Nold Egenter responds

To my paper "Warli House and Habitat-1", published on this blog, Nold Egenter, world known architect anthropologist,  graciously responds by his e-mail. I reproduce the excerpts here:  

"Dear Remigius de Souza,

thank you for your info regarding your blog page. Phantastic!  I copied the "Relevance of Indigenous Tribal Housing Today" and handed it out to students at the EPF/ETH Lausanne. This is somehow what I had dreamt of in India, because it still has an overwhelming amount of traditional communities! I more and more become aware that "civilisation" is to a great extent also a tremendously negative cultural evolution: historistic misunderstandings and misconstructs of human life are considered as the true fundaments of social organisation. This is why this type of research into the traditional "tribal world" on the empirical level of research of architecture, handicraft and space is extremely important (disciplines of Western humanities produce tremendous "Euro-historistic distortions"!).

Thank you once more, I will read myself more into your important Blog site!

With warm regards,

Nold Egenter"

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Some of the links to his works:  

http://openanthcoop.ning.com/profile/NoldEgenter 

http://habitat-anthro.ning.com/    

http://www.myarchn.com/profile/NoldEgenter  

HOMEPAGE

http://home.worldcom.ch/negenter/  

Nold Egenter's work speaks for him; I need not add my certificate. Those who are new to his valuable contribution to our understanding of culture and architecture, better discover more thro' the clue provided in the links above to his work.

Indian education system should include Anthropology in the textbooks of “Civics” and “History” subjects in their schools colleges and universities; and add it as Refresher Course for the bureaucrats: It is high time. 

India has been plural society, now being driven to polarity by various vested interests and their evil means.

Remigius de Souza

Note: Image Source, Nold Egenter' Profile

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

GO GLOBAL (POEM)

Earn to burn in the urns of desires,
Eat, drink, sleep, xxxx, make merry
And drain the sap in the gutter holes,
which overflow to meet the dump yard
of the sea or / and add on the heaps
of the unwanted generation; Chant. Chant
the global mantra of ilu*, ilu, ilu!
Does one live by food alone?
Or in a metropolitan nightmare
Breathe some clean fresh air!

- - - - -
Place: Mumbai
Date: 29-07-2003

Note: *ilu, I love you
(Republished due to errors)

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Salesgirl (POEM) by Trini

Composed by Trini (Triningsih Ngadimun) on "Silhouette In The Moon" (Monday, May 25, 2009)

When she says you are nice
You don't believe in her
Because she said it for a plate of rice
to feed her daughter
What you do is to think twice
Whether to buy her goods or leave her forever.

I am amazed to see Trini has her finger on the pulse of Twenty-first Century.

The young poet diagnosis her time without sentimental melodrama, without mincing the words, about the omnipresent market and consumerism! Her compositions are featherlight, reading them is delight.
Or that's how I feel!

By simplicity and economy of means and by elegance this quoted poem reaches Iconic level.

Her poems are for people in the homes, in farms, on street, in workshops, not merely for the blog authors. The compassion in her poetry is universal, though humble she may be: I would rather say it expresses Universal Motherhood, that of “African Eve” the term that scientists use, rather than a term in currency, “brotherhood”, projected by the male dominated societies.

I would relish ‘a poem a day’ by her like a piece of jaggery in the mouth of country-lad than watching commercials on 24x7 TV channels.

- Remigius de Souza

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Water Liberation Declaration: Vandana Shiva and others

 Water Liberation Declaration

“Water is life. It’s a gift of nature. The access to water is a natural and fundamental right. It is not to be treated as a commodity and traded for profit. People shall have the right to freedom from thirst, and shall have adequate access to safe water for all of their living needs. 
 
  Experiences all over the world reveal quite convincingly that water which is “life” is being privatized and brought under corporate control. This will deprive the people of water lifeline for survival. All the water resources should be owned, controlled, managed and utilized by local communities in their natural setting.  
 
  We the people from all over the world will not allow our waters to be made commodity for profit. 
 
  We will work together to liberate water from corporate / private agencies, control and return it to the people for common good.
 
  We demand the governments all over the world should take immediate action to declare that they accept waters in their territories a public good and exact strong regulatory structure to protect them.
 
  We, the undersigned, will work in solidarity to achieve these goals.”
 
— Vandana Shiva and others  

(Source: JANATA, [English Weekly] Vol.56, No. 42, January 6, 2002, P.11. D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Naushir Bharucha Marg, Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007. Email: yumeher@mtnl.net.in ) 

COMMENT COMPLIMENTARY  

Issue of WATER does not stop at containing it in bottles, pipelines, and dammed reservoirs.

 Large tracts of regions in Bangladesh, East Bengal, and Bihar etc have highly toxic subsoil water. This has been known for sometime.

 Deforestation, besides drawing water mechanically in large quantity for industry and farms have depleted sub soil water. 

 Untreated industrial wastes have polluted water bodies, and coastal waters that have affected marine life too. 

 Water logging in lower lands in the vicinity of canals damages farms.

 The fallout of ambitious 'Interlinking Rivers Project' may prove eventually an utopia - the Tower of Babel.

 These five major points leave much to be desired than 'Bottling Water’.

Indeed subject “WATER” should be compulsory part curriculum from Primary to Higher Education, including Doctorate, in all streams of Education.

And it should be compulsory as "Continued Education" for all the personnel of Legislative – Executive – Judiciary bodies from Central as well as State Governments down to District, Taluka / Tahasil and Village levels. The ignorance of authorities in various fields specialization is overwhelming as the move in blinkered tracks of expertise.
 
 Please read “WATER PARKS IN WANTING” 

Remigius de Souza 


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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.