Garden Holocaust

We planted our garden late this year and our goal was for it to not transform into a pit of weeds. It happened last year, in my weakened state, my lung still recovering from a spontaneous collapse, I watched with grief as nature took its natural course. Dominant, aggressive plants, which could grow faster and stronger, rampaged without remorse through the newly planted seedlings. Those poor tomato plants...I had named them in March. Jim, Doris and Ignatious were all strangled to death by an invasive species of violets. Jerusalem Artichokes smothered Mary, Paul and Jesus (seems nature is fond of religious allegory). My one heirloom, Sir William Xavier III, imported from a special nursery south of Kent, was rubbed out by a nearby zucchini. It was a holocaust on a community garden scale.

Painstakingly did I revisit, but each visit was like stabbing my side with a blunt trowel. With agony I observed the perfect destruction and obliteration of three months of labor. My work, my efforts, soon disappeared under a rich green quilt of foliage. After a few more visits, I could no longer bear the sight. For in this small 16x12 foot space did I realize the inevitable path of human effort. This space was a microcosm of all existence. I saw that all human efforts were temporal, were minutiae, were rain drops in the vast cycle of earthly history. The fact that my green beans were decimated, my petunias pulverized, my carrots eviscerated, is testament to the power of nature and its inevitable and fateful march towards supreme conquest. We humans may think we have an upperhand, but it is a folly to assume dominance against a force which will stampede forward well beyond a human life span. I mourned not only the loss of my lettuce, but also the hopelessness of human effort.

One year passed and it was winter. A cold Boston day that makes you wish for warmer climates, I walked to the garden. By now, it was all death. Everything was yellow and crunched loudly under my foot steps. I was a giant walking on the skeletons of old friends. I stooped low to the ground and brushed aside the frail remnants. I looked at the brown rich earth, the same earth which I poured my sweat, energy and passion into a year before. I grabbed a handful and took in the scent, and something told me that this was not the end.

I stand now in the midst of my Eden and in front of me is a line that I have drawn in the dirt. I have dared Nature to cross it. I know its not long before it does.

Botany for designers

I have started taking a class at the Boston Architectual College called "Botany for Designers". For a recent project, we went to the MFA to look at how paints are depicted in art. Below are several of the pictures, drawings and descriptions i completed

The simple design of this chair highlights its beauty. Chinese art and furniture is defined by its minimalist approach. This particular chair does not have any ornate designs, instead it has a small scene on the center back rest. A few twigs, a flower and a resting bird, is all that is carved. However, this small detail amplifies the magic of the chair. The few twigs and leaves infuse life back into the chair. It is as if the chair is still a living organism. When I look at this chair, I don't see a chair made out of dead wood, but instead a chair that is still alive.

In this 1930's Japanese scene, we see that the center piece of the painting is the carefully pruned flowering bamboo plant. While the women on the left is holding and caressing a small pet dog, the women on the right is literally pampering the plant. Look at her focused gaze and her steady hand as she applies a choice amount of water, through a specially created contraption. Furthermore, the women to the left and the dog are both also focused on the plant. The painting demonstrates how plants can also take on identities and become cherished individuals in our lives.

Several weeks ago, I visited a peony farm. At the time, the five acres of peonies were about a week away from blossoming. One morning, I assisted in the de-budding (or dis-budding as they call in the biz) process. Plant after plant, row after row, I clipped off the small buds, allowing for the plant to devote energy and nutrients to the main flower. Especially interesting was that all the buds were covered with small ants. These ants would eat glucose and bacteria growing on the flowers. Interestingly, both peony and ant share a symbiotic relationship for without the ants, the plants would take longer to blossom.

Indian culture is rich with metaphors and the deeper meaning and essence of a story is represented within symbols—often times plants. Buddah sat beneath the Bodhi Tree where he vowed never to arise until he had found the Truth. In this illustrated manuscript, Krishna has slayed the demon Dhenuka. The whole manuscript is covered with trees and plants, so much so, that Krishna is not the center focus of the piece. Instead, it is the beautiful and idyllic garden. The cows and people which are interwoven with the scene, create an image of a peaceful, serene and jovial place, despite the murder scene in the lower left hand corner.

Waldoboro, Maine

I have been hanging out the past few days in Waldoboro, Maine.  It's refreshingly nice to escape the oppressive confines of the city, and I have taken full advantage of the outdoor activities and the plentiful National Geographics. On Saturday, we engaged in a riveting game of tennis, and yesterday, we sparred off in a few intense matches of badminton. 

