I don't listen.
I never have.
It's an irony though because whatever I have managed to learn, is by listening.
I listened to my loved one's say I was worthless,
I listened to my teachers say I was just average
and I listened to my "friends" say I wasn't their best choice.
I just wish I'd listened to them, I wouldn't be in the place I was today.
I won't give up. I'll try I'll keep trying till I get what I want, till I reach where it is I want to reach, till I stop them from saying what it is that they want to say.
I know what I want and I know how much I want it. I'll try
Saturday 11 June 2011
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Green Careers
Do you happen to be a helpless greenomantic at heart?
Or are you the kind whose biggest contribution towards the environment is chanting "Keep my Delhi/Chennai Green and Clean" while throwing that teeny bubble gum wrapper in the overloaded bin and ignoring the rubbish strewn all around?
Or maybe the sort who actually wants to do something spectacular but just does not know where to get started?
Well, then, maybe I have got some news for you.
Its time for you to quit being oh-so-brilliantly clueless.
Join the Green Brigade!
There are truckloads of Green jobs out there waiting for you to explore. You can either be a Wildlife Filmmaker or an ardent Environmental Lawyer. Maybe an Organic Farmer or an Environmental Journalist.
Take your pick!
Already heard of these but looking for something to do with your hobbies?
If you love cooking why not try out your hand at being a Green Chef? You get to transform your restaurants or hotels into showplaces for environmental sustainability. You solar power your eating joints, use ‘reusable’ delivery boxes and avoid chemical cleaning products. In addition, you get to cook food using locally available ingredients, organic items and/or non-threatened species.
Have bagfuls of passion and fierce interest in wildlife?
Try your hand at becoming a true 'Wildlifer'.
The options include being a wildlife biologist (who studies wildlife biology as a subject), wild doctor or vet, wild artist, and wild activist (who fights for the cause of protecting wildlife).
So you are a thinker and a voracious reader with a curious mind. You tend to be a bit stubborn and independent ideas attract you. Though a not a party animal, your reflective self still likes interacting with people of all kinds, then your Great Green Career could include becoming an Eco-Historian, an Academic, an Author, an Eco-Journalist and what not!
If you like creating objects out of waste, tinkering with gadgets at home and have a strong bend towards Mathematics, Geometry, Physics and Chemistry then maybe your calling is of an Eco-Engineer. If you happen to have a genuine concern for the way humans and their technologies have degraded the ecology drives and you to seek innovative solutions then an Earth Architect is what you should be.
By the way, just for your information, you do not necessarily need that Science degree to be a Green Worker. Nor do you have to be an Environment Fanatic to grow in this field. (Pun Intended!)
So go ahead and let your actions match your passion!
************
Bibliography
~Gobar Times~
Or are you the kind whose biggest contribution towards the environment is chanting "Keep my Delhi/Chennai Green and Clean" while throwing that teeny bubble gum wrapper in the overloaded bin and ignoring the rubbish strewn all around?
Or maybe the sort who actually wants to do something spectacular but just does not know where to get started?
Well, then, maybe I have got some news for you.
Its time for you to quit being oh-so-brilliantly clueless.
Join the Green Brigade!
There are truckloads of Green jobs out there waiting for you to explore. You can either be a Wildlife Filmmaker or an ardent Environmental Lawyer. Maybe an Organic Farmer or an Environmental Journalist.
Take your pick!
Already heard of these but looking for something to do with your hobbies?
If you love cooking why not try out your hand at being a Green Chef? You get to transform your restaurants or hotels into showplaces for environmental sustainability. You solar power your eating joints, use ‘reusable’ delivery boxes and avoid chemical cleaning products. In addition, you get to cook food using locally available ingredients, organic items and/or non-threatened species.
Have bagfuls of passion and fierce interest in wildlife?
Try your hand at becoming a true 'Wildlifer'.
The options include being a wildlife biologist (who studies wildlife biology as a subject), wild doctor or vet, wild artist, and wild activist (who fights for the cause of protecting wildlife).
So you are a thinker and a voracious reader with a curious mind. You tend to be a bit stubborn and independent ideas attract you. Though a not a party animal, your reflective self still likes interacting with people of all kinds, then your Great Green Career could include becoming an Eco-Historian, an Academic, an Author, an Eco-Journalist and what not!
