India and China are classic examples of how globalisation help countries to develop beyond agricultural communities into industrial ones. The raise in living standards for the average Indian citizen is obvious to anyone who visits there now compared to twenty years ago. China gave up on Socialism after realising it couldn't feed its population and has reaped the benefits ever since.

Of course not all globalisation is a good thing, the French farmer for example has no got chance of competing with one in India but perhaps this will force France to abandon its stupid social policies and work in a more competitive way.

Of course aid should be linked to forcing African nations to adopt 21st Century economic policies, the days of a nice quaint village for the White man to visit are over. You may want to keep Africa backward to give a nice backdrop to your gap year travels but Africa wants what you have - and why shouldn't it have it ?

The following is from the 'Common Dreams' website.


INDIA "BOOM" AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER, ARUNDHATI ROY SAYS

by Simon Denyer (Published on Friday, June 10, 2005 by Reuters)

NEW DELHI - India's economic boom is causing unsustainable environmental damage and is blinding people to the misery of hundreds of millions of poor, prize-winning author and activist Arundhati Roy said.

"Even if you know what is going on, you can't help thinking India is this cool place now, Bollywood is 'in' and all of us have mobile phones," Roy told Reuters in an interview.

"But it is almost as if the light is shining so brightly that you do not notice the darkness," she said. "There is no understanding whatsoever of what price is being paid by the rivers and mountains and irrigation and ground water, there is no questioning of that because we are on a roll."

"India shining" was the campaign motto of the Bharatiya Janata Party which lost last year's election, unable to capitalise on the fast-growing economy and failing to convince the rural poor that economic reforms were benefitting them.

Roy won the 1997 Booker prize for her first novel "The God of Small Things". Since then, she has become a leading environmental activist and opponent of big dams, which have displaced millions.

She said India's environment faced a major crisis, caused by industrial pollution, by big dams, and in particular by unsustainable use of ground water to irrigate thirsty cash crops such as soyabeans, peanuts and sugarcane.

"When the only logic is the market, when there is no respect for ecosystems, for the amount of water available... then we are in for a lot of trouble," she said. "You have to have a system where people have access to some amount of water to grow whatever is sustainable for them to survive."

Falling water tables in states such as Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have forced millions of farmers to the brink of ruin. Buried under unpayable loans, thousands have committed suicide.

Roy said the poor were being sold a dream of consumerism which was impossible to deliver economically or environmentally.

"The idea of turning one billion people into consumers is terrifying," she said.

"Are you going to starve to death dreaming of a mobile phone or you going to have control of the resources that are available to you and have been for generations, but have been taken away so that someone else can have a mobile phone?"

Since the BJP was replaced by a coalition led by the center-left Congress party, Roy said she felt less targetted for speaking out, and some of the "vulgar and vicious" facets of BJP-rule had gone.

"But in terms of what is happening on the ground economically, I don't think anything has changed at all."

Choosing between parties was increasingly like choosing between brands of washing powder made by the same manufacturer, she said.

"It was so clear that the mandate for the Indian elections given by millions of people who came out to vote ... was one against the so-called neo-con liberal reforms," she said.

"But the minute that mandate was given to Congress, it is almost like the cameras shifted from the electoral field in India to outside the stock market, where stocks were plummeting, including the media's own stocks. And people were forced to come out and say they were not against privatisation."

Recent court decisions in favour of dams and slum clearances had tipped the playing field further against the poor. "It is so easy for people who are on this side of the line to climb the ladder. The middle class has expanded and is having a good time, but for people who are on the other side it is becoming impossible to survive," Roy said. "There are no jobs, there is just nowhere to go, no way out of it at all."

99% of Chinese and Indians are slaves - and will remain so forever. Western workers are fast becoming slaves. The plan is to wipe out the middle classes, so they too become slaves. With the international bankers' bebt-based interest-bearing fiat money, this is the only way they can protect their obscene wealth and remain masters of the universe. Wake up, Stevie boy. The best slaves are those who think they are free.

Steve you are full of middle-class shit. Industrialisation has helped to pollute the planet yoiur analysis of India misses the fact that a few rich fuckers benefit from the corporations and every one else suffers. I could go on but your spin is laughable.

