• Identity –Who am I?
  
  
• Framing – Framed me!
  
  
• Organic or Synthetic: Is it the time to change?

“Where are you from?” the Indian shop owner asks curiously.

“I’m from Lanelle Street.” Alim replies.

“Where were you born, actually?” The shopkeeper continues his question wanting to get the appropriate answer

- that he is Indian from a specific country.

“What’s the difference?” the young man replies.

This conversation is from the film “Touch of Pink” directed by Ian Iqbal Rachid. Alim, a young South Indian movie photographer, is living in London with his boyfriend and the ghost of Cary Grant whom only Alim can see, and whose advice he follows. Living in London as the Indian Diaspora, he is confused about his identity. He thinks of himself as neither English nor Indian.

He is confused because his appearance is Islamic Indian but this contrasts with his way of life of being gay. Homosexuality is a sin in Islam and cannot be accepted in Islamic society. His looks make him feel as if he is not really British though he was born in the first world and lives in Britain almost of his life. He does not also feel that he is Islamic Indian because he lacks of the connections of being Indian. What is his identity?

Identity is the feeling that the individual has about himself which is indicated through interaction with others and realized by either him or others. That means identity needs the individual’s awareness and capacity for self reflection. The individual should accept and present his selected identity willingly. Identity of humans is not related to only the self image and physical appearance but also related to a person’s view of himself.

For the Indian Diaspora like Alim, there are two types of identity to consider, cultural and sexual. Cultural identity is the feeling of an individual of a culture which is influenced him to belong to that culture. Cultural identity can be observed through race, nationality and ethnicity as a basis way to identify oneself. Sexual identity is the perception of how a person identifies or describes oneself based on sexual orientation. People are classified as heterosexual if their sexual focus is on the opposite sex of their own, homosexual if they focus on the same gender and bisexual if it is on both men and women. The terms "straight", "gay", and "lesbian" are commonly used to describe themselves and their friends, families and societies.

It’s difficult for him to discover his cultural identity because he has been cut out of connections to India. He would rather refuse to be an Indian since he is homosexual, which is his sexual identity. His sexuality is unacceptable both in Islam and by his mother who is conservative. The best way to discover his identity is the true acceptance. It starts with himself. He accepts all about himself and represents it to others willingly both his family and people around him then he is negotiating his identity.

How does Alim deal with his identity?   Is he successful?   And what is his identity at the end? His identity negotiation occurs and his connections to the Indian ways start when he returns to be a part of his neighbor’s marriage. He is fascinated by the Indian traditional ceremony and Muslim ways of life that he has never experienced before. His childhood story, told by his mother, brings him to find out that he is an Indian not a British. He can have cleared his self image through race, nationality and even ethnicity.

Alim’s sexual identity is accepted by his mother when she discovers her nephew is gay - the nephew who is going to get married, who is trying to have an affair with her son. His nephew attempts to persuade him getting married for keeping the gender role, when a successful man who gets married to a proper woman and has a perfect family, in Islamic Indian society though it contrasts with his sexual identity.

Normally, his mother always talks about her imaginary Alim’s couple by the word “she” as a pronoun. It has been changed when she says out loud proudly “It’s not she, it’s he, the economics of the UNICEF” and gives a big smile to all guests in the party who surprised and shocked by a kiss between Alim and his boyfriend. Alim is an Indian male who has finally discovered himself, a gay Indian male.

“What’s wrong with your face?” the H2O salesperson, Ni, said directly to me when I passed her shop at Robinson Central Airport Plaza.

“What?” I spoke out and suddenly walked to the mirror in the shop.

“Why don’t you take care of you face? Do you notice that there are a lot of pimple spots and the surface is dull? I think you should look after your face more seriously. You are nearly 30, right?” Then she explained.

“You need something to whiten your face and fade the spots. Let me show you some H2O newly released products. You will figure out how much they help you when you try them.”

            I was groping and checking my own face in front of the mirror before she took me to the product trying room to do face mask, hand massage and other processes which I can’t remember. I do remember I spent 6,000 baht.

            Why did I do that? How could I spend so much money for those products? How could she coerce me into buying them?

            Framing is a process of using frames to make or set an individual’s selective perception to influence personal decision making. A frame is a psychological tool that offers a perspective and changes the focus of an individual in order to influence later judgment. Whenever framing plays a role, there will be three steps at work.

            Firstly, a frame invites individual to view the topic from a perspective that has not been considered before. Then it changes the focus of individual by swaying that person to regard certain features and ignore other weak points. Finally, it influences the individual’s later judgment or decision-making after a person has created a selective perception.  

