While the world has focused on the destruction mankind has brought to coral reefs,the massive loss of an equally important ecosystem has been widely ignored.
Now the first comprehensive assessment of the state of seagrass meadows around the world has revealed the damage that human activities have wrought on these economically and biologically essential areas.
A synthesis of quantitative data from 215 sites suggests that the world has lost more than a quarter of its meadows in the past 130 years, since records began, and that the rate of that decline has grown from less than 1 percent per year before 1940 to 7 percent per year since 1990.
"Seagrass loss rates are comparable to those reported for mangroves, coral reefs and tropical rainforests, and place seagrass meadows among the most threatened ecosystems on Earth," write the authors of the synthesis, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ."Our report of mounting seagrass losses reveals a major global environmental crisis in coastal ecosystems, for which seagrasses are sentinels of change."
As well as supporting unique wildlife such as green turtles (Chelonia mydas )and dugong (Dugong dugon ), seagrass meadows also serve as a vital nursery for fish, supporting populations for coral reefs and commercial fisheries.They also serve to stabilise sediment and provide coastal protection, as well as trapping carbon and helping in nutrient transportation.
For the global survey, the researchers compiled a database of all data on changes in the extent of seagrass cover spanning at least two years.They included published studies, online databases and unpublished but audited research.
Their synthesis shows that since 1980 seagrasses have been destroyed at the rate of 110km2 per year. While 25 percent of sites increased in size and 17 percent showed no detectable change,58 percent declined.
Overall, the measured area of loss between 1879 and 2006 was 3,370km2 from the total of 11,592km2 for which suitable records were available - a loss of 29 percent. Extrapolating this to a global scale suggests 51,000km2 of seagrass meadows have been lost since records began.
Study author Frederick Short, a researcher at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, admits that there is "not that much data" available on seagrass, so the total loss is difficult to pin down exactly. Still, he says,"It is looking quite bleak for many parts....We are abusing our coastal systems."
The vast majority of this decline,say Short and other experts, is attributable to human activity. Nutrient and sediment pollution from nearby human activities and the introduction of invasive species are both contributing to their decline.
Seagrasses - flowering plants that evolved from terrestrial plants - are also likely to be affected by climate change, the authors note. And while the world focuses on photogenic coral,seagrass loss is just as worrying, perhaps more so as it is more widely distributed.
"The seagrass ecosystem in general is quite unacknowledged," says Short.
Giuseppe DiCarlo, marine climate change manager at Conservation International and a member of the steering committee of the World Seagrass Association, says that even where sea-grass meadows have been lost there is the opportunity for recovery if protection via the designation of Marine Protected Areas can be brought in.
"It's nice to finally have some global numbers that can be used when advocating for the protection of seagrass," he says."If you look at a regional scale, like in the Caribbean, we're going to lose the seagrass beds altogether [if something isn't done]."
Susanne Livingstone, programme officer on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Global Marine Species Assessment, says experts wouldn't be surprised to hear a 30 percent figure for losses, but despite these losses seagrass rarely makes it into the public consciousness."It's probably because they're not as sexy [as corals], they're not as attractive,"she says."They're just as ecologically important if not more so."
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Green Days are coming again
To encourage the public to be aware of the target of 20 percent emissions reduction by 2020, the EU is organising activities during EU Green Days at different venues around Bangkok from October 1 to 10.
The activities include exhibitions,concerts, workshops and talks. Artists such as Tata Young, Tattoo Colour,Richman Toy and Yarinda Bunnag will perform in "What on Earth!" concerts, held at Club Culture on October 2 and Zen CentralWorld on October 3.Children's workshops on how to tackle climate change will be held at TK Park on October 3.
A talk on "Towards Copenhagen:View on the Global Climate Negotiations' will be held on October 6 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and "Climate Change and Disasters: How to reduce risk?" will be held on October 7 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand."Green Business and Effects in Supply Chains" for business entrepreneurs will be held on October 8 at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel.
Climate change exhibitions will be held at CentralWorld throughout the event.
Most of the activities are free of charge,but some talks are by invitation only.Visit www.eugreendays.com.
The activities include exhibitions,concerts, workshops and talks. Artists such as Tata Young, Tattoo Colour,Richman Toy and Yarinda Bunnag will perform in "What on Earth!" concerts, held at Club Culture on October 2 and Zen CentralWorld on October 3.Children's workshops on how to tackle climate change will be held at TK Park on October 3.
A talk on "Towards Copenhagen:View on the Global Climate Negotiations' will be held on October 6 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and "Climate Change and Disasters: How to reduce risk?" will be held on October 7 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand."Green Business and Effects in Supply Chains" for business entrepreneurs will be held on October 8 at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel.
Climate change exhibitions will be held at CentralWorld throughout the event.
Most of the activities are free of charge,but some talks are by invitation only.Visit www.eugreendays.com.
Flooded homes get relief
Foundations under royal patronage have been handing out emergency relief bags to victims of floods in downtown Chaiyaphum.
The bags were given to 2,000 families most affected by the floods in the northeastern province.
The bags were donated by the Rajaprajanugroh Foundation under His Majesty the King's patronage and the Princess Pa Foundation under Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha.
The floods were caused by run-off from the Lam Pathao reservoir in Kaeng Khro district, and are now receding after inundating downtown areas for the past few days.
Chaiyaphum's city mayor, Banyong Kiatkongchoochai, yesterday handed out the bags on behalf of the foundations.
The council worked pumps around the clock to drain water from the city centre. Council staff are on the lookout for crocodiles which escaped from flooded farms.
In the eastern province of Rayong,persistent heavy rain at the weekend has triggered a mudslide which damaged communities around Wat Nong Wa in tambon Makhamkoo of Nikhom Phatthana district. Residents said the mudslide appeared to have weakened the foundations of the temple wall, which they feared could collapse on to nearby homes.
The bags were given to 2,000 families most affected by the floods in the northeastern province.
The bags were donated by the Rajaprajanugroh Foundation under His Majesty the King's patronage and the Princess Pa Foundation under Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha.
The floods were caused by run-off from the Lam Pathao reservoir in Kaeng Khro district, and are now receding after inundating downtown areas for the past few days.
Chaiyaphum's city mayor, Banyong Kiatkongchoochai, yesterday handed out the bags on behalf of the foundations.
The council worked pumps around the clock to drain water from the city centre. Council staff are on the lookout for crocodiles which escaped from flooded farms.
