On June 13, 2013, the Provincial Government of Quebec in Canada had introduced the bill on Right to die (active Euthanasia). The junior health minister of the Quebec Government stated when tabling the bill, “This bill is a response to the demands of Quebec society, a society that has conducted a thorough reflection on the end of life and which is committed to work for the welfare of everyone...Considering the interest and hope raised by the work of the special commission on dying with dignity and the unanimity of its recommendations, we have a responsibility as a government to deal with it.”
Kudos to the provincial government of Quebec for showing leadership on an issue, that is very core to the wellbeing of increasingly ageing populations around the globe, albeit sensitive and divisive in nature politically. I am personally all for legalizing physician-assisted suicide, for the simple reason that one should have the right to die with dignity, since is closely linked to one’s right to live with dignity, and nothing more.
The response to this issue ranges from total opposition on one end of the spectrum to a wholehearted support on the other. The ones opposing active euthanasia are essentially the “pro-lifers” on the abortion debate citing moral grounds, and those in support are invariably the “pro-choicers” (the abortion advocates). However, the vast majority of population (believers and otherwise) fall in the middle of the socio-political spectrum with real and valid concerns, which needs to be addressed when laws are being drawn up to prevent abuse of any form.
Valid concerns are raised about potential pressures from the family, should active euthanasia be made legal. In terms of safeguards to ensure that consents are free and valid, the individual seeking the physician’s assistance to end his/her life may be interviewed by a magistrate, justice of peace or appropriate judicial authority. The fact is family pressures are experienced by all and in all matters including marriage, career choices, etc.
However, like child abuse, elder abuse is also prevalent everywhere cutting across all classes. With an ageing population and shrinking pensions, elder abuse will increase big time. Bedridden elders are likely to perceive themselves, and also be perceived as burdens by those around them. In all situations whether it is the elderly themselves, and/or, their relatives that see their situation as burdensome, legalised euthanasia could be still be viewed as a boon for all to bring about a peaceful, planned and dignified closure to a hopeless situation.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Knaism viewed from the perspective of a Social Movement
The Kottayam Diocese celebrated this year its 100 years of existence shepherding the Knanaya community back home as well as globally. The past 100 years also witnessed several landmark social movements like that of the civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, etc. Does Knaism share the characteristics of a Social Movement, in terms of being dynamic and evolving given the fact that its members have spread out to the far corners of the Globe?
David Korten author of Agenda for a New Economy: from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth describes an important characteristic of Social Movements:
The old narrative that had guided the Knanaya Community under the leadership of the Kottayam Aramana is:
The last 3 decades has witnessed large scale settlement of Knanaya families outside of Kerala and India, causing a tangible stress on the social identity of the new Knanaya generation raised beyond the close confines of the traditional Knayaya parishes of Kottayam Diocese that had mechanisms in place to force endogamy. Many of the educated among the new generation share a 'global culture' based on the values of fairness, equal opportunity and non-discrimination, and hence affiliations on the lines of caste and religion do not find the top place in their list of priorities, when contemplating marriage. Hence, there is a new story emerging that diametrically opposes the above story:
Let’s put aside Knaism for a moment and reflect on the civil rights and women’s movement during the last 100 years. For the civil rights and feminist movements, the old story said was:
In early sixties as the civil rights movement gained traction, feminism evolved as a result of a vague dissatisfaction plaguing the housewives. It touched a deep chord and became the focus of thousands of living room conversations in which women gathered to share their stories. They were conditioned to believe that failure to find happiness in service to their husbands revealed a character flaw they must strive to correct. Through these conversations, women discovered that the flaw lay not with them, but with the false story. Those whom these discussions initially liberated lent their voices to a growing chorus that spread a story of women’s rights and abilities. As millions of women joined in the conversation, a new gender story came to the fore and unleashed the feminine as a powerful force for global transformation.
Comparison of Knaism with the Civil Rights’ Movement brings to the fore the struggle between the proponents of the old and the new story lines. Thinkers, writers, and activists who embraced the idea of integration engaged in verbal combat with those who defended the status quo as legitimated by the old story. As the new story of possibility gained currency, its proponents engaged in non-violent civil disobedience, causing to create a new reality and set the stage for political demands to replace laws that institutionalized the old story with laws that institutionalized the new one.
The official Centenary celebration of Kottayam Diocese saw a parallel convergence of the nearly 3000 Knanaya members “living-in-exile” led by organizations called KANA and the Knanaya Catholic Naveekarana Samithi on August 6, 2011. Whether this awakened consciousness will expand among the moderate Kananaits all over and also withstand the political demagoguery of the Kottayam Aramana remains to be seen. It is hoped that organizations like KANA and Knanaya Catholic Naveekarana Samithi will join hands with the other great social movements, and unleash and liberate the mind of an average Kananait to transcend the barriers of race, class, and religion and see themselves and the larger world in a new light.
The recent clamour for extending the jurisdiction of Kottayam Aramana beyond the shores of Kerala, reflects the gnawing insecurity of the old guard, resulting in attempts to recreate the cocoon like environment of Uzhavoor, Neezhoor and Kaipuzha in the pluralistic societies of the Free World. Only time will tell, whether this endeavouring is based on felt needs and not irrational fears or wishful thinking. Meanwhile moderates of all hues, from all over and in all times could draw inspiration from Dalai Lama who says:
David Korten author of Agenda for a New Economy: from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth describes an important characteristic of Social Movements:
Every great social movement begins with a set of ideas validated, internalized, and then shared and amplified through media, grassroots organizations, and thousands, even millions, of conversations. A truth strikes a resonant chord, we hear it acknowledged by others, and we begin to discuss it with friends and associates. The new story then spreads out in multiple ever-widening circles that begin to connect and intermingle.
