Pune Bus complaint system

For those who travel by bus in Pune regularly

For Participatory Budget in Pune http://2014.participatorybudgeting.in/#/

PMPML Helpline Number 020 24503355 (can suggest, compliment or complain)

Fwd: Modi's visit: other side and attack on Sardesai

sharing :

It was vintage Modi. There is no doubt about it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi completely bowled over the Non Resident Indians who had come together under a joint banner to create a mega-event at New York's Madison Square Gardens. The blitz was so high that the hundreds lining the roads around the venue, carrying placards, and seeking to focus attention on the Gujarat violence were completely ignored by the Indian media although noticed by the international press and clearly several US Congressmen as well. 

http://thecitizen.in/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=762&PM%2FMODI%E2%80%99S%2FVISIT%3A%2FTHE%2FFULL%2FSTORY%2FTHAT%2FTHE%2FINDIAN%2FMEDIA%2FDID%2FNOT%2FREPORT

Sardesai tweeted that only a part of the video has been released by the single minded crowd there.

http://www.abplive.in/india/2014/09/29/article409627.ece/Videos-that-wont-be-seen-Eyewitness-scribe-gives-full-story-of-why-he-stands-with-Rajdeep#.VCmOZ2eSwYE

Videos regarding nonviolent peoples movements

A bunch of useful videos shared by Ekta Parishad regarding a youth camp for training in non-violence, democracy and people's movements

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzgSd8sAqSA (Intro and discipline)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGAP47mU8aM (group formation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1UljiqPm0U  (Physical strengthening)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbpaiiJCC8I (Struggle-Social Action)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8S_MS5xGY (Social Analysis)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euAwPC7PR_Q (Modeling non-violent values)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM58ooHIjOs (Rajagopal 12-point interview)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXBTzc0GXvM (Rajagopal Interview)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppg0FKkGj80 (Bottom-up development)

Politicians and Terrorists need and feed each other

Terrorists unite us under the leadership of the corrupt politicians that we would otherwise never have trusted. 

And both work hand in glove to loot us ultimately. 

Politicians need terrorists to take the people's attention off their misdeeds and portray themselves in a guardian-figure, one who will "save" the people from this vile enemy. 

Terrorists need the injustice and deprivation caused by the politicians to recruit cadres; and get their funding from the vast amounts of black money siphoned off by the politicians.

My stand on Deepika Padukone Vs TOI issue

When choosing between criticizing individual human beings or institutions in any standoff, we all too often embrace the status quo's habit of unconsciously defending the institution, in the process of vilifying the individual. 

This is a sound strategy to prevent any positive change in society from happening : there's not much effect when we brand the person as a publicity-monger etc. Koi sudhaar nahin hoga. 

What if we were to brand Times of India as the publicity-monger, the attention-grabber, the inhuman one? 

That would set in motion a process of fundamental institutional change; that would make our mainstream media more responsible in their behaviour than they have been so far.

So, in the interest of the future of my nation and the dignity of everyone I love, I choose to stand on Deepika Padukone's side in this issue. 

The ugly face of TOI that we're glimpsing thanks to this controversy is just a little peek into the monstrosity that this thoroughly corrupted institution has turned into, and the extent to which it is violating its role as a news provider. Hoping the rest of it also comes out in the coming days.

Here's Deepika's response on the matter; I think TOI has already given its side all over their publications as evidently seen in this pic; no guesses to which one looks more civilized: https://www.facebook.com/DeepikaPadukone/posts/722345794506193

Micro managing the kids

"Most parents want their children
to be all-round performers,
because society places a premium
on a child's versatility and the
number of things s/he can do.
Thus parents provide a 'taxi-
service', shepherding their
children from one class to
another. Their child's
performance and others' approval
becomes the measuring stick for
their own self-worth. Such parents
micro-manage their children;
taking their behaviour, successes,
failures, achievements and
disappointments personally.
An average home environment is
usually tense and speed oriented,
with directions like, 'Hurry up and
do this.... We are getting late...
Tomorrow is this exam.... It is
time for that class...' Children
who don't tow the line are
labelled as 'difficult' children.
Some parents try to enforce their
authority forcefully which causes
children to rebel. They may not
rebel immediately but the seeds
of rebellion get sown which flower
during teenage.
Parents motivate their children to
excel by shaming, ridiculing or
inducing guilt. Love is withheld
when the child has been naughty,
disobedient, destructive or a
failure. There is unfavourable
comparison between siblings,
neighbourhood kids, or
classmates. All this builds anger
and frustration in children."
Quoted from my book on
Conscious Parenting........

--shared by Chitra Jha on facebook.

