Jareeda: Pakistan's Sustainability Magazine

Jareeda first fell in my hands when, having finished my work for the day during an internship at IUCN, I decided to shuffle through the stuff on the office bookshelves.

I promptly took copies of several issues home - where I keep them close to my heart six years later. Because this magazine is so informative, so sincere, and yet so amazingly unknown. And because it features some of the rare-to-find research on Pakistan's environmental and sustainability issues.

At least back then, the thin magazine was being published in English and Urdu - and was available free. It has topical issues - the current one on the website is all about the wonderful Juniper tree.

Previous issues have explored mountains, water systems, national parks, and other matters of ecological concern.

I'll tell you what's beautiful about Jareeda:

• The content is accessible to the general population: it's in Urdu (haven't checked if the English version is still printed), the language is jargon-free and easy, the writing isn't out to impress but to communicate.

• There is plenty of coverage on medicinal herbs and other plants. With a global shift towards a lifestyle of health & sustainability, medicinal plants have made a comeback into the mainstream after a long, long winter of the synthetic era.
  It's a significant trend for its possible impact on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industries of the world.
  
• It's free. Or was, last I checked.
  
• Jareeda's topics are contemporary - e.g. the Kashmir Earthquake '05 was promptly covered in the Fall 2005 quarterly issue. In Summer '07, eco-tourism gets a feature. This means the editors and reporters are well-grounded, doing continuous research, and really care. From an editorial point-of-view, this shows respect for the readers - which translates into a healthy, thought-provoking effect on the readers' end.
  
• On the whole, each quarterly explores a subject from a 360 view. Remember STEEPLE (Society, Technology, Environment, Economics, Politics, Law, Ethics) analysis? Analyzing an environment from all these angles, especially to create a map for the future? I have taken a step to integrate external and internal analyses in the People-Centered Model of Business (PC-MoB). PC-MoB* goes beyond STEEPLE to include people's belief systems as the starting point of their roles & actions. Jareeda understands the subtlety. It's beyond the separation of the science of the environment and the people - a frustrating gap - and embraces the philosophy of social ecology. The content is well-rooted in the Pakistani culture, tradition, and thought - it often cites an article or two relating the people's belief system with ecological education - such as here.
  
• There are plenty of photos!
  

Please get a subscription today (contact IUCN Pak); get one for your school/ university/ office library and for your hairdresser's shop - and pass Jareeda 's environmental consciousness on!

* Download PC-MoB (PDF; 540 K)

E-mail: nextbyramla/AT/g mail/DOT/com

How Stuff Consumes the Planet - Cheaply

This is the 'golden' segment of the eye-opening, mind-expanding presentation Story of Stuff by one curious Annie Leonard. She wanted to understand the truth behind the materials economy. So she searched, and here is her knowledge, simplified.

Story of Stuff is to production/ consumption line (not cycle) what An Inconvenient Truth is to climate.

WATCH this video, SHARE it, and ACT UPON the message. Yes, I've shouted. From the NEXT> roof top.

Thank you!

Via: Truemors

E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com

NEXT> by Ramla @ TrendHunter.com

NEXT> by Ramla is seeking collaborations with like-purpose websites and print publications. To test-launch the idea of syndication, NEXT> and its creator, yours truly Ramla, have been publishing a carefully curated list of trends at TrendHunter.com since February 2007.

I was wild with joy when Jeremy Gutsche, the visionary young owner of TrendHunter, made me a Senior Trend Hunter within two weeks - in acknowledgment of the quality of trends and the writing of content. I would give credit to the purpose that I dedicate NEXT> to: searching for a better possible future, envisioning a better tomorrow and creating solutions and strategies for it.

Here is a selection of my favorite trends:

1/LOHAS - Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability
What is LOHAS? According to LOHAS.COM: “LOHAS is an acronym for ‘Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability,’ a market segment focused on health and fitness, the environment, personal development, sustainable living, and social justice.”
[Read More...]

2/Capitalism 3.0 - Reinventing the Commons

Barnes proposes Capitalism 3.0 that protects the commons while preserving the many strengths of capitalism as we know it. His major innovation is the commons trust—a market-based entity with the power to limit use of scarce commons, charge rent, and pay dividends to everyone. [Read More...]