The old narrative that had guided the Knanaya Community under the leadership of the Kottayam Aramana is:
Endogamy is a hallowed tradition for the Knanaya community that has its origins in the Old Testament. Modern life being rife with high divorce rates due to fierce individualism, endogamous marriages can bring in the much needed stability provided by extended family, and thus promote the unity of the community as a whole.
The last 3 decades has witnessed large scale settlement of Knanaya families outside of Kerala and India, causing a tangible stress on the social identity of the new Knanaya generation raised beyond the close confines of the traditional Knayaya parishes of Kottayam Diocese that had mechanisms in place to force endogamy. Many of the educated among the new generation share a 'global culture' based on the values of fairness, equal opportunity and non-discrimination, and hence affiliations on the lines of caste and religion do not find the top place in their list of priorities, when contemplating marriage. Hence, there is a new story emerging that diametrically opposes the above story:
Endogamy is a very inhuman practice not just within the universal church but also in all societies. Apart from ethnocentrism, endogamy can cause genetic problems, racism, and discrimination; and hence it should be rejected.
Let’s put aside Knaism for a moment and reflect on the civil rights and women’s movement during the last 100 years. For the civil rights and feminist movements, the old story said was:
Women and people of color have no soul. Less than human, they have no natural rights. They blacks can find fulfillment only through faithful service to their white male masters. The key to a woman’s happiness was to find the right man, marry him, and devote her life to his service.
In early sixties as the civil rights movement gained traction, feminism evolved as a result of a vague dissatisfaction plaguing the housewives. It touched a deep chord and became the focus of thousands of living room conversations in which women gathered to share their stories. They were conditioned to believe that failure to find happiness in service to their husbands revealed a character flaw they must strive to correct. Through these conversations, women discovered that the flaw lay not with them, but with the false story. Those whom these discussions initially liberated lent their voices to a growing chorus that spread a story of women’s rights and abilities. As millions of women joined in the conversation, a new gender story came to the fore and unleashed the feminine as a powerful force for global transformation.
Comparison of Knaism with the Civil Rights’ Movement brings to the fore the struggle between the proponents of the old and the new story lines. Thinkers, writers, and activists who embraced the idea of integration engaged in verbal combat with those who defended the status quo as legitimated by the old story. As the new story of possibility gained currency, its proponents engaged in non-violent civil disobedience, causing to create a new reality and set the stage for political demands to replace laws that institutionalized the old story with laws that institutionalized the new one.
The official Centenary celebration of Kottayam Diocese saw a parallel convergence of the nearly 3000 Knanaya members “living-in-exile” led by organizations called KANA and the Knanaya Catholic Naveekarana Samithi on August 6, 2011. Whether this awakened consciousness will expand among the moderate Kananaits all over and also withstand the political demagoguery of the Kottayam Aramana remains to be seen. It is hoped that organizations like KANA and Knanaya Catholic Naveekarana Samithi will join hands with the other great social movements, and unleash and liberate the mind of an average Kananait to transcend the barriers of race, class, and religion and see themselves and the larger world in a new light.
The recent clamour for extending the jurisdiction of Kottayam Aramana beyond the shores of Kerala, reflects the gnawing insecurity of the old guard, resulting in attempts to recreate the cocoon like environment of Uzhavoor, Neezhoor and Kaipuzha in the pluralistic societies of the Free World. Only time will tell, whether this endeavouring is based on felt needs and not irrational fears or wishful thinking. Meanwhile moderates of all hues, from all over and in all times could draw inspiration from Dalai Lama who says:
It is good for children to learn to love their country, their religion, their culture and so on. But the danger comes when this develops into narrow-minded nationalism, ethnocentricity, and religious bigotry.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
The Role of Religion
Among the various human rights, the right that appears to be much abused is the right to the Freedom of Religion. Equally abused are the rights afforded to the Minorities on grounds of their religious affiliation. It is interesting to note that religious and minority rights are used so interchangeably that all other forms of minority statuses are in fact deliberately ignored and undermined. Take the case of Gays. Though gays are statistically defined as ten percent of any given population, their rights are never viewed as 'rights of a minority'.
The underlying principle in relation to the rights provided to religious minorities is the "Freedom of Thought and Conscience". However, when reviewing the role currently being played by the “religious right” in all Societies (developed and under-developed) it raises the moot question: Do Religions really promote Freedom of Thought and Conscience?
Being raised in the Catholic Church we were taught that ours was the “One True Faith” and everyone else was damned to hell. Really? That was tough to think about, because some non-Catholics and non-Christians I had known seemed like pretty nice folks—well, most of them, anyway.
Tens of millions of Americans are part of a diffuse and unruly movement known as the Christian right. They seek to create a theocratic state based on "biblical law", and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a defiant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims and those they dismiss as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace their interpretation of the Bible. Those who defy them are condemned as posing a threat to the health and hygiene of the country and the family. The followers of deviant faiths, from Judaism to Islam, must be converted or repressed. The deviant media, the deviant public schools, the deviant entertainment industry, the deviant secular humanist government and judiciary and the deviant churches are to be reformed or closed.