In the eastern province of Rayong,persistent heavy rain at the weekend has triggered a mudslide which damaged communities around Wat Nong Wa in tambon Makhamkoo of Nikhom Phatthana district. Residents said the mudslide appeared to have weakened the foundations of the temple wall, which they feared could collapse on to nearby homes.
IN PURSUIT OF HAPPY ECONOMICS
What is your idea of economics? What good is this branch of social science for the ordinary, non-business people?For many, economics evokes the notion of opportunity, employment and financial security. For others, it's a discipline that suggests Darwinian competition, greed,and simply the egotistical pursuit of self-interests at all costs.
But to Helena Norberg-Hodge, director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (Isec), economics can bring happiness, and without having to produce a huge sum of monetary profit, or the stresses and strains that are typical of a large-scale economy.
Norberg-Hodge received the 1986 Right Livelihood Award,aka the alternative Nobel Prize, for her dedication in promoting more peaceful, just and sustainable communities worldwide.
It all started from a small project the Swedish woman runs in Ladakh, initially a backwater region in northern India. Norberg-Hodge launched the Ladakh Project in 1978 in a bid to reverse the damaging trends of mass tourism and consumerism through promoting development based on Ladakhi cultural values. The innovative programme soon grew into Isec, where Norberg-Hodge and her colleagues had been initiating campaigns around the world to encourage ways of living that are more de-centralised and land-based.
A globetrotting and extremely busy Norberg-Hodge recently visited Thailand and delivered lectures in Bangkok and Khon Kaen on the theme of "Economics of Happiness".Norberg-Hodge took some time off from her hectic schedule to talk with 'Outlook'.
Could you please tell us what exactly this 'Economics of Happiness' is? It now seems the economics has been a tool for making money and a tool for making disasters,considering the recession we are now facing ...
Well, the 'Economics of Happiness' is essentially an economics of strengthening the local economy. It's a systemic shift away from the current direction of economy,which is going more and more global. At the fundamental level, what I'm arguing is that as economic policies support the globalising path, they support a bigger and bigger distance between production and consumption. And with this distance, structurally, it means pushing business to become bigger and bigger and bigger.with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
With the scale of business and the distance, we are getting enormous problems both environmentally, socially and psychologically.
Again, structurally, this globalising path is leading to monoculture. These large businesses inevitably have to impose monoculture; it's not possible to adapt to diversity.It's directly linked to using media and advertisement to foster a human monoculture where children worldwide are made to feel inferior to the standards that are fundamentally Western. But it's also anti-Western, in the sense that there is this image of perfection that the young children feel they cannot live up to. By establishing an unrealistic role model - a global consumer identity this is responsible for massive increases in self-rejection,and even self-hatred.
By subsiding global trade and global businesses, a government is simultaneously subsidising a path that's encouraging businesses to use more fossil fuel and technology and fewer people. So the next result is job insecurity, and very, very intense competitions for scarce jobs. This combination of creating an unrealistic role model, the role model of consumer identity, and at the same time, the job scarcity, the unemployment and the competition is increasing worldwide friction and unhappiness.
What I'm suggesting is that we must shift away from these bigger and more global business activities, and toward supporting local businesses worldwide that spend less fossil, and adapted to the natural-biological-cultural diversity and identities. We need to bring the economy closer to home worldwide. Localising as an economics of happiness at the fundamental level is about reducing the competition for jobs, by establishing cultural and community role models that are realistic. This might sound utopian, or unrealistic, but the fact is that the unrealistic is to go further and further as we have done up until now.
Related to the economics of happiness is an economics of survival. Because subsidising more and more global trade, it literally leads to the import and export of the same products - water, milk, chicken, pigs, live animals. The US imports just as much as it exports. The UK exports as much butter and milk as it imports. This is utter madness on a planet dying from global warming. Oil is scarce and polluting. We want to minimise the use of oil, obviously.So ending a trade in identical products is the most logical and commonsensical way, which is not depriving anybody.But the profits of the giants would decrease, whereas the profits of millions of local businesses would increase. And this is the way of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor while reducing global warming.
The alternative, localisation movement seems to look good, but having witnessed the past economic recession,after the crisis is over, we tend to go back through the same process again and again. Humankind seems to hardly change, why?
I'd argue that it isn't humankind that is deciding what kind of economy that they need. It's a very small number of increasingly powerful people. If you look at who is actively promoting the deregulation of trade and finance,it's maybe point zero one of the human population ...maybe even less than that. I'd estimate that about 10,000 people worldwide. Most people wouldn't even understand the mechanisms. They think it's free trade that allows freedom. I think the main reason that this is happening is ignorance from the top and ignorance from the bottom.
But shall we be able to counter the trend in time,considering the urgency of the situation?
I think we do have enough time right now. I feel too many people in the environmental movement would say,'Oh it's all going to break down,[so] we don't need to worry about the system'. I believe if more people would focus on education for action, awareness, what I call 'economic literacy'. Spread the awareness. If we can't write for the newspaper, then we can write for newsletters.If we can't speak on television, then let's speak on radio programmes. Let's encourage everybody with the idea that there is a solution.
I believe that in theory, in two or three years, there could be enough of a movement to change policies. But I think this economic literacy needs to be understood from a global point of view. We need to have a lot more information shared between the North and the South. I believe in the localisation in the small states.
It seems, though, that the level of the 'immune system'of people in the South has already been drastically eroded ...
I believe in the so-called 'less developed countries' that the structures are much stronger for localisation. The structure of this crucial identity with one another, with the land, with animals, with the sense of belonging to a place,a language, a history and a group - that identity is still here. The sense of identity is what localisation can rebuild.
More importantly, or just as importantly, you have skills, both social and practical skills that we have lost.More people here know how to grow foods, know how to build houses out of natural, local materials. In the West,these skills and the communities are much more destroyed.However, in the West, there is more awareness of the problems with the global consumer culture. Here, people are still not experiencing it as much. Even when they see Bangkok - it's polluted, crowded, they believe if they just get more education, more Western schooling, learn English,get more development, then they will be like this paradise - the paradise of America or Europe. So lack of awareness here is the big problem of this dominant model of progress/development. So this is where I believe a deep dialogue between the North and the South is needed.
How have you seen yourself change over the years since you first set foot in Ladakh in the mid-'70s?
