Continuing from my previous post on the topic, I had tried out different vessels (glass, steel, ceramic and plastic bag) in the experiment. But none were black as the inner box itself had black paper walls. It turned out that the rice in the plastic bag seemed to be the best cooked among the four. However the sizes and shapes of the four containers were not the same to make an apple to apple comparison. Further the initial water to rice ratio (2:1) was insufficient and water had to be added in between. In any case using plastic bags daily was not an option. The cooking was continued on day 2 with only a steel vessel. The results showed that the rice was not uniformly cooked (there were grains of raw rice) while portions seemed well cooked. I am yet to get clarifications from the veterans of solar cooking on this aspect. Will post an update when I receive it.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
My experiments with Solar Cooking - part II
Continuing from my previous post on the topic, I had tried out different vessels (glass, steel, ceramic and plastic bag) in the experiment. But none were black as the inner box itself had black paper walls. It turned out that the rice in the plastic bag seemed to be the best cooked among the four. However the sizes and shapes of the four containers were not the same to make an apple to apple comparison. Further the initial water to rice ratio (2:1) was insufficient and water had to be added in between. In any case using plastic bags daily was not an option. The cooking was continued on day 2 with only a steel vessel. The results showed that the rice was not uniformly cooked (there were grains of raw rice) while portions seemed well cooked. I am yet to get clarifications from the veterans of solar cooking on this aspect. Will post an update when I receive it.
My experiments with Solar Cooking - part I
Friday, February 3, 2012
My first visit to a Balawadi
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Values
What is value (of anything) ?
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
communication - its all in the mind
whats in a name (mysore versus bangalore)
Monday, January 23, 2012
mysore gardens
stopping by woods...
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
The road not taken
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
vocation and avocation
As that I had no right to play
With what was another man's work for gain.
My right might be love but theirs was need.
And where the two exist in twain
Theirs was the better right--agreed.
But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.
Made Snana & the power of the mind
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
School Hunt
Is it the journey or the goal?
To share or not to share...
How much should a person consume? A review
Utopias / viewpoints | Famous proponents | Tribal | Grain based civilization | Modern industrialized |
Agrarianism (Dominant env philosophy in India) | Thomas Jefferson, Mahatma Gandhi | Nasty, brutish, short | Apogee Ideal is the peasant society, human scale technology, strong community bonds | Pursuit of wealth |
Widlerness thinking (Dominant env philosophy in US) | Jared Diamond “Collapse” John Muir | The ideal state of hunter, gatherer where man and nature are one. | A fall from the ideal state. | Further distancing of man and nature |
Scientific industrialization (universal – held by experts / scientists | Gifford Pinchot (US Forest Service) Jawaharlal Nehru | Illiterate, pre-scientific | Illiterate, pre-scientific | Future thinking. Solve industrializations problems (not look back at the past) with scientific knowledge (Edward Wilson?) |
The economic imperialism of a single tiny island kingdom (England) is today keeping the world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 million took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts – Mahatma Gandhi, 1928.
One of the key contributions of the Indian environmental movement has been to point to inequalities of consumption within a society or nation.
Analytical Social Ecology framework : omnivores and ecosystem people
Omnivores: Rich farmers, industrialists, state officials and the growing middle class based in the cities – have the capability of drawing upon the natural resources from the whole of India to maintain their lifestyles.
Ecosystem people: Roughly 2/3rds of the population rely for the most part on resources within their local vicinity. These are small and marginal farmers on rain-fed tracts, landless laborers, hunter-gatherers, swidden agriculturists, animal herders, artisans..
Development is the channelizing of ever increasing volume of natural resources via the state apparatus and at the cost of the exchequer to serve the interests of rural and urban omnivores.
1. The concentration of political power/ decision making in the hands of ominvores
2. The use of state machinery to divert natural resource to islands of omnivore prosperity especially through the use of subsidies. Eg: wood for paper mills, fertilizers for rich farmers, water & power for urban dwellers.
3. The culture of subsidies has fostered indifference among omnivores to the environmental degradation caused by them. This has been compounded by their ability to pass on most costs to ecosystem people and to society at large.
4. Projects based on capture of wood, water and minerals such as eucalyptus plantations, large dams and open cast mining have tended to disposess eco-system people who previously enjoyed ready access to these resources.
5. “Development” has created a third class of people – ecological refugees who are permanently displaced in large numbers from their homes and end up in slums and temporary shelters in the towns and cities.
Given Guha's background, his strength in capturing the historical context and putting it into a neat framework shows. The area of solutions (answers to the question raised in the title) seems to be hastily dealt in the last chapter and causes some disappointment. Not that there are easy solutions but it needed some more attention is what I felt.