the violence of globalisation vandana shiva

8/14/2019 The Violence of Globalisation VANDANA SHIVA

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-violence-of-globalisation-vandana-shiva 1/4

DWD: Vandana Shiva, globalizat ion, violence* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Diverse Women for Diversity

(ht t p:/ / www.t he-hindu.com/ stories/ 13 25 06 1g.htm) THE HINDU, March 25, 2 00 1.

The Violence of Globalisat ion

" Prot ect ion" has become a dirt y word in t he era of free markets and globalisat ion. But ,says VANDANA SHIVA, t he spread of liberalisat ion has only led t o new f orms of violenceagainst humanity. Excerpts from her testimony at the Women's Court, South Africa, onMarch 8.

WE t hought we had put slavery, holocaust s and apart heid behind us - t hat humanit y wouldnever again allow dehumanising and violent syst ems t o shape t he rules by which we live

and die. Yet globalisat ion is giving rise t o new slavery , new holocaust s, new apart heid. Itis a war against nature, women, children and the poor. A war which is transforming everycommunit y and home int o a war zone. It is a war of monocult ures against diversit y, of bigagainst small, of war t ime t echnologies against nat ure.

Technologies of war are becoming t he basis of product ion in peacetime. Agent Orange,which was sprayed on Viet nam, is now being sprayed on our f arms as herbicide along wit hRound up and ot her poisons. Plants and animals are being genet ically engineered, t husmaking our f ields sites of biological warfare. And perverse int elligence is being applied t ot erminate life' s cycles of renewal by engineering " Terminat or" seeds t o be st erile.

As the violence grows, the stress on societies, ecosystems and living beings is reachinglevels of b reakdown. We are surrounded by processes of ecological and social breakdown.

Wit ness t he event s of our t imes which are now front page news. Cows in Europe beingsubject t o bov ine spongiform encephalopat hy ( BSE), millions of animals being burnt asf oot and mout h disease spreads due t o increased t rade, farmers in India commit t ingsuicide in t housands, t he Taliban dest roying t heir herit age by v andalising t he BamiyanBuddhas, a 15 -year-o ld boy Charles Andrew Williams shoot ing his classmates in aCalifornian high school, et hnic cleansing.

All these are wars of peacetime, occurring in our daily lives and the last expression ofviolence in a system which has put profit above life, commerce above justice, ethics andecology as violent t echnologies.

Cows are herbivores, t hey are not meant t o eat t heir own carcasses. But , in an indust rialsystem of fact ory f arming globalised under free t rade rules of agricult ure, it was

- 1 -



" efficient " t o grind up t he meat of infect ed sheep and cows and t urn it int o catt le feed.This has spread BSE among cat t le - a disease t hat can be t ransmit t ed t o humans.

Children should be playing wit h t heir f riends. Schools are not supposed t o be war zo nes.But a cult ure of guns and violence, combined wit h one t hat has focussed so exclusivelyon commerce and economic growt h and mat erial accumulat ion, has left fut uregenerat ions uproot ed and unanchored, afraid and violent . Our children are robbed ofchildhood. In Iraq, 12 children die every hour b ecause of a t rade embargo. In ot herregions, children are being pushed int o prost it ut ion or warfare - t he only opt ions forsurvival when societ ies break down. Across t he Third World, hunger and malnut rit ion hasgrown as a result of st ruct ural adjust ment and t rade liberalisat ion policies.

During 19 7 9-8 1 and 1 9 92 -93 , calorie int ake declined by t hree per cent in Mexico, 4.1 percent in Argent ina, 1 0.9 per cent in Kenya, 10 .0 per cent in Tanzania, 9.9 per cent inEt hiopia. In India, t he per capit a cereal consumpt ion declined by 1 2 .2 per cent for ruralareas and 5 .4 per cent for urban areas. Denying f ood t o t he hungry and f eeding t he

market s is one of t he genocidal aspect s of globalisat ion. Count ries cannot ensure t hatt he hungry are fed because t his involves laws, policies and financial commit ment s whichare " prot ect ionist " - t he ult imat e crime in t he globalisation regime.

