Permanence in a transient world

There are still bits of history in Wardha, the district town in Vidharbha, Maharashtra. There is an air of optimism as one strolls across the sleepy streets, sensing a whiff of peace and non-violence as people go about their daily chores. Modernity has yet to take full control on peoples’ life; the creative genius has an environment to flourish here.

Magan Sanghralaya, in the middle of the town, is a repository of non-violent tools and techniques for building an ‘economy of permanence’. It houses what Joseph Cornelius Kumarappa, whom Gandhi called the ‘doctor of village industries’, stood for in giving constructive shape to Gandhi’s revolutionary ideas.

Published over 65 years ago, Economy of Permanence is seemingly more relevant today then during the period it was written. Even as early as in 1945, Kumarappa had given a call to shun the use of non-renewable resources which he proclaimed belonged to a ‘bucket economy’ (where the water gets depleted) and exhorted that we need a ‘river economy’ instead (one that replenishes).

Partly experiential, the non-violent way of life is based on author’s own transformation from a Europeanized lifestyle. In detailing out the inter-related facets of life, lifestyle and livelihoods, Kumarappa builds his thesis on the premise that the life of man is transient in comparison with that of Nature, which is relatively permanent.

In his foreword to Economy of Permanence, Gandhi had observed that ‘it needs careful reading twice or thrice if it is to be fully appreciated’. Kumarappa was clearly ahead of his times, talking of moral values and cooperative banking in the same breath. With equal ease, he could relate standard of living to the idea of democracy as well.

Despite the book been written more than half a century ago, many of Kumarappa’s ideas are still being effectively pursued in and around Wardha. Economy of Permanence is a work of practical philosophy, insightful and inspiring at the same time.....Link

Economy of Permanence
by J C Kumarappa
Magan Sangrahalaya Samiti, Wardha
186 pages, Rs 200

Ignorance may not be bliss

At about the time when the Bhakra Dam was being built in the early 1960’s, a little known political movement was simultaneously gaining ground. Oblivious to the technology of generating power from flowing water, the proponents of the movement argued instead that power extracted from water will render the fluid sterile. Though the argument couldn’t stand the test of time, it did create some ripples in the corridors of power in Punjab.

The time may have changed but our ignorance of technology persists, in fact it has grown with each new gadget hitting the stores. The mobile phones and iPods bear testimony to the growing ignorance; only miniscule users are conversant with the myriad applications these gadgets come loaded with. While access to technology in itself is empowering, alienation from the same may have serious consequences especially when a tool is supposed to offer life saving results.

Alien Technology explores the intriguing levels of technology alienation, which is leading to the creation of a new kind of class system based on technology literacy. The pace with which corporations are rolling out new gadgets, a sense of inadequacy grips those who lack the ability to get a better sense of the technology. A vast majority may survive technological alienation and it indeed does but at the cost of being socially tagged as ‘less intelligent’.

Has technological sophistication made humans lesser intelligent? It indeed has, as child-like instinct of playing with new equipments using simply a screw driver is no longer possible. No wonder, our incessant obsession of technology has grown alongside our persistent ignorance of it. Using real-life examples, author Ananda Mitra engages the readers on a subject that has yet to catch the imagination of a vast majority, for whom ignorance is bliss.

Written in lucid language, Alien Technology is a timely introduction to a subject that has far reaching social and psychological implications. Ignorance and alienation can work against the masses in a variety of ways. Aren’t there computer users who still use predictable passwords, readily download any application or share details online, holding themselves vulnerable to computer hackers?....Link

Alien Technology
by Anand Mitra
Sage, New Delhi
224 pages, Rs 295

Protest you must!

Protest is a form of dissent that reflects an act of faith in a democracy and not otherwise. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects. At the core of every protest, be it in Sidi Bouazid or at Jantar Mantar, is a compelling quest for freedom. In many ways it is an ‘expression of popular democracy’ against an entrenched system that espouses ‘deficit democracy’ as its driving principle.

At times protests are in response to a trigger; however, more often these are energy-sapping strategic initiatives to bring about desired change. It is an act of performance in public that engages no less than 25 diverse backstage managers – from convenor to enforcer, from provider to adjudicator and from instigator to dialoguer – because each street protest or a long drawn campaign focuses on doing one thing: Winning!

Backed by two decades of campaigning experience, Chris Rose presents a brilliant how-to guide on designing campaigns and winning them. How to win campaigns offers carefully considered steps and tools to motivate and sustain a campaign. The book, Rose admits, is not science, but rather a collection of experiences based on trial and error, that may help campaigners choose them under varied contexts and diverse situations.

Given the fact that campaigning has become a full time vocation, the challenge to find creative and practical ways to engage with public to challenge vested interests that threaten a fairer and safer world has become daunting. From writing catchy slogans to designing informative diagrams and from drafting a press note to deciding on whether or not to opt for a celebrity, Rose delves in detail on the nuts and bolts of getting heard and achieving results.

There is a word of caution though! One can’t read this 400-page guide to launch a campaign; it can be helpful if one is already into a campaign mode or better still a handy guide to train next generation of campaigners. Buy the book if you are passionate about changing something for the better.....Link

How to Win Campaigns
by Chris Rose
Earthscan, London
400 pages, $40

Sky isn't the limit!