Local Futures (Economics of Happiness) Newsletter, September 2014

The newsletter was clipped short in the email (lots of great content!), so please see it in full here:

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/857593/e5565baae7/1620022255/156fe052aa/

Greetings from LOCAL FUTURES

In This Update - NYC November 8th: Localization, Climate Justice, and Hope - People's Tribunal on the Rights of Nature - Planet Local Photo Contest – Winning Photos Announced - Global to Local Workshop held in August in Ladakh From our Local Bites Podcast:  - Episode 5 - Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty  From our Planet Local Series: - Banco Palmas: Community Banking in Brazil  - The Chikukwa Project, Zimbabwe - Vrihi & Basudha, India From our Economics of Happiness Blog: - Land Grabbing and the Threat to Local Land Rights - Keeping Your Cool in a World on Fire - Shamans, Ice Cream, and Climate Change Other Events: - Techno-Utopianism & The Fate of the Earth Policy Watch: - The Role of The World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict Articles of Interest: - Helena Norberg-Hodge's talk at the Economics of Happiness conference, Bangalore, India - Over-regulating the local: Small farmers now need a license to sell their produce

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/857593/e5565baae7/1620022255/156fe052aa/

Pune, 20 Sep : Movie Screening on Climate Change and the Global People's Movement

Inviting you to a Movie Screening and discussion...

on the People's Movement blossoming all around the world around the issue of Climate Change.

It's not just about weather, or pollution, or food, or social justice.. it's everything together.

Join us at Mona and Ajay Dalmia's place,
in Baner, Pune

from 10.30am onwards,

this Saturday, 20 September 2014

Please RSVP here:
http://act.350.org/event/disruption_attend/9432

(Length: 1 hour. See http://watchdisruption.com/ )

Background:

Freak weather events like the one our countrymen in Kashmir and our neighbours in Pakistan are suffering through right now are happening with increasing intensity all across the planet; happening unexpectedly in places that aren't even in high-risk zones. Directly as a result of the rampant increase in greenhouse gas levels being dumped without any checks by an economy addicted to fossil fuels. The denialist lobbies keep picking on the warming-or-not-warming confusion, all the while distracting our attention away from the actual violent weather increases that are the real symptoms of a destabilizing global climate. It's time to disrupt the comfortable shenanigans and bring attention back to what's happening on the ground.

This weekend we're witnessing a global people's march on climate change, with thousands of people all over the world coming together and sending world leaders a clear message on the eve of a global UN summit.

Catch the action in your city here:
http://peoplesclimate.org/india/

Schools in Medak, AP grow their mid-day meal

http://education-for-change.blogspot.in/2009/01/medak-schools-grow-their-mid-day-meal.html

Around 15,000 students from 150 schools of Medak district have been growing and eating healthy green vegetables, hand picked from their own school gardens.

Kashmir and the Mainstream Indian Media

Post on FB regarding Kashmir floods issue and what TV news channels are doing with it:

https://www.facebook.com/kavita.krishnan/posts/10204319940380200?fref=nf

Shame on channels that try to use Army relief work in flood-hit J&K to justify AFSPA and Army deployment there! Shame on attempts to use humanitarian work to justify inhumane crimes... 

I am just seething after a phone call from Times Now that asked if I would participate in a debate on how AFSPA and Army were needed in Kashmir, as proved by the relief work the Army is doing there. I said 'Shame on you' and refused. I also asked them if this means AFSPA and permanent Army presence would be ok in, say, Uttarakhand, since the Army did relief work there as well? 

How low can one fall - to exploit a natural calamity and people's tragedy in the face of floods, to justify all that Kashmir has suffered at the hands of armed forces and paramilitary - the disappearances, the mass graves, the rapes, the firing on school boys and youngsters on the streets and in funeral processions...and the total failure of any accountability or justice in custodial killings and rapes... 

Kashmir is facing a natural calamity now. Yes. But the flood of custodial killings and rapes, the flood of tears from eyes of mothers of 'disappeared' Kashmiri youth, is a man-made calamity, one in which the Indian State perpetrated in OUR name, in the name of India's citizens... If we can feel a spark of human empathy for the flood-affected people of J&K now, we should all ask ourselves if we felt any empathy for the families of thousands who lie in mass graves today, or those of the boys killed in firing by police and paramilitary on the streets... The relief work for the man-made, State-made calamity is yet to begin. When can we, the people of India, begin that much-needed relief work in Kashmir, to bring a semblance of truth and justice about the crimes committed in our name, to end the endless siege and daily humiliation there? 

Hats off to the Army personnel for their courageous rescue work - be it in J&K or Uttarakhand or anywhere else. But shame on us if we tell ourselves that relief work gives the same Army a licence to commit custodial killings and rapes with impunity....

My comment:

don't know where all the comments are going... but Thanks Kavita for cutting right through the exploit-Vs-help paradox. YES, all the help one can get during times of calamity is of course needed. Even if Chinese or or US Army came and helped then even THAT would be most welcome : they have way better machinery and could actually save everyone who's stranded there right now.

