Potato Chips To Copenhagen

The moment I opened my chips packet eagerly I felt terribly disappointed and and grew angry with the kind of stuff that was present. They were quite few, countable, still not enough for a scorn, with the pricing limitations and affordability in India. But they were shapeless, slender and curly and looked as malnourished as Indians,but also unpardonably charred and unevenly fried. The chips sold by a small time trader being so pathetic is understandable, but the very fact that they are delivered by multinational giant, makes the things worse. The quality of the potato is poor. But the blame cannot be entirely transferred to the company since they depend on locally grown potatoes. The much acclaimed and insisted "Atlantic" variety doesn't seem to be good enough to produce quality potato for chip making in the Indian environment. But what happened to the quality of preparation ? Are the charred deemed to be the favorites of Indians? Or the callousness with which they are prepared is conspicuous ? Or is it a xenophobic suggestion that Indians don't deserve a quality stuff?

The vegetables and fruits that are to be consumed by people in developed countries are graded as per their colour shape, size, and texture and nonconformity with the standards are met with rejection. On an average 40% of the produce goes down the drain failing to meet high specifications set.. As Indians we do not have the system of grading as far as produce is concerned and honestly with regard to any other merchandise also.Fruits and vegetables appear in all forms and shapes. Some times the markets are flooded with substandard vegetables and fruits and the reasons quoted are either intense down pours or continued dry spells. Yes these things go down very well with us. But I feel terribly hurt to watch ill shaped imported apples at the corporate "Fresh" retail outlets. (careful look at Chinese apples is requested) No wonder the best were picked and packed for the developed world, and rest were not going down the drain , but are traveling all the way to the third world countries.But they are not sold cheap.They carry exorbitant price tag of Rs 30/- or 35/- each. The corporates are either involved in unethical trading by pasting imported stickers by buying at throwaway prices or they are being dumped into our grounds with the knowledge that we are indifferent to quality. The domestic growers fallow the suit. The best are picked for exports and the remaining second rate produce is flooding the market. A baffling citation "Export Quality" acquaints you to a grim fact that a domestic consumer doesn't qualify for a quality product.Because we don't reject them like a skeptical importer.

Now or never Copenhagen intends fight an invisible enemy with the most pollutant countries on board with talks of "Caps" and "Emission Credits" which look most unattractive to the underdeveloped world. A mild trace of prosperity after a long haul of excruciating poverty of life times make huge sense to the teeming millions. But they tasted it when the world is crumbling with green house gasses taking 50% contributions from developed nations. The expensive green house technologies can crush them to death. There is no way that their factories and production at the primal stages would confirm to the regulations and their cars with lenient pollution checks and worst regulations could emit less. They score on low wastage. Hardly before their emissions could reach 2 tonnes per person in contrast to the 11 to 20 tonnes of the G8, they are made to stop and look. This can be end to their growth story. The extravagant life styles in some parts of the world comes back in the form of penalty to the remnant mankind.
It is very much akin to some one sitting on stock pile of nuclear arms trying to yell at some one going nuclear.

Yet with all the tribulations yet no one can really ignore impending climatic changes. Agonizing reality of vanishing vital constituents of nature is alarming. It may not be long enough, before the befalling catastrophes will actualize in front of our eyes. Even if we take the middle way between "alarmists" and "deniers" we are not very far from natural resource crunch.It is no imagination, we already began experiencing it. Unabated destruction and up beet misuse cannot sustain forever. Despite tirades and gripes against the benefactors of excessive use, we need to pin the problem before it is too late. China with much lesser per head emissions than US , could still be the largest pollutant in a given demographic situation. Over 2 tonnes emissions per person among one billion Indians could well turn out to be disastrous. So keeping aside the vehement denials for political reasons and acting responsibly is the need of the hour. After all no body in this planet wants to die so soon.