The Story of Robert Chandler

--fictional account follows--
Robert Chandler was a father, husband, and valued friend. He was killed in a car accident two days ago, March 27, 2073 when his car was driven off a cliff near Tansen, Nepal. The driver survived with only minor injuries. Robert will be greatly missed and is survived by his son, age 9, and loving wife.

The following document was found on the desk of Mr. Chandler after his death.

"
I am laboring under an enormous weight. I refuse to carry this burden any more. I must write down my story, although even a clear account in my journal must be risky to my personal safety. I can no longer keep this a secret.

For the past three years my son has been suffering from a skin disease which we are unable to diagnose. This past Easter he died of liver failure. I can't help but feel a connection between my work and my son's death.

My name is Robert Chandler. I'm a agricultural researcher for Corporation M. For the past 15 years I have been in charge of a research project which I proposed.

The goal of our company is to control the world food supply. In 2058 I was working in a laboratory testing genetically engineered foods when we discovered that some of our corn was extraordinarily susceptible to a variety of diseases. As if it had almost no resistance of it's own.

I began to formulate in my mind a way to apply this discovery. A simple proposal suggested itself to me almost immediately:

If we could engineer a corn which spreads its pollen all over the world and weakens the immune system of all corn that it cross-pollinated with, then people would need to purchase our chemicals to provide a sort of artificial immune system protection.

However, there is more. If we were able to sufficiently weaken plants, then, instead of providing chemicals to protect them expose the plants to a particularly voracious disease, then we could destroy all of the corn in the world. We could then move into the market by presenting the only corn that can still survive the now ubiquitous disease.

In the beginning, our genetic infection technique was my focus. But actually, the idea of the disease was perhaps even more powerful. We could genetically engineer just one resistant type, one immune-sytem-destroying type and one special disease. With a small product set we could dominate the world wide market. Everyone could be within a 5 minute walk of a Coke, and a 2 minute walk of some of our corn.

We decided to start with corn, then move on to rice, wheat and soybeans in that order.

We decided to focus on corn because we could focus in some of our most controlled territory; the United States. Also, because the pollen from corn is spread in the wind, we could combine the genetic infection with our new disease and thereby have a two-pronged strategy. It was an easy win, compared to other crops. Wheat, for example, would have to rely heavily on only one prong, our disease, since genetic infection to weaken the ability of wheat to resist disease is more difficult to perform on wheat. Wheat is not wind pollinated which means we cannot easily infect the wheat from the outside. The same applies to rice.

My team and I began purchasing land around the world to found research stations. We purchased over twenty farms and began building. Within two years we had completed our basic laboratory facilities in all of the sites and our work had begun in earnest. We decided to have a broad geographic distribution for our research so that we could produce a disease that would function well in every climate. In some regions we would mutate/tweak the same disease to make it applicable, and in some we would create entirely new strains.

Within five years of beginning our work we had our first disease and paired resistant corn. We had also perfected the infection corn. For the disease we actually chose three different agents in order to have a variety of angles to attack with. Our most dramatic and effective was a stalk rot caused by the fungus Colletotrichum graminicola. We could attack the entire plant (stalk and leaves) with one effectively designed organism. Because it typically causes damage after corn pollination, the crop failure would be more dramatic. A disease which strikes earlier gives people more time to cope. We wanted people to receive a shock. We wanted peopl to experience hunger so that they would not hesitate to adopt our technology. We were able to develop a weaponize the fungus into a tough spore which could survive transport and provide a high infection rate.

As part of our development of the disease we searched the world for resistant varieties, to destroy them. The literature of the conservation movement was very helpful in this, having documented the arcane species that still exist. The records of seed banks were also useful, telling us who was given seed so we could track it down. We conducted some "accidental herbicide releases". People mourned the loss of these varieties and hit back in small ways but in general did not understand the significance of what what was happening.

The corn loses it's resistance after two generations; in this way we protected our technology from theft. More diseases, for other crops, were in the research pipes but were not ready for reliable release.

We began to launch the project.

The first year, we planted the corn itself on our own property, and carefully protected it's growth with a variety of chemicals and netting since it is unable to protect itself. We used wind generators to place the pollen well into the atmosphere. Twenty release sites were more than we needed, but it was easy and we wanted to make sure that we achieved full coverage.

