29 Nov 2007
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Ethical Traveler has created a list of 13 tips that focus on travelers creating a positive impact by “by being open, informed, and willing to immerse themselves in other cultures”. A couple of them that I really like (the entire list is available here) :
Take the time to learn basic courtesy phrases : learn how to say “please” & “thank you” in the local language Remember the economic realities of your new currency : A US Dollar is worth 40 times an Indian rupee and a Euro is worth 70. A Rupee is couple of cents! Bargain Fairly : Especially in the third world. If the street vendor is selling you a handcrafted item for Rs 400, remember it is al of $10. For less than an hour’s parking in New York, you can get a chauffeur driven taxi for an entire day. Have a heart give the woman/man a tip! Understand and respect differences : You don’t have to agree with the local traditions and cultural practices but you can be respectful towards ‘strange’ cultures. Yours may be strange to them too! Be sensitive towards local social, political and environmental issues. Related Links:
Guidelines for Ethical Travel
Tips for responsible travelers
Continue reading →23 Nov 2007
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From Ahmadabad to Baghdad, from Bosnia to Calcutta, from Darfur to…. there is far too much warfare, crime, hatred and genocide than I would like. Steven Pinker, however has another take on this.
“ In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence… Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about.”
Continue reading →23 Nov 2007
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Research suggests that most clear hard plastic (your baby’s bottle, the bottles in the refrigerator, the sippers, the food jars on the kitchen shelf) contain a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is at the minimum toxic, but perhaps even carcinogenic (can cause some forms of cancer).
The Telegraph of UK explains what BPA is:
BPA is a synthetic version of oestrogen, the female sex hormone, and experts have suggested for more than a decade that chemicals in the environment and in consumer products may be contributing to male and female diseases, such as prostate and breast cancer.
Continue reading →29 Sep 2007
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The list of the worlds worst polluted place, compiled by the Blacksmith Institute is called the Dirty Thirty. The top ten ‘dishonors’ are shared by India (2), China (2), Russia (2), Azerbaijan(1), Peru (1), Ukraine (1), Zambia (1).
Click on the name below to read a profile of the place at the Blacksmith Institute website.
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan Linfen, China Tianying, China Sukinda, India Vapi, India La Oroya, Peru Dzerzhinsk, Russia Norilsk, Russia Chernobyl, Ukraine Kabwe, Zambia See all these places on the map
See pictures of some of these places
Continue reading →13 Sep 2007
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Talking of networks and ‘network effects’, Duncan J. Watts professor of sociology at Columbia University and the author of “Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age”, has written a very interesting piece in New York Times on why the business of ‘cultural’ is so unpredictable. He shows how the power of social influence is not just limited to ‘cultural’ products like music (visit his MusicLab project), but also to technologies, consumer products… perhaps anything where people have a choice and where these people are part of a society. What does that leave?
Continue reading →21 Aug 2007
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The class seven students of The Shri Ram School, DLF Phase 3, made a trip to the Yamuna to experience first hand the state of the river just before it enters Delhi from neighbouring state of Haryana, and the quantum of untreated sewage and waste matter that is released into the river once it enters Delhi. From a frolicsome dip in the monsoon-fed Yamuna to the sombre sight of the black stink coming out of the Najafgarh Drain that enters the river, the children had a lot to process on the trip. View album
Continue reading →03 Aug 2007
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In trying to use a new word processing program, such as Google Docs, it is typical to resist a new order of icons. Fingers follow muscle memory, and the mind, focused on the task of composing that perfect sentence, is loath to break off from the task at hand to figure out new ways to tinker with a new program.
But, with Google, there is always the allure of the new kid on the block – the one with all the lollipops, the one with all the surprises. So, I open Docs and, oh wow, it looks a lot like word. Nice, nice….and I move onto the task of writing. While I am at it, Docs jumps in and automatically saves a copy, using the first eight words as a kind of file name. I try the revisions function, and see that it works a lot like my gmail account, with versions stacked up on top of one another, allowing me to pick the one I want. (A godsend for the careless editor who hacks off a line and then goes scrambling to get it back!)
Continue reading →18 Feb 2007
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Reuters informs us that Malaysia is considering a ban on fast food ads… With Malaysia’s growing affluence, almost 40 per cent of its 26 million citizens are obese, up from 20 per cent a decade ago. No wonder.
In Britain Ofcom proposal to ban junk food adverts targeted at under-16s – expected to be enforced from the end of January 2007, and be phased in over 24 months – has obviously come under attack. Television channels stand to loose enormous amount of money…
Incidentally, fast food chain Burger King said it would voluntarily stop making and showing television adverts in the UK aimed at children…
Continue reading →08 Feb 2007
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If you want to buy a kidney or any other organ just contact your local broker. A wired story reports “…a group of poverty-stricken women living in a tsunami refugee camp 7.5 miles north of Chennai confessed at a public meeting that they sold their kidneys through brokers.”
An unnamed member of the state-appointed ethics committee which must approve all transplants says that “…patients have no hope because in India, organ donation after death is extremely rare. Without incentive, donors are practically nonexistent.”
Continue reading →18 Jan 2007
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It’s six in the morning, we’re jet lagged, and sleepy in the sleepy little airport of Perth, on our way to Sydney from Delhi, via Singapore. The kids trundle to the cafeteria looking for fries, we’re after the coffee, and my brain is looking for a bed to tumble into. I feel like I’ve tumbled upside down to another time zone (which I have) and landed on my bum (which I haven’t). Except that there’s something strange going on in Kangaroo-land.
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