Evening birding

Today is World Migratory Day (second Saturday of October -this year’s focus is ‘Protect insects to protect birds’) and so decided to go for evening walk along the nearby wetland extending to paddy field. It was overcast sky, it rained quite heavily in the morning. Birds were quite active. Mostly resident species as migratory season is about to begin. Spotted early migrant Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) and its characteristic nervous oscillating tail as he busied himself along the waterbody.  

Following birds were spotted: 

Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) 

Asian openbill Stork (Anastomus oscitans) 

Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) 

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 

Oriental Darter (Anhinga melanogaster) 

Blue-tailed Bee eater (Merops philippinus) 

Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) 

Spotted Munia (Lonchura punctulata)

Red-backed Kite (Haliastur indus) -‘Brahminy’ is an offensive reference and must be expunged 

Yellow-billed Babbler (Argya affinis) 

Purple-rumped Sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica) 

Indian Pond heron (Ardeola grayii) 

Black Drango (Dicrurus macrocercus) 

Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) 

As also little cormorants, common crows, common mynas, egrets (cattle, great, intermediate, little). Calls of Peacocks, White-cheeked Barbets and Tailorbirds (or is it Prinia?)

Hibakusha poems: expressing the inexpressible

 

I was aware of hibakusha -survivors of atomic bombing by US on Japan in 1945, watched documentaries and videos of this horrific atrocity and read extensively, recently (thanks to technology) I have done virtual visits to Hiroshima peace memorial and park around it. I read that night lighting of the surviving dome in eerie green and orange inside conveys appropriate emotions of dread and horror. I wasn’t aware of hibakusha poems -poems by survivors, and so today evening I was reading. These experiences are too traumatic, and it takes extraordinary human fortitude to even begin articulating what one likes to forget as a nightmare and move away with any semblance of life. This is what trauma does it leaves unfathomable silence. I was reading how trauma get carried epigenetically to next generation. The brutality is not confined to memories of individual or society but traces through the genes, through bodies, into future generations. There are many communities around the world reeling in indescribable trauma carrying the dread of past in their everyday life expressed in small details which they aren’t even aware. Indeed, much of humanity is continuing trauma of surviving the past as hunter gatherers, the reason why most humans are effortlessly innovative and independent while carrying empathy and generosity. What makes some societies exceptionally cruel or tolerant to cruelty cannot really be brushed under the euphemism of relativism. We live in globalized world hence the narrations and sensitivities (indeed sensibilities) of 20^th century has limited significance, essentially anachronistic nuisance in most case nurtured by sinister forces for control. Truth needs to be spoken clearly with logic and evidence. Some regions of world are exceptionally violent and unsettled, apart from controlling systems that nurture these, effective outlets of traumas of communities is an issue that cannot be negated.

Hibakusha poems broke the silence through stillness of haiku and tanka while they detached into meditative universality of pain. Soon, as the life start to flow and vigor returned, they became aware of the responsibility of unique experience. This unique voice that has witnessed the horrors of atomic bombs vaporizing happy thriving lives into nothing in an instant and are now forced to witness the ignominy of forgetfulness of humanity -of some arrogant humans, as they dabble in nuclear bombs with horrifying carelessness incapacitated to understand the devastating consequences. Hibakusha free verse poems are visceral in its simplicity and overwhelming in its impact. Truth is always in sincere, and trauma carries the urgency of earnest description. Language is stripped bared to its basic necessity so as to keep the experience palpable and immediate. You feel as if you are there as a witness as each line grip you into immense suffering. This urgency of trauma maybe the reason why many survivors live longer (i have seen these with holocaust survivors too) probably the prolonged life as a persistent reminder to a witness to human stupidity, to temper their tall claims.      

Wittgenstein (the philosophical moorings of AI is undeniably in approximation of meaning, bravo Wittgenstein!) was onto something about limits of language (“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”) but it is ingenuity of humans to cross the confines of logic and describe the indescribable.

This copied from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/hiroshima-poems/

Let Us Be Midwives! An untold story of the atomic bombing

by Sadako Kurihara, translated by Richard Minear

Night in the basement of a concrete structure now in ruins.
Victims of the atomic bomb jammed the room;
It was dark—not even a single candle.
The smell of fresh blood, the stench of death,
The closeness of sweaty people, the moans.
From out of all that, lo and behold, a voice:
"The baby’s coming!"
In that hellish basement,
At that very moment, a young woman had gone into labour.
In the dark, without a single match, what to do?
People forgot their own pains, worried about her.
And then: "I'm a midwife. I’ll help with the birth."
The speaker, seriously injured herself, had been moaning only moments before.
And so new life was born in the dark of that pit of hell.
And so the midwife died before dawn, still bathed in blood.
Let us be midwives!
Let us be midwives!
Even if we lay down our own lives to do so.

