Happy Diwali!
It is time to celebrate...indeed!
Diwali with a billion diyas.
In the midst the dark clouds
Hovering over an idea called India...
Diyas in the hearts of darkness.
The lights that can dispel despair...
The lights that can heal the wounded.
The lights that will expose the lies.
The light that will make us smile.
The lights that can diffuse bombs deep within...
Diyas, beyond a Diwali.
Of hope and healing.
In the midst of a winter...
Burnt smell of prayers...
Smell of Sulphur
Raped nuns!
Screams of children
Blood on the streets
Flesh fuming in the air.
Terror dancing in deadly flames...
Frozen consciousness in a chilly night!
In the days of bicycled bombs!
Deadly entertainments on the TV screens
Reeking mouths of ministers.
Fashion parade.
Parliament in a cacophony
Slaughtered ideals
And plastic people.
A billion more lights.....
To fight the demons within.
To wake up our land to the freedoms...
To a garden of bright flowers and fragrance
To listen to the sighs and sorrows.
To erase the tears.
An eternal Diwali...
With a billion diyas in the eyes...
Jingles of the flowing rivers.
Mingled with the magic of a dream
No hungry child on the bed
No crackers.
No sound and fury.
Only silence of prayers.
The warmth of the diya,
Soothing our souls
For ever.
.
Dignity blooms in the morning sun,
In a million coloures of the spring.
Let my India shine tomorrow
Beyond the shames of today,
And the shadows of yesterday.
We are the diyas,
On a million pathways to the truth...
With a billion smiling diyas in the hearts
Dancing in the winds
Diwali, waiting for us...
We too are waiting.
For ever...
Happy Diwali.
John Samuel
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Vietnam Views
John Samuel
Every city has its colours, character and smell. Ho Chi Minh City reminds me the colours yellow and green. Those buildings with French flavour- with yellow walls and green windows- and that greenness of the trees and parks in the midst of the buzzing city make me smile. Those millions who move on mobikes or those cars pleasantly marginalized in a sea of motorcycles and bicycles gave some sense about the middle class- character of the charming Saigon-now named after Ho Chi Minh- the national hero of Vietnam. I could smell sweat on the pavements, petrol in the air and the fragrance of morning flowers in the park. Spas are sprouting in the midst of new neon-lit nights. Pimps politely promise the new pleasures to potential customers in the shadow of high rise buildings as the night gets settled in. This is a city with a history- of trade, colours, cultures, bold and beautiful people, war, dreams and promises.
Ho Chi Minh is not merely a city. Ho Chi Minh is more than a national myth. Ho Chi Minh is more than the name of a simple ordinary man who did extraordinary things to discover the collective power of dignity, unity and freedom of a people. Ho Chi Minh signifies a collective sensibility of self-reliance, pride, perseverance and urge for freedom. In 1976, the charming city of Saigon in the south of Vietnam became Ho Chi Minh City – symbolizing the freedom and liberation from more than a hundred years of French colonialism and the imperialist invasion.
I had a breakfast with a group of HIV positive people- organized as a community organization called the Rose. I could smell a bit of rose in their sense of hope and resolve to live- by supporting and caring for each other. The little child of two years with a beautiful smile does not know that both her parents in the early twenties are HIV positive people. But she is HIV negative and happy. Her parents are very young- who got HIV when they used to share the syringes for the drug use. Now they are active members of the Rose group- who get together twice or thrice a week to sing, meditate and to support each other. Community still matters here. There is still a culture of mutual care and support.
In the evening, I was sitting with a neighborhood group of women in an inner district of Ho- Chi Minh City. They shared with me stories and boiled cassava. They told me stories of support and survival, stories of stopping domestic violence- stories of hope and change- stories that changed lives and helped to discover dignity and power within. . In the porch of a shop-cum- house they meet twice in a week to discuss the community issues, to receive complaints, to decide the course of action in the case of a domestic violence or family trauma. They served me my favorite childhood dish- boiled tapioca/cassava with onion- chilly sauce. The tapioca taste caressed the nostalgia of my childhood Kerala in India. The stories of women’s empowerment inspired me to imagine a more just and joyful world.
Ho Chi Minh is the official name of the Saigon city. But Saigon is evident every where- on the bill boards, in the shops and on the street. The old charms of an erstwhile Saigon with streets in the shadows of trees, bicycles, the brick-built Cathedral, river and breeze have got submerged in to the high rise building, noisy night clubs and the smell of petrol.
I went to the Durga temple near the Chinese street. The young priest Ramesh Aiyyer smiled at me – recognizing the brown face of a country cousin- and told he could manage to speak “koncham, koncham” Tamil. An old steamer got his great grant father from the South of India to the Saigon. The Hindu culture in the South Vietnam goes much deeper than the migration from the South India during the colonial period. The Cham culture- that influenced parts of the present day Southern Vietnam and parts of the Cambodia- evolved out of the Hindu religious practice and beliefs. The Mosques in the city smell of the history of trade- the Muslim traders from different parts of India and Arabia came to these lands in search of spices and spouses. The Chinese – who left the city after the liberation in the 1976-, are back in full business. Ho- Chi- Minh City- is the cosmopolitan Saigon transformed in to a busy city- a city that began to look more like Bangkok and the charms of old Saigon are fast fading away. This city of 6 million people in many ways symbolize the new Vietnam- confident, relatively more open, busy- and with fading of an old world.
