A change of plans... of sorts

An update to our trip itinerary:

We were originally scheduled to leave India on August 16. That date has now been pushed up to August first and we will spend the remaining 18 days touring Europe. We want to visit Italy and Spain and of course Germany to visit with Kristin's family. Anyone with friends in these areas please contact us!

Aside from that, we travel to Dehradun to Navdanya's organic farm in two days. We'll be going with some Italians who are studying "Gastronomic Science"... so basically cooking. There will be a Mango festival!!! We also have professional responsibilities in assessing the school and its prospects for sending students there to learn various things... will update when we know more.

When we get back from that trip, we'll be heading off to Hyderabad in the State of Andhra Pradesh. We also have professional responsibilities on this trip. We'll be joined by Raja, who is a tech worker at Intel in the states. We will be visiting villages around Hyderabad interviewing people affected by campaigns by large US agrocompanies to sell genetically modified seeds to Indian Farmers. To those unfamiliar with this issue, what basically has happened over the last ten to fifteen years is that beneficial international trade laws, specifically portions of TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), allowed for industrial giants like Monsanto to patent genes and life forms in India (and all over the world for that matter). These companies mount campaigns to get farmers to buy genetically modified seeds that are supposed to be resistant to a certain type of pest. The companies will use local fronts such as other farmers or Indians on the payroll to convince other farmers to buy the products. Demonstrations of success are accompanied with promises of amazing profits.

Unfortunately, the seeds rarely work and most of the time give far lower yields. Farmers are convinced to continually buy quick fix solutions like more seeds and pesticides to fix the problem. This happens continually until the farmers get into huge debt which they can never get out of. At this point, they either sell their farms or commit suicide. In fact over a hundred thousand farmers in India have committed suicide due to this phenomenon.

We will be involved in is assessing the feasibility of a tech-to-farmer campaign where tech workers who emigrated to the United States can send money back to Indian farmers to buy back land. In addition, we'll be setting the groundwork for a documentary and study on the issue, so lots of interviewing. Which reminds me, I might appear in a documentary talking to Dr. Shiva in her office looking like a tool haha.

Thoughts about the last few days:

So over the weekend, Kristin and I had some good experiences. On friday night we went to Khan Market which was way too posh. I did, however, pick up a book I'd been dying to read called Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. I just finished it today. This book is a fantastic read and it explains a lot of the strategy of the "corporatocracy" over the last 60 years.

Out of college, Perkins was recruited by the NSA, but ultimately decided not to sign on. He instead joined the Peace Corps, went to South America and when he returned was recruited as an "Economic Hit Man" by a large engineering firm. His job was to make absurdly optimistic predictions about the possibilities of economic growth in developing nations. This would then justify loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which the nations couldn't and weren't expected to get out of. Then the countries would owe favors to the United States and also were forced to hand over no bid construction contracts to American firms like Bechtel and Halliburton. The book is about his adventures in Ecuador, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Panama, and elsewhere. It explained a lot to me about the last 60 years of revolution and intervention by the United States in many parts of the world. Anyone interested in understanding the gory details about how the United States shaped its empire, from an insider perspective, read this book. I'm especially calling on Dan Golden, Pablo Galvan, and Brad Page to read this book.

As a few people close to me know, I've been a little depressed at parts of my trip here in India. One of the things contributing to that is the massive poverty in this country and the seemingly impossible task of correcting it. In fact, India, like the United States, seems hell bent on ignoring it all together and instead making the rich people richer. Anyways, just driving around in town and having 7 year old impoverished children working the streets begging for money just destroys my heart. I've had a hard time dealing with it... which seems absurd as I don't really have to deal with it all. I'm embarrassed to admit that my first reaction to the situation was to close my eyes as well and try to avoid any area where we might run into it. This just made me feel like a sell out and more depressed. Kristin and I had also been trying to different justifications for our increasingly dismissive attitude about the whole thing. Luckily the shock wore off this weekend and we are starting to embrace facts about life. I don't think that I will ever witness a world without poverty, but the difference between poverty in the 3rd world and poverty in the United States is staggering. The standard "get a job" cop out that we use in States will not pass here. There are no jobs. There's no clean water. And there is a growing lack of compassion from the upper classes as they pander to America's neoliberal economic wishes. The upper class wants to modernize so damn the realities.

I was reading a case the other day where the Supreme Court rejected a plea from slum dwellers that if their slums were demolished that they be given another plot of land to live. The Supreme Court said told them that giving them a plot of land would be like rewarding pickpocketers. In another case the Supreme Court said that desperation doesn't give a right to violate the law. The callous approach to the poor is astounding, but it probably only seems worse here because the poverty is worse. I think it really set in when I was watching a segment of the Colbert Report the other day where he reported that the number of High Income people in the world grew by 8 percent this year. The promise that America once offered to the world after WWII has all but disappeared. Crooks rule the world! This article by Richard C. Cook shows that the economic end might be on the way, despite the optimistic outlooks that the corporate media always delivers http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6239

It's hard to be here and not be embarrassed to live in the United States. I still wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but everyone in the country is complicit in the state of the world we created, ignorant or not. So I guess I'm recharged with resentment instead of depression.

Anyways...

So on Saturday, Kristin and I first went to find the law library across from the Supreme Court. We found the advocates building where all the Supreme Court lawyers work. All you lawyers in the States be happy with your accomodations, no matter how modest they are. This place is a dump! We found the library, which was a bit nicer, but extremely small. Instead of staying, we left to see the rest of the city.

We next went to this giant market called Connaught Place. It's a giant circular monstrosity with a central park in the middle. The outer blocks are divided into seven large subdivisions. The main subdivisions were really expensive! It was almost like an American mall. So instead we went to the subdivision that is an underground bazaar. Everything was cheap! Kristin also got to hone her bargaining skills. I will have her expand on this part a little more.

After we left the bazaar, we walked around and found the Tibetan markets. A man saw me and dedicated the next 30 minutes to selling me a leather whip. I told him that I didn't want a whip for any reason except to use on Kristin if she got out of line. She didn't appreciate the quip. He said he would sell it for 900 rupees (~$22.50). I told him I didn't want a whip and walked off with Kristin so she could bargain for some bedding. For the next thirty minutes, he sat behind me pleading with me to bargain with him. I tried to ignore him as he kept lowering the price, bargaining with himself more than me. At one point he demonstrated the whip and almost whipped a dog! Eventually he said he would sell it to me for 100 rupees. At this point I turned around and bought the whip even though I had no desire for it. I respected the effort. Immediately he tried to sell me a wallet. I grabbed Kristin and we left.

On sunday, I was sick most of the day and kept fighting Kristin because she wanted to go out and I wanted to sleep. Tasnim made an amazing lunch. I ate 3 generous portions and fell asleep on her couch. They excused me to go sleep in our apartment. Then Kristin's nagging finally persuaded me to get up and do something. We went back to the Connaught Place area, but just held up in a coffee shop where Kristin continued the streak of kicking my ass in every card game that we play. It was a relatively uneventul weekend, but I will let Kristin expand on it when I pass the computer off to her!

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