Make the garden of our country beautiful.

I recently spent a day with a very interesting Uncle who came visiting from America. Dr. Harcharan Singh is  knowledgeable on so many subjects, but gardening his passion. We mostly discussed his beautiful and highly productive garden.

Spending 2 hours each morning my Uncle grows virtually all the fresh vegetables and fruits his family and friends need. He does not use any artificial fertilizers nor use any pesticides.

Anxious about increasing presence of pesticides in our environment which invariably leads to all sorts of medical problems, such as infertility, organ failure and cancer, I asked him how he was able to avoid using pesticides?

He briefed me on crop /plant rotation which is periodic changing of types of plants so to deny pests  the chance of breeding. He changes the mix of the plants all the time.

The reason we do this is that every crop or type of plant attracts particular types of pests. When a plant grows it becomes a home for those pests, but they need time to find the plants, breed, colonize and then begin their destructive work.  Eventually the pests destroy the hosts. So a simple but dangerous way adopted by farmers and growers is to use pesticides (poisons) to kill these pests.

The plants invariably absorb the poison and the resulting plant, or fruit full of toxins when consumed by us is absorbed by our bodies and other living things that inhabit the garden. Eventually the pesticides kills all those it touches, the pests and small creatures quickly and birds, larger animals and people more slowly.

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Now imagine that the garden is our country and all of us people and the legitimate institutions are the plants. Now there are some destructive persons and groups which have been elected into government and are dangerous for this garden whom we call 'pests'.

The pests will be few and less dangerous if we do not provide them space and time to breed. If the same pests continue to thrive, they will become a permanent feature. If you want to make the garden of the country healthy and beautiful, it is imperative to change the government every few years. Democracy provides us a safe and effective way to get rid of pests.

Learning lessons from responsible gardening we can minimise greatly the use of large police forces, draconian laws etc to control a situation which should have never occurred in the first place.

The values of the people and the country enshrined in our constitution and if instilled in our mind and hearts will outlast all political parties or individuals within these parties.

If you have not voted as yet,  please go out and vote.

Vote for change wherever pests have taken charge of the garden of our country and are devouring our country and society and destroying it.