Are you going to the party ?

This is a post triggered by a talk titled "Globalisation of Inequality" by P Sainath in 2005. (available on google videos for download) . Sainath presents bitter facts about inequality in India and goes on to prove that it is not just happening in India, but all over the world.

The Nero Story :

Following is a Roman story (supposedly a true one) of a an incident during King Nero's time.

Roman historian Tacitus writes about "Nero and the burning of Rome". Tacitus, though he hated Nero was honest enough to say that Nero in-fact had not set Rome on fire, but Nero was scared as hell, as people believed he did (set Rome on fire). So, Nero had to do something to distract the population of Rome. He decided to hold the biggest party ever held in the history of the Roman empire. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle ( as tacitus says in book 15 of The Annals). They had a problem with this party because his garden was a concave kind of place surrounded by higher spots and it was a bit dark. The problem was how to provide nightly illumination for the party to which anyone who was anyone in Rome was an invitee. The intelligentsia, the gossip columnists, certainly the political correspondents, anybody who mattered in Rome was at that party. And they had the problem of nightly illumination. How did they solve the problem of nightly illumination? .......... They solved the problem, writes Tacitus, by bringing the wretched criminals and prisoners and burning them at stake around the garden !

We now do know that Nero was mad. (Unlike some of his saner predecessors who routinely fed thousands of human beings to animals at the Coliseum!!).

The issue is not Nero. The issue is Nero's guests. Who were the guests at that party? What sort of sensibility did it require to pop another fig into your mouth as one more human being went up in flames nearby to serve as ‘a nightly illumination?’ For the party to go on, singing and dancing, as the spectacle unfolded? These were people who were the intellect of Rome, the best and the finest. They knew what was happening and they could see what was happening. They did not have the option of averting their gaze as it was happening in front of their eye balls.

P Sainath says "I was always mystified who Nero's guests were much more than any interest in Nero. In the last five years of covering thousands of suicides which need not have occurred, I have answered my question about Who were nero's guests. I guess we all are !! One more farmer goes up in flames. One more widow takes her life. One more farm goes bust for no fault of its own ..... but the party continues. Apart from many strategies we can discuss about what to do. One starting point we all could do is that in this world of inequality, we can refuse to be Nero's guests! "

How is that !?

Sounds very illogical when sainath concludes and blames each of us to be the Nero's guests. Instead of simply rejecting it as yet another “sensitiser”, and as some typical communist/socialist talk (to my surprise I realised this was highly possible), lets try to give a serious thought and analyse. Lets start that by looking at a few facts sainath mentions in the talk "Globalizing Inequality".

The In"Sensitive Index"

P Sainth: Immediately after Tsunami, when it was confirmed that the damage is devastating, the stock markets of the five worst effected countries including India reached their historic high. If stock market is the central indicator of how nation is doing, it should have gone down on such a major disaster? The people effected were mostly fisher folk and marginal farmers and they hardly had any effect on the functioning of the stock market. What soared the stock markets? It was the smell of the reconstruction dollars !!

On the other hand when the largest democracy of the world had to gone to elections in May 2004 in an orderly democratic fashion, the Sensex (Sensitive Index) collapsed ! We have completely divorced how economies are doing from how people are doing!?

The town of allopath (http://www.mercola.com/townofallopath/index.htm) though was made in another context is a very good 3 minute illustration of the kind of system we have built. We can take an example of health sector to understand sensex. If everyone in the nation are healthy and there was nothing spent in the health sector, the sensex would collapse. Whereas on the other hand if there were a lot of hospitals and they were full of patients, lots of money being spent on medicines, global pharmacy companies setting up companies next door, lots of jobs for the emergency services etc etc the sensex would soar because the market has grown. It is very sensitive to investments and transactions. I think it mainly represents the scope for businesses and how the businesses are doing and it is highly insensitive to the well being of the nation. Forget about the other aspects of the "well being", does it even capture the economic well being of the whole nation? or is it only an indicator of the economic well being of a few big boys ?

