Operation Cat Drop
Posted by Maryam Henein on May 11, 2008
We’re leaving tomorrow for Illinois where we will spend some time with biodynamic beekeeper Gunther Hauk. A photographer is also accompanying us.
I’ve been in contact with Gunther for about a year and so i am very excited to finally meet him. You can say he is a protegee to Rudolph Steiner and he has created a bee sanctuary. We’ll keep you posted from the field.
Below is a story that my friend told me about. It shows our foolishness as a species and our interconnectedness.
Back in the fifties, people in a region of Borneo were having trouble with malaria. In an effort to save lives, the World Health Organization decided to intervene by drastically reducing the mosquito population (mosquitoes being carriers of malaria). To do so, they sprayed the insecticide DDT all over the area, killing many mosquitoes and significantly reducing the incidence of malaria.
However, the World Health Organization failed to appreciate the full scope of their actions. DDT not only successfully killed mosquitoes - it also attacked a parasitic wasp population. These wasps, it turned out, had kept in check a population of thatch-eating caterpillars. So with the accidental removal of the wasps, the caterpillars flourished, and soon building roofs started falling in all over the place.
As if that was not enough the insects, poisoned by DDT, were consumed by geckos. The biological half-life of DDT is around 8-years, so animals like geckos do not metabolize it very fast, and it stays in their system for a long time. Those geckos, carrying the DDT poison, were in turn hunted and eaten by the cat population. With far less cats, rats took over and multiplied, and this in turn led to outbreaks of typhus and sylvatic plague (which are passed on by rats).
By now the cure had become worse than the initial disease, so the World Health Organization did what any self-respecting world health organization would do: they parachuted a bunch of live cats into Borneo. The event was known as Operation Cat Drop.
The WHO had failed to consider the full implications of their actions on the delicate ecology of the region. Because they lacked understanding of the basic effects of DDT (now banned in the United States), such as a long half-life that allows spreading through levels of consumption, and the relationships among the animals of the area, they ended up making things worse rather than better - and a high cost was paid for this mistake.
By considering only the straightforward, first-level relationship between mosquitoes as carriers of malaria and humans as recipients of malaria, the WHO unrealistically assumed that this relationship could be investigated or acted upon independently of any other variables or relationships. They considered one tiny aspect of the system, rather than the entire thing (the entire ecology).
The results of their actions demonstrate the incredible importance of whole-systems thinking. In the real world, as opposed to the drawing boards at a WHO meeting, one relationship strand (e.g. mosquito-human) cannot be separated from the rest of the system. All of the parts are intricately tied together in a complex fabric of inter-relatedness, and tugging on one string of that fabric can pull at other parts which may not at first glance appear at all connected to the point of action. While the WHO was certainly doing their best to help people in a crisis, and things worked themselves back into balance in the end, the drastic counter-measures necessary to re-achieve basic stability demonstrate the necessity of viewing our world in its own holistic terms rather than simplistic theorizing that tries to separate easily manipulated variables in tweakable relationships.
The same idea can be applied to all areas of life. Everything is inter-related, and changes which are seemingly narrow in scope can set off a domino effect that reaches much wider than ever anticipated. A butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world could set off a chain-reaction that eventually affects the weather patterns across the entire Earth.
The chaotic nature of change (narrow scope to wide scope) does not by any means imply that everything is out of our control and that we should not bother trying to take any actions at all. Rather, adopting a whole-systems paradigm should allow us to realize not our impotence, but instead our power. Like a butterfly affecting weather, a friendly smile towards a stranger can brighten that person’s day just a little bit, leading them to perform some act of compassion which they otherwise might not have, in turn inspiring others to act different than they would have before. A small act of kindness could literally change the world, even if the person performing it could never track the unimaginably complex effects of that little action across the entire human realm.
Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we’re so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being in love is the supreme creative act. ~ Ram Dass
“I don’t see honeybees any more”
Posted by Maryam Henein on May 8, 2008
I called my ‘doctor’ today for the third time in two weeks.
Upon my return from France, I unwantingly exposed myself to radiation in the form of X-rays.
My L-1 has been painful to the touch and I wanted to an MRI. But of course the doctor has to go through the full of crap protocols because hey it’s all about money.
