Quote: Why there is so much evil

Heard this interesting quote on NPR:
"We have so much trouble and suffering in this world, NOT because there are so many evil people, but because so many good people choose to ignore them instead of confronting them"

Nature as the Capitalist

I was reading about PointReturn, an experiment of D V Sridharan from GoodNewsIndia. There is an interesting observation about how capitalism has prevailed. Well worth sharing.

"In capitalism, there is an owner of capital -the capitalist- to whom the user of capital is in some way accountable. Either the capitalist gets a good return on his investment or he switches to another user of his capital. If there is willful default, he invokes powers in the system to punish the defaulter.

The capitalist arranges to provide our food, water, roads, heating or cooling, education, fitness and entertainment. We shall receive employment and wages with which we shall pay the capitalist for our needs. We shall be occupied, pre-occupied, entertained, retired, cared for and cremated.

When it comes to natural resources however, modern man has failed to develop an enforceable system."

We treat nature as an infinite resource. It isn't a surprise that per capita land for each person in India is only 1/3 acre. That makes nature all the more precious. The new idea being tried is: make the nature capitalist. Resources like water, energy and the means to grow food and materials. What we consume, we repay with interest, treating nature as the capitalist.

This idea is not new since several societies (Ladakhis in most recent times) have followed such a path till the modern civilization kicked them out of it. What makes it interesting is the modern context in which it is being implemented. It will be 2012 by the time D V Sridharan's experiment is done and that will show the world yet another way of sustainable living with almost no external inputs. Effective water harvesting, bio-fuel, food grains, solar power will lead to surplus of water, energy and food.

Timbaktu Collective is one such success story.

The Special Economic Zone or Death Zone

Several countries have tax free Special Economic Zone(SEZ) where goods are produced for direct export. India seems to have jumped on that idea and started implementing it without proper guidelines and regulations.

SEZs in India are flawed for several reasons. First, they involve forcible procurement of good agricultural land under the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The small landholders are discriminated. Second, it helps the rich businesses through undeserved tax breaks and other concessions at the expense of the public.

Third, they create fewer jobs than the people they displace. What about all the agricultural workers who have no land. Are they expected to end up in the city slums? Finally what about the neighbouring villages where land becomes unproductive due to water being sucked out by industries and the effluents being discharged into their environment?

There has been wide spread protest and lot of bloodshed due to police violence at the proposed SEZ sites, prominently Kalinganagar, Nandigram, Singur and Reliance SEZ in Raigad. Some of these SEZs don't even make sense: 960 acres in Singur to build a Tata car plant is ridiculous when Toyota is doing the same in 200 acres.

After so much bloodshed, the government decided to scrap the SEZs at Kalinganagar and Nandigram. What about the suffering that people displaced at other SEZs are enduring?

A clear policy is needed on the rehabilitation of displaced people before land is acquired. There should be proper review, which includes the affected people before approving a SEZ instead of a random shot at the idea.

Music to soothe the baby

Pavlov is known for experimenting with the involuntary reflex reactions. He would ring the bell while the dog was having food. Later, even when there was no food, the dog started salivating at the ring of the bell.

It would be interesting to see if a similar reflex works on our baby. Our little baby seems to be content and happy when she is feeding than at any other time. Her Mom enjoyed Vivaldi's Four Seasons when she was pregnant. We started playing the same music when she is feeding. It has been only a couple of weeks since the experiment was started and it could take a couple of months to train. The hope is that at a later time, when her Mom is away, the same music would soothe and comfort the baby, at least for a little time.

I don't mean to be insensitive in comparing a dog based experiment with a baby's experiment. It is the scientific theory behind it that is important. Most of us do these sort of things involuntarily any way.

(1 year later)
We noticed that the child was more receptive to the lullaby music made by the crib toys. From time to time, she really loved that music. We used that music to put her to sleep. The classical music experiment failed, but the lullaby music worked. She is too young for complicated notes.

Charity makes mathematical sense

A young friend who is at school asked "How could Warren Buffet give away $37 billion to charity?". His older sister said "You will know when you grow up". I started thinking what would be an appropriate answer. One of the answers seems to be in pure math.

In rural India, it costs about $12/yr to save a child from malnourishment. So, if we give up eating breakfast out for a day and eat cereal at home, we could save a child. What if our life style changed and we always have healthy breakfast at home?

Extending that a little bit, if we were to support 300 kids for a year($3600), that would have almost no impact on the short term life style and possibly about 5% reduced living expenses during our retirement. Compared to 5% reduction in long term life style, the 100% difference it could make in the lives of 300 kids makes for a winning argument.

Now, one could argue why not take a 10% reduction in long term life style and support 600 kids. Sure, why not. If one could give up 10%, that is even better.

Next comes the question of trust. If I am giving up something to help some one, is it really reaching that some one? For that you need an organization that you can trust and that has minimum operational expenses. Fortunately we have AID India (and Vibha, Asha as well), local organizations run by volunteers we know.

Warren Buffet already made his mark. To lead the same life till the end, Warren Buffet would probably need no more than $1 billion, so it makes mathematical sense to give away the rest. Who else would he give it to but the foundation run by his buddy: Bill Gates.

For a more detailed analysis look at this article or Peter Singer's NY times article.

It is not surprising that when we started reducing our carbon and resource foot print (read: reduction in life style), the health and savings seem to improve.

A modern shopper

This definition of a modern shopper (some folks call it "civilized shopper") sounded interesting:
"A person who spends money he doesn't have, to buy things he doesn't need, to impress people he doesn't like."

An addition to our family

March is the month that we will mark as the second transition in our married life. The first being the marriage itself.

Our little bundle of joy arrived after 14 hours of labor. We were glad to see her healthy. Mom recovered over the next 10 days and started having a good time with daughter. It was a exciting, happy, sleepless, anxious transition. Needless to say that I am also having a good time with the baby.

It took us over an year to decide if we ever want an addition to our family. After long discussions, we finally decided that it would be a great experiment worth trying.

It is too soon to draw conclusions on such a big experiment, but so far we rate it as a success as we are happy.