Denying medicine to the ill so that the global pharmaceutical industry can make profits isanother aspect of genocide. Under the Trade Related Intellectual Property agreement ofthe World Trade Organisation, countries have to implement patent laws grantingexclusive, monopolist ic right s t o t he pharmaceut ical and biot ech industry . This preventscount ries f rom pro ducing low cost generic drugs. Patent ed HIV/ AIDS medicine cost s$ 15 ,00 0, while generic drugs made by India and Brazil cost $2 50 -30 0 for one year's

treatment. Patents are, therefore, literally robbing AIDS victims of their lives.

However, in the world order of globalisation dictated by commerce, greed and profits, itis providing cures t hrough af fordable medicine t hat is illegal. India, Brazil and Sout hAfrica have been taken to the WTO Court (the Dispute Settlement Mechanism) becauset hey have laws t hat allow low cost medicine to be produced.

At t he World Court of Women, we declare t hat laws t hat f orce a government t o denycitizens the right to food and the right to medicine are genocidal. Globalisation is aviolent system, imposed and maintained through use of violence. As trade is elevatedabove human needs, t he insat iable appet it e of global market s for resources is met byunleashing new wars over resources. The war over diamonds in Sierra Leonne, over oil inNigeria has killed t housands of w omen and children.

The t ransf er of people' s resources t o global corporat ions also makes stat es moremilit arist ic as they arm t hemselves on behalf of commercial int erest s, and st art warsagainst t heir own people. Violence has been used by t he government against t ribal people

- 2 -



in areas where Bauxit e is mined in Orissa and in Koel Karo, where t he building of a largedam was st opped.

But it is not just non-renewable resources like diamonds, oil and minerals which globalcorporat ions want t o own. They want t o own our biodiversit y and wat er. They want t ot ransform t he very fabric and basis of life int o private propert y. Int ellect ual Propert yRight s (IPRs) on seeds and plant s, animals and human genes are aimed at t ransforminglif e int o t he propert y of corporat ions. While falsely claiming t o have " invent ed" life f ormsand living organisms, corporations also claim patents on knowledge pirated from theThird World. The knowledge of our mot hers and grandmot hers is now being claimed asinvent ions of west ern corporat ions and scient ist s. The use of neem ( Azaricht a Indica) aspest icide and fungicide, was claimed t o be an invent ion by t he U.S.D.A. and W.R. Grace.India challenged it and got t he patent revoked. The seeds and plant s of basmat i havebeen claimed as invent ions by a U.S. corporat ion called Ricet ec. And t hese are only someexamples of b iopiracy w hich will lead t o t he absurd situat ion where t he Third World paysfor knowledge that evolved cumulatively and collectively. From the Women's Court, we

declare t hat pat ent s on life and patent s based on biopiracy are immoral and illegal. Theyshould not be respect ed because t hey violat e universal principles f or reverence for lifeand the integrity of a culture's knowledge systems.

We will not live by rules t hat are robbing millions of t heir lives and medicines, t heir seeds,plant s and knowledge, t heir sust enance and dignit y and t heir f ood. We will not allow greedand violence t o be t reat ed as t he only values t o shape our cult ures and our lives. We willtake back our lives, as we took back the right. We know that violence begets violence,f ear beget s fear, peace beget s peace and love beget s love. We will reweave t he world asa place of sharing and caring, of peace and just ice, not a market place where sharing and

caring and giving prot ect ion are crimes and peace and just ice are unthinkable. We willshape new universals t hrough solidarity, not hegemony.

Women's worlds are worlds based on protection - of our dignity and self respect, the well- being of our children, of the earth, of her diverse beings of those who are hungry andt hose who are ill. To prot ect is the best expression of humanit y. Those who have t ried t ot ransform " prot ection" int o a dirt y word, t he worst crime of t he global market place, seet he prot ect ion of healt h, nut rit ion, livelihoods all call for t rade sanct ions and"punishment" by the W.T.O. and the World Bank.

To t hose who have t ried t o make t he prot ect ion of life a crime we say echoingArchbishop Tutu: "You have already lost. You need to get out of the way so that we canprot ect each ot her, our children and life on t his planet ." The fut ure does not belong t ot he Merchant s of Deat h - it belongs to t he Prot ect ors of Life.

The author is direct or, Research Foundat ion for Science, Technology and Ecology, NewDelhi.

- 3 -

the violence of globalisation vandana shiva

Documents