Six years ago now, when I was hit by the SUV, i broke several ribs and my L-1. Perhaps due to traveling, the vertebrae has been causing me pain. I know it’s compressed, but hey i am not a doc, right?
So i took X-rays and wasted my afternoon on my back in a sterilized room only for a nurse to tell me (only after I called mind you) that ‘yup the doctor can see my old fracture.’ No shit.
Note to You: Preventative measures is where it’s at.. You are your own doctor. The more you get in touch with your body, the better off you are.
Of course, I had to chase the doctor down to get her to actually put in the referral for the MRI. And so here I was today speaking to Jeanine, the doc’s secretary.
At every opportunity i get, i talk about our project and the bees.
The secretary shares this story with me: Last year she moved into an apartment and soon after gave birth. Soon after that a swarm of bees inhabited her chimney.
“We called the landlord and told him and instead of call a beekeeper, he turned the fireplace on and burned all the bees.” She pauses and then she says pretty much to herself, “I don’t see honeybees any more.”
Her story saddens me. But this is what we do, wage war against bugs. The insectdom that holds so much knowledge and wisdom.
Speaking of burning insects, we used to have caterpillar nests nestled in the trees in my backyard. The apple tree had the most of them. The caterpillars were purple and black and when you stepped on them they bled green. They had green blood. They were gross and i was young and didn’t realize that these were butterflies-in-the-making.
Well anyway, my dad used to wrap newspaper on the end of a broom, light it on fire and scorch them critters. I can still recall the smell of the kerosene. It wasn’t just us, it happened all over our neighborhood. And it happened for a handful of years in a row, up until my parents divorced of course. And then somehow the caterpillar epidemic ceased to bee.
Speaking of insects, i went to Venice yesterday to watch a short documentary directed by a beautiful light being. There was a gathering of such beautiful people and the evening raised my vibration and placed me in gratitude.
Her shortchronicles part of her journey deep into the Peruvian Amazon where she partook in a ceremony with a medicine known as ”Ayahuasca,” a Quechua Indian word meaning, “vine of the dead.” The medicine is a powerful teacher and she spent two weeks in solitude, working with the plant.
Aside from giving us an intimate peak into her mind, the film also shows us some of the insects she encountered during her stay: spiders, termites, butterflies, insects I’d never seen before. The jungle is alive with insects. And the insects have lessons to teach us.
As one of my teachers Baaba, a indigenous man from Tanzania says, “insects” (especially winged ones) are the recorders and carriers of life.”
When i email him to expand on this notion he writes this:
“Insects have developed and evolved from the elemental, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms, in a preparation for becoming members of the animal kingdom, and eventually humanity.
It is believed by many Indigenous Peoples, that the disembodied human soul experiences being a part of the insect kingdom in the interim between human incarnations. Hence, the insect is believed to be an embodiment of the ANCESTORS.”
So what happens when we swat, spray, burn, squash, stomp on our ancestors?
Doris is Dead
Posted by Maryam Henein on May 7, 2008
We just found out from a beekeeper in Florida that Doris is dead. We don’t quite know how she passed away and at this point we don’t even know where she is at. Agnes and Cindy are the only ones left. We will see them in Maine in blueberries in a couple of weeks.
Beeing in Service
Posted by Maryam Henein on May 6, 2008
On Sunday, a honeybee floated into my home, said hello and went on her way. They’re checking in on me.
I spent the day today on the phone as usual. I called beekeepers like Dave Hackenberg and Jim Doan; companies like Ben and Jerry’s and Plant Life, hoping they’ll be sympathetic to our cause and want to cross pollinate.
I spoke to one company owner at length who kindly listened as I raved about the bees and our findings. I believe she appreciated the information i was relaying.
She told me about a recent business trip to Hong Kong where she quickly realized that she was allergic to the city. Yup, a woman even more sensitive as me. Her entire body swelled up and she felt like she was being poisoned every minute of the day. She also remarked that she did not see one insect during her entire visit. This reminded me of the movie Safe with Julianne Moore. I saw the flick years before i became sensitive to foods and chemicals. Now i can’t even stand when the woman at the restaurant is cleaning the table beside me with Windex. It drives me and my nose crazy!
This business owner was in China trying to find organic materials for her company however one manufacturer admitted to her that there is no such thing as ‘organic’ in China. That DDT will bee in the soil for at least another 12 years.