"God is (only) on our side" nonsense infects pretty much every belief system. Religious extremism is seen in the Islamic world and also back home amongst the Hindutva forces. Those who embrace these movements see life as an epic battle against forces of evil and Satanism. The world is black and white. They need to feel, even if they are not, that they are victims surrounded by dark and sinister groups bent on their destruction. They need to believe they know the will of God and can fulfill it, even through violence. They seek total cultural and political domination. They are using the space within the open society to destroy it. Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader sets an example on true Spiritual leadership when he says:
It is good for children to learn to love their country, their religion, their culture, and so on. But the danger comes when this develops into narrow-minded nationalism, ethnocentricity, and religious bigotry.
Apart from religion being a source of political power for the Clergy and Politicians, it is also a source for profits. Religious occasions—dime a dozen in all societies—help the corporate world. According to one UN study, religion is currently the world’s fourth largest enterprise, after armaments, drugs, and education.
However, religions for the majority believers who are moderate and do not share the frenzy of the bigots; is neither a path to mo¬ral¬ity, nor sub¬sti¬tute for a sci¬en¬tif¬ic un¬der¬stand¬ing of na¬ture. Its chief vir¬tue is being a "coping mechanism" for their trou¬bles. There is however a difference between moderate believers and many within the religious right in how they use their faith as a coping mechanism. In case of the believers on the extreme right, the Scripture as interpreted for them by the Clerics with direct connection to God, cannot be questioned and is their handbook for daily life.
"Don’t simply believe what I say without question, but use it as a basis for personal reflection and, in that way, develop your understanding of the Dharma" - Dalai Lama
The above words of Dalai Lama are a likely slap across the face of his counterparts in other religions, especially Catholicism and Islamism. It flies blatantly in the face of diehard notions like infallibility, blasphemy and heresy. Religions that do not allow its members have the freedom of thought and conscience fail miserably in playing the role of a “coping mechanism”. Unlike the Abrahamic religions that have split hairs on the notion of God, Buddha had said. “The supreme reality is indescribable and unutterable”.
Instead of believing in the God, the Buddhists believe in humanity. They believe that each human being is precious and important and all have a potential to develop into a Buddha - a perfect human being by replacing hatred, anger, spite and jealousy with love, patience, generosity and kindness. Even the Buddha had said, “No one saves us but ourselves”. Instead of teaching its followers what to think, it encourages one to learn how to think. It does not ask people to trust someone else, but invites all to trust themselves. It teaches people to question everything, and to combine head and heart to form a conscious connection to the source of all that is. Among the main goals of Buddhism is getting to know ourselves. To know who we are, we need to understand that we have two natures. Buddhism calls one “ordinary nature” made up of unpleasant feelings such as fear, anger, and jealousy and the other, “true nature; the part of us that is pure, wise, and perfect.
Buddhism being less hierarchical tends to be more spiritual and hence more therapeutic and effective as a “coping mechanism”, where all the mainstream religions fail. The inherent limitation of the mainstream religions is best captured in the following words of Dalai Lama: It is important to recognize that there are two levels of spirituality, one with religious faith, and one without. With the latter, we simply try to be a warm-hearted person.
The underlying principle in relation to the rights provided to religious minorities is the "Freedom of Thought and Conscience". However, when reviewing the role currently being played by the “religious right” in all Societies (developed and under-developed) it raises the moot question: Do Religions really promote Freedom of Thought and Conscience?
Being raised in the Catholic Church we were taught that ours was the “One True Faith” and everyone else was damned to hell. Really? That was tough to think about, because some non-Catholics and non-Christians I had known seemed like pretty nice folks—well, most of them, anyway.
Tens of millions of Americans are part of a diffuse and unruly movement known as the Christian right. They seek to create a theocratic state based on "biblical law", and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a defiant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims and those they dismiss as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace their interpretation of the Bible. Those who defy them are condemned as posing a threat to the health and hygiene of the country and the family. The followers of deviant faiths, from Judaism to Islam, must be converted or repressed. The deviant media, the deviant public schools, the deviant entertainment industry, the deviant secular humanist government and judiciary and the deviant churches are to be reformed or closed.
"God is (only) on our side" nonsense infects pretty much every belief system. Religious extremism is seen in the Islamic world and also back home amongst the Hindutva forces. Those who embrace these movements see life as an epic battle against forces of evil and Satanism. The world is black and white. They need to feel, even if they are not, that they are victims surrounded by dark and sinister groups bent on their destruction. They need to believe they know the will of God and can fulfill it, even through violence. They seek total cultural and political domination. They are using the space within the open society to destroy it. Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader sets an example on true Spiritual leadership when he says:
It is good for children to learn to love their country, their religion, their culture, and so on. But the danger comes when this develops into narrow-minded nationalism, ethnocentricity, and religious bigotry.
Apart from religion being a source of political power for the Clergy and Politicians, it is also a source for profits. Religious occasions—dime a dozen in all societies—help the corporate world. According to one UN study, religion is currently the world’s fourth largest enterprise, after armaments, drugs, and education.
However, religions for the majority believers who are moderate and do not share the frenzy of the bigots; is neither a path to mo¬ral¬ity, nor sub¬sti¬tute for a sci¬en¬tif¬ic un¬der¬stand¬ing of na¬ture. Its chief vir¬tue is being a "coping mechanism" for their trou¬bles. There is however a difference between moderate believers and many within the religious right in how they use their faith as a coping mechanism. In case of the believers on the extreme right, the Scripture as interpreted for them by the Clerics with direct connection to God, cannot be questioned and is their handbook for daily life.
