Opinion: Paid Digital TV has caused terrorism and the deaths of thousands

I want to get this idea out of my head and get back to mountains of pending work. Maybe I'll come back to this at a later date and refine it further.

Main point : Corporate greed in the television industry has created the present-day world problems of terrorism and religious extremism in the middle east and south asia. All the repeating terror attacks in both India and Pakistan, the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan as well, Sri Lanka's ethnic conflicts, the Naxalite or Maoist violence in the interiors of India, Iraq's bloodbath of Sunnis Vs Shias as well as continued dominance of hardliners in Iran have been caused by a greedy business model that abused modern technology to line the pockets of a few individuals.

Sounds a little controversial? Let me rephrase it in a smaller line:

Paid Digital TV has caused all the religious/ethnic conflicts and terrorist strikes in our part of the world.

There, that should set some heads rolling. Now, I'll explain how:

disclaimer : I'm not saying that TV has caused all these problems - na, it's the opposite. I'm saying the that the conversion to paid digital of nearly all our channels has caused it.

I grew up as a son of an Indian expatriate engineer living in Saudi Arabia. It was a great childhood. TV was a huge part of all our lives. Back home in India, cable television too had mushroomed. In India, there were local cable networks bringing it home so you'd just stick an RF cable into your TV and have different channels tuned in. But in Saudi Arabia these networks weren't there. So, residents of a building or two would team up, buy and put up their own dish antenna's in the terraces of their buildings. In my building we had two dishes - a big one pointing in one direction and a smaller one pointing in the other. The cables coming out of there were simply joined together, and then split and dropped down the side of the building to all the residents' homes, and they went in via holes made in the air conditioner frames.

In our halls (why do we call it a living room, I lived in all the rooms) we had set-top boxes that took in these thick fat cables and tuned all the channels on different frequencies using several parameters - not just the one-dimensional LF/HF/UHF line of the TV. I remember there being different ways of tuning in audio and video. All the technicalities came right down to the end user and nothing was pre-programmed.

Although we thought nothing of it at the time, the hallmark here was practical simplicity : One dish antenna points at that particular satellite, and the wires coming out from that go down to our homes. No electricity used here. To add a new resident who'd recently moved in, we just put in a splitter or simply wound his wire round the existing ones. To get the channels right, we would simply dedicate an evening to taking the TV and the tuner up to the terrace, hooking it up there and physically moving the dish in all directions possible while looking at the screen to find the right orientation by trial and error. Many channels would come grainy but we did the best we could and lived with that.

I didn't even understand the concept at the time : all satellite TV channels we got were essentially free-to-air, analogue, non-encrypted. So, anybody anywhere in the world, could locally assemble a dish antenna, hook up wires coming out of it to universally available set-top boxes and watch all the satellite channels that we were watching. No patents, no brands. At the time it was understood that the channels cannot possibly take any money from the people watching, so to make ends meet and keep the cameras rolling they used advertisements. Nobody liked them very much, but we all understood they were a necessity to keep watching our favorite shows. It was a bit like putting up with a spouse's nagging so as to avail of the .. ahem.. later on.

At that time, we knew from our family friends living in American compounds (read: high-security gated communities in and around Riyadh made for foreigners where the usual strict rules of burkhas etc are relaxed and they're made to resemble a home away from home for the expatriates coming from western countries) that THEY were watching TV channels directly from USA/UK that weren't available to us. It was on a "Sky network" and apparently only paid or authorised people could get those channels and we couldn't even if we pointed our dishes in that satellite's direction and even if we tried those new digital set-top boxes out on the market. Apparently the american compounds paid for a connection. But still, all the residents there did not have a satellite dish above their homes. I later found out that this was basically the same rig used by cable operators in India to bring us all those channels that we did not get from our homegrown setups in Saudi. But even they didn't get ALL the channels due to government bans on some that regularly aired movies or shows having nudity. Still, there was a huge bunch of TV channels that anybody in this part of the world could watch with very little capital and only electric bills as the monthly expenditure. Essentially, TV was free.

What effect did that have, you may ask? Well, picture this : A small town in Afghanistan using generators could watch all the TV shows - Indian, American, European, Pakistani, Chinese, Japanese - everything - that everybody else was watching. Quite literally, the world's civilization was being beamed, for free, into the regions of the world where telephones, radio, internet, transport, frozen foods, malls, cars had no possibility of reaching. Eveybody loved Raymond. The Simpsons challenged everyone to understand english faster so they could get all the jokes. Everyone enjoyed Bollywood movies and songs even if their nearest theater would never show them. For all the authoritarian governments that banned cable TV on moral/cultural grounds, there was really no way of carrying out that ban : the day after a police raid the satellite dish would be up again - government orders melted away in the face of the iron will of the millions of women across the region who needed their weekly dose of serials. Kids across borders were united by Tom and Jerry and Captain Planet. MTV and Channel V and shows for teens like Friends challenged cultural notions on a daily basis in a fun, engaging and non-violent manner. Even the strictest of adults would secretly watch Baywatch after a day full of moaning the ills of western openness. The advertisements informed everyone about the latest state of technology so even if their local markets didn't have the products, they knew they're out there.

In the face of this continuous, non-stop barrage of the entire world's updated ideas, culture and technology, no hardliner stood any real chance of dominating the hearts and minds of anybody other than those closeted inside their own homes. How could anyone who's watched Phoebe of friends ever hate the liberalization of women? How could anyone who loves Tom and Jerry or Popeye ever even think of attacking the people of the country whence they came? How could anyone who's watching Star Trek be expected to blow up innocent people just because they're from another religion? How could anyone regularly watching Discovery shows on space exploration ever be expected to get really mired into regional conflicts?

Circa 2000 : Something happened. One by one all the channels started announcing they're switching to Digital with oh-so-improved viewer experience and that we should contact our cable operators to know how we can continue watching them. Now in a structured cable TV market, this was of little significance to the viewer. But in Saudi Arabia, and I'm sure, all over the non-cable-networked world, people went "what??" Because we WERE our own cable operators and we had no idea what these channels were talking about! Some channels like BBC who had never had any intentions of going paid, started giving detailed instructions on how to tune a standard digital set-top box. But the other channels didn't provide any details. One by one the channels go off air and are replaced by static screens telling that they've gone digital and giving phone numbers of their offices in places that most of the unorganized world could never reach.

