I am adamant about this topic. I know that the only way forward is to limit ourselves in resource and energy use. In that vein, I wrote to the USA Sierra group that was touting electric cars: “I respectfully disagree with you. From where does the majority of our electricity derive? The answer is fossil fuels. That is obvious. So[Read More...]
The post Cutting Back appeared first on Countercurrents.
As we pick up the pieces of the shattered economy, the route to the Great Transition becomes clear: we need to recapture and democratize money as a lever for resource allocation and collective power. A quick survey of the GTI scenarios and the world around us will show that we slid from Conventional Worlds to Barbarization in the first three months of[Read More...]
Root Cause: I don’t know if it is right to attribute this to the education system and societal values but the most important thing that is sought after in life is ‘career’ and ‘money’. Because let’s face it, it is only after possession of this that you can afford the most sought after livelihood, you can enrol your child into[Read More...]
The post Choices and cost appeared first on Countercurrents.
By Vivek Sinha, Parijat Ghosh, Dibyendu Chaudhuri Introduction Sukanti Oraon of Jana, a village in Gumla district of Jharkhand, clearly remembers the day her Self Help Group (SHG) was formed. It was the 25th of November 1995, Saturday. Women of this Adivasi village came together to form SHGs with guidance from PRADAN, a national level Non-profit. Like many other villages[Read More...]
In a recent committee meeting at my institution, I heard a colleague say: “Our job is to prepare students for the world.” This comment wasn’t intended as an earth-shaking revelation, but it nevertheless caught my attention and got me thinking. On the surface, the idea appears to be simple and non-controversial, even banal. Those of us who are associated with[Read More...]
In the first article of Crisis Management, discussing the solutions “Adopt a Village” was an idea shared. This thought is not just for doing social service but also to improve the financial conditions of those villagers, establishing small scale industries, creating employment opportunities, overall to contribute to the country’s GDP. In an article of EPW written by Prof. Arun Kumar[Read More...]
Co-Written by Bibhubanta Barad. Parijat Ghosh and Dibyendu Chaudhuri Introduction It was a sunny summer morning in 2017. Self Help Group (SHG) members of Jana[1] congregated beneath the tamarind tree, their usual meeting place. Some men also were sitting there and the SHG members were taking loan to purchase inorganic fertilizers and hybrid seeds. They were discussing whether they would[Read More...]
Senior activist Medha Patkar launched a youth led, Towards A Better World campaign, in an online session where several youth leaders of Fridays For Future (a global movement led by Greta Thunberg) and other youth activists took part. We must change our life, lifestyle and sources of livelihood for a sustainable and just development, said Medha Patkar. “People should commit[Read More...]
Since the 1960s, how many movements have excitedly exploded into existence, only to later morbidly melt away? In contrast, how many movements have constantly interminably grown and strengthened over time? The answer, best we can tell, is that most movements have rapidly grown during their initial stages, only to lethargically decline later. Most movements gloriously birth and later ingloriously die.[Read More...]
Kenneth E Boulding, an English-American economist and an interdisciplinary philosopher once said; “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” Further, he added, “unfortunately, we all are economists.” Boulding made this statement in 70’s. Sad to say that, we still adhere to the illusion implied by Boulding for[Read More...]
