HOW ECONOMIC GROWTH HAS BECOME ANTI LIFE - VANDANA SHIVA - BBA - SEMESTER - I - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 

HOW ECONOMIC GROWTH HAS BECOME ANTI LIFE

VANDANA SHIVA

 

I. Answer the following questions in one or two sentences.

1) What is GDP?

Ans: Gross Domestic Product.

 

2) How does poverty prevail in the name of economic growth?

Ans: Economic growth hides the poverty it creates through the destruction of nature, which in turn leads to communities lacking the capacity to provide for them.

 

3) What is significance GDP?

Ans: It measures the wealth of nations, has emerged as both the most powerful number and dominant concept in our times. GDP gives information about the size of the economy and how an economy is performing.

 

4) Whose is the fantasy of limitless growth?

Ans: Limitless growth is the fantasy of economists, businesses and politicians.

 

5) When was the concept of growth put forward as a measure to mobilize resources?

Ans: During the Second World War was the concept of growth put forward as a measure to mobilize resources.

 

6) Who are the people that provide seventy two percent of the food that we consume?

Ans: The peasants of the world are the people that provide seventy two percent of the food that we consume.

 

7) What does happen when economies are measured only in terms of money flow?

Ans: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer when economies are measured only in terms of money flow.

 

8) Who does create an artificial and fictitious boundary?

Ans: GDP creates an artificial and fictitious boundary.

 

9) Who led strike against Coca-Cola plant?

Ans: Mayilamma led strike against Coca-Cola plant.

 

10) Which words have emerged from the same roots ‘oikos’ the Greek word for household?

Ans: Ecology and Economics

 

11) What does the current model of the economy leading the demands?

Ans: The current model of the economy demands are leading to resource wars, oil wars, water wars, food wars.

 

12) What are three levels of violence involved in non-sustainable development?

Ans: Violence against the earth, violence against people and violence of war and conflict.

 

II. Answer the following questions.

1) How was the Coca-Cola plant closed in Kerala?

Ans: Water is very essential for every human being and it is shared freely and protected by all provides for all. When Coco-Cola Company sets up a plant in Kerala, it mines the water and fills plastic bottles with it, the economy grows. But it creates poverty both for local communities and nature. Water is extracted beyond capacity to renew and recharge creates a water famine. Women are forced to walk longer distances for drinking water. Even in the village of Plachimada women walk ten kilometers to fetch drinking water. A local tribal woman Mayilamma said, “Enough is enough. We cannot walk further; the Coca-Cola plant must shut down”. The movement that the woman started eventually led to the closure of plant.

 

2) How do the rich get richer and the poor poorer?

Ans: Economics is separated from and opposed to both ecological processes and basic needs. While the destruction of nature has been justified on grounds of creating growth, poverty and dispossession has increased. While being non-sustainable, it is also economically unjust. The dominant model of economic development has in fact become anti-life. When economies are measured only in terms of money flow, the rich get richer get richer and the poor get poorer. And the rich might be rich in monetary terms but they too are poor in the wider context of what being human means. However, the rich might be rich in terms of accumulation of wealth but they are poor in terms of being human.

 

3) What are the three levels of violence involved in non-sustainable development?

Ans: The dominant model of economic development has in fact become anti-life. The demands of the current model of the economy are leading to resource wars, oil wars, water wars, food wars. There are three levels of violence involved in non-sustainable development. The first is the violence against the earth, which is expressed as the ecological crisis. The second is the violence against people, which is expressed as poverty, destitution and displacement. The third is the violence of war and conflict, as the powerful reach for the resources that lie in other communities for their limitless appetites.

 

4) What are the consequences of following the current model of economy?

Ans: The current model of economy results to violence against the earth, violence against the people and violence of war and conflict. The dominant model of economic development has in fact become anti-life. When economies are measured only in terms of money flow, the rich get richer get richer and the poor get poorer. The demands of the current model of the economy are leading to resource wars, oil wars, water wars, food wars. Increase of money flow through GDP has become disassociated from real value, but those who accumulate financial resources can then stake claim on the real resources of people.

 

5) Why have countries like Bhutan adopted gross national happiness in place of gross domestic product to calculate progress?

Ans: Joseph Stieglitz and Amartya Sen, Nobel- prize winning economists have admitted that GDP does not capture the human condition and urged the creation of different tools to gauge the well being of nations. This is why countries like Bhutan have adopted the gross national happiness in place of gross domestic product to calculate progress. We need to create measures beyond GDP, and economies beyond the global supermarket, to rejuvenate real wealth. We need to remember that the real currency of life is life itself.

 

6) How does the author project the relation between and poverty?

Ans: Vandana Shiva exposes the futility of evaluating economic development in terms of GDP. In this article she explains how a compulsive growth has eclipsed our concern for sustainability, justice and human dignity. She emphasizes the value of life outside economic development. Gross national happiness is not connected to GDP. She mocks at the economists, businesses and politicians. The dominant model of economic development has in fact become anti-life. The rich might be rich in terms of accumulation of wealth but they are poor in terms of being human. In this modern concept of economy the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.