Subject: Letters to the Editor, PIJ

From: "Rene and Lorraine van Raders" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 16:05:06 -0800

Dear PIJ
Re Cats and Dogs
I would like to share a thought provoking experience.  Last year Lorraine
and I taught a PC Design course in Sri Lanka.   The "stray" dogs were one
of the first things we noticed (a major obstacle on our 3 hour night
journey from the airport).

Dogs were everywhere, scratching through the rubbish, often no more than
skin and bone.   My immediate response was that this was awful, and a
problem to be addressed.   I don't pretend to have come to a complete
understanding of this situation but I did obtain some new insights on
discussing it with some thinking buddhist friends.   They were against the
government control program, stating that killing the dogs was not part of
their culture.  Then they explained that the dogs were merely
manifestations of the disturbed environment.  There were so many dogs, to
redress an imbalance in the environment (loss of forest and natural
predators / scavengers, lack of recycling systems).  Reducing dog numbers
was just attacking the symptom... something we avoid in pc, right!?

So I would have to agree with Philippa Howells (letters issue 66), that an
attack on dogs, cats or grass can be energy wasting exercise without
addressing underlying issues and attitudes.  Dogs, cats and grass are all
species that have their place in natural and man-made systems.

I'm convinced that in our western culture the imbalance isn't so much an
unused waste resource (Sri Lankan scavenging animals), but an emotional
space that wants filling.   Pets respond with love (cupboard love, but it
still feels great); the rotweiller sure gives protection and a few macho
points.   The beautiful lawn wins the respect of our peers (unless you've
got pc friends - then you get rid of your lawn as fast as possible).

It seems to me that our environmental problems are largely psychological in
nature.  Now that's a real design challenge.

Rene van Raders

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From: Avalon Bruce <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 09:53:21 -0800

in re: your 'everything has a place in the scheme of things' comments,
could you please tell me JUST HOW BERMUDA grass fits into MY world?  or
more specifically, my flowerbeds and garden?  it REALLY is a 'weed' to
me, not edible, and it's discovered the secret to eternal life -- you
can BUILD on top of the danged stuff, tear the building down 40 years
later, and it will just come back, nice and lush!

the ONLY thing i've heard of to kill it out and make roomfor a garden is
FULL STRENGTH ROUNDUP (which i won't use), 4jiggers to a gallon of water
w/ one jiggerof liquid dish soap, sprayed on the blasted stuff!

it's either that or grub it out by hand -- it's immune to ALL disease
and insect,let alone duck predation andif you leave ONE tiny, brown
broken sprig, you'll have another whole LAWN to eradicate in four months
of watering!

now tell me again, the redeeming merits of BERMUDA GRASS!

[email-masked]

> Re Cats and Dogs

- 
The Earth is not given to us by our parents.
It is loaned to us by our children.

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From: Avalon Bruce <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 09:53:21 -0800

[email-masked]

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