Nostlagia for Burn

Posted by Redline on September 03, 2002 at 16:36:00:

Deep Purple’s Burn (EMI 1974)

The sky is red, I don't understand, past midnight I still see the land
People are sayin' the woman is damned, she makes you burn with a wave of her hand
Warning came, no one cared, Earth was shakin, we stood and stared
When it came no one was spared, Still I hear "Burn!"

Well, the warning came, but nobody cared. Somebody somewhere burn on a big scale very year, still. The smoke came, the sky (sun and the moon) went red, the Earth shook, and the politicians spoke. Expect a repeat next year, and next, and next, etc. Deep Purple may have already figured it out in 1974. Burn was released in 1974, not 1973 as you mentioned, friend.

I just want to add my two cents worth to the topic of shifting cultivation. Shifting cultivation is uneconomical – that is true; but it should never be blamed for the smoke problem that we have been having in the last few years. We never had haze problems before when shifting cultivation was practiced even more extensively than it is today. For example, in my kampong, I think only a handful of families (you can count on the fingers of one hand) practice shifting cultivation now. Even then, it is on a very small scale compared to past years. I believe this is true of almost all other kampongs. This small and ever shrinking group certainly cannot be accused of creating this smoke problem, a recent phenomenon.

I do not know about shifting cultivation in other countries, but I will argue that our shifting cultivation agriculture was ecologically sound and was harmonious with nature.

Our practice preserves the fertility of the land and the soil mechanics– the land was not denuded of its soil and nutrients. The land was left to fallow immediately after harvest, and it recovered fast to become lush jungle. No soil movements, no landslides. We had clear clean water running in the rivers, unlike the thick yellow brown soup excuse-for-a-river so familiar now.

Secondly, we did not use any chemical in the process – no fertilizers and pesticides. Fertilizer was humus from the soil and added nutrients from the ash. Burning actually returns the nutrients in the form of ash to the soil. We weeded out unwanted growth manually. We used ecologically safe methods of pest control such as scarecrows and coordinated farming. A group of farmers in the same locality would synchronize their farming activities to spread the risk and to minimize pest attacks. We also knew that you do not take it all – loss to pests (birds, fungus, grasshoppers, etc.) is factored in. There was give-and-take with nature.

Thirdly, we practiced a system to protect the environment and preserve community spirit as described by Kutieng.

Present day do-gooders, politically-correct johnny-come lately types preach ecology, bio-diversity, organic farming, etc., ad nauseam. They did not realize that the Dayaks in Borneo have done all that since time immemorial.

Of course, our shifting cultivation was backbreaking and uneconomical, but that is another matter – something for B4 and colleagues to dwell upon.

Incidentally, I think we stop calling the smoke as haze. Haze is a neutral term - it means lack of clarity, vagueness and reduced visibility. It can have natural causes such as mist and fog. But what we have here is smoke, and we should call it smoke. Brasuh, if you like. We should not hide the smoke behind a smokescreen called haze. And while we are rightly concerned about the smoke, we should not forget other ecological issues – our forests, our rivers, our wildlife, etc. We should not hide these behind the smokescreen too.

All worked-up and brasuh.