If you like creating objects out of waste, tinkering with gadgets at home and have a strong bend towards Mathematics, Geometry, Physics and Chemistry then maybe your calling is of an Eco-Engineer. If you happen to have a genuine concern for the way humans and their technologies have degraded the ecology drives and you to seek innovative solutions then an Earth Architect is what you should be.
By the way, just for your information, you do not necessarily need that Science degree to be a Green Worker. Nor do you have to be an Environment Fanatic to grow in this field. (Pun Intended!)
So go ahead and let your actions match your passion!
************
Bibliography
~Gobar Times~
Covering Environment (Deprivation-Style)
Have you ever dived in dirty water? You know the kind that stinks more than a week’s cold can handle? Or waded waist-deep in the crappiest of Chennaaay crap. (Literally!) Or just suffered unusually rotten luck? I am sure, the kindred spirits out there will agree to having experienced at least one of the above. But then, my claim stands apart in one particular matter. Yes, I too have done these spectacular things before in my ever happening lyf. But never had I had an awe-inspiring opportunity to do ALL these in one day itself.
Sorely, but surely, the acts mentioned above were performed by a murder of 45 (plus the elusive 46th member of the group). The following activities might astound thee, even get you to raise that eyebrow, but please do not ever question the necessity of pushing a fifty-seater so-not-capable-of-ever-emitting-any-pollution-again bus through the muck and slush of Chennaaay city. Never. It is times lyk these which get you wondering if it would have been better if you had just stayed in your warm bed instead. (Preferably with your stuffed cuddly toy) Just a passing rhetoric thought.
The Highlights of the day included the below mentioned so-berry NOT trivial incidents. Try not to whimper.
~ Witnessing *The Pulicat Effect* One moment being waist-deep in the cleanest of ocean water and the next in the dirtiest of human waste. (Only a diluted version, to make it even more, inhumanly possible, queasier.)
~ Being up to thine thorax in crappy situations is the perfect occasion to pay gloomy attention to the past wrongs of your non-existent lyf.
~ Wading through ankle-deep slushy waters. Without your shoes, hoping the lurking snakes do not fancy your yellow socks. Just not today, please.
~ Standing directly opposite Singapore. Give or take a couple of thousand miles.
~ Munching on hot food standing under the cover of a Fire Station yard.
~ Getting a glimpse of mountains. Priceless.
~Finding out those mountains were made of stacked up rubbish. The price of hundreds of slum-dwellers lives.
~ Gazing at the slick-covered Buckingham Canal.
~ Pitying the extra students who wanted to tag along. Their naïve imaginations had never conjured up shoe-bites as an after-effect to the journey.
~ Wet soggy socks.
~ Pain in places you never knew existed.
~ Lingering smell of sewage the day after.
~ The time of great bonding. I mean, who would disagree with the idea of making friends over a roadful of mulch, pushing a fifty-seater bus in addition. Best Friends Forever in the making.
Nevertheless, 30th of October is definitely etched in my mind as a spectacularly different day. (read different as dirtily different.) In my Over-Achievement award speech I am certainly going to thank my Environment professor. I can just imagine Sir standing in front of the future batches of ACJ wannabe-Environment-students, giving them a review of what to expect on a typical field trip. (We have, of course, set the standard.) But my future juniors are going to be one disappointed lot. Our trip was definitely once-in-a-lifetime journey… all the imaginable stars had aligned to present us with the rottenest luck ever. Such a combination is un/fortunately is possible only once in a googol years (The Grasshopper effect notwithstanding.)
Sorely, but surely, the acts mentioned above were performed by a murder of 45 (plus the elusive 46th member of the group). The following activities might astound thee, even get you to raise that eyebrow, but please do not ever question the necessity of pushing a fifty-seater so-not-capable-of-ever-emitting-any-pollution-again bus through the muck and slush of Chennaaay city. Never. It is times lyk these which get you wondering if it would have been better if you had just stayed in your warm bed instead. (Preferably with your stuffed cuddly toy) Just a passing rhetoric thought.
The Highlights of the day included the below mentioned so-berry NOT trivial incidents. Try not to whimper.
~ Witnessing *The Pulicat Effect* One moment being waist-deep in the cleanest of ocean water and the next in the dirtiest of human waste. (Only a diluted version, to make it even more, inhumanly possible, queasier.)
