The Dammed
I just saw a PBS documentary on the
Sardar Sarovar dam in western India (Wide Angle, "The Dammed"). Sad story. Naturally, the poor lose their homes and get nothing in return.
It must be one of those news vortex situations, but just now I read, without any intention of finding dam stories,
China announces $2.9 bln power plant - Sep. 14, 2003 and
Musharraf wades into water conflict... asks four provinces to agree on the construction of at least two major dams. Of course, we all know about the
Three Gorges Dam, and that one is hardly the first dam in history to cause problems. Hasn't it been proven that dams never work in the long run? Isn't it a lot like the idea of submerging major traffic arteries underground? (Lots of concentrated government capital, dubious results.)
The World Bank apparently backed the Sardar Sarovar dam until the local protesters, the NBA, convinced them to conduct an independent investigation. The World Bank subsequently criticized the project and withdrew funding. Yay for the Bank?
But this isn't really the reason I'm posting. Arundhati Roy appears at the end of the documentary and makes this extrapolation, which shook me a little (mind you, I have a fever right now and find myself a bit sensitive):
And so, today, to me, the debate in all this connects up to a very much bigger question in the world which is that here you have a movement, 15 years of the most spectacular non-violent resistance movement in a country like India. The NBA has used every single democratic institution it could. It has put forward the most reasoned, moderate arguments that you can find, and it's been just thrown aside like garbage, even by an institution like the Supreme Court of India, even in the face of evidence that you cannot argue with. So, I keep saying this that if we don't respect non-violence, then violence becomes the only option for people. If governments do not show themselves to respect reasoned, non-violent resistance then by default they respect violence.
Little lady makes a big point.
* Ray, 9/19/2003 07:56:48 PM