Meanwhile in Utah I learned that mosquito abatement is a big deal. Lots of mosquitoes to get rid of there. Why Utah? Well we’re going to go and film with a beekeeper in the Beehive State. I don’t want to give away all of our Chinese secrets but let’s just say we are striving to cover all sides of the picture.
I was invited to speak at yet another Earth Day event this Saturday except i am not able to bring honey to sell because it’s a Vegan event. And forget about bringing my animal medicine jewelry.
I am at the service of the bees and I imagine that the sisters have me as one of their mascots. A bee dressed up in a Maryam suit cheering the team on as they play a game of pollination.
It feels really good to bee of service. To bee in service for a cause greater than I. And it took me a long while to get here. To be able to get out of my self-centered self. And that’s not to say that I don’t look out for myself or think of the benefit of me. But I would like to bee a person who would die for her beliefs and wouldn’t sell herself short whatever the price. That is a difficult goal and I think of the Seventh Sign with Demi Moore when the devil asks “Would you die for him? Would you die for him.”
Would you die for your beliefs? Or have you sold your soul to the devil to make a living?
Washington Whispers: Feds Are Split on Funding for the Honey Bee Crisis
Posted by Maryam Henein on May 5, 2008
By Paul Bedard
Posted April 29, 2008
Ed Schafer knows honey bees and the disaster called Colony Collapse Disorder wiping them out. And not just because he’s the secretary of agriculture. See, he was a two-term North Dakota governor, and that state is the nation’s top honey producer. “They certainly have an advocate in the bee situation,” he tells me of the nation’s worried beekeepers.
But he’s not pushing for more money to study the problem, which is that bees leave hives and never return. Schafer says that the feds are already doing what they can, and he shrugged off calls in Congress for at least $20 million in new study money. “We already have it in the labs. We have this great bee guy who’s tinkering away in the lab to see what’s going on,” he said. The ag secretary said that while there is still no answer for what causes CCD, it may be disappearing on its own. “There are two areas of thought. One is that it’s still going downhill, and the other is that we’ve reached the bottom and it’s starting to come back up. And I’ve seen both studies, and we’re trying to figure out why the difference. It’s a big issue.” As for more money, he said that his department doesn’t need it. “You can always try to overwhelm things with money and hopefully get a better answer. Very, very seldom do you get a better answer; you’re just wasting money.”
The Adventures of Raw Man and Green Girl
Posted by Maryam Henein on May 2, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzWVk2eKmA
Secretary of Agriculture Is Nonchalant … While Colony Collapse Disorder Creeps On
Posted by Maryam Henein on Apr 30, 2008
This is an article by Kim Flottum, Editor and Chief of Bee Culture Magazine:
4.29.2008 3:30 PM
Does the USDA Even Care About the Bee Crisis?
Awhile back I was contacted by Paul Bedard, a reporter for US News and World Report magazine. He was asking about Colony Collapse Disorder because he was doing a story on it for his magazine. Paul writes the Washington Whispers column for the hard copy edition, and does a blog on their web page, too.
It turns out he’s got a beekeeper in the family and had more than a passing interest in the story. We’ve stayed in touch due to our common interests and he has been a great resource because he lives in DC and knows all the players there. Sometimes I’m ahead of the curve on a particular story and can give him a lead on something so it works both ways.
Yesterday he had an interview with Ed Schafer, the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture regarding the farm bill, which is getting somewhat messy, or not, depending on who you talk to. Lots of money is still on the table and where it ultimately will go is getting interesting. But one of the questions Paul asked was about funding for Colony Collapse Disorder. If you read his latest you’ll see what the head guy thinks, and that is, the scientists have it under control. Or rather, “We already have it in the labs. We have this great bee guy who’s tinkering away in the lab to see what’s going on,” Schafer said.
A great bee guy? Tinkering? Already have it in the labs?
There’s more.
As for more money, he said that his department doesn’t need it. “You can always try to overwhelm things with money and hopefully get a better answer. Very, very seldom do you get a better answer; you’re just wasting money.” What answer do we have now is the question I would have asked … and if we don’t have one already, how can we get a better one?