~ Being up to thine thorax in crappy situations is the perfect occasion to pay gloomy attention to the past wrongs of your non-existent lyf.
~ Wading through ankle-deep slushy waters. Without your shoes, hoping the lurking snakes do not fancy your yellow socks. Just not today, please.
~ Standing directly opposite Singapore. Give or take a couple of thousand miles.
~ Munching on hot food standing under the cover of a Fire Station yard.
~ Getting a glimpse of mountains. Priceless.
~Finding out those mountains were made of stacked up rubbish. The price of hundreds of slum-dwellers lives.
~ Gazing at the slick-covered Buckingham Canal.
~ Pitying the extra students who wanted to tag along. Their naïve imaginations had never conjured up shoe-bites as an after-effect to the journey.
~ Wet soggy socks.
~ Pain in places you never knew existed.
~ Lingering smell of sewage the day after.
~ The time of great bonding. I mean, who would disagree with the idea of making friends over a roadful of mulch, pushing a fifty-seater bus in addition. Best Friends Forever in the making.
Nevertheless, 30th of October is definitely etched in my mind as a spectacularly different day. (read different as dirtily different.) In my Over-Achievement award speech I am certainly going to thank my Environment professor. I can just imagine Sir standing in front of the future batches of ACJ wannabe-Environment-students, giving them a review of what to expect on a typical field trip. (We have, of course, set the standard.) But my future juniors are going to be one disappointed lot. Our trip was definitely once-in-a-lifetime journey… all the imaginable stars had aligned to present us with the rottenest luck ever. Such a combination is un/fortunately is possible only once in a googol years (The Grasshopper effect notwithstanding.)
Monday 22 November 2010
Book review: The story of a system in crisis
by Ajit Thamburajlast updated: 22 Nov, 14:58 hrs
“Going green” increasingly becomes a lifestyle fad for the Indian middle-class. The green Indian buys FabIndia-kurtas, turns off the Tata Safari at the signal and switches off the light during Earth Hour. Meanwhile, some environmentalists doubt whether we can simply shop our way out of the ecological crisis. These critics stress the systemic origins of the devastating trajectory. The Story of Stuff is the latest release from this fraction of environmentalists.
The book is a 252- page journey to the centre of consumerist society. In five main chapters, Annie Leonard illustrates why the current consumerist model is a system in crisis: our “obsession with stuff” is trashing the planet, ruining communities and is bad for our health, while it doesn't really make us happier.
The book sets off by reminding us that mining for raw materials -- like iron ore or bauxite -- destroys the habitats of millions of people, threatens the lives of workers that are exposed to toxics, and fuels conflicts as in the case of diamonds and Coltan. In order to guarantee the raw material supply, natural resources are over-exploited and are thus rapidly depleting. According to the author, the earth loses forests twice the size of Paris each day, while millions of litres of water are extracted from the hydro-cycle each day to just to produce cars.
In order to maximize profits, parts of the production costs are externalized to consumers, workers and the environment. Contrary to popular belief, the IT industry, wrongly conceived as a clean alternative to industrial production, is highly polluting. The book states that the legendary Silicon Valley has become one of the most toxic landscapes in the USA due to the use of solid Trichloroethylene (TCE) for the production of computer chips.
With production constantly shifting from high-wage, stringently regulated economies to low-wage countries where environmental regulations are lax or poorly enforced, direct pollution from manufacture and the pollution from transporting goods from production centres to consumption centres through a highly subsidized global network of transport further pollutes the planet. The shipping industry, the biggest mode of transport mode for commodities, is responsible for 30% of the global CO2 emissions.
Finally, after an ever-shrinking life-span of products, their “disposal” in landfills and incinerators marks the toxic end of the story of stuff.
These facts won't come as a surprise to any attentive citizen. What makes the Story of Stuff unique is the way it frames mere facts into a bigger picture. Linking the current ecological and social problems to the consumerist model, the author cunningly guides the reader to a “systemic approach” towards the multiple crises of the 21st century.
Annie Leonard's ideas are obviously inspired by Herman Daly. In his seminal book “Steady State Economics”, the eminent ecological economist points out to the natural limits of growth of each sub-system within a larger society. By turning the mainstream economists world view upside down, Daly (and Leonard) conceive the economy as such a sub-system of the biosphere, not the other way round.