The next year we released our disease. Genetic infection only affects the child of the infected corn, so it was necessary to wait one year until the infected child was planted. We released the spores starting in January, 2068 in Guatemala. According to the seasons we released in each of our sites at the appropriate time; in Nepal, India, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, Egypt, Tanzania, Norway, Britain, and Sweden. We set up auxiliary distribution sites in Spain, Turkey and organized airplane distribution over many areas.

It was more successful than we ever imagined. People starved. They were desperate. Powerful countries like the United States lost their entire crops. People came to us and begged for a solution. For years we had been preparing people that GM foods were potential solutions to diseases. They quickly looked to us for help. We told them that we could help and they thanked us with all their heart. I remembered the story of the naked bird. This bird who huddled for warmth in the hand of Stalin, who had plucked the bird's warm feathers off himself.

We sold our corn at a greater rate than even we had anticipated. The psychological effect of the dramatic failure made people so insecure that they clung to the only hope they could find; our product. They over-purchased seed. In the first year we did not have enough seed to meet demand. We apologized and promised more seed next year to those who were the most loyal customers.

That was about five years ago. It became clear that our strategy had worked; we owned corn. Not only from a legal, but also from a technological point of view. Nobody else was able to produce seeds at all. Some small groups dissented, and blamed us, coming close to the truth of what was going on. But for the most part we were hailed as heroes who saved the day. Governments looked to us to provide protection in the future, and gave us enormous amounts of money and support to develop further "improved, resistant plants" with our GM techniques.

My company moved from being a large multinational company to being a deeply entrenched, needed, socially valued institution. I was well rewarded.

By completely dominating the corn market and excluding all competitors we made more money than we had ever made before. Next, we moved on to rice. With our new-found social and economic power we colud shut down competitors and were better able to create the diseases we needed. Again, we had enormous success, this time dominating the East. Our wins in corn had previously focused on the West.

One by one we continued in this way, our main limiting factor being the production of our new varieties. We expanded aggressively.

We are in the process of creating a new strategy for our next step. This strategy is old now and were it not for the front companies and public information campaigns that we carefully maintain, it would be obvious to people that we have deliberately conducted the situation. We must change our strategy for future. Or, at least that's what some of my superiors say. I am convinced that the bird is so cold and unable to think that it will never realize what is going on. Part of me just didn't think this would work. Now that it has, what I have done transfixes me with horror. I have been naive, foolish. A boy with genetic toys who taught something to the Beast.

Approximately half of the world's food now belongs to us. It future we expect over 90% of it to belong to us. When we reach a threshold of 96% then we will begin to consolidate our political power and move from our current form into more of a government role. We will develop our own international military and co-opt the police functions of the countries we operate in (every country).

Before I close, I should clarify that I live and work in Nepal and am using the Buddhist calendar. The year in the roman calendar is 2018; our first release was in Jan., 2012.

Under threat of death I have never written such a frank, and open record of my life's work. But I feel driven to it now. Seeing the slow and painful death of my son, which all the money in the world could not stop, I have, for the first time, wondered if what we are doing is not too big for us. If this sort of activity is not too big for men entirely. I wonder if we have foolishly played God.

Sincerely,
Robert Chandler."

James and the Good Workers Vs. The Beast

In this classic tale of David and Goliath, James enters into the City of the House of Wood to battle for his freedom and sanity. Be warned, dear readers, that this tale is not for the faint of heart, the young or the easily corruptible. Prepare thineself for a true, blood-curdling tale of madness, robbery, corruption, lies and murder in a far off land.

Character list
The Beast - The State
The Good Workers - Nepal Permaculture Group
The Greedy - Corporation M

Day 1 (11th day of Falgun, 2067)- Journey Downwards

The plum trees are in full bloom and the honeybees are taking full advantage of their opportunity. The sun shines with its full cheerful gaiety upon the land, reflecting off the ripening wheat and warming the reclining cows. Children play in the street with simple toys and the farmers are working their fields. Such a calm and lovely scene is laid out before me, but I cannot stay here. Darker things call me away from such peace and plenty.

