"there is evil in the world and we must recognize that. after all, gandhi destroyed the british empire and there's nothing wrong with that"



I hope you will enjoy this wonderful video of the great environmental justice activist Vandana Shiva, part two of "Food, farming, and climate change: People-centred solutions". If you can't take 10 minutes to watch the whole thing, scroll over to about 8:00, where you'll see this wonderful exchange.

Question:

It really strikes me that there's a good guy-bad guy thing going on and that Monsanto are sort of this evil corporation. And I'm just wondering if you had a response to being able to communicate with them in a way that's, apart from what we're doing, which is the grassroots and the local work, but a way to communicate with them to try and change their consciousness or to expand them, because, I don't know, I'm uncomfortable with the idea that they need to be destroyed in some way, but it'd be better to communicate with them."

Shiva:

The communication issue of course must be kept open. But I've dealt with Monsanto now for more than 22 years, and in the 22 years it's not that they don't know. They know. It's not that they don't know that the high-cost seeds they're selling are pushing farmers into debt and that indebted farmers are committing suicide. It's not that they don't know that a vegetable grower who has only a quarter acre farm will not be able to afford the 50,000 rupee GM (genetically modified) eggplant seeds they want to sell. They too will get into debt and get wiped out. I guess I'm not so uncomfortable with the idea of deliberate destruction, because I've grown up in a society where our mythology is all about the contest between good and evil. You know, this is something new that's happening in the West, I'm finding, this discomfort of recognizing evil as evil. There is evil in the world: the people who deliberately destroy. We must recognize them for that. That doesn't mean you hate the individual in there. After all, Gandhi said he wanted to destroy the British empire and he did. There's nothing wrong with that."

Many thanks to Dean G for sending.

I'm writing a few more substantial posts while juggling the usual 15 other things. As I heard on a stalled New York City subway last week, "Thank you for your patience and cooperation".

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