Stealing sand

Here is a picture of us collecting pebbles from the riverbank. Sometimes we swam over to Myanmar, and then quickly back. Crossing boundaries within a minute. Yet, not everyone successfully crosses it everytime.

Living in the rural region really made me rethink many many concepts, and came to terms with the broader idea of context. Many principles we feel so strongly for sometimes just drizzle through the net, and made me rethink what is right / wrong, and whether there is a right / wrong.

I spent much of my postgrad writing about the pilfering of resources (minerals, oils, water, sand, forests, etc). Look where I was, and what I was doing – collecting (if i stick to my guns, this would definitely classify as stealing) sand, gravel and pebbles from the public riverbank to make our water filter, and also to make concrete for our little shelters.

Taking a massive step back, we can relook at this from the perspective of sustainability. Or even from that of abundance. Honestly, I still feel that the world is abundant in resources, it is posing a huge problem now only because they are not properly / equitably distributed. Big companies pilfering public resources and then selling them. I guess that was what I was against. Well, there are all sorts of excuses about paying for the service of them bringing those resources to whatever / wherever. I guess, that then brings us to the topic of fairness, and how much qualifies as fair. It is not sustainable if resources are depleted at a rate higher than they could be replenished.

My little community is just these few of us. There was only that much sand, gravel, pebbles, that we could even bring back to our place, with our bare hands and our wonky tools. I don’t know, man, we needed it for survival. Not being overdramatic here, but I personally need clean, drinking water, and I personally need a concrete foundation for whatever shelter I live in. I don’t think that’s too much too ask, and I believe Lady Gaia is okay with us taking that much / little that we give thanks too for its preciousness? We don’t (get to) eat much too, so, in a way, we can’t be taking too much overall?