Today I journey alone to the City of the House of Wood, where The Beast resides. It is a region where dogs and men alike go mad like leaves falling from a tree. The air is not fit to breath, and the water not fit to drink. It is not a place fit for man nor beast. However, I have business there. I must ask The Beast for protection and pay tribute to avoid its wrath. To continue my travels and eventually return home I must travel through areas that The Beast controls, and I must negotiate an uneasy peace with it.

-later in the day-

I have left beauty, friends and work behind and endured my transport in a steel cage into the heart of the dark region. I am afraid but my heart remains stout. I have faith in goodness to protect me. In the next few days I must engage in a battle of wits and endurance with at least one hundred people who would gladly take my all and leave me starving and naked on the streets. Yet, these are only the minor demons whom lie in my path. They possess nothing like the power of The Beast, but are dangerous still. I have already encountered many of these minor devils on today’s travel. I have remained unscathed, at least with regard to material being. Among them, I escaped a shapeshifter pretending to be a student studying English. I have previously been injured by a similar one, but I am wiser now for it.

I have found shelter and food which, although insipid and poisonous in the long term, will keep me alive for now.

Day 2 - Depression

There is a shortage of water for the humans in this valley. In the dark of night people must clamber over each other to grab at the meagre flow that the Masters deliver to them. The Rich and Powerful take all they like with electric pumps while the Poor and Wretched must compete with each other for a trickle from the public tap.

I must find new shelter for tomorrow, although this place is physically secure I cannot sleep here. The Twin Demons of Incompetence and Ignorance torment me with loud machines during the time of no sun. I have brought defenses against such noise but it proves insufficient. I curse myself for not bringing a more powerful defense.

I am forcefully reminded that this City is not a good place for humans to reside. What madness brings men here? Depression knocks on my door.

Today the deputies of The Beast have tried to corrupt me with the trident of demands of bribery, threats and sweet offerings. They have refused me protection for my requested of 90 days, apparently to punish me for my allegiance to the Angels of Honesty and Truth. Instead, they have agreed to grant me 60 days of freedom in exchange for a great number of these tokens they so crave. This is better than their threat of only 30 days and I accept the outcome of this contest. I must return to their concrete sky-cave in 60 days and again brave the hazards of this region.

Today I endured the Den of The Beast with all limbs and sanity intact. I have found new shelter and prepare for maneuvers of the morrow.

Day 3 - Trickery and the Long Arms of Corruption

Things are going as well as I can hope for them to go, given the darkness in the world.

Yesterday I walked through the Valley of Death. I saw the heads of the dead and their bodies cut into pieces. The Flesh Eaters who reside here will consume the lives of others to keep themselves alive. I am not afraid because I know that my political connections prevent me from being a target of the Flesh Eaters.

Today I go North to exchange currencies and create a talisman for protection against The Beast.

Yesterday, at the House of the Good Workers I discovered that The Greedy and The Beast are acting together more closely than I thought. Their coordination means more danger for all of us.

A Brief Trip Through the Nepali Countryside - Part 2

Bike Trip continued!

Aside from a near death experience from almost running over a banana on the downhill, curvy part, the bike ride to Pokhara was very nice. Moving from the countryside to the city, we traded saying hello to children every three minutes for saying no to touts every ten steps. Beds were more than 2 cm thick.

I’m mostly going to skip over Pokhara because it’s not so interesting. We stayed in the tourist area, Lakeside, which is one of the few places in Nepal that hot showers exist and you can order food other than dhal bhat, (the national dish, lentils, rice and side dishes) chowmien and momos. It’s a nice rallying point to head into the Annapurna Conservation Area to see the mountains up close.

We began our short trek by buying some warmer clothes, and along the way picking up a Thangka artist who agreed to show us the way for 700Rs/day ($10/day), which is a pay cut for him of about 300 Rs/day. But you can’t paint all the time.


Here’s our guide Dhawa Lama and I. His last name, Lama indicates his cast and explains how he came to be a painter; his parents taught him.