In his new book, Dickson Despommier argues that our future food needs can best be met by vertical farms, or ‘farmscrapers’, which are both environment friendly and economically sustainable. A city, he believes, can now choose to become a functional urban equivalent of a natural ecosystem by employing high-tech versions of waste-to-energy strategies, food production, and water-recovery systems -- all under one roof.

Agriculture has never been as fragile as it is today: climatically vulnerable and ecologically unsustainable. But it is only in the last few years that over 15,000 years of settled agriculture has been rendered insufficient and unsustainable. John Steinbeck’s depiction of the worst-case farm scenario, in The Grapes of Wrath, is seemingly coming to life, bringing the agricultural revolution to a close.

With no foreseeable let-up in world population for the next four decades at least, the goals of maintaining a productive environment and harvesting additional foodgrain may seem mutually exclusive. India is already importing more farm produce than ever before; China has lost parts of its 2010 harvest to erratic weather; and following droughts, half-a-million children are reportedly at risk of dying from starvation in Niger. The signs are ominous.

The largest setback on the farm front is possibly yet to come. Agriculture in its present form may not be able to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050. Even if the world manages to come up with enough chemical nutrients to produce additional crops, there may not be enough freshwater supplies to irrigate new farmlands.

The compelling question is: Will technological advancements overturn this doom-and-gloom scenario?

Technological advancements in the 21st century could indeed make such troubles history. Efforts by individual farmers have the potential to spur a third Green Revolution. A Florida farmer wiped out by Hurricane Andrew re-invested in a greenhouse and replaced some 30 acres of outdoor farmland with a single acre of greenhouse-grown strawberries using hydro-stackers, allowing multiple layers of hydroponically grown crops in a unit area.

Such initiatives have led Dr Dickson Despommier, a public health microbiologist at New York’s Columbia University, to formulate the concept of ‘indoor’ farming. The consequent shift from nature-dependent agriculture to computer-controlled farming will cut external risks to a minimum and allow for secure, year-round production. The idea is to squeeze a whole ecosystem into one building for high production on a low resource base.

In his recently published book The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, Despommier argues that with recent advances in the sustainable use of resources, a city can now choose to become a functional urban equivalent of a natural ecosystem by employing high-tech versions of waste-to-energy strategies, food production, and water-recovery systems -- all under one roof.

In fact, the Seattle-based Weber Thompson Architects has designed a multi-storey farm complete with hydroponic grow areas, grey water remediation, research facilities, retail space, and living quarters. Once built, such high-tech, water- and energy-efficient skyscrapers will occupy less than an acre of land and provide many acres of grain, vegetables and fruit. With several such designs on the cards, vertical farming could soon become a reality.

There are reasons for farming to go vertical. First, arable land the size of Brazil required to grow food to feed 1.6 billion extra mouths in the next four decades may not be available. Second, irrigating additional acres is unlikely as 70% of our freshwater has already been consumed. Third, frequent crop failure due to climate change is proving a setback to farming in many regions of the world.

A lot might have changed since Steinbeck’s classic novel was published in 1939, but the tragedies of that period have returned to haunt the farmer. Rising input costs, skewed trade barriers, erratic weather patterns, export-driven monoculture, and increasing farmer suicides have forced experts to conclude that today’s agricultural practices may not meet the needs of a growing population.

But a vertical farm with 30 floors the size of a Manhattan block in any city centre would ease the pressure on farms. Powered by geothermic, solar, biomass, or wind energy, such vertical farms could meet the entire food needs of 50,000 people. In addition to year-round crop production, a ‘farmscraper’ would consume 70-95% less water, purify grey water to drinking water, restrict the use of harmful agro-chemicals and ward off weather-related crop failures.

Despommier agrees that any first edition of an invention will cost a lot, like any one of our modern conveniences -- the hybrid car, plasma screen, or mobile phone. But the tangible and non-tangible gains from a vertical farm employing large-scale hydroponics and aeroponics (nutrient liquid and mist) should offset the initial costs -- sustained crop production without further damage to the environment and eco-restoration of freed farmlands are important spin-offs.

Constructed as a network of facilities, a typical vertical farm includes a building for growing food; a separate control centre for monitoring the overall running of the facility; a nursery for selecting and germinating seeds, quality-control laboratory to monitor food safety, document the nutritional status of each crop and monitor plant diseases; a facility for the vertical farm workforce, a green market; and, eventually, an eco-education centre for the general public.

In the last six years, Despommier has worked with over 100 research students to combine futuristic architecture with futuristic agriculture. Interestingly, some six universities in the US, Europe, South Africa and Australia are currently researching the farming of the future. The research focuses on an urban agro-production system such that lettuce or tomato would no longer travel 2,000 miles to reach their final destination.

Despommier has travelled the world presenting the idea of a ‘vertical farm’ to government and companies to secure large-scale funding to construct 20 prototypes. “For high-tech, high-efficiency farming, I would ultimately pick countries like Chad, Mali, Malawi and other African countries where farming is not only failing but where farming due to climate effect is unlikely to occur in the next 20-40 years,” he says.

In Vertical Farm, the author makes a strong case for bio-mimicking nature in a closed system wherein all waste will be reprocessed into usable resources without further damaging the environment.

