Tuesday, October 03, 2006

दशहरा मेला : रावण ने दी पार्टी

-- दशहरा मेला : रावण ने दी पार्टी --

बुराई पर अच्छाई की जीत की देखो कैसी उलटी रीत,
रावण ने क्या दे डाली पार्टी, हम भूले पुरुषोत्तम की नीति।

भूले पुरुषोत्तम की नीति, हर साल हो रहा रावण ऊँचा,
दिल में कर गया घर, राम को निकाल बाहर फैंका।

ऐसा फैंका बाहर कि राम दूर तक नज़र ना आया,
राम-लीला में भी देखो, शानदार रावण सबको भाया।

ऐसा छाया रावण कि ' सिम्पल ' राम को गये सब भूल,
बच्चों का क्या दोष, उन्हैं तो रावण ही लगे ' कूल '।

रावण लगे है ' कूल ', सब चाहें उससे ठाठ-बाठ और शान,
सच्चाई का उत्सव ना होकर, मेला बन गया बनिये की दुकान।

बनिये की दुकान, बेचें महंगे कपड़े, पानी-पूरी और चाट,
व्यर्थ बहायें कागज़, प्लस्टिक और धरती दें कचरे से पाट।

धरती पर कचरा, मन और पेट में कचरा समा गया,
रावण कैसा भी हो, पर उसके पार्टी में मज़ा आ गया।
रावण कैसा भी हो, पर उसके पार्टी में मज़ा आ गया।

-- हिमांशु शर्मा

8 comments:

Reetesh Gupta said...

बहुत सहजता से सच्चाई कह दी है आपने !!

बधाई !!

रीतेश गुप्ता

deepak said...

हिमाशु भाई,
'सच्चाई का उत्सव ना होकर, मेला बन गया बनिये की दुकान।'

इस तरह की बात आपके जैसा अन्तस रखने वाला व्यक्ति ही कह सकता है । सचमुच आज हमने अपने हर उत्सव को एक 'फ़न' पार्टी बना डाला है । पढे़ लिखे लोग उत्सव मनाते नहीं, वो गेट-टुगेदर करते हैं ।
हमें अपने स्तर पर ये प्रयास करना चहिये की हम अपने उत्सवों को वापस अपने 'मूल' से जोडे़ । वैसे भी कोई भी पेड़ कितना भी ऊँचा हो जाये अपनी जडो़ से कटकर बहुत दिनों तक जिन्दा नहीं रह सकता ।

dhruvswamini said...

धरती पर कचरा मन और पेट मे कचरा समा गया है यह बात सही है । लेकिन भाई जी धरती का कचरा साफ़ किया जा सकता है परन्तु मन और पेट का कचरा कैसे साफ़ किया जाये ।

hemanshow said...

रीतेश, दीपक भाई और ध्रुवस्वामिनी बहिन जी, आपके विचारों का धन्यवाद।
जितनी मेरी समझ है, किसी भी कचरे से बचने और साफ़ करने के लिये उससे बचा जाये (जिससे वह अधिक ना फैले) और उसकी सफाई के लिये सजग प्रयास किये जायें। वैसे यह इतना कठिन नहीं जितना प्रतीत होता है। शायद यह आदत की बात है। मन व पेट मे सादा, स्वच्छ व प्रकृति के करीब पदार्थ ही डाले जायें

अफ़लातून said...

बोतलबंद पानी पर न्यू जर्सी में इन लोगों के साथ कुछ कर सकते हैं.पता न होने के कारण टिप्पणी के रूप में:
Food & Water Watch
AquaBits


Your Quarterly Newsletter about the Bottled Water Industry
Summer 2006

Click here to download a formatted PDF version of AquaBits. You can access all our publications--including newsletters, reports and corporate profiles--for free online at www.foodandwaterwatch.org/publications.
--Your Water for All Team
Wenonah, Maj, Sara,Victoria, Jessica, and Adam

water(at)fwwatch.org
In this issue:

- Ice Rocks Asks: Just How Lazy Are We?
- What Would Jesus Drink?
- The Oil for Bottled Water Connection
- Bottled Water: It’s Really Not Safer . . .
- . . . And It’s Bad for Fishes
- Coke’s Self-investigation
- Does One Bad Habit Really Deserve Another?