The Drapkin family has been more hospitable than one could imagine, and the rural life is a welcome respite.  I am sure today, we will find ourselve in another venture of some sort.

World War two

After a week of straight reading, I finally finished A Man Called Intrepid. It recounts the secret intelligence and guerrilla war that was spearheaded by Bill Stephenson.  I really enjoyed the book because it gave new insight into a part of World History that it is nowadays taken for granted.  When previously studying World War Two, it always was a fore spoken conclusion that the Allies won and the Axis lost. I thought that this occurred primarily through victories on the battle field.  However, Intrepid discusses how the victories on the battle field were directly attributable to the victories of a separate intelligence war.  

The book recounts how even before the US entered the war, there were joint operations being conducted between the British secret service and the US government.  The actions of these agencies resulted in such feats as the deciphering of the German's enigma message system, the disrupting Nazi attempts to create a nuclear weapon and the formation and support of guerrilla armies throughout Europe.

I think the most prevalent point of the book and the thing that drove my passion for reading it was that WWII was won because of intelligence and clever ideas opposed to brute force.  WWII was one of the moments in history and when humanity as a whole could have fallen down a dark hole of despair.  The Nazi's used fear, secrecy, lies and brutality to force their ideology and will upon people.  However, it were these very policies that formed the weakness of the Nazi. Through the courage of the free citizens to expose and shine light upon their misdeeds was it possible to destory the greatest evil in modern history.

 

medical insurance debacle and noah in town

This morning was a battle with the Medical Insurance establishment.  About this time last year, my lung collapsed.  Consquently, I racked up quite the bill from the hospital (near 20k).  Fortunately, I had health insurance, but even with this assistance, I am paying quite a bit.  Today, I decided that I would fight back.  I think that it is a strategy of insurance companies and hospitals to bombard with as many bills as possible.  I have bills from 8 different departments within the hospital! The strategy is that they hope that a patient will feel overwhelmed by total bills and will just pay whatever they say to pay. Today, I realized that if I am confused about how much I need to pay, then whose to say that the insurance company or hospital didn't get confused while figuring out my bill?It's not as if they are good buddies of mine who want me to pay less. I basically came to the realization today that there is a certain amount that I have to pay out of pocket, and I understand this and itis fine, but any amount above that is unacceptable.  Thrilled with this realization, I dove headlong into the process, and was proud to show instant results.  For one of the bills, the insurance company mis-calculated (which means i pay less).  I imagined it as if i had made a dint in the armor of an inpentrable knight. Before I thought that insurance companies couldn't make a mistake, now I smell blood in the water. Now to more positive matters. 

Noah came to town today and we spent a good deal of time discussing the substance of life.  We mostly just sat at Otherside, basking in the sun and talking a good many things. We tried going to the garden and watering, but alas, the main water pipe is still broken. The tomato plants look pretty thirsty. 

Later on we went all the way to the north end to Mike's Pastry. We ate them at the waterfront, watching sailing races in the harbor. 

Also i watched this video today

Tribes and garden

Today was particulary cold in Boston, and I fear a frost may come upon us.  Such an event would mean certain peril for our newly planted tomato plants.  It would be truly sad if our unique heirloom species, imported all the way from Pennslyvania, were to freeze to death.  

As I was walking along Newbury today for my daily coffee, I was passing the Boston Architecture School when a bulletin caught my eye.  It was advertising summer classes and one in class in particular seemed interesting.  

"Botany for Designers: Plant form and function, evolution of seed plants, plant ecology, plant communities, basic plant physiology, and prospects for conserving plant biodiversity will be highlighted in this non-science majors' course designed for undergraduates." 

Yea, that sounds pretty cool. However, at $749 for just auditing the class, I am going to see if we can negotiate this down.

I also watched an interesting video about tribes today; however, his final request to make a tribe and create change is a little far fetched.

Gardening and Plants

Had another exciting day in the garden. We got our dirt delivered by the Fenway Garden Society--a whomping 20 bags of dirt and 5 bags of manure. It took eight trips in a rickety decrepit wheel barrow to haul the load into the garden. As Ms. Drapkin, commented later, 25 bags of top soil and manure for $46 was truly dirt cheap. Besides the delivery, I put the finishing touches to our boxes.

some interesting things we have discovered are the names of two plants which we were wondering about in the fens. The first is "Bloody Dock", which we have two of planted in our lettuce patch. The second was in one of the front gardens (which I refer to as the show-off gardens). We were passing by and saw two beautiful pink flowering plants, turned out they were Dahlias.

