I went to the district seat which is in Theni. It is about 20 miles away but took at least an hour to drive there. We go through at least 3 villages to get there. A village here seems to be many thousands of people like the one I am living in is 30,000 people. A friend told me about some research that was done where they discovered that about 300 people made the ideal sized village to have enough people so that someone could bake bread, and there would be enough people to have a doctor etc, and folks could still really connect together. After that folks would move about a mile away and start a new village. Even in this huge village there is a lot of interconnectedness. Folks who need help come along outside the open doors and ask for food or what they need. When Joshua gets me a price, it is a lot less than when I go into the store myself. A woman farmer goes door to door here selling cilantro and cucumbers that she grows.
I was told by my landlord that I needed to register with the police, so off I went to Theni. It turns out the person I have to register with is the superintendent of police. Well there is currently no superintendent of police. We are to go online and fill out the forms and try again in a week or so and maybe by then a new one will be appointed. Hmmm. Can we call first and find out before we come. You could try. A manana county I guess as most tropical (or subtropical places) are. How did I get myself here.
Oh well, I guess the u.s. is now a manana county. Oh forms can still be dealt with, but to me government is there to serve the needs of the people. Who is taking care of
a. the decreasing water tables in the u.s.,
b. of the wasteland involving hundreds of thousands of acres caused by gmo’s in our nations heartland, or for that matter of all the medical problems caused by gmo’s which of course means getting rid of gmo’s.
c. of chemical pollution, (Joshua tells me ships bring it over and dump it in the Indian ocean),
d. of all the hormones that are dumped into the rivers because our sewage treatment plants are not dealing with them.
e. of the problems of climate change, or preventing them.
f. of nuclear power plants never being built to be safe as the atomic energy commission did not feel they could enforce the safety standards needed to make the power plants safe and now almost all the power plants are having problems and rather than coping with this, there is simply a news blackout. Even on the internet the power plant problems will be hushed after several days.
g. And then there is Fukishima.
h. Manana and manana will not be pretty.
We heard of a permaculture project which transformed a sacred mountain which had been deforested into a beautiful lush food forest, a lovely story. We contacted the guy who started the project because it was in tamil nadu and we wanted to take farmers to go visit it. He said that after he left the chop and drop trees that had been planted for mulch were not chopped and dropped and they grew tall and the fruit trees grew very tall trying to get to the light so most of the fruit is not picked. Also they seriously overgrazed the land with sheep.
We want to educate the farmers here so they will continue the effort after we are gone, hopefully learn what works and not give themselves away. (what Vandanna Shiva calls sovereignty) To that end Joshua is getting us a team of folks with various skills to have an ongoing effort here. Primary to that is to form an ngo. Getting me registered with the police is a necessary step to starting the ngo (at least If I am involved in it and at least for the beginning I should be). We will need serious funds by May so we can start the major plantings in the dry land area, (monsoon starts in June) so if anyone knows about crowd funding we would love your help.
Joshua, who will be in charge of our marketing coop originally wanted to aim our production to foreign markets. I said we can have 20% for export, but mainly everything we do will be aimed at local markets because who knows how long the world markets will hold before they collapse due to for one thing no oil.
Did I mention moringa. Moringa has many healing properties, one of which is curing aids. It is a serious pioneer tree. Someone said it is a nitrogen fixer and am still checking out if that is true. It will be the main tree that we introduce into dry land situations.
What will the ngo do:
a. We will educate farmers. Like Navdanya we will teach the farmers how to convert to organic for free. We will also consult with them for free on the organic steps. For the next stage which is learning to make better money through using interplanting of herbs we will charge for our workshops and our consultations.
b. We want to have a separate section of all the above for women farmers (this is how it is done in India)
c. We want to start processing things such as moringa leaves making dry powders of healthy foods.
d. We want to teach marketing classes.
e. We will have demonstration farms. This is our current focus.
f. Probably at some point we will work with the Indian government helping with water conservation. Many of you know my feelings about working with the u.s. government and it does not sound any better here, maybe worse. What all the farmers tell me is that the government allocates money for reservoirs, and other earth works and the politicians divert the funds to their own pockets. I guess this happens in the u.s. as well.
g. There is in Delhi some recycling happening. Plastic bottles are converted into furniture. I would like to set up something locally. Elsewise the plastic will take over this country.
Anyway my new digs have a lot more ventilation. The best news is that in my old place I was waking up all through the night thinking I was on the train and rounding up all my valuables and putting them under my pillow. At least that is not happening here (as the dog downstairs is barking and barking.) Renting a place here is interesting. The landlords do not supply ceiling fans, screens, stoves, refers, light bulbs and of course no furniture. You have to wait a year for a gas canister or get it on the black market or use a hot plate. The problem with a hot plate is that the electricity goes off a couple times a day usually between 6:30 and 8 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. If you want your food hot, you have to be very flexible with your eating times.