Viraj's Weblog

I had a chance to attend a talk by Jane Goodall, a person who spent many years studying chimpanzees in Africa. Her talk was very moving and was essentially a call to action to help save some the world's precious environments. She described many of the activities being done in Africa that are essentially causing chimpanzees and many other species to dwindle in number. Among many, one reason was a popular desire to eat 'bushmeat'. Extravagant restaraunts are making alot of money on this. Lumber companies, even though they may abide by certain deforestation agreements, build paved roads which itself ruins life there as it gives easy access to hunters. The whole situation sickens me and reminds me of overpopulation and the wasteful and excessive lifestyles we all live.

I think we, as Americans, are very insular to the world around us. We waste uncontrollably, and buy things only to fill landfills. We take long showers while others in the world can barely get a glass full. Honestly when I look outside and see all the children we are making, I have to wonder what we are doing. Do we really need more people on earth? How much do we actually do to make things better for the world, rather than just for ourselves or small family? More and more the words 'unsustainable lifestyle' gain more meaning to me. Sooner or later the rest of the world will encroach on our apparent security and we will be forced to change.

Goodall talked about when we as humans have our backs to the wall, that's when we are truly innovative. I'm also reading her book "Reason for Hope," and in it she quotes Eleanor Roosevelt: "people are like tea bags; you never know how strong they are until you dump them in boiling water." How true. I think we all need to be put in situations like this, so that we are forced to find solutions to the world's problems. Our consumerism breeds a culture of apathy. We really need to be woken up.

There's an interesting passage from her book where she talks of coming to England after being in Africa:

After months in Gombe I saw the "civilized" world that we have created with new eyes: the world of bricks and mortar, cities and buildings, roads and cars and machines. Nature was almost always so beautiful and so spiritually enriching; the man-made world seemed so often horribly ugly and spiritually impoverished. This contrast between the two worlds struck me, with increasing sadness, every time I arrived back in England from Gombe. Instead of the peace of the timeless forest and the simple, purposeful lives of its inhabitants I was plunged into the materialistic, wasteful - terribly, terribly wasteful - rat race of Western society. Instead of the soft rustling of the leaves, the gently sighing waves on the beach, the singing of the birds and crickets, my ears were assailed by the sounds of traffic, too-loud rock music, strident voices - and no silence. The fragrance of the white nighttime flowers, and the smell of dry earth after rain, were exchanged for the stink of gasoline or diesel fumes, other people's cooking, disinfectant overriding stale urine in public lavatories. When I was away from Gombe and plunged into the developed world I found it harder to sense the presence of God. I had not learned, then, to keep the peace of the forest within.

The more I think about it, I wonder just how much our spiritual enrichment is dying. I read in a newspaper about one of Jay Leno's 'jaywalking' segments where he asked people on the street what the Golden Rule was. The majority of the people had no idea, and one even thought it was a mathematical formula. This is one of the saddest things I read, because it makes clear just how little we are taught to care about others.