I was in Mae Sariang, Mae Hong Son Province, along the Thai-Burmese border the other day when I SAW them: sustainable roofing panels made from dry teak leaves and bamboo.
It was the 1st of May. After several months of a so-called "government burning ban", it was suddenly OK and 'legal' for rural and indigenous people to burn agricultural and forest waste again. The air was thick with both smoke and judgement.
Image Source: Chiang Rai Times
Judgement from indignant city people offended that their tourism related income and comfortable alternative lifestyles were punctuated by unacceptable air quality.
Don't get me wrong - I find the burning season (as it's called locally in Asia) just awful. I have both allergy and lung issues, and I'm a mom. That said, I've equally lived in some semi-rural Thai houses where any leaves or dry vegetation left around the house become a HAVEN for cobras, scorpions and HUGE da-karp (think deadly centipedes). I get it that a sun-baked rice paddy is impossible to clear without expensive machinery - so much easier to burn it and pray the smoke will dissipate.
What hurts my heart each and every year when the burning season happens, is the arrogant assumption that Thai farmers and indigenous mountain people along the Burmese border are lazy and greedy and indifferent. I'm here to tell you they're not.
The Karen Community in Mae Sariang is learning about composting. They are learning about organic and sustainable. They are equally surrounded on all sides by huge mountains and teak forest which literally drops an astounding amount of dry leaves during the monsoonal dry season.
Looking at these few carefully crafted roofing panels - hand made from local bamboo and fallen teak leaves - I realized that WE are the problem. Because WE have stopped buying them.
If we, the people with money, still actually PURCHASED hand made teak leaf roof panels, there is not an indigenous person alive who would be stupid enough to burn them. Because these mountain people are endlessly looking for ways to create cash to feed their children, to make money for school books, housing and the basics of life.
The local Karen village houses still use teak leaf roofs.
They last for usually 2 years and provide wonderful insulation. They provide cash for the local indigenous people who make them.
If we don't buy them or find alternative uses for their teak-leaf panels, a part of me feels like we forfeit the right to complain. Maybe you don't roof your whole main house with it, but you find a way to use it in your garden?
I feel that the Burning Season debate each year should REQUIRE each of us to report in how WE have supported indigenous business and handicrafts so they don't have to burn.
If you didn't buy their gorgeous indigenous organic rice, you really DON'T get to complain when they need to burn back acre after acre of GMO corn waste from the international companies who WERE willing to pay them something for their crop.
I'm challenged as I travel, to put myself in the other person's shoes and to stop complaining. I'm challenged daily by the question, "Yes, but what did YOU PERSONALLY DO to make it different?"
Resolving all the big environmental issues starts with us - personally - in our spending habits and lifestyle choices. If you bought cheap crunchy corn chips and snacks, you contributed to the problem. If you bought commercially raised chicken fed with cheap corn based animal food, you contributed to this problem.
Me? I'm thinking about my choices and how I contribute to these big environmntal issues. And intending to make better choices.
Contributing to the @earthtribe. Cos it MATTERS.
Very interesting look at the local culture. Also reminds me to Buy Local!
Yup - as @eco-alex mentioned in his comment, CENTRALIZATION is at the core of the problem. Buying local is a tiny, defiant, contrary energy to that. If we ALL do it, often, things can and will change.
Yes lets all look at the bigger picture before we point our fingers and blame, you bring up such wonderful points here @artemislives, how this leaves are now seen as waste almost when they were such an important part of their life. I love the roof,I love how it is natural and will break down leaving no trace, how wonderful if people did begin to use them more as you have said, so much food for thought thank you for this xx
Waste is a perception only, driven often by culture and need. I'm definitely thinking about using these sustainable materials in my next projects... lots to ponder.
I feel this is a problem with many other places also in different ways. In India the urban people always complain that people from rural areas come and crowd the city areas. In many rural parts there are these handicrafts small scale industries. If we can support them they would not have a need to come and crowd up in the city. When they do not have enough finances generating from their work they explore other areas and somewhere the price has to to be paid.
Exactly! We need to move AWAY form these massive urban centers and stop referencing all parts of our lives there. Living more locally and buying more locally is the beginning of redressing this imbalance.
a MAJOR problem very well highlighted! Most people arnt aware that air polllution causes millions of deaths a year, ..
burning really should be an absolute last resort option, if one at all.. Yes i mean leaves make the best addition to compost, and provide the 'fire' it needs to quickly turn into the best composting soil.. and they degrade in a couple of weeks if you do it properly with layers and turning.. and if you are really smart you can even use that heat from a huge compost pile to heat up water ...
the problem to me is centralisation .. that ruins everything ;=( but thats another post~
I wanna see POSTS about your compost piles and various techniques!
I also FEEL a little challenge brewing around centralization vs local. Let me brew on that for a day or two... :) x
You've been visited by @sagescrub from Homesteaders Co-op.
I really appreciate that perspective of looking at the nuances of our problems. This is in line with what I have been learning lately about breaking out of the binaries. It is difficult when we are used to living with binaries, because they are everywhere. But just as pervasive as binaries are there are multiple perspectives and truths. We can't thrive if make each other the enemies! I appreciate you showing both sides, or at least two sides of this story to show that there we are all family.
A community marketplace of ethical, handmade and sustainable products available for STEEM, SBD (and USD): https://homesteaderscoop.com
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I think of it simply as facets. Binary, polarized thinking is what got us into this whole planetary, social mess. Truth is relative, and yet for the holder at any given point it can be absolute. To SEE and FEEL the truth from another's perspective is a beginning to connection and community and healing. Thanks for stopping by. :)
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I'm thankful for Alex's tie up post, otherwise I'd have missed this completely. You've touched on something that I feel a lot of people miss and it's frustrating that judgements are made without knowledge of the other side. We're so quick to condemn practices, but rarely look at why it's done and offer other solutions.
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