Ps Rover workers - now you know what the rest of us cleaners, shop assistamnts, waiters, cooks etc feel like. It's either every one together or not at all - you were lucky to have decent jobs. Wherew I grew up in the Midlands there was fuck all ( no apprenticeships, no jobs, just large dole queues. Opther jobs that paid well e.g. on the rails were a Sun-reading all boys network ( fucking wankers! ).

Np we all pay the price for the greed and individualism of the 1980's. English pricks! Revolt or die.

Steve... the vast majority of Indians are as poor as ever. The so-called economic growth is enjoyed by a tiny rich minority. "Anyone who visits India" - which part of India have YOU been too?

20 million farmers are being made homeless by the "Vision 2020" program being supported by the uk goverment's "department for international development" - this will make farming more "competitive and efficient" (ignoring the enormous hidden costs of environmental devestation), but what of the 20 million being forced of their land.

French farmers can't compete with Indian farmers????

Other way round mate!! The French enjoy MASSIVE subsidies. Forcing India to open its market will WIPE OUT domestic farmers and send them to live in diseased slums of Delhi and Mumbai.

Yeah, we want to keep Africa poor for our gap years. Obviously. Try reading some of the FACTS about how the poor have been getting poorer since the IMF and World Bank and WTO have been forcing market fundamentalist 'neoliberalism' on countries.

China is full of sweatshops. Workers are MASSIVELY exploited. People who protest are massively oppressed by the state. They do enjoy a slightly bigger share of the wealth they create than in some countries but that's because China is a strong enough state to insist that China's wealth stays inside China. China is strong enough to dictate on which terms multinationals are allowed into its economy. But it's still overwhelmingly the elites within the country who benefit at the expense of the masses.

Korea and Malaysia are other countries which told the IMF to fuck off and they fared MUCH better than other SE Asian economies during the financial meltdown of 1997. Latin America has been massively impoverished by structural adjustment. All the data says that it's the states which managed to decide their own policy, fighting off outside attempts to control them, whose economies have done best - but INSIDE THOSE COUNTRIES, wealth is still very unevenly distributed.

21st Century Economic Policies? I'm starting to regret living in the 21st century. Unregulated Market Fundamentalism may be the fashion for global elites in this century, but that doesn't mean it helps the people. How is cutting back heavily on health and education and surrending one's food-sovereignty, while taking away people's employment rights, how is all that sensible economic policy? It's redistribution from the poor to the rich all over again. Doesn't help anyone but the elite. Africa and other places are being systematically plundered and explotied and generally just fucked over, and you think you're doing them a favour by telling us not to stick up for them.

Every man for himself - that's what you want. No room for solidarity, no room for helping eachother out - by following instincts of greed and selfishness, everyone will benefit?? BOLLOX. If Margaret thatcher told you jump off a cliff would you do that? Learn to think for yourself, get some common sense Steve. For fuck's sake.

I reckon there's something flawed in the idea that we should expect people to "provide" jobs for us. It's nice if they do. And it's out of order if having been doing that they then turn around and say sorry we don't need you anymore you're fired. I think the DIY ethic should be applied to the question of jobs. If the capitalists aren't going to give us jobs, then we need to make our own jobs. Start co-operatives of our own. Stop waiting for hand that bites to feed us. Let's take responsibility for our own lives and our communities. If they don't RELY ON the corporations they won't be able to fuck us over (not as much anyway - ok they can still polute and stuff). As long as you work for a boss, he's never going to have your interests at heart - some are better than others because some know that it pays to treat your workers well and some of them might even be a little bit human as well, but ultimately their role is to make a profit so they're only ever really going to be out for themselves. Unions are better than nothing. But there's only so much they can achieve. Ultimately the only way to get real autonomy in the workplace is not to be working for someone else, not to be a cog in someone elses machine. I think co-operatives and very small businesses are the way forward. I reckon a lot of people probably don't realise what they're capable of, because the system doesn't exactly encourage people to have confidence in their ability to do things for themselves and run their own lives autonomously. But how difficult can setting up a co-operative be. Ok, pretty hard, but worth it blatantly.

I don't see a problem with this page. Why did you hide it?