I came across this interesting image on a social media post.
In the image, escaping from such a situation is impossible. Now look closely.
1) Snakes do not prey on humans so no snake will lie waiting for the dangling guy. 2) Male lions do not participate in hunting unless the lion pride is hunting a large prey such as a buffalo. A male lion would rather spend its time eating, sleeping or mating rather than wait for the dangling guy who is hardly a prey for it. 3) No woodcutter in the right frame of mind will cut a tree standing at the edge of a river infested with crocodiles and cut in such a way that the tree will fall into the river.
The point here is, 1) When problems come in life, we will feel overwhelmed thinking of all the problems when in reality some problems may not exist at all if we can evaluate the problems with a rational mind. 2) We think some problems in life are like the snake and the lion but they may not be big problems. Problems in life are only as big as we think they are. 3) When there are many problems we do not need to evaluate every problem with the aim of finding a solution for it. Many of the problems could simply go away when some of the problems are solved.
This rat snake scaled the neighbor’s wall and lay there long enough for me to do its photoshoot.
When I sent these photos to my contacts on Whatsapp, majority of them sent me gawking emojis in fear. So why do we fear snakes?
Animals attack other animals primarily for food, protecting their offspring, self protection and in rare cases rescuing a fellow animal from its attacker(s). Snakes do not prey on humans so they will never attack us unless for self protection and protecting their eggs. Snakes live in human settlements for two reasons – to prey on mice and for dark and cold areas inside and around our houses to lower their body heat and digest their food. We should be more wary of urban cats and dogs than snakes because they can chase and bite us. Wild cats like tigers and leopards prey on us but attack us only if they are able to drag our body away from the spot because the smell of fresh blood and meat attract other carnivores. Lions hunt as pride which is why they do not show this behavior.
But there is an oddity in us that is not in animals – fear. In nature there is no emotion called fear. Animals running away from their predators is not in fear as we commonly believe. They run to save themselves and their only purpose is reproduction. Nature imposes population control so to stay as dominant species animals need to reproduce as many as they can. We are the only beings on the planet that live in fear of its own kind. We have created the emotion of fear in animals by encroaching and destroying their habitat and hunting them for the purpose of hurting them. Cows graze on wetlands which are snake infested but snakes rarely bite them and move away from them. Snakes bite us in self protection because we tend to kill them at every possible opportunity. Snakes have poor eyesight so they rely on smell and instincts to determine what is prey and what is a threat. Similar is the case with urban street dogs. Through smell and instincts they understand the ones among us who are hurtful to animals.
I was afraid of snakes for a long time because I was taught to be scared of them. Many snakes simply crawl away or warn us in different ways when we get close to them. Some don’t but they stay far away from human areas. We get into conflict with animals when we think we are entitled to walk anywhere and do anything we want. The planet belongs to all living beings and are entitled to live out their lifetimes if they survive in nature.
According to NASA website, “Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.”
NASA’s definition of global warming is misleading for a very specific reason. It is placing the primary responsibility of global warming on fossil fuel burning. While it is true that releasing trapped carbon in fossils back into the atmosphere has led to the greenhouse effect and increase in Earth’s surface temperature, global warming has to be understood from a much larger perspective.
From the smallest microorganisms to the blue whales, every living being generates and emits heat from its body. We consume food, break it down for providing us energy and release that energy as heat into our surroundings when we do our activities. In order to understand Earth’s surface temperature, we have to first select areas in all geographic locations, measure heat generated by every organism except humans in those areas and extrapolate the results to find out the total heat generated by all animals except humans over a specific period of time. There is a good reason to exclude humans from this exercise.
Except the animals that live in packs, all other animals try to keep distance from their own kind and from other animals except during breeding time. Being territorial about food is one reason and the other reason is, as population density increases, heat released from their bodies become amplified. Understanding body heat is easy. In a room cooled by A/c, the room will be moderately cold when there are more number of people and as more people leave the room the remaining people will start feeling colder. Also, greater population density results in faster spreading of diseases. Predator-prey relationships and diseases are two major ways how nature enforces population control on animals. So measuring the population of each animal and the amount of heat released from the body of each animal would give a good account of how much heat animals contribute towards Earth’s surface temperature. This is another reason why population control in nature is important because population control will ensure heat released from the body of animals will not significantly add to Earth’s surface temperature.
We have not only broken all laws of nature we have done lot more things that are mind boggling and incomprehensible. Earth is 70% water and 30% land of which 10-15% land is habitable. 8 billion and growing human population is jostling to live in this small percentage of land. Our perpetually increasing population density is amplifying all our body heat and to add to this, any disease could manifest into an epidemic and pandemic in no time. But it is not just our body heat that is contributing to Earth’s surface temperature. Every single creation of ours, from the smallest light bulbs to mobile phones to the largest aircrafts and rockets are burning fuel and generating heat. We are not just polluting Earth with heat generated from carbon emission, we are also creating heat from sound, light, breeding different types of cattle and poultry for our dietary needs and many more types of pollution and every type of pollution is generating copious amounts of heat all of which adds to Earth’s surface temperature. Simply put, the most significant and largest pollutant we are creating is heat.
