sneak peak

never pass an opportunity to travel or see your family.

Thailand's forests
In January this year the Thai Government announced a ban on all logging. The decision to scrap 301 existing logging concessions followed disastrous flooding, brought about by deforestation. In November 1988, 14 provinces of South Thailand were devastated. Mountains of logs, undergrowth and mud swept down on hillside villages leaving more than 430 dead, 300 missing and 70,000 injured.

The race for profits by the logging companies has stripped the forest cover of the country. In the 1940s more than 70 per cent of the country was forested. By 1985 the figure was down to 29 per cent and that was suspected to be a gross overestimate from the Royal Forest Department. About half this area is meant to be protected forests - national parks and wildlife sanctuaries - but the protection is seldom enforced. And after the strip logging the land is left as scrub grassland or used for arabic farming.

The public outcry following the November floods has at last jolted the Government into action.

From Asian-Pacific Environment, Vol. 5 No.4,1989

tropical malady

political ecology

deforestation of thailand

note to self:
what are the policies around forest reserves in thailand? what is the reinterpretation of land use with these new laws? consider the political economy of local resource use, regional patterns of land use, ambiguity of land tenure, research FAO, food and agricultural organization of the united nations.

ss and i toured w the curator of painting and sculptures at sfmoma. he walked art table through the fisher art collection. loved it.

reading:


to read:

o. paz

Moksha is a gnosis and a praxis. First, it is a knowledge. Not in the modern sense of knowing- which has been generally reduced to information about this or that- but in the more ancient sense of realizing the truth: that is, making it real and effective, living it and becoming one with it. Moksha is self-knowledge. To understand oneself, one must practice introspection and eliminate the superfluous: karma and all that goes with it, enthusiasms, dislikes, nostalgia, affection, ego, personal consciousness. In that way one discovers that one's true self is other. This self has, according to the different schools and religions, various names: atman, sat, purusha. It is also emptiness. It is neither an I nor a you nor a he nor a she. It is neither a noun nor a pronoun. It has no weight, size, age, taste: it is only...

productive monday

brother time.
mc time.
half moon bay nursery.
fitzgerald marine reserve w harbor seals (described as marine sausages!)
skipping lecture to do (photo) work at home.

last night he said, "you should try breathing deeper. you should feel your stomach rising up and falling down. press it if you want, when you're laying down and doing deep breathing." later, i looked down and saw four needles in my stomach, laid out in a cross. there were also three on each inner arm, and a lot on my feet.

i have a grand amount of time, but it still doesn't feel like enough. i suppose i've been doing a lot of adventures. i went to arroyo seco two weeks ago. i think im going to monterey this weekend. i find that i take pleasure in going to bed early. i'm not outing like i thought i would, but i find that i am at home reading or on my computer editing. i am trying to decide when is the best time to buy a new monitor. i am also trying to schedule the next two years of my life (loosely).

i'm not necessarily counting the days that pass, but as the next day comes certain things surface as more important, more urgent. here i am in san francisco right now, but i think that can change.