Part II
Vietnam is no ordinary country. It is a long country with a long history. It is history of troubles and tribulations, wars and victories, survival and sustainability. So fighting and winning wars made them a people and culture with a sense of shared identity and history. In the 9th century, they drove back the Chinese Hams, ending a history a thousand years of Chinese subjugation of the region. In the 11th and 12 the century fought against Chams who sought to invade the country. Genghis Khan and his grandson Kublai Khan too came here to find the armed resistance in 13th century- that drove them back. The Ming and Ching dynasties of China once again tried to occupy the land in the 15nth and 17nth century respectively. No way- they too had to go back. Then the French came. They fought for thirty years. But French with new weapons and colonial power persisted. In 1860 the French occupied what used to be known as the Indo- China (consisting of the present day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). By the beginning of the 20th Century, the French consolidated their power and divided the present day Vietnam in to three provinces- Tonkin in the North, Annam in the Centre and Cochinchina in the South. This division of the country with a shared sense of history was not merely for administrative convenience but it was a strategy to divide and rule. This colonial driven process of dividing the country influenced the history of the country to this day. Even after hundred years of such division, there is a subtext of political and cultural tensions between the North, Centre and South of Vietnam. Though the French colonial period was relatively small in the long history of Vietnam- they made lasting imprints. The original Vietnamese script – resembling the Chinese script- was replaced by Latin script. But this also helped print books in a much easier manner and eventually helped to educate a large number of people. The shift of script- from the one that is based on images or ideas to the one based on phonemes- in many ways symbolized the shift from the old feudal aristocracy to a new sense of modern Vietnamese identity. Paradoxically the linguistic subversion by the French helped to popularize the written word. And the written Vietnamese in the Latin Script helped to spread nationalism and resistance against the colonialism and imperialism.
Those young men came back after their higher education in Paris brought ideas for change and challenge. The French steamers brought them back to Saigon with Marxicism and massive resolve to challenge the French. The romance with Communism started when few of those young people started the Indo-China Communist Party in 1929. These particular moments of 1929 and the dreams of those idealist young men changed and influenced the history of three countries- Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. While those ideas of promised Utopias inspired the poor and ordinary people and helped to mobilize the people against the Colonialist and imperialists, they also left scars of bombs, death and destruction across three countries.
The story of resistance against French Colonialism and American Imperialism is one of the most inspiring stories - in the twentieth century -of the collective resolve of the ordinary people to stand against the most brutal and unethical powers of the world. A young lawyer- who later came to be known as Ho Chi Minh- founded Viet Minh – or the league for Independence in 1941. Viet Minh – the movement for freedom became popular and enjoyed the mass support. They have declared independence in August 1945 in Hanoi. Emperor Bao Dai- from the Vietnamese Royal Family-abdicated and offered his services as an advisor to the new regime of the people and by the people. French did not want to lose their precious piece of colony in the east. They still controlled the South of Vietnam- the Cochichina province. While French tried to co-opt the northern resistance movement though an agreement in March 1946, they also declared Cochinchina as an independent country – and sought legitimize this by asking the erstwhile King Bao-Dai as the head of the State. Viet Minh did not keep quite. Nine years of guerilla war followed and like in the case of all the earlier wars from the 9th Century onwards, this time too the organized collective will of the ordinary Vietnamese prevailed. They defeated the French in 1954 and sent them back to France forever.
Free from the French, Vietnam was on the way to build a free country. But that was the beginning of a new war- one of the worst in the recent human history. Once the French colonialist left, the American Imperialism got paranoid about the possible spread of Communism to the entire Asia As a part of countering Communism in the east, the USA used the usual tactics of propping up a puppet government in the Southern Vietnam against the people’s government in the north. Here too the Vietnamese people’s movement refused to surrender to the will of the power of bombs and bulldozing imperialism. They got reunited in the name National Liberation Front (communists, democrats and nationalists) - Viet Cong- and fought back against the American dominance. This is what led to the Vietnam war- the brutal face of American Imperialism. Larger tones of bombs were dropped in this one country than the entire Second World War. There were 580, 000 American troops in 1969. The American Military committed some of the worst war crimes- by using weapons of mass destruction of Chemical .Bacterial and nasty weapons. There are still thousands who are suffering from the use of chemical weapons by the American army. Even in the 1960s and 70s, the USA spent more than US$ 150 billion to bomb a Country – the most brutal one in the name of prostituted promise of “Freedom”. The American bombs destroyed 70% percent of northern villages and left 10 million hectors of land barren. The face of a naked, nasty and obscene imperialist aggression stared at the world with sense of impunity- in the midst of the cold war. In the midst of the war- the most inspiring leader of the people’s movement- Uncle Ho as endearing called by the people of Vietnam- died in 1969. This eventually evoked a world wide response against the brutality of American Imperialism and also huge mobilization of young University students against the Vietnam War. The protest against Vietnam war across the world- not only reflected the ideals of angry young people, but also it initiated a new peace movement beyond the traditional left and the right forces. The Vietnam protests helped to politicize the civil society in America, Europe and many parts of the world.
In spite of all the powers, bombs and propaganda machines of the world, USA miserably failed in Vietnam. Viet Cong captured Saigon in April 1975 and renamed it as the Ho- Chi Minh city in 1976- as the symbol of freedom and liberation. After a period of brutal war of deaths, destruction and migrations, Vietnam emerged as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Though the country emerged victorious, there was a new war waiting to happen – against the Pol pot regime of Cambodia. The story of Vietnam seems to be the story of war and survival.
The new independent Vietnam was supported by the USSR and many other countries including Iraq. The war torn Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world. People sought to migrate to different parts of the world. Many students got scholarship to study in Russia and other parts of eastern Europe. Iraq offered jobs to many Vietnamese youth. India too supported Vietnam at the height of their struggle and Nehru is still a popular name among the elder generation. Though many from the earlier generation speak fluent Russian, English teaching is one of the most vibrant businesses in the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. If the history of Vietnam from the 1950s to 1980s is the history of war and survival, the history of Vietnam in the last twenty five years is the history of the revitalization of a country – emerging with dignity and development from a really bruised war-torn past.
While sticking to some of the basic principles and values of Socialism, the Communist Party and government consistently sought to renew themselves to be relevant to the needs of the people and trends of the world. In 1991, the government of Du Muoi introduced Doi- Moi (Renewal- signifying the opening up of the Stock Market and economy). This was followed by the new initiative for grassroots democracy and democratization – through mix of Local self governments, civil society organizations, fatherland friends’ organizations of the frontal organizations of the Communist Party and strategic coordination of the NGOs for delivering development at the grassroots level in collaboration with the government. Vietnam moved in to the highway of steady economic growth- one of the highest in the world. As the economy grew at the rate of 6- 8% annually, the level of poverty reduced from 58% in 1993 to around 20% in 2008. The country made tremendous progress, within matter of a decade or two, in terms of human development and gender equality. There are laws like Gender Equity Law and the Law to combat domestic Violence. There is also tremendous progress in Education, there are now new issues concerning the quality and access to education. Many people in the rural area- particularly among the ethnic minorities and older generation, illiteracy are still prevalent.