Donkeys! We walked into the Annapurna Conservation Area for three days to a place called Poon Hill. Poon Hill is 3210m high and allows a nice view of the mountains so it’s a popular destination. No vehicles can get there through the stone path so donkeys are a favorite mode of conveyance for concrete, food, or whatever else has to go up and down. Donkeys have been a bit of a theme in my life lately, in fact at the time of our hike I was in the middle of reading (for the second time) Travels With a Donkey by Robert Louis Stevenson.


















View from our hotel room, Ghorepani. It’s a 1 hour walk up to Poon Hill from here.



Made it!












View from the base of the lookout tower. I took a soil sample from here.












Sunset from the top of the lookout tower. It’s all downhill from here :-).

Good Night and Good Luck
James
Reporting to you from
Namo Buddha Agricultural Research Center

Concerning a Brief Trip Through the Nepali Countryside- Part 1

Hello all!

It’s time for another installment in The Strangest Dream :-). This time we’ll sashay forth mostly in the photoblog style. This entry is posted in two pieces because it's especially long-winded.



On Nov. 27, my dad arrived in the Kathmandu Airport. I was there to meet him and whisk him away to a hotel on the edge of Thamel (the tourist neighborhood) where he could recover from his 36 hour flight and 13:15 hour jet lag. In the cab on our way to the hotel we planted the seeds of our plans for the next 6 weeks; how about biking to Namo Buddha Resort, instead of taking the bus?

So, after a few days of rest we bought some bikes, hired an overpriced guide and set out to bike through Shivapuri National park, past the various military outposts guarding the rim of the Kathmandu Valley and back into Kathmandu, staying in the Buddhist section of town. I really got the feeling there that it’s a more sensible place than the rest of the city. More quiet, better run in a thousand subtle ways. But we didn’t stay here long. We picked up our bikes again and went to Nagarkot,



Where the most sensible thing to do is stare at the mountains and wrap yourself in blankets. So that’s what we did! More of those mountains later :-).


But first! A peek into the industrial side of Nepal. By totally disregarding the advice of our somewhat incompetent guide we found a wonderful path through the Nepali countryside, past the brick making factories. Soon enough we arrived at Namo Buddha Resort (www.namobuddharesort.com) where I cleaned up my work there before heading out for a longer period. Originally we planned to sell our bikes to NBR. But, the evening before we decided to bike to Kathmandu instead of take the bus. Such is the story of our trip, a series of last minute, but never particularly hurried, decisions. In my opinion we displayed some fine traveling pinache :)


Despite our smooth style, we didn’t hesitate to delve into the nerdier side of our natures. Here’s dad poking his nose into a walk-behind tractor/power unit on our way back to Kathmandu. These are popular all over Nepal, made in China. Water cooled, 9.7KW, 2 wheeled diesel. They are the mechanical workhorses for much of the nation. This particular one was attached to a trailer. Quite an economical substitute for a truck!


Two Worlds Meet in Bhaktapur Square.





This is a less myopic view of a square in Bhaktapur. To the right there are people cleaning their laundry in the public spring, clothes hung out to dry by tossing them onto the roof and there is an old temple turned into a cafe. To the left, at a different temple, a cow is looking for something to eat. In the upper right people are playing ping pong, and in the middle a motorcycle is driving through it all :-).


Upon our arrival in Kathmandu we set ourselves up in a rooftop restaurant and watched life in Basantapur Square, Kathmandu’s favorite UNESCO World Heritage Site. Complete with scam artists and play fighting street kids. This photo was taken by combining a pair of binoculars with a camera to create a poor man’s version of a telephoto lens.


By Dec. 19 we had escaped from Kathmandu into the flat, hot region of Nepal called the Terai. When people think of Nepal they usually think of mountains. But the Terai is as flat like the prairies. It’s far enough off the tourist track in some areas that people still remember how to be friendly. And the national parks are fantastic, with so many wild boars, crocodiles, deer, rhinoes and tigers wandering about you have to watch where you step. You’d feel terrible if you stepped on a tiger cub or something awful like that :-). This photo was taken at the river bordering Chitwan National park. These canoes are made of single trees, hollowed out.


