The most recent National Geographic issue (Sep.2011) was very interesting. First of all: The previous issue had had an article about the people in Bangladesh, and how flooding is affecting their lives there: floating schools are being built, and the focus is very much on food crops that can grow on plant rafts.

However, the general attitude does not seem to be one of happiness or hope. Thousands of Bangladesh citizens are fleeing the flooding, crossing the border into India. What really caught my attention were the letters to the magazine by American citizens (and a few of them native to India). Some were cheering the Bangladeshis on, but others were irritating, and made me very angry.

One person states that "Like Bangladesh, India has much to worry about with rising sea levels. The threat is not only to megatropolises like Mumbai" (granted, this is probably true. I haven't looked into it yet.) The person goes on to say that "India has been the catch basin for Bangladeshi refugees. Already estimates have up to 20 million Bangladeshis living in India.....Not only has this caused strains on [India's] already poor infrastructures, it has also masked the successes of India's family planning efforts-and enhanced Bangladesh's." Later: "the world would do well to recall the backlash seen in the US to similar numbers of Spanish-speaking migrants."

The reason that this made me so angry is because I was asking myself the question "what are they supposed to do, then?" If I were in that country, I would be one of the citizens fleeing to India. And I would feel no guilt about it. These people shouldn't be looked at like rats trying to gain higher ground-they should be treated as what they are: yet another race on earth trying to survive.

Should we, when fellow humans are struggling, point fingers and whine about things like this? Ask for repayments from broken countries that have nothing? Absolutely not. The same thing goes for "illegal aliens" coming from Mexico, Honduras and other places in South and Central America. Why would we punish them? I just don't get it. Don't misunderstand-I'm not trying to make out these people as poor defenseless things, but I don't think we should treat them like scum, either. The biggest question, in my mind, anyway, is: how do we adapt to all this change?

Second of all: Another thing I've been trying to figure out lately is the question of where you should draw the line while making a living. For example, poaching and poppy-growing. Poachers in Africa, China, etc., are trying to make money, and opium-farmers in the Middle East are too. If these things are to be completely eradicated, there have to be jobs to replace them. Elementary thinking, but it doesn't seem to happen. Anyway. back to reading NG! There is good stuff in there too, my eye just always latches on the bad.

In the Sep. issue there are pictures of Lake Eyre in Australia (the biggest lake there, although it only floods once every 100 years!) The photographer's work may have been featured in last year's Banff film festival as well, I'm not sure if it's the same guy.