And, YES, the AFSPA must be revoked. Human rights must be honoured, otherwise we don't have any real country to defend; only an oppressor in its place. Kashmir is today being ruled like a colony by an oppressive, murderous regime PRETENDING to be India. The real India : the one I am proud to be a citizen of, has been hidden away because of AFSPA.

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

Related post, this one doesn't go into any balancing or perspectives; rather it's a bare-bones reporting of what's happening on the ground right now:

IMPORTANT:

Pasting here Dispatches from Srinagar, as I received them. READ AND SHARE WIDELY.

Day 4 of Kashmir's worst ever catastrophe, we are back to stone ages, no electricity, no connectivity, the weather continues its scare-mongering while lakhs of our brethren remain marooned. This is turning out to be a nightmare that seems to have no end. Shops that are not inundated are running out of stocks, chemists are running out of life-saving drugs. Scores of Kashmiris have died and God knows how many will meet the same fate.

While Kashmir has been shovelled back to darkness Indian media has unleashed a vehement PR campaign for the Indian State & Indian Army. The way Indian media is portraying them right now must be making people believe that they are supermen who are full of compassion. Yet, the situation on ground is far far from reality, Indian Army was mostly seen evacuating its own men on the 8th of September, and non-locals on the 9th of September. According to Indian media 215 columns are engaged in the rescue op that amounts to about 4300 soldiers roughly, given the troop presence in Occupied Kashmir this number amounts to nothing.

I personally saw CRPF, State Police running for their lives with nothing but their service rifles. The Indian media has essentially started demonisation campaign against Kashmiris portraying us as ungrateful people who fight the same army that is saving them, the lead role in this PR is being played by NDTV, IBN7, Times Now and their valley based lackeys. For example Barkha Dutt's show on 9th evening had representatives from erstwhile oppressors of Kashmir Dogras, the present oppressors PDP, Congress, BJP, the fifth column comprising of the elite class, liberal scum, plus the Indian army and an Indian whose family was stuck in Kashmir.

There was absolutely no Kashmiri representation, in addition to this the host to chose to play the army vs separatist card at this hour of carnage and despair. The media has been doing an unpaid PR for the Indian state and Indian army. The numbers of evacuated are grossly exaggerated and most of those air-lifted are non-locals, Omar Abdullah, corroborated this claim while speaking to Sakal Bhatt atop Shankarcharya Hill.

Civil administration is absolutely non -existent so is the State Police who otherwise are at the forefront of killing, detaining and torturing Kashmiri people. Indian Army and India's NDRF were seen by me with a handful of boats, 1 or 2 in Allochi Bagh, 4-6 in Rajbagh-Jawahar Nagar belt on flood channel end. 3 boats were being used near Tengpora bridge on the 8th of September. How many boats are being used on the Jhelum end or whether that route is even accessible remains unknown.

Most of the relief operations are being carried out by locals using Tractors, trucks and tippers; and Allah knows best how long their fuel lasts. Make shift refuge centres are being run on bridges, fly-overs, embankments and masjid compounds, all of them being run and maintained by locals, this is a glimmer of hope.

WE NEED BOATS, MEDICINES, RATION, FUEL, BLANKETS, BABY FOOD, WE LITERALLY NEED EVERYTHING

The carnage cannot be put into words, it is Al-Nafsi, Al-Nafsi here in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

Taga : blockages to innovation in organizations

Taga

In Japan there is even a word to describe the various limits in innovative thinking. Taga, which literally describes the metal hoops which keep a tight hold on the wooden boards which make a barrel, is used to describe the current state of Japanese innovation. Taga is what causes organizations to decide unconsciously and automatically what is possible and what is not based on current circumstances, not future predictions, hopes or opportunities. It stops completely the ability of a company to adopt a positive attitude towards any change or new idea. Taga is usually fostered in a tacit agreement to, or unspoken understanding of, customary rules or organizational paradigms within a company. When new people join a company (usually it's the hope that new people bring new ideas) they tend to quickly become unconsciously accustomed to thinking along the lines of the existing organization paradigm. This means that it can be extremely difficult for a company to be aware of taga limiting creativity and implementation of new ideas within your own company.

Source: http://its-innovative.com/blog/what-happened-to-japanese-innovation/

Fwd: Oct 31, Nov 1-2, Pune. 10th biennial National Convention of NAPM

Forwarding....

