Shooting from the Hip
Stick to the road
By Dr Oscar Rebello
Imagine we are driving along a scenic mountain highway with the ocean
below to our left and jagged mountain peaks to our right. A breathtaking
scenery unfolding before our eyes. The trick to navigate this highway
however, is to keep our eyes on the road. A swerve to the 'right' will
have us crash into the mountain. A 'left' turn will have us plunging
into the depths of the ocean.
Goa ( or for that matter, India) is pretty much traveling this highway.
In common parlance, right wing, capitalist policies means, "Let’s all
get rich, the best brains and innovators make the biggest bucks, somehow
the wealth will trickle down to the masses and we will all live happily
ever after." America is, of course, the shining star of this dogma.
Left leaning, socialist ( or heaven forbid, communist) economic policies
reflect this idea. "The benevolent state will somehow distribute wealth
in a near linear fashion manner to all of us and there won’t be huge
discrepancies between rich and poor and resources will be sensibly
managed." Cuba is the prime beacon of this dogma.
In India, our continuous struggles against SEZ in sensible land use
policies, rampant, savage mining, and displacement of tribals reflect
the fundamental tug of war between these two contradictory forces. Very
clearly, over the last two decades, after Manmohan Singh’s reform
programme in the early 90s, the capitalist bill has run amuck,
devouring, controlling and pretty much seeking to decimate everything
Goa and India holds dear – The environment, our heritage and culture,
our sense of bonding, indeed our index of happiness! There can be no
argument that in Manmohan’s India, the rich have gotten obscenely rich,
the middle class have become wealthier, giddy headed wannabes and the
poor have become more wretchedly and desperately poor.
Since we belong to the privileged middle class who benefited hugely from
these boom years, we swallowed the capitalist bait, hook line and sinker
and maybe, our lives have improved since the 90s – More cars, more
McDonalds, more gadgets, more bizarre, absurd 'Tomatina' festivals.
But the champagne is threatening to stop bubbling. The party may come to
a screeching halt and our cocooned existence may just be exposed to the
mad rage of the poor and deprived who justifiably are furious, because
this crazy, crony capitalism hasn’t worked for them.
And the reason for this bubble to burst will not be the philosophy of
capitalism, that to my mind, still remains the best bet to alleviate
poverty and spread posterity, but the brutal, reckless, unregulated and
corrupt system of capitalism that has been allowed to run amuck by our
policy wonks in Goa and India.
As oil prices go through the roof, Manmohan Singh glibly remarks, "I
firmly believe that markets find their own levels." He has never ever
remarked until Anna came on the scene that 'corruption also finds its
own levels – humungous levels'. And the tragedy is that our theoretical
PM can’t find a handle to tame any of those levels for the common man.
Theoretically sound economics perhaps, but bad, very bad politics, as
the Congress will eventually realise.
So when reckless capitalism and corruption suffocates the hell out of
us, what do we do? Move far left in our policies.
Kill entrepreneurship? Narrow down roads? Interrupt genuine capital?
Write off marinas or other tourism projects even if all rules are
followed? I think not.
Grandstanding socialism and 'holier than thou' activism scores you the
moral brownie points, but it does not feed empty stomachs. A sensible,
well regulated, severely punishing- on- the- corrupt form of capitalism
is perhaps our best bet. It does generate employment, rewards,
innovation and makes our lives prosperous. But it must stick to the
rules of the road. And fancy tricks at the well and we will all crash
down the abyss.
And, oh yes, while we are discussing the balance between our natural
resources and man’s obscene appetite for consumerism, we also welcome
the seven billionth baby on the planet.
Don’t you think that we need to have less people and mouths to feed on
Mother Earth? And that all religious heads can put their minds together
and advise their flock to adopt myriad forms of contraception ( abortion
is evil, I concede) to slow down Man’s relentless and burgeoning growth.
Even 'God' must be tired of this rapidly proliferating, greedily
gobbling, supremely selfish and utterly destructive species called Homo
Sapiens.
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=2320&boxid=183532359&uid=&dat=11/6/2011
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