"Don’t simply believe what I say without question, but use it as a basis for personal reflection and, in that way, develop your understanding of the Dharma" - Dalai Lama
The above words of Dalai Lama are a likely slap across the face of his counterparts in other religions, especially Catholicism and Islamism. It flies blatantly in the face of diehard notions like infallibility, blasphemy and heresy. Religions that do not allow its members have the freedom of thought and conscience fail miserably in playing the role of a “coping mechanism”. Unlike the Abrahamic religions that have split hairs on the notion of God, Buddha had said. “The supreme reality is indescribable and unutterable”.
Instead of believing in the God, the Buddhists believe in humanity. They believe that each human being is precious and important and all have a potential to develop into a Buddha - a perfect human being by replacing hatred, anger, spite and jealousy with love, patience, generosity and kindness. Even the Buddha had said, “No one saves us but ourselves”. Instead of teaching its followers what to think, it encourages one to learn how to think. It does not ask people to trust someone else, but invites all to trust themselves. It teaches people to question everything, and to combine head and heart to form a conscious connection to the source of all that is. Among the main goals of Buddhism is getting to know ourselves. To know who we are, we need to understand that we have two natures. Buddhism calls one “ordinary nature” made up of unpleasant feelings such as fear, anger, and jealousy and the other, “true nature; the part of us that is pure, wise, and perfect.
Buddhism being less hierarchical tends to be more spiritual and hence more therapeutic and effective as a “coping mechanism”, where all the mainstream religions fail. The inherent limitation of the mainstream religions is best captured in the following words of Dalai Lama: It is important to recognize that there are two levels of spirituality, one with religious faith, and one without. With the latter, we simply try to be a warm-hearted person.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Give us today our daily bread
This temporal petition is said innumerable times by billions of believers through the length and breath of the planet over the centuries. Back home, the most tragic face of the agrarian crisis the country is facing are the suicides of over 200,000 farmers over the past decade. If our food producers do not survive, where is the nation's food security?
The Knanaya Community has its roots in the traditional agrarian society of Kerala. Our fore-fathers as recent as 3 decades ago have tilled the land to enhance the food security of our families and the State, before cash-crops like rubber completely took over our lands and our lives.
Globally too, half of the hungry people of the world today are food producers. This is directly related to the capital intensive, chemical intensive, high external input systems of food production introduced as the Green Revolution, and the second Green Revolution. Farmers must get into debt to buy costly inputs, and indebted farmers must sell what they produce to pay back the debt. Hence the paradox and irony of food producers being the highest number of hungry people in India and in the world.
The Government of India is lately committed to enacting a National Food Security Act, because the Right to Food is viewed as the basis for the Right to life guaranteed in the Indian Constitution to all its citizens. However, the government appears to be only focussed on the food grain distribution, and is silent on issues such as grain production, security to farmers, and preventing the diversion of agricultural land, forest and water for corporations. In the near future, food grains are expected to be imported thus benefiting the multinational companies. Efforts are also being made to employ a policy of food stamp or food voucher in place of food grains to the beneficiaries, so the government does not have to procure grains and thus save on the subsidy money.
Environmental activist Vandana Shiva has severely criticized this proposed policy of the Indian Government for its inherent bias in favor of the corporate sector. The assumption is that corporations will control the food supply, and the government will enable the poor to buy from corporations on the basis of food stamps and vouchers. Thus the poor will then be condemned to the least nutritious unhealthy food as has happened in countries like the United States. The wheat imported by India a few years ago, were unfit for human consumption due to contamination by pesticides.
Activists like Vandana Shiva advocate for a Food security system that assures the right to safe, healthy, culturally appropriate and economically affordable food, which Food stamps cannot guarantee. Further, the Public Distribution System is both a food procurement and food distribution system, which the Indian Government appears as keen to dismantle and let go.
The Small Farmers’ Convergence (SFC) at the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 in Johannesburg, with farmers from across Africa had rejected genetically modified seeds (GMOs), and chemicals and had committed themselves to organic farming, and defense of farmers’ rights. They are freely choosing seeds they can save and technologies that are sustainable. Farmer’s organizations in India and in Africa are saying “no” to GMOs on the basis of their freedom to choose to be organic, which means being free of genetic contamination that result from genetically modified (GM) crops. Patents and intellectual property rights on seeds rob farmers of their freedom to save and exchange and thus develop their own seeds. Farmers are treated as “thieves” and “criminals” for exercising their rights as farmers. That is why those who farm organically and want to maintain their freedom to farm and uphold farmers’ rights are resisting the irresponsible corporations which are trying to own life on earth, including seed, contaminate crops and food and have total control over farming and farmers. Ironically, the leftist Government in Kerala has very recently decided to shift its stance towards GM crops on grounds that it will be unscientific to oppose the introduction of such seeds into the country, and that they would not harm the environment.
Farmers in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh are committing suicides because the costly seeds and chemicals from corporations like Monsanto/Mahyco have pushed them into deep debts. Bill and Melinda Gates are criticized for launching the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Nairobi, Kenya, which is aggressively pushing genetically modified seeds and the involvement of agribusiness giants such as Monsanto.
Another vital factor for India's food security is water. The monsoons recharge the groundwater and surface-water systems. Since 1966, as a consequence of the introduction of the Green Revolution model of water-intensive chemical farming, India has over-exploited her groundwater, creating a water famine. The chemical monocultures of the Green Revolution use ten times more water than the bio-diverse ecological farming systems. Rubber Plantations as an example of monoculture farming and its adverse impact on the water table is very close to home for the Knanaya Community.
