If my doubts about whether globalisation is good for us began after my visit to Bali then they were well and truly confirmed when I heard the story of what has happened in Ladakh, a high-altitude region in northern India. In a breathtaking film 'The Economics of Happiness' Helena-Norberg-Hodge[1] described what happened after 1962 when a road was built to link the region with the rest of India. The next few decades led to the imposition of Western capitalist culture. The people were first exposed through tv and tourists to a picture of the wonderful rich life enjoyed by folk in the West. They began to see their culture as inferior. The International Monetary Fund lent money for the infrastructure to be developed, much of the lucrative work was done by Western companies and the borrowing country was left with the debt to pay. Old traditions were scrapped making way for a culture based on material consumption, all reinforced by the imported Western-style education system.
Wow, I could go on here but perhaps its enough to say that this pattern of globalisation since the Second World War is being repeated the world over with massive population movements and the destruction of rich and ancient human cultures ... all in the name of progress
[1] ‘The Myth of
Development’ – Roots of Change Study
course by the International Society for Ecology and Culture
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