Shiva, Vandana

Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

Violence of Globalization BY VANDANA SHIVA Protectionisme n est devenu un mot tabou en cette tre de and ecology as violent technologies. fibre rnarchk et de mondiafisation, mais Vandana Shiva Cows are herbivores, they are not meant to eat their own nous dit que /'expansion du fibkralisme nous a menb tout simpfement h de nouvefles formes de violence contre ['humanit/. Les lignes qui suivent sont des extraits de tkmoignages de la Cour des femmes en Afiique du Sud, au mois de mars 2001. The following is an excerpt of Vandana Shiva's testi- mony at the Women's Court held in South Africa on March 8, 2001. carcasses. But, in an industrial system of factory farming globalized under free trade rules of agriculture, it was "efficient" to grind up the meat ofinfected sheep and cows and turn it into cattle feed. This has spread BSE among cattle-a disease that can be transmitted to humans. Children should be playing with their friends. Schools are not supposed to be war zones. But a culture ofguns and violence, combined with one that has focussed so exclu- sively on commerce and economic growth and material - accumulation, has left future generations uprooted and "We thought we had put slavery, holocausts, and apart- unanchored, afraid and violent. Our children are robbed heid behind us-that humanity would never again allow of childhood. In Iraq, twelve children die every hour dehumanizing and violent systems to shape the rules by because of a trade embargo. In other regions, children are which we live and die. Yet globalization is giving rise to being pushed into prostitution or warfare-the only new slavery, new holocausts, new apartheid. It is a war options for survival when societies break down. Across the against nature, women, children, and the poor. A war Third World, hunger and malnutrition has grown as a that is transforming every community and home into a result of structural adjustment and trade liberalization - war zone. It is awar ofmonocultures against diversity, of big against small, of war-time technologies against na- ture. Technologies ofwar are becoming the basis ofproduc- tion in peacetime. Agent Orange, which was sprayed on Vietnam, is now being sprayed on our farms as herbicide along with Round up and other poisons. Plants and animals are being genetically engineered, thus making our fields sites of biological warfare. And perverse intel- ligence is being applied to terminate life's cycles of renewal by engineering "Terminator" seeds to be sterile. As the violence grows, the stress on societies, ecosys- tems, and living beings is reaching levels of breakdown. We are surrounded by processes of ecological and social breakdown. Witness the events of our times which are now front page news. Cows in Europe being subject to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), miIlions of animals being burnt as foot-and-mouth disease spreads due to increased trade, farmers in India committing suicide in thousands, the Taliban destroying their heritage by vandalizing the Bamiyan Buddhas, a 1 5-year-old boy shooting his classmates in a Californian high school, policies. During 1979-8 1 and 1992-93, calorie intake declined by three per cent in Mexico, 4.1 per cent in Argentina, 10.9 per cent in Kenya, 10.0 per cent inTanzania, 9.9 per cent in Ethiopia. In India, the per capita cereal consump- tion declined by 12.2 per cent for rural areas and 5.4 per cent for urban areas. Denying food to the hungry and feeding the markets is one of the genocidal aspects of globalization. Countries cannot ensure that the hungry - - .  are fed because this involves laws, policies and financial commitments that are "protectionistn-the ulti- mate crime in the globalization re- G lobs l ization gime. Denying medicine to the ill so is giving rise t o  , that the global pharmaceutical in- new slavery, dustry can make ~rof i t s  is another new holoCaUStS, aspect ofgenocide. Under the Trade Related Intellectual Property agree- new apartheid. ment ofthe World Trade Organiza- I t  is  a war tion, countries have to implement patent laws granting exclusive, mo- against nature, nopolistic rights to the pharrnaceu- W 0  117 e n, C h i l d re n, ethnic cleansing. tical and biotech industry. This pre- and the poor. All these are wars of peacetime occurring in our daily vents countries from producing low lives and the last expression of violence in a system that cost generic drugs. Patented HIV/ has put profit above life, commerce above justice, ethics AIDS medicine costs $1 5,000, while VOLUMES 21/22, NUMBERS 411 15 knowledge ofour mothers and grandmothers is now being claimed as inventions ofwestern corporations and scientists. The use of neem (Azarichta Indica) as pesticide and Eungicide was claimed to be an invention by the U.S.D.A. and W.R. Grace. India challenged it and was able to have the patent revoked. The seeds and plants of basmati have been claimed as inventions by a U.S. corporation called Ricetec. And these are only some ex- amples of biopiracy which will lead to the absurd situation where the Third World pays for knowledge that evolved cumulatively and collectively. From the women's Court, we declare that patents on life and patents based on biopiracy are immoral and illegal. They should not be respected because they violate universal prin- ciples of reverence for life and the integrity of a culture's knowledge systems. - .  "Do Something About It, " Toronto, Canada. Photo: Shannon Walsh We will not live by rules that are robbing millions of their lives and medicines, their generic drugs made by India and Brazil cost $250-300 for seeds, plants and knowledge, their sustenance and dignity one year's treatment. Patents are, therefore, literally rob- and their food. We will not allow greed and violence to be bing AIDS victims of their lives. treated as the only values to shape our cultures and our However, in the world order of globalisation dictated lives. We will take back our lives, as we took back the right. by commerce, greed and profits, it is providing cures We know that violence begets violence, fear begets fear, through affordable medicine that is illegal. India, Brazil, peace begets peace and love begets love. We  will reweave the world as a place of sharing and caring, of peace and and South Africa have been taken to the WO Court (the . Dispute Settlement Mechanism) because they have laws justice, not a market place where sharing and caring and that allow low cost medicine to be produced. theworld giving protection are crimes and peace and justice are Court of Women, we declare that laws that force a unthinkable. We will shape new universals through soli- government to deny citizens the right to food and the right darity, not hegemony. to medicine are genocidal. Women's worlds are worlds based on protection--of Globalisation is a violent system, imposed and main- our dignity and self-respect, the well-being of our chil- tained through use of violence. As trade is elevated above dren, of the earth, of her diverse beings, of those who are human needs, the insatiable appetite of global markets for hungry, and those who are ill. T o  protect is the best resources is met by unleashing new wars over resources. expression of humanity. Those who have tried to trans- The war over diamonds in Sierra Leonne, over oil in form "protection" into a dirty word, the worst crime ofthe Nigeria has killed thousands of women and children. global market place, see the protection of health, nutri- The transfer ofpeople's resources to global corporations tion, livelihoods, all call for trade sanctions and "punish- also makes states more militaristic as they arm themselves ment" by the W.T.O. and the World Bank. on behalf of commercial interests, and start wars against T o  those who have tried to make the protection of life their own people. Violence has been used by the govern- a crime we say echoing Archbishop Tutu: 'You have ment against tribal people in areas where Bauxite is mined already lost. You need to get out of the way so that we can in Orissa and in Koel Kato, where the building of a large protect each other, our children and life on this planet.' dam was stopped. But it is not just non-renewable re- The future does not belong to the Merchants of Death- sources like diamonds, oil and minerals that global corpo- it belongs to the Protectors of Life." rations want to own. They want to own our biodiversity and water. They want to transform the very fabric and This testimony originallyappearedin The Hindu on March basis of life into private property. Intellectual Property 25, 2001. Rights (IPRS) on seeds and plants, animals and human genes are aimed at transforming life into the property of Vandana Shiva is director of Research Foundation for corporations. While falsely claiming to have "invented Science, Technology and Ecology, New Delhi. life forms and living organisms, corporations also claim patents on knowledge pirated from the Third World. The CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME 

Violence of Globalization

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Violence of Globalization

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Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)