To add to all of this, we are cutting down trees and destroying forests. Trees absorb harmful rays from the Sun and when they are gone, those harmful rays also end up heating Earth. So there are two ways in which Earth is getting heated now. Earth is getting bombarded by more harmful rays from the Sun and by the increase in Earth’s surface temperature and we are contributing significantly in both.
When we speak about climate change we have to take all of these into account. In our rich history, there is a great example of climate change if our population decreased suddenly and consequently, forest grows back. The Spanish Inquisition in the Americas in the 16th century eradicated 90% of the local population due to wars, famines and epidemics and forests grew back in the millions of hectares of human settlement areas. Research points to a global temperature drop in the 17th century which adversely affected Europe resulting in famine and epidemics and this is being correlated with what had happened in the Americas a century earlier.
All conversations about climate change largely revolve around carbon emission and the need for carbon neutrality. This is not just a very narrow way of looking at global warming but also a misleading one as well. Our exploding population and everything we are creating are all adding to global warming. Population control is no longer the solution. If human species has to survive, human depopulation is the only way. Most of us will have to die for some of us to survive. Otherwise, receding forests and increasing human population will increase Earth’s temperature to a point where Earth will become uninhabitable. But, long before it goes that bad, something else will happen. There is a natural disaster that will happen if Earth gets heated up like it is getting now – Earthquakes. Oceans when heated up will cause underwater earthquakes resulting in tsunami. There are ancient tribes that believe the world has been destroyed completely 3 times in the past and the 4th one is imminent which will be caused by cataclysmic earthquakes.
We need broader conversations about climate change caused by all the heat created by us and the consequences leading to global awareness programs with the clear message that Earth is already overloaded with us and can take no more of us. Without this, all conversations are useless.
Came across this social media post about a leopard and a dog getting stuck inside a toilet and the leopard choosing to not feed on the dog. What is interesting is the comments of wildlife researchers who have opined that the leopard became sad because it got stuck inside the toilet and lost its freedom so it no longer had interest in feeding. The glaring flaw here is, if this was true all predator animals would have starved themselves to death in captivity. Predators hunt prey and feed on the fresh meat. Some predators like lions leave the leftover carcass and walk away. Some felines like leopards and jaguars carry the leftover carcass and hide it to feed later. The point here is, fresh blood and flesh when in contact with air develops strong stench after some time. The stench is at the spot where the prey is killed. Scavengers catch this stench and arrive to devour the leftover carcass. If the leopard had killed and consumed the dog inside the toilet it would have been stuck in the enclosed space with the stench of the carcass. This is the most likely reason why it did not attack the dog.
Here is another social media post which tries to compare and equate predator-prey relationships in nature with capitalist exploitation. Animals kill only for food. Also, no animal kills members of its own species. Only we kill our fellow beings for a thousand reasons (which is why we have words such as murder, assassination, etc) and only we kill animals without the need to consume them. Capitalism is a human construct intended for some among us to become wealthy and powerful and exploit the rest of us. There is no exploitation and greed in nature and there is no parallel to capitalism in nature.
Social media platforms are inundated with posts in which animal behavior is being interpreted from our perspective. Our emotional side becomes dominant when we analyze most of the incidents and situations in life. This is what has created what we call as human-wildlife conflict. Tempers rise and emotions become frenzied every time tigers and leopards attack us, elephants enter our area and cause destruction, wild boars destroy crops and dogs, snakes and jackals steal our poultry. Question is, are animals intentionally trying to harm us? This is where we need to think from their perspective and understand their situation. The fundamental need of animals is food and water. When there is enough food and water available, animals will reproduce and multiply. When food and water becomes scarce they will not reproduce and focus only on self sustenance. To be a dominant species in nature’s ecosystem, animals have to reproduce and maintain a sizeable population. Animals adapt to changes in nature’s ecosystem to survive which is why every animal’s diet consists of a range of different items. Many animals have become omnivores and consume both plants and meat because of this reason. The exploding human population has been forced to encroach into forests thereby destroying the habitat and food sources of wild animals. We have all grown up being taught and in the belief that wild animals will die if forests become extinct. We completely missed the factor of adaptability. To survive and to reproduce, wild animals are adapting to us which is why they are attacking us, our crops and our poultry. There are always degrees of risk involved in hunting in the wild. Prey animals can cause significant injuries to predators such as zebras breaking the jaws of lions by kicking with their hind legs during hunting chase. We, our crops and poultry are easy and risk free meals so wild animals are adapting more quickly to all this. Contrary to popular belief, population of many wild animals is going to increase in due course of time.