Vertical Farm is a completely original work, a journey into the settled agriculture of several centuries and ‘farming of the future’. It is a book of world-changing innovation worthy of becoming a classic....Link

Vertical Farm
by Dickson Despommier
Thomas Dunne Books, St Martin’s Press
New York. Pages: 303. Price: US$ 25

Learning to live with poverty

So it may seem as the absolute number of poor has consistently grown – by current estimate an estimated over 1.4 billion women, men and children live in extreme poverty. Increasingly volatile food prices, the uncertain effects of climate change, and stifling of rural livelihoods by development juggernaut have impacted efforts to reduce poverty.

Despite the prescription to eradicate poverty having failed thus far, the Rural Poverty Report stays optimistic about eradicating rural poverty by the application of new opportunities that smallholder farmers can apply to boost their productivity. But, poverty eradication is inextricably intertwined with the need to feed the urban population, projected to touch 9 billion by 2050.

The report positions poverty within the market-driven demand-supply conundrum, seeking the need to strengthen the collective capabilities of rural people. While stressing the need for reforming the distorted global regime for trade in agricultural products, the report makes a demand on national stakeholders to provide an enabling environment for the smallholders.

Curiously, however, existing national policies may have removed poverty in many societies but that has been done by expanding the proportion and the absolute number of the destitute. Being a global agency that aims to ‘combat hunger and poverty in developing countries through low-interest loans’, IFAD views rural poverty predominantly from an asset perspective.

While acknowledging the multidimensional nature of poverty, the report misses out on the fact that poverty is a paradox of plural democracy that is wedded to global capitalism. Further, it does not take into account the glaring reality that as poverty gets increasingly associated with ethnic and cultural groups it loses political plot for its eradication. Consequently, it remains a game in `numbers’ that national governments and aid agencies play with growing immunity.

Published a decade after it had released its first poverty report, IFAD has covered significant new ground in analyzing the status of rural poverty across the world in the latest edition of its Rural Poverty Report. Although its conclusions are largely predictable, the report should nevertheless serve as a useful reference to researchers and planners.....Link

Rural Poverty Report 2011
IFAD, Rome, 319 pages, Price not quoted

Development, as it is not understood

Do those who are subjected to hegemony of dominant development perspectives produce a counter discourse? Doesn’t modernity marginalize the poor to the extent that they only lament their condition? Quite in contrast, even while overwhelmed by irony, distance and cynicism the marginalized produce a counter discourse that despite being context specific reflects resilience and adaptability, and is not only rooted in production and consumption but in regeneration too.

Works of immense scholarship, the twelve essays in the volume provide fresh insights on the role of culture in shaping the attitudes towards economic development of the marginalized community. The ongoing struggle of the marginalized is beyond the basic material entitlements, reflected in their collaborative resistance to stigmatized existence. That the powerless and voiceless need emancipation through aid is a misconstrued notion of development, it argues.

In the world that is reeling under the influence of climate change, ignoring the power of cyclic bio-regeneration and socio-ecological reproduction of the marginalized poor could indeed be catastrophic. Drawing cases from India, Europe and the Americas, Interrogating Development exposes multidimensionality of marginality as it relates to ‘development’. Without doubt, the notion of development has accentuated the destruction of community and its diverse cultures.

Delving deeper into the world of development from the perspectives of the marginalized, the authoritative essays by well-known authors like Frederique Marglin, Ashis Nandy, Gail Omvedt and Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp provide multi-layered insights into cultural dimension of human existence. In the long run, culture is what connects individuals to the social world in meaningful ways. Curiously, culture is what is at stake at the altar of development.

Without doubt, Interrogating Development will enrich the contemporary discourse on development at this time when the world is going through a dramatic phase of self-assertion by diverse communities reeling under the onslaught of development that is impinging on their life, lifestyle and livelihoods.....Link

Interrogating Development
by Frederique Apffel-Marglin, Sanjay Kumar & Arvind Mishra
Oxford University Press, Delhi
307 pages, US$ 29.95

Making sense of sustainability

Alan Atkisson does not belie expectations of those who have been following him ever since he first published Believing Cassandra, over a decade ago. The Sustainability Transformation is a must-read book for all those who have wanted to get a sense of what ‘sustainability’ means and how indeed can it be put into practice. Staying optimist, the author takes the reader into the world of immense possibilities.

Through case stories and personal anecdotes, Atkisson engages the reader on the essentials of making a sense of our interconnectedness with nature. The story of the dusky sparrow has transformative power – generating a desire to change things for the better. Faced with a choice between saving the dusky and reducing the bother of mosquitoes, local authorities chose the latter for setting up the space center at Central Florida, the habitat for this endemic bird.

Using his widely adopted ISIS Method – Indicators, Systems, Innovation and Strategy – Atkisson helps reader search for ‘sustainability’ within the complex jungle of such stories. Good Life Index is one such tool that helps awaken interest in sustainability and communicate its basic concepts to encourage people dig down into the details for a more systemic understanding, beyond the ordeal of the daily news.

Written in an informal and personal style, the Sustainability Transformation acts like a trigger towards positive change, both in thinking and in action. It demolishes many ill-conceived notions about ‘failure’ and helps the reader enter the world of immense ‘possibilities’. Through rigor of analysis, Atkisson has developed an excellent combination of theory and practice. No wonder, it is as much a book of theory as an operating manual, inspiring and visionary at each step.