Sadako Kurihara (1913 – 2005) was a poet, writer and peace activist who survived the Hiroshima bombing.

                             

Living Planet Index

 

Living Planet Index (LPI) tracks the average trend rather than increases or declines in the total number of animals. The global LPI 2024 shows a decrease of 73%. Imagine that! Common observation, like the birds that we used to see so often have become rare, is an indication of cumulative staggering loss.

The report https://www.livingplanetindex.org/ also elaborates on five tipping points of global significance that we are nearing. 1). Amazon rainforest drying off which will have devastating consequences for people, biodiversity and the global climate. Tipping point will reach if just 20–25% of the Amazon rainforest is destroyed -and as much as 17% has been deforested already. Read that again 17% of amazon forest is already destroyed, and so within a decade or so we could tip into no return scenario. 2). Coral reef die off due to coral bleaching have become frequent. Coral reefs will not be able to function as ecosystem (known as the rainforest of oceans). For instance, Great Barrier Reef have faced mass coral bleaching events in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024, as you can see the frequency and intensity have increased (I have seen videos of desolated coral reef and divers virtually crying for the loss…the more aware you become devastating it is. I too sometimes go into deep depression when I go for walk and don’t see much biodiversity that I used to). 3). Melting ice sheets, two massive ice sheets -in Greenland and the West Antarctic, are at risk of passing a tipping point where melting becomes irreversible disrupting ocean circulation and cause sea levels to rise several metres. 4). Collapse of Atlantic Ocean Circulation would devastate marine ecosystems, disrupt other ocean currents and dramatically change global weather patterns. 5). Permafrost thaw as a result of global warming will release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere further exacerbating the impacts of climate crisis..

Apart from other suggestion the report call for nature-based solutions. One of the most significant sustainable solutions that I have come across few years back was biomimicry (biomimetic solution). It was a life changing experience for me. Having spent lots of time in nature, and trying to work out a career in the field -quite difficult for an outsider in a primitive insecure society, I quite accidentally read about biomimicry (I wouldn’t say accidental since I was watching nature quite closely and so was naturally aligning to understanding) and got into depth of it. Created it as a subject for college students (again it's arduous in this amazingly mediocre ego driven small minded society), it really has so much potential considering that India has such amazing biodiversity unlike West.

Systemic changes can only come from powerful controllers (dubious narration of GDP so on as development) as also more enlightened concerned people -this can only happen with value education as also people not trapped in the rigmarole of daily survival as also society stuck in greed of money and power lacking collective values or concerns. Future of world is in the hands of few enlightened spaces across the world -who nurture some wonderful people (like the one who produce such reports, who explore all across the world to study these). They bring awareness for better world. And thanks to technology common people across the world are able to access these and become aware -trapped as we are in daily vicissitudes of life in increasingly bleak surroundings, these reading does change our mind and receptive for collective action.  

*pic is that of Hoopoe -a spectacular looking little bird, that used to be so common when I was kid. I recall spending lots of time watching these birds -they spent most of their time on ground digging and foraging. These birds have become so rare that I haven't really seen them in years (last rare sighting was probably in Mysore -recall it quite clearly inside open area at Mysore zoo -such a pleasant surprise). Sometimes I have dreams about these birds. These vanishings create such devastation.            

Climate breakdown

 First they denied it, then they call it a hoax, then they ridiculed, and then, when the climate disasters became persistent, they call it conspiracy. Very soon they will abandon vulnerable population as people die in large numbers, property lost and regions become impossible to inhabit. They will very likely call it god's wrath and assign some opportunist reason, incapacitated to take responsibility. Climate migrants will increase and with food security threatened societies will be put in serious pressure. 

Wake up people. Use your mental faculties, become aware, read, ask questions, think, look around, get all the facts of the issue, find pattern, use your sense, understand that life on earth is not going to be normal as before. We are in serious bother. No charade or make believe will work. We are bare. Reality can only be dealt with sincerity. Only collective action can save us.   

*in the latest climate breakdown event US is facing series of dangerous hurricanes, next one is Milton. 