It's my generosity, not your right

P Sainath: 34300 homes were destroyed in Tsunami in the worst effected districts of Nagapattanam in Tamil Nadu and during the same period, the Govt. of Maharashtra has forcibly evicted 84,000 households out of Mumbai in a week or two. And they were stripped of their voting rights too (you know why). This mumbai demolition news stories could reach only the News rooms but not beyond that! and if Tsunami is getting so much coverage, or a devastated family is getting a new house, its my generosity towards you, its not about your right as a individual of a decent society and nation.

I can make a lot of sense out of this statement of sainath. And I am also sure he is not doubting the intent of those generous ones. But it is true and unfortunate. Different sections of a nations at any given point of time have been at different levels of economic status or social status. What is important is the response of the rest of the nation to this inequality. Currently we choose to be generous to a few where there is no conflict of interest like in case of Tsunami where the effect are located somewhere away from us, but when they are next door in the middle of the city where the land value is costliest in the world, the treatment is different. What kind of insensitivity must it take to evacuate a lakh families off their dwellings in which they have lived for generations. It definitely conveys a lot about us and our values.

The beautiful people

P Sainath: “We all remember SARS. SARS was perceived as the moving of the black death. SARS killed 0 people in India! Total number of cases identified in India was 3. From the kind of coverage SARS got, one would think that the sub continent was in danger. All over the world, around 800 people died of SARS and that is half of the number of people who die every day in India of T.B. Why did SARS get so much attention!???. Because TB kills the wrong people. SARS kills the beautiful people so it gets that kind of attention everywhere.”

Sainath predicts in 2005 that we would be seeing much more of SARS in the coming future and yes in 2009 we saw SwineFlu. I am sure when the real number would be out, we will be surprised to the disproportion of the kind of coverage that swine flu got and the number of people that are actually affected. As a civilized society, how just is it to pay so much attention to a section of people who are economically “well to do” and ignore the rest.

Sainath goes on to show that this kind of inequality is not just in India but its a global phenomenon. Countries across the global are doing things which would only increase this gap more and more.

Do we want to be Nero's guests ?

If not spoiling Nero's party, the least we could do would be to refuse to be Nero's guests. Wondering how you are a Nero's guest? Welcome to the latest form of violence! Structural violence. This form of violence does not seem so at the face of it.

Let me take an example here to demonstrate what structural violence could be like. The Express roads to Airport. There is an outer ring road to airport from all directions of the city, and recently some 10-15 KM long fly over (the PVR express way) was also inaugurated for the traffic to airport. And the most striking aspect of these express ways is that only 4 wheeler traffic is allowed on it. There is no entry for the two and three wheelers and also trucks. Adding to this magnanimous fete are some fly overs at the junctions which connect to these ring roads so that the traffic to airport is least interrupted (e.g. gacchibowli). On one end when the state is facing severe forms of inequality leading to a political crisis and on the verge of becoming a law and order problem, what kind of a mind set would result into such a bright plan. I feel handicapped since I do not have the statistics to support this extreme form of inequality where an immense chunk of state funds is being spent on the comfort of a few hundred people. After all they(we) are beautiful people.

I am sure there would be thoughts like, these people are the ones who would setup companies in our state, they would create employment in our state, they are making our city and state richer! Unfortunately that's the majority view as of today. We fail to see that these are the big boys who with their unfair advantage of having millions already in their pockets kill the many small and medium businesses here with their captivating ad campaigns and irresistible “sale“ offers. I very much remember how reliance fresh priced bananas at a price lower than that at the banana farms to attract people to their air conditioned shops destroying the lives of hundreds of small vendors.

No one does things being fully aware that it is hurting people (though sometimes we tend to justify our acts). Unfortunately, things are not so straightforward and obvious, hence I consider it as the most dangerous form of violence. One is not even aware that he/she is causing harm. I am sure each one of us is capable of understanding things. All that is needed is a little more attention.

I would like to conclude by saying that as long as we are doing things and taking decisions that would contribute to the perpetuation of a system in which violence and inequality are inherent and implicit, we are definitely being Nero's guests. What are those acts and what are those decisions by which one is contributing and what are those structures and organisations which are causing a great deal of inequality ? .... I leave it for each one of us to decide.