Thursday, August 27, 2009

US and them

I returned from the US on 8th August. The assignment is now complete and the report has been tabled. All is well. So now I have the time to reflect on my 5 weeks.

On our way from Somerset, NJ to Moosic, PA, we saw 5 roadkills, all deer, large ones; ungainly in death, some bloated, others just plain pathetic. B said that deer are a menace - eat the best summer blooms and mess up the lawn. And when they crash against cars on the freeways people are not just injured (some are known to die, but that happens more with Moose than the smaller deer) but are left guilty and generally wretched having blown the car, killed a harmless but stupid animal and having to pay for the repair. Roadkill meat is not eaten. Just buried or incinerated.

But there are culling expeditions as well in many states, mostly for deer. And these are then given to the local butchers who sell the venison to the local populace.

Where we lived in Somerset, just beyond the lawns in the woods that line the property were numerous families of deer. I've seen them during breakfast - a family of three, one yearling, frisky and slim; the other two, more staid and perpetually hungry. Another family of three in the adjoining property - all large and energetic. They are completely unafraid of humans. I've also spotted rabbits and a stoat-like animal, something narrow, low and dark. It was well past 9 PM when I saw it, hence it was not too clear. Could have been a weasel. Had it been India, I would have said mongoose.

There is hunting season in all but three states in the US (Kentucky, Hawaii and Rhode Island). How different is the situation vis-a-vis India!! Hunting and gathering is allowed only for the tribes and villages inside the protected forestry zones in India. That too, of a few species.

What I find incredible is that much of the wilderness that we see in the US is really very recent: less than a 100 years old. Most of the arable land available used to be farmland - HUGE tracts of it, especially in the southern states. Cotton and tobacco. All that is gone, the farms abandoned. The forest has reclaimed all of the land. Apart from this, there are large areas in North America, especially in Canada, where the government has planted pine forests.

All this is possible because North America is still mostly wilderness. Human density is ridiculously low if you compare it to any other industrialised area. Europe is as dense as it gets, Japan too, and the densest amongst them all - UK. What NA needs are hordes of immigrants; twice as much, thrice....only then can we have a semblance of balance on the planet. It will also make Americans and Canadians more responsible environmentalists and less profligate. Well, Canadians are really quite OK. It's the American consumption that tips the scale.

Speaking of which, it was impossible sometimes to just watch at the breakfast table, the colossal wastage of food, even now, when the going is tough. It would take all of my good breeding (?) to not get up and slap the fat lady silly - one particularly noxious woman - who would pile her plate with two Waffles, then cut them quarter-wise, pour four 'cups' of syrup, and then leave three quarters on the plate and go for crisp bacon strips and cheese omelettes. Then she would grab a 'healthy' yogurt cup, some bagels and coffee leaving an untidy mess of omelettes behind. Last, a banana and more coffee. Jeezuz!!!! Not only gluttonous, but wasteful. Except for the coffee, nothing was really 'finished'.

But why just the noxious lady - almost all the folks up there seem to leave quite a bit on the plate. Call me old-fashioned, but it would set my teeth on the edge to see all of this around me. I've not even started yet on the amount of garbage that this eating frenzy would generate. The mousy little Mexican guy would come in twice in the time I breakfasted to clear the bins.

On the other hand, there are not many people who are as generous in spirit as the Americans. Even in these blighted times, the portions in restaurants is gargantuan, there still is free coffee and cookies, the peg measure while pouring out drinks is almost always ignored.

A word on the weather. Lovely!