And then some service called Pehla pops up in the middle east, catering to the desperate needs of the panicked expatriates from the subcontinent. Not only would we get all those channels back, but now we would also be able to see several more western channels, that too with schedules and info boxes right on screen, no need to consult the daily newspapers! The only catch : for the first time we now had to PAY a monthly or yearly subscription fee. For TV. Now it sounds perfectly fine to you, but back then it was like charging a monthly fee for breathing air. Something so ubiquitous that we never thought we'd have to pay for, whose running costs were nicely self-financed with all those advertisements, is now going to cost us monthly. In return we were promised "no ads" or reduced ads and very very high quality content. Of course, it was a useless sales pitch : with free-to-air TV channels gone, there were little other options.

And there was something even crazier in store : Everyone who took this subscription, had to get Pehla's own set-top box (and junk the ones we had), and.. wait for it... A SATELLITE DISH. With every single connection. To make it easier, they made it zero installation charges and then zero cost for the dish completely. Now forget about the money aspect, just ask yourself this : There is ONE satellite of Pehla's out there in space that we need to receive the signals from. On the same building's terrace, keeping ONE satellite dish for all the subscribers would suffice - just as before, we can take the cord out and put it in splitters and wind them round and round and send them to all the building's residents, and even to the adjoining building if feasible. But NO, now every family that needed a connection, had to prop up their own satellite dish. So now a building housing 10 families would have 10 dishes on its terrace, with more for the families using more than one connection. The ensuing loss of space on the entire world's terraces where kids would normally go play or where mothers would grow plants or host parties - will go down in history as the biggest unaccounted-for forced real estate loss of all time. Forget the zero-installation charges, if we'd charged those bastards a monthly rent for occupying the building's terrace on a per sq. foot basis and added up charges for all residents in the buildings (as terraces are common space), it would have been them paying us! This model had absolutely no justification : the agents' reasonings that "if you split the wire you don't get all the signals properly" were bullshit. The only reason for forcing this ridiculous wastage of metals and plastic and installation efforts that I can see, is to drive prices up and hence drive profits up. If it's zero-installation-costs then that means they've passed the costs to your monthly subscription, which means they'll easily make up for those costs and still keep charging you long after making absolute profits.

And talking about profits : what the hell had they promised? reduced advertisements? bullshit! Now the TV channels firstly charge companies to air their ads, and then ON TOP OF THAT they charge millions of people for forcing them to watch those ads alongside their shows. The fact that this industry now makes billions and billions in profits proves that they're over-charging everybody. That too they didn't bring this about by making any real costly changes on their end : they simply re-programmed the signals that the satellite broadcasts, and changed the encoding from analog to digital, and put in encryption codes. So that on the ground, even if people still receive those signals, they don't get to see anything until they pay for the service, in lieu of which the agents puts in a decryption code - at first manually and now by inserting a card. Suddenly it's all high-tech but it's only for profit - the technology has been abused big-time. You heard that right. All the different packages that they offer - did you think the satellite way up there sends different signals to your dish and different signals to your neighbor who's taken the platinum pack? You're both receiving the same set of signals - but you get a different decryption code depending on what you're paying for and so you don't get some channels that your neighbor gets. It's all there, it's all coming to you, but by black-boxing the set-top box and encrypting the signals you get denied what once upon a time used to be as free as air.

But anyways, that is not what has caused the rise in terrorism, irrational as it may be. Now let me go into the main driver:

The real problem lay in the payment model. To be able to collect monthly or yearly subscription charges from families, the company in question needs to set up an expensive network of offices and agents everywhere they hope to reach. This can be done in cities and towns that have infrastructure set up to get daily supply of electricity, transport, frozen foods etc. But what about the places where the "grid" does not reach? And what about the majority of the population for whom paying for monthly TV viewing is beyond their family budget? The more out-of-reach a place, the higher the costs for the cable network, so higher charges, and so lesser people who can subscribe, as typically out-of-reach places are also poorer. Also, you need permissions from local and national administrations to carry out business. Which means a network will find it impossible to charge viewers for subscribing to an "enemy" country's channels. Basically, this model is simply non-doable for the majority of the population spread over all our continents - I'm talking 99.9% or more. But anyways that section, which had been benefiting the most from satellite TV by way of learning and liberalization, did not matter to the broadcasters because they didn't buy the advertised products. Dabur honey advertised in Indian channels wouldn't find customers in rural Pakistan. So they simply left them out. If you lived in a place where the network couldn't charge you a subscription fee, then no more satellite TV for you. Gone. I know this happened to my family - we considered Pehla too expensive and now I get how bewildered my Dad must have felt at the whole model and why he never signed up - it didn't make any sense. They took away a good thing from millions and millions of people from all over our side of the world because they couldn't make more money from us. It would not have cost them anything, but it would not have made them any huge profits so they simply abandoned over 99% of their audience.

What was left behind was a vacuum : TV had been the only real thing coming anywhere close to connecting millions of people with the rest of the world. All over Pakistan, millions of people would watch the same Indian TV shows and share in the steady unshackling of culture and the increasing empowerment of women and children. TV was teaching young people that sexuality wasn't a bad thing and that it is ok to fall in love with someone from another caste or religion. Peoples of both nations saw that the people on the other side were just like them. It sent a message of connectedness to the masses of both countries - you cannot expect the people of a nation that loves your weekly TV serials to really harbor ill will towards your nation's citizens. No matter what our leaders said, the people were not in the conflict mindset. Ditto for dramas in PTV that Indians adored. The authorities previously could do nothing to stop this shared culture. But with one Indian channel after another going digital and paid, now there was no way for them to have any subscription collection network in Pakistan - the authorities would never allow that. In the same way, Indian authorities too did not permit Pakistani and many other countries' TV channels. Now with a controlled system in place, restrictions came where there was previously free sharing of culture. So the sharing of TV and with that cultures across the border, stopped abruptly. Mind, at this time even Internet or even cheap telecommunications hadn't made any inroads into the majority of households of both nations. Suddenly we were cut off and the peoples of any nation could now only watch that which their authorities let them. As for the majority population - they were too poor to afford paid TV anyways - they lost out completely, they even got disconnected from the rest of their own nation.

