Booming Bamboo Feeding the West

Booming Bamboo Feeding the West

Key Words: West, here, refers to regions where bamboo doesn't grow or isn't cultivated. Bamboo, a wild grass, cannot be subjected to mass farming like wheat / rice. Feeding, in Indic cultures, is a verb for 'serving food' means, 'increase', which is by giving food it increases; it does not reduce. After eating, the guest says, 'God bless you', not 'thank you' as in English custom. Even the converted Konkani Catholics say, 'God bless you' keeping with the cultural tradition.

When I saw BBC news, ''Booming bamboo: The next super-material?', I was delighted.  I thought 'where does the sun rise today'! But after reading I wouldn't know to cry or laugh. Only my remaining disillusion vanished.

Bamboo artisans in Mumbai: Living with Dignity

Today, may it be democracy or dictatorship; both are under obligation of the visible-invisible capitalist powers. Unless these powers get a jolt like 'Arabian Spring', they may not learn the lesson.

Till now bamboo has been called, "Poor man’s persons' timber". The capitalist, they having enjoyed the taste for power and profit, overnight christened bamboo as, "timber of the 21st Century".

Under this sugar-coated name, the neo-colonialism is revealed in every word of this article. Is 21st century a magic wand?

See through the language of this story! It measures the bamboo production in 'dollar', and not 'tonne', not 'land', not 'life' of 'peasant-the-producer'! You never know when 'dollar' will slide down, and the bamboo producing peasants may face starvation! Such hypocrisy!

In the ad-world a lie repeated umpteen times may be sold as a truth by Goebbels’ propaganda, but it may not work forever is also true. The down-trodden notice it at once.
You never know when 'dollar' will slide down, and the bamboo producing peasants face starvation! Such hypocrisy!

Let us take example of our democratic nation.
From Nehru-era until now, who – any person/s, expert/s or pundit/s – spared a thought to the peasants in the country's six lakhs villages, then about 40 crores, now 100 crores, when and how, would they be able to build, manage and maintain the roads, bridges, schools, colleges, banks, industries etc. facilities in their villages by themselves?

Corporate Aesthetics of Hedonism

Or do they, submit to fate and continue live, ages after ages, as subjects or second class or the ‘Underclass’ of respective contemporary governments, forever?

Association of bamboo and villagers & aborigines is ancient. In the BBC story if there is anything new, it is the introduction to capitalize bamboo for mass production by the Industrial Society, where bamboo does not grow. That's all!
Mass production means 'centralization of power', whether by the state or the corporate. The corporate are known for their skill to capitalize anything — air, water, plants, animals, birds; blood... even poverty of the 'Other' — for profit and power.
Colonization obviously is followed by monopoly, market manipulation, intellectual property rights, scarcity... What happens to low-cost Housing, after Food scarcity, in the Third World, the Fourth World (of aborigines) and the Fifth World (of the displaced and marginalized due to development projects) worldwide?

The west is famous for making tool of economy to create great wealth and great waste.
There may be a number of products of lifespan, which is not even that of a rice plant. In no time there come new models in market. Old products go in scrap.

A paddy plant gives back fifty grains, but not even its speck goes waste, it turns into organic manure. And after daily meals, the crumbs or leftover is sent to birds, animals, ants-insects. These are our rural unwritten 'Standards'. Our government, however, always goes after Global Standards.

THE ATTRIBUTE TO DESIGN IN NATURE

“In whole organisms, randomness structure is uncommon. Everything seems finely tuned by brutal rigours of natural selection. There are no spare limbs to be found and hardly any dispensable organs. This forced economy of organism design has always limited the use of bodily form as evolutionary timepiece" (Martin Jones, The Molecular Hunt, Penguin 2002).

There is a saying, 'money goes to money'. How does it happen?
Capitalism has singular objective, money: Money is the 'means' and the 'goal'. When means and goal are one, a project is fulfilled.

Bamboo artisans belong to low-caste in India: Living with Dignity

For any democratic government, if its 'means' and 'goals' are 'People' for any project or objective, then only true progress is possible. Science, technology, currency... are merely tools without tangible value.

Bamboo or its grove is most virtuous icon of healthy community among plant world. It is friendly to all the living beings. Its equanimity is impeccable. Humans domesticated many grasses, such rice, wheat etc. in the ancient times, but bamboo did not need it. Bamboo – the eternal plant – belongs to sainthood.

For the advanced arrogant human societies, and their puppets (among many countries), there is never enough to learn from – Srishti – Mother Nature.
A note accompanies the BBC article:

‘There are as yet no international laws governing sustainability of bamboo plantations.’
The First World loves Laws, as if unaware of Natural Justice. Do the First World societies recognize that ‘Justice is above the Law’?

Bamboo: Image by BBC New

BBC story calls bamboo a 'green gold'. Siddhartha Jataka compare bamboo or bamboo-forest as "Cat's eye". Jataka stories, which date back to 300 B.C., are 550 in numbers and has mentioned bamboo and bamboo-forest more than hundred times. 

Read›› Booming bamboo: The next super-material?

Comment: They will buy carbon credits by planting bamboo by proxy in the Third World Countries at cheaper rates.
 — Remigius de Souza


~ ~ ~ ~ ~
©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.