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.