It is this ignorance of nature and the lack of understanding of the ability of animals to adapt that has prompted this minister from my home state (Kerala) to call for the culling of tigers to control their population. There is also discussion going on to control the population of wild elephants and monkeys. As long as food is available animals will continue to reproduce and they will counter any forceful reduction in their population through more reproduction. We still do not want to admit that it is the destruction of the habitat of wild animals because of our burgeoning population that is causing human-wildlife conflict. We have already created many types of imbalances in nature’s ecosystem, the most deadly one being burning fossils and releasing all the carbon trapped in them into the atmosphere. Human-wildlife conflict is creating another imbalance where some animals are going to adapt to us and the ones that cannot are going to become extinct. We have been tugging at nature’s sleeves and pushing it to the tipping point. A global natural catastrophe is becoming increasingly imminent. What we are doing is suicidal and we are going to achieve nothing but self destruction.
October to February of every year are the most important months for the birding community. Birds in the Northern Hemisphere embark on their epic migration to escape the onset of the frigid winter season and in search of food. They start migrating after the end of their breeding season so they lose all their breeding plumage and develop nondescript plumage that can help them blend into the surroundings during their journey. The birding community in my hometown eagerly awaits every year for the migrating birds to arrive in large numbers at the vast swathe of wetlands which is home to paddy cultivation at the end of the monsoon season. Before cultivation begins the wetlands are filled with water birds and waders that give way to raptors and passerine birds when farming starts. The birding community is out there in full force during these months as there are new birds to be seen and identified when they take a breather to rest and feed and also to witness any dramatic events like raptors such as Eagles and Harriers hunting snakes and other small birds.
I am part of a birding community on social media which is specifically focused on birding in the wetlands and in the monitoring of activities at the wetlands. Amur Falcons are famous for their yearly migration from their far off breeding grounds in Siberia through the North East side of India to the southern part and eventually to the African continent. Although huge flocks are seen in the North East very few are seen in Kerala, my home state at isolated places. So the birding community went ballistic about a month back when 4 Amur Falcons arrived at the wetlands not very far from where I reside. 3 of them left abruptly but one female stayed back. Birders thronged to the location to see it and get some good shots. Couple of days back, a doctor in the group asked me if the Falcon was still there. I was told by other group members that the Falcon seemed to be injured and not in good health so it would not be wise to disturb it. But the doctor and I decided to go today and get a few distant shots. But I was completely unprepared for what I bore witness today.
When we reached the location a few birders were already there and were trying to feed the Falcon with worms in order to attract it to the ground from its perch on the high electric line so that they could get good shots.
After spending some time with them we moved ahead and came across a Black-winged Kite. Suddenly the Kite swooped down into an area of tall grass. When one birder went to check on the Kite to see if it had hunted a prey he was shocked to see the carcass of a Peregrine Falcon lying on the ground. The Peregrine Falcon had arrived a few days back and seems to have got electrocuted on the electric line today morning. We decided to shift the carcass to an open space nearby so that we can photograph the Kite consuming it.
As the Kite descended on the carcass, the Amur Falcon flew and landed near the carcass. What happened next blew our collective minds away. What we get to see on National Geographic and Animal Planet transpired right in front of our eyes. The Amur Falcon engaged in a fierce duel with the Kite for a couple of minutes. Pound to pound the Falcon is smaller than the Kite so it was riveting to see them spread out their wings on the ground and go at each other menacingly. The Kite eventually decided to abandon the carcass and flew away. I was under the assumption that the Falcon engaged with the Kite for feeding rights but the Falcon left the carcass and flew away. Amur and Peregrine Falcons share habitat during migration. They may have some sort of ecological balance with one another. Such information may get passed on genetically along with the knowledge of migration. This could be a possible reason for the Amur Falcon to fiercely protect the carcass of the Peregrine Falcon and not consume it.
These were easily some of the finest moments in the last 8 years of my birding life. Every time I go for birding I fervently hope to see and click birds in flight to capture the wonderful expanse and colors of their wings and birds hunting their prey. What I saw in these couple of moments today has trumped everything I have experienced till now.
Through the course of human civilization, we have always sung and written about the best and the victorious among us. History is all about the tales of the heroes who braved everything and emerged victorious. No word is spoken about the ones who lost because we have been taught to believe they are the villains or the bad guys or the ones who needed to lose or die. Nature teaches us that may not be the case every time. So here is a story of the one who fought valiantly and lost.