Written with passion, conviction and foresight, the book argues that the ultimate vision of a sustainable world is immensely possible. And that too, in our life time only.....Link

The Sustainability Transformation
by Alan Atkisson 
Earthscan, London
323 pages, US$ 29.95

Across the fence negotiations

Be it the Ganges, Cauvery or Krishna, sharing river waters across sub-national or international boundaries has remained a formidable challenge. For decades on end, the treaties and tribunals haven’t been able to strike a deal for water sharing amidst warring sub-regions and regions. Quite often such conflicting situations get politicized beyond redemption, forcing popular sentiments to run over cooperative processes.

Yet, there are rivers like Mekong, Nile and Danube, passing through 6, 9 and 10 countries respectively, whose waters has been amicably shared amongst riparian countries. Notable is the fact that despite being culturally and politically diverse, countries in Africa, Europe and East Asia have been able to check politically hazardous conditions from overwhelming the water-sharing principles.

As the name suggests, the book provides an idealized view of how transboundary water management should be done. However, what should happen is not necessarily what does happen in real life. To illustrate the complexity involved in managing water across boundaries, fifteen diverse but successful initiatives from river-basins across the world have been presented. These cases present an experience-based inventory of strategies for transboundary water governance.

Transboundary Water Management is a well-researched book that not only provides the theoretical basis of managing water across boundaries but enlists approaches that have indeed worked too. As water rises higher on the political agenda, with lives of more and more people being either affected by too much or too little water, the book should provide a conceptual framework for planners and politicians to negotiate their compelling concerns.

It is a book of hope that considers transboundary waters a challenge that can be dealt with.....Link

Transboundary Water Management
by Anton Earle, Anders Jagerskog and Joakin Ojendal (Eds)
Earthscan, London; 261 pages, US$ 60

Between statistics and reality

Being context specific, the word livelihoods evokes diverse responses under varied conditions. For a politician, it offers a clever assurance of electoral gains; for a planner, it is a challenge to ensure growth inclusive; for a practitioner, it measures effectiveness of development programs and for the poor, it is a mirage to be relentlessly pursued. In a globalised world where gainful vocations are fast shrinking, livelihoods has attained the status of a buzzword.

Published annually since 2008, the latest edition of the State of India’s Livelihoods attempts to monitor livelihoods trends in a sector that has witnessed a quarter of a million farmer suicides during the past decade. The consequent disappearance of farm hands, growing demand-supply gap and spiralling food prices reflect only the tip of the iceberg. Paradoxically, farmers are dying on account of low prices whereas the consumers are complaining of exorbitant rates.

Over 80 per cent of land holdings in the country are so small that it cannot produce enough to sustain a family of five. Since fragmentation of landholdings is a continuous process, many more join in the search of livelihoods each year. And those who are forced to migrate to the cities confront a situation where industrial growth does not encourage the use of labour. It is a vicious circle wherein the poor get trapped involuntarily.

While unfolding the livelihoods crises in agriculture, the report examines a predictable cause-effect framework. Far from projecting futuristic scenarios, the contributors to the volume prefer to stay in the comfort zone of critically reviewing available statistics. The report misses out on the growth-driven policy push that is in favour of a demographic transition wherein only 20 per cent of the population shall remain at the farm.

Given its restricted focus, the State of India’s Livelihoods report should be of limited use to researchers and practitioners.....Link

State of India’s Livelihoods Report 2010
by Shankar Datta and Vipin Sharma (Eds) 
Sage Publications, New Delhi, 127 pages, Rs 795

The enigma called China

It is a geographical reality that as the sun goes down in the United States, the day starts in China. Conversely, however, it is the financial sun that has started to rise in China and set instead on the United States. That China is growing at an envious rate is a geo-political inevitability of our times. No wonder it is sourcing large quantities of expensive raw materials like copper, iron, oil and wood from across the world.

In the process of its sustained growth, a substantial amount of the world’s wealth has moved to China. Estimated at US$ 2.3 trillion, it is holding a quarter of the foreign currency reserves of the entire world. In comparison, the US had US$ 83 billion in foreign exchange reserves at that time. The shifting of American wealth to China had many political analysts quipping that President Obama had travelled to China so that he could ‘visit our money’.

While for many, the conflict between China and the United States appear to be both imminent and unavoidable, for author Handel Jones these facts point to a very real opportunity for governments and businesses of two countries to work together rather than be separated by economic tensions. The essential lesson for the United States is to stop the decline in public wealth by strengthening its industrial employment base.

Jones acknowledges the fact that China is fast becoming the industrial hub for the entire world. While there is a human and entrepreneurial side to China, the industrial side of China is a big machine that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 50 weeks a year. That this machine runs on the space meant for its communities and consumes strategic natural resources is a source of tension worldwide.

Chinamerica provides in-depth visibility on the enigma called China.....Link

Chinamerica
by Handel Jones
Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi ; 280 pages, pp 232, Rs 575

The crises of digital identity

Had Nandan Nilekani read the story of Stacy Snyder, he would have thought twice before launching the ambitious UID project. The story of Stacy goes like this: by spring of 2006, the 25-year-old single mother had completed her coursework and was looking forward to become a teacher. Summoned by university officials, she was told she would not be a teacher, although she had earned all the credits, passed all the exams and completed requisite practical training. She was denied her certificate, she was told, because her behavior was unbecoming of a teacher.