While the economy grew, the rate of corruption too grew. Though government took some stern measures, including the execution of few very corrupt officers in the public sector companies, the culture of corruption penetrated in to various levels of the system. There are indeed relatively more concerted efforts led by the government to counter corruption and now a new anti-corruption law. Many of the local Civil Society Organizations and NGOs are now increasingly involved in tracking the public budget and exposing corruption. But the new economic elites in collusion with the old power elites seem to have developed a new nexus- undermining the promised and values of socialism. The powerful Communist Party and Government try hard to fight corruptions within and beyond. The economic growth also brought in a new culture of consumerism and communism is more like sense of old consensus and nationalism rather than a paradigm for social transformation. The young people told me that the most boring thing in their University Education is the compulsory course on Marxicism. When Marxicism becomes a mere text book to be taught, dictated and followed, even the best streams of humanist experiments can become a boring dogma. That is the tragedy of Marxism within the comedy of a consumerist young generation who are keener to catch with the best of the world in the shopping malls and the cyber cafes.
In spite of the new challenges and certain restriction to the press freedom and political mobilization beyond the Party frontal organizations, the overall record of the Communist Party and governance in Vietnam is impressive. It helped to create a broad base of an educated middle class with millions of mobikes. In a country of around 89 million people, there is a very inspiring story of the government and NGOs working together in a coordinated fashion to reduce poverty and injustice. The inequality has increased. There are few new young millionaires. Land speculation is high. The cost of living in the cities is spiraling upwards. The inflation is more than 23%. But still the government is very much in control. Per-capita income has increased to more than US$ 800. From a food deficit country, the country has emerged as one of the large exporters of rice. Though Vietnam which fought one of the most difficult wars with the American Army, it has now a booming trade with USA. A more confident, better educated and economically active middle class ensure a very important balancing act of political culture and economic growth.
There are many things to learn from Vietnam and Vietnam too is in the process of learning and adapting new policy process from across the world- in terms of governance, civil society, development and democracy. Last year when I had a chance to meet the Polit Bureau members of the Communist Party, they have very explained their vision of balancing the economic growth and market process, along with socialist principles and social policy paradigm- what is generally termed as Market Socialism. Vietnam seems to have combined an element of democratization at the grassroots level along with a conscious and concerted agenda on social and economic development. In spite of a single party government and restrictive environment at the macro level, the government encouraged grassroots democratization process, women’s empowerment, and strategic plans for local development. In spite of being a Government led by the Communist Party, Vietnam provides ample space for the NGOs to operate in coordination and collaboration with various governmental and civil society processes. After all economic growth is not a bad idea- when it is combined with the commitment for social development and justice. The negotiation of Vietnam with market did not compromise its agenda for Social Development. However, Vietnam faces new challenges of corruption, inequality and inflation.
The story of Vietnam is the story of survival, sustainability and renewal. It is such a story that makes most of the Vietnamese dignified, confident and proud of their country.
Every city has its colours, character and smell. Ho Chi Minh City reminds me the colours yellow and green. Those buildings with French flavour- with yellow walls and green windows- and that greenness of the trees and parks in the midst of the buzzing city make me smile. Those millions who move on mobikes or those cars pleasantly marginalized in a sea of motorcycles and bicycles gave some sense about the middle class- character of the charming Saigon-now named after Ho Chi Minh- the national hero of Vietnam. I could smell sweat on the pavements, petrol in the air and the fragrance of morning flowers in the park. Spas are sprouting in the midst of new neon-lit nights. Pimps politely promise the new pleasures to potential customers in the shadow of high rise buildings as the night gets settled in. This is a city with a history- of trade, colours, cultures, bold and beautiful people, war, dreams and promises.
Ho Chi Minh is not merely a city. Ho Chi Minh is more than a national myth. Ho Chi Minh is more than the name of a simple ordinary man who did extraordinary things to discover the collective power of dignity, unity and freedom of a people. Ho Chi Minh signifies a collective sensibility of self-reliance, pride, perseverance and urge for freedom. In 1976, the charming city of Saigon in the south of Vietnam became Ho Chi Minh City – symbolizing the freedom and liberation from more than a hundred years of French colonialism and the imperialist invasion.
I had a breakfast with a group of HIV positive people- organized as a community organization called the Rose. I could smell a bit of rose in their sense of hope and resolve to live- by supporting and caring for each other. The little child of two years with a beautiful smile does not know that both her parents in the early twenties are HIV positive people. But she is HIV negative and happy. Her parents are very young- who got HIV when they used to share the syringes for the drug use. Now they are active members of the Rose group- who get together twice or thrice a week to sing, meditate and to support each other. Community still matters here. There is still a culture of mutual care and support.
In the evening, I was sitting with a neighborhood group of women in an inner district of Ho- Chi Minh City. They shared with me stories and boiled cassava. They told me stories of support and survival, stories of stopping domestic violence- stories of hope and change- stories that changed lives and helped to discover dignity and power within. . In the porch of a shop-cum- house they meet twice in a week to discuss the community issues, to receive complaints, to decide the course of action in the case of a domestic violence or family trauma. They served me my favorite childhood dish- boiled tapioca/cassava with onion- chilly sauce. The tapioca taste caressed the nostalgia of my childhood Kerala in India. The stories of women’s empowerment inspired me to imagine a more just and joyful world.
Ho Chi Minh is the official name of the Saigon city. But Saigon is evident every where- on the bill boards, in the shops and on the street. The old charms of an erstwhile Saigon with streets in the shadows of trees, bicycles, the brick-built Cathedral, river and breeze have got submerged in to the high rise building, noisy night clubs and the smell of petrol.
