cheryl6of8's review
5.0
This book was passed to me to read and review on Sunday afternoon and I finished it before falling asleep on Monday. That is a record for me, but the book came highly recommended and it lived up to the hype. The author is a very talented writer - he creates vivid pictures with an economy of words, he expresses truths and calls to action in clear language for complicated concepts, and he has a gift for capturing the profoundly universal in a small personal moment.
These essays all center around the author's experiences working in Kazakhstan, a place well outside the experience of most Americans/Westerners. (I once visited the Kazakh embassy in DC during the embassy open house weekend and was warmly embraced by the staff because so few people had even bothered to visit them.) The themes include environmental disasters, imperialism/colonialism, capitalist greed, religious bigotry, and the common bonds connecting humanity. Anyone seeing that list would be forgiven for thinking it is a dry or pedantic collection and giving it a wide berth -- which would be a great mistake. The individual essays are all good and their collective power is magical. The copy of the book that I have is intended to be passed among a group of people, so I will be buying a copy for myself to keep -- and a couple more to give away.
The friend who read this book before me noted that she had written down so many quotes that struck her that she couldn't possibly share them all. I am not one for jotting down quotes from books very often, but she was right. I will be including at least a few of them, however, because the thoughts/emotional reactions I had to them are part of the experience of reading this excellent book.
"It's perhaps an innate human characteristic: while we see the Aral Sea vanishing before our eye, we're blinded by issues of greed, political and personal power, egoism, and insecurity. We become committed to our ideas just as deeply as to our self-preservation, especially those of us whose reputations rely on the acceptance of our ideas, such as politicians, academics, scientists, and writers.
To accept the truth means to accept responsibility, and few people want to do this. It's easier -- and frequently more profitable -- to keep throwing out the same outdated ideas, half-baked solutions, half-truths, and outright lies. When presented with conviction, these create uncertainty and confusion in the general population, which is inherently disempowering. Too often, this is exactly what those in power want."
-- This quote takes up the call for change and individual action where the famous quote from Jurassic Park ("your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"). So many of the current problems facing the world are because individuals of all sorts -- not just scientists -- particularly those with money and power, were more focused on short-term gain and not long-term impact. And we are encouraged to now to see the distorted reflection of that concept, the idea that we as individuals cannot make a difference and therefore we should not even try.
"Those average citizens who simply hoped to earn a living and raise families became what is euphemistically termed "collateral damage." Such is inevitable in the strange economics of war. It's commonly argued that wars are economically beneficial, but to destroy a country then build it up again is a waste of resources, both material and human. War may temporarily boost an economy through the production of destructive weapons, but the production of nearly everything useful is curtailed or suspended, one reason why food rationing and famine are common during war."
-- This mindset even applied during the Cold War and as part of the was on the environment for pure profit which underlies so much of capitalist society. It is demonstrated by the fact that the so-called developed, enlightened nations always have enough money for war and weapons, even (or especially) if it must be stolen from the poor, the old, the infirm, and the basic needs of the people.
"Environmental destruction is systemic, part of our way of life and doing business, but it's a system that benefits a relatively few wealthy people at the expense of the vast majority. It's devilishly clever in how it moves money around. The public pays in several ways. We pay in taxes that subsidize many companies or in the loss of tax income when these companies are given special incentives. We pay for their products. We pay in absorbing the ill effects of their production. Finally, we pay for the cleanup."
"This uncritical belief that our science and technology can fix anything is arrogant, and to call it anything less is to fail to accept responsibility for our actions. Rather than working continually in crisis mode to fix our problems, we should learn to avoid making those problems in the first place."
"Activities that lack balance reflect the unbalanced nature of those performing them. That we prize economic benefits above all others is unbalanced. That we seek short-term over long-term gains is unbalanced. That we put our full faith in technology rather than in natural systems is unbalanced. this is not indicative of a healthy species."
-- For me, this cuts to the core of greater lessons of COVID19 if we as a species can but implement them, that life is too important to be spent chasing money or making rich men richer and that connection to nature and to each other is more important.
All of these quotes come from the title essay, Ships in the Desert, about the murder of the Aral Sea for nationalistic greed. I marked other from that essay as well as the other essays, but it would be unfair to both the writer and the reader to quote the entire book in this manner, as it would drain the body of the book of its lifeblood and leave only an unsatisfying husk behind. In short -- highly recommend this incredily thoughtful and beaautifully written small book. I look forward to rereading it in the future and to sharing it with others.