Over the years, during my walks through the wetlands I have heard cries coming underneath the water and from the bushes spread across the land. First time I heard I thought it was a kitten stuck somewhere, so similar was the cry. Local people at the wetlands told me it is the cry of toads that have been caught by snakes. In 2018 I saw the sight for the first time, a toad being swallowed by a chequered keelback. Today, I saw the sight for the second time. But this time, situation was amply different. Wetlands have been dug up for paddy cultivation and the snake had bit into the side of one of the legs of the toad. Keelbacks are non-venomous, so they have to hold on to their prey at all cost and then slowly swallow it.
The snake hadn’t grabbed the toad properly and the toad knew this so in order to shake the snake off the toad decided to jump into the water on the side of the muddy area. The toad managed to drag the quite hefty snake along with it into the water.
It could also be that the snake chose to go along with the toad because keelbacks live in muddy waters and they need not worry about losing the toad in the water.
What needs to be noticed now is the surface of the water. That is oil spilled from the machineries used to till the mud for farming. It is not just pesticides and insecticides, pollution is affecting land and farm produce in many different ways. The toad was forced to jump into this polluted hell to escape from the snake. If it had been able to shake off the snake it could have gone under the water where it could have been safer.
But even in this oily hell the snake did not let go off its vice like bite on the toad’s leg.
Finally the toad seemed to become tired and gave up on its struggle to escape from the snake’s mortal bite.
I know everyone would think that the toad was afraid of death that’s why it was trying to escape from the snake. Fear as an emotion exists only among us and not in nature. Survival is a natural instinct and all animals in nature try to survive so that they can reproduce and their species can maintain their dominance in nature’s ecosystem. All animals try to maximize reproduction and nature controls population through diseases, predator-prey relationship, etc. The toad here was only trying to survive. If there was fear in the animal world, they would have also learned to build houses to protect themselves. Birds build nests to raise their young then why don’t they build nests for them to live? Because all animals follow nature’s fundamental law of survival of the fittest and they seem to know death is part of nature.
More than a month back, as Dad was walking towards the gym for his cardiovascular workouts one morning, he suddenly became unsteady and ungainly. He had been complaining about general weakness and fatigue for some time. In a couple of days his left side became weak and was unable to move his left hand and walk properly. I took him to a physician nearby who is a M.D and is in his late 70s-early 80s. He did some basic checks on dad (he has all sensations intact on his arm and leg), checked his BP (perfectly fine at 110/80), Dad doesn’t have diabetes (his blood sugar is always less than normal though he can still eat voraciously and devour sweets), so the doctor told us to do some lab tests the report of which was all clear. Then the doctor, suspecting stroke because of possible blood clot in dad’s brain prescribed couple of tablets to make his blood thinner and dissolve the clots and another tablet to improve his nerve functions. Then he told me to improve dad’s diet and take him for physiotherapy sessions. A doctor I know who was the senior doctor at a government hospital and is pursuing P.G in general surgery now told me the weakness could be because of Vitamin D deficiency (Dad hates sun after he had a severe bout of migraine) and asked me to put dad immediately on high dose of Vitamin D tablets once a week and daily calcium tablet.
Dad slowly started feeling better but wasn’t confident about going for physiotherapy sessions so I looked up on YouTube and started basic exercises to strengthen his arm and leg. Then people who know us started getting to know about dad’s condition and were shocked that we did not consult a neurologist and did not do his brain scan. Couple of days back, he finally agreed to go for physiotherapy. The physiotherapist we went to was agitated and demanded us to meet a neurologist, do a scan and then meet him. So I went back to the first doctor and he laughed before prescribing for CT scan. Yesterday we did the scan and everything was fine in the report. The doctor told me dad may have had a Transient Ischemic Attack (TSA) which lasts for a very short period possibly because of minute old clots mentioned in the report. Dad is going to take a while to be back to normal but he has already started moving his hand and is walking better now. The weakness he was complaining about could have been because of Sarcopenia, a condition where people lose skeletal muscle mass and strength due to ageing.
Then the doctor told me something insane. People no longer believe in physicians and clinical diagnosis. They just run to specialists every time they assume something is wrong with them. On top of this they ask for scans and lab tests to be done. Headache for two days and people go on Google, start reading things with no understanding of human anatomy, diseases and their diagnosis and go to doctors suspecting brain tumor and asking for scans to be done. They no longer care or believe in physical examination and diagnostic abilities of doctors no matter how experienced they are. This is what is Googlopathy.
The other doctor whom I spoke to threw a different curve ball at me. A regular doctor or physician could go wrong with his/her diagnosis but it could quickly earn bad reputation for specialists that’s why they are left with no option but to recommend lab tests and scans for every medical issue. We are on herd mentality behavior now where we blindly believe we can be cured only by specialists who charge high fees, do frequent consultation and prescribe tons of tablets, scans and lab tests. Our mindset has changed into believing that when we spend more money on something we will be getting more in return. The specialists are essentially tricking us into exploiting this mindset we have.
