My ebook: Journeys with the caterpillar

My ebook
"
Journeys with the caterpillar: Travelling through the islands of Flores
and Sumba, Indonesia
" is available at
this link


Thursday, April 05, 2007

Questions bugging a liberal

Can I fly in an airplane or buy my own car or take a ride in a taxi knowing that they are such a big cause for global warming? Can I have a coffee at Starbucks after having read allegations about them treating poor Ethiopian farmers in an unfair way? Can I work for a call center serving American clients knowing that a fraction of the taxes my clients pay are used to run Guantanamo? Can I apply for the renewal of my passport now that my new found belief in anarchism implies rejection of the state and all its accessories?

Can I listen to those old Metallica classics knowing that they are so much against sharing of music? Can I keep a maid to help me with my housework despite my belief that no wage can compensate for the indignity of having to clean other’s toilets and utensils? Can I walk in a park that charges an entry fee while being aware that the same area could have housed a couple of hundred slums for poor laborers? Can I take that medicine for headache knowing that it must have been developed after years of cruel testing on animals? Can I buy gifts for my family given my dislike of bourgeois commodity fetishism? Can I not go to office on Christmas holiday despite my shunning of all religions? Can I eat in that restaurant that serves delicious snacks but employs children to clear away the plates?

Can I create my account at Secondlife, orkut, blogger or flickr knowing that the huge amount of electricity used to run the storage servers is generated by one of the most environment-unfriendly processes? Can I live with two kidneys or two eyes when and I can easily spare one of both? Can I eat that piece of steak coming from an industrially produced cow after watching slaughterhouse videos on youtube? Can I skip wearing that “Save the whale” band now that my wrists are full of the bands for other causes up to my shoulders? Can I go without organic lettuce when my neighborhood vegetable vendor in suburban Mumbai doesn’t store them? Can I have children knowing that not having kids is the best way to reduce my carbon footprint? Can I? Can I?

2 comments:

Anu said...

Can you stop asking these questions...:-)?

Shivaji said...

@ anuradha;
Yes, that one goes to the list too:-)