Shockingly, an online photo showing her in costume wearing a pirate’s hat and drinking from a plastic cup had done the trick. The university argued that the online photo was unprofessional since it might expose pupils to a photograph of a teacher drinking alcohol. Uploaded for the fun of it, the innocent act had proved costly. Not only Stacy’s offer to offload the photo got turned down, her law suit against the university wasn’t successful either.

Stacy’s case may sound exceptional, but it is not. Dozens of cases of profound embarrassment, and even legal action, have occurred since then. Curiously, the university's position does not reflect the validity or stupidity of its decision; instead it is about the importance of ‘digital identity’. The internet remembered what the likes of Stacy had long forgotten.

In Delete, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger traces the important role that forgetting has played throughout human history and analyses the manner in which this virtue has been undermined by digital technology. The trouble, argues Viktor, is that cheap storage and easy retrieval do not allow outdated information to fade away. The past is ever present, ready to be called up at the click of a mouse.

Delete broadens the ‘privacy’ debate to encompass the dimensions of time. It provides well-balanced account of the challenges we face in a world where our digital traces are saved for life.

While the economists argue that better information increases efficiency, the question remains whether humans can live in peace with their identity being stored, and quite often misused or misinterpreted for posterity? On a societal level such information enables policy makers to adjust policies before problems have gotten out of hand. But at a personal level, digitized personal details can be seen as an infringement on one’s privacy.

With background in business and technology, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger vividly depicts the legal, social and cultural implications of a world that will no longer remember ‘how to forget’. Digital remembering, argues Viktor, undermines the important role forgetting performs (to be forgiving to its members and to remain open to change), and thus threatens us individually and as a society in our capacity to learn, to reason, and to act in time.....Link

Delete - The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger
Princeton University Press, New Jersey 237 pages, US$ 25

Drawing room spiritualism

Like insurance, faith has become a matter of drawing room solicitation. Be it saffron robed Swami Ramdev or superstar evangelist Joel Osteen, faith of all hues are on display over the convenience of a television screen in the drawing room. The press of a remote button opens window to the world of emerging telefaith, a marketplace of spirituality of least resistance which is producing ‘consumer worshippers’ rather than worshippers ‘consumed with God’.

McDonaldisation, Masala McGospel and Om Economics looks at globalization from a cultural and religious standpoint. Backed by content analysis of two each of the Christian and the Hindu television channels, research for the book was followed by interviews with middle-level priests in Mumbai and Hyderabad. What emerges is a cutting edge research, providing insightful reading on the development of telefaith within India and around the world.

As mediated religions gain new foothold, faith is finding strange bedfellows in politics and the capitalist market. Not only does control over airwaves connect to the world of marketing and finance, the new links create political economies that support and sustain the religious media enterprises. High-profile televangelist, Ramdev who teaches and demonstrates his breath control techniques, has cashed in on television to build a huge religious enterprise.

But televangelism has reduced faith to a commodity for the calculating consumer. No wonder, the phenomenal following of some of the tele-gurus like Swami Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar could be attributed to the medical bills that are impossibly high for the middle class in the event of an illness. It is no coincidence therefore that a large number of those taking part in healing crusades hope to be healed for free.

The growth of telefaith, the author asserts, may imply that the media will simply be a venue for the fragmentation of faiths, where multiple faiths are ‘narrow casted’ to specific interest groups, with various religions in a state of co-existence. However, the crucial question is whether global communication will co-create a world where multiple religions co-exist or will it create a world of homogenized global cultures?

As powerful generators of cultural meanings, religious media and mediatised religion have tremendous potential for generating strong identities that can have powerful implications for either understanding or misunderstanding, peace for conflict. If handled without care, the media could inadvertently become the venue for ‘clash of civilizations’, the book concludes.....Link

McDonalisation, Masala McGospel and Om Economics
by Jonathan D. James
Sage; 232 pages, Rs 595

Bridge those gaps

Epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have gone under the skin to diagnose the disease that plagues the modern society. Crime is on the rise; mistrust amongst people is increasing; health is deteriorating by the day and self-esteem is at its lowest. Far from curtailing such trends, economic growth is indeed fuelling it further.

Sample this: America, one of the world's richest nations, has the lowest longevity and a high level of violence - murder, in particular. Add to it a growing mistrust amongst people and an increasing number of teenage pregnancies to get a picture of economic growth that belittles health and happiness of its people. Yet, economic growth is pursued as an antidote to social ills.

We know there is something wrong, and this book goes a long way towards explaining what and why. Pulling information from as much as 200 sets of data, the authors conclude that inequality is at the root of social crises. Inequality not only causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives but destroys relationships between individuals born in the same society but into different classes.

The scale of economic inequality which exists today is less an expression of freedom and democracy as of their denial. If the cooperation of the masses was thought to be essential, the State would have reduced inequalities and flattened the pyramid of social stratification. But to persist with it seems deliberate, as it continues to generate illusion of hope in the State.