I went to the Durga temple near the Chinese street. The young priest Ramesh Aiyyer smiled at me – recognizing the brown face of a country cousin- and told he could manage to speak “koncham, koncham” Tamil. An old steamer got his great grant father from the South of India to the Saigon. The Hindu culture in the South Vietnam goes much deeper than the migration from the South India during the colonial period. The Cham culture- that influenced parts of the present day Southern Vietnam and parts of the Cambodia- evolved out of the Hindu religious practice and beliefs. The Mosques in the city smell of the history of trade- the Muslim traders from different parts of India and Arabia came to these lands in search of spices and spouses. The Chinese – who left the city after the liberation in the 1976-, are back in full business. Ho- Chi- Minh City- is the cosmopolitan Saigon transformed in to a busy city- a city that began to look more like Bangkok and the charms of old Saigon are fast fading away. This city of 6 million people in many ways symbolize the new Vietnam- confident, relatively more open, busy- and with fading of an old world.
Part II
Vietnam is no ordinary country. It is a long country with a long history. It is history of troubles and tribulations, wars and victories, survival and sustainability. So fighting and winning wars made them a people and culture with a sense of shared identity and history. In the 9th century, they drove back the Chinese Hams, ending a history a thousand years of Chinese subjugation of the region. In the 11th and 12 the century fought against Chams who sought to invade the country. Genghis Khan and his grandson Kublai Khan too came here to find the armed resistance in 13th century- that drove them back. The Ming and Ching dynasties of China once again tried to occupy the land in the 15nth and 17nth century respectively. No way- they too had to go back. Then the French came. They fought for thirty years. But French with new weapons and colonial power persisted. In 1860 the French occupied what used to be known as the Indo- China (consisting of the present day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). By the beginning of the 20th Century, the French consolidated their power and divided the present day Vietnam in to three provinces- Tonkin in the North, Annam in the Centre and Cochinchina in the South. This division of the country with a shared sense of history was not merely for administrative convenience but it was a strategy to divide and rule. This colonial driven process of dividing the country influenced the history of the country to this day. Even after hundred years of such division, there is a subtext of political and cultural tensions between the North, Centre and South of Vietnam. Though the French colonial period was relatively small in the long history of Vietnam- they made lasting imprints. The original Vietnamese script – resembling the Chinese script- was replaced by Latin script. But this also helped print books in a much easier manner and eventually helped to educate a large number of people. The shift of script- from the one that is based on images or ideas to the one based on phonemes- in many ways symbolized the shift from the old feudal aristocracy to a new sense of modern Vietnamese identity. Paradoxically the linguistic subversion by the French helped to popularize the written word. And the written Vietnamese in the Latin Script helped to spread nationalism and resistance against the colonialism and imperialism.
Those young men came back after their higher education in Paris brought ideas for change and challenge. The French steamers brought them back to Saigon with Marxicism and massive resolve to challenge the French. The romance with Communism started when few of those young people started the Indo-China Communist Party in 1929. These particular moments of 1929 and the dreams of those idealist young men changed and influenced the history of three countries- Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. While those ideas of promised Utopias inspired the poor and ordinary people and helped to mobilize the people against the Colonialist and imperialists, they also left scars of bombs, death and destruction across three countries.
The story of resistance against French Colonialism and American Imperialism is one of the most inspiring stories - in the twentieth century -of the collective resolve of the ordinary people to stand against the most brutal and unethical powers of the world. A young lawyer- who later came to be known as Ho Chi Minh- founded Viet Minh – or the league for Independence in 1941. Viet Minh – the movement for freedom became popular and enjoyed the mass support. They have declared independence in August 1945 in Hanoi. Emperor Bao Dai- from the Vietnamese Royal Family-abdicated and offered his services as an advisor to the new regime of the people and by the people. French did not want to lose their precious piece of colony in the east. They still controlled the South of Vietnam- the Cochichina province. While French tried to co-opt the northern resistance movement though an agreement in March 1946, they also declared Cochinchina as an independent country – and sought legitimize this by asking the erstwhile King Bao-Dai as the head of the State. Viet Minh did not keep quite. Nine years of guerilla war followed and like in the case of all the earlier wars from the 9th Century onwards, this time too the organized collective will of the ordinary Vietnamese prevailed. They defeated the French in 1954 and sent them back to France forever.
Free from the French, Vietnam was on the way to build a free country. But that was the beginning of a new war- one of the worst in the recent human history. Once the French colonialist left, the American Imperialism got paranoid about the possible spread of Communism to the entire Asia As a part of countering Communism in the east, the USA used the usual tactics of propping up a puppet government in the Southern Vietnam against the people’s government in the north. Here too the Vietnamese people’s movement refused to surrender to the will of the power of bombs and bulldozing imperialism. They got reunited in the name National Liberation Front (communists, democrats and nationalists) - Viet Cong- and fought back against the American dominance. This is what led to the Vietnam war- the brutal face of American Imperialism. Larger tones of bombs were dropped in this one country than the entire Second World War. There were 580, 000 American troops in 1969. The American Military committed some of the worst war crimes- by using weapons of mass destruction of Chemical .Bacterial and nasty weapons. There are still thousands who are suffering from the use of chemical weapons by the American army. Even in the 1960s and 70s, the USA spent more than US$ 150 billion to bomb a Country – the most brutal one in the name of prostituted promise of “Freedom”. The American bombs destroyed 70% percent of northern villages and left 10 million hectors of land barren. The face of a naked, nasty and obscene imperialist aggression stared at the world with sense of impunity- in the midst of the cold war. In the midst of the war- the most inspiring leader of the people’s movement- Uncle Ho as endearing called by the people of Vietnam- died in 1969. This eventually evoked a world wide response against the brutality of American Imperialism and also huge mobilization of young University students against the Vietnam War. The protest against Vietnam war across the world- not only reflected the ideals of angry young people, but also it initiated a new peace movement beyond the traditional left and the right forces. The Vietnam protests helped to politicize the civil society in America, Europe and many parts of the world.