AN INVITATION

10^th biennial National Convention of National Alliance of People's Movements

 

Politics of Development and Social Justice Today

 

31^st October, 1^st -2^nd November, Pune

 

Dear Saathis,

 

20 years ago, in response to the rising inequality, oppression and destruction in the name of development, country's progressive individuals and sangathans came together and envisioned the birth of the National Alliance of People's Movements. There was enthusiasm, hope and determination to struggle towards establishing peace, justice and truly participatory democracy. Over the last two decades, we have been a part of the various people's movements and struggles; there have been victories and there have been setbacks. Despite the changing times which are defined by neo-liberal policies and supported unanimously by all political parties, and having damaging impacts, people's movements have continued to challenge, propose alternatives and pushed the boundaries of ideas and vision for a just society.  We witness that the rights of the people are increasingly curtailed, natural resources being appropriated and rule of law deliberately violated to undermine people's movements. However, our struggles have together built increased awareness about such draconian policies, as a result of which exploitation and injustice can no longer be justified under the rubric of nationalism. People are resolutely fighting against the violations of their rights and no longer need outside instigation. Every village, every basti, every city has people who are raising their voices against capitalist and oppressive forces. But on the other hand, religious fanaticism and violence and discrimination based on gender and caste are raising their ugly heads. On one hand the ruling classes are keen on changing the pro-people laws enacted by the Parliament and rights bestowed by the Constitution and on the other hand, it is trying to take political advantage of the existing exploitation and violence to exercise its continuing control over society.   

 

As we complete two decades, we feel the need to revisit those same questions we started with, in today's context. We invite you to NAPM's 10^th biennial National Convention on October 31^st, November 1-2^nd at Rashtra Seva Dal, Pune, Maharashtra. More details will follow but this is the intimation so that you can block the dates and make arrangements for the travel. As it is the festival season, it would be good if you could make your bookings in advance.

 

We hope you will be part of this gathering so that with the same enthusiasm, we can move forward together and collectively understand and strategize the future course of action to fight the illusion that is being spun in the name of development but is in fact only increasing inequality and leading to destruction of natural resources. Working towards the notion of alternative development and building equitable society is our aim and we are determine to reach this end.  

 

 

In anticipation to seeing you all,

 

Medha Patkar, Prafulla Samantara, Dr. Sunilam, Suniti SR, Arundhati Dhuru, Gabriele Dietrich, C R Neelakandan, P Chennaiah, Ramakrishnam Raju, Saraswati Kavula, Sister Celia, Vilas Bhongade, Suhas Kolhekar, Anand Mazgaonkar, Krishnakant, Kamayani Swami, Mahendra Yadav, Bhupender Singh Rawat, Rajendra Ravi, Vimal Bhai, Meera, Madhuresh, Kanika.

 

Contact: Suniti SR :09423571784, Kanika :9818823252, Madhuresh: 9818905316

napmindia [at] gmail.com, andolan.napm [at] gmail.com 

 

आमंत्रण

जन आन्दोलनों का राष्ट्रीय समन्वय का दसवां द्विवार्षिक राष्ट्रीय अधिवेशन

आज के दौर में विकास और सामाजिक न्याय

अक्टूबर ३१, नवम्बर १ – २, पुणे

 

बीस साल पहले देश के संघर्षशील और प्रगतिशील साथियों और संगठनों ने देश में बढती गैरबराबरी, शोषण और विकास के नाम पर हो रहे विध्वंस को देख कर एक साथ मिलकर उस दिशा को बदलने के लिए जन आन्दोलनों के राष्ट्रीय समन्वय (NAPM) की परिकल्पना की थी. जोश था, उमंग थी, संघर्ष करने की चाहत थी और था संगठन ताकि देश में शांति, न्याय और लोकतंत्र का राज स्थापित हो सके अंतिम जन के लिए. इन दो दशकों में अनेकों संघर्षों में हम साथ चले हैं, जीते हैं, कभी हार का भी सामना करना पड़ा है, लेकिन इन सब में जन मुद्दों को आगे ही बढाया है. समय बदला है, और बड़े तेजी से बदल रहा है. आज नव उदारवादी नीतियों को भी दो दशक से ज्यादा हो चुके हैं और देश में इन नीतियों का भयावह प्रभाव भी दिख रहा है. सभी राजनैतिक पार्टियों इन नीतियों के बारे में एकमत है.

जनता के हकों को आज तेजी से रौंदा जा रहा है, प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का बेतहाशा दोहन हो रहा है, शोषण, अन्याय का बोलबाला हो रहा है, लेकिन जन संघर्षों के बदौलत जनता की समझ भी परिपक्व हुई है. आज शोषण और अन्याय को देश हित में या राष्ट्रवाद के नाम पर जायज नहीं ठहराया जा सकता. जनता उठ खड़ी होती है अपने हकों के लड़ने के लिए. आज बाहर से किसी को आकर उद्वेलित करने की जरूरत नहीं है, गाँव गाँव, क़स्बा क़स्बा, शहर शहर, हर जगह लोग अपने हकों की लडाई के लिए पूंजीवादी और दमनकारी ताकतों के खिलाफ खड़े हैं. लेकिन दूसरी ओर आज धार्मिक उन्माद तेजी से सर उठा रहा है, महिलाओं के प्रति हिंसा बढ़ रही है तो जातिगत हिंसा, भेदभाव और पक्षपात भी उसी भांति बाद रही है. जन विरोधों के कारण ही एक तरफ आज शासक वर्ग संविधान और संसद के द्वारा बनाये गए जन पक्षीय कानूनों को बदलने के लिए आमदा है तो दूसरी तरफ वह समाज में मौजूदा विषमता और हिंसा का राजनैतिक फायदा उठा कर समाज में अपनी पकड़ बनाई रखते है.

