Silvia's World

"You are not just the drop in the ocean. You are the mighty ocean in the drop." - Rumi

It is difficult to associate the mighty oceans with the word 'vulnerable'. 

After all there are few things as humbling as standing on a beach, facing an immense expanse of blue, watching the waves come crashing down, the sting of the salty spray in your eyes, and your body getting tossed around like around like a twig in the surf.

My own introduction to the world of oceans started with a visit to Kanyakumari where, on a clear day, it is possible to see the three different hues of blue that make the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean. The expanse was however too vast to be covered in small fishing boats so we always saw this world through the eyes of great explorers - the books written by David Attenborough, the tele-series by Jacques-Yues Cousteau, and the paintings of Katsushika Hokusai.

So when one of the most respected marine biologists of the world, Silvia Earle, tells us that the oceans are dying, it  does sound a bit incredulous, almost unbelievable. Silvia is however familiar with this sort of reaction - she has been observing the oceans for over 80 years now. Her dissertation in 1954 was on brown algae; in 1964 she was part of a pioneering International Indian Ocean Expedition, and has seen first had the transformation being brought about by human interventions by way of commercial fishing, oil-spills, nuclear tests, and global warming.

Perhaps this is the ultimate Tragedy of the Commons where the stakeholders are not just communities that share a resource but entire countries and continents. With support from TED, Silvia launched Mission Blue, for setting up marine protected "hope spots" across the globe. In 2014, less than 3 percent of the oceans were protected, and Mission Blue aimed to bring this to 20 percent by 2020. 

Has it worked?

I have not been able to find data on this from the one institution that is supposed to be tracking this issue - the United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (conserve and sustainably use the oceans). Under "Deliverables" it simply states - 'Designation of 30 new Hope Spots by 2020'. The Mission-Blue website however claims that over 44 percent  (40 million sq.km) of the Global Ocean is under Hope Spot designation.

It is not clear if the designation of a zone as a Hot Spot leads to its protection under international covenants. There is also no sign of reduction in the quantum of marine products consumed, which stood at 174.6 million tonnes in 2020.

Silvia has spent a lifetime trying to convince the world about the importance of conserving the oceans. If the UN reports are anything to go by, it seems much work remains to be done.

-------------------------------------

LINKS & REFERENCES

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/story-maps/sharing-collaboration/mission-blue-stories-inspire-action-to-explore-and-protect-the-ocean/

https://www.iucn.org/theme/marine-and-polar/our-work/marine-protected-area

https://www.iucn.org/news/secretariat/201609/new-ocean-hope-spots-vetted-iucn-and-mission-blue-ignite-global-support-ocean-protection

https://www.greenfacts.org/en/fisheries/l-2/06-fish-consumption.htm#0

Mission Blue - https://mission-blue.org/

TED Video - My Wish - Protect Our Oceans - https://www.ted.com/talks/sylvia_earle_my_wish_protect_our_oceans?language=en 

4 Ways to Get People to Care - https://ideas.ted.com/4-ways-to-get-people-to-care-about-the-ocean/ 

Enterprising Enterprises

 I am not fluent in Oriya language, and yet, last week, I found myself tuned in to a series of bilingual interviews titled "Startup Story".

The key to my interest in these interviews was one person - Subroto Bagchi. For the past 20 odd years, I have been keeping track of this remarkable entrepreneur and public-spirited leader, who is perhaps best known as one of the founders of Mindtree. 

In the mid 2000s he had made a commencement speech titled, "Go Kiss the World", at IIMB which had become something of a phenomenon, and one of the first 'viral' forwards I had seen on the internet. It describes his own humble beginnings in Khoraput, a remote district in Odisha where his father served as a government employee. A quote from this speech that stayed with me was this - “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. A simple lesson he had learnt from his father about showing consideration to others. 

Over the years Bagchi moved on from Mindtree to become the Chairperson of the Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA), an organisation focussed on the issue of livelihoods - providing skill training to children who are unable to continue their schooling due to various socio-economics reasons.