My views of everything [have] changed. I have studied psychology and I thought that cultural differences were not so significant. I thought it had more to do with hereditary [factors]. But what I experienced in Ladakh, a pre-industrial,pre-developed culture, I realised there were huge differences between that and all the industrialised countries that were very similar.
With industrial development, the most important thing that developed was the breakdown of identity through[out]communities, to realise the differences between old and young, male and female, and this role model for the children and sense of belonging.
I believe that community is essential for mental health.It's essential for learning how to be loving and tolerant.And breaking that down is like breaking down the sense of interdependence, which is the teaching of all spiritual traditions. I'd say it is a spiritual and psychological need that is just as important as breathing air is for your lungs.To feel spiritually and psychologically connected, it's something that modernity has destroyed, and that creates self-hatred, self-rejection, which leads to intolerance,violence, unhappiness. That may be the most important thing I have learned from Ladakh.
Having understood that, I also see in the West therapies that are fundamentally about rebuilding communities and the sense of interdependence and spiritual connection with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
But how do you feel when you go back to Ladakh and see that it, too,changes year after year to be ... er,just like any other place on Earth?
There have been times when it becomes very depressing and upsetting.The worst was in 1989 when Buddhists and Muslims were killing each other.And year after year, the change has been quite difficult. But each year, with the breakdown of communities and ecological conditions, there were more and more Ladakhis who became interested in looking for alternatives,in assisting our work, particularly in the last 10 or so years. This interest has been going on at the same time as the destruction. So that has given me the strength and the hope to continue.
It seems young children nowadays have been groomed to think that they have to be No.1, and the interdependence has been thus cut off ...
Yes, absolutely. Even explicitly. In Ladakh they have now been taught:'You've got to be more ambitious; you've got to literally be more greedy; you've got to look up to [be] number one'.These are the terrible values that are being taught in the schools. In many journals, they'll talk about community identity as tribalism, and they identify tribalism with friction, with warfare.And the picture is painted that in the past, all of these diverse war-like tribes were fighting each other, and that modernity and homogenising has created peace. Well, let's look at how peaceful America is - look at the teenagers who go to school and kill each other, look at the violent crimes.You don't have group violence in the same way, but you have a complete breakdown. A lot of violence.
When you centralise power and you push people into the big cities, and they have to have a job for survival,then the people in power will give jobs to people of their own kind. If they're Buddhists, then they give the jobs to Buddhists. And if they're Muslims, then to Muslims. And this leads to ethnic friction and violence.
Centralisation is part of globalisation.Decentralisation is what can allow more people to have jobs, and to have interdependence with different groups.
I think another very major point is that by destroying communities and then creating job scarcity, these are crimes against humanity. However many people we are, there is more work to be done. Unemployment is a modern product of this economy. It never existed for thousands of years in any society.The artificial constriction of job opportunities is a crime against humanity that must be written about,explaining how and why it could happen.With more people, we need more care,because we have more work. First of all, every plant, every fish, every thing that lives right now is threatened, so we need more people caring for everything that's living. With global warming, we have drought and floods.
We need to protect everything against floods, fire and drought. So that means more people caring for every bit of water,and every little tree, so there's more work than ever. However many people we are, we need proportionate teachers,nurses, doctors ... there is no limit of work. But through this globalising path we are artificially constricting, and we're partly doing it through taxes and subsidies. So we must expose them.
And there's also this artificial scarcity of time ...
The scarcity of time is directly linked to the scarcity of jobs. Because we support businesses when they use technology and fossil fuel, they benefit from scientific research, subsidies and tax breaks. And the more fossil fuel they use, the less they pay. It's more the small businesses that use very little that will be punished because they pay more. This is crazy.
At the same time, if you employ a person, you pay heavy taxes. This should be shifted toward reducing the taxes on employment and increasing the taxes on technology and fossil fuel. The technology is part of speeding everything up. So the few people who have the jobs now in computers, you have to answer with more posts. Whereas when it was by post, in a day, you might have to answer how many letters. And now with emails, you have to answer much more.
It's because we've chosen subsidising technology and subsidising speed, which is linked to unemployment.
What project is your organisation working on right now?
We are working on a film called,"Economics of Happiness", which should be ready in about two months.I've worked on it for more than four years, and I've tried to get people from every continent -Africa, South America, North America, Europe, China,India, Thailand - to basically spell out that the globalisation of consumer culture is creating too much unhappiness in the world, and that localising would solve most of these problems. Localising needs to be pursued with an international and collaborative mindset. It's not about isolation. It's not about no travel, no trade. We actually need more deep,deep dialogue between the North and the South. And we need it now more than ever before.
But to Helena Norberg-Hodge, director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (Isec), economics can bring happiness, and without having to produce a huge sum of monetary profit, or the stresses and strains that are typical of a large-scale economy.
Norberg-Hodge received the 1986 Right Livelihood Award,aka the alternative Nobel Prize, for her dedication in promoting more peaceful, just and sustainable communities worldwide.
It all started from a small project the Swedish woman runs in Ladakh, initially a backwater region in northern India. Norberg-Hodge launched the Ladakh Project in 1978 in a bid to reverse the damaging trends of mass tourism and consumerism through promoting development based on Ladakhi cultural values. The innovative programme soon grew into Isec, where Norberg-Hodge and her colleagues had been initiating campaigns around the world to encourage ways of living that are more de-centralised and land-based.
A globetrotting and extremely busy Norberg-Hodge recently visited Thailand and delivered lectures in Bangkok and Khon Kaen on the theme of "Economics of Happiness".Norberg-Hodge took some time off from her hectic schedule to talk with 'Outlook'.
Could you please tell us what exactly this 'Economics of Happiness' is? It now seems the economics has been a tool for making money and a tool for making disasters,considering the recession we are now facing ...
Well, the 'Economics of Happiness' is essentially an economics of strengthening the local economy. It's a systemic shift away from the current direction of economy,which is going more and more global. At the fundamental level, what I'm arguing is that as economic policies support the globalising path, they support a bigger and bigger distance between production and consumption. And with this distance, structurally, it means pushing business to become bigger and bigger and bigger.with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
With the scale of business and the distance, we are getting enormous problems both environmentally, socially and psychologically.
Again, structurally, this globalising path is leading to monoculture. These large businesses inevitably have to impose monoculture; it's not possible to adapt to diversity.It's directly linked to using media and advertisement to foster a human monoculture where children worldwide are made to feel inferior to the standards that are fundamentally Western. But it's also anti-Western, in the sense that there is this image of perfection that the young children feel they cannot live up to. By establishing an unrealistic role model - a global consumer identity this is responsible for massive increases in self-rejection,and even self-hatred.