The proverbial last straw is about how speculations by the Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more, have also contributed to the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world. This story appeared in The Independent/UK on July 2, 2010:
At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and stratospherically. Within a year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent. In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people - mostly children - couldn't afford to get food any more, and sank into malnutrition or starvation. There were riots in more than 30 countries, and at least one government was violently overthrown. Then, in spring 2008, prices just as mysteriously fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, calls it "a silent mass murder", entirely due to "man-made actions."
Corporations are creating poverty by diverting the hard earned income of peasants and farmers to the seed/pesticide industry. The new seeds besides being costly are also ecologically vulnerable to pests and diseases leading to more crop failures and higher use of chemicals. These are killer technologies which are undesirable and unnecessary.
Though most Kananaits today have moved away from land to other means of livelihood and to the far corners of the globe, we cannot simply turn a blind eye to the plight of food producers back home and globally. Enhancing critical awareness on this grave issue is indeed vital to exercising a positive global citizenship.
The Knanaya Community has its roots in the traditional agrarian society of Kerala. Our fore-fathers as recent as 3 decades ago have tilled the land to enhance the food security of our families and the State, before cash-crops like rubber completely took over our lands and our lives.
Globally too, half of the hungry people of the world today are food producers. This is directly related to the capital intensive, chemical intensive, high external input systems of food production introduced as the Green Revolution, and the second Green Revolution. Farmers must get into debt to buy costly inputs, and indebted farmers must sell what they produce to pay back the debt. Hence the paradox and irony of food producers being the highest number of hungry people in India and in the world.
The Government of India is lately committed to enacting a National Food Security Act, because the Right to Food is viewed as the basis for the Right to life guaranteed in the Indian Constitution to all its citizens. However, the government appears to be only focussed on the food grain distribution, and is silent on issues such as grain production, security to farmers, and preventing the diversion of agricultural land, forest and water for corporations. In the near future, food grains are expected to be imported thus benefiting the multinational companies. Efforts are also being made to employ a policy of food stamp or food voucher in place of food grains to the beneficiaries, so the government does not have to procure grains and thus save on the subsidy money.
Environmental activist Vandana Shiva has severely criticized this proposed policy of the Indian Government for its inherent bias in favor of the corporate sector. The assumption is that corporations will control the food supply, and the government will enable the poor to buy from corporations on the basis of food stamps and vouchers. Thus the poor will then be condemned to the least nutritious unhealthy food as has happened in countries like the United States. The wheat imported by India a few years ago, were unfit for human consumption due to contamination by pesticides.
Activists like Vandana Shiva advocate for a Food security system that assures the right to safe, healthy, culturally appropriate and economically affordable food, which Food stamps cannot guarantee. Further, the Public Distribution System is both a food procurement and food distribution system, which the Indian Government appears as keen to dismantle and let go.
The Small Farmers’ Convergence (SFC) at the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 in Johannesburg, with farmers from across Africa had rejected genetically modified seeds (GMOs), and chemicals and had committed themselves to organic farming, and defense of farmers’ rights. They are freely choosing seeds they can save and technologies that are sustainable. Farmer’s organizations in India and in Africa are saying “no” to GMOs on the basis of their freedom to choose to be organic, which means being free of genetic contamination that result from genetically modified (GM) crops. Patents and intellectual property rights on seeds rob farmers of their freedom to save and exchange and thus develop their own seeds. Farmers are treated as “thieves” and “criminals” for exercising their rights as farmers. That is why those who farm organically and want to maintain their freedom to farm and uphold farmers’ rights are resisting the irresponsible corporations which are trying to own life on earth, including seed, contaminate crops and food and have total control over farming and farmers. Ironically, the leftist Government in Kerala has very recently decided to shift its stance towards GM crops on grounds that it will be unscientific to oppose the introduction of such seeds into the country, and that they would not harm the environment.
Farmers in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh are committing suicides because the costly seeds and chemicals from corporations like Monsanto/Mahyco have pushed them into deep debts. Bill and Melinda Gates are criticized for launching the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Nairobi, Kenya, which is aggressively pushing genetically modified seeds and the involvement of agribusiness giants such as Monsanto.
Another vital factor for India's food security is water. The monsoons recharge the groundwater and surface-water systems. Since 1966, as a consequence of the introduction of the Green Revolution model of water-intensive chemical farming, India has over-exploited her groundwater, creating a water famine. The chemical monocultures of the Green Revolution use ten times more water than the bio-diverse ecological farming systems. Rubber Plantations as an example of monoculture farming and its adverse impact on the water table is very close to home for the Knanaya Community.
The proverbial last straw is about how speculations by the Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more, have also contributed to the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world. This story appeared in The Independent/UK on July 2, 2010:
At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and stratospherically. Within a year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent. In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people - mostly children - couldn't afford to get food any more, and sank into malnutrition or starvation. There were riots in more than 30 countries, and at least one government was violently overthrown. Then, in spring 2008, prices just as mysteriously fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, calls it "a silent mass murder", entirely due to "man-made actions."
Corporations are creating poverty by diverting the hard earned income of peasants and farmers to the seed/pesticide industry. The new seeds besides being costly are also ecologically vulnerable to pests and diseases leading to more crop failures and higher use of chemicals. These are killer technologies which are undesirable and unnecessary.