Despite these lovely attractions, the Terai is subject to the usual vices of a fertile, flat area with abundant water; more advanced industrialization. There are more tractors, roads, vehicles, pesticides and people than other parts of Nepal. Here we can see a farmer spraying 2-4D, the world’s most popular herbicide. All of this Terai used to be jungle, until the threat of malaria was reduced by DDT applications in the 1950s. People moved in and the jungle was destroyed.

Nepal is a country where many farmers don’t even know that pesticides should be considered hazardous, and only half of them can even read a label. The most dangerous pesticides in the world, Class 1a, like parathion-methyl are officially banned, but used anyways. Personal protective equipment is almost non-existent and the mass of pesticides used went up by a factor of 2.5x between 2006 and 2007 (Journal of Agriculture and Environment Vol:11, Jun.2010, “KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICE AND USE OF PESTICIDES AMONG COMMERCIAL VEGETABLE GROWERS OF DHADING DISTRICT, NEPAL”).


Inside Chitwan National park though, you wouldn’t notice any of this, it’s pristine and beautiful. More dangerous are the Marsh Mugger alligators hanging around the river who eat everything, including humans!


Departing from Chitwan, we biked over the flat Terai for three days before coming to Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha. There was hardly anyone there! When we first went in to see the stone that supposedly marks the exact birthplace of Buddha, we were the only people. It wasn’t long ago that this birth place was re-discovered and confirmed. There are a huge number of stupas going up around the area, not to mention hotels and restaurants.

Pushing off, we took a lift from a bus up 1200m or so to Tansen.



Descent into White Lake.
Next to Tansen is what people call White Lake. Actually it’s not a lake at all, but the clouds sit in the valley in such a way that it looks like a lake covered in fog.


We descended into White Lake by bike to visit an “organic coffee farm” which was neither organic nor producing coffee as their main crop. However, it was attended to by some fun children who took us on a tour of their interesting farm. They produce enough coffee to offer a cup to guests while we talked to the man who owns the place about the reality of trying to make a living farming in Nepal.

Organized Crime in Nepal

Lasho!

Hello all, I'm getting behind on blogging! I'll might even have to leave out our bike trip from Kathmandu to Namo Buddha. But enough moaning, it’s time for another unfocused, rambling and poorly written update of The Strangest Dream, otherwise known as my life :-). One of my favorite movies is “The Strangest Dream.” Actually it’s a true story about how a group of scientists bridge the iron curtain and work to prevent nuclear war during the Cold War. The theme song of the movie is the peace anthem, “Last Night I had the Strangest Dream”.

“Last Night I had the strangest dream
I’d ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war

I dreamed I saw a mighty room
The room was filled with men
And the paper they were signing said
They’d never fight again
and when the papers all were signed
and a million copies made

They all joined hands and bowed their heads
and grateful prayers were prayed
and the people in the streets below
were dancing round and round
and guns and swords and uniforms were scattered
on the ground

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
to put an end to war”

I love songs like this. Taking a line from it to describe my life is a bit of a leap of logic since the context doesn’t really fit but the first line of the song repeatedly occurs to me and seems like a good sub-title for my life :-).



I’m living in Nepal at the moment, at a sort of luxury resort (to the left is a photo of my cabin). They grow a lot of their own food so I am here to work on the farm. I want to do some experiments, work on the farm design which means some record keeping and planning and learn lots about the permaculture re-design process. There are lots of odd ideas floating around to explore like entirely new theories of medicine, questions about whether AIDS really does exist, and new, odd ways to make rain. Having been deported from India I have been induced to change focus from studying Gandhi to studying Permaculture as a way to live.

I'm going to skip most the routine crap about how I got here, how long I plan to stay and other boring introduction details. Let's go to some interesting conversation instead.

I’ve found that working in a place gives a very different viewpoint than being a tourist. It’s hard to realize what a rut the tourist track is, and the effect is probably especially pronounced in Nepal. It’s more of a trench than a rut actually; too big to properly see out of!

One day in particular stands out when Jack and I went to the welder to put together the seed ball rolling machine. Standing there gesturing and trying to explain our ideas to a guy who speaks only Hindi and watching him weld together our thing piece by piece was so strange. We were both struck by how our experience in India was so different compared to a normal tourist.