It was in this vacuum that hardline organizations now found a space to thrive. Without a constant source of information and culture telling them that the "others" have emotions and feelings too, or informing them about how interconnected and united the world is or showing them all sorts of fascinating things from different peoples and places all around the world, it was easy for hardliners to brainwash naive minds into believing that only their way and their ideas were the right path and that everything and everybody else was a threat and had to be eliminated. Even the real experts of their own religion who preached peace, were now no longer seen or heard and were replaced by warmongers and misinformers.

And that, my friend, is where all the world's suicide bombers, terrorists, extremists and conflicters have come from. Can you really expect a muslim teenager to grow up to hate christians or hindus or anyone else if he's grown up watching how everybody has the same emotions and how interconnected our planet is or how amazing and beautiful our world and our universe is? In the nether regions of India too, zero connection with the rest of the country and the world made sure that when the locals were pushed out of their homes by greedy miners and industrialists, they perceived them as representing the entirety of the rest of India - to them modern India only represented greedy, vicious profit-crazy plunderers in bed with abusive, authoritarian police forces. Hence they simply did not have the environment or the encouragement to fight injustice in civilized discourse - how can you expect a tribal to know he can get justice at the courts if he doesn't know of their existence or how to go about the process? And so they took the only technology available to them without monthly subscription fees - weapons. And hence "India's biggest internal security threat" as Chidambaran likes to term it. How much have those channels made in profits, again? Is it more than the amount and the lives and livelihoods lost by us in internal and external conflicts till now? Do those profits justify depriving millions of poor people of the benefits of the world's accumulated ideas, knowledge, education and culture while they're getting state-of-the-art weapons delivered to them by arms manufacturers that our governments cannot stop? Does it justify the bomb blasts and the innocents killed?

So where do we go from here? 
I can bet with you that if we were to un-encrpypt all of the world's satellite TV channels and make them free-to-air and viewable with the simplest of technology, we'll find peace quicker than any complicated rounds of negotiations or any wars on terror. If the US had bombed Afghanistan with free-to-air reruns of Friends and Baywatch and Tom and Jerry translated in all its local languages broadcast on all frequencies and parachute-dropped TVs, set-top boxes, satellite dishes and portable generators / batteries into the country instead of dropping bombs, the Taliban would have been converted or kicked out by their own women and children in a year. Phoebe of Friends is humanity's most powerful weapon of mass destruction of old thoughts and attitudes - she has single-handedly transformed the hearts and minds of millions of men and women and would transform billions of hearts and minds if only we unleashed her upon the oppressive and backward regions of the world. We do not need war - all we need is some love and entertainment along with elimination of this stupid encrpytion of TV channels!

the God in us - a tribute to Wangari Maathai

Wangari Muta Maathai (1940-2011)

"I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me.

All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet.

It must be this voice that is telling me to do something, and I am sure it's the same voice that is speaking to everybody on this planet — at least everybody who seems to be concerned about the fate of the world, the fate of this planet."

-Wangari Maathai
Environmentalist and womens' rights activist
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2004
Founder, the Green Belt Movement


..And also,

-Nikhil Sheth
Teach for India Fellow, 2011-13

(hey, she's literally spoken my mind! No kidding!!)

Wangari Mathaai proved that we can all make a difference in saving the planet, and that we don't need huge resources at our disposal to lead the way.

Photo and words peacefully adopted from this album on 350.org 's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150329725607708.361945.12185972707

The Golden Cage

Here is an interesting email forward, and then below it is my unsolicited opinion!

My Degree Isn't Worth the Debt! Facing college costs that are rising far faster than incomes, many Americans are relying on massive amounts of debt. We talked to people overloaded with student loans. Courtesy: Erik Solecki Erik Solecki Student debt: $185,000 Degree: Bachelor's in industrial engineering from Kettering University Was my college degree worth it? Hell no. I graduated from one of the top engineering schools in the nation, thinking my starting salary would be between $70,000 and $80,000 a year. Such a specialized, technical degree is supposed to lead to a great career, so I was willing to take out the debt. Instead, I was hit with nine months of unemployment after graduating. And now that I finally have a job, I'm making about $15,000 a year less than I had hoped. Even if I were able to afford the $1,800 payments each month, it will probably take me 30 years to pay off my student loans. I engineer high-end autos. Ironically, I'll probably never be able to afford one. Courtesy: Saniquah Robinson Saniquah Robinson Student debt: $82,000 Degrees: Master's in Health Science from Chatham University; Bachelor's in psychology from Temple University After holding my Master's for three years, I'm still fighting to find a Master's level position. I have been seeking employment in the medical field and after about a hundred interviews, I'm left doing contract work for $19 an hour. I once believed that part of the American Dream was to earn a college education and this would ensure a great career and financial freedom. Unfortunately I am losing hope. I'm a mother of three, and my husband and I have been turned down from purchasing a home due to our income-to-debt ratio. I don't want people to think they shouldn't go to college -- it definitely gives you a great foundation to start your career. But it's very important that when you do, you know exactly what you want to study and you're knowledgeable about debt. Courtesy: Shane Dixon Shane Dixon Student debt: $72,800 Degrees: Master's in public health from University of South Carolina; Bachelor's in biology from Clemson University In my early years after high school, I wavered between trade school and college, but eventually opted for college and earned a Bachelor's in biology. I quickly found work, but at an abysmal wage of $7.25 per hour, which did not even allow me to live on my own. After an exasperating year at that wage, I decided to go back to school and I graduated in 2004 with a Master's in Public Health, thinking I was on the road to recovery. During that time, I had been married, had a child, gotten divorced, and ended up raising my son on my own. I took a low paying government job in Southern Florida, and because I couldn't even make the minimum payments on my debt, I took forbearance after forbearance. I have had a good life, but now at age 37, the weariness of carrying this financial burden frustrates me to no end. My son is nine years old now and will want to attend college when he graduates high school. But what will I tell him? First I have to decide if the college degree is worth the debt. I hope by the time he is making his decision, I will have figured it out. Courtesy: Michelle Shipley Michelle Shipley Student debt: $140,000 Degree: Bachelor's in political science and international development from Tulane University Like many, I had no idea what money meant when I was 17. My family is not wealthy. I simply didn't have the information or knowledge to know what it would be like now. I had to pay for college on my own and took out loans for everything - rent, food, books, tuition, etc. Then, during my sophomore year, I lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. I finished my degree, but continued to take loans to make it possible. I'm now working at a non-profit and I love it -- but I don't make much. I've been able to put off the payments through forbearance, but I know the $1,400 a month bills are coming soon. Not to mention, I've also racked up about $7,000 in credit card debt. My debt is a life-swallowing, all-consuming, hole in my life. No college degree is worth that. __,_._,___

Over there it's Student Debt; for many Indians it is mostly "Parents' Investment". For a very few, it's a scholarship. In either case, it is ultimately some few very well-off people to whom all the hard-earned or hard-raised money goes, with only a fraction coming back into the ecosystem in any beneficial way.

