My Heroine

Now I'm going to a talk at the university by Helena Norberg Hodge, my heroine and inspiration why I want to go to Ladakh. She's been filming the people who live in Ladakh, or 'Little Tibet' for many many years. Helena about the changes in Ladakh:

"When I first arrived in Leh, the capital of (Ladakh) 5,000 inhabitants, cows were the most likely cause of congestion and the air was crystal clear. Within five minutes' walk in any direction from the town centre were barley fields, dotted with large farmhouses. For the next twenty years I watched Leh turn into an urban sprawl. The streets became choked with traffic, and the air tasted of diesel fumes. 'Housing colonies' of soulless, cement boxes spread into the dusty desert. The once pristine streams became polluted, the water undrinkable. For the first time, there were homeless people. The increased economic pressures led to unemployment and competition. Within a few years, friction between different communities appeared. All of these things had not existed for the previous 500 years."

(- Wikipedia / Helena Norberg Hodge)