Ice Rocks Asks: Just How Lazy Are We?

Plastic bottles aren’t the only frivolous packaging of water available to consumers anymore. Now, you can buy your water in a tray.

These Ice Rocks, or pre-packaged trays complete with spring water already sealed inside(!), are currently available to supermarkets and the hotel and tourist trade from the Water Bank of America, but soon will become available in family packs.

The ‘Secured Spring Water Ice Cubes’ actually aren’t ice at all. Because the water in the trays is delivered in liquid form, WBOA claims to save money and energy because the delivery trucks do not need to be refrigerated. That’s outrageous! Factor in the production of plastic trays with the cost and question of quality and the output is glaring – one ridiculous product.



What Would Jesus Drink?

The United Church of Canada has asked its 500,000 members to stop buying bottled water. "We're against the commodification, the privatization is another way to say it, of water anyway, anywhere," social policy coordinator Richard Chambers told the Canadian Broadcasting Company in August. Citing environmental and social justice concerns, KAIROS, the Canadian ecumenical justice coalition to which the United Church of Canada belongs, has made corporate responsibility and bottled water key components of its Water! Life Before Profit (II) campaign. UCC and KAIROS are campaigning for strong public water infrastructure and are encouraging their members to become activists for water justice.

You can read about their campaign, including scripts to some fun education skits that you could perform for you own congregation, here.



The Oil for Bottled Water Connection

Apparently, water bottlers are feeling the squeeze from high fuel costs, too. The rising costs of oil to make plastic bottles and plastic trays to hold them and oil to make diesel fuel to ship plastic trays of plastic bottles is cutting into profits.

According to the Las Vegas Sun reporter who attended the International Bottled Water Association convention, officials were lamenting that if they raise prices too high, customers will just get water from their taps. The horror.

Read the full article here .



Quotables

"Eh. Water is water. It all tastes the same to me." – security guard stationed by the tasting table at the International Bottled Water Association convention (Las Vegas Sun)
On why it takes 2.6 liters of water to make one liter of product: “It takes a lot of water to wash bottles and machinery.” - Coca Cola official at a Society of Environmental Journalists conference panel



Bottled Water: It’s Really Not Safer . . .

In August, Wegman’s grocer was forced to recall thousands of gallons of its spring water when tests revealed high levels of bromate. Was it the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that made this important food safety catch? Nope, it was a lawyer in New York state who’s active in the fight to get soft drinks out of elementary schools. While FDA has some standards on the books for bottled water, they don’t even have one full time staffer making sure companies comply with those standards.



. . . And It’s Bad for Fishes

Maricopa County, Arizona engaged a lawyer in October to get the Sedona Springs Bottled Water Co. to stop creating “environmental chaos” in Seven Springs. Apparently, the bottler’s operations, which began during one of the states worst droughts, is believed responsible for drying up creeks, killing native fish and frogs, chasing off hawks, and cutting off water to local vegetation, according to a biologist a the nearby Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area.



Coke’s Self-investigation

Coca-Cola is feeling the pressure in India. Its largest bottling plant in India, in the village of Plachimada in the state of Kerala, has been shut down since March 2004 due to the community-led campaign. More than 20 colleges and universities in the US, UK and Canada have ceased doing business with the company until it cleans up its act in India.

So what is Coca-Cola doing to contain the growing resistance? According to the India Resource Center Coke has commissioned an “independent, third party” assessment of its bottling operations in India. But Coke has chosen The Energy and Resources Institute, an Indian NGO, to "develop a transparent and impartial independent third party assessment of water resource management practices at Coca-Cola company facilities in India". The problem is that TERI is sponsored and funded by Coca-Cola! Coca-Cola India Limited is an official sponsor of TERI, the NGO has named Coca-Cola as among the most responsible companies in India in 2001 and TERI even organized Earth Day 2003 with the "support of Coca-Cola".

