Cry, the Beloved Country

  

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

Alan Paton - Cry, the Beloved Country. 
Published in 1948.

The nude hills of Nepal captured in the first two images. Compare that to the hills and valleys fully covered by woods and forests in Japan below.

 

 

 I have never been able to understand why the most industrialised country in the world can have 70% of its land under forest cover while we, the least developed, cannot. It is not that industries and urbanisation has consumed our forest areas. It makes me want to cry at this sorry state of affairs. 

Where the forest cover is intact, like this place in Terathum, I could hear and see birds and even espy some small animals. And there was so much water! So much water!! 

" Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers......."

because I don't think that this beautiful forest cover will remain for I could already hear the crack of the axe against an old chestnut tree.

 

Just a few kilometres away in Dhankuta where the hills are mostly bereft of trees, water is a scarce commodity. 

"Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much."

Images:

Top: Flying over denuded Nepal with the beautiful snowy mountains to the north.

2nd from top: Denuded hills of Panchthar district

3rd from top: Hills around beautiful Mie Prefecture 三重県  fullly covered with trees

4th from top: Hills of Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県 also fully clad in green.

5th from top: The forested hills in Hyogo Prefecture 兵庫県 in blazing autumn colours.

Bottom: Terathum District's hills with mixed forest still intact.