This series of interviews seems to be part of that effort, to showcase success stories emerging from Odisha, to inspire a generation of youngsters to become job-creators instead of job-seekers:

1. Amarendra Sahu, NestAway Co-founder & CEO Amarendra Sahu - https://youtu.be/O4M_3e7lvEQ

2.  Amiya Samantaray , Phoenix Robotix Founder & CEO - https://youtu.be/ESFPsZPz65Y

3. Arvind Pani, Co-Founder  & CEO of Reverie - https://youtu.be/ESFPsZPz65Y

4. Nusrat Sanghamitra, CyGenica CEO & CSO - https://youtu.be/vg2xtJ8KOsM

5. Gautam Kumar, Co-Founder & COO FarEye - https://youtu.be/dJ8kl3NR_-4

6. Asish Mohapatra, Co-Founder and CEO of Business Unicorn - https://youtu.be/Z5u89fn4eJQ

7. Amit Acharya, Co-Founder and CEO of Zetwork, a Global Unicorn - https://youtu.be/JQ1ac5-hmZQ

8. Soumendra and Samarendra Mishra - Co-Founders of OVO Farms - the largest producers of eggs in Eastern India - https://youtu.be/w3NP6q8UQh0

Among the ones I have seen so far, the one I liked best is Episode 7, the interview with Amit Acharya, the founder of Zetwer, a global company that offers design and production services for manufacturing of consumer goods and precision parts.

Each interview could be considered a masterclass on how such interviews ought to be conducted - gentle, engaging, gradually drawing out the thoughts and experiences of the interviewee, rather than the agenda-driven, aggressive interviews that seem to have become the norm on news channels and the social media. 

Most of the episodes are about an hour long and in each of them the language is constantly switching between Odiya and English. While Odiya is not much of a problem for those who are familiar with Bengali. The producers of this series, OdishaLIVE could certainly improve the reach of this series by adding the option of subtitles in multiple languages. 

This is one series that needs just a little nudge to transcend the language barriers. 

----------------------------------------------

Thucydides in Ukraine

 

It seems nobody actually thought the cornered bear would attack, but last week, it did.

Perhaps it was assumed that all the snarling and swiping was nothing more than political and military posturing, that the 200,000 troops amassed by Russia along Ukraine's borders would just complete their 'exercises' and go home...but nothing of that sort happened. Instead, what we have now is a full blown war - an invasion that has already turned a million people into refugees, thousands have been killed, buildings blown to bits, and countries struggling to prevent a nuclear war.

These developments have also been a revelation, and an unravelling of myths, at many levels. 

First of all there is this myth about "rules based global order". When a big country invades a smaller, weaker country, the only rule that works is the Thucydides dictum - "The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must". When USA invades other countries - Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan - it is packaged as a noble venture, to promote democracy, to usher in a free market economy,  as a saviour to the uncivilised, and so on. Turns out that this is a game other bullies can play as well.

Then there is this myth of "free speech". The Western media seems to have convinced itself that they alone know the difference between propaganda and news. BBC, CNN, and DW can barely hide their glee when news channels from other other side of the fence are banned or expelled. 

'Experts' from the western media hold forth on why blonde fair-skinned European deserve to be treated more humanely than the hapless people fleeing wars - initiated by their own governments -  in Africa and Asia. The levels of hypocrisy and racism has been just breathtaking!

It was also amazing to learn that over 20,000 students were trapped in the war-zone. While the government has managed to evacuate most of them, a few hundred still remain trapped in the war-zone. It seems a vast majority of them were studying medicine, revealing shortcomings in our own education system which seems to be better equipped at churning out engineers.

Then there is geography. Until last week I was aware of only a few cities - Kiev from Odgen Nash's famous poem - "The Muddlehead" from Petushkee, Odessa from Alister Maclain's files and novels, and, of course Chernobyl. The humanitarian crisis currently unfolding has made us aware of places far away, on the frozen steppes of Eurasia - Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Mariupol, Kheson...

As the father of political realism, Thycydides may have been right about the fact that relations between countries are dictated by just two factors - fear and self-interest. It seems not much has changed since 450 BCE.

----------------------------------------------------

REFERENCES & LINKS

* https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/27/western-media-coverage-ukraine-russia-invasion-criticism

* https://www.wionews.com/world/ukraines-refugee-crisis-exposes-western-medias-hypocrisy-457831 

* Perhaps the clearest articulation of India's position - DBV Varma - "The Putin Pushback"