Global Civil Society 2005/6
Sage Publications and London School of Economics
Rs 850
First let's get over with the cliches. The world is flat. Really Mr Friedman! This is what happened - Thomas L Friedman, NYT's foreign affairs columnist visited Bangalore or rather decided to visit the perpetually traffic - jammed pub'n'chip city and figured out that Infosys is world class.
Of course it is. He also discovered that India has so many IT whizkids and geeks that world's backoffice is moving to our part of the world. Now come on that is not enough reason to say that world has shrunk? Or is what we mean when talk of 'global village'? It sounds good.
But for me this is just another good White Western move. The fact is that outsourcing is adding value and competitive advantage to that part of the globe where most of us want to be. And, yes, all of this has helped the Indian middle class - English speaking, GMAT/GRE aspiring - to do well. See so many South Indian villages now have 'computer engineers' in America and Europe and they come home every two years.
Even in my village in Kerala. My cousin is a 'computer engineer' in America. He earns a fat sum when you multiply dollars with rupees. His father runs a taxi service in the village and has also installed an inverter. So, in this particular 'Velath' household there is no power failure. One fan, many lights and the TV continue to be powered when lights suddenly swtich off in Peruvallur.
Except that it has no relevance in Kalahandi where the shadow of starvation is longer and darker than the one cast by sun over our global village. Or for that matter in Iraq. Wait, what about Iraq. The Americans are stuck. The Italians want to pull out. Oh so many Iraqis killed.
And now that mad man who wields an AK-56 as a toy gun, Islamic Jihad's poster boy, global terrorist No. 1, Osama bin Laden, has again spread panic by threatening to launch a mother-of-all-terrorist attacks. The point is there is so much strife and all of it in self-interest. Didn't you know? Hardcore realist thinking that dominates international relations propels every country to think and act in its self-interest.
But in doing so they must adhere to set of internationally agreed conventions. That is why the United Nations was set up after World War II for the collective security of all nations.
But the United States changed the rules of the games in 2003 when it invaded Iraq in its search for weapons of mass destruction. And now having dug themselves into the Iraqi desert, the Americans are making a war-tunnel to Iran because they are afraid of Iranians getting hold of a nuke.
By isolating Iran and pointing fingers at it and insulting it as a renegade state, the Americans will probably force Iran on the path of acquiring a dirty nuke bomb. Then all hell will break loose. Now even the French have got into the act. They will launch a nuclear attack if France is subjected to a terrorist attack!
Look what's happening here. Is this a global society or is it global anarchy? The State (not the Indian government) is expected to and is duty bound to respond to risks its citizens face - defence, health, law and order. At the global level this is what global citizens would expect United Nations to do.
Protect rights of individuals and communities across borders. Thousands of Kashmiris across the line of control are living in such brutal conditions of extreme cold and snow. They don' t have shoes and shelter. Forget food for the moment.
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What kind of global society do we live in when New Delhi and Islamabad fail to connect via a conference call through Washington to bring some real relief to the earthquake refugees in Kashmir?
Time to get back to our question. Is there a global civil society? Of course, Tsunami 2004 was an occassion for global civil society (you and me and others who live elsewhere across the lines on the maps that we learnt to read in our Class X geography classes) to open its heart and purse strings.
But is there a global civil society composed around non-coercive collective action on the issue of terrorism and global terrorism. For me terrorism and global terrorism connote two different meanings and approaches. I wouldn't want to get into this now. For this you have to read my blog - 'Off Air'.
Lets get back to the point under discussion. Is there a global civil society against the so called 'war against terror'? Where has this war led us? It has divided people, killed people, increases sectarianism across the world, it has communalised multi-religious societies like ours.
India is now so firmly divided across Hindu and Muslims and its not funny anymore when 'secular', educated police officers like the one I met recently said on the eve of Id: "It's Id tomorrow and we have to step up security in Muslim areas like Jamia."
Oh what a great betrayal of our secular heritage of Hindustani civilization. Muslims can't be trusted. Right? With their faith, with their identity, with their patriotism, this is what 'war on terror' has done to India. It has done what even British colonial rule and preceding it centuries of conquests and invasions couldn't break the continuity of our civilizational unity that preserved distinct identities, cultures and faiths.
Time to take stock. Fact is that I am talking to someone right now in Nigeria over the internet. I am sending a SMS to someone in Australia. Fact is that technology and not politics is making our world smaller and within reach. You can take a flight or you can surf. You can be real or virtual. You can be friend now and enemy later.
You can be erotic and a dream lover and yet be sexually challenged and dysfunctional. Technology has allowed us to imagine that we live in One World--a world without boundaries. And this brings us to the paradox of the times we live in, we live in the age of homeland security and yet we say the we live in a global society.
We live in the age of Fortress Europe where governments are paranoid about dirty third worlders/refugees invading the oh so pristine, clean environs of European countries. Borders have become thicker and deeper in the atlases of our minds.
Yet we believe we live in a global society. Actually we do. Techonolgy, bird flu virus and global terrorists (called non-state actors by people who call themselves professors) actually do inhabit a global space. One bird flu virus case found in China sends all other countries into the precautionary mode. We do live in a global world. But we are nowhere close to a global society? Will we ever be?
OK let's finally get over the cliches. Go pick up this book - Global Civil Society.
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