Mennonite
Central
Committee

Reflection on the MCC conference 'Globalization and Development in South Asia'

By Juliana Chaudhuri

Chaudhuri is a local project officer for MCC India.

The conference took place in Kathmandu, a city where temples are tucked into every corner. Its objectives were to facilitate improved understanding of globalization and its regional impact, improve networking and dialogue among activists and researchers and increase North American constituencies' understanding of globalization.

Several things stood out to me: the danger that we grassroots workers with our noses to the ground will miss (or forget about) the larger picture; the juxtaposition of grassroots activists and researchers on various sides of the issues; and the need for those of us in advocacy roles to hear and provide perspectives from all sides. Kingdom-building work creates space and voice for the powerless. The conference provided that space.

We heard perspectives that echoed pro- and anti-globalization sentiments. Some perspectives were couched in the premise that globalization is a necessary evil. Some stated that globalization has brought advantages that far outweigh the disadvantages.

Other perspectives voiced concern about the rising number of poor people, loss of livelihood, food security and environmental degradation. These argue that "faster" is not "better." The voices that spoke for the grassroots echoed my thoughts — we are looking for modes of production that will ensure people’s rights and control over their livelihood and resources.

Free trade is "free" for whom? From the various speakers from Bangladesh, India and Nepal, who each had different perspectives on liberalization and the World Trade Organization, we learned that the fallout has not all been positive. In fact the loss of livelihood is being felt both in the global North and South. With cheaper labor in the South, the North is experiencing job loss.

We know living in India that unemployment is rising and that the jobs created are offset by the erosion of sources of livelihood or displacement in the name of large development projects: dams, privatization of water resources, corporate farming. Benefits are skewed away from those being displaced, as profit is the all-consuming motive.

The beautiful dream of free trade ensuring choices and progress is not the felt reality. In the countless villages MCC has worked in, people are still not assured of their basic needs: food, water, fodder and shelter. What use are choices to those without the basics? Yet in villages where the basics are still unmet, luxuries such as Coca Cola, Pepsi, varieties of soaps — these become tempting substitutes and create an illusion of progress.

Globalization has further aggravated the illegal trafficking that goes on – arms, drugs and human trade. The latter includes domestic and sex workers. It was alarming to hear from the presenters from Bangladesh and Nepal how insidious this trade is.

In conclusion, globalization has been going on for centuries as people moved across the globe with their goods. There was plenty to explore, build and share. The globalization we now have is not about sharing, but about profits, often at the cost of others.

At MCC we need to continue working for holistic localization as opposed to globalization. We need to work toward protecting the livelihoods of people, responsibly using natural resources and providing opportunities for people to participate in making decisions that affect their communities.

We also need to have more dialogue between NGOs in the region on common issues that face our subcontinent. We would have benefitted from more time for in-depth discussions at the conference.

The conference made me realize afresh the need to commit myself to choices that protect and conserve basic resources, protect the environment and respect the knowledge and healthy traditions of our communities. The world we live in is a beautifully created God-gifted system that we need to maintain and not exploit. We should remember, in the words of Gandhi, "the face of the last and the least person" in what we do.