Even the regular doctors and specialists are practising Googlopathy now. I had taken dad to a nephrologist in a private hospital a few years back for suspected kidney weakness because his feet were swelling intermittently. The nephrologist, probably in his late 30s-early 40s took his mobile tablet, searched on a website (probably webmd.com) and asked us to do 10 lab tests. I was horrified. With my extremely limited knowledge of medicine and treatment I could have done the same. He did not even bother to ask what dad was experiencing, if he had other health issues, etc. I did the tests and took dad to a nephrologist who was working in a government hospital and was much older (in his 60s). He glanced at the lab report, cast it aside and said older people will develop slight swelling on their feet because of ageing which can be safely ignored.
I told dad the doctor we consulted was experienced enough to send him to a neurologist if he suspected dad had suffered a stroke. The confidence with which he told dad to go home was extraordinary and it came from his wealth of experience which no technology can match. The so called alternate treatment methods such as ayurveda and homeopathy have treated people for hundreds and thousands of years only through diagnosis by understanding the symptoms. Sadly, even those doctors are gravitating towards scans and lab tests now because it makes diagnosis quicker and easier. Our abilities to create and use technological devices is killing our natural ability to do clinical diagnosis.
This degradation is not limited to the field of medicine. Technological devices are destroying all our natural instincts and abilities. Birders use binoculars to identify birds at long distances. Birds are found in specific habitat, the way they perch is different and the shape and size of their wings is different which we can see when they fly. Birders should train themselves to identify birds using these aspects. Doing something the easy way does not mean it is always the best way. Our preference is to eat tasty food but no food in nature is tasty and animals choose food for nutrients not for taste. Our craving for taste has allowed unhealthy food industries to thrive and destroy our health. If we are topping this up with Googlopathy and consuming medicines at will we wont be needing an asteroid strike or nuclear war for our extinction. A bed ridden relative who passed away last year was being fed 17 tablets in the morning (17 you read it right). The line between amusement and horror blurred momentarily for me when I saw it.
A renowned snake catcher in my home state in India is battling for his life after being bitten by a cobra. I have been coming across many discussions about snakes and snake rescue on social media so debunking some of the myths and stories surrounding snakes is essential.
Aren’t we all scared of snakes and especially the venomous ones? I read somewhere some time back that 80% of deaths happening due to snake bites is in reality due to cardiac arrests because we are terrified of snakes. The number could be an exaggeration but this is largely true. What most people do not know is, snakes stay away from us as much as they can because of very important reasons.
Snake venom is a lethal combination of proteins and enzymes. Proteins cause paralysis in their prey and immobilize them and ultimately killing them and enzymes help in the digestion of the prey. Snakes may not be able to chase all their prey so it is important for them to immobilize their prey first so that they can wait for the prey to die and then swallow it. Snakes hold their venom in glands on the sides of their head. They use their venom for two reasons : killing prey and countering any threats to them. Snakes do not eat us so we are not their prey. So the only reason they attack us is when they feel threatened by us. Once a snake uses all its venom it takes time for the glands to secrete venom again. During that time snakes are unable to catch prey or defend themselves. This is why once snakes consume a large prey they go hide themselves and rest till the prey is fully digested so that they get enough time to secrete their venom again. Snakes conserve their venom and use it only when it is absolutely required. This is why most venomous snakes warn us repeatedly before attacking us.
Why do we find snakes in our areas? First and the most important reason is we are encroaching more and more into forest land which is their natural habitat and we are destroying their natural food sources. But we are also inadvertantly providing them with alternate habitat and food sources. Rodents breed in large numbers where we store grains and other food items and we also have poultry farms. In nature a successful hunt can take anywhere from a day to a week which is why predators always look to catch the largest possible prey. So their natural instinct is to consume large quantities of food when they eat but they are adapting to us now because we are forcing them to. Now animals like snakes and jackals do not have to wait to catch a prey. They can easily come to human areas and consume the poultry we raise. In our granaries and other areas where we store our agricultural products and even in our houses we provide enough dark spaces for snakes to rest.
From snake rescue program Snake City shot in Durban, South Africa to Snakes SOS: Goa’s Wildest shot in Goa, India, rescuing snakes from urban areas have become popular TV shows. There are concerns about snake rescue though. Snake rescue depends entirely on people and situations. Many people may not bother to call for help to snake rescuers. They will just kill the snakes. Rescued snakes are taken to areas where there is enough green cover and let off. What eventually happens is, the population of snakes in those areas increases and with it the competition to find food. Then some or many of them will move away to areas where there are human settlements looking for food and the whole snake rescue process will repeat. When I was in Bangalore in 2016, I used to go for birding walks around a lake near a college campus. The entire area is covered with trees and there is ample green cover. Then one day I got to know that snakes rescued from anywhere in Bangalore was brought to this area and let off. That was quite scary because lots of people go for early morning walks in that area and around the lake. I even saw a cobra once in the area surrounding the lake.