Both of these plants are perennials, meaning that they live for more than two years. I like the idea of this over annuals, which are only alive for one growing season. Annuals are kind of a pain in the ass. Every year, you have to go back in, replant, water, wait to grow and then harvest. Perennials you just let them do their own thing. Wikipedia also had an interesting piece about the benefits of perennials over annuals:

"Perennial plants often have deep, extensive root systems which can hold soil to prevent erosion, capture dissolved nitrogen before it can contaminate ground and surface water, outcompete weeds (reducing the need for pesticides), and help to mitigate global warming by carbon sequestration. These potential benefits of perennials have resulted in new attempts to increase the seed yield of perennial species[4], which could result in the creation of new perennial grain crops."

What are perennial grain crops? Could these new grain crops be a solution a more sustainable food source? Could wheat or corn be adapted to become a perennial? The implications could have a major impact on the environment and the future of food consumption.

Found this song today and will certainly be humming it tomorrow as we begin planting veggies.

Corporate Social Responsibility 2

In the same vein as last week, it’s about time I wrote about the work of my friend, Jake de Grazia. Jake started an innovative website called the Carrot Project.  The carrot project is a brand comparison tool. It's a website that helps people consume with a purpose, as the site puts it. The Carrot Project is a website that allows consumers to choose products such as toothpaste, sneakers and other such consumer products based upon the CSR level of the companies that produce them. 

For example, if I wanted to buy a tube of tooth paste, I can browse through all the different companies that produce toothpaste and make my decision to buy Crest vs Colgate based upon what the CSR levels of Proctor/Gamble vs Colgate-Palmolive.     

Currently, the website is gathering information about businesses and products. He is asking people to look at what his group has found, add to it, dispute it, and adjust it. Specifically, seeking help to figure out which businesses consumers should support and why. 

I think it is an amazing idea and truly has the power to shape and influence how consumers decide which products to buy.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Today I ventured out to Boston College to have a meeting with Phil Mirvis, a fellow at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.  You may query, what is the Center for Corporate Citizenship? It is a center for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), or in other words, businesses being aware of how their actions affect society and taking responsibility for their impact on the world.  When I worked with microfinance firms, CSR was always a big issue.  Increasingly, it is becoming mandatory for companies, especially large ones, to demonstrate that they are complying by what a society deems good.  For example, Nike employing child laborers (bad).  Nike supporting education and labor friendly programs (good). 

After talking with Phil and reading some of the center's info, I was especially interested in the Center's stages for Corporate Citizenship.  The stages are a useful resource to pinpoint where a corporation lies on the spectrum of CSR.  It ranges from a company being elementary (firms abiding by the more basic requirements of social responsibility dictated by law) to transforming (firms creating social change through new and visionary policies).  In this age, where an enormous amount of information is available to individuals, a large business can not afford to ignore CSR.  I think back to this summer, when every week we learned that products made in China contained hazardous materials.  Milk and chocolate containing melamine, toy engines covered in lead.  The news of these events spiraled the world an ultimately hurt the bottom line of all the companies involved.  I give the Center kudos for helping to influence corporations to acknowledge CSR and creating change with the help of business leaders.

Cape Wind

I was stopped on the street today by one of the Greenpeace peoples.  I have always made it a policy to listen to what they have to say as long as they are willing to walk in the direction I am going.  Christine, an advocate for the organization, was more than happy to oblige.  She began by discussing the Cape Wind project and I was happy to learn that the initiative had been finally passed.  

It has been a legal battle for Cape Wind to get approval to set up the offshore wind farm in the middle of Buzzards Bay, and it has been a bitter battle to set up the turbines that has pitted neighbor against neighbor, brother against sister and Mother against son. 

I personally feel proud that Massachusetts is taking the lead in developing alternative forms of energy.  One of the main arguments against the wind farms has been that they would be an eyesore on the horizon. However, I have seen wind farms in California, Hawaii and Europe, and have found that they add beauty to  the environment.  Wind farms epitomize co-existence between Man and the Earth.  They demonstrate how our development as a species need not be detrimental.  

