I have just been made aware of Debal's near fatal entry into the new year and would like to wish him a speedy recovery. Debal was stung over a 1000 times by a swarm of misguided bees on new years day. If you are not yet familiar with Debal Deb he is author of the brilliant book 'beyond developmentality'. I will offer a more thorough review of this book one day, but for now I will just say that it added much needed meat to the bones of my developing understanding of ecological economics; a book I constantly find myself revisiting when I need to 'swat up' on certain topics. Here is a recent interview with Debal. I would also like to point the reader in the direction of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (cintdis.org) which Debal founded in 1993. There are many quotes I could select from Debal's work, but I feel this to be most pertinent.
"It is a common understanding among natural scientists that if development means unlimited growth in production and consumption of materials, sustainable development is an oxymoron. That's because unending growth of anything in the universe is impossible - except perhaps the universe itself."
Debal wrote this about his experience:
My Life after Death of Honeybees
After a decade of my endeavor to protect a plethora of native plants and animals,
including honeybees and honey buzzards in and around Basudha, I never imagined
that I, for one, would one day become a “victim” of the Power of Biodiversity!
The New Year gave me a great lesson in the non-judgmental value of biodiversity.
On the bright, sunny, “Happy” New Year morning, while working in Basudha farm
field, I was overwhelmed by a swarm of honeybees. I tried to use my knowledge
of tricks to evade bees’ attacks – standing still for a while, running into a dense
vegetation, rolling on the ground – all in vain. The beautiful striped winged
creatures, locally called the “tiger bees” (Apis dorsata) blanketed my both arms
and head, and generously injected their stock of apitoxin into my blood. Soon I
was much intoxicated, and my friends were busy removing at least 1100 stings
from my body. I was asking myself if I truly lamented the altruistic death of
about 1100 honeybees, of a species that is becoming increasingly threatened in the country.
It appears that a honey buzzard (one of the two pairs that nested in an adjacent
grove), had ravaged a beehive a short while ago. Being chased by the angry bees,
the bird flew above my head, deftly swiping its odors over me. The honeybees
mistook me as their enemy, while the bird escaped, as usual, into safety.
I was in anaphylaxis, and the life-saving hydrocortisone was not available in any
chemists shop within 40 km reach, so I was admitted to Bankura Sammilani
Hospital, where I received good medical care, witnessed the infernal condition of
the hospital toilets, and wallowed in well-wishes from known and unknown friends.
I learned from my escorts that I had lost consciousness for hours and was about
to have a cardiac arrest on my way to the hospital. The timely treatment gave me
back my life. On the 3rd January, I came to see two old patients sharing a bed
next to me, so I decided to evacuate my bed to accommodate one of them. The
doctors and nurses saw I was okay by then, so permitted my release, but there
was no bond for me to sign out, because bee-stung patients can only “abscond” in
the police report! So many things to awe and wonder at the law!
And so many friends to recognize! I received at least 10 calls from unknown
persons, inquiring about my medication and recovery. This I count as my gift from this New Year.
My deepest gratitude and best wishes to all of you for this New Year, which has
already been marred by the unhappy signs of rampaging injustices and sufferings.