In spite of all the powers, bombs and propaganda machines of the world, USA miserably failed in Vietnam. Viet Cong captured Saigon in April 1975 and renamed it as the Ho- Chi Minh city in 1976- as the symbol of freedom and liberation. After a period of brutal war of deaths, destruction and migrations, Vietnam emerged as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Though the country emerged victorious, there was a new war waiting to happen – against the Pol pot regime of Cambodia. The story of Vietnam seems to be the story of war and survival.
The new independent Vietnam was supported by the USSR and many other countries including Iraq. The war torn Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world. People sought to migrate to different parts of the world. Many students got scholarship to study in Russia and other parts of eastern Europe. Iraq offered jobs to many Vietnamese youth. India too supported Vietnam at the height of their struggle and Nehru is still a popular name among the elder generation. Though many from the earlier generation speak fluent Russian, English teaching is one of the most vibrant businesses in the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. If the history of Vietnam from the 1950s to 1980s is the history of war and survival, the history of Vietnam in the last twenty five years is the history of the revitalization of a country – emerging with dignity and development from a really bruised war-torn past.
While sticking to some of the basic principles and values of Socialism, the Communist Party and government consistently sought to renew themselves to be relevant to the needs of the people and trends of the world. In 1991, the government of Du Muoi introduced Doi- Moi (Renewal- signifying the opening up of the Stock Market and economy). This was followed by the new initiative for grassroots democracy and democratization – through mix of Local self governments, civil society organizations, fatherland friends’ organizations of the frontal organizations of the Communist Party and strategic coordination of the NGOs for delivering development at the grassroots level in collaboration with the government. Vietnam moved in to the highway of steady economic growth- one of the highest in the world. As the economy grew at the rate of 6- 8% annually, the level of poverty reduced from 58% in 1993 to around 20% in 2008. The country made tremendous progress, within matter of a decade or two, in terms of human development and gender equality. There are laws like Gender Equity Law and the Law to combat domestic Violence. There is also tremendous progress in Education, there are now new issues concerning the quality and access to education. Many people in the rural area- particularly among the ethnic minorities and older generation, illiteracy are still prevalent.
While the economy grew, the rate of corruption too grew. Though government took some stern measures, including the execution of few very corrupt officers in the public sector companies, the culture of corruption penetrated in to various levels of the system. There are indeed relatively more concerted efforts led by the government to counter corruption and now a new anti-corruption law. Many of the local Civil Society Organizations and NGOs are now increasingly involved in tracking the public budget and exposing corruption. But the new economic elites in collusion with the old power elites seem to have developed a new nexus- undermining the promised and values of socialism. The powerful Communist Party and Government try hard to fight corruptions within and beyond. The economic growth also brought in a new culture of consumerism and communism is more like sense of old consensus and nationalism rather than a paradigm for social transformation. The young people told me that the most boring thing in their University Education is the compulsory course on Marxicism. When Marxicism becomes a mere text book to be taught, dictated and followed, even the best streams of humanist experiments can become a boring dogma. That is the tragedy of Marxism within the comedy of a consumerist young generation who are keener to catch with the best of the world in the shopping malls and the cyber cafes.
In spite of the new challenges and certain restriction to the press freedom and political mobilization beyond the Party frontal organizations, the overall record of the Communist Party and governance in Vietnam is impressive. It helped to create a broad base of an educated middle class with millions of mobikes. In a country of around 89 million people, there is a very inspiring story of the government and NGOs working together in a coordinated fashion to reduce poverty and injustice. The inequality has increased. There are few new young millionaires. Land speculation is high. The cost of living in the cities is spiraling upwards. The inflation is more than 23%. But still the government is very much in control. Per-capita income has increased to more than US$ 800. From a food deficit country, the country has emerged as one of the large exporters of rice. Though Vietnam which fought one of the most difficult wars with the American Army, it has now a booming trade with USA. A more confident, better educated and economically active middle class ensure a very important balancing act of political culture and economic growth.
There are many things to learn from Vietnam and Vietnam too is in the process of learning and adapting new policy process from across the world- in terms of governance, civil society, development and democracy. Last year when I had a chance to meet the Polit Bureau members of the Communist Party, they have very explained their vision of balancing the economic growth and market process, along with socialist principles and social policy paradigm- what is generally termed as Market Socialism. Vietnam seems to have combined an element of democratization at the grassroots level along with a conscious and concerted agenda on social and economic development. In spite of a single party government and restrictive environment at the macro level, the government encouraged grassroots democratization process, women’s empowerment, and strategic plans for local development. In spite of being a Government led by the Communist Party, Vietnam provides ample space for the NGOs to operate in coordination and collaboration with various governmental and civil society processes. After all economic growth is not a bad idea- when it is combined with the commitment for social development and justice. The negotiation of Vietnam with market did not compromise its agenda for Social Development. However, Vietnam faces new challenges of corruption, inequality and inflation.
The story of Vietnam is the story of survival, sustainability and renewal. It is such a story that makes most of the Vietnamese dignified, confident and proud of their country.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Towards the Solidarity Economy
John Samuel
Keynote presentation at the Asian Conference on Solidarity Economy and socially responsible Business on October 3, 2008 in Bangkok
Ethics is what makes the economy humane- an enabling force for exchanges among people, societies and countries. Devoid of ethics, economy can perpetuate predatory forces of dehumanization, commodification, violence and war. Economy needs to be an enabling process that helps human beings and environment to sustain and thrive. And Economics devoid of ethics can be extractive, exploitative and imperialistic. In fact, both Adam Smith and Karl Marx began their search for viable economy from strong ethical premises.
Solidarity is an act of identifying with other human beings with a shared sense of destiny, dignity and responsibility. Solidarity is based on the principles of mutual empathy, mutual support and the greater common good. Solidarity helps us to go beyond the greed of the self to the need of other people, societies and countries. Solidarity does not depend on the principle of the ‘Survival of the fittest’. It seeks to promote the sustainability of human beings and environment.
Economy signifies an interface among human beings and societies that facilitates the link between natural and social resources to meet the human needs and comforts. Economy also signifies the dominant modes of production and distribution. The notion of market represents the dynamics of demand and supply of goods and services among human beings, societies and countries.
