GLOBALIZING INEQUALITY

MONDAY -The MOST tiring day of the week....classes and labs go on till 5 in the evening and we have human values till 6:30.I was reluctant to go to the human values class as i was damn tired.What a bore!was my instantaneous thought.I had no other option but to attend the class.Generally the class will be held in yoga hall.Harish messaged that it was going to be held in center for humanities.I was surprised by the change of venue.Finally I reached the place.We were going to watch a movie!I was pretty excited.But it wasn't a "movie" it was a speech.My excitement vanished into thin air.The person who started the speech was P.Sainath.P.Sainath i wondered never heard of the name.


The speech was titled “Globalizing Inequality”.The title was very catchy. He started off with the “theme weddings” in India where a 2 acre plot turned into a Hollywood like set costing nearly 30 million rupees.I wondered what a wastage of money .This money could be used for many other things.I wondered why the world is so crazy.
Then he moved onto suicides precisely farmer suicides. Farmer suicides are not a third world issue alone. They occur routinely in the USA -- only many of them are reported as accidents so that the family does not lose the insurance payment.
The below statement was really thought provoking. "Only five of the twelve nations affected by the recent tsunami have a functioning stock market", the speaker began."And all five markets registered historic or near-historic highs in the week following the Tsunami!" 30000 homes were destroyed by the tsunami in the town of Nagapattinam in South India. Over 84000 hutments were forcibly demolished in Bombay, and the occupants evicted, all by the government also called as Mumbai’s manmade tsunami.
I was surprised by the fact that the fastest growing economy in 2004 was “AFGANISTHAN”. Over a quarter of its GDP came from …….. opium!!!
The point that the sensex rose to historic heights when there was misery and it fell down rapidly during happy periods was thought provoking. He pointed out that it was inversely proportional to the happiness of the people. Very true I felt.
Inequality is worse in today’s world than at any point since World War II. Inequality has grown faster in the last 15 years than in the past 50. The income gap between the top 20 per cent of the world’s population and the bottom fifth has more than doubled. By 1998, the top 20 per cent consumed 86 per cent of all goods and services. The bottom fifth made do with 1.3 per cent. Oh my god ! I thought.
One of the other topic that grabbed my attention was about the coco-cola companies that have been digging borewells that has been draining away water in that district.
His statement about the Nero’s guests was an eyeopener. Sainath described Emperor Nero's open air party for the Who's Who of Rome. As dusk fell, lights were called for, and Nero's staff came up with a novel solution: the party was illuminated by prisoners and poor being burnt on stakes all around the arena.
The thing he had always wondered about, Sainath said, was the attitude of Nero's guests. Why did they go along with this atrocity? How did they continue partying on? He ended his talk with by asking, "Are we going to be like Nero's guests?"
THAT WAS REALLY A VERY GOOD STATEMENT AND WE SHOULD GIVE A THOUGHT TO IT.