Or there was that time in Chama near the apple orchard when I was trying to buy a handle for a pickaxe. “These are tools for Indians” the shopkeeper told me :-). As if Europeans and Americans never use tools! It’s hard to imagine what Nepali or Indian people must think life is like in materially richer countries. The only people they ever see from these countries spend all their time just hanging around, eating, taking photos and traveling a bit. No wonder they view people from the West as having unlimited time and leisure. Not only does this leave them free to rip you off as much as possible because you obviously have unlimited money, but it fuels a huge desire to move to Canada, US, Germany or wherever to obtain this unlimited money and leisure time.

At Namo Buddha Resort (NBR) I’ve had an unusual look into the world of organized crime in Nepal. The usual tourist trench contains only relics of nice things; ooh, look at the nice Buddhist paintings. Beautiful mountains. The curious habit of eating dhal bhat every day three times a day. A civil war just ended in Nepal but you wouldn’t know it from trench side. A lot of people try to rip you off but it’s almost all low level street crime, no indication of anything larger is visible. And it makes sense for Nepal to show you the best of what they’ve got. But it’s a bit eerie also because you know that there must be more going on. Tourists get hints of this, for example when they try to take a photo of the soccer field that it turns out is a military base inside the city. The military doesn’t like photos :-).
NBR is located in Kavre which is actually one of the most crime ridden areas of Nepal. When I was at HACERA I didn’t notice this. But since I’ve started working here at NBR it has become an issue. There are stories flowing frequently about the local organized crime agents using violence and threats of violence to pressure the owners to purchase land at inflated prices, hire certain people especially for contract work (forcing NBR to use the incompetent local contractors instead of qualified ones from elsewhere), stealing vehicles, threatening workers to the point that they leave the resort and frequent assorted demands of the most unreasonable sort. At the moment they are trying to work their way into the company by pressuring one of the workers who used to be a manager. He appears to be working with them so it looks like he may be fired to protect from further infiltration. The organized crime folks want their man to be the guy in charge of bookkeeping, of all things!
Even the Lama from the nearby famous Buddhist Stupa dips into the pot. Actually his thing is being a money shark; charging 30% interest or more on cash loans.


Some people in this photo are involved in organized crime. Can you tell who? Others are honest people running the nearby school.
All of this is in addition to the usual corruption in the government with bribes left, right and center.
I hesitate to call the local criminals Mafia because their style is very immature and stupid. They don’t have the idea of replacing the government or having any sort of justice or fair system. They are just out to grab whatever they can however they can. Yet at the same time they are different from the guys (yes it always seems to be guys) who show up at night with masks and sticks to demand 500 000 NPR (about $7 000). They are career criminals.
Perhaps the best hope is the Maoists. When they were in charge of the area apparently this organized crime stuff was very much less. The Maoists installed a court system that actually took cases to completion and did serious investigation. They reduced public drunkenness. They built roads. Actually it sounds like things were much more promising when the Maoists were in charge. They are inspiring for me because it seems like they set up a parallel system of government, circumventing the dysfunctional and corrupt version that exists now. Even still in Kathmandu you can observe that the Maoists have their own car license plates. This makes so much sense to me to simply side-step the government and start organizing on your own.
Another option, or rather something additional, is to give money to the schools, get involved in the festivals etc. In this way the community likes NBR and organized crime has a more difficult time making threats since they do not have community support.

Until next time,
James

Annapurna Base Camp

Namaste all!

Since my last post I have been hanging out at HACERA farm for a bit before heading out to trek around Nepal. Nepal is famous for the trails it has through mountains and forests. Not only do they go through the highest mountains in the world and some of the most diverse forests, there are also special trails called “teahouse treks”. Teahouse treks are trails which have small collections of hotels strung along the otherwise fairly untouched path. So, you can take only a light backpack and walk for literally weeks in the mountains, staying in lodges the entire way. No need to carry heavy tents or food!