3/ Voluntourism - Volunteerism + Tourism
No longer do tourists have to just walk in and out of a very “interesting area” - they can actually VOLUNTOUR. The idea is to “combine travel and service” - says Voluntourism.org. [Read More...]



More next time!


Check the portfolio here. Some trends are available at the NEXT> by Ramla blog, most only on TrendHunter.com.

E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com

Beyond The Secret: "THE END"

This is the second in a series of posts about The Secret.


What is The Secret?
Humans can create what they want.

More Important than The Secret...
...is knowing what to do with it: "The End." The Secret is only a method. A means. A strategy. A "How?"

The End is the "What?"

Beyond The Secret: at The End of Individual Paths

I believe in what I call "the theory of individual paths." A revolutionary manifesto for humankind, the Qur'an says:

And to you have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between them by that which Allah has revealed, and follow not their desires away from the truth which hath come to you. For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had Allah willed Hu could have made you one community. But that Hu may try you by that which Hu has given you (Hu has made you as you are). So vie one with another in good works. To Allah you will all return, and Hu will then inform you of that wherein you differ.

A Pickthall translation, with my emphases and modifications of the pronouns, esp. "He" to "Hu" (005.048)

Each person has their own path. Yet at the end, these paths converge at the common good of all humanity. That's why, it's NOT OK if my littering habits choke up the community works drain. OR the smoke from my factory crosses borders into enemy territory, even. OR my fifth generation is left with the memories of an ancestor with a notorious history. OR my child suffering because I pay too little attention to the family while demanding my rights.

As ecologist Garrett Hardin said, "We cannot do merely one thing." (I love Hardin!)

So before doing something, and having tremendous powers like the law of attraction get to work for us, we have to know the best thing to do. To do that, we have to be prepared. The Secret/Law of Attraction comes afterwards.

"THE END" is primary. The Secret is secondary.
Humanity tends to get fascinated with cause and effect. We get tangled in the technology of things. What is important is not the technology or the means to do something, but that something itself.

The Secret is only a technology. A method. It doesn't tell what should one achieve.

Imagine the power ending up in the wrong hands. In fact, it very often has been the case.

Q. So. What Now?
There has to be a way forward. More, in the next blog post.



E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com

Karachi's green move: Ban on thin plastic bags. Longer live the Green Turtle!

Longer live the Green Turtle of Karachi!

In a series of bans on thin, bio-hazardous plastics bags that is spreading across Asia, the City District Government Karachi's ban is the latest. In late February, the Karachi City Administrator Syed Mustufa Kamal urged town and union councils to create awareness amongst residents of the city before the government clamped down on businesses.

However, news these days are best received through word-of-mouth despite the large ads the government has been placing in national newspapers - I got this one on the right from the leading Urdu daily Jang. And so, it was our milkman who informed us that he will no longer be serving milk in infamous thin plastic bags. We have to get utensils.

Then yesterday, I went to the bakery to do my usual large shopping - and wasn't the only one who had to lap up her purchase like a baby... they told us to remember to brings bags from home.

My environmental-conscious mother is delighted - and I am glad, too, that our government has taken the ban seriously. In Pakistan, we tend to buy from small shops around the corner, and in the past two days, all shopkeepers denied us plastic bags. A medical store owner informed me that shops have been fined since March 15th, 2007, as promised in the ad above.

Not all plastic bags have been banned, only those less than 30-microns thick. These are not bio-degradable. Which means they don't "melt, evaporate, break down into other substances nor can be converted into other stuff." In ecology, everything must come from something, and then become something after being used, or we will be stuck with stuff. This is called an ecological cycle (and see carbon cycle too, here, another).

All natural things become something else upon birth and death. Humans, however, have created some stuff which gets stuck, because it does not break down ("degrade") into something useful. Such as, thin plastic. That's why governments across the world are taking swift action to ban this stuff. States as far apart as South Africa (2003) and India (selected states, 2005, etc.) have banned bad plastic.

Bio-stuck plastic has been killing the marine life of Karachi, especially the famous Green Turtles (WWF page here) who choke on bad plastic.

So. Get a cloth tote. DON'T rely on paper - because sometimes producing paper uses more energy than producing plastic. Save the planet, one shopping trip at a time!


Photo credit:
Top: Karachi City Government ad reproduced in good faith.
Bottom: By Hemanshu Kumar @ Flickr. May not be reproduced for commercial uses.


E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com