आज दो दशक बाद जरूरत महसूस होती है, उन्ही सवालों को आज के दौर में देखने की, जिसे लेकर हम चले थे. हम आपको आमंत्रित करते हैं, NAPM के दशवें दिवार्षिक राष्ट्रीय अधिवेशन में अक्टूबर ३१, नवम्बर १-२ को पुणे में. अगले कुछ दिनों में और विस्तृत जानकारी दी जायेगी, लेकिन यह पहली जानकारी हम आपको दे रहे हैं ताकि आप तारिख नोट कर लें और यात्रा की टिकट भी समय रहते कर लें. यह समय त्योहारों का है, तो बेहतर होगा अगर ट्रेन का रिजर्वेशन पहले कर लें.

आशा है आप जरूर इस महत्वपूर्ण समागम में जरूर शामिल होंगे, ताकि हम फिर उसी उत्साह के साथ मिलकर आगे के संघर्षों की भावी रूप रेखा तय कर सकें और विकास के नाम पर जो मायाजाल बुना जा रहा है जिससे सिर्फ और सिर्फ गैरबराबरी बढ़ रही है और प्राकृतिक  संपदाओं का नाश हो रहा है, उसे हम रोकने में कामयाब हो सके. वैकल्पिक विकास की अवधारणा, और एक साम्यवादी समाज की संरचना ही हमारा लक्ष्य है और उसे निर्मित करने के लिए हम कटिबद्ध हैं.

 

सविनय आपसे मिलने की अपेक्षा में,

 

मेधा पाटकर, प्रफुल्ला सामंतरा, डॉ. सुनीलम, सुनीति सु र, अरुंधती धुरु, गब्रिएले दिएत्रिच, सी आर नीलकंठन, पी चेन्निया, सिस्टर सीलिया, विलास भोंगाड़े, सुहास कोल्हेकर, आनंद माजगओंकर, कृष्णकांत, कामायनी स्वामी, महेंद्र यादव, भूपेंदर सिंह रावत, राजेंद्र रवि, विमल भाई, मीरा, मधुरेश कुमार, कनिका

 

संपर्क : सुनीति सु र : 09423571784 कनिका : 9818823252 मधुरेश : 9818905316

napmindia [at] gmail.com, andolan.napm [at] gmail.com

 

--

===============================================
National Alliance of People's Movements
National Office : 6/6, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110014
Phone : 011 24374535 Mobile : 09818905316
Web : www.napm-india.org | napmindia [at] gmail.com

Facebook : www.facebook.com/NAPMindia

Twitter : @napmindia

(Open Letter) Inviting you to defend your stand on supporting GMOs

Hi Anand,

With reference to your pro-GMO articles on News Laundry (and I don't know where else),

http://www.newslaundry.com/2014/07/26/exploring-gm-foods-part-iii-the-third-eye-of-shiva/

I'd like to invite you to watch this movie (which of course is making an argument against GMOs, with testimonies from people who have been forced to consume GMOs and feed them to their families without any clear information given to them):

http://action.responsibletechnology.org/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=10694#.VBGoNPmSwYo

While I've seen a lot more written research and articles too on the matter, I don't want to overwhelm you. This movie will take only 1 hour of your time.

I would love to see your rebuttals to the actual scientific cellular level facts and theories expressed here rather than seeing more rhetoric from you about how evil or crazy our non-academia-approved grassroots movement leaders are. Writing below some of the flaws I've noticed in your articles thus far.

I hope you have something to say about the findings of the independent long-term trials on GMOs. You must know for sure that Monsanto has conducted only short term studies on its GMO foods (not even 6 months! That's less warranty than a cheap Chinese phone!), blocked publishing of its longer-term studies which it abruptly discontinued, and is attacking any independent long term studies on GMOs (like the Seralini 2-year study), including legally refusing to allow independent research groups to use its GMO seeds for their trials.

While I appreciate your drilling into numbers and making mountains out of numerical errors on the part of the less academically inclined people standing against GMOs (but where I saw you targeting the more vocal individuals in the movement and omitting official publishing by whole organizations), I felt you were getting lost in the numbers and losing sight of the more important points, such as the question of the evidences of harm caused to the health of people consuming GMOs. After all, I would still refuse to consume a cyanide pill if you coated it with vitamins and gave it to me.

Or the slightly inconvenient fact that the BT cotton crop whose sole USP was that it would not need any pesticide spraying as the plant itself is supposedly a pesticide factory, today requires more and more pesticides to be sprayed on it and that has driven widespread farmer indebtedness and suicides across India, with the input costs of patented seeds, fertilizers AND pesticides piling up and exceeding the output earnings. Or the news that the same is now happening across BT Corn fields in Latin America. Actually, I didn't notice you making any references to these serious facts at all while defending GMOs. If economic considerations are supposedly so important, then why leave the economic details about GMOs out of the debate?