It is brave to write a book that questions the premise of economic growth. The speculative element in the cycles of economic boom and bust shift attention from environmental and social problems and make us worry about ‘how to get the economy moving again’. Whereas, in reality, reducing inequality would only make the economic system more stable.

Calling for our generation to make one of the biggest transformations in human history, The Spirit Level leaves on a note of optimism: ‘Greater equality will help us rein in consumerism and ease the introduction of policies to tackle global warming’. Unless progressive politics strengthen the concept of an equal society it will rarely provoke more than a yawn.

Anyone who believes that society is the result of what we do, rather than who we are, should read this book. Wilkinson and Pickett have backed their thesis with inarguable battery of evidence that ends with one of the simplest conclusion: we do better when we're equal.....Link

The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Always Do Better
by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett 
Penguin, London, 352 pages, $ 28

Outwardly firebrand, inwardly vulnerable

It is nine years since she was murdered but curiosity to learn more about her life hasn’t diminished. The sordid saga of atrocities committed on her and the tales of violence unleashed in retaliation provide limited narrative on her complex persona. Though Phoolan had become a legend of sorts in her short but vastly eventful existence, unsubstantiated conjectures continue to obscure the truth about her life.

Drawing on years of correspondence and personal interactions, Outlaw: India’s Bandit Queen and Me is a fresh attempt at unveiling the firebrand bandit by Roy Moxham. What began as a sympathetic gesture to cover her legal fees evolved into a brotherly relationship with the author following her release from jail. Outlaw is an intimate portrait of an angry woman and many faces of her vulnerable existence.

Phoolan’s has been an extreme case of exploitation on gender, caste and economic grounds but the social subjugation she went through manifests itself in the predominant patriarchal society every so often. However, Moxham tries to defend her vindictive and mostly brutal actions by asking questions that if the rich could buy immunity from justice in a country where the police and judiciary are corrupt, why victims could not be excused from delivering justice on their own?

Though she was lionized by the underprivileged for her grit and determination, her rise to power invited skepticism and mistrust as well. No wonder, as a member of parliament she remained vulnerable to dubious designs of the politicians as much as to her own family members who were eyeing their share in her new-found prosperity.

As a book and paper conservator living in London, Moxham did not plan to write a biography on Phoolan. However, the exchange of letters and personal encounters brought to light many facets of Phoolan’s life which the previous two biographies – 'Devi –The Bandit Queen' and 'India’s Bandit Queen' - were not privy to. Outlaw is not a work of scholarship but a must-read narrative on the unusual friendship between two people.

For those who have read or not read either of the two biographies and for those who have seen or not seen Shekhar Kapoor’s controversial film Bandit Queen, Outlaw offers a refreshing take on the life of a modern-day Robin Hood. I am convinced that Phoolan’s story must be told and retold in a society that has yet to come to terms with its inherent contradictions on equality and justice.....Link

Outlaw: India’s Bandit Queen and me
by Roy Moxham
Rider, Random House, London; 214 pages, Rs 599

Making a case for ant watchers

There is a fascinating parallel between ubiquitous ants and urban traffic. Other than numbers, peak traffic flow is symbolic of collective behavior of ants, as at a critical concentration it bifurcates into a new branch where not only it pushes others but gets pushed by others too. In dilute traffic flows, however, much like ants you follow your inclination.

Not without reason is the use of ‘ant’ algorithms a thriving industry in computer science, artificial intelligence and robotics. Ants’ collective intelligence is now being used to encourage research leading to the development of vehicles that can navigate using moment-to-moment responses to their own sensors, without any need for remote control.

In her encounters with ants, Deborah Gordon, Professor of Biology at the Stanford University, has revealed that irrespective of its size an ant colony operates without a central control or hierarchy, as no ant directs another. It is amazing that unlike the bees, the queen is not in charge as the colony itself acts as a ‘superorganism’. She argues that ant society offers the choice of a system for the human society to organize itself without any distinct hierarchy.

Deborah Gordon's Ant Encounters is stimulating, erasing misconceptions that the Hollywood movies like Antz seek to portray. These movies show the ant colony as a corporation with more or less disgruntled workers. In contrast, ant colonies are anything but a totalitarian society where individual ants decide what to do based on the rate, rhythm and pattern of individual encounters and interactions - resulting in a dynamic network that coordinates the functions of the colony.

Varying in colors from red to black and from blue to orange there are over 11,000 species of ants that have been identified. These social insects are reported to be 140 million years old, having survived the last extinction that accounted for the mighty dinosaurs. It is even suggested that the mass of ants may be ten times that of humans on the planet.

Given their sheer numbers, it is tragic that only 50 species of ants have thus far been studied in detail. Had the English, in the nineteenth century, extended their obsessions with birds and wildflowers a bit further to ants, there would have been local ant-watchers club! Gordon's work is of historical significance as she connects evolutionary biology with political theory in making a case that ant societies are model systems for the study of collective behavior....Link

Ant Encounters: Interaction Networks & Colony Behavior 
by Deborah Gordon
Princeton University Press, Oxford; 167 pages, $ 19.95

Malleable but not pliable

School days memory of a chapter on malleable and ductile metal that is of critical significance to the aviation sector resonates like a romantic story on the marvels of science. That excavation of aluminium from bauxite sends the mountain crumbling down is a horror story one begins to learn later. The recent scrapping of environmental clearance for bauxite mining from the tribal-rich Niyamgiri hills in Odisha has pieced together two stories into an unpalatable saga of corporate-led environmental destruction and cultural genocide.