By subsiding global trade and global businesses, a government is simultaneously subsidising a path that's encouraging businesses to use more fossil fuel and technology and fewer people. So the next result is job insecurity, and very, very intense competitions for scarce jobs. This combination of creating an unrealistic role model, the role model of consumer identity, and at the same time, the job scarcity, the unemployment and the competition is increasing worldwide friction and unhappiness.
What I'm suggesting is that we must shift away from these bigger and more global business activities, and toward supporting local businesses worldwide that spend less fossil, and adapted to the natural-biological-cultural diversity and identities. We need to bring the economy closer to home worldwide. Localising as an economics of happiness at the fundamental level is about reducing the competition for jobs, by establishing cultural and community role models that are realistic. This might sound utopian, or unrealistic, but the fact is that the unrealistic is to go further and further as we have done up until now.
Related to the economics of happiness is an economics of survival. Because subsidising more and more global trade, it literally leads to the import and export of the same products - water, milk, chicken, pigs, live animals. The US imports just as much as it exports. The UK exports as much butter and milk as it imports. This is utter madness on a planet dying from global warming. Oil is scarce and polluting. We want to minimise the use of oil, obviously.So ending a trade in identical products is the most logical and commonsensical way, which is not depriving anybody.But the profits of the giants would decrease, whereas the profits of millions of local businesses would increase. And this is the way of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor while reducing global warming.
The alternative, localisation movement seems to look good, but having witnessed the past economic recession,after the crisis is over, we tend to go back through the same process again and again. Humankind seems to hardly change, why?
I'd argue that it isn't humankind that is deciding what kind of economy that they need. It's a very small number of increasingly powerful people. If you look at who is actively promoting the deregulation of trade and finance,it's maybe point zero one of the human population ...maybe even less than that. I'd estimate that about 10,000 people worldwide. Most people wouldn't even understand the mechanisms. They think it's free trade that allows freedom. I think the main reason that this is happening is ignorance from the top and ignorance from the bottom.
But shall we be able to counter the trend in time,considering the urgency of the situation?
I think we do have enough time right now. I feel too many people in the environmental movement would say,'Oh it's all going to break down,[so] we don't need to worry about the system'. I believe if more people would focus on education for action, awareness, what I call 'economic literacy'. Spread the awareness. If we can't write for the newspaper, then we can write for newsletters.If we can't speak on television, then let's speak on radio programmes. Let's encourage everybody with the idea that there is a solution.
I believe that in theory, in two or three years, there could be enough of a movement to change policies. But I think this economic literacy needs to be understood from a global point of view. We need to have a lot more information shared between the North and the South. I believe in the localisation in the small states.
It seems, though, that the level of the 'immune system'of people in the South has already been drastically eroded ...
I believe in the so-called 'less developed countries' that the structures are much stronger for localisation. The structure of this crucial identity with one another, with the land, with animals, with the sense of belonging to a place,a language, a history and a group - that identity is still here. The sense of identity is what localisation can rebuild.
More importantly, or just as importantly, you have skills, both social and practical skills that we have lost.More people here know how to grow foods, know how to build houses out of natural, local materials. In the West,these skills and the communities are much more destroyed.However, in the West, there is more awareness of the problems with the global consumer culture. Here, people are still not experiencing it as much. Even when they see Bangkok - it's polluted, crowded, they believe if they just get more education, more Western schooling, learn English,get more development, then they will be like this paradise - the paradise of America or Europe. So lack of awareness here is the big problem of this dominant model of progress/development. So this is where I believe a deep dialogue between the North and the South is needed.
How have you seen yourself change over the years since you first set foot in Ladakh in the mid-'70s?
My views of everything [have] changed. I have studied psychology and I thought that cultural differences were not so significant. I thought it had more to do with hereditary [factors]. But what I experienced in Ladakh, a pre-industrial,pre-developed culture, I realised there were huge differences between that and all the industrialised countries that were very similar.
With industrial development, the most important thing that developed was the breakdown of identity through[out]communities, to realise the differences between old and young, male and female, and this role model for the children and sense of belonging.
I believe that community is essential for mental health.It's essential for learning how to be loving and tolerant.And breaking that down is like breaking down the sense of interdependence, which is the teaching of all spiritual traditions. I'd say it is a spiritual and psychological need that is just as important as breathing air is for your lungs.To feel spiritually and psychologically connected, it's something that modernity has destroyed, and that creates self-hatred, self-rejection, which leads to intolerance,violence, unhappiness. That may be the most important thing I have learned from Ladakh.
Having understood that, I also see in the West therapies that are fundamentally about rebuilding communities and the sense of interdependence and spiritual connection with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
But how do you feel when you go back to Ladakh and see that it, too,changes year after year to be ... er,just like any other place on Earth?
There have been times when it becomes very depressing and upsetting.The worst was in 1989 when Buddhists and Muslims were killing each other.And year after year, the change has been quite difficult. But each year, with the breakdown of communities and ecological conditions, there were more and more Ladakhis who became interested in looking for alternatives,in assisting our work, particularly in the last 10 or so years. This interest has been going on at the same time as the destruction. So that has given me the strength and the hope to continue.
It seems young children nowadays have been groomed to think that they have to be No.1, and the interdependence has been thus cut off ...
Yes, absolutely. Even explicitly. In Ladakh they have now been taught:'You've got to be more ambitious; you've got to literally be more greedy; you've got to look up to [be] number one'.These are the terrible values that are being taught in the schools. In many journals, they'll talk about community identity as tribalism, and they identify tribalism with friction, with warfare.And the picture is painted that in the past, all of these diverse war-like tribes were fighting each other, and that modernity and homogenising has created peace. Well, let's look at how peaceful America is - look at the teenagers who go to school and kill each other, look at the violent crimes.You don't have group violence in the same way, but you have a complete breakdown. A lot of violence.
When you centralise power and you push people into the big cities, and they have to have a job for survival,then the people in power will give jobs to people of their own kind. If they're Buddhists, then they give the jobs to Buddhists. And if they're Muslims, then to Muslims. And this leads to ethnic friction and violence.
Centralisation is part of globalisation.Decentralisation is what can allow more people to have jobs, and to have interdependence with different groups.
