Thank Goodness ‘La Tomatina’ India was banned but what about these??


Recently  some people were crazy enough to announce ‘La Tomatina’  festival (as a hangover from the movie ‘Zindagi Na Milegi dobara)  in India (a la Spain) where you are supposed to have loads of fun by hurling tomatoes at each other (now how this is fun, beats me totally). There was a lot of indignation & furore over this & Thank goodness there was timely intervention & the madness was put to an end before it started.

I came across several status updates on Face Book appealing to ban it

‘Please boycott the ‘La Tomatina’ festival to be held in palace grounds in Blore. This could actually be used to feed those 5.6 million children who die of malnutrition every year. Spain does it because they grow excess tomatoes and dont know what to do with it. We certainly cannot afford such an indulgence. If you agree, please post it on your FB status

While I agree with this stand there are many thinking errors in the above statement.

Error #1: Spain can afford it: Wastage is never justified. As long as resources on this planet are limited, we can’t claim a right to waste on the pretext of having excess. To me La, Tomatina in Spain is equally obnoxious.

Error #2: But then again we do it all the time. We have swimming pools while many people don’t have access to Drinking water. Then by corollary swimming pools should be banned. We spend so much on fashion when people are forced to wear rags or even nothing. We eat delicacies when so many people have to sleep hungry. Think twice before wasting anything. Not only such glaring wastages but everything adds up, think about it.

Error #3: Playing Holi is also wasting resources. don’t feel less guilty just because you are throwing colors instead of tomatoes. The resources that go into making those colors can be utilized for growing tomatoes. This is the basic principle of Economics. Resources have alternative uses. & each economy has to answer how many guns & how much butter it has to produce. Because the resources (In terms of land, labor, capital & entrepreneurship) are limited there is a trade off between the two. More the guns, lesser the butter & vice versa. So if you stop wasting the colors, the resources used in producing them can be used to grow more tomatoes. & we are not even considering the wastage of water here. 

Think before wasting. Each wastage adds up. each wastage counts

September 19, 2011. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , . Consumerism, Hmm..., Reflections/Musings, Wisdom. 1 comment.