Though most Kananaits today have moved away from land to other means of livelihood and to the far corners of the globe, we cannot simply turn a blind eye to the plight of food producers back home and globally. Enhancing critical awareness on this grave issue is indeed vital to exercising a positive global citizenship.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Quest for Democracy within families
President Obama welcomed the relatively peaceful ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by invoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King:
"There's something in the soul that cries out for freedom. Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken it up."
Do we hear such cries for freedom from within the confines of the Knanaya families living in Europe and North America? How do we as a community address this ongoing quest for Democracy within our homes? What about the families back home and in the Middle East, who do not have the socio-legal protection available to families in the West?
Whilst joint families in the not so distant past saw a scramble amongst the adult children to curry favour with the Patriarch/Matriarch (who ever holds power), the modern day nuclear families are beset with an ongoing struggle between spouses as well as between parents and children for power and control. When women were confined within homes to be home-makers, they pliantly acceded to their husbands’ last word. This has drastically changed in the past 2-3 decades. Wives also earn an income and are not willing to remain content playing second fiddle to the “Lord-and-Master”.
With no training in the skills of negotiation or in the art of give-and-take, a couple is left with only two options: Husband could either be a dictator or be labelled “hen-pecked”; and wife may choose to be either subservient or be described “as wearing the pants”. There is no third option and hence we have cases of few Knanaya adults (mostly husbands) being criminally charged for assaulting their spouses in UK and North America.
Parallel to the feuding parents, one also comes across a jostle for power and control between parents and children in their terrible T’s- Toddlers and Teenage-hood. Most parents misunderstand the developmental need of their toddlers and teenagers for self-realisation as an act of indiscipline and disrespect, and become heavy-handed in their responses. What could be an excellent opportunity to teach ones child the skill of negotiation becomes instead a pitched battle of wits finally leading to physical sanctions, viz., yelling, slapping, pushing and even shooting as in the recent case of Julie Schenecker in San Francisco, who the police say confessed to killing her two “mouthy” teenagers. On the other end of this spectrum, we see parents who are either divided, or, are mere pushovers; making them incapable of saying a simple “no” to their offspring. They are lacking in intellectual and/or moral capacities to challenge or redirect their children.
Most stories of our families in crises within and outside of Kerala include a lot of ordinary stress and social isolation. In order for any marriage to survive, compatibility has to be achieved in most of its varied and diverse elements that include education, culture, physical appeal, class, maturity, worldviews, ethnicity, so on and so forth. The weightage given to each element should be determined by the individual couples themselves, taking into consideration their personal situations and needs. They may seek the counsel of their friends and family before and during their marriage, but the ultimate decision should rest with them as a couple. However, this is hardly the case for most Knanaya families, due to the dubious claims of ethnic purity resulting in the practice of endogamy. The Knanaya community requires ethnic compatibility to take precedence over all of the other elements required for compatibility in a marriage, thus making it the proverbial spoke-in-the-wheels of holy matrimony.
We hear our clergy waxing eloquently about the virtues of respect within families. How do they actually define and understand this lofty emotion? Does it mean that wife and children should obey the husband and elders unquestioningly? Or, does it require the husband and father to demonstrate willingness, openness and humility to be questioned about their choices and decisions? Should the wife and children be also enabled to develop capacity to ask questions? Given the inherent gender bias of the Church and its belief in infamous doctrines like papal infallibility, its likely response to above questions is anybody’s guess.
In my article, “Making ‘Ahimsa’ a way of life” that appeared in the January 2011 issue of Sneha Sandesham, I had suggested “Assertive Communication” as an essential life-skill to deal with domination, bullying and violence in everyday life. Assertive communication is the ability to communicate without fear and anger. This calls for a positive self-esteem and an absence of irrational anxiety and fears, which likely is a tall order for most of us ridden with the “Catholic Guilt”.
What needs to take place within our families is to replace domination by husband/father with collaborative partnership between spouses, parents and children. Historical revolutions that had toppled unreasonable monarchs and dictators have taught mankind the fact that power is never handed over willingly, and that it is snatched through force and violence. However the people of Egypt have reminded the World that there is power in assertion, that it is possible to correct the imbalance of power without resorting to violence.
Apart from redefining ‘respect’, we as a community also need to redefine the much abused term ‘leadership’, which was powerfully role-modelled by Christ as he washed the feet of his disciples. Could we take a moment to ponder about how and when we had missed valuable opportunities for leadership within our families, by demonstrating willingness and capacity to place the needs of those dependent upon us before that of our own?
"There's something in the soul that cries out for freedom. Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken it up."
Do we hear such cries for freedom from within the confines of the Knanaya families living in Europe and North America? How do we as a community address this ongoing quest for Democracy within our homes? What about the families back home and in the Middle East, who do not have the socio-legal protection available to families in the West?
Whilst joint families in the not so distant past saw a scramble amongst the adult children to curry favour with the Patriarch/Matriarch (who ever holds power), the modern day nuclear families are beset with an ongoing struggle between spouses as well as between parents and children for power and control. When women were confined within homes to be home-makers, they pliantly acceded to their husbands’ last word. This has drastically changed in the past 2-3 decades. Wives also earn an income and are not willing to remain content playing second fiddle to the “Lord-and-Master”.
With no training in the skills of negotiation or in the art of give-and-take, a couple is left with only two options: Husband could either be a dictator or be labelled “hen-pecked”; and wife may choose to be either subservient or be described “as wearing the pants”. There is no third option and hence we have cases of few Knanaya adults (mostly husbands) being criminally charged for assaulting their spouses in UK and North America.
