Ice cream and the ADB
The power of ice cream has never been denied, and today, its true power was revealed, rather like Superman ripping his shirt off to reveal a bright Red and Yellow logo, which said " The Asian Development Bank is contributing to the destruction of our environment by its continued funding of coal-powered energy projects," rather than just a simple 'S'.
Woke up around 5 in the morning because of great distress suffered by my lower limbs due to blood clot caused by the cramped position I was made to sleep in the entire bloody night due to the antics of a certain woman named Shilpi who insisted on making her bus seat recline, insisting that she would not be able to sleep sitting up. And all this just to attend the 39th Annual Meeting of the Governor's of the Asian Development Bank, which seems to be a measlier sibling of the World Bank, which like its senior, goes around loaning lots of poor governments money to hire foreign contractors who then proceed to build big smoke-belching power plants which contaminate the environment and make lots of poor people spend their lifetime savings on respiratory medicines from pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer.
Once in Hyderabad, went to the hotel, had a bath in boiling water, heated purely by the fact that the hotel's water tank seems to be on the roof, and in Hyderabad's 40 degree C, everything gets heated by solar power. Then left for the Hyderabad International Conference Centre, aptly acronymed into HICC (pronounced Hiss). The ADB Conference was being held there, and once we managed to successfully register ourselves as NGO delegates, as representatives from Greenpeace-affiliated Solar Generation, we entered the air-conditioned comfort of the hall, carrying our free laptop bags and 'Enjoy India' free gift, all sponsored by the funds generated by years of accumulated interest on the loans taken by governments to build their subsistence farmers coal-powered plants to generate electricity for their 2-cows-and-a-plough plowed fields.
Then Greenpeace India sponsored a brazilian (new joke: please ask) ice creams, which we stuck small flags with the Solar Generation logo on it, the flip side of which said,” Don’t melt our future, stop coal now!" At first, the media people and the delegates seemed more interested in the ice cream rather than in our message, but when pressured into accepting a Greenpeace document on the shortfalls of the ADB along with vanilla, chocolate or butterscotch, they were more than happy to promise it a quick read through. We even managed to serve Mr. Ahluwalia and Mr. Chidambaram ice cream, and though Mr. Ahluwalia said that it would be impossible to totally quit coal, he did promise us that he 'would look into the matter,' a promise we hope to hold him to.
Mission successful, we ate all the remaining ice cream, and then left the venue, content in our new found repleteness. Ice cream can save the world.
Woke up around 5 in the morning because of great distress suffered by my lower limbs due to blood clot caused by the cramped position I was made to sleep in the entire bloody night due to the antics of a certain woman named Shilpi who insisted on making her bus seat recline, insisting that she would not be able to sleep sitting up. And all this just to attend the 39th Annual Meeting of the Governor's of the Asian Development Bank, which seems to be a measlier sibling of the World Bank, which like its senior, goes around loaning lots of poor governments money to hire foreign contractors who then proceed to build big smoke-belching power plants which contaminate the environment and make lots of poor people spend their lifetime savings on respiratory medicines from pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer.
Once in Hyderabad, went to the hotel, had a bath in boiling water, heated purely by the fact that the hotel's water tank seems to be on the roof, and in Hyderabad's 40 degree C, everything gets heated by solar power. Then left for the Hyderabad International Conference Centre, aptly acronymed into HICC (pronounced Hiss). The ADB Conference was being held there, and once we managed to successfully register ourselves as NGO delegates, as representatives from Greenpeace-affiliated Solar Generation, we entered the air-conditioned comfort of the hall, carrying our free laptop bags and 'Enjoy India' free gift, all sponsored by the funds generated by years of accumulated interest on the loans taken by governments to build their subsistence farmers coal-powered plants to generate electricity for their 2-cows-and-a-plough plowed fields.
Then Greenpeace India sponsored a brazilian (new joke: please ask) ice creams, which we stuck small flags with the Solar Generation logo on it, the flip side of which said,” Don’t melt our future, stop coal now!" At first, the media people and the delegates seemed more interested in the ice cream rather than in our message, but when pressured into accepting a Greenpeace document on the shortfalls of the ADB along with vanilla, chocolate or butterscotch, they were more than happy to promise it a quick read through. We even managed to serve Mr. Ahluwalia and Mr. Chidambaram ice cream, and though Mr. Ahluwalia said that it would be impossible to totally quit coal, he did promise us that he 'would look into the matter,' a promise we hope to hold him to.
Mission successful, we ate all the remaining ice cream, and then left the venue, content in our new found repleteness. Ice cream can save the world.
posted by The Viennese at 8:41 PM
3 Comments:
tell joke.
hip work shanky.
Very nicely written Shashank. Promoting energy sources which are renewable,pollution free, accessible to everyone in a cost effective manner is a laudable mission.The comment about ADB, WB, UN or any US influenced international agencies are also apt.
I personally feel that more can be achieved by people like you, who need to go beyond 'an understanding out of good faith'and take a step ahead of merely waving the 'red flag' logic for moving against the traditional SOURCES of energy.
Some data based work on depletion of coal or pollution by thermal power generation plants in India vs shortage of power for farm use - primarily for irrigation purposes etc. may give a boost to the movement. This will also help you to be more confident when you are interacting with intelligent economists like Mr Ahluwalia, who can even in their sleep throw statistics and numbers supporting what they are doing, at you.
All the very best,
DAD
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