To add to this, when snake venom enters our veins it goes straight into the heart causing immediate cardiac arrest. Neurotoxic venom destroys our nervous system making us paralyzed in no time. Snakes like spitting cobra can spit venom to considerable distances which can cause immediate blindness if it enters our eyes. I have read about the venom of sea snakes which can apparently melt our body cells and cause blood to ooze out of our skin pores. There is no treatment still available for venom of some of the sea snakes. Even a perfectly healthy immune system will not be able to protect us from such toxic venom. Prevention is better than cure fits nowhere better than with snake bites. Understanding snakes and their behavior will go a long way in helping us from getting bitten by them.
Snake rescue is not a glamorous act as some snake rescuers are portraying it to be. All of them may have gone through a snake bite induced near death experience at least once in their lives. We do not have any options though. With our exponentially increasing population and ever increasing encroachment into forest land, we are going to have to coexist with the animals that are adapting to the changes we are forcing on nature.
I was explaining Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to a good friend and that is when I realized how it can be used to understand patriarchy. We have come across patriarchy being interpreted and described in a variety of ways but we still do not have a good understanding of its evolutionary aspects. For those who are new to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is a simple illustration of our needs in life and has to be analyzed from bottom to top. There are new and hilarious versions of the model now, with internet and mobile battery being the most important of our needs.
Our needs in life begins with the most basic ones which is why they are at the foundation of this model. According to priority our physiological needs can be further subdivided into
Air and water Food Sleep
These are our most fundamental needs for survival.
Then comes shelter which offers us protection and that is when we step into reproduction.
I will go no further than what Morgan Freeman’s character Professor Norman says here in the stunning and eye opening movie Lucy. When the habitat of a living being is not conducive enough for life it will choose self preservation and when the habitat is conducive enough it will choose reproduction. It is an evolutionary fact in all animals that a major portion of their energy is meant for reproduction because for the survival of their species reproducing as many as they can is critical since nature controls population of all animals primarily through predator-prey relationships and diseases. So in difficult environment animals choose their own survival over reproduction because even if they reproduce their offspring will not be able to survive. This is evidently how Turtles and Crocodiles survived the asteroid strike that made dinosaurs extinct.
Reproduction leads to security in Safety needs because we need to protect our family. Then, to work and take care of our family, we need health and work to do. For the longest time in our evolution, being able to meet the physiological and safety needs led to directly to Esteem. Being physically stronger it was the men who went out, faced the dangers in nature and weathered the different climates to hunt for food and find wood to burn. So men who were able to meet all or most of the physiological and safety needs were recognized and respected within the families and community which lead to attaining higher social status and being considered as a community leader.
Love and belonging are not characteristics in nature, in fact what we get to see in animals during their courtship is different aspects of the process involved in mating and breeding. There is no place for love and belonging in the harsh and uncertain nature where life expectancy is very low. It was only after we became more intelligent beings we became civilized and started leading societal life did our emotional aspects evolve. In those times when we had to brave nature’s extremes there was only the need to work together to hunt, fish and cut wood. Friendship and camaraderie are products of our evolution into the societal life we live now. Life was all about survival so intimacy was not even known or required and the only form of love required was affection for the children when they were growing up.
Patriarchy is essentially men taking care of physiological and safety needs and expecting esteem in return from their families. Nothing exemplifies this better than a particular scene in the biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag of celebrated Indian athlete Milkha Singh. The young Milkha and his older married sister had managed to cross over into India from Pakistan during the bloody partition of India in 1947. They were in a refugee camp and his sister is shown in a makeshift tent cooking food when her husband arrives. There is no emotional reunion, he ignores Milkha and heads straight for the tent, enters, sees his wife and closes the entrance. This is how men were from the cave dwelling times. All the male testosterone and adrenaline rush from hunting and fishing and bringing home food and wood is further bolstered by the exhilaration of returning home alive. They had no time to understand women and their needs. Women were simply meant to satisfy them in whatever ways that made them happy and put them to sleep after a long day outside. This patriarchy is clearly visible in the epic Ramayan followed in India. Ram, the protagonist travels all the way from the north to southern tip of India and crosses over to Lanka in search of his wife who was kidnapped by the demon king of Lanka. After slaying the demon king and rescuing her, patriarchy overpowers his love for her and she is asked to walk through fire to prove her “purity” for him.
We have evolved in all aspects of life but we are still holding on to some remnants from our past, notably religion and patriarchy because their effectiveness in controlling us hasn’t waned. A lot hasn’t really changed from our ancient cave dwelling past, hunting first got replaced by agriculture, livestock and barter system and now there is the additional factor called money. We have created a new world that stands on the foundation of money and with money we can buy all the utilities and services we have created to meet our needs. There is a simple tradeoff though, there is a barter system between time and money now. We get more money in return for giving up more of our time. The ancient patriarchal mindset has simply shifted to earning more money, buying utilities and services with money and expecting esteem and stature in return.
