15 Rules Of Life In Delhi

June 23rd, 2008

Today I got this interesting mail from one of my friends with 15 Rules about Living Life in Delhi.
Delhi is known for its multi-ethnic culture. Anyone can survive in Delhi by hard or easy way.

  1. The Other Side Law:
    If my side of the road has a traffic jam, then I can start driving on
    the wrong side of the road, and all incoming cars will be rerouted via
    Meerut.
  2. The Queue Nahin Rule:
    If there is a queue of many people, no one will notice me sneaking
    into the front as long as I am looking the other way.
  3. The Mind Over Matter Law:
    If a red light is not working, four cars from different directions can
    easily pass through one another.
  4. The Auto Axiom:
    If I indicate which way I am going to turn my auto rickshaw, it is an
    information security leak.
  5. The In Spit Of Thing:
    The more I lean out of my car or

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Ten Difficult Ways to Save the Environment

June 16th, 2008

So here is a list of 10 difficult (easy with practice) steps that you could learn and follow to make the environment green and friendly.

  1. Take a bus and leave your car home. Don’t ever drive an SUV (sports utility vehicle). Say no to diesel cars.
  2. Junk bottled water. Demand clean water for all.
    Insist water-free and as a right which is entitled to everyone but be ready to pay more if you use more.
  3. Use less water, to discharge sewage.Think of the poluted river,every time you flush.
    Insist your colony recycles its waste-water, even reuses it after treatment.
  4. Demand justice for both tiger and poor tribal people who coexist in the habitat
  5. To make your beautiful home green, harvest rain, use water saving toilets, segregate garbage and compost kitchen waste.
    Use CFL bulbs and solar hot water heaters.
  6. Impose economic sanctions against US for rogue climate behaviour .
  7. Do not use any product which uses plastic to pack food or other stuff. This will put pressure on manufacturers to make recyclable packaging.
  8. Levy a global “greenwash service” tax on Corporates. Make them fully liable for products that damage the environment today or tomorrow.
  9. Do not first adopt wasteful and environmentally bad habits and then become GREEN. Think of the last parson. Do not first buy processed food and then ask for organic and home made food. Do not firs eat junk food and then go on a diet. Enjoy biodiversity in food and lifestyle. Boo MCDonalds.
  10. Use less of everything that you use in your daily life.Not greed of some, but need of all is the only way ahead.

This post is dedicated to world environment day 2008
Download the copy of this article in pdf here.

Double Standards

June 13th, 2008

While the Agarias wage a constant struggle with the forest department, the government has allegedly turned a blind eye to pollution by two soda ash-making units run by major industrial groups. At Mithapur in Jamnagar district’s Okha taluka there are charges of pollution against a salt-and-soda ash unit run by Tata Chemicals Limited (tcl).

The Dalmiya group-operated Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Limited (ghcl) unit in Junagadh district’s Sutrapada taluka faces more serious allegations: it has refused to comply with a high court order for more than a year, after violating salt lease conditions for about 20 years.

This is the cover story on salt in Down to Earth magazine that I talked about.
Here is the link to it.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/

Its about how Conservation has become a ruse to evict Agarias, but so far as allegations of widespread pollution and environment destruction against big companies is concerned, authorities have chosen not to be strict. Local communities face a dual threat: they are dispossessed in the name of conservation and then large companies destroy farms forcing them to migrate.