Born in the world, spent childhood in the Brothels, then lived in the world again!

Zana Briski’s documentary film, Born into Brothels is one of the excellent ways to portray a culture and present its reality in front of the world. The film has a personal touch to each of the character in it and that makes every viewer emotional as well as involved. The film, along with revealing the intimate details of the children’s lives, also reveals more intimate details of the surrounding lives around them. I think it fair on everyone’s side that children’s lives are kept like an open book in front of the world.

Not everyone has a chance to visit something like the Red Light area of Calcutta, and witness such a life. Capturing these lives in a film is one of the most powerful medium to bring out the inner world out. It not an easy job to portray all those miserable conditions the kids lived in. The verbal abuse, the physical harm, the mental torture was not just enough for those little kids. This doesn’t happen with every one of us, and so a documentary like this makes us learn the truth of other kids’ lives. I don’t think the kids can give consent for this.

Yes, for me the ‘ends’ definitely justify the ‘means’. The ways Zana changed those kids entire world was amazing. She was truly an angel for them. Its for sure that, neither Zana nor those kids are ever going to regret whatever they did to each other’s lives. Zana’s success can be measured by seeing where those children are today. Born into Brothels is definitely a success!

Image Resource: www.lookingcloser.org

Healthy me!

After getting familiar with the recent trends in the corporate farming, genetically modified foods, organic farming, etc, I have started thinking a lot over the food I eat daily. The things I have learned from the recent studies, have affected my diet in a positive manner. At one point, I thought that I should stop eating, all those things which are harmful either to me or the environment. However, I realized that, if I do so, I have nothing left to eat. So, I decided to balance my diet in the possible nutritious way.

It’s sad that, today the American diet is not really a balanced one. The centrality of genetically modified corn and high, high fructose corn syrups, other genetically modified or organic fruits/ vegetables and soda pops makes the American diet unwholesome.For the corporate world in America, it is all about the ‘Capital through Corn’! Companies look for the monetary benefits by modifying the food items, but they fail to realize that they are harming their customers’ future. It’s not a bad idea to try the new bio-techniques for improving the nutrition-wise quality of food, however the health related, environmental as well as economical aspects should be taken into consideration with it.

Moreover, ‘Supersize Me’ was a good evidence to prove the fast food culture of America and its side-effects. The documentary ‘The Future of Food’ and all the readings related to food and agricultural world gave us a good amount of needed knowledge as well as facts on the food we eat. So now my new aim is to try even harder to build a healthier relationship with my diet!

Image Reference: www.kidcyber.com.au

Yesha and the environment!

It is obviously unfair that Americans or the citizens of other developed countries consume more than their share of the earth’s resources. I took the Earth-Day quiz for both my countries India and the United Stated. In both the cases I observed that if I continue with the same lifestyle, we shall need all most one extra planet (Thank God Mars shows some possibilities for existence of life!)

In case of the Americans, I think that the problem is that the resources are more than the population needs. People here are used to the system of having unlimited resources for themselves, and so they don’t sometimes think of the wastage. The “American Way of Life” is all about unlimited assets and technologies. I feel Americans are moving away from the natural world and are going towards everything technologically modified, which directly or indirectly is harming the environment.

While, for a country like India, people are totally not really aware regarding the consequences of their lifestyle. India is already facing the problems due to depletion of natural resources. We have less supply of resources in comparison to its demand. Even after knowing this people waste them. Playing wit the natural ecosystems is harming the people themselves in this country. Air pollution is one of the major problems of a country like India and it is not going to help our people in any ways.

This kind of consumption definitely brings a greater responsibility to readdress the environmental consequences of this lifestyle. People should understand that by harming the environment they are harming their own future. Little steps by each individual can benefit the whole earth. For example, one can start with a really small step like not wasting the food they get! Think about the future consequences every time you deal with nature or the environment for any purpose. These kind little steps one day may lead to a healthy earth and healthier people!

For India:-

CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 0.3
MOBILITY 0.7
SHELTER 0.5
GOODS/SERVICES 0.6
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 2.1

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 0.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.2 PLANETS.

For United States:

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3.2
MOBILITY 0.7
SHELTER 1.7
GOODS/SERVICES 2.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 8

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.
WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.8 PLANETS.