Our patriarchal mindset is blinding us to the simple fact that what we build physically is a house and the house becomes our home only with love, togetherness, sense of belonging and emotional contentment. Ancient Indian texts have a very sensible classification of human lives. Till 23 years it is time for education, attaining knowledge and becoming wise of the world. Then from 24-48 it is family time. From 48-72 it is time to step out of the family and serve the community and after 72 renounce all earthly needs and attachments to make our death and journey to the afterlife easier. The hidden secret here is the population control aspect. By the time we become 48 our children have to be old enough to live on their own only then we can step into community service. So what we have is 24 years to raise our children with the right balance of physical and emotional health and contentment. Patriarchy and patriarchal mindset ignores these simple things which is why without emotional understanding and bonding we have lost the connection between our souls and are increasingly becoming individual isolated beings searching in the virtual world for what we have lost in the physical world.
When established norms and widely accepted views are questioned and challenged, it has become normal to call them conspiracy theories. The term conspiracy theory has a predecessor. Heresy. Anyone opposing the views of the Church were branded as heretics and burned on stakes. Apparently more than 50,000 women who opposed the patriarchal rules of the Church were branded as witches and burned on stakes during the Dark Ages. One of the most famous ones is Nicolaus Copernicus who was admonished by the Church for his heliocentric theory which displaced Earth and put Sun at the center of the Universe. The most famous conspiracy theories that have been going around for the past several decades are about aliens and UFOs.
Two conspiracy theories have taken hold of the world from the time the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
1) The COVID-19 virus was released from the virology lab at Wuhan in China and it did not jump from the bats to us as we have been repeatedly told 2) The objective of the COVID-19 virus and the vaccines for it is part of the depopulation agenda, to wipe out most of our population
I have been getting bombarded with messages on social media about these for quite some time now so I finally decided to take an objective look at them. We know Copernicus was ridiculed and his work was banned for a few centuries before sensibility dawned on the scientific community as knowledge about science progressed. So it doesn’t matter if what are called as conspiracy theories are true or not. Throughout our history, majoritarian views have always been opposed and we have fought relentlessly for dissenting voices to be heard. An opposing view to an established norm allows us to look at the other side and maybe change or improve the existing situation.
So, Was the COVID-19 virus released from a lab? I would rephrase the question and ask “has our medical and technological knowledge become sophisticated enough to create and release a new virus from a lab?” We do have enough knowledge now to splice up our genes in the lab, not all genes but we are on the way. We are working on repairing defective genes which means we can get rid of genetic diseases. This means we must have developed the capability to manipulate and alter the genetic structure of at least some of the organisms. Medical community would endorse the need to play around with microorganisms so that new medicines and vaccines can be developed to fight potentially new diseases. But there is a catch here. Medicine is a profit making industry. Creating new medicines and vaccines is innovation for pharmaceutical companies. There are two problems with it.
1) The medical system we follow now is treatment based and not wellness based. Prevention is better than cure no longer holds water now. We have become too busy to worry about our health. Health is wealth has become wealth is health. There are hospitals and we have insurance policies. So we live with the belief that when we fall sick we will be adequately protected. The reality is nowhere near to it. Our immune system is and has always been our first line of defense. The caveat with the immune system though is, it needs to be constantly engaged with the natural elements. That is the only way it can learn about new diseases and variants of existing ones and develop immunity against them. Medicines and vaccines are boosters for the immune system, a tiny external intervention for the immune system to learn about new diseases and protect us faster.
2) When we fiddle with microorganisms and alter their genes in labs, no amount of safeguards are enough. If the virus manages to escape in any way, it will mutate immediately when exposed to nature. A disaster in the form of an epidemic can start off any time. Because of our global proximity now, it can become a pandemic in no time like we have seen in the case of COVID-19.
So can we mutate and create a new virus in a lab? Yes. Will we release such a virus into nature? We could. After atomic and chemical warfare, biological and cyber space are the new means of waging wars. Was this done with COVID-19 virus? We may never know. If yes, would there be a possible intent? Read on.
Now, is there something called a depopulation agenda? Well, apparently there was. Noah’s story of the Ark is not just a Biblical story. We need to understand a bit of history here. The authors of the Bible have borrowed heavily from ancient Babylonian texts which in turn were written under the influence of even more ancient Sumerian tablets. This is recorded history. Our history goes back even further than this. It is called pre-history. How do we know this? Ancient texts all over the world are written in verses. Pre-history was information handed down to the next generations orally because writing wasn’t invented at that time. What is created as a verse can be recited and sung. Its far more easier to remember and reproduce a story as a song than a remember it as a story.
I guess most people know of Noah’s story. Noah is the Biblical name the name is different in different ancient texts.