These essays all center around the author's experiences working in Kazakhstan, a place well outside the experience of most Americans/Westerners. (I once visited the Kazakh embassy in DC during the embassy open house weekend and was warmly embraced by the staff because so few people had even bothered to visit them.) The themes include environmental disasters, imperialism/colonialism, capitalist greed, religious bigotry, and the common bonds connecting humanity. Anyone seeing that list would be forgiven for thinking it is a dry or pedantic collection and giving it a wide berth -- which would be a great mistake. The individual essays are all good and their collective power is magical. The copy of the book that I have is intended to be passed among a group of people, so I will be buying a copy for myself to keep -- and a couple more to give away.
The friend who read this book before me noted that she had written down so many quotes that struck her that she couldn't possibly share them all. I am not one for jotting down quotes from books very often, but she was right. I will be including at least a few of them, however, because the thoughts/emotional reactions I had to them are part of the experience of reading this excellent book.
"It's perhaps an innate human characteristic: while we see the Aral Sea vanishing before our eye, we're blinded by issues of greed, political and personal power, egoism, and insecurity. We become committed to our ideas just as deeply as to our self-preservation, especially those of us whose reputations rely on the acceptance of our ideas, such as politicians, academics, scientists, and writers.
To accept the truth means to accept responsibility, and few people want to do this. It's easier -- and frequently more profitable -- to keep throwing out the same outdated ideas, half-baked solutions, half-truths, and outright lies. When presented with conviction, these create uncertainty and confusion in the general population, which is inherently disempowering. Too often, this is exactly what those in power want."
-- This quote takes up the call for change and individual action where the famous quote from Jurassic Park ("your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"). So many of the current problems facing the world are because individuals of all sorts -- not just scientists -- particularly those with money and power, were more focused on short-term gain and not long-term impact. And we are encouraged to now to see the distorted reflection of that concept, the idea that we as individuals cannot make a difference and therefore we should not even try.
"Those average citizens who simply hoped to earn a living and raise families became what is euphemistically termed "collateral damage." Such is inevitable in the strange economics of war. It's commonly argued that wars are economically beneficial, but to destroy a country then build it up again is a waste of resources, both material and human. War may temporarily boost an economy through the production of destructive weapons, but the production of nearly everything useful is curtailed or suspended, one reason why food rationing and famine are common during war."
-- This mindset even applied during the Cold War and as part of the was on the environment for pure profit which underlies so much of capitalist society. It is demonstrated by the fact that the so-called developed, enlightened nations always have enough money for war and weapons, even (or especially) if it must be stolen from the poor, the old, the infirm, and the basic needs of the people.
"Environmental destruction is systemic, part of our way of life and doing business, but it's a system that benefits a relatively few wealthy people at the expense of the vast majority. It's devilishly clever in how it moves money around. The public pays in several ways. We pay in taxes that subsidize many companies or in the loss of tax income when these companies are given special incentives. We pay for their products. We pay in absorbing the ill effects of their production. Finally, we pay for the cleanup."
"This uncritical belief that our science and technology can fix anything is arrogant, and to call it anything less is to fail to accept responsibility for our actions. Rather than working continually in crisis mode to fix our problems, we should learn to avoid making those problems in the first place."
"Activities that lack balance reflect the unbalanced nature of those performing them. That we prize economic benefits above all others is unbalanced. That we seek short-term over long-term gains is unbalanced. That we put our full faith in technology rather than in natural systems is unbalanced. this is not indicative of a healthy species."
-- For me, this cuts to the core of greater lessons of COVID19 if we as a species can but implement them, that life is too important to be spent chasing money or making rich men richer and that connection to nature and to each other is more important.
All of these quotes come from the title essay, Ships in the Desert, about the murder of the Aral Sea for nationalistic greed. I marked other from that essay as well as the other essays, but it would be unfair to both the writer and the reader to quote the entire book in this manner, as it would drain the body of the book of its lifeblood and leave only an unsatisfying husk behind. In short -- highly recommend this incredily thoughtful and beaautifully written small book. I look forward to rereading it in the future and to sharing it with others.
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