Parallel to the feuding parents, one also comes across a jostle for power and control between parents and children in their terrible T’s- Toddlers and Teenage-hood. Most parents misunderstand the developmental need of their toddlers and teenagers for self-realisation as an act of indiscipline and disrespect, and become heavy-handed in their responses. What could be an excellent opportunity to teach ones child the skill of negotiation becomes instead a pitched battle of wits finally leading to physical sanctions, viz., yelling, slapping, pushing and even shooting as in the recent case of Julie Schenecker in San Francisco, who the police say confessed to killing her two “mouthy” teenagers. On the other end of this spectrum, we see parents who are either divided, or, are mere pushovers; making them incapable of saying a simple “no” to their offspring. They are lacking in intellectual and/or moral capacities to challenge or redirect their children.
Most stories of our families in crises within and outside of Kerala include a lot of ordinary stress and social isolation. In order for any marriage to survive, compatibility has to be achieved in most of its varied and diverse elements that include education, culture, physical appeal, class, maturity, worldviews, ethnicity, so on and so forth. The weightage given to each element should be determined by the individual couples themselves, taking into consideration their personal situations and needs. They may seek the counsel of their friends and family before and during their marriage, but the ultimate decision should rest with them as a couple. However, this is hardly the case for most Knanaya families, due to the dubious claims of ethnic purity resulting in the practice of endogamy. The Knanaya community requires ethnic compatibility to take precedence over all of the other elements required for compatibility in a marriage, thus making it the proverbial spoke-in-the-wheels of holy matrimony.
We hear our clergy waxing eloquently about the virtues of respect within families. How do they actually define and understand this lofty emotion? Does it mean that wife and children should obey the husband and elders unquestioningly? Or, does it require the husband and father to demonstrate willingness, openness and humility to be questioned about their choices and decisions? Should the wife and children be also enabled to develop capacity to ask questions? Given the inherent gender bias of the Church and its belief in infamous doctrines like papal infallibility, its likely response to above questions is anybody’s guess.
In my article, “Making ‘Ahimsa’ a way of life” that appeared in the January 2011 issue of Sneha Sandesham, I had suggested “Assertive Communication” as an essential life-skill to deal with domination, bullying and violence in everyday life. Assertive communication is the ability to communicate without fear and anger. This calls for a positive self-esteem and an absence of irrational anxiety and fears, which likely is a tall order for most of us ridden with the “Catholic Guilt”.
What needs to take place within our families is to replace domination by husband/father with collaborative partnership between spouses, parents and children. Historical revolutions that had toppled unreasonable monarchs and dictators have taught mankind the fact that power is never handed over willingly, and that it is snatched through force and violence. However the people of Egypt have reminded the World that there is power in assertion, that it is possible to correct the imbalance of power without resorting to violence.
Apart from redefining ‘respect’, we as a community also need to redefine the much abused term ‘leadership’, which was powerfully role-modelled by Christ as he washed the feet of his disciples. Could we take a moment to ponder about how and when we had missed valuable opportunities for leadership within our families, by demonstrating willingness and capacity to place the needs of those dependent upon us before that of our own?
Friday, July 16, 2010
The potential of Ahimsa
The Modern World witnessed the use of non-violence as a strategy for Social Justice by Gandhi and King (Jr). They were successful at kicking the British out of India, and gaining civil rights for blacks in the United States. However, did these non-violent movements succeed in fundamentally changing the distribution of resources or wealth in these societies? Has political freedom gone hand-in-hand with economic freedom of the oppressed??
Both Gandhi and King had undeniably fought for radical economic change, but their lives were cut short before their full vision could be realized.
Gandhi famously called poverty “the worst form of violence,” and advocated for economic self-sufficiency. He is among the few in the recorded history for having struggled to practice what he preached, by spinning his own clothes and living a life of material simplicity.
After Gandhi’s assassination, the world’s largest democracy has whole-heartedly embraced capitalism, forcing two-thirds of India’s population to now survive on $2 or less a day. Though the civil rights movement in US succeeded in earning the right to vote in the 1960s, the racial economic divide in the United States has barely shifted.
Naomi Klein in her book “The Shock Doctrine” has documented in extensive detail how leaders of other nonviolent movements had sold out as they gained power during the transition to democracy in their countries. She gave the example of the Solidarity movement that Lech Walesa led in Poland that abandoned its progressive economic program of worker ownership, and enacted economist Jeffrey Sachs’ neo-liberal recommendations: eliminating price controls, slashing subsidies, and selling off state mines, shipyards and factories to the private sector. As a result, the percentage of population living below the poverty line in Poland increased from 15 percent to 59 percent in 2003.
Another example cited by Klein is the story unfolding in South Africa, where the African National Congress (ANC) had advocated for radical economic change, including the nationalization of the country’s wealth and industry, as well as protecting the right to work and to decent housing. Since Nelson Mandela assumed the presidency, banks, mines, and monopoly industry that Mandela had pledged to nationalize, remained firmly in the hands of the same four white-owned mega-conglomerates that also control 80 percent of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In 2005, only 4 percent of the companies listed on the exchange were owned or controlled by blacks. Seventy percent of South Africa’s land, in 2006, was still monopolized by whites, who are just 10 percent of the population. The most striking statistic is the fact since the year Mandela left prison, the average life expectancy for South Africans have dropped by thirteen years.