While arguing for the nutritional goodness of Monsanto's patented rice, you seem to have missed out the data on the several indigenous patent-free varieties of Indian rice and millets that have medicinal properties far exceeding anything offered by Monsanto and their peers. Even if you refute these on the basis of them not being biotech-funded-academia-certified, it would have helped to at least see some mention of them while you were busy berating the people who have been talking about them.

 

You also seem to have missed out several research studies and UN reports that have found that organic farming yields increase over GM or conventional farming after an initial period when the soil must recover its lost microbial life. (check for the Rodale study where the different kinds were grown side by side and monitored over multiple seasons) Or the studies collating present-day food market logistics recording that today most of the world's food supply comes from the small family farms which are using half or less than half of all arable land. 

And, your assertion that organic farming can happen with patented GM seeds is seriously laughable, seeing that the GM seeds and the plants they grow into are pesticide-producers themselves. Organic means not using chemical warfare to kill insects that eat the crops. Also, the romantic co-existence idea is brought back to ground by the fact that through open air cross pollination (which, duh, happens in a field trial of GM crops) the DNA of the whole crop species gets infected by the GM strains and their well-documented drop in fertility spreads with them. 

On top of that, you left out the fact that Monsanto and peers' primary business model in the Americas has been to let their patented GM crops freely cross-pollinate with non-GMO fields and then they sue those farmers for patent infringement, without any actual role played by those farmers! This isn't some hoax you can dismiss.. it's a matter of public record... visible in these companies' own annual statements as well as public records of lawsuits registered in the judicial systems of these countries. Even before anyone knew much about the possible harms of GMOs, Vandana Shiva and her peers were fighting against this predatory exploitation by biotech companies of patents on life forms, this punishment of farmers who absolutely have no control whatsoever on where the wind brings the pollen into their fields from. (Imagine in a classroom, the teacher blows chalk dust into the air and punishes all the students on whose tables any dust lands) Your criticisms of the anti-GMO groups misses out these practices that they are standing up against, completely. To omit out this is akin to writing an essay on Hitler and not even mentioning what he did to the Jews.

You also failed to notice the sheer loopholes on the part of governing laws of countries like USA where GMOs are widespread, of relying only on the producers of GMOs to conduct safety studies on them. That's akin to relying on Arnab Goswami to give accurate figures of how many people believe what he says. And the fact that the government's food industry regulatory heads are also long-time employees or representatives or board members of companies like Monsanto. A conflict of interest that shouldn't be omitted by someone who's writing about GMOs. 

You also failed to state anything at all about the ongoing multi-million-dollar lobbying by biotech majors and their biggest clients in the US against citizen referendum measures and bills that are trying to mandate labeling of foods having GM ingredients in them. Oh, and India is now importing several of those foods btw, without any further checks. Doesn't that seem a bit fishy to you... the argument that citizens do not have a right to know whether they are consuming GMOs or not, because their producers have declared it's good for them? For a country that's experiencing an out of control epidemic of chronic diseases and previously non-existent allergies that co-incide neatly with the introduction of GMOs into their everyday food without informing them, I think that's a bit suspicious.

Lastly, not having Phd degrees under the belt while opposing a corporate for-profit and possibly harmful agenda doesn't make one anti-science. Deliberately omitting vital facts from the arguments to help weigh them on one side, is what makes one anti-science. From everything I've seen so far in the topic of GMOs, I think I'd have to be rabidly anti-science to still support the adoption of GMOs as they currently are. Do more research: Yes, by all means, in the utmost controlled, scientific, standardized safe ways we know. Push an under-tested, inadequately developed infantile technology blindly into adoption across the world and subject the entire population to an unpredictable experiment in the name of scientific progress : Sorry, Boss. I'm not stupid, and I certainly don't hate kids that badly.

Awaiting your response. I sincerely hope you will not resort to the cheap school debate competition tricks of picking on one little detail and lavishing all your attention on it while conveniently ignoring all other points. There are serious facts here, and if you cannot counter each and every one of them effectively then the argument supporting GMOs is lost. 

I'm also publishing this email on my blog (http://nikhilsheth.blogspot.in), which kind of makes this an open letter to you. But of course you can choose to dismiss me completely since I won't be attracting as much attention as News Laundry does.

PS: Please forgive me for not being a certified Wikipedian / academic and not citing references at every phrase : a practice that originated in the age of severe information scarcity. Do feel free to search any of the topics on the net in this age of information abundance, but please remember that our most official-assumed publications that even get accepted as valid sources on Wikipedia, have been caught in recent years blatantly publishing lies and misinformation in many fields, some have even led to deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. There is no such thing as the 100% objective source of information; we have no convenient escape from the responsibility of having to make our own judgements and choosing whom to believe. It does help to be open to possibilities and doing our own checking rather than blindly declaring the opposite of an argument to be true just because the argument didn't have adequate references pre-written.