For more information click here .



Does One Bad Habit Really Deserve Another?

You may have thought we’d seen it all when it comes to niche marketing of designer water. Think again. There’s a new bottled water aimed at smokers advertised as “world's only nicotine replacement drink with ‘a hint of lemon.’” The company has just begun marketing to Canada after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration decided that selling the water, which contains as much nicotine as two cigarettes, as a dietary supplement violates the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The company’s vice president of sales says the product is not addictive.



O’ Canada! Bottled Water Battles Heat Up in the Far North

Things are really hopping on the bottled-water front in Canada. Not only has United Church of Christ taken up the charge (see What Would Jesus Drink?) but Vancouver is considering banning bottled water in city hall. On the other side of the country, the debate about charging user fees for industrial water use is hot enough that at least one bottler in Alberta is proposing the industry pay a “small kickback” or royalty charge on municipal water since they are just reselling it, something “the consumer would feel happy with.”



To File Under Things That Shouldn’t Require Debunking

Oxygen-enhanced water is pointless. A scientific study has confirmed that swallowing oxygen has no effect on athletic performance. Does that mean the manufacturer of OGO will stop marketing its “breathing water”? Probably not. But, don’t let all the tiny bubbles fool you into paying nearly $30 a gallon for it.



Thanks for staying active and informed!
Check out our new blog for all the latest news on the issues you care about: www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blog

अफ़लातून said...

October Newsbyte: Warm and fuzzy school promos and murder and intimidation.
Nestlé is muscling its way into US elementary schools with Go Play! loyalty program

In a shameless move to compete with Coke and Pepsi’s exclusivity contracts with school boards in the United States, Nestlé has launched a loyalty program designed to promote its Pure Life bottled water brand in schools.

Go Play!, allows elementary schools (K-8) to earn points that can be redeemed toward fitness and sports gear, or transportation cost assistance toward field trips. Schools need only register their school at www.goplaylabels.com, collect Pure Life labels and redeem them by October, 2007 for their rewards. Also, by simply registering, each school is entered into a draw for a $75,000 (US) playground structure.

It seems like a win-win situation; elementary schools in the United States receive up to $10,000 in sports equipment for ‘simply’ drinking water, while Nestlé gets their logo and brand name plastered in front of young children who, as every good PR person know, will be hooked on Pure Life and its logo if they start buying it at a young age. In reality, however, school kids are being tricked by a huge multinational to buy overpriced water in return for a small band aid solution to the chronic under funding of US school boards .

This move by Nestlé is timely as it comes on the heels of a voluntary shift towards the sale of healthier drinks in US public schools by Coke and Pepsi. The Swiss multinational knows that its main bottled water competitors in the US, Coke and Pepsi, are now focused on selling bottled water and juice to school kids. This has opened up a huge potential market for Nestlé’s bottled water brands.

Go Play! is a clear attempt by Nestlé to compete for student dollars. Unlike Coke and PepsiCo, Nestlé does not seem to have any exclusivity contracts with school boards in the US. This promotion is one way for the company to capture student customers through a one-time promotion.

As of mid-October a number of schools nationwide had signed on to the program. Various Parent Teacher Associations across the country are promoting the program as well as the Indiana Department of Education, which has posted a web link Go Play! on its website.

This is another disturbing trend in the bottled water industry. Bottled Water companies have now moved into public schools to increase sales by promoting their products directly to children.

Nestlé, one of the most powerful companies in the world, is looking to generate profits by taking advantage of struggling schools. Coke and Pepsi have been at it for over ten years, and now Nestlé wants a piece of the pie.