I think another very major point is that by destroying communities and then creating job scarcity, these are crimes against humanity. However many people we are, there is more work to be done. Unemployment is a modern product of this economy. It never existed for thousands of years in any society.The artificial constriction of job opportunities is a crime against humanity that must be written about,explaining how and why it could happen.With more people, we need more care,because we have more work. First of all, every plant, every fish, every thing that lives right now is threatened, so we need more people caring for everything that's living. With global warming, we have drought and floods.
We need to protect everything against floods, fire and drought. So that means more people caring for every bit of water,and every little tree, so there's more work than ever. However many people we are, we need proportionate teachers,nurses, doctors ... there is no limit of work. But through this globalising path we are artificially constricting, and we're partly doing it through taxes and subsidies. So we must expose them.
And there's also this artificial scarcity of time ...
The scarcity of time is directly linked to the scarcity of jobs. Because we support businesses when they use technology and fossil fuel, they benefit from scientific research, subsidies and tax breaks. And the more fossil fuel they use, the less they pay. It's more the small businesses that use very little that will be punished because they pay more. This is crazy.
At the same time, if you employ a person, you pay heavy taxes. This should be shifted toward reducing the taxes on employment and increasing the taxes on technology and fossil fuel. The technology is part of speeding everything up. So the few people who have the jobs now in computers, you have to answer with more posts. Whereas when it was by post, in a day, you might have to answer how many letters. And now with emails, you have to answer much more.
It's because we've chosen subsidising technology and subsidising speed, which is linked to unemployment.
What project is your organisation working on right now?
We are working on a film called,"Economics of Happiness", which should be ready in about two months.I've worked on it for more than four years, and I've tried to get people from every continent -Africa, South America, North America, Europe, China,India, Thailand - to basically spell out that the globalisation of consumer culture is creating too much unhappiness in the world, and that localising would solve most of these problems. Localising needs to be pursued with an international and collaborative mindset. It's not about isolation. It's not about no travel, no trade. We actually need more deep,deep dialogue between the North and the South. And we need it now more than ever before.
Monday, September 21, 2009
An inconvenient truth from the plains of Isan
Some people don't believe global warming is real and many are not so sure it is happening now. To these people Vichein Kerdsuk, a researcher at the Research and Development Institute (RDI) of Khon Kaen University, would like to say that climate change is definitely already taking a toll on the Thung Kula Ronghai (the plain of crying nomads), the heartland of the world famous Thai hom mali jasmine rice.
CHANGING TIMES: An old farmer surveys his rice farm in the northeast. Climate experts have warned of drastic declines in crop yields due to climate change.
A paper presented to the RDI symposium 2009 by academics and his team provides evidence that the northeastern plain is already experiencing the impacts of global warming, including a higher mean temperature, change in the rain pattern and more frequent natural disasters.
Farmers in the plain, which is the largest area of jasmine rice cultivation in the country, have suffered on average a 45% reduction in production of hom mali rice in recent years, according to the research.
The study also showed extreme weather swings - drought and floods are an increasing threat to farmers in the plain.
"Climate change is shaking up the 'Kitchen of the World'," Mr Vichein said, referring to the slogan coined by Dhanin Chearavanont, chairman of the Charoen Pokphand Group, and taken up by the Thaksin Shinawatra government to promote Thailand's position as a major global agricultural player.
Thai jasmine rice has long been popular around the world because of its taste and its good price, but the market has become highly competitive, with many countries now producing the rice variety. The "Kitchen of the World" campaign has sought to differentiate Thai hom mali grains from the competition and add value to the product.
While the campaign has not been a priority of the present government, there is no question of hom mali's continuing importance to the country's export portfolio. According to the Thai Rice Exporters Association, in the first five months of 2009 Thailand shipped 1.17 million tonnes of Thai hom mali rice, worth 28.5 billion baht.
PRIDE OF THAILAND: A farmer with hom mali shoots in his hand.
Thung Kula Ronghai covers 2.1 million rai (3,360 square kilometres), an area five times the size of Singapore, spread throughout the five northeastern provinces of Roi Et, Maha Sarakham, Surin, Si Sa Ket and Yasothon.
Northeastern farmers have an intimate relationship with the cycles of nature and have always had to deal with climate variations, but the changes in recent years - hotter weather and more frequent natural disasters - have been harder to adapt to.
Buasi Srikhampha, 51, who has two rai of paddy field in Rasi Salai district of Si Sa Ket province, said her once-idyllic existence had turned into a kind of bad dream. "Everything has changed so quickly and life has become very hard," she said. "My crops are losing out to both drought and flood.
"We are used to annual drought and know how to coexist with it, but we are not used to extreme weather coming on so swiftly and lasting so long," said the farmer.
To get out from under the burden of the family's accumulated debts, her husband and her two teenage daughters have migrated to Bangkok to work, leaving her alone to take care of the farm.
GREEN FEAST: Buasi Srikhampha gathers grass to feed her two cows.
In this uncertain climate some farmers are reluctant to even sow their crops. Mrs Buasi said several of her neighbours who had been hurt by the unusually severe floods of last year are leaving their fields fallow for now, adopting a wait and see attitude.
"The weather fluctuations are scaring them," said Mrs Buasi.
SEASONS OFF KEEL
The air in the plain feels somehow more tense than before, as if nature can no longer be trusted. Dong Noonto, standing under a tree as he looked over his field, lamented that the seasons have gone haywire.
"When I was a boy, the rains would come and last a certain period of time," said the farmer, who has a nine-rai farm in Si Sa Ket province. "Now it is unpredictable."
The 59-year-old, who had never heard of global warming, said that many are turning to the supernatural for an explanation. A strong belief in mysterious supernatural powers is still found in the villages of the plains, a mixture of Phi (ancestral ghosts), Buddha and Brahman, as well as many local gods who reside in the ancient plain. Many blame unexplained occurrences such as severe droughts, fierce thunderstorms and unrelenting rains as the work of supernatural powers.
FARMER’S CONCERN: Dong Noonto watches over his young hom mali rice plants, above. He is worried his fields might be swallowed by flash floods.
But some devout Buddhists like Mr Dong see it otherwise.
"Some people who have lived in the plain for a long time believe this calamity is the work of Chao Phor [an ancestral ghost], because he is angry," said Mr Dong. He believes, however, that he and the other farmers in the plain are victims of their own karma.