            Ni began framing when she talked to my imperfect face. I was suddenly interested, although I had noticed it before and I had stopped paying attention. The words she used in her explanation directed me to deliberate on the condition of my face and focus on it. I, who was worried about facial condition at the age of 30, disregarded the higher price compared to other brands. I didn’t even think about saving the money for more necessary expenses. I had made a decision to take care of it if I wanted to have radiant face. Then I accepted to try her products, see how it worked and decided to spend two thousand baht for the most appropriate set.

            The received information about getting double point collecting, a monthly face masking coupon and free membership influenced me to be completely framed to pay attention to the additional recommended sets. In the end, I spent almost six thousand baht to purchase 2 sets of products.

            Nowadays there are many sources of framing coming at the public through the media. Ads and commercials are good examples of framing tools that are both verbal and visual. They are used not for only selling products but political issues and social viewpoints. The tools are in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television. People are easily framed wherever they are if they have no determined perspectives or awareness.

            I can’t give the products back to Ni, but I will not be framed like that again. I am not afraid of the age of 30 and unhealthy facial condition. I am afraid of the dangerous powers of framing.

            “This is another year that I have to ask for your help. I have no more money to pay for all chemicals used in farming. I have spent it all to improve and maintain soil productivity by using bigger tractor, in stead of mini tractor, to plough farmland because of the more hardness of soil.” Our neighbor told my mother when he came to borrow some money. “We have spent a lot of money for fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds but the outputs are still decreasing over and over. It used to be productive in a few years as a result of using these chemicals. However, we have a few serious problems in lower outputs, high consumption of chemicals and processing cost.” another farmer explained while asking for my family’s financial support.

            In rural village, farmers have had to face these situations more and more since they changed their growing style from the original method to farming in the modern one. Financial factors motivated them to start producing crops and livestock in the way they thought it would be better than traditional way.

            What are the differences between the organic and synthetic agriculture?

            Organic agriculture is the traditional form of agriculture in the world. It used to be the suitable method for farming but now it is not anymore. It is farming without using chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. It is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. The goal is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people. Instead of using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, organic farmers utilize crop rotations-growing a variety of crops rather than a single crop or planting hedges around fields, cover crops, outdoor farming livestock and natural-based production to maintain or enhance soil fertility. Microorganism is considered as the process to enhance soil health that allows the natural production of nutrients in the soil throughout the growing season, which called feeding the soil to feed the plants.

            Synthetic agriculture or chemical farming method is the newest form of agriculture in the world which style of farming is based on the use of synthetic inputs such as synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and hybrid seeds. It is a technological production management system that has been adapted by the advances of biochemistry and engineering since the early 20^th century. It aims to change the farming style and lead to make higher outputs in a shorter period. Technological advances during the World War II resulted in fertilization and the use of pesticides. Aluminum nitrate, used in munitions, became a cheap source of nitrogen. DDT, used to control disease-carry insects among troops, was applied as pesticide in crops. These advances resulted in bigger outputs but created negative impacts to society and environment, which finally affected the farmers directly. This farming result can also be proved and realized based on the scientific principles, which reinforces all farmers to believe in better way in stead of a normal original way. Finally, they have found that more outputs mean more income and use a short period of time, reduction in labor necessary, and efficiency.

            What’s wrong with the original farming style? Why did farmers change from the conventional way to the modern one?

            According to agricultural activities in Thailand, the main reason of farming is for domestic consumption in the early period among Thai citizens. Therefore, money was not the important factor to grow crops because it was based on the original theory. However, the concept has been changed since the Thai government emphasized its policy to export agricultural products to other industrial countries.

            Synthetic agriculture was introduced to farming communities in order to develop mass production or so called industrial agriculture. The demand of food consumption was increasing through larger population both inside and outside the country. When the original method could not produce and supply more outputs for the increasing demand. Most of farmers decided to change their way because they had only one opportunity to get outputs in only one growing season refers to limited factors in water supply and other natural conditions.

            The promotion of chemicals using has been made through mass media, socialization and legitimating of the government to encourage the large scale of scientific farming area. The media has promoted the effective results for chemical businesses in both visual and verbal through television and radio channels, catch the eyes and ears of people easily and effectively in all areas they are.