So the story goes that the creator Gods of humans left Earth and sent angels (watchers) to watch over our activities and report back to them. Our lifestyle became wayward with time, we procreated randomly creating genetic diseases among us, our population increased manifold and we caused huge destruction to nature. To add to the woes, the angels became enamored with the beautiful women, procreated with them and the children born to them became giants. When the Gods finally got wind of what was happening on Earth, they were enraged. They banished the angels from heaven forever and decided to cleanse the planet of us. So Noah was chosen and tasked with building a boat to house a pair of every animal. Then the world was swept over by floods and everything was destroyed. The plan was to eventually kill Noah and his family , but one God took pity and gave us another chance.
The situation we are in now is eerily similar to Noah’s story. Massive population, random lifestyle, genetic diseases and wanton destruction of nature. We are 7 billion now and the way we are growing we will likely add 2 billion more in another 20-30 years. The planet cannot handle anymore of us. More depletion and destruction of nature will trigger a full scale mass extinction event. Natural disasters will wipe out every living being as nature seeks to restore her balance. It is imperative that our population on the planet decreases significantly. A war will be nuclear this time and will destroy the planet completely. The only way out is large scale mortality through diseases. Here’s a small story to illustrate how larger population is detrimental to our survival.
This is a cat that comes home for food but doesn’t stay and is not domesticated. He came home sick last week. He isolated himself from all other cats, refused to have food and slept for two days. He banked on his immune system to fight off what had afflicted him and used all the blood in his body to power his immune system. He started having food only when he felt better. If we were doing this we wouldn’t be needing lockdowns. But we can’t because we cannot isolate ourselves completely from others because of our huge population thereby making everyone vulnerable to contagious diseases. This, along with the fast depleting natural resources has made our ever burgeoning population the biggest risk for our own existence and is a significant reason for our increasing mortality rate.
Most people above 60 years have comorbidities and life threatening health issues. A large population of people between 18-45 years are leading sedentary lifestyles. Their lives revolve around A/c houses to A/c cars to A/c office buildings in cities every day. Add poor eating and sleeping habits to this with little to no physical activities. These two groups of people have very poor immunity and are vulnerable to any new disease.
So is there an overwhelming case to depopulate ourselves? Yes. Nature controls population of organisms primarily in two ways: 1) Predator-prey relationship 2) Diseases. Our population increase began when we exited nature’s predator-prey food chain which was accentuated after we found ways to treat diseases. Through population control nature imposes the “survival of the fittest” rule on all living beings. Only the healthiest animals procreate and take their species forward. The whole exercise of yearly migration of animals is not just a journey in search of food. Only the ones that survive all the odds during the journey will return home and reproduce. The survival of the species is always important than the survival of an individual and it applies to all organisms. If our massive population has become a threat to the survival of our own species and of the planet then the only option left is to downsize it. Was the COVID-19 virus released intentionally to depopulate us? We may never know.
But the increasing oddities on the ground are hard to ignore. Manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines are demanding indemnity from any adverse short term and long term outcomes of administering the vaccines. That in itself is a huge question on the credibility of the vaccines. Masking, sanitizing and social distancing have to continue even after taking the vaccines, the reason given being current vaccines may not protect us from new variants of COVID-19 virus. If this assumption is true, we are all vulnerable to new variants of small pox, TB, etc. All the vaccines we have taken from our childhood are useless. I asked this to a doctor and all he could do was to smile.
Moreover, this is a video of a new mask that is being developed to protect us from COVID-19 virus. Sneezing is our biological response to foreign substances in our respiratory system just like vomiting is for our digestive system. When we sneeze we instinctively cover our faces. So the first line of defense for contagious respiratory diseases is masks. Governments have imposed using of masks on all of us without specifying what type of masks will protect us from the virus. Use of random masks will not protect us from any diseases. The logic behind making a mask for protection from viruses like COVID-19 is very simple. Either destroy the viruses on the inside or outside of the masks. Why did no government take the initiative to build such masks? Why did they start vaccination drives with vaccines the efficacies of which are not yet clear? Finally, are we saying it took us two years to come up with a mask and less than a year to make vaccines?
Ironically, if some among us were to indeed execute a depopulation program, it wouldn’t be the healthiest and strongest among us. Rather, it would be the ones with money and power, the ones who have the means and the wherewithal. It is money and power that decides how strong we are in society now and not our immune system. If the healthiest among us become casualties of the depopulation program and only the wealthiest among us with lesser immunity survive, where will this lead the future of our species to? Looks like a high octane topic of debate.
I am hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic and the two conspiracy theories will start entrenching in all of us the need to improve and strengthen our immune system and the realization that only a strong immune system will make us healthy and protect us from diseases. About the rest, let the debates and flow of social media messages continue.
Ranjeet Menon's Blog 