[list_indonesia] [ppiindia] Globalization And Its Fall Out
- From: "Ikranagara" <ikra@xxxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 05:58:55 -0000
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From: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-04/02shiva.cfm
April 02, 2003
Globalisation And Its Fall Out
By Vandana Shiva
Neither Prosperity nor Peace
Globalization was imposed on the world with a promise of peace and
prosperity. Instead we are faced with war and economic crisis. Not
only has prosperity proved elusive, the minimal economic securities
of people and countries are fast disappearing.
Hunger deaths have started to occur in countries such as Argentina
where hunger was never a problem, and starvation has returned to
countries like India which had driven away famine like the one of
1942 which killed 2 million people under colonial, and provided food
security through public policy shaped by the democratic process of
an independent and sovereign country. Even the rich economies of
U.S., Europe and Japan are facing a decline. Globalization has
clearly failed to improve the well being of citizens or countries.
It has helped some corporations increase their profits and markets,
but many corporations like AOL/Time Warner and Enron whose non-
sustainable growth was based on deregulation accompanying
globalization have themselves either gone bankrupt or lost their
value. Following the globalization path is proving to be a recipe
for non-sustainability for the rich and impoverishment and
destitution for the poor.
Peace was the other promise of globalization but terrorism and war
is what we have inherited. Peace was to be a result of increased
global prosperity through globalization. Increased poverty is the
unfolding reality. And economic insecurity and exclusion is creating
conditions for the rise of terrorism and fundamentalism.
Economic and political exclusion, and the erosion of national
economic sovereignty is making many young men turn to terrorism and
violence as a way of achieving their goals. The erosion of economic
nationalism and the growth of economic security is also providing
fertile ground for the rise of right wing fundamentalist politics,
with parties using the reality of economic insecurity to fan the
flames of cultural insecurity, and filling the vacuum left by the
collapse of economic nationalism and economic sovereignty with the
pseudo nationalist agenda of "cultural nationalism".
At the global level, the rhetoric of "clash of civilizations", and
the war against Islam performs the same function as the exclusivist
political agendas of cultural nationalism and fundamentalist
ideology at the national level.
The Convergence of fundmentalism
Two forms of fundamentalism seem to be converging and becoming
mutually reinforcing and mutually supportive.
The first is the market fundamentalism of globalization itself. This
fundamentalism redefines life as commodity, society as economy, and
the market as the means and end of the human enterprise. The market
is being made the organizing principle for the provisioning of food,
water, health, education and other basic needs, it is being made the
organizing principle for governance, it is being made the measure of
our humanity.
Our being human is no longer predicated on the fundamental human
rights enshrined in all constitutions and in the U.N. declaration of
human rights. It is now conditional on our ability to "buy" our
needs on the global marketplace in which the conditions of life --
food, water, health, knowledge have become the ultimate commodities
controlled by a handful of corporations. In the market
fundamentalism of globalization, everything is a commodity,
everything is for sale. Nothing is sacred, there are no fundamental
rights of citizens and no fundamental duties of governments.
The market fundamentalism of globalization and the economic
exclusion inherent to it is giving rise to, and being reinforced and
supported by politics of exclusion emerging in the form of political
parties based on "religious fundamentalism"/xenophobia/ethnic
cleansing and reinforcement of patriarchies and castism. The culture
of commodification has increased violence against women, whether it
is in the form of rising domestic violence, increasing cases of
rape, an epidemic of female foeticide, and increased trafficking in
women.
Globalization as a patriarchal project has reinforced patriarchal
exclusions. Atrocities against dalits have also seen an increase as
a result of globalization, with higher castes enjoying new power
with their integration into the global market place and also wanting
to usurp the resources of the poor and marginalized, especially
dalits and tribals, for commercial exploitation. Land reform laws
which made the land rights of dalits inalienable have been undone.
An attempt is under way to undo the constitutional protection of
tribal land rights under Schedule V o the Constitution.
Women, dalits, tribals, minorities are special victims of the social
and economic impact of globalization. New movements of solidarity
such as the Indian People's Campaign against W.T.O. are forging new
alliances between diverse movements. However, people's movements are
being overtaken by the emerging politics of exclusion.