However, the market-place is not a neutral space of such exchanges based on demand and supply. Any mode of exchanges among human beings and societies are driven by power relationships and value assumptions. Hence the market place is inherently political. The key question is whether the dominant power-relationships and political process within the market shape the choices and values of human beings or whether a universal framework of human values and sense of solidarity drives the power relations within the market. The assumption behind the free market economy is that the invisible hand of the market is capable of dealing with all human demands and needs in an efficient way. However, the so-called free market economy is driven and controlled by few very rich companies and few powerful countries. Most of the poor countries and poor people at the receiving end of the so-called free market economy. The Solidarity Economy is a critique of the extractive economic paradigm of the free market variety and at the same time it is an effort to build alternative vision of an ethical economy. The alternative search for the solidarity economy on the one hand seek to promote an ethical normative framework for a people-centered economy and on the other hand seek to learn from the various practices of enterprises and business based on the principles of solidarity.
Solidarity Economy is an effort to reiterate and rediscover the ethical basis of a viable, sustainable and socially and ecologically responsible economy. Here are some of the perspectives on the Solidarity Economy:
1) Ethical basis for a solidarity economy needs to be based on the values of cooperative solidarity, economic and ecological sustainability, accountability, human rights, democratization, diversity and justice- social, economic and ecological.
2) Seeks to promote alternative practices and thinking to challenge monopoly capitalism and exploitative economic paradigm. Market is too important to be left to the fancies of finance capitalists in search of perennial profits and their subservient policy makers
3) Seeks to democratize economy, knowledge and technology.
4) Seeks to promote fair profit in a vibrant and enabling market place It places people and environment before the profit
5) Promoting Local Economies that are accessible and affordable to the poor and marginalized people.
6) Would advocate for trade justice and national and international public policies to promote fair trade across the world.
7) Anticipates long term social and environmental consequences of economic behavior.
8) Proactively seeks to engage with stakeholders to promote accountability and to make them realize the consequences of their actions at the market place, society and the world.
9) It promotes the public policy perspective that those who have greater economic resources at their disposal have a greater responsibility towards the society and environment.
An Economy which creates monopoly of power- through monopoly capitalism and imperialism- will undermine the values of democracy, human rights and perpetuate violence and war. Wherever there are human beings and wherever they exchange goods and services, there will be a market. But the question is what are the guiding principles of such exchanges, and who control the modes and manner of those exchanges. When markets and economy get captured by few forces of monopoly and those who have unbridled thirst for profit and power, the ordinary human beings become the victims of the market- without any sense of agency or bargaining power.
The solidarity economy perspective is not against the creation of wealth. It supports ethical entrepreneurship and human creativity and efforts to create wealth. Competition is not a bad word. But exploitation is an obscene act. Profit is necessary to sustain any vibrant economy- as profit helps people to create enough surpluses for the greater good. But profit becomes obscene when it based on extracting and exploiting people, nature, countries and continents.
The Solidarity Economy is based on four ethical pillars of Ethical production, Ethical Investment, Ethical market and Ethical Consumption. The solidarity perspective seeks to reiterate that human beings are capable of cooperative solidarity and ethical business. The Solidarity Economy is for fair profit and viable and sustainable economic paradigm that sustain environment, people and societies.
The solidarity Economy perspective seeks to encourage people and communities to enter the market and assert their capacity to negotiate and bargain in the market. Such perspective promotes vibrant local economy – including production and exchanges of services at the grassroots level. The democratization of economy, transparency and accountability of the investors, producers, market and consumers are the defining forces of a solidarity Economy.
1. Ethical Production.
Human beings will have to produce both goods and services for their survival and comforts. Ethical production will be guided by the basic values of human dignity, fair wages and conditions of work and environmental and social responsibility. The Solidarity Economy perspective seeks to support small and media scale enterprises and sufficiently decentralized production practices. Most of the poor people are producers as well as consumers.
It may not be always possible to have small or medium level productions modes to serve the need for growing economies and demand. So it may also be necessary to have big production facilities of goods and service. This where it is important to ensure the corporate accountability to the workers, communities, shareholders and consumers. It is important to move beyond the usual public relations rhetoric of the “corporate social responsibility to Corporate Accountability. However, the fact of the matter is most of the big multinational corporations, while subscribe to the rhetoric of corporate social responsibility, tend to have scant regard for any accountability mechanism. Many of them tend to violate the statutory regulations, perpetuate corruption of politics and economy, and tend to maximize profit at the cost of workers, communities and environment. Solidarity Economy perspective seeks to demand strong ethical guidelines- such as corporate accountability, ecological sustainability, human rights, and fair wages.
While the value of their labour does not increase the prices of consumer goods keep increasing. Most of the small and medium level farmers who produce agricultural commodities hardly get any bargaining power in the market place, as most of the time it is the middle men who often tend to control and influence the market. The producers often do not get any opportunity to bargain with the value chain and get fair returns for their labour
2. Ethical Investment
Ethical investment is based on the basic values that motivate the process of investment. Here, investment is not merely a means to maximize profit, but also a means to serve the large society in terms of generating gainful employment, protecting the environment, promoting human rights and democratization. Ethical investment place people ahead of profit. While ethical investment too seeks to make profit, it will challenge the unbridled and unethical thirst for profit. Ethical Investment requires transparency, accountability and social responsibility in the process of seeking a fair return on the investment.
Ethical investment is not merely about finance. It involves investment in terms of time, resources, ideas and process for the greater common good of humanity and environment. It would actively discourage investment in those industries that perpetuate environmental pollution, unbridled greed, violence and war. Ethical investment is both about the choices of values and the manner of investment.
3. Ethical Market.
Market is a means for exchanges of goods and services. Ethical Market is a means to serve the larger society- in a fair, predictable, efficient, effective and sustainable manner. Market is necessary for all our social and economic sustenance. However, when Market becomes God, the power tend to get accumulated in the hands few who would use market as a means to amass wealth and power at the cost of basic values.
