dried roses

The Aral Sea, contrary to name, is not actually a sea but a lake. A lake once so large that in 1989 Russia believed it’s cool, blue waters to be so inexhaustible that they started diverting it for irrigation, for cotton-- cotton grown in the desert. If you read National Geographic you may have seen the pictures of the damage that ensued: the Aral sea is now a puddle. Huge ships lay like thirsty, bloated bellies, rusting on the bottom of a sandy hole that once supported life for miles around. 

But this isn’t about the Aral sea, or rusty ships, or those damn Communists. It’s about what mark twain called “the repetitions of history”; because  the same thing happened to a lake in Kenya that most of us have never heard of . The lake’s name is Navasha, and it was reduced to a puddle.

To grow a dozen roses takes around 120 liters of water, about the volume of a small bathtub. One in three roses sold on valentines day in Europe were grown around Lake Navasha. Bummmmer. Serious bummer for those guys, because while the lake supports the economy there now, it wont for long. This isn’t about roses. This isn’t about lakes. This isn’t about western consumption and fluffy environmentalism. It’s about why we do the things we do. 

Countries like Kenya, developing and in search of ways to raise themselves out of penury, are influenced by the objectives of the World Trade Organization and World Bank, which push for low tariffs and markets for developed countries. Truth be told, these are not intrinsically bad organizations and I don’t know enough about them to bash and dash; however, I do know that Kenya degrades it’s land selling cash crops because of the objectives of WTO, WB, and other policies of the white, developed world. Kenya exports roses, while its citizens starve. Shouldn’t Kenya concentrate on ensuring its people don’t go hungry before exhausting it’s water and making sure Bobby’s girlfriend Sally is happy on Valentines day? “Economics kids, economics.”

It’s not surprising that this happens; think about who benefits. America can make money off selling aid (“ dont worry for every one dollar of aid U.S corporations get $1.30 back in procurement contracts”- Lawrence Summers, former undersecretary of the U.S dept treasury), while it also gets really cheap goods, like flowers. So too bad Kenya and Navasha, our lakes are bigger anyways, they’re Great. 

This isn’t about right or wrong. It’s about irresponsibility. 

Happy Valentines day. 

And yes I bought a rose today.

And yes the lake filled up, because nature sometimes forgives.