Feast for Thought

"Maharashtra ended famine forever by passing an Act that deleted the word ‘famine' from all laws of the State." Food Security - by definition "....Who will you export it to? Are there good global prices for rotting grain? Grain that even when in best condition was not of superior quality? What you will do is flog it at rock bottom prices to traders who know you won't consider any other option — like letting the hungry eat it — and can knock your prices through the floor. And then the traders can export it as cattle feed — like India has done before in this very decade. About the only thing Iran and Iraq could agree on in 30 years was that the grain exported to them from India was unfit for human consumption. Both rejected shipments early this decade. But there are always, never fear, European cattle. Talk of sacred cows — these will be subsidised by some of the hungriest humans on the planet....." Why isn't P Sainath our Minister for Agriculture? If you ...

The morning's headlines have given an extremely sick feeling in the pit of the stomach. Government set to let suppliers off the hook We will need to renew Tilak's call - "SWARAJ is my birthright, and I shall have it". Swaraj, this time, from predatory nations, corporate classes and political asses.

It's now six decades and a half since Hiroshima-Nagasaki. It appears that this person is the only surviving member of the 12-member crew on Enola Gay that brought hell on Earth. Apparently he has no regrets over what he did - "I've never found a way to fight a war without killing people. If you ever find that out, let me know." No, I did not consider that interview worth my time. Sincerely do not wish to sound cynical - to me it appears a typical US mind-set. In 1945, becoming a war hero at the age of 24, he may not have heard of MK Gandhi - the simply-clad son of the soil somewhere in the third world - actively trying to fight just that kind of 'war', ... Surely he's wiser now? Apparently not. Only older. Someone should let him know. As GVK put it, "Astonishing. His is an acute case of conscience-deficit disorder." 74 nations participated at a memorial event in Hiroshima. "Hiroshima was careful to ensure that the memorial — while honoring...

Our daily newspaper carries Nobel laureate Paul Krugman's column, and I used to wonder why the happenings in Wall Street and Washington DC should jostle with much more serious local issues in the op-ed page. For a change, today's piece (a part of it placed below), " Who cooked the planet? " is more globally relevant than the other pieces in that column thus far. (it appears that the online version of this newspaper no longer carries the same column, only the print edition does) "....it wasn’t the science, the scientists, or the economics that killed action on climate change. What was it? The answer is, the usual suspects: greed and cowardice. If you want to understand opposition to climate action, follow the money. The economy as a whole wouldn’t be significantly hurt if we put a price on carbon, but certain industries — above all, the coal and oil industries — would. And those industries have mounted a huge disinformation campaign to protect their bottom line...

Watch Annie Leonard as she explains the ills plaguing / wrought by the US cosmetic industry (and by the 'trickle-down' effect is applicable elsewhere also). Most cosmetic products carry a tongue-twisting what's-in-it list, intelligible only to the producer and competitors. No commercially advertised and aggressively marketed product is free of harmful chemicals - whether it's an after-shave, lipstick, or baby shampoo. "Herbal", "Natural", "Organic" carried on labels may turn out to be meaningless. Beware! Be Aware! (I wish Annie had included a note on the the amount of trash - recyclable or otherwise - that eventually piles up - directly proportionate to the company's profits) More stories from SoS team The Story of Stuff The Story of Cap and Trade The Story of Bottled Water The Story of Electronics (planned later in 2010)

Beautiful tropical countryside - see entries for the contest in several categories Funny Culture Faces Greenest Welcome to the North East of India's unique states - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland

This is just to record some very telling write-ups in the media - of the contrasts between the two happenings, the respective countries' responses, the sell-outs, the double standards - all pointers to must-learn hard lessons vis-a-vis the Civil Liability for Nuclear Claims Bill - 2010. P Sainath's Games Big Corporations Play Arjun Makhijani's Civil Liability for Nuclear Claims Bill, 2010: is life cheap in India? Rare, sensitive write-ups from the Western hemisphere - Keeble McFarlane's Twenty-five years later, the poor people of Bhopal are still sick and angry Lydia Polgreen's Gulf response fuels India's fury over Bhopal Struck by this thought. It may be possible for the Indian Government to hire US-based lawyers to draft the Nuclear Liability bill, for the theoretical scenario where the two countries' roles are reversed - that is, Indian corporations causing nuclear accidents on US soil. Then it would be a simple matter to derive the 'perf...