An ethical market is an important link between investor, producer and the consumer. The so-called Free Market has been never free. Hence, it is important to have optimum regulations by the state and the society to make sure that market is a means to serve and exchange. It is often those middle men who control the market. Traders tend to control the market forces through influencing the finance market, commodity market and consumer market. The principles of an ethical market should make sure that the producers and workers do get fair returns and consumers do get quality services and goods.
While the State should encourage and enable ethical market mechanism, it is not the business of the State to control the market. It is important to have optimal regulatory mechanism to protect the local and national economy from the predatory finance and speculative capitalism.
4. Ethical Consumption.One of the reasons for the environmental degradation, increasing inequality and increasing morbidity is the unethical consumption. When market and money become the God, they are means of desire. The modern markets tend to demands through selling desires. Advertisements are the means for selling new desires to create new demands for the products and services. As a result people tend to derive their sense human self-worth not through creativity but through consumption. When people tend become less creative and more productive, consumption becomes a mode of life itself. The rich countries and people waste huge amount of precious resources – including non-renewable energy- through unethical consumption. Unethical consumption focuses more on the self, than the society. Unethical consumption focuses more on the status of the consumer rather than sustainability of the environment.
Ethical consumption needs be based on the values of need, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. An ethical consumer will ask the question whether the products and services that he/she consumes harm human beings and environment. Ethical consumer will always discourage wasting resources- particularly food and energy- and seeks to share and maximize the use of the consumer goods and services.
The resources of the earth are not limitless. It is increasingly clear that exponential growth of human activity and market forces damage the ecology of the planet. A relatively small minority of people and countries tend be richer and richer and large majority of people are impoverished every day. This is unethical. This is what solidarity Economy seeks to challenge and change. The Solidarity Economy seeks to humanize the production, investment, market and consumption. It seeks to challenge the commodification and dehumanization at all levels. It is based on the principle of creativity, community and communion. Solidarity Economy is local and global at the same time, where every consumer is a citizen who can claim his/her right and seek to enlarge the freedom of others.
The Solidarity Economy seeks to enhance and enlarge human freedoms to enjoy and sustain life and environment. It seeks to economic and political empowerment of all people across the continent, cultures, gender and colour. It seeks to challenge imperialist economy and politics- an economy of violence and war. It is a search of an enabling economy and empathetic market that would help us to expand our choices in a sustainable, responsible and just manner. As Gandhi said, we have everything to meet everyone’s need but not greed. The solidarity Economy is one more step for us and the next generation to reiterate that “Another world is Possible”
Keynote presentation at the Asian Conference on Solidarity Economy and socially responsible Business on October 3, 2008 in Bangkok
Ethics is what makes the economy humane- an enabling force for exchanges among people, societies and countries. Devoid of ethics, economy can perpetuate predatory forces of dehumanization, commodification, violence and war. Economy needs to be an enabling process that helps human beings and environment to sustain and thrive. And Economics devoid of ethics can be extractive, exploitative and imperialistic. In fact, both Adam Smith and Karl Marx began their search for viable economy from strong ethical premises.
Solidarity is an act of identifying with other human beings with a shared sense of destiny, dignity and responsibility. Solidarity is based on the principles of mutual empathy, mutual support and the greater common good. Solidarity helps us to go beyond the greed of the self to the need of other people, societies and countries. Solidarity does not depend on the principle of the ‘Survival of the fittest’. It seeks to promote the sustainability of human beings and environment.
Economy signifies an interface among human beings and societies that facilitates the link between natural and social resources to meet the human needs and comforts. Economy also signifies the dominant modes of production and distribution. The notion of market represents the dynamics of demand and supply of goods and services among human beings, societies and countries.
However, the market-place is not a neutral space of such exchanges based on demand and supply. Any mode of exchanges among human beings and societies are driven by power relationships and value assumptions. Hence the market place is inherently political. The key question is whether the dominant power-relationships and political process within the market shape the choices and values of human beings or whether a universal framework of human values and sense of solidarity drives the power relations within the market. The assumption behind the free market economy is that the invisible hand of the market is capable of dealing with all human demands and needs in an efficient way. However, the so-called free market economy is driven and controlled by few very rich companies and few powerful countries. Most of the poor countries and poor people at the receiving end of the so-called free market economy. The Solidarity Economy is a critique of the extractive economic paradigm of the free market variety and at the same time it is an effort to build alternative vision of an ethical economy. The alternative search for the solidarity economy on the one hand seek to promote an ethical normative framework for a people-centered economy and on the other hand seek to learn from the various practices of enterprises and business based on the principles of solidarity.
Solidarity Economy is an effort to reiterate and rediscover the ethical basis of a viable, sustainable and socially and ecologically responsible economy. Here are some of the perspectives on the Solidarity Economy:
1) Ethical basis for a solidarity economy needs to be based on the values of cooperative solidarity, economic and ecological sustainability, accountability, human rights, democratization, diversity and justice- social, economic and ecological.
2) Seeks to promote alternative practices and thinking to challenge monopoly capitalism and exploitative economic paradigm. Market is too important to be left to the fancies of finance capitalists in search of perennial profits and their subservient policy makers
3) Seeks to democratize economy, knowledge and technology.
4) Seeks to promote fair profit in a vibrant and enabling market place It places people and environment before the profit
5) Promoting Local Economies that are accessible and affordable to the poor and marginalized people.
6) Would advocate for trade justice and national and international public policies to promote fair trade across the world.
7) Anticipates long term social and environmental consequences of economic behavior.
8) Proactively seeks to engage with stakeholders to promote accountability and to make them realize the consequences of their actions at the market place, society and the world.
9) It promotes the public policy perspective that those who have greater economic resources at their disposal have a greater responsibility towards the society and environment.
An Economy which creates monopoly of power- through monopoly capitalism and imperialism- will undermine the values of democracy, human rights and perpetuate violence and war. Wherever there are human beings and wherever they exchange goods and services, there will be a market. But the question is what are the guiding principles of such exchanges, and who control the modes and manner of those exchanges. When markets and economy get captured by few forces of monopoly and those who have unbridled thirst for profit and power, the ordinary human beings become the victims of the market- without any sense of agency or bargaining power.