Economic insecurity makes citizens vulnerable to politics based on
exclusion. For those in power, or seeking power, a politics of
exclusion is becoming political a necessity. It becomes necessary
for filling the vacuum created by the demise of economic sovereignty
and the welfare state and substituting a politics based on economic
rights with politics identity.
It becomes necessary for deflecting public attention away from the
negative impact of globalization and explaining the lack of jobs and
livelihoods, and the lack of basic needs satisfaction which result
from economic globalization in terms of competition for scarce jobs
and resources from "minorities" and "immigrants". Fundamentalism and
xenophobia emerge as handmaidens of corporate globalization,
dividing, diverting and distracting people, and thus providing
insularity and immunity to the globalization project.
In India, every vote since 1991 has been a vote against
globalization and trade liberalization which is creating 10 million
new unemployed people every year, is pauperizing the peasantry and
disenfranchising the marginalized. This changed in 2002 with the
Gujarat elections which followed the massacre of 2000 Muslims and
the violent engineering of the electoral agenda away from basic
needs to a majority -- minority conflict and contest. The arithmetic
guaranteed victory to the party which had created a divide between
the majority and minority communities and sown mutual fear and
hatred through rapes and killings. This violent and exclusivist
agenda is now being developed for all forthcoming elections.
And while the killings were underway, and national concern was
focussed on fighting communalism and fundamentalism, the
globalization agenda was put on fast forward. GMOs were given
clearance, Patent laws were changed to allow patents on life, a new
water policy was introduced based on water privatization, and new
policies were introduced to dismantle farmers livelihood security
and people's food security. The 2003 budget has further pushed the
globalization agenda, using the diversion of communal and religious
divide to dissipate democratic opposition.
In the U.S. and U.K., the war against Iraq has become a convenient
diversion from issues of globalization and the rise in unemployment
and economic insecurity. A politics of hate is becoming the indirect
support for the failed and failing project of globalization.
We need a new politics of solidarity and peace which simultaneously
addresses violent and exclusion inherent to globalization, the
violence of terrorism and fundamentalism and the violence of war.
The different forms of violence and different forms of
fundamentalism have common roots, and need a common response.
Globalization is intolerant of economic decentralization, economic
democracy and economic diversity. Terrorism and fundamentalism are
intolerant of cultural diversity. And the war machine is intolerant
of the "other" and of peaceful resolution of conflict.
The response to globalization is the protection and defense of our
diverse economies at local and national levels. The response to
fundamentalism is celebrating our cultural diversities. The response
to war is the recognition that the "other" is not a threat but the
very precondition of our being.
Imagine how different the world would be if it was based on a
philosophy of mutual interdependence instead of the current dominant
philosophy which is based on "If I have to be, you must be
exterminated" -- or "Your existence is a threat to my existence".
In the world based on interdependence rather than domination,
exclusion, extermination, Monsanto would not push a TRIPS agreement
that treats the farmers whose seeds Monsanto has patented
at "thieves". Monsanto, Syngenta, Ricetec and other Biopirates would
recognize that their breeding is based on prior breeding by farmers.
If Biotech corporations could see that humanity depends on
biodiversity, and food security needs pollinators and diverse plant
species, they would not deploy genetically engineering Bt crops
which kill bees and butterflies, they would not create herbicide
resistant plants and wipe out plant diversity.
If President Bush could see the Tigris and Euphrates and the
Mesopotamian civilization as ancestors and recognize our common
roots in a common evolution, he would not be rushing in to wipe out
the historical roots with unmanned bombs and weapons of mass
destruction.
If those who control capital could see that their wealth embodies
nature's creativity and people's labour, they would not be creating
rules of trade that destroy nature and the livelihoods.
The fundamentalism of the market and the fundamentalism of
ideologies of hate and intolerance are rooted in fear -- fear of the
other, fear of the capacity and creativity of the other, fear of the
sovereignty of the other.
We are witnessing the worst expressions of organized violence of
humanity against humanity because we are witnessing the wiping out
of philosophies of inclusion, compassion and solidarity. This is the
highest cost of globalization -- it is destroying our very capacity
to be human. Rediscovering our humanity is the highest imperative to
resist and reverse this inhuman project. The debate on globalization
is not about the market or the economy. It is about remembering our
common humanity. And the danger of forgetting the meaning of being
human.
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