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And We Call This Progress?
Business As Usual: Vedanta Mine Plans Threaten India's Poorest. An ecosystem destroyed. A way of life gone forever. Private profit and public pain.
Bauxite mountains are part of a very delicate ecosystem. The mining of bauxite and the process by which it is turned into aluminum is among the most toxic, environmentally devastating processes imaginable.
If Vedanta is allowed to go ahead with its plans for mining the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa, in India's east, for bauxite it will lead to the devastation of a whole ecosystem and the destruction of not just the Dongria Kondh tribal community, but eventually all those whose livelihoods depend on that ecosystem.
The battle lines are very clearly drawn. On the one hand the Indian government with all its might, its judiciary and its police has aligned itself with the mining cartel of several corporations, led from the front by Vedanta. On the other side are India's poorest forest-dwelling people who stand to be displaced from their homes and lose their livelihoods and their way of life.
In some ways it's an ancient battle and a familiar one, whose story has been played out over centuries in every continent across the world and has had a more or less similar outcome, ie the corporations always win. This is commonly known as "progress".
However, today, in the era of climate change, surely it's time to realise that forests, river systems, mountain ranges and people who know how to live in ecologically sustainable ways, are worth more than all the bauxite in the world. Vedanta ought to be stopped in its tracks. Now. Immediately. Before any more damage is done.
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14 Comments so far
Show AllYeah, you ever notice that whenever it happens to a building or a house we call it "vandalism" or "destruction" . . . but when it happens to a forest or ecosystem we call it "development" or "progress".
Shows how much the language has been co-opted and twisted by the corporate elite.
Seventhson: You nailed it! Perfect post!
Speaking of twisting of language, it seems to be a cruel joke that this mining company is called "Vedanta". According to Wikipedia, "Vedanta was originally a word used as a synonym for that part of the Veda known also as the Upanishads. By the 8th century CE, the word also came to be used to describe a group of philosophical traditions concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality." What better way to achieve "self-realisation" than by destroying an ecosystem and the lives and livelihoods of poor forest-dwellers!
"The two ideas of 'civilization' and 'progress' (which are closely connected) only date from the second half of the 18th century, which also saw...the birth of materialism"
"(The belief) in indefinite progress began with Francis Bacon and Blaise Pascal, both whom conceived mankind's development as a linear progression (which had not existed before that point) and devalued or dismissed the achievements of older traditions."
"'Progress' is always MATERIAL progress(...)and the gospel of 'progress' rests on the belief that by means of natural sciences, intrinsically divorced from superanatural realities and revealed religion, man can improve the lot of his fellows."
"'Moral progress' is a cruel joke(...) In spite of organized schemes for social betterment, never has there been less virtue, less self-abengation, less sanctity than today."
(From the writings of William Stoddart)
Thank you for your comment, Seventhson, about the twisting of language and meaning. In the same vein, the football player, Michael Vick, was in the news for weeks, and was thrown into prison for cruelty to animals used in his dog-fighting operations; at the same time, the navy was driving whales onto beaches and up rivers with underwater testing, and the whales often died this way: the Supreme Court said that the navy could continue this horrible cruelty to animals that are living in their natural habitat. No one went to jail, and they were told they could continue their cruelty, but we get to salivate over Michael Vick's "criminality" for months on end.
Ray Berthiaume
Excellent point. The military rules in the U.S.A.
Dear God, how did we (human race) get so screwed up?
Vedanta = Vendetta
What can You say? (~)2573 years ago a man was born in Northern India that would change the way people look at their existence.
Siddharta figured out, that the only way to avoid 'Karmic worsening' and dissolve about 'bad' Karma is to live by ONE SIMPLE RULE:
"If what You intend to say or do, does harm to or hurt yourself, or does harm to, or hurt another LIVING BEING, or does harm to or hurt You and another LIVING BEING, the intended action MUST BE abandoned."
Two things become furthermore apparent. Knowing that India is an Asian forerunner for the same sick capitalist mentality as displayed by the oldest democracies in the Wild West, the consequences will be equally devastating.
LIFE can easily be disposed of. India Being Hinduistic seems to amplify and justify its human rights violation under the pretext of 'Kasts' and simply 'Karma'.
One wonders, why 700 Million people that 'peacefully' (depending at which side You look) removed their Royal Pain in the Ass, the Brits, from their Territory, are unable to bring about the urgent and important change for the 'Colony of Capitalism'. Well they were successful at least in terms of not being under the direct rule of the Queen. Other than that, capitalism had already a strong grip on India.
Do You believe that Bophal could have happened here, without consequences? Maybe, but that's a muted maybe, as I believe we do have some public dissent on issues of 'citizen-removal' through wreckless profit making on the expense of the whole global biosphere.
To conclude it remains some very small comfort, that what 'Goes Around Comes Around'. It won't help all those extinguished Life Forms and the masses of people sacrificed on the Altar of Mammon.
until we return to the ranks of the animals from the false pedestal we have created for ourselves, and upon which we proudly, drunkenly balance, we will destroy the ranks and environs of the animals, and will, one day, discover those ranks to include ourselves, whether we agree or no, and will rue our self-delusion...
