So as promised, here is the lowdown on one aspect of my life that perhaps I should put higherup on Ian’s ever expanding hierarchy of to-dos and don’ts. Speaking of hierarchies and going on a tangent about psychology, and then segueing into a conversation of psychology and names that end in lov(maslov to Pavlov) there’s this food called momos, which is like a Tibetan dumpling that’s sold on the street everywhere and makes me salivate itchily just by seeing the red stalls. And I think to myyyseeelf(in the ending of “what a wonderful world style”) “Pavlov I feel you dog.”
I think I will begin this journey with what I’ve been doing and then transfer lines to what I’ve started doing and finally get off at what the next 6 months will potentially, but in reality most likely not, have in bazaar stall for me. Shall we?
Up to now the best way to characterize what I’ve been doing is making a pretty useless general statement of trying to get a foot hold in this ever changing landscape. But more concretely, I’ve been coming to the Navdanya office everyday and been doing random text fidgeting, preparation of some distribution material, website dusting and polishing and just all around all superstar level nodding and smiling at things I don’t really understand. In terms of the different atmosphere interns occupy in the world, I think I’m in the useful-enough-to-merit-the-seat-in-the-office-o-sphere. Usually what happens is V shiva comes in and tells me something that needs to be done, I smile and say yes, yes without really understanding, and two weeks later I finally produce the paragraph or print out that was required. But hold thy judgment Dredd. Considering that I have a task completion rate of .330, I am basically the Ichiro of the office (by right of batting average and not ethnicity that is (though the two may be inseparable)) and I am quite happy to bestow that title upon myself any day. But that is old news and but a shedded ian yesteryear. Today I am electric sliding to new horizons.
The new me, well actually the new me is currently trying to break through the 70% burden the old me left me, but in theory the new me is starting to rock at life and is starting his research project… finally(gasp!). What I hope to begin is a joint project of researching the political and social implications of different agricultural solutions to climate change by doing a comparison of traditional agricultural knowledge vs genetic engineering (or technofixes). This topic is significant because…
Navdanya, the organization I volunteer at, is going to build a campaign against seed companies and the 100s of “climate ready gene” patents that they have been stock piling. The challenge is that there is no inventive step in genetically modified organisms and does not improve upon the seed varieties that farmer’s have conserved for thousands of years, and the proliferation of GMOs go hand in hand with encroachment of intellectual property rights to new areas. This trespassing of IPRs and the privatization of seeds effectively represents the newest enclosure of the commons and would have grave implications to small scale farmers, thus to huge percentage of the world. So I would doing some interesting research work that may prove of use to someone outside of myself, AAaand satisfy my existential dilemma here, all the while being useful to the organization and hopefully in some miniscule karmic way, the world. So that is that my friends.
PS this took so long to enter, partly because I wanted to somehow inconscpicuously get a photo with V Shiva but couldn’t get the timing right. So I told her we should make a web page advertising for volunteers and need some photos. Cha-cha chiiiing.
Ian rockin the office clothes in an office setting. Did I hear a “Navdanya, how may I help you?” Wha Whaaaat. And can i hear a, "Sorry i don't speak hindi."
PPS The other day I realized I have a huge back log of ideas and front log of internal soliloquies, but the question now is how do I carpenter a cabin to house these thoughts.
PPPS just for the sake of FYIing, a lot of times, in fact pretty much all of my PSs are products of random inspirations and never actually written post script. Does this make me a liar? Well the latins weren’t the most truthful folk anyways so huuuh. It’s kind of like footnotes, but only PSing it. Like my guru says, Don’t BS, just PS.