The solidarity economy perspective is not against the creation of wealth. It supports ethical entrepreneurship and human creativity and efforts to create wealth. Competition is not a bad word. But exploitation is an obscene act. Profit is necessary to sustain any vibrant economy- as profit helps people to create enough surpluses for the greater good. But profit becomes obscene when it based on extracting and exploiting people, nature, countries and continents.
The Solidarity Economy is based on four ethical pillars of Ethical production, Ethical Investment, Ethical market and Ethical Consumption. The solidarity perspective seeks to reiterate that human beings are capable of cooperative solidarity and ethical business. The Solidarity Economy is for fair profit and viable and sustainable economic paradigm that sustain environment, people and societies.
The solidarity Economy perspective seeks to encourage people and communities to enter the market and assert their capacity to negotiate and bargain in the market. Such perspective promotes vibrant local economy – including production and exchanges of services at the grassroots level. The democratization of economy, transparency and accountability of the investors, producers, market and consumers are the defining forces of a solidarity Economy.
1. Ethical Production.
Human beings will have to produce both goods and services for their survival and comforts. Ethical production will be guided by the basic values of human dignity, fair wages and conditions of work and environmental and social responsibility. The Solidarity Economy perspective seeks to support small and media scale enterprises and sufficiently decentralized production practices. Most of the poor people are producers as well as consumers.
It may not be always possible to have small or medium level productions modes to serve the need for growing economies and demand. So it may also be necessary to have big production facilities of goods and service. This where it is important to ensure the corporate accountability to the workers, communities, shareholders and consumers. It is important to move beyond the usual public relations rhetoric of the “corporate social responsibility to Corporate Accountability. However, the fact of the matter is most of the big multinational corporations, while subscribe to the rhetoric of corporate social responsibility, tend to have scant regard for any accountability mechanism. Many of them tend to violate the statutory regulations, perpetuate corruption of politics and economy, and tend to maximize profit at the cost of workers, communities and environment. Solidarity Economy perspective seeks to demand strong ethical guidelines- such as corporate accountability, ecological sustainability, human rights, and fair wages.
While the value of their labour does not increase the prices of consumer goods keep increasing. Most of the small and medium level farmers who produce agricultural commodities hardly get any bargaining power in the market place, as most of the time it is the middle men who often tend to control and influence the market. The producers often do not get any opportunity to bargain with the value chain and get fair returns for their labour
2. Ethical Investment
Ethical investment is based on the basic values that motivate the process of investment. Here, investment is not merely a means to maximize profit, but also a means to serve the large society in terms of generating gainful employment, protecting the environment, promoting human rights and democratization. Ethical investment place people ahead of profit. While ethical investment too seeks to make profit, it will challenge the unbridled and unethical thirst for profit. Ethical Investment requires transparency, accountability and social responsibility in the process of seeking a fair return on the investment.
Ethical investment is not merely about finance. It involves investment in terms of time, resources, ideas and process for the greater common good of humanity and environment. It would actively discourage investment in those industries that perpetuate environmental pollution, unbridled greed, violence and war. Ethical investment is both about the choices of values and the manner of investment.
3. Ethical Market.
Market is a means for exchanges of goods and services. Ethical Market is a means to serve the larger society- in a fair, predictable, efficient, effective and sustainable manner. Market is necessary for all our social and economic sustenance. However, when Market becomes God, the power tend to get accumulated in the hands few who would use market as a means to amass wealth and power at the cost of basic values.
An ethical market is an important link between investor, producer and the consumer. The so-called Free Market has been never free. Hence, it is important to have optimum regulations by the state and the society to make sure that market is a means to serve and exchange. It is often those middle men who control the market. Traders tend to control the market forces through influencing the finance market, commodity market and consumer market. The principles of an ethical market should make sure that the producers and workers do get fair returns and consumers do get quality services and goods.
While the State should encourage and enable ethical market mechanism, it is not the business of the State to control the market. It is important to have optimal regulatory mechanism to protect the local and national economy from the predatory finance and speculative capitalism.
4. Ethical Consumption.One of the reasons for the environmental degradation, increasing inequality and increasing morbidity is the unethical consumption. When market and money become the God, they are means of desire. The modern markets tend to demands through selling desires. Advertisements are the means for selling new desires to create new demands for the products and services. As a result people tend to derive their sense human self-worth not through creativity but through consumption. When people tend become less creative and more productive, consumption becomes a mode of life itself. The rich countries and people waste huge amount of precious resources – including non-renewable energy- through unethical consumption. Unethical consumption focuses more on the self, than the society. Unethical consumption focuses more on the status of the consumer rather than sustainability of the environment.
Ethical consumption needs be based on the values of need, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. An ethical consumer will ask the question whether the products and services that he/she consumes harm human beings and environment. Ethical consumer will always discourage wasting resources- particularly food and energy- and seeks to share and maximize the use of the consumer goods and services.
The resources of the earth are not limitless. It is increasingly clear that exponential growth of human activity and market forces damage the ecology of the planet. A relatively small minority of people and countries tend be richer and richer and large majority of people are impoverished every day. This is unethical. This is what solidarity Economy seeks to challenge and change. The Solidarity Economy seeks to humanize the production, investment, market and consumption. It seeks to challenge the commodification and dehumanization at all levels. It is based on the principle of creativity, community and communion. Solidarity Economy is local and global at the same time, where every consumer is a citizen who can claim his/her right and seek to enlarge the freedom of others.
The Solidarity Economy seeks to enhance and enlarge human freedoms to enjoy and sustain life and environment. It seeks to economic and political empowerment of all people across the continent, cultures, gender and colour. It seeks to challenge imperialist economy and politics- an economy of violence and war. It is a search of an enabling economy and empathetic market that would help us to expand our choices in a sustainable, responsible and just manner. As Gandhi said, we have everything to meet everyone’s need but not greed. The solidarity Economy is one more step for us and the next generation to reiterate that “Another world is Possible”
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