PPS: Thanks for sharing your email on the site, to facilitate 2-way communication rather than one-way. All websites publishing articles should do this.

Fwd: 100 days

100 days of Modi government : Tall claims, but disappointing performance

The discredited Congress-led UPA government was replaced by the BJP-led NDA government with a resounding mandate. However, if the first 100 days are any indication, its work has been anything but landmark and emphatic.

Given below is the Aam Aadmi Party's assessment on main points :

Black Money

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's top priority was to bring back the black money stashed in foreign banks, which he reinforced in every speech during the election campaign. The current Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that he would bring back the black money from foreign countries within 100 days. BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy had claimed that only two months were needed to bring back the Rs. 120 lakh crore back to the country, and even advocated abolishing the income tax for 40 years, since we'd have enough revenue not to need this tax.

But the actionsc fall short and are insignificant compared to the promises. 100 days are up. Where is the black money? The government has only set up the cursory SIT on Black Money, that too following the directions of the Supreme Court.
The government has taken no action to fill the huge number of vacancies in the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Excise and Customs, which would thoroughly investigate claims of corruption across the country. The government hasn't reverted, repealed or even commented upon the double tax avoidance treaties or participatory notes, which are important in smuggling black money away from India. It hasn't implemented any of the key recommendations of the White Paper on Black Money tabled in Parliament in 2012.

Achche din have arrived but only for those who want to keep their black money.

Price Rise

Another important electoral issue that the BJP and Narendra Modi raised was price rise and its effect on the Aam Aadmi. However, in the first 100 days of the BJP government, the prices of diesel, kerosene, milk, tomatoes, onions, potatoes and nearly every essential commodity went up by astronomical levels. And it's not as if farmers benefited from this price rise, as they received lower real minimum support prices, adjusted for inflation.

The Union Budget: Arun Jaitley or P. Chidambaram

For those looking for patterns of similarity, the Union Budget was a clear example of how the Modi government represented cosmetic change and not something more fundamental. Spending on education and health remained exactly the same, and so did the expenditure on women, children and the socially disadvantaged. There were tax deduction announcements, disinvestment, FDI allottment increases, PPPs, calls for modernization, but somehow the Aam Aadmi remained under the radar for Shri Arun Jaitley.

Criminalizing Parliament and Making India Corrupt

For all the talk of removing MPs with a criminal record from Parliament, there has been little action to follow it up. Twelve out of the 44 Ministers in the Modi-goverment have serious criminal charges against them. Nihal Chand, a minister of the government is facing rape allegations against him in a 2011 case. Yet, their cases aren't even close to being solved and have not been fast-tracked. Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath continues to make polarizing statements to flare Hindu-Muslim tensions even as the PM issues a 10 year moratorium on communal hatred. This doublespeak doesn't go unnoticed. At the same time, the government has shown excessive speed in removing honest officers who fight corruption like Sanjiv Chaturvedi at AIIMS and clipping the powers of institutions that fight corruption like the Delhi Anti-Corruption Bureau. The government may make tall claims about fighting corruption but it has worked only to promote this social and economic evil.

Destroying the Environment

The goverment has proposed to loosen the regulations and make as many as 19 amendments in the Land Acquisition Act in a bid to please industrialists without taking care of the environment, farmers and the rural poor. The height of the Narmada dam will be raised. Irrigation projects requiring 2,000-10,000 hectares are now exempt from the scrutiny of the Centre and can be cleared by state governments. Those requiring less than 2,000 hectares will require no green clearance at all. The new government has also diluted the Forest Rights Act that requires the consent of the local tribal population for diverting forestland. Instead of gram sabhas (village councils) certifying that their rights had been settled and that they had consented to projects, the district administrations have now been asked to do the same. The process of reviewing the National Green Tribunal Act to reduce the judicial tribunal to an administrative one has been initiated. Slowly and steadily, the government is paving the way for the real backers of the 2014 election, the corrupt businesses of Indian industry to dictate the rules of government and the usage of public goods.

Which brings us to the most important point. A government which holds private interests above public good will end up being the same, even if its declared motives are Nehruvian socialism or Hindu nationalism. The fear with Narendra Modi's government isn't that they will do something radically different and crazy, but rather that they will end up being the UPA government. And the first 100 days, an indicator of a government's priorities and policy goals, exhibit that this government is selling the public old wine in a new bottle, albeit with new leaky holes.
Rather, what we have seen is the same sort of governance or lack thereof, with excellent public relations management and high-definition photographs on Twitter.

13 years on

13 years on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PY_qM28rnA

9/11 - Echoes of Darkness [Mini-documentary]

Some of us know what really happened. And we're not falling for the crap that goes for the official story, No Sir.