Consequently, Leonard lashes out at the idea that unlimited growth could be an indicator for progress. She stresses the fact that GDP growth neither accounts for external effects nor does it discriminate between economic goods and “bads,” such as weapons of mass destruction or toxic products.
Ironically, destroying the planet in the name of “consuming stuff” does not make us happier. For Leonard, consumerism is like a rat race, where people work harder and harder in order to buy more stuff. As a result, we have less and less free-time, thereby losing our social relationships, which we again compensate by shopping more stuff. Eventually, we are unhappier than ever before.
Some critics have decried the Story of Stuff as a hidden Communist agenda. But Leonard is far from being a “Marx with a pony-tail”. It is exactly the non-ideological language and the absence of verbose Marxist analysis that makes this book so refreshing. At the same time, the distance to a larger theoretical framework also leads to some problems. In the epilogue, the author calls for radical changes at the policy-, law- and regulation level. But history showed that controlling the means of production means controlling the power relations in a given society. As radical reforms will certainly go against the interests of the ruling classes, how can Leonard expect real changes from them? In this regard, the Story of Stuff reminds of a sprinter with bad stamina-management: overwhelming at the start, but short of breath at the end.
Sunday 21 November 2010
All the best!
The 'Shades of Green' film festival, which started off as a small suggestion by Nity is now working its way into a festival in full swing with the efforts of all the environment elective students of ACJ.
It really felt great to see a promotion for the fest in the metro plus page of The Hindu today.
We really hope this fest becomes a grand success - success in a way that at least a portion of our society will be made aware of the dangers man poses to the environment and how fast the resources of our planet is depleting because of our lavish ways.
And if this festival goes well, we will have this as a tradition which can be taken forward by the coming batches of ACJ!
It really felt great to see a promotion for the fest in the metro plus page of The Hindu today.
We really hope this fest becomes a grand success - success in a way that at least a portion of our society will be made aware of the dangers man poses to the environment and how fast the resources of our planet is depleting because of our lavish ways.
And if this festival goes well, we will have this as a tradition which can be taken forward by the coming batches of ACJ!
SHADES OF GREEN - ACJ FILM FESTIVAL ON ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Shades of Green
ACJ Environmental Justice Film Festival
Man's war against nature does not victimise only the environment, but people
too. Environmental degradation and the "solutions" we come up to combat it
often end up hurting the poor and the marginalised disproportionately. Shades of Green-ACJ film festival highlights the fact that, the struggle for environmental justice is a struggle for an environmentally sustainable and socially just world. Please join us and participate in the panel discussion and talk show after the movie screening.
Special Guest: Madhumita Dutta, Vettiver Collective
Special Guest (Skype): Dr. Amit Bhaduri, Professor Emeritus, JNU, New Delhi
Man's war against nature does not victimise only the environment, but people
For more information, contact: Aaron - 9962270456
ACJ Environmental Justice Film Festival
Man's war against nature does not victimise only the environment, but people
too. Environmental degradation and the "solutions" we come up to combat it
often end up hurting the poor and the marginalised disproportionately. Shades of Green-ACJ film festival highlights the fact that, the struggle for environmental justice is a struggle for an environmentally sustainable and socially just world. Please join us and participate in the panel discussion and talk show after the movie screening.
Date and time: 28 November, 2010 (Sunday). 11 a.m. onwards (See Schedule below)
Venue: Asian College of Journalism, Asian College of Journalism, Second Main Road, (Behind M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation) Taramani, Chennai-600113
Getting there: Indira Nagar MRTS bus stop and station. By bus, take buses to Madhya Kailash. If coming from Thiruvanmiyur, Velachery side, get off at Indira Nagar MRTS bus stop. Otherwise, get off at Madhya Kailash and change to any bus going on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (IT Corridor).
PROGRAM
11 a.m. - Home (2009) by Yann Arthus Bertrand / Narrated by Glenn Close (English / 5-8 mins. edited)
AIR.
"The Story of Cap & Trade" (2009) by Annie Leonard (English / 9.55 mins.)