If only 100 or 1000 people did this, it would be still ok, but what about the big picture? We must ask ourselves, "could there be an alternative?" Is the world just a narrow tunnel we must rush into, or an open field where there are many pathways to success and where you can also be happy by not running around too much? Especially in the fast-developing global scenario of nearly all education becoming completely free and open to all and existing materials getting outdated by the time their students graduate, should we keep running after the old bandwagon?

I loved the personal stories shared here in this email forward and their power to drive in the point. (Apologies if the photos of the people didn't come through...) They're not isolated incidents : several people I've grown up with, studied with, gotten acquainted with - extremely nice and talented people, are also living under mountains of debt - either to banks or in a few 'lucky' cases, to their families. Does that explain the abnormally high incidence of talented and well-educated people ultimately not marrying the men or women they had fallen in love with, or not taking up their dream projects but instead fake-smiling their way through compromise and calling it all a part of "growing up" ?!

I can tell you this : They are not happy with the way their life has panned out, sorry. Many still have expectations that it's all turning around and "just a little bit more slogging!" but I foresee frustration lurking around the corners. The vast majority aren't doing the revolutionary, ground-breaking, world-changing or noble work that they'd set out to - somewhere in the race for prosperity and status, those innate aspirations took a backseat. In many cases the heart itself has changed and they're no longer the people I knew that genuinely wanted to help others.

They're working hard, all right - too hard in fact, but what and who are they ultimately working for? Couldn't their immense talents have been better utilized? And the biggest tragedy is that they can't just change tracks now even if they desperately want to : the debt has trapped them in golden cages - trapped them until the time comes when they will no longer be able to return to their dream projects. They are no longer free people.

I'm also attaching a couple of great info-graphics I've found elsewhere that explains the fine lines brilliantly. And don't go for the comfortable ignorances : the picture of student loans in India too isn't getting any better. I highly recommend all youngsters who are gearing up for further studies, and their parents who are planning on bankrolling them with the expectation of magically giving them a better life, to please check this out, switch off the TV for an evening and spend some time thinking over it together.


Cheers,
Nikhil Sheth
Pune, India
Teach For India Fellow, 2011-13

Need your help for funding my classroom and under-resourced school @TeachForIndia

Hi Friends,

Need your help to raise funds for my classroom, to give my students who come from slums and low-income families a fighting chance in the battle against educational inequity. Please spread this link around :

http://www.giveindia.org/iGive-NikhilSheth

You can donate here in a simple online process using your netbanking, debit or credit card. And you'll get the tax exemption from this as well.

If you'd like to know more about the Teach for India fellowship that I'm a part of, please visit http://www.teachforindia.org

If you'd like to know more about my class and my school and the amazing 35 kids who have become my heartbeats, please visit our website I set up recently : http://shantabailadat.wikispaces.com ,
or check out my profile on Facebook! In case we've been out of touch for very long now, then sincere apologies, but after checking out these links you'll know what's keeping me 100% occupied nowadays!

Thanking you,

Cheers,
Nikhil Sheth
+91-966-583-1250
Pune, India
Teach For India Fellow, 2011-13
http://www.nikhilsheth.tk
http://www.facebook.com/nikjs

Why?

Hi All! It's been LOONNNGG since I wrote anything blog-worthy here, but a recent conversation with an acquaintance on FB, and an open-ended question, seems to have made me spit some things out. That too this isn't about some issue that I'm just observing (as most posts are), but something VERY personal : the events that led me to quit the corporate world and make social work my life!

The question was phrased excellently : I'm hiding the name of the person for now and will reveal it when he gives permission. My answer was a direct thoughts-to-text conversion so it may be a little crazy and I don't really want to "copy-edit" it right now.


Question:

Hi Nikhil!

Upon going through some of your recent updates on Fb, an intriguing question popped up in my mind. (It may sound a bit personal, so please feel free to respond as you wish.)

The question simply is: why?

I admire your altruism especially seeing as how it is so rare today. But what makes you tick? Why do you do the volunteering or the social work that you do?

What is it exactly that goes through your mind when you make decisions that we have to face everyday? For instance, the choice of whether to start working, after a (post)graduation with an NGO or an MNC -- the obvious factor being the money involved. Even if, let's say, one can get well paid even in NGOs today, why prefer the trouble of social work and social change rather than sit at home and have some fun? Even at a rather micro level, why help anyone at all except when helping them is going to increase your own chances of success?

Let me tell you why I'm asking this question. This is a question that bothers me daily. For some reason it turns out that compared to helping others and being all enthusiastic about social amelioration, focussing on one's own issues and solving them as fast as possible is so much more enjoyable, easy and comfortable. In you I already see the social activist, all focussed on positive social impact -- not just the wishy-washy campaign sort of thing but genuine change that is based on ideas that are intellectually and morally very very satisfying.

I would really love to know these answers from you.

Thank you for your time.

Answer: (or a confusing excuse for one!)

Hi !
Thanks a lot for your compliments; I don't know if I deserve them because currently as far as TFI is concerned there are others doing a much better job of it than I am.

Your question forced me to really think about this.. I haven't completely found out the answer to your question yet, but in reflecting over it during our intensive training program with TFI, I had found a few things here and there that may add up to an explanation.