I first decided to walk around the Langtang range but that didn’t really work out. There was lots of rain, and part of the trail was collapsed. Lots of rain also means no views of the mountains! I turned around and made my way to the Annapurna Range, which is a more popular tourist destination. It’s a little more developed and the weather was a little better. I met up with a Korean guy by accident and we decided to go together into the center of the national park. We decided to walk right up to the feet of the biggest mountain, into what is called “The Sanctuary”. It is so named because it is a basin surrounded by peaks, with only one entrance.

In total I took ten days inside the park, usually walking about 6 hours a day with my backpack. Without further delay, here are some photos :-).


Me looking ridiculous in front of a suspension bridge. There are many of these, and often ice cold glacial water is raging underneath. On a warm day it's not bad but when the weather is cold and cloudy you can imagine falling through the rickety boards and not making it out...


Sheep! Although this is a national park, there are quite a few people living inside making a living.


A picturesque little Nepali town in the morning. Most of the town's money probably comes from the tourist industry. In the morning it was amazing to see the sun come up over the mountains, then ten minutes later the entire place flooded with fog as the dew evaporates.


View of Annapurna South at night, with a full moon. I stayed two days at Annapurna Base camp; the foot of the tenth tallest mountain in the world, 8091m. The base came is about halfway up at 4031m.


After my hike I went back to HACERA neighborhood, did a quick course about Permaculture then headed up to Namo Buddha Resort, just a little broken hearted. I'm hanging out at NBR these days, ostensibly as the farm manager, or so I'm told. Sometimes I feel like the general in War and Peace who knows the best thing he can do is show approval when his lieutenants suggest something. But it's a great chance here to practice the cycle of permaculture redesign. So I'll be staying here at least 4 or 5 months, with a break to travel around with my Dad during the Christmas season. It should be interesting!

Hanging out with the Himalayan Magpies and wondering about the names of the common weeds of Nepal,
This has been a note from Yours Truly,
James

Bullshit, Cow Shit and Building Houses

Indian people in rural areas just love shit :-). It’s used in ceremonies, fermented to make biogas for cooking, put it in the garden. It’s dried out and used in the fireplace for cooking and to make the fireplace itself. They plaster their walls with it, and cover the floor with it too, both inside and outside. It’s even mixed with urine and used in some medicines! Yep, people love shit. A few Indians I met were pleased to proclaim that Indian cows make the best shit and urine in the world.

When Vandana Shiva was given the Bullshit Award she was happy to receive it. Actually it’s a great, funny example of the difference between the organic mindset and the mindset of the World Bank guy who gave it to her. He didn’t mean it in a nice way, but unknowingly she took it as a complement! It depends on how much you value shit from cows and bulls :-).

People only do these things with animal dung of course. I’ll be polite and not talk about the human waste disposal issues. Cow dung, as far as I can tell isn’t used for anything irreplaceable but it sure is an omnipresent material in rural India. It turns out it’s the same in rural Nepal.

Today we spent part of our day flinging shit at the walls and smearing it around :-). We plastered the outside of a building with a mix of cow dung, rice husks and silt/clay. This is the normal plastering material for houses in rural Nepal, as in India. In India the material is being replaced by cement and some sort of low quality paint that has to be frequently re-applied. The cow dung looks much better, and the well maintained houses in this area of Nepal look quite smart with their smooth beige walls and thick strip of red paint around the bottom.

The inside of the walls in this area are often made of mud and stone, two age-old and time tested materials for building houses out of. In my travels I’ve seen a mixture of composition ranging from almost entirely stacked stone in Almora to pure mud in Bengal.




Rural Canadians are not such lovers of cow dung and I haven’t ever seen it used in this way there. I have seen a couple of people using a mud and chopped straw mix though. People call this cob, and if made and used correctly it can be quite a useful building material.

I think my favorite houses are made entirely of bamboo, thatch and coconut husk. It is possible to make the entire house (in a warm climate) out of these two materials! This is done in parts of Laos. The walls are woven bamboo strips, the floor split bamboo, and the roof is thatch although I suppose it could be bamboo shingles. Bamboo can be used to make the gutters, and used as piping and electrical conduit also. Rope made from coconut husk is used to bind it all together. This rope is soaked in water then tied. It shrinks when dry, making a solid joint. These houses are so simple they can be made by children, as shown in the photo below :-).



Good Night and Good Luck my friends!