Respect for the Dead

Last year, I sat, close to tears, in a corridor of the famed Museo Egizio (Egypian Museum) in Turin, Italy and wrote the following notes on a small piece of paper:

"I am gazing at the skeleton of an Egyptian man, barely 5 feet tall.  He is wrapped in brown linen only to his waist, above this is revealed his bare chest- the bones protruding outwards.  His teeth are slightly revealed.  It is a macabre scene.  He is lying in a glass box- like an insect or a butterfly collected by a naturalist.  People stand around me- looking closely at the remains.  All around us are other wooden coffins- torn open to reveal their contents.

 

It occurs to me that we are invading his privacy.  That somehow he has been disturbed from his resting place and robbed of his humanity.  He is literally left bare in front of me and he is being dehumanised in the process of this ‘exhibition’.

All the effort that was made to pass these souls into the after-world has been destroyed.  It seems odd to me that despite all that we now know (and is being told here through the museum) about these people’s believes, their customs and their traditions; their concern for their dead and their respect for these ancestors, we have dug up their burial places, thrown hammers against their history and flown it thousands of miles away.

The fact that we can still stand comfortably with this disturbs me.  We take pictures of the dead- photographs to take home as souvenirs.  A mother jumps behind the Egyptian man, to frighten her young child.  But he doesn’t stir.  We are bereft of feeling and compassion.  It is as if we are beyond feeling for these ancient people.  It is as if they never lived or ever mattered.  It re-affirms my fears for society.  I am left with a prolonged, deep feeling of sadness."

What can we learn from other societies relationship with the non-human world?  This is not just about ancient Eqypt and their complex society, but about the indigenous peoples, today, all over our world- which co-exist with the natural world and animals in a very different way to Western societies.  What does human life mean in an increasingly rational, scientific, modern world?

Note on photography: I have decided to include, here, several images that I photographed at the museum. I do so with some caution, I did not feel comfortable taking them. However, images are powerful and they can (at times) teach us a great deal more than words. 

Small keys can open big doors

I have recently been working on an essay as part of my Masters programme (MA) on urban agriculture in South Africa.  I have been fascinated by Keyhole gardens which are being initiated throughout Lesotho.  Lesotho, is a small, independent, land-locked country, within South Africa, approximately the same size as Wales.

Keyhole gardens are being established, in rural areas, as a way for households to grow their own food.  The Government of Lesotho declared an emergency food crisis on the 9th August 2012 and there seems to be an on-going problem of food insecurity.

Keyhole gardens appear to be a wonderful idea.  I am not certain of whether the science works behind them- but the principle of construction is very simple.  The gardens are generally quite small- you build a circular wall- using bricks or rocks or whatever you can find.  This area is filled with soil to create a raised bed, in the shape of a keyhole, with a gap to walk in to the middle.  In the centre is a hole, to ground level, which enables you to literally 'feed' the soil of your garden with organic matter and water.  This is where the 'science' comes in.

Photograph by Tanveer Badal at www.tanveerbadal.com

There has been an interest in developing Keyhole gardens in other areas of the world, including Afghanistan.  I can imagine the merits of such a simple technology being used in areas that have been affected by war or natural disaster, which might enable households to become less reliant on food aid.
Keyhole gardens are even making their way into other parts of the globe, such as the USA and UK, where school-children are building their own gardens, growing their own food and learning about organic principles.

Photo by Send a Cow at www.sendacow.org.uk

Now, I would like to see if Keyhole gardens may be of use to the urban poor in their own activities of food growing in towns and cities throughout the economic-developing world.  For example, within the many townships of South Africa where soil quality is often very poor.  Could this concept enable growers to focus their efforts on achieving small, but fertile gardens?

It may not produce huge quantities of food, however, to many low income families, any financial savings they can make on food expenditure will make a real difference to their lives.  There are also huge social benefits to enabling families (everywhere) to spend time together with nature, nurturing seeds, watching things grow, participating in physical activity and eating what they sow.