Vermicompost project in slum area creates earnings for residents while taking care of organic waste

http://www.wealthywaste.com/kalmanthai-slum

Excerpt:

Vermiculture uses worms in a controlled environment to do what they are best at- converting organic waste into nutrient-rich compost in nature's way of recycling.

Members of the community groups underwent training and initiated a small-scale trial project investing Rs.2,200 (£29) they had raised from the sanitation blocks. They bought 4,000 red worms, Eisenia foetida, commonly known as the red wiggler or manure worm, which are best suited to composting.

Encouraged by the initial results the community then set up a larger scheme. An area of land by the communal toilet blocks was set aside with a small shed and composting arrangements for the worms.

Now in every 45 day cycle, for an investment of Rs.500, nearly one tonne of compost is produced. The compost is packed in bags and sold for Rs.5 per kilogramme, making nearly Rs.3000 per cycle.

The success has spread to other slum communities and individual households, which are now also carrying out vermiculture projects. The original project now even breeds and sells worms to those wishing to follow its example.

The one who believes in God is as foolish as the one who doesn’t

Excerpt from http://maleccha.wordpress.com/experimentswiththefaith/

I read a speech of J. Krishnamurthi where he says "The one who believes in God is as foolish as the one who doesn't". I was amused. I shared this with my flat-mate. He narrated me a story of Buddha. Once Buddha was walking with Ananda, they came across a passerby who was loudly reciting the name of God. Buddha asked him "Where is your God… Have you seen him…?" The passerby was dumb folded. He just left silently. They came across another one who was condemning God and said there is no such thing called God. Buddha asked him "Is there no God really… Can you prove it?" The passerby gave no answer and left mute. Ananda asked Buddha "What is this? Is there a God or not?". "God- it doesn't matter whether there is any or not. What matters is the question!" replied Buddha.

--

This world is so beautifully interwoven and complicated! Let's free ourselves from the brutality of dualism and plunge back into to manifold!

India's forests on track to get wiped out

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/govt-may-do-away-with-tribal-consent-for-cutting-forests-114090900008_1.html

The sad part is that the middle class, heavily separated from on-the-ground reality and overly dependent on news agencies owned by the same private players benefiting from this scam, won't even realize that wiping out the nation's forests does NOTHING at all towards increasing the country's progress; doesn't do jack towards a better economy. The short-term gains go overwhelmingly into private pockets, and the nation is left with several times more, and recurring long-term expenses to cope with the externalized costs of loss of natural resources : higher costs of living for the poorest, reduced land productivity, loss of water acquifers, increased natural disasters like landslides which are happening directly because of wiping out of forests. The costs overwhelmingly outweigh the benefits, but are made invisible through omission.

There is absolutely no difference between UPA and NDA governments on these counts. Their actions betray their homogeneity as far as the environment is concerned. They're both ultimately the private agents of the entities that have funded them. And yeah, Rs.20,000+ crores is the investment made in these elections : the filthiest in the country's history, the one that broke all past records to bring the highest number of persons with serious criminal and/or corruption charges into Parliament. The obvious intention is to take away India's last remaining natural resources from its people and hand them over to the investors coveting them.

If this were happening in some other country, we'd laugh at how stupid those people are, to keep on falling for personality cults, to not even think about the future generations in the blind daze of materialistic growth, to vote in parties and leaders that are so obviously being funded by the elites to do their bidding, to be so ridiculously ignorant of where the money funding these massive campaigns is coming from. 

The joke's on us now.

Some basic facts about Genetically Modified food

http://gmosummit.org/?orid=74&opid=56

Some basic facts about GMOs :

Genetic Engineering is not nearly the same as hybridization. Unlike the age-old practice of selective breeding, genetic engineering forces genes from unrelated species to create an entirely new (and patentable) life form. As Summit speakerAndrew Kimbrell puts it, "genetic engineering is to traditional crossbreeding as the nuclear bomb is to the sword."

There is evidence of human death and illness. Find out how a genetically modified food supplement killed dozens of Americans and sickened thousands, and how the FDA covered up the full story and kept Congress in the dark. Find out why industry-funded research is faulty and specifically designed to avoid finding problems. Get the startling truth from independent research conducted around the world.

There are long-term environmental effects. GMO crops can easily cross-pollinate with organic or non-GMO crops. Find out how GMO crops are permanently contaminating your food supply, and why you should be alarmed.

GMOs don't yield more food or reduce pesticide use. Proponents of GMOs say they're necessary to feed a hungry world, but studies show just the opposite, concluding that GMOs have so far not reduced hunger and poverty, improved nutrition, or facilitated social and environmental sustainability. In fact, GMO farmers have to use MORE pesticides, further polluting the environment with toxic residues. And some GMO crops are even registered with the EPA as pesticides.

Doctors are prescribing non-GMO diets with huge success. Thousands of physicians all over the U.S. are following the advice of The American Academy of Environmental Medicine and advising patients to stop eating GMOs. What kind of results are they seeing in their patients? Prepare to be amazed!