So I went to the great bee guy to find out what it is that he has, but he’s out in the field trying to find the answers. And the reason he hasn’t found the answers yet is that he doesn’t have the money. He doesn’t have it. The other labs don’t have it. The Universities don’t have it. The other researchers don’t have it. The other pollinator groups don’t have it. Nobody has any more “it” than they had last year. And they didn’t find the answer last year, either. (though they did have some money last year that came from private individuals, from the beekeeping industry, from growers groups and from companies that need beekeeping).
There are studies going on right now of course. The great bee guy out in the field is working on one of them. He doesn’t have an answer yet though. And won’t for a year or more, if then. So it goes.
But the Secretary said two studies had been done. One that said colony collapse disorder is still bad, and one that said the worst has been seen and now it’s getting better … and they are trying to find out why there was a difference between the two. “It’s a big issue”, he says.
Well, yeah.
So if the Secretary Of Ag isn’t interested in obtaining the $20 million Congress wants … or whatever amount they finally decide on once it gets out of conference … who do you suppose is going to go to bat for the bees?
Oh, I forgot. That great bee guy. I know him. We’re lucky he’s there. We’re lucky someone like him is there, ’cause it sure doesn’t look like the boss cares.
We Need to Support the Next Generation of Farmers
Posted by Maryam Henein on Apr 30, 2008
I read this on the Organic Consumers Association website and i was aghast:
The average farmer in the U.S. is nearing retirement age and over 400 million acres of farmland are expected to transition to new ownership in the next couple of decades.
We need to target farm bill funds to training and mentoring. We need to reduce interest rates for down-payment loans, and set aside conservation program funds for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers. We need a new Office on Small Farms and Beginning and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers at USDA that reports directly to the Secretary of Agriculture.
Pesticide kills 5 hippos
Posted by Maryam Henein on Apr 30, 2008
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A beekeeper sent this to me. I share it with you: 29/04/2008 08:09 - (SA) |
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| Nairobi - A Kenyan wildlife group demanded on Monday the banning of a highly toxic pesticide after five hippopotamuses died and four lions that fed on their bodies were paralysed.Traces of carbofuran, the toxic insecticide that is banned in the European Union, were found in areas where the hippos were known to graze.
“We are appealing to the Kenya government … (to) ban the importation, sale, distribution and use of this deadly chemical in Kenya,” said Richard Leakey, anthropologist and chairman of Wildlife Direct. Leakey said the chemical was “widely abused” because it can be bought cheaply over the counter from any agricultural goods’ vendor. Only the more concentrated version of it is restricted like other poisons. Wildlife Direct said exposure to carbofuran over stimulates the nervous system, which can cause paralysis or death. The chemical is especially lethal to birds, who mistake the pesticide for a plant seed and eat it whole. Some 187 vultures were killed near Kenya’s Athi river in 2004 because of carbofuran poisoning. |
Food for Thought
Posted by Maryam Henein on Apr 30, 2008
It’s 12:30 a.m and I should really be in bed with Pookie and Penguin, my two kitties. I may have to take Pookie to the vet because he has a cut on his thigh. Except he’s M.I.A during the day so it’s hard to collect him. I had an appointment today that i had to cancel becuase i couldn’t find him. He goes and hides and doesn’t respond to my calls.
I yell “Yum Yum” which means ‘food. But there are men working in our yard and so he’s too afraid to show his fur. He’s a scaredy cat. And he’s also slightly retarded.
Anyways, why am i boring you with talk of cats.
And now, not only do i have to worry about whether i eat enough fruits and vegetables, i also have to worry whether my food is filled with pesticides and whether the soil is rich and healthy.
After i think these thoughts, i continue to read an open letter that a Hive Mentality supporter sent me. It’s an open letter by a woman named Carolyn Baker. She has written to Hilary Clinton about the senator’s evil ties to Monsanto.
What stays with me is something she says that i already know and yet it seems so absurd: ’terminator genes’ prevent seeds from ‘working’ after only one season. Farmers are not able to use the plant’s seeds. Seeds! isn’t a seed like water, or air, or health. Shouldn’t these bee free for all? WTF?!
As if a patent and suing wasn’t enough control, says Carolyn Baker; they had to make disposable seeds. Capitalistic pigs would charge for air if they could.
How is this absurdity our reality? How can people get in touch with their nature. Becuase nature should preside over economy? We should chose the high road instead of riches? We should do our part to save the planet, to save ourselves. We should help each other.
Should i back off on the shoulds? Am i being too righteous again?