"When you talk about global warming to farmers there aren't many who really understand what you are talking about," said Mr Vichein. Authorities should educate local communities about climate change and its impacts, he said, adding that such information is of vital importance to farmers in certain parts of the country which are prone to extreme weather conditions.
Mr Vichien hastened to add that he was not saying that the farmers are ignorant. During his study he witnessed many locals adjusting their farming schedules and methods in light of the changing conditions.
In some instances farmers have actually benefitted from the change. For example, some whose fields are on higher ground have taken advantage of increasing volumes of rainfall to initiate a second yearly crop, as is done by farmers in the Central Plain.
GROWING SEASON: Verdant rice fields under cultivation.
But Mr Vichein said that overall global warming is driving wild climate swings that are punishing the northeastern provinces with increasing frequency.
One clear consequence is the shifting of seasonal patterns. He said harvesting was typically being done much earlier - from late November to early October - due to a change in the rain pattern. In order to come up with suitable and timely measures to deal with and mitigate the effects of climate change, Mr Vichein is embarking on a wider and more in-depth research project to determine the impact of global warming in the Chi and Moon river basins. The research will cover up to 19 provinces in the Northeast.
Of his work in the Thung Kula Ronghai, he said: "Hopefully, the changes observed here can provide an early warning system for the rest of the country." He hopes his work will help to develop a sound scientific model for farming in a more threatening environment.
While a definitive answer will take years of careful study, the climatologist said the country should expect more extreme weather in the years ahead as rising ocean temperatures and diminishing rainforests cause shifts in global climate patterns.
CHANGING TIMES: An old farmer surveys his rice farm in the northeast. Climate experts have warned of drastic declines in crop yields due to climate change.
A paper presented to the RDI symposium 2009 by academics and his team provides evidence that the northeastern plain is already experiencing the impacts of global warming, including a higher mean temperature, change in the rain pattern and more frequent natural disasters.
Farmers in the plain, which is the largest area of jasmine rice cultivation in the country, have suffered on average a 45% reduction in production of hom mali rice in recent years, according to the research.
The study also showed extreme weather swings - drought and floods are an increasing threat to farmers in the plain.
"Climate change is shaking up the 'Kitchen of the World'," Mr Vichein said, referring to the slogan coined by Dhanin Chearavanont, chairman of the Charoen Pokphand Group, and taken up by the Thaksin Shinawatra government to promote Thailand's position as a major global agricultural player.
Thai jasmine rice has long been popular around the world because of its taste and its good price, but the market has become highly competitive, with many countries now producing the rice variety. The "Kitchen of the World" campaign has sought to differentiate Thai hom mali grains from the competition and add value to the product.
While the campaign has not been a priority of the present government, there is no question of hom mali's continuing importance to the country's export portfolio. According to the Thai Rice Exporters Association, in the first five months of 2009 Thailand shipped 1.17 million tonnes of Thai hom mali rice, worth 28.5 billion baht.
PRIDE OF THAILAND: A farmer with hom mali shoots in his hand.
Thung Kula Ronghai covers 2.1 million rai (3,360 square kilometres), an area five times the size of Singapore, spread throughout the five northeastern provinces of Roi Et, Maha Sarakham, Surin, Si Sa Ket and Yasothon.
Northeastern farmers have an intimate relationship with the cycles of nature and have always had to deal with climate variations, but the changes in recent years - hotter weather and more frequent natural disasters - have been harder to adapt to.
Buasi Srikhampha, 51, who has two rai of paddy field in Rasi Salai district of Si Sa Ket province, said her once-idyllic existence had turned into a kind of bad dream. "Everything has changed so quickly and life has become very hard," she said. "My crops are losing out to both drought and flood.
"We are used to annual drought and know how to coexist with it, but we are not used to extreme weather coming on so swiftly and lasting so long," said the farmer.
To get out from under the burden of the family's accumulated debts, her husband and her two teenage daughters have migrated to Bangkok to work, leaving her alone to take care of the farm.
GREEN FEAST: Buasi Srikhampha gathers grass to feed her two cows.
In this uncertain climate some farmers are reluctant to even sow their crops. Mrs Buasi said several of her neighbours who had been hurt by the unusually severe floods of last year are leaving their fields fallow for now, adopting a wait and see attitude.
"The weather fluctuations are scaring them," said Mrs Buasi.
SEASONS OFF KEEL
The air in the plain feels somehow more tense than before, as if nature can no longer be trusted. Dong Noonto, standing under a tree as he looked over his field, lamented that the seasons have gone haywire.
"When I was a boy, the rains would come and last a certain period of time," said the farmer, who has a nine-rai farm in Si Sa Ket province. "Now it is unpredictable."
The 59-year-old, who had never heard of global warming, said that many are turning to the supernatural for an explanation. A strong belief in mysterious supernatural powers is still found in the villages of the plains, a mixture of Phi (ancestral ghosts), Buddha and Brahman, as well as many local gods who reside in the ancient plain. Many blame unexplained occurrences such as severe droughts, fierce thunderstorms and unrelenting rains as the work of supernatural powers.
FARMER’S CONCERN: Dong Noonto watches over his young hom mali rice plants, above. He is worried his fields might be swallowed by flash floods.
But some devout Buddhists like Mr Dong see it otherwise.
"Some people who have lived in the plain for a long time believe this calamity is the work of Chao Phor [an ancestral ghost], because he is angry," said Mr Dong. He believes, however, that he and the other farmers in the plain are victims of their own karma.
"When you talk about global warming to farmers there aren't many who really understand what you are talking about," said Mr Vichein. Authorities should educate local communities about climate change and its impacts, he said, adding that such information is of vital importance to farmers in certain parts of the country which are prone to extreme weather conditions.
Mr Vichien hastened to add that he was not saying that the farmers are ignorant. During his study he witnessed many locals adjusting their farming schedules and methods in light of the changing conditions.
In some instances farmers have actually benefitted from the change. For example, some whose fields are on higher ground have taken advantage of increasing volumes of rainfall to initiate a second yearly crop, as is done by farmers in the Central Plain.
GROWING SEASON: Verdant rice fields under cultivation.
But Mr Vichein said that overall global warming is driving wild climate swings that are punishing the northeastern provinces with increasing frequency.