Beware the mockery

 Be very aware. This is not an accident. These two are human shaped attrition of systemic muck. This is what happens when democratic institutions of powerful societies are compromised primarily by complacency and condescending ways of the elites. Institutions crumble while the façade is celebrated. When politics is neatly divided into simplistic (indeed ridiculous) binary for ease of mock fights and power share. This binary is easily taken into extreme by opportunists wherein issues are complex -people’s existential context makes it dynamic and evolving. No issue is fixed in time but with binary politics it is frozen in deep space and used as and when needed without any outcome or resolution but to capitalize on emotions. This is what happens when democracy is reduced to nepotism of powerful people who use and undermine institutions. Lobbying is nothing but crony capitalism that severely undermines democracy. Did they ever try to rectify it? Wanton consumption driven capitalism supported by ecosystems of power and greed see world as resource. The world is limitless resource for their gargantuan greed that kept neoliberal exploitation thriving. They spread these neoliberal values as investment friendly narration onto poorer societies where the charlatans replicate these exploitative frameworks as development. The deceit also kept the war machine churning for profit. They attacked Iraq and destroyed the region for ego satisfaction. Corporate meanwhile presented itself as harbinger of freedom and choice which meant nothing. They took away meaning from meaningful. They emptied and vandalized everything of everlasting value and left mockery. As is the case, to paraphrase Nietzsche, when you deal with mockery all the time mockery stares back at you. US has become a mockery. With all system checks compromised they are imploding. It is saddening considering the potential and the impact on the world.

Trump is a mockery, not only on the idea of democracy, but humanity itself. That US nurtured this colossal BS (there is absolutely no other way to describe this fellow) into leadership position is a mockery on its tall claim as leader of the free world. Musk is a realtime mockery on the idea of capitalism and an exact representation of neoliberal horror. It is not surprising that both lack any redeeming human quality whatsoever, and without the system that nurtures these, they will be utter useless and not even be allowed in any decent human gathering. Most powerful man and richest man are shallow people with underdeveloped adolescent minds is a stark presentation of systemic failure that nurtured these ridicules into topmost reckoning. The lunatic fringe is amplified and mainstreamed. Truth no longer matters. It's a breakdown of sanity and civility. US is a lesson on complacent world. Whatever you cherish could vanish within moment if you are not alert and vigilant.             

Technology activates social change

 

Social movements have had a significant impact on consolidating egalitarian values and humanistic concerns. Education is instrumental in spreading awareness. These urgent pressure of awareness as changing norms get embedded into democratic institutions. This looks like a logical template for social change. Ofcourse it is a successful model but quite limited. In the recent times I am quite convinced that technology is an activator and consolidator of social change and has significant impact than social movements. The much-maligned technology is prime initiator of social change than science could. Eventhough science needs enlightened value framework to nurture and prosper it can work in narrow context of society. Society, or even the scientist, could be feudal or racist while science progress in the midst. Much of science developed and consolidated in this framework. It has claim of superior that fuels justification and refinement of process as inquiry. Superior to mundane worries of society. Humanistic concerns in science are accidental and mostly personal. Vastness of knowledge can be humbling but the system is not driving social change nor aiming a better society -by implication maybe. It is social neutral as much as value neutral. So, ironically science needs egalitarian value system and open mind to sustain but is mostly isolated from social reality. So is the case of technologists but implication of technology on society is cataclysmic.

Technology is application of science for mass consumption. By its very nature it is meant to reach remotest and make the most isolated and vulnerable access the world. The initial stage of technology is always feudal, manipulated by few for greed and gains. As the technology spreads it reaches a saturation stage -commonplace essential, and that is when the real impact of technology as potent means of social change felt. From slow spreading printing press to fast connecting smart phone it brings in a new paradigm of social change through changing minds instead of social physical involvements. A person is virtually exposed to possibilities that were not even conceivable. Once the initial excitement of technology settles it gets to the responsibility of these possibilities. The freedom seeks more awareness of the world. The diversity of ideas, cultures and regions opens to understanding, subconsciously mind is priming for change. It necessarily leads to self-reflection, evolving and associating to better ideas and possibilities. This is the greatest instigator of social change than what was ever possible. It has potential to uproot ossified feudal structures and juvenile control of religion. Atomized awareness reverberates into synchronous collective of better world. Answer to manipulation is more technology, more transparency and more awareness, with a foundation of quality education. Significant social changes have happened in last two decade than in last many centuries. We are still in flux and once the new technology saturates change is expected to consolidate into something better. Each human will access their uniqueness and work the potential herein and connect to wider world. If swarm intelligence could achieve such brilliant feat imagine swarm of each unique intelligence synchronizing into a whole. Imagine that!     