"The Carbon Connection" (200 ) by Fenceline Films (Spanish /Portuguese
with English subtitles / 30 mins edited)
12.30 -- Panel discusion "Do Poor Nations Have a Right to Pollute?" Special guest speaker: Shweta Narayan, Community Environmental Monitoring, and Skype Appearance, Pankaj Sekhsaria, Kalpvriksh, Mumbai.
1.30- Lunch
2.30 p.m. - WATER.
Uber Wasser (2007) by Udo Maurer (German with English subtitles / 45
mins. edited)
3.15 to 4 p.m. -- Panel discussion -- "Whose Water is it Anyway? Water Management Between Human Rights and Ecosystem Needs."
Special guest speaker: Jayshri Vencatesan, Care Earth, Chennai
Special Appearance (via Skype): Sunita Narain, Director, Centre for Science and Environment
4 to 430 p.m. -- ACJ Screenings
4-6 films on the environment by student (20 mins.)
2 radio broadcasts ( 5+5 mins.)
4.45 p.m. - LAND.
"Mine: The Story of a Mountain" ( 2009) by Toby Nicholas / Narrated by
Joanna Lumley (Oriya with English subtitles / 10.59 mins.)
"Kasargod: In God's Own Country" (Malayalam/ English with English
subtitles / 27 mins.)
5.45 - 6.45 Talk Show: Moderated by Dr. Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, Adjunct faculty, Asian College of Journalism, and Senior Deputy Editor, The Hindu.Venue: Asian College of Journalism, Asian College of Journalism, Second Main Road, (Behind M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation) Taramani, Chennai-600113
Getting there: Indira Nagar MRTS bus stop and station. By bus, take buses to Madhya Kailash. If coming from Thiruvanmiyur, Velachery side, get off at Indira Nagar MRTS bus stop. Otherwise, get off at Madhya Kailash and change to any bus going on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (IT Corridor).
PROGRAM
11 a.m. - Home (2009) by Yann Arthus Bertrand / Narrated by Glenn Close (English / 5-8 mins. edited)
AIR.
"The Story of Cap & Trade" (2009) by Annie Leonard (English / 9.55 mins.)
"The Carbon Connection" (200 ) by Fenceline Films (Spanish /Portuguese
with English subtitles / 30 mins edited)
12.30 -- Panel discusion "Do Poor Nations Have a Right to Pollute?" Special guest speaker: Shweta Narayan, Community Environmental Monitoring, and Skype Appearance, Pankaj Sekhsaria, Kalpvriksh, Mumbai.
1.30- Lunch
2.30 p.m. - WATER.
Uber Wasser (2007) by Udo Maurer (German with English subtitles / 45
mins. edited)
3.15 to 4 p.m. -- Panel discussion -- "Whose Water is it Anyway? Water Management Between Human Rights and Ecosystem Needs."
Special guest speaker: Jayshri Vencatesan, Care Earth, Chennai
Special Appearance (via Skype): Sunita Narain, Director, Centre for Science and Environment
4 to 430 p.m. -- ACJ Screenings
4-6 films on the environment by student (20 mins.)
2 radio broadcasts ( 5+5 mins.)
4.45 p.m. - LAND.
"Mine: The Story of a Mountain" ( 2009) by Toby Nicholas / Narrated by
Joanna Lumley (Oriya with English subtitles / 10.59 mins.)
"Kasargod: In God's Own Country" (Malayalam/ English with English
subtitles / 27 mins.)
Special Guest: Madhumita Dutta, Vettiver Collective
Special Guest (Skype): Dr. Amit Bhaduri, Professor Emeritus, JNU, New Delhi
Man's war against nature does not victimise only the environment, but people
too. Environmental degradation and the "solutions" we come up to combat it
often end up hurting the poor and the marginalised disproportionately.
Shades of Green-ACJ film festival highlights the fact that, the struggle for environmental justice is a struggle for an environmentally sustainable and socially just world. Please join us and participate in the panel discussion and talk show after the movie screening.
Organised by the Environment Elective Students of Asian College of Journalismoften end up hurting the poor and the marginalised disproportionately.
Shades of Green-ACJ film festival highlights the fact that, the struggle for environmental justice is a struggle for an environmentally sustainable and socially just world. Please join us and participate in the panel discussion and talk show after the movie screening.
For more information, contact: Aaron - 9962270456
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