Mastodawn

amitangshu Apr 26, 2023

My essay published in Places Journal today chronicles the disappearing #ponds - or pukurs as they are known locally - in a rapidly urbanising #Bengal #delta. I show how ponds in this region have names and stories, containing the history of neighbourhoods and families, making each pond a living #archive of social and natural #history, and an intimate intermediary of encounter between the human and the #nonhuman world.

https://placesjournal.org/article/ponds-and-climate-crisis-in-the-bengal-delta/
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Memories of Water

In the small towns of West Bengal and Bangladesh, every pond has stories to tell — of waterbirds and wetland plants, of family memory, colonialist history, and climate change.

Places Journal

amitangshu Jan 13, 2023

Lyla Mehta Jan 13, 2023

Despite state-led majoritarianism & fascist tendencies, syncretism in alive on the ground in North Gujarat. This week on a field visit, I was v moved by this Muslim pir (shrine) in a mostly Hindu village. Villagers believe it has protected them from floods, carona and lumpy disease. All castes and creeds seek blessings here. #India #Gujarat #diversity #Syncretisim

amitangshu Jan 11, 2023

skishchampi Jan 11, 2023

RT @surajyengde
a united states consulate honors savitribai phule.

meanwhile, indian missions abroad, nay the entire foreign service doesn’t know who she is.

two democracies and their priorities. https://twitter.com/usandmumbai/status/1610229457222270977

U.S. Consulate Mumbai on Twitter

“Today, we mark the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule, the first female teacher in India! Her inspirational legacy of social reform also includes establishing India’s first girls' school, together with her husband Jyotirao Phule, at Bhide Wada in Pune, in 1848.”

Twitter

amitangshu Jan 10, 2023

skishchampi Jan 10, 2023

RT @amitangshu
Excellent essay from @CameliaDewan on how #climatechange & concerns of sea level rise has led to monochromatic understanding of #floods in #Bangladesh, driving investment in infrastructural solutions which are doing more harm than good.
https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/focus/news/misreading-climate-change-bangladesh-3215971#.Y7vKODZNU1Q.twitter

Misreading Climate Change in Bangladesh

Perilously close to rising sea levels and vulnerable to floods, erosion, and cyclones, Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for adaptation to climate change. The common reading of Bangladesh as a victim of climate change assumes that as global warming increases, ice caps will melt, sea levels will rise, low-lying Bangladesh will drown, and people will flee because of floods and increasingly frequent natural disasters (such as cyclones and tidal surges), thus in turn becoming climate change refugees.

The Daily Star

amitangshu Jan 9, 2023

Annalee Newitz 🍜Jan 9, 2023

This just in: Dystopian science fiction will no longer be sold or streamed in the San Francisco Bay Area or Silicon Valley due to the high risk of it inspiring new tech startups. #tech #scifi

amitangshu Jan 9, 2023

Show thread

Robert Maguire Jan 8, 2023

And the links between the Brazilian insurrection and our own are not at all tenuous https://newrepublic.com/article/163301/steve-bannon-brazil-maga-battleground-bolsonaro

Steve Bannon Wants to Turn Brazil Into the Next MAGA Battleground

Right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro wants to preemptively undermine the results of the next election. Bannon is happy to help with that.

The New Republic

amitangshu Dec 4, 2022

skishchampi Dec 4, 2022

UDAAN ✈️
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RT @amitangshu
"The European Commission has approved the move which will abolish flights between cities that are linked by a train journey of less than 2.5 hours." Truly incredible – a step towards rejuvenating public transport & reducing #carbon emissions. #Degrowth
https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/12/02/is-france-banning-private-jets-everything-we-know-from-a-week-of-green-transport-proposals
https://twitter.com/amitangshu/status/1599382452551634945

Short-haul flights are now banned in France thanks to new law

The idea for the ban originally came from a Citizens' Assembly.

euronews

amitangshu Dec 2, 2022

Vishwas Gaitonde Dec 1, 2022

#WorldAIDSDay

Dr Suniti Solomon documented 1st HIV cases in India,1986. Her pioneering work pushed the govt to act
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In her obituary, The New Yorker wrote: “As HIV swept across the world, in the mid-1980s, no country possessed a more menacing mix of conditions, predilections, & the kind of poverty likely to hasten an AIDS epidemic than India…Many researchers predicted a crisis unlike those in any other nation. But it never happened — partly because India had Suniti Solomon."⁠
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#mastindia #HIV

amitangshu Nov 29, 2022

skishchampi Nov 29, 2022

RT @lokeshbag67
We are going to host a space on "Scholarships for studying abroad" this Saturday

We cordially invite Bahujan community (ST/SC/OBC/Minorities) members to our space. Please join our space & make this initiative successful

@urbanshrink @OmManiPadmay @abbakkahypatia @meshramnitin_

amitangshu Nov 29, 2022

"So, do not be surprised when I say that the final decisions at #COP27 were either no-decisions—all crucial texts remained heavily bracketed (UN language for when parties disagree) until they were finally agreed upon in the early morning of November 20—or, to put it mildly, regressive." Sunita Narain argues for myth busting the claims of success at #COP27

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/climate-change/cop27-was-a-mirage-in-the-deserts-of-the-sinai-86249

COP27 was a mirage in the deserts of the Sinai

COP27 was a grand spectacle; it created a sense of hyper-action, when it actually was about reversing the little gains made till now to combat this existential threat