**Thanks to technology I can access anything, anywhere, anytime. And so, I was reading Ursula Le Guin. Le Guin, I am embarrassed to admit, is a late involvement. I love scifi and IsaacAsimov, ArthurClark, HG Wells, PhillipDick many more were my staple, wasn’t much aware of LeGuin. To bracket her as SciFi writer is not doing justice, her concern was using scifi framework to question contemporary social context and philosophical inquiry. Landscape and technology can change but some questions are persistent, here she immerses her charming stories into an entirely different social context to eviscerate contemporary concerns, scifi is an accidental construct. I am reading ‘The Dispossessed’ that explores capitalism, utopia, collectivism so on (I have read poems influenced by Taoism. Taoism, as is the case with Buddhism, is something I too find interesting). ‘The One Who Walks Away from Omelas’ explores the trolley problem ethics, not participating (wu wei -non action) is an option of powerful statement. I haven’t read much but yes ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ has an interesting premise of fictional planet of human with no fixed sex, exploring themes of gender and sexuality. This in an overtly sexualized and gender determined world. I was reading ‘Dreams Must Explain Themselves’, collection of essays. ‘Introducing Myself’ is a hilarious piece about no reference to ‘her’ in mainstream discourse or reporting. The gender is assumed to be him. “If we have anything to learn from politicians it’s that details don’t matter. I am a man, and I want you to believe and accept this as a fact, as I did for many years”… “Women are a very recent invention. I predate the invention of women by decades. Well, if you insist on pedantic accuracy, women have been invented several times in widely varying localities, but the inventors just didn’t know how to sell the product. Their distribution technique were rudimentary and their market research was nil, and so ofcourse the contempt just didn’t go off the ground. Even with a genius behind it an invention has to find its market, and it seemed like for a long time the idea of women just didn’t make it to the bottom line. Models like the Austen and the Bronte were too complicated, and people just laughed at the Suffragette, and Wolfe was way too far ahead of its time”. “So when I was born, there actually were only men. People were men. They all had one pronoun, his pronoun; so that’s who I am. I am the generic he, as in, ‘If anybody needs an abortion he will have to go to another state’, or ‘A writer knows which side of his bread is buttered on’. That’s me, the writer, him. I am a man.”

  

Monetizing desperation

 

Primitive societies work on control. Desperation of common people is a potent site for control. Religion is an effective means to capitalize and systematically create followers to assuage desperation and tag it to other worldly cause. They actively create narration of heaven and hell, blessing and fate, to capitalize desperation into morals as control. As humanity progress -thanks to very few spaces around the world that placed systems for nurturing some brilliant empathetic people while much of world remained barbarians, education as consolidation of best of thoughts and ideas from across the world presented a significant means to progress as a human in a free society. Meanwhile awareness creates spiritual meditative space and provide enlightened means to face existential absurdity and everyday gratitude. Associating these wholesome humans create synergic progressive society and diversity of possibility…Well things haven’t really worked out that way. Possibilities of liberty and freedom has created much insecurity in minds incapacitated to value life. Medieval primitive systems are nurtured and consolidated by devious forces capitalizing on people’s insecurities. Feudal structures, while severely degrade democratic institutions, are cunningly presented as stabilizing presence. These too-big-to-fall inviolable chicanery consolidate argument for much sinister neoliberal structures that parasite on people and nature. Ascriptive value systems find ways to exploitative and mediocrity thriving status quo thus severely degrading society and initiating further desperation. Crony capitalism, nepotism and wanton corruption make democratic institutions and progressive values meaningless. Degraded values nurture degraded institutions which in turn foster worst of people into responsible positions thus further demeaning any possibilities of progressive ways. Desperate herd hooked to blessing as expression of authority -of power and money, easily fall for cognitive bias. Lacking critical thinking nor emotionally equipped for empathy and better possibilities of human they desperately bang their heads around to find means to please and improve fate. Desperation is carefully nurtured by sinister sadists. Authority bias actively promote what is bad for individual but good for herd. So as population balloons resources dwindle, consumption increases environment deteriorates…they are incapacitated to connect these dots. They exist disconnected to reality in desperation for more.

Cheap labor is another of neoliberal construction of wanton greed, devaluing human into their lowest possibility as discounted resource for narrow deal. In the ecosystem of greed and crave for money and power desperation is weaponized. Corporate jobs become battle ground for cheap labor and replaceable human commodity who’s ‘resources’ is now well and truly depleted for investor's pleasure and profit. Feudal values undermine democratic institutions hence nurture neoliberal vandalism preventing strict humane rules for working conditions and revaluing resources as individual humans. Compromised state is incapacitated to question narration of capitalism and dubious semantics of development and progress. The investor has to be perpetually pleased for sacredness of economic development. The meaning and intent of which nobody understands or cares while the development collapses life sustaining ecosystem and egalitarian values. Meaningless jobs and reckless systems alienate human being. Many give up, some suicide, while most morph into successful monsters that normalize exploitative narrations.

Dangerous escalation

        Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold

        Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

        The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

        The ceremony of innocence is drowned    (The Second Coming by Yeats)

       World is spiraling precariously...of human stupidity, of patriarchy and feudal nurtured value systems that defines nation-state run by religion bartered market defined little egos. Unless humans are free individuals these will keep repeating.