Earth Hour is coming
up; the one time in the year when Sydney and other parts of Australia turn
their lights off for an hour.
The sight of
skyscrapers, their normal columns of light reflecting on to the harbour
vanishing in an instant, is a subject of fascination for Sydney-siders.
It’s all to save the
planet; a by-product of the now rapidly declining hysteria over global warming.
He remained at Buddha’s
birthplace, Lumbini in Nepal.
As the Buddha or his
own head promptly answered when he did his little three bows ritual in one of
the oldest temples on the site, “You have already been blessed. You just don’t
know it. Have a great day.”
And that was that.
Outside a sign
implored devotees to be heedful amongst the heedless, awake amongst the blind,
to be like a swift horse leaving behind an old nag.
Another instructed
devotees to be mindful, heedful, to guard against heedlessness.
He had been entirely
heedless; but that was another story.
If those in the West so
busy saving the planet by turning their lights off for one hour once a year wanted
to know what life would be like without electricity all they had to do was be
where he was. All you had to do to witness a way of life barely changed in
thousands of years was to walk to the end of the main street of Lumbini, where
you enter an entirely agrarian culture.
The power in Nepal,
intermittent at best, can go off for 24 hours at a time. Within a day of the
power going off people's mobile phones are starting to die and the backup
batteries in guesthouses catering to foreigners begin to die.
Much of the population
doesn't even have that luxury. There are few television sets because there's
little point when the power is only on intermittently, often in the early hours
of the morning.
The only sign of
habitation in many of the houses at night is a little pin prick of light from a
single burning candle. There is no such thing as a washing machine. Women wash
clothes at the nearest hand operated water pump; and no such thing as a heater,
with again mostly women spending their days patting together straw and cow dung
for fires. There's no such thing as refrigeration either; no cold beers; no
frozen meat. A goat is killed, dissected and sold all within the same day; with
buckets of water used to chase away the flies crawling over the flesh in the
markets. There are almost no street lights; no pumping discos, electronic
versions of music; or anything else.
Very unhappy looking
chooks huddle underneath the bench of one of the shops, waiting to be
slaughtered. They are killed, de-feathered, gutted, and sold all within a
matter of hours.
There is almost no
private transport and often the only sign that the last two centuries ever
happened is the rubber wheels on some of straw laden carts.
There are no computers
either.
Far from playing
computer games, children spend hours playing simple games such as spinning tops
in the street or hanging out with each among the goats and water buffalo in the
fields.
Without the constant
materialism of television many of the people on bikes or walking long distances
appear not to know the joys of civilisation they are missing and have the nerve
to look happy!
But would many of
those advocating Earth Hour be willing to abandon their televisions, washing
machines and smart phones?
Would they be happy
living in a town without street lights?
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