Well thanks again Arundhati. for some reason i thought i'd been following this story, and that the Dongria Kondh were getting lots of support, and might resist this insult to them, to the land that supports them, to our planet, to reason- i still hope they can do it, but of course we have seen, over the last 500 years what usually happens when capital power seeks to destroy a people and their way of life for sickening, almost trivial, short term profit. capital always seems to get its way.
if you go to vedanta's website,you are first greeted by the ugly black smoke and heavy industry that is their essence, but then quickly whisked away to happy smiling indigenous Indians.
they say they are an Indian company, and maybe they are. but their headquarters is in London.
this just n: the church of england is being told to make them stop. the c of e apparently has enough stock to have a shot at it.
also pitching in for our side: the tireless and lovable Bianca Jagger. stay tuned.
finally. don't miss this video of the people:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/may/28/india-mining-dongria-kondh
abuelo, thanks for the video link. The 5-minute video shows what's at stake here for the people who have always lived there. This is no different from what happened during the construction of the infamous Sardar Sarovar dam project across the Narmada river in central India. Once again, people who have lived on the land are threatened with uprooting in the name of development.
On a different note, one has to wonder - isn't this the typical kind of thing settlers would do? Psychologically - this is just my theory or a hypothesis, if you will - settlers would have less attachment to the land, and are far more likely to see what resources the land can yield for short-term profit. Mining companies owned by western countries do this sort of thing to the land and the indigenous people in other countries. Now this is being done by the Indian government (federal and state) to their own people - that is, assuming that the tribal people are considered 'their own people'.
There has been a massive transfer of land to corporations in recent years in India, over the objections and protest of the local people. The kind of exploitation that we know has been going on in Latin American countries now seems to be taking place in India. And yet, we hear Indian politicians talk of the need for rapid development to reduce poverty. Can't they carry out this development without wholesale transfer of land and uprooting of people?
Seems to me a lot of people here (including Roy) don't understand capitalism--enrich a few at the expense of all.
trying to get the word out
Good Morning Kindred Spirits, (for those of you that are not Kindred Spirits ((if any exist)) and would like to become one, the door is always open.
A Kindred Spirit is Love ,Compassion, Justice.
Those of you that posted a comment to this article should go to this previous article (many of you have been there).
article appears in commondreams.org
Title of article: “When Will The Recovery Begin ? Never.
Author: Robert Reich
dated : Friday July 10 2009
In my opinion Mr. Reich’s article describes the existing economic reality.
Sioux Rose, did you miss this article ?
Citizen Central is no longer inert, the momentum has begun.
Here are some answers to the comments directed to Citizen Central by posters (I am not aware of all of them sorry).
yours truly’s post July 11 2009 to Mr. Reich’s article is the approach Citizen Central is taking.
Is Citizen Central a forum? No Citizen Central is a direction action citizens lobby.
Will Citizen Central be a web creation? That would be great if C.C. manifests through the internet.
Why don’t you just create a web site or have someone do it ?. That’s a great idea , we need a web site, I don’t know how to do it, nor do I have the resources. That has to come from one of you .I can explain what the web site needs to do.
C.C. needs an administrator, who’s going to be the administrator, you? No the site will need an administrator, one of you.
Who will design the site, and choose the topics for consideration, you ? As of today I am the project manager, if someone wants to be project manager,
make your case. I am the current project manager someone had to do it, the way C.C. works, the members choose a project manager. When C.C. is created if a new project manager is desired we get one . There are no ego’s involved here.
What is the objective of c.c. ? Okay, within our current political system the only way to manifest our collective desires is to have the numbers.
Congress, the senate and the administration is elected by us the citizens. What we need is a majority of votes in each congresspersons, and senators district. That’s what c.c. does, bring together all the like-minded citizens ,but instead of electing a person to represent us, we elect a person to create laws and policy that we the citizens want . If they do not want to do the citizens business then we have an immediate recall and replace that person with a person that will.
If the elected official always did what the majority wanted then there would be no civil rights etc. I understand your point . However considering the situation at hand ,our elected officials are not representing our best interests, we have to change that , THE ONLY WAY TO CHANGE THAT WITHIN OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM IS TO HAVE A MAJORITY OF VOTERS IN EACH DISTRICT.
What we need right now is a way for the people interested in c.c.to be able to communicate with each other. I am going to post c.c. activity in the post section of the first article that appears on commondreams each day . Hopefully we can come up with an alternative soon.
Sioux Rose , you had mentioned that the administrator of commondreams might help us out, any way of checking on that.
Later on today :
We need to get a web site operational .Until that’s done we are limited.
We need to get every progressive site on board, as well as the general population.
If this statistic is correct , forty percent of American citizens are functionally illiterate, we need to energize that segment of society, by appealing to individuals that these people might trust for their endorsement i.e. actors, athletes, members of specific ethnic groups, religious leaders etc.
Once the opposition becomes aware of c.c. it will definitely turn into a numbers game. Mainstream media will not be very helpful to our cause, the internet and a field organization is probably the most effective way to go.
See you later today.
not unlike big coal's mountain top removal