One clear consequence is the shifting of seasonal patterns. He said harvesting was typically being done much earlier - from late November to early October - due to a change in the rain pattern. In order to come up with suitable and timely measures to deal with and mitigate the effects of climate change, Mr Vichein is embarking on a wider and more in-depth research project to determine the impact of global warming in the Chi and Moon river basins. The research will cover up to 19 provinces in the Northeast.
Of his work in the Thung Kula Ronghai, he said: "Hopefully, the changes observed here can provide an early warning system for the rest of the country." He hopes his work will help to develop a sound scientific model for farming in a more threatening environment.
While a definitive answer will take years of careful study, the climatologist said the country should expect more extreme weather in the years ahead as rising ocean temperatures and diminishing rainforests cause shifts in global climate patterns.
A mammoth find in Serbia
Wading through the swamps that hundreds of thousands of years later would become eastern Serbia, "Vika" became stuck, never managing to pull herself ree, and eventually died.
Now Vika, a mammoth whose skeleton was found perfectly preserved in a crouched postion, has been hailed as a "sensational" find despitr disputes over her age, species and even sex.
In the millennia since the animal's death, 27 metres of earth were deposited on her until in May when a digger in the Kosolac mine pit, 60 kilometres east of Belgrade, exposed her skeleton.
Fortunately, no damage was done during the surprise discovery and now vika's remains, preserved at the site by a climatised tent, have been made accessible to scientific visitors.
"Our geologists dated Vika's age at 4.8 million years, based on the age of the surrounding stratum," says the director of the Belgrade Natural Museum, Zoran Markovic.
If Serbian experts are correct, Markovic says, Vika's remains are the oldest ever found in Europe.
Serbian scientists say that Vika was a sounthern mammoth Mammuthus Meridionalis, standing four metres tall and weighing seven tonnes, with 2.5-metre-long tusks.
For now, Serbian scientists have decided to leave Vika exactly where she (or he) was and in the crouched position in which she was found. This was due to one last posthumous event. Shortly after she died in the mud of Kostolac, Serbian experts say, her stomach literally exploded, breaking her spine and scattering a few ribs.
Leaving the ancient skeleton as it was found allows scientists to continue arguing over her age, species and gender, while also allowing tourists to created their own picture of Vika's final days long ago.
Vika, a mammoth whose skeleton was found perfectly preserved in a crouched position, has been hailed as a "sensational" find despite disputes over her age, species and even ses.
Now Vika, a mammoth whose skeleton was found perfectly preserved in a crouched postion, has been hailed as a "sensational" find despitr disputes over her age, species and even sex.
In the millennia since the animal's death, 27 metres of earth were deposited on her until in May when a digger in the Kosolac mine pit, 60 kilometres east of Belgrade, exposed her skeleton.
Fortunately, no damage was done during the surprise discovery and now vika's remains, preserved at the site by a climatised tent, have been made accessible to scientific visitors.
"Our geologists dated Vika's age at 4.8 million years, based on the age of the surrounding stratum," says the director of the Belgrade Natural Museum, Zoran Markovic.
If Serbian experts are correct, Markovic says, Vika's remains are the oldest ever found in Europe.
Serbian scientists say that Vika was a sounthern mammoth Mammuthus Meridionalis, standing four metres tall and weighing seven tonnes, with 2.5-metre-long tusks.
For now, Serbian scientists have decided to leave Vika exactly where she (or he) was and in the crouched position in which she was found. This was due to one last posthumous event. Shortly after she died in the mud of Kostolac, Serbian experts say, her stomach literally exploded, breaking her spine and scattering a few ribs.
Leaving the ancient skeleton as it was found allows scientists to continue arguing over her age, species and gender, while also allowing tourists to created their own picture of Vika's final days long ago.
Vika, a mammoth whose skeleton was found perfectly preserved in a crouched position, has been hailed as a "sensational" find despite disputes over her age, species and even ses.
THE HORSE WHISPERER
During her high school years, Siraya Chunekamrai - the county's first female horse veterinarian - pursued the typical teenage hobby of taking care of horses. Yet it was rather atypical too.
"Let's say that I have known how to give a horse an injection since I was at Triam Udom Suksa [the country's famous high school]," said the 51-year-old veterinarian, who opened the country's first hospital for horses and is the founder of the Lampang Pony Welfare Foundation, the country's first non-profit organisation to advocate the welfare of horses.
Siraya fell in love with horses when she was a young girl.
Growing up on Witthayu Road, Bangkok, near the state's cavalry horse stable and the famous horse riding school of German Lee Rhodes - Thailand's first horse riding teacher - located on Soi Sanam Klee (known as Soi Polo), she witnessed police bringing horses back to the barn every evening. In the past, Bangkok police used horses to patrol the city, especially Lumphini Park at night.
Finding the broncos ultra-cute, young Siraya prodded her mother to take up horse riding classes. It turned out she found vetting horses more fun than riding them.
"I have always loved taking care of horses more than riding. I was not that good at it and often fell from the horses' back," she said.
Rhodes, the horse-riding teacher, noticed the girl's passion for vetting and fetched her for practise whenever professional veterinarians visited.
So, young Siraya grew up playing animal doctor. She also loved playing "Superman", the only difference being that her superhero derivative protected animals instead of humans.
"I knew right from the start. I announced that I wanted to become a veterinarian when I was three years old," said Siraya, who grew up in a home full of dogs, mostly strays.
Siraya received a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, and a doctoral degree from Cornell University in the US, where she wrote her thesis on horse disease in Thailand.
For Siraya, while riding horses is dream-like, working in horse competitions - a shady world where doping is rampant - is an entirely different issue. As the first female horse veterinarian in the country, Siraya has met many obstacles in her work.
"It was like knocking on a door and having it slammed right in your face. When I walked into the veterinarian room, other male veterinarians gradually walked out," she said, recounting her first day at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club as their veterinarian.
Working in the racing field, Siraya has witnessed animal abuse - mostly unintentional - in the name of sport and competition.
She recounted sad tales of beautiful mustangs - drug-stimulated race horses - falling and rising again to sprint albeit on three legs, of old decommissioned horses being run at desolate race tracks in Chiang Mai province if they were lucky enough to survive. Time and time again, she ordered other veterinarians to ''terminate'' (mercy euthanasia) seriously injured horses. She was once sued by a horse owner _ an esteemed politician _ after she had ordered his highly doped horse to be terminated.
Siraya also introduced change in the racing field by using neutral and independent laboratories to conduct dope testing.