Beginning with : I've always been better at helping other ppl than at helping myself. At a personal level I'm extremely disorganized and always in a mess. Somehow my greatest successes have come when I was doing something not for myself. In the process I did gain a lot so it was always a win-win. But I've never had the kind of ambitions or even interests that I see in guys around me. During by 10th-11th-12th grade years, my Mom was fighting a battle with cancer and the whole family was caring for her. She passed away when I was in 12th. I remember being completely tuned out of all the things my peers were crazy about - cars, bikes, games, clothes, etc. Materialism just didn't make any sense at the time and the MS-in-US bandwagon stopped being attractive.

I didn't become any activist type just then. But I took out a great deal of time to read news and articles and think about things. Was always very connected with anything related to environment and technology and human rights - but only as an observer. It was after college and over a year after joining my company and working in Gurgaon, that I was very depressed over a heart-break, felt like my world had ended and had resigned myself to accepting that I would never have a normal family life and there I found that the only thing that gave me relief from my depression was helping others. (No, I had read way too much scientific stuff in my teenage years and never bought into the drinking/smoking game, plus I hate being one of the crowd) I signed up to join a team of volunteers from my company that was taking part in a Yamuna cleanup drive. I stayed at the camp overnight, shared the tent with some youngsters whom you will find in the most posh mall of Delhi - but on the other side of the counter, as the staff. From conversations with them I found that they all were actually smarter and more deserving of good opportunities than I was. The question of why they didn't get better opportunities - only because of lack of money - haunted me. Even when riddled with so many issues, these youngsters were out here giving their time for a noble cause when all their wealthier counterparts - the facebook generation we're part of - who COULD help easily - weren't around.

That kick-started my volunteering spree that went on for 2 years and I put 50% of my work time in that (and still did enough good quality work to get a big cash award and appreciation from client!). During the time my thirst for knowledge made me watch several documentaries and read new ideas from all around the world and I'd gotten very sensitized to several issues. In 2010, something tragic happened to the person I was closest to in Gurgaon and who had become my sister over the years - she lost her father in a terrible incident and her family was put through severe emotional trauma. I watched as just within a week after the funeral she was back for work - being at a level equal to me (we were recruited and trained in our company together), she was now the sole earning member of her family and supporting a mother and two smaller siblings. This made me question my own situation : no dependencies, no big aspirations, I spend over half my time in doing volunteering or organizing things other than work, was very comfortable financially because of zero excess expenditure lifestyle. The girl who was like my sister was also so invested in doing social work (she'd celebrate her birthday at a home for spastic children) but she did not have any luxury, she had to care for her family. Just like that there may be someone else who needs my job, my seat for real reasons. I remembered something I'd read as a kid somewhere about how in a society it's the "dharma" of those who are well off to help those who are struggling. I got this overpowering feeling that I was occupying someone else's seat - that my role in life is not this and that if I can afford to then I should do something else worthwhile and make the best use of my skills for the common good. I didn't have any other plans but I resigned from my company in June 2010. (without consulting with anybody! it was a personal decision!)

It was a crazy decision of course, but I had made a deal with myself that I'm not going to do anything that isn't approved by the conscience. I swore to give myself max 1 year before worrying about money again. Had enough saved up to sustain myself for 2. I then went even more all-out on the net and read any and every news, opinion article, downloaded and watched nearly every documentary and ted video in existence (related to present-day global issues ie - i hate the dramatized history channel crap, they waste your time and replace the real experts with paid actors). Came across TFI, liked it, volunteered at a school, and then joined TFI. Now I'm sorely missing the freewheeling days! In the long term I want to work in renewable energy and sustainable living, AND technological advancement.

But I hate the monetary paradigm, am convinced it's all a huge ponzi scheme, have seen all the global collapse-related predictions come true (we should all really watch these documentaries that are never screened on TV) and believe the world is in for a major change, and am hopeful it'll be a nice one. So I don't want to be in any rat-race anymore and am still hoping I can shift my lifestyle to a self-sustained moneyless one and protect my family before the shit hits the fan, plus do something to help stave off the disasters of global warming. Meanwhile I'd love to just help as many ppl as possible - it's very important to do positive things around us and so the fellowship. After all, just in case the world really ends in 2012, might as well live doing something good right now!

PS: Why the choice of image?? No reason except it may look good on Facebook! And, just to make you ask, "Why?" ;)

Application for Teach For India 2012 Fellowship is now open

Dear Potential Applicant,

Greetings from Teach For India! Hope this email finds you well. We are writing to you because you applied for the Teach For India 2011 Fellowship.

We are excited to announce that the application form for the 2012 Fellowship has gone live on our website and it is time to again to come together and work towards eliminating educational inequity in India.

We invite you to consider applying for the Fellowship. We would like to clarify that if your previous application with us was unsuccessful, that will not be taken into account while evaluating your current application for the 2012 Fellowship. Teach For India believes in continuous improvement and will treat applications for what they are now. We believe that you have gained in skills and experience over the last year, and your familiarity with the Teach For India selection process will help you understand our movement better.

A quick update of what has happened in the last few months:

• 250 new Fellows joined the Teach For India movement in May/June 2011 and recently started teaching in classrooms
  
• Our first cohort of 2009 Fellows graduated this year and are pursuing dynamic paths beyond the Fellowship. To read more about our alumni, please see http://www.teachforindia.org/beyond_fellowship.php
• Teach For India Fellows are currently teaching 13,500 students in 130 schools in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi
• Teach For India was selected the best NGO to work for by the Economic Times
  

For 2012, Teach For India is seeking 450 Fellows to teach in 4 cities, namely, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi.

We request that you spend some time perusing the following resources to understand our application process this year. 
http://www.teachforindia.org/tfi_faq.php
http://www.teachforindia.org/how-to-apply.php

Our first application deadline is 31st July 2011. We look forward to receiving your completed application by then. Kindly visit http://www.teachforindia.org/who-we-are-looking-for.php to get started.

Please feel free to reach out to us at apply@teachforindia.org with any questions you may have. 

Good luck!  