There is no denying the fact that in all of these cases and many more, ordinary people employing nonviolent techniques were able to win substantial political freedoms and rights that have unquestioningly made their lives, and those of millions of others, better. However, the economic elite that controlled the country before the nonviolent movement gained power, continues to do so afterwards, and the plight of those at the bottom have in many cases exacerbated.
History so far has demonstrated that attaining real economic justice is a far more elusive goal than nonviolently bringing down a dictator. We need to acknowledge this fact about the failure of the non-violent transitions to democracy till date to democratize wealth, in order to stop such scenarios from playing out again in the future. It calls for a clear distinction to be made between the political and economic outcomes and those responsible for undermining political as well as economic justice. They are not usually one and the same.
Both Gandhi and King had undeniably fought for radical economic change, but their lives were cut short before their full vision could be realized.
Gandhi famously called poverty “the worst form of violence,” and advocated for economic self-sufficiency. He is among the few in the recorded history for having struggled to practice what he preached, by spinning his own clothes and living a life of material simplicity.
After Gandhi’s assassination, the world’s largest democracy has whole-heartedly embraced capitalism, forcing two-thirds of India’s population to now survive on $2 or less a day. Though the civil rights movement in US succeeded in earning the right to vote in the 1960s, the racial economic divide in the United States has barely shifted.
Naomi Klein in her book “The Shock Doctrine” has documented in extensive detail how leaders of other nonviolent movements had sold out as they gained power during the transition to democracy in their countries. She gave the example of the Solidarity movement that Lech Walesa led in Poland that abandoned its progressive economic program of worker ownership, and enacted economist Jeffrey Sachs’ neo-liberal recommendations: eliminating price controls, slashing subsidies, and selling off state mines, shipyards and factories to the private sector. As a result, the percentage of population living below the poverty line in Poland increased from 15 percent to 59 percent in 2003.
Another example cited by Klein is the story unfolding in South Africa, where the African National Congress (ANC) had advocated for radical economic change, including the nationalization of the country’s wealth and industry, as well as protecting the right to work and to decent housing. Since Nelson Mandela assumed the presidency, banks, mines, and monopoly industry that Mandela had pledged to nationalize, remained firmly in the hands of the same four white-owned mega-conglomerates that also control 80 percent of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In 2005, only 4 percent of the companies listed on the exchange were owned or controlled by blacks. Seventy percent of South Africa’s land, in 2006, was still monopolized by whites, who are just 10 percent of the population. The most striking statistic is the fact since the year Mandela left prison, the average life expectancy for South Africans have dropped by thirteen years.
There is no denying the fact that in all of these cases and many more, ordinary people employing nonviolent techniques were able to win substantial political freedoms and rights that have unquestioningly made their lives, and those of millions of others, better. However, the economic elite that controlled the country before the nonviolent movement gained power, continues to do so afterwards, and the plight of those at the bottom have in many cases exacerbated.
History so far has demonstrated that attaining real economic justice is a far more elusive goal than nonviolently bringing down a dictator. We need to acknowledge this fact about the failure of the non-violent transitions to democracy till date to democratize wealth, in order to stop such scenarios from playing out again in the future. It calls for a clear distinction to be made between the political and economic outcomes and those responsible for undermining political as well as economic justice. They are not usually one and the same.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The state of Kerala: some reflections...
I view Kerala as among the most politicised societies in the world. Kerala had earned the distinction of fostering the World’s first democratically elected communist government. Does that explain why its trade union movement turned out to be so irresponsible and unreasonable? Going on strikes at the drop-of-a-hat are next to impossible in most communist regimes, because they do not have the extent of democracy that Indian constitution provides. I am always surprised by the fact that even at the high schools (or middle schools?!), there is a tacit involvement of political parties in grooming their future cadres, through the help of teachers who are active party card-holders. In rest of the world, political participation usually begins at the university level. In the case of Kerala, at colleges and Universities one even comes across lecturers and professors (not sure of the Principals) openly touting their party affiliations.
Another important distinction of Kerala is the active political participation of its religious minorities. Muslims and Syrian Christians have their own political parties, thus giving every issue in the State a religious overtone. The pulpits end up as the election campaign platforms as-and-when-needed.
So what we see in Kerala is an overdose of politicisation, which has the unfortunate outcome of people having a much skewed political awareness leaning towards rights, and conveniently ignoring the obligations that go hand-in-hand. Despite the presence of dime-a-dozen Godmen and Godwomen in Kerala, ones innate sense of right and wrong is sacrificed at the altars of the self-serving agenda of ones kin, class, caste, or religious group.
Perhaps, there-in lies the problem…we have thrown the proverbial baby (ideals of justice and fairness) with the bathwater (the migration of its literate and skilled human potential). What's left behind is anybody’s guess!?!
Another important distinction of Kerala is the active political participation of its religious minorities. Muslims and Syrian Christians have their own political parties, thus giving every issue in the State a religious overtone. The pulpits end up as the election campaign platforms as-and-when-needed.
So what we see in Kerala is an overdose of politicisation, which has the unfortunate outcome of people having a much skewed political awareness leaning towards rights, and conveniently ignoring the obligations that go hand-in-hand. Despite the presence of dime-a-dozen Godmen and Godwomen in Kerala, ones innate sense of right and wrong is sacrificed at the altars of the self-serving agenda of ones kin, class, caste, or religious group.
Perhaps, there-in lies the problem…we have thrown the proverbial baby (ideals of justice and fairness) with the bathwater (the migration of its literate and skilled human potential). What's left behind is anybody’s guess!?!
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