Siraya lobbied other veterinarians and opened Suan Sard Hospital, a veterinarian clinic in Onnuj, Bangkok. In 1997, she opened ''Horsepital'' in Nakhon Ratchasima province, the first hospital for horses in Thailand. Five years ago, she opened the Lampang Pony Welfare Foundation, which offers medical services at a very low rate and sometimes free of charge, gives professional knowledge workshops and recently launched a campaign to preserve local pony species.
Watching the foundation's veterinarian team is like watching Vets on Animal Planet, a famous cable television programme. The foundation's team often visits horses on remote farms in Lampang province. Siraya travels there, when time permits, to assist and train the team.
Last week she demonstrated neutering a male horse.
Unlike the sterile operating room at the Horsepital, this time Siraya had to operate on a plastic sheet in a tent.
She started the operation, as she does every time, by gently patting the patient on its nose and neck, whispering in its pointy ears. The horse looked surprisingly calm and relaxed, as if it was under a spell.
''The most important aspect of the operation is neither the surgical knife, the blood nor the stitches. It is the whispering in the ears,''said Siraya, after the operation.
What does she tell these horses?
Mostly soothing murmurs, she answered placidly. What she is whispering about does not matter, as horses cannot understand human languages.
''Horses can read us like a book. They observe our body language, our voice and movements.''
''Yes ... I am a horse whisperer,'' said Siriya, flashing a smile as she talked about the movie The Horse Whisperer (1998), in which Robert Redford plays a cowboy who can read horses' minds and treat them if they have suffered a mental breakdown by whispering in their ears.
Despite the human love affair with horses beginning in the ancient period, people are yet to fully comprehend these creatures.
''Horses are perhaps the most misunderstood creature of all, which leads to mistreatment,'' she said.
Horses maintain an alluring myth _ wild and adventurous. But in reality, horses are insecure, sensitive, panicky and submissive, she said.
Siraya's love affair with horses was and always will be atypical _ she's a new kind of horse whisperer or guardian. But wild horses couldn't drag her away from her mission.
"Let's say that I have known how to give a horse an injection since I was at Triam Udom Suksa [the country's famous high school]," said the 51-year-old veterinarian, who opened the country's first hospital for horses and is the founder of the Lampang Pony Welfare Foundation, the country's first non-profit organisation to advocate the welfare of horses.
Siraya fell in love with horses when she was a young girl.
Growing up on Witthayu Road, Bangkok, near the state's cavalry horse stable and the famous horse riding school of German Lee Rhodes - Thailand's first horse riding teacher - located on Soi Sanam Klee (known as Soi Polo), she witnessed police bringing horses back to the barn every evening. In the past, Bangkok police used horses to patrol the city, especially Lumphini Park at night.
Finding the broncos ultra-cute, young Siraya prodded her mother to take up horse riding classes. It turned out she found vetting horses more fun than riding them.
"I have always loved taking care of horses more than riding. I was not that good at it and often fell from the horses' back," she said.
Rhodes, the horse-riding teacher, noticed the girl's passion for vetting and fetched her for practise whenever professional veterinarians visited.
So, young Siraya grew up playing animal doctor. She also loved playing "Superman", the only difference being that her superhero derivative protected animals instead of humans.
"I knew right from the start. I announced that I wanted to become a veterinarian when I was three years old," said Siraya, who grew up in a home full of dogs, mostly strays.
Siraya received a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, and a doctoral degree from Cornell University in the US, where she wrote her thesis on horse disease in Thailand.
For Siraya, while riding horses is dream-like, working in horse competitions - a shady world where doping is rampant - is an entirely different issue. As the first female horse veterinarian in the country, Siraya has met many obstacles in her work.
"It was like knocking on a door and having it slammed right in your face. When I walked into the veterinarian room, other male veterinarians gradually walked out," she said, recounting her first day at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club as their veterinarian.
Working in the racing field, Siraya has witnessed animal abuse - mostly unintentional - in the name of sport and competition.
She recounted sad tales of beautiful mustangs - drug-stimulated race horses - falling and rising again to sprint albeit on three legs, of old decommissioned horses being run at desolate race tracks in Chiang Mai province if they were lucky enough to survive. Time and time again, she ordered other veterinarians to ''terminate'' (mercy euthanasia) seriously injured horses. She was once sued by a horse owner _ an esteemed politician _ after she had ordered his highly doped horse to be terminated.
Siraya also introduced change in the racing field by using neutral and independent laboratories to conduct dope testing.
Siraya lobbied other veterinarians and opened Suan Sard Hospital, a veterinarian clinic in Onnuj, Bangkok. In 1997, she opened ''Horsepital'' in Nakhon Ratchasima province, the first hospital for horses in Thailand. Five years ago, she opened the Lampang Pony Welfare Foundation, which offers medical services at a very low rate and sometimes free of charge, gives professional knowledge workshops and recently launched a campaign to preserve local pony species.
Watching the foundation's veterinarian team is like watching Vets on Animal Planet, a famous cable television programme. The foundation's team often visits horses on remote farms in Lampang province. Siraya travels there, when time permits, to assist and train the team.
Last week she demonstrated neutering a male horse.
Unlike the sterile operating room at the Horsepital, this time Siraya had to operate on a plastic sheet in a tent.
She started the operation, as she does every time, by gently patting the patient on its nose and neck, whispering in its pointy ears. The horse looked surprisingly calm and relaxed, as if it was under a spell.
''The most important aspect of the operation is neither the surgical knife, the blood nor the stitches. It is the whispering in the ears,''said Siraya, after the operation.
What does she tell these horses?
Mostly soothing murmurs, she answered placidly. What she is whispering about does not matter, as horses cannot understand human languages.
''Horses can read us like a book. They observe our body language, our voice and movements.''
''Yes ... I am a horse whisperer,'' said Siriya, flashing a smile as she talked about the movie The Horse Whisperer (1998), in which Robert Redford plays a cowboy who can read horses' minds and treat them if they have suffered a mental breakdown by whispering in their ears.
Despite the human love affair with horses beginning in the ancient period, people are yet to fully comprehend these creatures.
''Horses are perhaps the most misunderstood creature of all, which leads to mistreatment,'' she said.
Horses maintain an alluring myth _ wild and adventurous. But in reality, horses are insecure, sensitive, panicky and submissive, she said.
Siraya's love affair with horses was and always will be atypical _ she's a new kind of horse whisperer or guardian. But wild horses couldn't drag her away from her mission.
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