Teach For India Team

apply@teachforindia.org

TEACH FOR INDIA - One day all children will attain an excellent education

www.teachforindia.org

Call for Volunteers (at a Teach For India classroom)

Hi awesome Puneite,

If you can spare some time and come over to my classroom and help me conduct the Beginning Of Year assessments, or volunteer a couple of hours of your spare time from home to correct students' answer papers:
1) You will be very lucky to be a part of MY classroom and we can make it OUR classroom
2) You get to see an amazing group of Grade 5 students who'll simply love ya!
3) I get to finish my BOY assessment on time, and we can give the students an education tailored to their needs!

To know more about the organization I'm a part of, please check out our website or this brief presentation.

Q: Skills needed? Does it involve handling multiple kids?? - No, this is all out-of-classroom, is very easy and anybody can do it! (Please talk about this to your mom / dad / retired elder relatives as well as teenage siblings - everyone can help!)

If you feel like you can help in any way, drop me an e-mail or call/text me @966-583-1250 [local charges apply :-) ]
If you have an off day on Saturday, then that's a huge opportunity! Come on over and I promise it'll be the most rewarding Saturday you've had!


I teach in Shantabai Ladkat English Medium School which is located at Nanapeth.
It is next to Sant Kabir Police Chowky on the main road from Shankar Sheth road flyover to Railway Station; also on a direct road from behind Aurora Towers in Camp.
Show on Google Maps

School timings: 7am to 2pm Mon-Fri
                        11am to 4pm, Sat
Volunteering timings : ANY TIME!

Cheers,
Nikhil Sheth
+91-966-583-1250
Pune, India
Grade 5 Teacher, Shantabai Ladkat School, Nanapeth, Pune

 TEACH FOR INDIA Fellow, 2011-13
http://www.nikhilsheth.tk
http://www.facebook.com/nikjs

I've invested as an online zero-profit lender for an Education loan to someone in West Bengal through RangDe

	Thank you for your Social Investment
Dear Nikhil Thank you for your social investment. Please find below a summary of your investment: Social investment amount: Rs. 200 No. of borrowers impacted: 1 Amount donated to Rang De: Rs. 0 Contribute your return on social investment to Rang De: Yes Payment details: Rang De credit: Rs.200 Investment Details Borrower Investment (Rs.) Location Profession Purnima Barat 200 West Bengal Education Loan Thank you for your time and support. Please quote your Rang De email user id for future correspondence. Regards, RangDe.Org Team

Teach For India - Best place to work, NGO category - ET and Great places to work survey

Message we received today from our marketing team:

Dear Best People 

      I am feeling ecstatic to share that Teach For India has been ranked as No. 1 in NGO category in the Best places to work survey 2011. About 500 companies participated in the survey and we were amongst a few unique start-up initiatives that were shortlisted to participate for the first time. Check out the cover feature here.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/best-companies-to-work-for-2011-companies-that-came-up-trumps-across-23-sectors/articleshow/8950261.cms

Don't miss to get the Economic Times from the stands today that covers the detailed survey. 

I want to take this opportunity to Thank each one of you for making Teach For India a best place to work within 3 years of its inception.  

RangDe: Proud to be micro-financing a solar oven assembler!

Ambika Manikandan 's Evaluation Notes

First Evaluation : Ovens Raise Profits See more evaluations

The loan allowed Ambika to buy the components for her business in larger numbers. She told Ajesh our evaluator that this has helped her to cater to more clients and she is able to sell more of the solar powered ovens that she assembles. Her two year old business has seen a marked improvement and she is able to repay the loan with ease. Evaluated by Ajesh 1 month ago

Borrower DetailsView borrower profile

Location : Palakkad, Kerala      Activity : Solar ovens selling Current Loan Status : Repaying Ambika is involved in an unusual occupation. She buys oven parts and assembles it into solar powered ovens. They are then sold under the brand name of "Excellent". She works in a team and she needs funds to buy the parts. She operates from home and is a significant contributor to the family income. Her daughter is in class twelve and Ambika would like to see her complete her education.

Fwd: Lokpal bill - how to register your protest on Internet

Friends

 

There is a strong back-lash by certain Ministers of the Govt on the inclusion of PM & other senior Ministers in the Lokpal Bill. Actually it is all a hogwash to dilute the bill itself. There is a strong media campaign against the civil society members of the Lokpal bill drafting committee, with character assassination etc . Somehow the looters have always kept the law away from them and taken advantage of the slow judiciary, weakening of cases by CBI. This includes both the bribe givers and the bribe takers.

 

What therefore is the solution……creating public opinion and giving feedback is a good way of doing so. The Govt of India now has many websites, where you can register your views. There are many NGO's creating on-line petitions…the internet generation can at least spare the time to write to various arms of Govt of India.

 

They parliament rules in the name of people , but wants civil society out by claiming parliamentary immunity…….....'YOU ARE RULING IN MY NAME BUT I HAVE NO SAY'… I believe this needs a change

 

Here are 2 online websites

 

http://pgportal.gov.in/Grievance.aspx

 

PM of  India website. http://www.pmindia.nic.in

 

At the bottom of the page is 'feedback' bar. You are free to express your views to the PM office directly on the grievance subject.

 

If you feel strongly on the subject of corruption, please circulate this mail to as many like minded friends as possible.

 

Wishing India all the best.

 

Rgds

 

(forwared by a friend)

Proven : Co-operation is key to evolution, not survival of fittest

News: It has been scientifically proven that survival of the most co-operative, rather than of the fittest, is the key to evolution.



http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2011/supercooperators-the-mathematics-of-evolution,-altruism-and-human-behaviour

Please check out the link - there's a podcast as well as a video you can watch there which gives all the details. Here's the gist:

RSA Keynote

Everyone is familiar with Darwin's revolutionary idea about the survival of the fittest, and most people agree that it works - but Darwin's famous theory has one major chink. If life is about survival of the fittest, then why would we risk our own life to jump into a river to save a stranger?

Some people argue that issues such as charity, fairness, forgiveness and cooperation are evolutionary loose ends, side issues that are of little consequence. But as Harvard's celebrated evolutionary biologist Professor Martin Nowak explains - cooperation is central to the four-billion-year-old puzzle of life.

Cooperation is fundamental to how molecules in the primordial soup crossed the watershed that separates dead chemistry from biochemistry.

Cooperation is the key to understanding why language evolved, an event that is as significant as the evolution of the first primitive organism.

