If you are squirming at our style of politics, persisting with the reminiscent days long past of dynasty, communal identity and opportunistic alliances which is no longer cutting ice with part of our electorate and you want a small break, here's some extracts from -
Extracts from “Back to Chagos” :
“Half a century ago, the British government forcibly removed 2,000 people from a remote string of islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean. They’ve never stopped struggling to return……..
The time will come when Britain throws in the towel, and it may come soon. When the government of Mauritius decided in February to send a ship into Chagossian waters under its own flag—the ship I traveled on— London’s response was annoyed but restrained. It would not fight the Mauritians on the beaches; it would not fight them on the landing grounds. The BIOT patrol vessel that shadowed the Bleu de Nîmes kept its distance, though it was visible on radar. We never learned whether the loss of internet service, which started when the ship entered the BIOT zone, had anything to do with its presence.
One purpose of the voyage—an oceanic survey of Blenheim Reef, relating to a boundary dispute with the Maldives —was a deliberate challenge: Mauritius shares a boundary with the Maldives only if the Chagos Archipelago is Mauritian territory. Mauritian officials also took the opportunity to pour some concrete, plant some flagpoles, and run up the Mauritian colors on Salomon and Peros Banhos. There were no statues to topple, but someone unbolted and took away a metal sign warning of arrest and imprisonment by the “BIOT government” for various infractions, such as overnight camping and “possession of crabs, dead or alive.
With every encounter, the Chagossians have sought to take the fate of the islands back into their hands—to possess the islands by word and deed. They have spent the few hours of every heritage visit tending graves and cleaning churches. On the extended trip in February, when Chagossians could at last travel freely and do whatever they wished, they did the same. They also trapped crabs and fished for red snapper and drank milk from coconuts. As if bouncing on a seesaw, Lisbey Elysé sat on the trunk of a coconut tree jutting out over the water. The Chagossians remembered old names and told old stories. As they talked, the rusting wheels on the jetty became a wagon again, rolling back on its track toward the oil press and the drying sheds and a world that was alive.
Mauritius raised flags over islands on this voyage; anthems were sung. The moments were moving: a legal and moral victory, even as Britain harrumphed. But the embrace of the islands by the Chagossians was something different. It had the intimate physicality of love. “
In the present context where we see some of the heaviest monsoon rains in a decade causing widespread flooding, covering around one third of Pakistan, affecting millions, and killing more than 1,100 people as of today , I thought it worthwhile to share this book review of Nomad Century by Gaia Vince . This hard-hitting must-read sets out where will be habitable in a hothouse world and how we should manage the transition.
Extracts:
“In Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval, she spells out how a world that is 3C to 4C hotter than the pre-industrial average would, by the end of the century, become a living nightmare marked by “drowned cities; stagnant seas; a crash in biodiversity; intolerable heatwaves; entire countries becoming uninhabitable; widespread hunger . . . ” The need to escape deadly heat, water shortages and failed crops will force hundreds of millions out of the hot zones and towards more habitable countries such as Russia and Canada. The question, Vince poses in her tour de force, “is whether we will manage the transition through calm preparation or wait until hunger and conflict erupt — an unconscionable outcome that would endanger us all.
This book is a manifesto for that transition. The scale of the problem Vince sets out almost defies comprehension. The UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates there could be 1.5bn environmental migrants by 2050. The exodus will come not just from poorer countries such as Bangladesh and Sudan; Australia, rapidly turning into the land of drought and fire, is already suffering, along with US cities such as Miami and New Orleans. Close to a billion Indians and about 500mn Chinese are at risk of climate displacement, she writes, along with populations in Latin America and Africa. Most will be fleeing for survival but the middle classes will also see their comfortable existences upended as mortgages, particularly in previously desirable coastal neighbourhoods, become unobtainable and houses uninsurable.”