In their penetrating anthropological study, Felix Padel and Samarendra Das uncover an epic clash of ideologies that pits profit mongering metal traders against the forest dwelling tribal communities in Odisha. Out of this Earth is a courageous and compelling account of this vital encounter. The authors reveal that behind the ripping of bauxite out of the mountains is an elaborate financial structure which links the mining corporations, government deals, international banks and the military-industrial complex.

Aluminium’s vital importance to the global military-industrial complex offers it the cushion against market uncertainties. No wonder, the alumina scrip did not take any beating at the stock market despite the recent ban on bauxite mining. An American military expert had long warned: ‘No fighting is possible, and no war can be carried to a successful conclusion today, without using vast quantities of aluminium. Aluminium, and great quantities of it, spell the difference between victory and defeat’.

The life-threatening features of the white metal have gained additional potency through hidden subsidies on water and electricity. Refining a metric ton of aluminium requires an average of 250 kilowatt hours of electricity and smelting it consumes an additional 1,300 kwh. Over 1,378 tons of water sucked into the process returns as 4-8 tons of toxic red mud and 13 tons of carbon dioxide. In simple terms, this means that the negative impact of producing aluminium is around 85 times its positive value.

Felix and Das trace the history, science and sociology of aluminium extraction in re-creating a ‘metal colonialism’ that threatens to wipe out the traditional habitations of adivasis in the mineral endowed tribal regions of the country. It takes courage to publish an intensely engaging book of immense scholarship that unmasks the political-economy of growing metal capitalism, at a time when mining and growth seem synonymous.

You can avoid reading this book at your own risk!....Link

Out of this Earth: East India Adivasis & the Aluminium Cartel 
by Felix Padel and Samarendra Das 
Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi 752 pages, Rs 895

Love thy name is social change

What has ‘development’ got to do with ‘love’ and how does ‘power’ relate to ‘love’? Power without love produces ‘development’ that destroys everything we hold dear, argues Adam Kahane, as collision of immoral power with powerless morality constitutes the major crises of our time. Having worked around the world on a variety of challenges ranging from economic development to judicial reform and from food security to climate change, Kahane persuasively argues that a symbiosis of power and love alone can achieve lasting social change.

Kahane delves deeply in the dual nature of power and love, exploring their complex and intricate interplay, but mocks at the idea of applying ‘best practices’ solutions from the past to solve problems. Not only are the problems of our time generatively complex but the future is fundamentally unfamiliar and undetermined, that seeks new set of ‘next practice’ solutions. Waging war against problems may not offer solutions, creating space and scope for collective creation holds promise.

Highly relevant to the global challenges we face today, Power and Love is about the hope and possibility that comes from committing oneself to making a difference in the world. Drawing from his experience of conducting social change workshops across different continents, the author contends that our destruction of aboriginal societies worldwide and our headlong rush towards the destruction of the ecosystems arise from our disconnection from one another and from the earth.

Kahane argues that love connects and creates opening, potential and opportunity, but power is required for these to be tested and realized. However, dialogue that does not acknowledge and work with power therefore cannot create new social realities. In fact, each needs the other. As Martin Luther King put it, ‘Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.’

Power and Love should be read and re-read by leaders in the private, public and social sectors. In his extraordinarily insightful and powerful analysis, Kahane debunks George Bush’s doctrine that ‘if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem’ by presenting an alternative formulation: ‘if you’re not part of the problem, you can’t be part of the solution’. Moving from power to love enables us to see more clearly how we are part of the problem and therefore how we can be part of the solution.

It is an inspiring narrative that is immensely readable for those who are not only empathetic to social change but are looking at ways and means of co-creating new social realities....Link

Power and Love: A Theory & Practice of Social Change 
by Adam Kahane 
Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi; 172 pages, Rs 250

Bathroom Safari

The harrowing tales of adventures with parasites of varying shapes and sizes makes disgusting but compelling reading. It's a paean on frightening parasites that may give psychogenic itch. What else can reading about leeches, tapeworms and flukes lead unto? Eugene Kaplan, distinguished professor of ecology and conservation (emeritus) at Hofstra University, stays comical as he narrates the bizarre tales of contracting every possible parasitic infection during his travels across continents.

What's Eating You is about thirty distinct parasites that have fed on the author. Kaplan describes how he 'gave birth' to a parasite the size and thickness of a pencil while working in Israel, and how drinking contaminated water caused a three-foot-long worm to burst from his arm. It is parasitology writing at its best: informative, beautifully illustrated and hugely entertaining guide through the many forms and relationships that parasites and hosts embody.

Kaplan has written a seriously scientific publication that is pacy but embodies a style of its own. Else, the section captions could not have been awfully smelly. 'A Peek into the Anus - of My Child' and 'The Defecating Scandinavian' could make one feel yuck but the author marvels at the biological ingenuity of the parasites as these infect humans. There is a fish tapeworm that can grow up to forty feet long, and specifically targets elderly Jewish women.