Nestlé and two of its subsidiaries sued in Florida for complicity in the death of Colombian union leader



Nestlé and two of its subsidiaries, Nestlé USA and Nestlé Colombia, have been sued for complicity in the murder of a Colombian trade unionist and former Nestlé employee Luciano Enrique Romero Molina.

The lawsuit was filed in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on October 25, by Romero’s widow, Gladys Fracisca Mendoza Mejia, the Colombian labour union SINALTRAINAL and the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF).

The suit claims that Romero was murdered by members of Colombia’s paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces in retaliation for his discovery and exposure of Nestlé’s use of expired milk in its Milo brand drink in 2002. A group of Colombian senators confirmed the validity of the expired milk claim in a November report from that same year.

The September 2005 murder came one month after Romero, a 20 year employee of the company and respected leader and member of food and beverage workers’ union SINALTRAINAL, sued Nestlé for wrongful termination. Romero was fired by Nestlé after exposing the expired milk scandal. He was one of several SINALTRAINAL union leaders assassinated by paramilitaries after the scandal became public.

The lawsuit also claims that Nestlé operated in complicity with AUC paramilitaries and that plant managers met openly with them on many occasions inside the factory in Valledupar, in northern Colombia. AUC paramilitaries were also allegedly permitted to freely enter the plant and set up camp for ‘public security.’

According to the lawsuit, Nestlé and its two subsidiaries “acted in concert with, conspired with, aided and abetted or otherwise retained as agents the individuals” who murdered Luciano Enrique Romero Molina. The suit also claims that the murder was committed in connection with and to help further Nestlé’s business interests and activities.

These alleged crimes took place in Colombia and are related to Nestlé’s dairy operations. Regardless of where these alleged events took place, the defendant is the same company that is responsible for aggressive marketing toward elementary school students in the United States. This is the same company that owns and operates water bottling plants in Southern Ontario, around North America and the world. And this is the same company that will invest millions of dollars to fight this lawsuit in order to protect its image from being tarnished any further.

This case has already spawned protest actions in the United States surrounding Nestlé’s bottled water brand Deer Park. A recent ILRF press release stated that campaigns targeting universities in the US that are involved in exclusive contracts with Nestlé/Deer Park are being considered.

Deer Park, or any Nestlé bottled water brand, can become a target for campaigns against the company’s human rights abuses in Colombia. People who drink Nestlé bottled water need to know that when they consume Nestlé products they are supporting a company that is being sued for complicity in the torture and murder of Luciano Enrique Romero Molina.

To read the complaint please click here


Dave Gibson, in a 2004 Mother Jones article, points out that President Bush’s 2005 budget cut 38 federal education programs for a total of $1.4 million (US) in cuts.
_____________________________________________________

Feel free to distribute or cite this material on the condition the Polaris Institute is appropriately credited.

Encourage friends and family to subscribe to NewsBytes, check out http://www.insidethebottle.org - twice a month bytes exposing what's inside the bottle.

Got a comment? - Let us know what's on your mind.

Polaris Institute
180 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 1P5
Canada
(613) 237-1717
Fax: (613) 237-3359
www.polarisinstitute.org
www.insidethebottle.org

To unsubscribe to the this mailing list please send an email to unsubscribe@polarisinstitute.org

Feel free to distribute or cite this material on the condition the PolarisInstitute is appropriately credited.

Encourage friends and family to subscribe to NewsBytes, check out http://www.insidethebottle.org - twice a month bytes exposing what's inside the bottle.

Got a comment? - Let us know what's on your mind.

hemanshow said...

Thanks Aflatoon bhai.
The information you provided was really interesting.
My email is kyariandolan AT yahoo DOT com.

Anonymous said...

Hello! I see you have mentioned Sedona Springs Water, a company that provides bottled water, on this blog. There is nothing bad I could say about the company and the quality of the products offered. The delivery is always timely. Even on this great site www.pissedconsumer.com where people display their dissatisfaction with this or that company, I did not find any negative reports. Check out!