Message in a Bottle by Anita Baviskar

By King Meera -
Taken from:
Contested Grounds
Essays on Nature, Culture, and Power
Edited by Amita Baviskar
Insightful analysis of the significance of natural resources in contemporary life
Empirically rich research on the politics of the environment
Eminent contributors include David Gilmartin, David Ludden, Michael Thompson, Lyla Mehta among others

About the essay: 
  • beauty of the area and humanity's impact on it
  • floating junk brought in by the tide
  • element of hope - children taught environmental awareness (by Sunita Rao) and how to make the most of all the garbage the island receives
  • Things like shampoo, aftershave, styrofoam chair, clothes basket - also, lobsters, coconuts and fish - come from the sea
  • These are useful, or made useful - however the "stream of manufactured objects" they (ships using Bombay-Penang  trade route) leave behind is also a great inconvenience
  • bottles of water, juice cartons, beer bottles, cans as common on the beach as sea-shells
  • nobody knows about Basel Convention
  • "Every tide brings in another lesson in political geography."
  • "For the same sea that brought them the the gifts of life could carry death to their shores. And the sea that cut them off from the rest of the world let that very world lap at their feet."

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