And it goes without saying that cooperation is the reason that people live in towns, villages and cities. Cooperation can even help to explain the spread of cancer cells and the role of punishment in society.

Join Martin Nowak and Roger Highfield at the RSA as they explore the five basic laws of cooperation - Kin Selection, Direct Reciprocity, Indirect Reciprocity, Network Reciprocity and Group Selection - in order to explain some of the most fundamental mechanics beneath everyday life.

If you can connect the dots together fast enough, this development will blow you away. Everything we had accepted so far, will have to be questioned - the major institutions that rule the world today are suddenly exposed to be completely unnecessary to society.

This mathematically (and by now practically too) proven theory gives credible backing to the argument that existing systems of Capitalism, Game Theory, Communism, Big Government - are all flawed, as they assumed "survival of the fittest" was the most basic evolutionary rule, which inevitably led to selfishness.

Even Communism and now the Big Government systems that run major countries of the world today, assume that people aren't capable of co-operating on their own and so need a big-brother government to keep them from destroying themselves. They fool us into thinking that normal won't take care of the underprivileged, so they tax us and then leech it off for their own ends. Did you know that the Indian government

According to them, the concept of people voluntarily co-oerating with each other, loving and caring for one another, shouldn't exist. If their arguments were to be believed (as they unfortunately have so far), then there is just no explanation for the rise and rise of so many movements all across the world today that want to spread good without any selfish motive other than the practical realization that the only way their children will have a happy life is if everybody's children inherit a better world.

"Economists" (rather waste-onomists!) try to justify, and downplay, the existence of all the benevolent voluntary movements across the world as PR tactics, without even addressing the loophole that if their most basic logic (market economics > selfish motive as prime driver of all human activity) was really true, there would not be any Public around to sell the PR to!

Because of this chasm in logic, this conflict between reality and accepted theories, religious institutions had barged in and claimed that all the good stuff in the world arises from religiosity. There was already enough evidence of organized religious institutions and leaders abusing authority for their own ends in the name of religion, of stifling growth, of dividing people, but because of the claims that everything that is good in this world also comes from them, they were able to justify their existence as necessary and essential to civilization.

The scientific proof of co-operation being inherent in all living organisms exposes those claims and so defeats the monetary, the religious and the government institutions in one blow! If good for all is inherent in us all, if we know that any selfish society will self-destruct by natural inevitability and we have the scientific proof to back it, there is no need for having any competitive system, or any external incentives for good behavior or any big brother to watch over.

Rather, if we probe deep enough, it's evident that bad behavior exists today only because of external incentives that reward it - from genocidal governments to reckless traders to repressive religions to terrorists. To prevent terror, they make more terror, to prevent bankruptcy they create more debt, to prevent vice they end up committing more vice and the vicious cirlce widens. If we got rid of our assumptions and accepted co-operation as our natural state, we won't need the institutions that are causing the mess while fooling us all this time that they were protecting us - we don't need their protection as we don't have any enemies in a world where co-operation is key to evolution!

For the nice religious people, I did not target you; it turns out you were on the right path all along! Using this we can once and for all get rid of the extremist elements in your establishments by exposing their double standards. You won't need to follow made-up stories, rather the most basic principles of empathy, love, caring, are enough as they can be proven by simple logic and don't need elaborate setups like heaven and hell and God and Satan. This co-operation theory represents a path for unification of scientific thought and niceness - we will realize that one is the other and we can have both!

article: Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study

Here's an additional reference source for the pro-renewable energy stand. It gives credible and scientifically backed opposition to the assumption that renewable energy cannot provide for all electricity needs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/09/ipcc-renewable-energy-power-world

Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study

UN's climate change science body says renewables supply, particularly solar power, can meet global demand

A solar power plant in the Mojave desert. Photograph: AP

Renewable energy could account for almost 80% of the world's energy supply within four decades - but only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power, according to a landmark report published on Monday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world's leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations, said that if the full range of renewable technologies were deployed, the world could keep greenhouse gas concentrations to less than 450 parts per million, the level scientists have predicted will be the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.

Investing in renewables to the extent needed would cost only about 1% of global GDP annually, said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.

Renewable energy is already growing fast – of the 300 gigawatts of new electricity generation capacity added globally between 2008 and 2009, about 140GW came from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, according to the report.

The investment that will be needed to meet the greenhouse gas emissions targets demanded by scientists is likely to amount to about $5trn in the next decade, rising to $7trn from 2021 to 2030.

Ramon Pichs, co-chair of one of the key IPCC working groups, said: "The report shows that it is not the availability of [renewable] resources but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades. Developing countries have an important stake in the future – this is where most of the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live yet also where some of the best conditions exist for renewable energy deployment."

Sven Teske, renewable energy director at Greenpeace International, and a lead author of the report, said: "This is an invitation to governments to initiate a radical overhaul of their policies and place renewable energy centre stage. On the run up to the next major climate conference, COP17 in South Africa in December, the onus is clearly on governments to step up to the mark."

He added: "The IPCC report shows overwhelming scientific evidence that renewable energy can also meet the growing demand of developing countries, where over 2 billion people lack access to basic energy services and can do so at a more cost-competitive and faster rate than conventional energy sources. Governments have to kick start the energy revolution by implementing renewable energy laws across the globe."

The 1,000-page Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) marks the first time the IPCC has examined low-carbon energy in depth, and the first interim report since the body's comprehensive 2007 review of the science of climate change.

Although the authors are optimistic about the future of renewable energy, they note that many forms of the technology are still more expensive than fossil fuels, and find that the production of renewable energy will have to increase by as much as 20 times in order to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. Renewables will play a greater role than either nuclear or carbon capture and storage by 2050, the scientists predict.

Investing in renewables can also help poor countries to develop, particularly where large numbers of people lack access to an electricity grid.

About 13% of the world's energy came from renewable sources in 2008, a proportion likely to have risen as countries have built up their capacity since then, with China leading the investment surge, particularly in wind energy. But by far the greatest source of renewable energy used globally at present is burning biomass (about 10% of the total global energy supply), which is problematic because it can cause deforestation, leads to deposits of soot that accelerate global warming, and cooking fires cause indoor air pollution that harms health.