Without doubt, Kaplan is a master raconteur who makes a grisly subject engrossing as well as entertaining. If it were not Kaplan one would not have developed a fascination for blood-sucking leeches. One of the many reasons why the Americans lost the war in Vietnam had to do with leeches feasting on US soldiers. The book demonstrates how wonderfully compelling teacher Kaplan is, wandering 'through field and feces' to get infected for finding subjects to study....Link

What's Eating you? People and Parasitesby Eugene H. Kaplan 
Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 302 pages, US$26.95

Champagne for a pittance

News reports indicate that farmers in Parkejuli village in Assam pay Rs 21,000 to their counterparts across the border in Bhutan for using water from rivers flowing from the Himalayan Kingdom. The practice reportedly dates back to 1956 when the annual tax was just Rs 100. The rate of payment has since been revised several times. It seems there is an unwritten obligation on the part of the downstream users to pay their upstream counterparts for sustained supplies.

Unlike most city dwellers, Parkejuli inhabitants do not take the water that flows downstream for granted. In most cities across India water is ferried from distant watersheds to meet the growing demand. Quite often, neither is consent sought from local inhabitants for such transaction nor is payments made for the services they render. The crucial question is whether robbing Peter to pay Paul is justified in a market-driven economy?

Based on multi-location studies in eight countries the book has attempted to examine the issue of payment for watershed services from social, economic, legal and institutional perspectives. There are mixed evidences though. Payment for hitherto unrealized ecosystem services brings into the open the potential winners and the likely losers, setting the stage for a negotiated settlement to create a win-win situation. Without doubt, the payment schemes seem difficult to set up.

However, the Catskills-Delware watershed has sustained a large chunk of the 4.5 billion litres of daily supply of water to 9 billion people in the New York City on 'payment for ecosystem services' principle. Considered 'champagne' of drinking waters, the quality started deteriorating in the early 1980's due to intensification of farm activities in the watershed. It was estimated that to maintain water quality, the city would need to invest $ 6 billion in setting up a treatment plant.

The New York city instead struck a deal with the farmers, paying for pollution control investments on each farm. Between 1990 and 1993, 93 per cent of landholders in the Cat-Del watershed had signed up the program at a cost equivalent of about 11 per cent of the proposed treatment plant. New Yorkers have retained their champagne drinking water at a fraction of the cost of treatment. Curiously, exceptional cases like these have yet to inspire replication.

The case of New York city indicates that ensuring buyers alone may not be sufficient to set the system rolling. What the buyer pays for and what the seller gets may not be enough, the challenge is to ensure that watersheds get a fair deal....Link

Fair deals for watershed servicesby Ivan Bond & James Mayers 
IIED, London, 112 pages, $ 18

Charity begins at home

At about the time when Indian government had shut door on some of the leading development donor agencies, philanthrocapitalists of all hues had mushroomed to fill the gap. Driven by corporate profits, such foundations promise to save the world by bringing the magic of the market to philanthropy. That business-is-best philosophy has been seductively presented to remove the messiness of social change. And no one seems to be complaining.

But Michael Edwards considers it an attractive proposition that is also a dangerous mirage. After all, if business wants to save the world, there are plenty of opportunities to do so at the heart of their operations: pay taxes; pay decent wages; don't produce goods that kill; and follow government regulations. Ironically, businesses evade $385 billion a year of corporate tax in developing countries, far more than what flows as foreign aid.

Small Change is a tiny volume filled with incredible insights on philanthropy, civil society and social change. A must read for all those engaged in the business of social change, the book argues that solutions to complex social and political problems have to be fought for and negotiated - not produced, packaged and sold. Unless a social space free of external influences is preserved, people cannot hold government and business accountable for their action.

The non-profit sector may be getting larger, but it is becoming weaker due to increasing corporatization of non-profit groups. By reducing non-profits to the role of service providers, businesses have not only avoided areas that are essentially unprofitable for them but have also distanced the non-profits from their prime role of addressing inequality and individual alienation, which has essentially been the creation of capitalism.

Having spent three decades in the nonprofit sector, Edward backs up his argument with some clear logic that holds one's attention with a lot of interesting stories. The metrics-driven methodologies of the business world have failed more than once. For instance, the Gates Foundation has admitted that its $258 million investment in AIDS control in India has achieved none of its goals and is too expensive to be handed over to the government.

However, the story doesn't end here. A World Health Organization official had complained in 2008 that it was no longer possible to find independent reviewers for research proposals because they were all on the payroll of the Gates Foundation. It is no accident but part of a deeper conspiracy. By violating regulations and evading taxes the capitalists amass wealth, a portion of which is directed for social causes that in turn helps appropriate policies. A win-win scenario!

Digging deeper into the world of corporate philanthropy, Edwards contests the dubious claims of the 'philanthrocapitalism' espoused by Michael Bishop, the so-called 'creative capitalism' offered by Bill Gates, the 'fortune at the bottom of the pyramid' of C K Prahalad as guises to legitimise window dressing by corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship that address symptoms rather than root causes.

If you wish to get insights on how businesses are corrupting governments and the civil society, Small Change could make a thoughtful beginning.....Link

Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World
by Michael Edwards 
Tata McGraw Hill Edition, New Delhi, 125 pages, Rs 299.