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| I took this photo of the haze in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan on Sep. 21, 2014. Breathing in this smoke is surprisingly easy -- the way buying products containing palm oil is ridiculously easy. This haze comes mainly from fires burning on oil palm plantations. When you think of this photo in terms of the future world we're making, that's when breathing in this smoke hurts. |
Questionnaire
How much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.
For the sake of goodness,
how much evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite
evils and acts of hatred.
What sacrifices are your prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines
and works of art you would
most willingly destroy.
In the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.
State briefly the ideas, ideals or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security,
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.
Wendell Berry
Advocates for Orangutans are at the forefront of the campaign against the spread of oil palm plantations in Indonesia. But it isn't just about Orangutans and forests. It's about humans too. It's about land-grabbing and loss of livelihood and increased dependence on external sources of income. The things that we might think are far away are already in our supermarkets, making their way into our arteries, banging down the doors of our farmers and taking over our soils. All eyes on Palawan now (click to see petition). Some claim that oil palm will pave the way to poverty reduction, but the farmers have different stories to tell. Which way forward from here? "Please name your preferred poisons."
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