Thursday, November 23 was a fascinating day. At home it was Thanksgiving. Here we had a great deal to be thankful for by the end of the day but there was nothing like an American Thanksgiving going on. You may remember that we had been asked to make contact with the President of the association we addressed on Monday who is the Minister for Food Processing Industries and is also the Codex Contact Point here in India. And you may remember that at that meeting he said that he wanted us to meet with his people to discuss our information. But the phone fates were not on our side. All during the day yesterday we were telephonically finding and loosing him. He would call us, we would call him, he would call us, and we would call him. The phone would not connect or, if it did, we would loose each other after a minute or two.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, November 22 we were in a day-long meeting with some of the organizer of the meeting and his friends planning our next stages. Clearly, the phone thing was not working! We were advised by our friends here to go to the Minister’s house early the next day (today) and just hang out in his living room to make the appointment. Now, that is a little unusual for us, but we were advised that it was the best way to do things and that his living room was going to be full of people like us trying to make appointments with his secretary.
Not.
We showed up at his house and obviously caused some significant scurrying back and forth. We were ushered into an anteroom for a while and offered some water. We waited. Then we were shown into, yes, the Minister’s house and into his living room where were offered tea and we waited. There were no other people there and, in fact, the secretaries and so on who interacted with us were quite surprised that we were there. We were, however, treated very courteously indeed while it was explained to us that today was a very busy day for the Minister since every Minister had to answer questions in Parliament on a particular day and today was his day. Bad day to see us. Yet, when we explained that we were there to make an appointment for the Minister’s convenience and what our mission was, the very busy Minister came out to see us himself.
He is a direct man and asked us what we wanted. We explained and he cut me off saying (well, yelling, really) that America had ruined its own health with its food and now it wanted to ruin the health of the world. “Now you are concerned?” he roared at me. I firmly (not roaringly) said that I was not content with ruining America’s health or the rest of the world’s and that I had been fighting it my entire career. In fact, that was why I was here now. Let me tell you, I have never appreciated being yelled at so much in my life.
The Minister’s outrage and anger is absolutely appropriate and welcome! Yes, that is what we have done and yes, it is time to stop it at home and abroad! And, yes, that is part of the message we are carrying to the countries of the world that have an interest in listening. India appears to be one of them.
The Minister said that his people were busy but that we would fix an appointment for the next day. And so we did.
And, oh, by the way, we ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant (sort of a fast food place) which specialized in steamed momo or dim sum. Cheap, tasty, wholesome, and, at least for one variety, HOT! HOT! HOT! Take the warning, “This one is hot.” very seriously here. We are talking HOT!
November 24, 2006
Today we had breakfast and made our way to the Ministry of the Minister. We met as planned with his Private Secretary. I could not imagine a more receptive audience than he and the Codex specialist with whom we met. They listened, they questioned and then they asked us if we would be available to meet with more members of their staff. You bet!
So instead of heading to Mumbai (Bombay) on Sunday (which is where we expected to be heading) we will be staying here for a meeting on Monday to discuss optimal health and nutrition through a variety of pathways, all of which are impacted directly by Codex. What a perfect opportunity to make our points and bring health and health freedom some new strength from this remarkable and potent source of positive policy and change. At the same time, we will be bringing information and options to India which could help lift the burden of ill health through the application of nutrition in some ways which are consistent with high potency nutritional strategies. After all, India has just passed into law the world’s second nutrients-are-food law and that offers her a spectacular opportunity to use nutrients.
Safe, efficient and low cost, nutrients are of immense importance in promoting and creating health. Now India has the law to allow it. We are pleased to offer the help that we can.
If you remember the two step process we advocate for countries, a guideline or strategy must be adopted to replace the one promulgated by Codex and a law must be passed making it the law of the land to implement that strategy. India has passed such a law.
We will be spending the weekend working on the presentation, you may be sure. I had wanted to attend a performance of traditional dance and music and was disappointed that we would be working tonight (Friday). However, that is what we are here for.
When we packed, it was in great haste and I left all of my barrettes home so I wanted to go out to a cart on the street near our hotel to buy some. Lacey Banks, one of the attorneys on our team, was with us and she and I walked out to look at them. As we were wandering down the street, we stopped for a procession of about 120 people dancing in the street behind a shrine being transported on the shoulders of worshippers. Singing, dancing, beating cymbals, they filled the street until they were right in front of us. I looked across the street and was facing the open first floor of a lavishly decorated 3 storey building. The first floor had about 7 statues of Krishna with garlands of orange marigolds draped around them. Priests welcomed the devotees who danced and sang, draped the shrine with a fine red and gold cloth, swayed and prayed to the chanting of the priests and then, after about 20 minutes, calmly moved on.
They filled the street with no concern for the traffic. A few policemen showed up and created some sort of traffic flow while they worshipped in the street and then, with the speakers in a Pedi cab in the middle of the crowd, when they were finished with their devotions at this temple, the mass of worshippers moved on.
So I got my wish after all! We are working on the presentation and I did get to some traditional dancing and singing, too. I did not get a barrette, but who cares!
