Word: monsoonal
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...heavy artillery and little more than flip-flops and used flashlights to give their recruits, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) can only depend on guerrilla tactics to deter soldiers of the Burmese military regime. The 24-year-old cadet at the KIA's military academy, deep in the monsoon-drenched hills of Kachin state, juts his chin out, blinks back tears and announces he is ready for deployment. "I am shaking very hard inside," he tells me, his voice trembling. "But I have a responsibility to complete my mission...
...Monsoon Kitchen, the section of the café that served Indian cuisine, was temporarily replaced for the summer by American Barbecue, a special menu of Southern food. This is the first time Greenhouse changed its menu according to the season, and no one at the café, not even the manager Brad Hartman, could tell FlyBy why. Is it some kind of marketing ploy? Does Indian food not sell well during the summer or something? Oh well, we were just curious. And craving curry...
...this year, the monsoon has failed here - as it has in nearly half of India's districts - and his land, which would normally be full and green in August, looks worn out. "This year I doubt I will be making more than Rs. 400,000 (about $8,333)," he says. "I have had to cut back on many things. I felt really bad when I couldn't even buy my grandchildren new clothes for a family wedding." Salim and Ahis Ahmed, two brothers who lease about half an acre from Singh, have also seen the drought shrink their usual income...
...farmers. "People are not buying in bulk anymore. They come and buy things in limited quantities," Ombati says. That change has reduced their daily earnings from Rs. 2000 ($42) to Rs. 600 ($12.50). "In a drought, where is the money to buy things?" (See pictures of the deadly 2007 monsoon floods...
...still time for the government of India to rethink how it can start to prepare for the next drought. Sunita Narain of the Centre for the Study of the Environment in New Delhi advocates a new, national water policy to make farmers less vulnerable to the vagaries of the monsoon, encompassing more effective use of groundwater, better monitoring of weather patterns and water supply, implementing village water-security plans, and encouraging conservation and water recycling in the cities. In a recent editorial she wrote, "We must learn, fast, how to reinvigorate our water policy keeping in mind...