth for justice
people for the ethical treatment of animalus

miscellaneous india
indian art for sale
raja kelkar museum pune

india blogs
save kerala
cook like an indian nri - mahanandi

outside india

cleanse your spirit
sahaja yoga

ideals i like
buy nothing at all

kill the plastic bag

an inconvenient truth

save the fishes! eat sustainable fish or none at all

marine conservation society - adopt a turtle

send a cow

ban - turn back the toxic tide

alternative media and press - international
environment on the guardian
new internationalist
global voices
minivan news in the maldives
women in media & news

social entrepreneurship
the new heroes
the world challenge 2007

other green link collections
tip the planet wiki blog - the little things you can do
a green blog of links
national geo's green guide

personally polluted
environmental watch skin deep report
the pollution in people

water in the usa

fair trading?
is it fair?
is this fair fashion?
hippy shopper - target the young - consumerism disguised as ethical shopping?

miscellaneous....

the incredible enviropedia - 300+ topics about the science of climate change
glamour article about somaly mam - spot the irony
simple living in the usa?

beautiful spots
asia photos
mccurrys photos

be interesting
send a cow
surf and meditate at the same time

is that so?

2007-05-20T09:10:00.000+05:30

"the rise in number of rapes reflects the falling ethical standards of our people who are out of synch with our culture and heritage", comments a politician in a popular magazine.

save the trees and the fishes

2007-04-18T01:16:00.000+05:30

Half the 24 billion tons of carbon dioxide generated by humans activity each year is absorbed by forests and oceans. To prevent global warming we need to protect the trees and encourage use of bamboo, coir, jute and glass fiber composite materials, which are better substitutes for wood.

incredible india

2007-03-04T10:41:00.002+05:30

letter sent to the Times of India:

Infants should not be used for begging: anybody residing in India cannot miss the sight of carried by their mothers or someone else for begging. To gain more sympathy from the public these people carry babies with a head injury or burns on their skin. One is not sure if these children were accidentally or deliberately injured.

We talk about child labour in factories and hotels and fail to think about how infants are used for begging. It is sad to think about India as a developed country in the light of such happenings.

A legislation banning such begging should be brought in. Also, the government should adopt these babies, either directly or through some social welfare organisation till a certain age. I am sure India has many kind hearted people who can stop this situation.

what's it all about?

2007-02-02T09:39:00.000+05:30

Listening to the movers and shakers of the “Indian economy miracle”, one would be led to think that anyone who raises doubts over the non-sustainable nature of the industrial type development is just spoiling the party.

There is very little information about the serious problems faced by farmers, rural people and tribal people in India, forcibly displaced and deprived of their livelihood to make place for dams, large industrial complexes, and so on.

The news comes to the surface only when some protesters are killed by the police, or Mamata Banerjee goes on hunger strike. But even then, the short attention span of the Indian public is quickly lost into the latest cricket game and the love life of Bollywood stars.

It is a source of great surprise to me, how few Hindu activists have expressed less than enthusiastic appreciation for the uncontrolled industrialisation of India.

The machine of industrialisation certainly does not bow down for temples or holy places: road-side temples are demolished without a second thought to make highways, and the energy of the protests of Hindu activists and organisations does not make much noise on the news or on internet. Now and then some internet petitions circulate, and then everything dies out.

Even Rama’s bridge is dismantled to give a broader passage to large ships. I remember when there was talk about the project, protests quickly died out, and one Hindu of Indian origin objected to my passionate appeals, demanding “proof” that the bridge had actually been built by Rama. To my knowledge nobody, except me, questioned the foolishness of such objection.

The Braj hills have become mining fields and garbage dumps – and talking about garbage, it is difficult to find a sacred river or holy place that is not polluted with garbage. What was the outcome of the protests? It seems it has simply been forgotten.

Meanwhile, the advertisements for faster and faster cars multiply, and the spot of a new bike says, “thinking is such a waste of time – danger is fun”.

Another TV spot ridiculises “Mr. Happy” who is happy and contented about his job and life and feels no urge to engage in the rat rice. The spot shows Mr Happy is quite well off – well fed without being out of shape, dressed smartly, affording a taxi to go to work, and at his workplace nobody is harassing him when he takes a break for tea. Yet, the entire point of the spot is about how stupid he is, and how unthinkably stupid would be anyone who behaved like him.

The old naukri.com TV spot (spelling Hari, as H for Hitler, A for arrogant, R for rascal, I for idiot) is back on air. However, no protest has come up this time yet, as far as I know.

However, the International news are still subject to strict censorship by the Indian “Big Brother”. For example, Indians will never come to know that in Western countries the industrialised model has not brought happiness and well being to all, and that the gap between the rich and the poor has only widened. They will not be told that allopathic medicine and hospitals are miserably failing in the West, and that diseases multiply instead of being vanquished – because the interest of the pharmaceutical industry is to have more consumers. In one European country only, every year there are 450,000 to 700,000 nosocomial infections (i.e. infections caused by poor hygiene or incompetence of medical workers in hospitals), with consequent 4500 to 21,000 deaths. Not to speak of the steep increase of tumors and other degenerative diseases connected to pollution.

There is not much talking about the immense damage already created by climate change in the world, and the future dangers. Or about the closing down of nuclear power installations in Europe due to general protests and the blockades of the European environmental activists against the “nuclear train” carrying spent nuclear waste around.

I am not saying that technology and economic development are bad things. I am not even saying that Western culture is totally bad in itself.

I am not saying that we should all desert cities and go back to live in the woods like hermits, or that cars, TVs or airplane traveling are bad.

I am saying that we need to remember that factories cannot manufacture happiness. They can’t even manufacture food: they only process the products of Mother Earth, and when they try to take over the production of life itself, they just make a big mess.

Materialistic scientists cannot produce even a blade of grass or a grain of wheat or rice: they can merely take grass, wheat or rice and tamper with them, transforming them into monsters without knowing the consequences of their actions.

Even for those who do not worry about genetic mutations, however, there is a more pressing and near concern:

technology is in the hands of industry, and industry is NOT run on charity basis.

The non-sustainable development paradigm is intended to enslave people – to make the poor poorer, and to tie the rest to the grinding stone so that they will live to work, and work to make money, and to make money to buy stuff they don’t really need.

Even those who rank on the higher levels of this profit chain are slaves because they are not allowed to stop and think what they are doing to themselves, to their children, to the planet. To keep themselves from thinking, they need to gulp down medication, pay expensive psychiatrists, and continue the mad pursuit of something they will never be able to attain: perfect happiness in mere sense enjoyment and possession.

Now and then, we stumble upon some internet appeal.

The problem is: what is the protest about? What will the protest obtain?

Is anyone speaking of sustainable development and self-sufficient village economy, raising of the self-empowerment awareness of farmers, making the right choices or cooperation and fair trade, cooperativism, self-empowered water management?

I don’t see that.

The protest is simply about asking the government to take up matters in their hands more and more. And what would the government do (in the best case)? Give 2 lakh to each family without educating them on how to use that money properly? Recognise that alcoholism, family disputes and social tensions are generated by the ignorant reaction to helplessness and inability to live decently?

PKD

= parama karuna devi - italian person - pavan india