Furthermore, people visit Cape Cod for the natural beauty of the environment.  However, it is hypocritical for residences to oppose the wind farm when currently the Cape get its power from an antiquated coal power plant! 

Venture Capital Panel

This evening I went to panel discussion held at the Vilna Shul entitled: "Boston-area Venture Capital (VC): Looking Back on 2008 and Looking Forward to 2009". The panel had three representatives from the venture capital industry.  The most interesting nugget I extrapolated from the talk is that there will be huge changes in the VC industry.  As one of the speakers noted, the industry is facing a myriad of issues which include decreasing valuations, fewer big deals and a flight of capital. One of the most frightening problems is that many of the VC’s acquired companies at their peak valuation and since the market downturn, it is going to be a long time before these firms can be sold at for a reasonable return.

Venture capitalists are like Microfinance institutions for the US.  If you are an entrepreneur in Boston and have a good idea, you will not go to a bank to get funding; you will go to a VC. VCs are one of the reasons of why entrepreneurship in the US really pays off.  VCs have millions of dollars at their disposal and look for the next big idea for investment. I will say that the structures of Venture Capitalist firms vs MFIs are very different; additionally, the purpose for investing is dissimilar, but VCs offer a path by which entrepreneurs can quickly expand and grow.

I do have qualms with how VCs operate, and I have seen first hand how cutthroat VCs can be in business deals, but I do have an admiration (and a slight bit of envy) for their work. It will be very interesting to see how the VC industry adapts to the recession.  As my friend Sanjeev pointed out, for a long time, VCs expected ridiculously high returns from businesses (think 40x their original investment) and often they only went after the sexy or in style businesses (web 2.0 or internet bubble startups).  Now that the upward trend has ended, I wonder if a more rational and realistic approach will be taken to finding suitable VC targets.

Stimulus Package for the Developing World

Although Americans are currently focused on our own economic stimulus, we should also start thinking about an economic stimulus for the developing world.  The reality is that the current economic downturn is affecting the entire world.  As economic activity decreases, demand is dropping around the world for a whole range of products.  We have already seen oil drop from a record high of USD 140 per barrel down to USD 50 (I still can’t believe that I saw a gas station offering $1.50 per gallon!).  Whole industries are seeing the bottom collapse from under them. Even China has seen its manufacturing drop significantly.

The prices of products ranging from steel to agricultural products have all been dropping.  While the US has the privilege of being the money press of the world, with the ability to sell treasury notes at any time to raise funds, smaller countries do not have that ability.  Resource exporting dependent nations, will soon see a large drop in revenues.  This drop will have a reverberating effect through the economies of these countries, leading to large spike in poverty.  We need to be aware, that whatever economic stimulus is put into place needs to have a place for the rest of the world.  If this economic downturn demonstrates anything, it is that we are an interconnected world, whose economies depend upon each other.  I hope that President-elect Obama is considering this as he formulates the US’s economic stimulus.

How many Micro-entrepreneurs can there really be?

It is a interesting question considering that the main goal of many microfinance organizations is to alleviate poverty by inspiring a generation of entrepreneurs.  Does everyone want to be an entrepreneur? I don’t think so.  In the US, where a person certainly has more opportunities to become an entrepreneur because of the ease of obtaining credit, lack of bureaucracy and market friendly policies, is there a strong urge for entrepreneurship?  A small cursory search of google revealed that there were only 22,659,000 small businesses in the US. That is only 7.5% of the entire population. Are developing countries better cauldrons for future entrepreneurs than the US? I understand the issue is much more complex, but does every Joe or Jane in X developing countries have a burning aspiration to become an entrepreneur?  Microfinance certainly provides tremendous opportunities for those willing to take the risk to start or operate their own business; however, I don’t think those individuals should be the sole focus.  It is very promising to see that microfinance is expanding into other financial sectors such as mortgages, agricultural and medical loans.

Noah Walcutt

It has been a long holiday break, but the Peoplesinbetween is back!  To start off the new year, I would to share a link to my brother’s blog.  Noah, a recent graduate from Vanderbilt University, won an art scholarship that has allowed him to travel the world and explore the many avenues of his creativity. He has traveled from the Burning Man art festival to New Zealand to Thailand. He is currently in Cambodia, near Angkor Wat. I suggest perusing his pictures and checking out some of the videos he has made.