There was disappointment for enthusiasts of marine energy, however, as the report found that wave and tidal power were "unlikely to significantly contribute to global energy supply before 2020". Wind power, by contrast, met about 2% of global electricity demand in 2009, and could increase to more than 20% by 2050.

As with all IPCC reports, the summary for policymakers – the synopsis of the report that will be presented to governments and is likely to impact renewable energy policy – had to be agreed line by line and word by word unanimously by all countries. This was done at Monday's meeting in Abu Dhabi. This makes the process lengthy, but means that afterwards no government or scientist represented can say that they disagree with the finished findings, which the IPCC sees as a key strength of its operations.

The launch of the report is streamed on the IPCC web site.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For discreditors of IPCC / Pachauri who claim that they were profiteering and lying, they can be told about the official apology that the media companies had to make after an audit proved the accusations wrong. This of course was not as widely publicized as the accusations were.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_K._Pachauri#Controversies

On 21 August 2010, the Daily Telegraph issued an apology, saying that it had "not intended to suggest that Dr Pachauri was corrupt or abusing his position as head of the IPCC and we accept KPMG found Dr Pachauri had not made "millions of dollars" in recent years." It stated: "We apologise to Dr Pachauri for any embarrassment caused."^[29] The newspaper was reported to have paid legal costs running into six figures.^[28] Pachauri welcomed the Telegraph's apology, saying that he was "glad that they have finally acknowledged the truth", and attributed the false allegations to "another attempt by the climate sceptics to discredit the IPCC. They now want to go after me and hope that it would serve their purpose."^[30]

Join Vinay Pathak and citizens of India and Become a Fool for Forests!

Dear Nikhil, Amazing! In just days over 15,000 people have become Fools for Forests. Now it's time for all of us Fools to act because something urgent has come up. The Group of Ministers formed to look into the forest versus coal issue is meeting for the last time today.[1] They are going to decide if some of the last remaining forests in Central and Eastern India are going to be destroyed for the coal that lies underneath them. We need to show the government that there is massive public opposition to any plans to destroy forests. To do this, we need more people to join this movement and become Fools for Forests. Can you forward the mail below to your friends and family, and ask them to become Fools for Forests? Thanks a billion! Preethi Herman Climate and Energy Campaigner Greenpeace India Source: 1. GoM on coal to now meet on June 9, Business standard, June 6, 2011 http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/gomcoal-to-now-meetjune-9/137592/on Dear friend, Hi! I am Vinay Pathak, and I'm usually trying to make you laugh. Today I'm very serious - serious about saving our forests. Join me and become a Fool for Forests I find it hard to imagine that there are people who want to cut down forests for the coal underneath them. Especially when there are other ways to ensure we have power. Sadly enough, our government wants to replace our last remaining forests in central and eastern India with ugly, barren coal mines, displacing millions of people and much wildlife dependent on these forests. People and organisations like Greenpeace who want them to keep our forests safe, are called foolish. If our 'smart leaders' have their way, they'll clear all our forests. I don't want that to happen because I am a Fool for Forests. Surely you don't want this to happen either? So watch this video and become a Fool for Forests like me and many others. http://www.foolsforforests.org/english/join/ As a supporter of Greenpeace, I know that the organisation has been working hard to keep the environment safe and that includes the forests too. This effort to protect the forests will gain more strength if all Fools for Forests like us come together and support it. Recently, I read that research done by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change has shown that renewable energy can provide for the entire world.[1] When we have such a clean and viable option, why is the government so crazy about destroying our forests to get dirty coal? Our children deserve to experience the beauty of forests and the life forms that co-exist in them. Let's be foolish now so that our future generations have a smart future. Become a Fool for Forests now! http://www.foolsforforests.org/english/join/ Thanks a billion! Vinay Pathak Actor For Greenpeace India P.S. Want to support our campaigns? We don't take money from any corporation, government or political party! We never have, and we never will. Do help Greenpeace remain fiercely and proudly independent. Click here to chip in. Source: 1. Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study, Guardian, May 9, 2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/09/ipcc-renewable-energy-power-world

Spilt Milk (Story on how making mistakes is ok and important)

Spilt Milk
(got this as an email forwdard)

Have you heard of the story - spilt milk? Well, we all know there is no use crying over spilt milk. But this story is different. I would hope all parents would respond in this manner.
 
I recently heard a story about a famous research scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?
 
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor - a veritable sea of milk!
 
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"
 
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel, or a mop. Which do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
 
His mother then said, "You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
 
This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn't need to be afraid to make mistakes.
 
Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment doesn't work, we usually learn something valuable from it.
 
Wouldn't it be great if all parents would respond the way Robert's mother responded to him?
 
Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles.

Are you connecting the dots?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jamie Henn - 350.org
Date: Wed, May 25, 2011 at 8:29 PM
Subject: Are you connecting the dots?

Hi all,

Do you ever feel like there are signs of the climate crisis all around you?

In an article published today in the Washington Post, 350.org founder Bill McKibben connects the dots between recent natural disasters and climate disruption.

Click here to read the article and share it with your friends, family, and co-workers:

www.350.org/connections

Onwards,

Jamie for the 350.org team

---

Keep Calm and Carry On

By Bill McKibben, orignally published in the Washington Post

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week's shots from Joplin, Missouri, you should not ask yourself: I wonder if this is somehow related to the huge tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that—together they comprised the most active April for tornadoes in our history. But that doesn't mean a thing.

It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advised to try and connect them in your mind with, say, the fires now burning across Texas—fires that have burned more of America by this date than any year in our history. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they've ever been—the drought is worse than the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if it's somehow connected...

Read the Full Article at www.350.org/connections

---

350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries.  You can join 350.org on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350. To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup. 

What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM—a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.

Help spread education without losing any money of your own through RangDe!

Join in, ppl!

	Thank you for your Social Investment
Dear Nikhil Thank you for your social investment. Please find below a summary of your investment: Social investment amount: Rs. 500 No. of borrowers impacted: 1 Amount donated to Rang De: Rs. 0 Contribute your return on social investment to Rang De: Yes Payment details: Rang De credit: Rs.500 Investment Details Borrower Investment (Rs.) Location Profession Madhusree Kayal 500 West Bengal Education Loan Thank you for your time and support. Please quote your Rang De email user id for future correspondence. Regards, RangDe.Org Team