            Socialization is the process by which humans or animals learn the values, norms and culture of their particular society. They learn to conform to the way of life in their society. Agents of socialization are people and groups that influence self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behavior such as family, peers, and mass media. The socialization firstly works its role by farming peer groups because most of people in the countryside areas work in agricultural activities. They have experienced from those who have got high outputs and wide spread their experiences to share with others through the interaction among them during farming. The farming has been passed on generation to the next by family members and relatives in order to keep the same condition. 

            The government has also been trying to advocate all farmers to jump into the synthetic way for high outputs which will result to higher gross national products at the end. Many government officers has come to visit, support knowledge and give some advice about how to increase the outputs based on the chemicals use in farming to their farmers. Legitimacy in political science is the popular acceptance of a governing regime or law as an authority. Whereas authority refers to a specific position in an established government, the term legitimacy is used when describing a system of government itself where government may be generalized to mean the wider sphere of influence.

            Why are they always facing financial problem if modern methods are the proper way for farming? Which one is better, organic or synthetic?

            When the use of chemicals becomes a part of the agricultural business, financial factor is the most important and the government has legitimated this method by setting a policy, creating advantageous projects and giving financial support to all farmers. Government policies introduced the synthetic farming in order to improve the outputs which would increase the quality of life among agricultural workers. Outputs developing projects has been creating and spreading to farming areas in order to stress how synthetic methods are important and necessary for them. Then they perceive that what the government support is the best selected for them and they can rely on and practice with no doubts.

            However, there are negative impacts on society and environments. Pesticides create dangerous environments. Farm workers are at risk to suffer from long term use of chemicals. Some pests will adapt and can resist the original substances. Then the farmers will need money if they need new formula to kill those pests. The use of herbicides to kill weeds in stead of plowing them under is short term of the solution. The repeated use of chemicals can cause soil rebuilding problem because useful plants are eradicated and the weeds build up resistance. The use of fertilizers can also cause the soil condition to be unsuitable to grow crops. It is necessary to plough by harder machines in stead of a small pushcart.

            When these problems occur, farmers have to try to get rid of them by using the newest and latest technology. This means they have to spend big amount of money to buy new formula pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers in order to deal with the problems. Some have to be in hospital when getting sick or suffering from the long term use of pesticides. Moreover, they will start to be in debt to financial institutions. If the situations still remain, it is not appropriate to utilize synthetic agriculture or chemical farming method. However, is it a good idea to change and return to the original method which is organic agriculture? Why and how?

            The concept of organic agriculture began as a reaction of agricultural scientists and farmers against the industrialization of agriculture. Technologies were found as powerful and useful methods for agricultural production and led to negative impacts on society and environment such as pesticide pollution, pest resistance and low quality of soil.  Pests are controlled in organic way some pest damage occurs in order to take the advantages from biological organism. The mechanical controls can be done together to control numbers of pest for example row covering and traps setting. Effective pests control can limit pest expansion and increase populations of beneficial insects. It should be based on the understanding of pest life cycles and their interactions. Organic farming by raising livestock and poultry for meat, eggs and dairy based on natural feeding and living without drugs and vaccines. Weeds are controlled through the use of mulches or even draw and bury under ground or mud in case of rice fields. These methods provide great benefits in pest damage control, soil improvement and protection, and fertilization without the use of chemicals. Moreover, the problems of water contamination and health risk are expelled from farming.

            Organic agriculture has recently been supported by the government policies especially in western and some Asian countries since organic agriculture became a popular way for farming because the fear of dangers from synthetic foods and growing styles. Health benefits from organic food prevent people from the harm of excessive use of chemicals when consuming commercial foods can cause health problems such as cancer and development of children. Organic farming also saves the environments in the planet because it promotes the balanced ecosystem and remains the micro-organism. Livestock in organic farm is given priority in animals’ needs. It saves the living conditions of reared animals in the freedom to move or interact in natural spaces like healthy animals with no risks of a spreading of illness which is combated with regular doses of antibiotics. Organic farming is, therefore, considered as “sustainable farming”. The workers and the animals are affected from dangerous toxins or working and living conditions. This enables people to continue growing healthy foods for the rest of society without reliance on huge machinery and chemicals.

            “It’s time to change back to the original way. I don’t think we will lose big amount of money or face the financial crisis when the growing season comes. There will not be the health risks from the long-term use of chemicals. That’s why I have gradually changed, and am going to fully convert next season” My mother ended the conversation.

References

1.      http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/ofp/

2.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming

3.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_agriculture

4.      http://www.mju.ac.th/organic/

5.      http://www.biodelice.com/Organic-Food.asp