We gotta reduce, re-use, recycle
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Bad news bears, or something
Dharamshala kids form their own recycling brigade. Basically, they’re on the poorest rungs of society. School is not so much an option or concern; sorting through trash to boost family income is their vocation.
They were collecting and sorting their glass and plastic along the spiritual hiking path surrounding the Namgyal Monastery.
This is reality in an over-poor, over-crowded country. At least it helps mitigate the ever-growing volumes of trash 1.2 billion people produce (though to be fair, India’s waste output in raw terms remains far behind the United States).
Tags: dharamshala, economy, environment, india, namgyal, photography, poverty, recycling
Sabji walle!
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Dharamshala vegetable sellers
Tags: dharamshala, economy, food, india, photography, sabji, vegetable, wallah
Women, the real power in village labor
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Hauling brush
I title this blog facetiously. Women in rural India — like much of the world where paternalistic orders still apply — share an unfair burden of the drudgery and muscle-rending, joint-stressing, fatigue-inducing labor that is day-to-day existence.
Not that men don’t work hard as well, but it would be difficult to say that division of work doesn’t shift more physical work to women while men are more likely to occupy positions of authority and thereby relative ease. Such is reality in a society where modern, Western ideas of equality are still working there way down from on high.
Above, women in Rajasthan carry brush and fire kindling through rocky scrub, which for much of the year is blisteringly hot.
Tags: discrimination, economy, india, kesroli, labor, photography, rajasthan, women
They are brick…. wallahs!
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Recycling
Meet a father-son recycling team in working Hauz Khas village salvaging brick and stone and rock from a building renovation. India is fantastically diligent about reusing anything of value. Well, at least we’re better than the West.
See more below. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: delhi, economy, hauz khas, india, labor, photography, recycling, wallah
Squat for a shave
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Old Delhi street grooming
Across India, barbers eschew the classic shop for something a little more open air. In this case, on the teeming bazaar road of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, you can get a close and proper shave for pennies on the dollar while sitting on the sidewalk.
Huzzah to the shaving wallah. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: barber, economy, india, old delhi, photography, shaving, wallah
Sabji hei!
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
A little young for this job
A sabji (vegetable) wallah from Jodhpur’s old city. Much of the fresh produce in India is still sold from open-air stalls and carts. Shiny, air-conditioned supermarkets are still a relatively new phenomenon and usually only found in big cities.
Tags: agriculture, economy, food, india, jodhpur, market, photography, rajasthan, sabji, vegetable, wallah
Phoolwallahs of jodhpur
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Garland
Early in the morning, the scent of flowers mixes with the reek of cow dung in Jodhpur’s old market lanes. Meet the phoolwallah, the flower salesman, stringing together garland of flower petals. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: economy, flower, jodhpur, market, photography, rajasthan, wallah
I’ll never be your beast of burden…
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
You still look like an ass to me.
Donkeys plod the crowded market lanes of old Jodhpur.
Tags: donkey, economy, india, jodhpur, labor, market, photography, rajasthan
Sea lions and fishmongers
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under ecuador
Begging for scraps
The small-scale fish market in Puerto Ayora draws a crowd every day as fishermen bring, gut and hawk in their catch. And that’s not just a crowd of people.
Sea lions and pelicans also gather to pilfer and pinch scraps and sometimes whole fish. It’s a comical scene, as the fishermen are not technically allowed — National Park rules — to swat or otherwise harm the pesky-but-cute critters.
This is small-scale fishing that is generally far more sustainable (and in the Galapgos, more regulated) than elsewhere in the developing world. It’s also a significant part of the local economy, one affected by tourism, as restaurants and, at least, boats buy locally.
But having been underwater for many hours in the islands and having talked to a number of activists, it seems clear that the ocean flora and fauna remain under significant pressure.
More photos of the fishmongers below. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: economy, ecuador, environment, fishing, galapagos, market, photography, puerto ayora, sea lion, wildlife
Order the daily bycatch? Maybe you’re eating manta ray or shark
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under ecuador
Rays accidentally caught, likely to be sold as trash
Many average restaurants in coastal Ecuador offer a fixed menu of fish dishes: pescado ceviche, pescado tortilla, pescado spaghetti, etc. What they mostly likely can’t tell you is what type of “pescado” you’re actually eating.
That’s because they might very well be using bycatch, the incidental catch of fish other than a targeted species. If a fishermen is angling for snapper or grouper, he is probably also pulling up loads of other species — from sharks to rays to sea turtles.
Bycatch is particularly bad with shrimp, where one pound of the prawns costs the lives of as much as 20 pounds of other fish.
At least the fishermen are trying to sell the bycatch and the local economy absorbs some of it. Restaurants and residents purchase bycatch sometimes as trash fish, to grind up into a generic meal.
Killing rays and sharks — animals far more valuable alive, either as tourist attractions and/or as vital parts of healthy, breathing ocean — makes little sense.
And in many other instances, other sea creatures pulled up aren’t even broad to market. They’re simply tossed — often already dead — back overboard, treated as competitors (for the record, manta rays don’t eat fish) by the fishermen themselves.
And some still wonder why fisheries are so depleted. See below to understand more. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: bycatch, economy, ecuador, environment, fishing, manta, photography, puerto lopez, shark, shrimp, sustainable
