Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Psyche of World Bank and more…

Having gone through many sites about World Bank, there is definitely a benevolent side of WB, like for instance the impetus on saving tiger and so on. Also the idea is not entirely about siding exploitative corporate but actively justifying cruder nature of capitalism. And yes WB has consistently faulted on this and so benevolence looks cosmetic, worst a strategic to look good. After all who are the people who employ or exploit unskilled or semi skilled migrants?. These are what is referred to as unorganized labor who constitute 90% of labor force-they are exploited and live in inhuman conditions in big cities, but yes they play a very important role in “development” and eventually contribute towards GDP growth and other macro economic indicator. These give “healthy” condition of nation’s growth and make lots of armchair economists, ivory tower policy makers and also porcine species at stock exchange ecstatic. This I gather make unusually sensitive moneybags -referred to as foreign investors-particularly FII (not FDI) -enough courage to invest. They are the first one to scoot recall East Asian currency meltdown a decade back. So it seems we are here to give these nincompoops courage to invest!!. That seems to be the purpose of governments. And yes World Bank is very generous to guide us to this quaint world. Never mind majority go through harrowing time, the stress though is on eventual the “developments” is going to reach you, “trickle down” to you (like judgment day prophesy!). But UNDP report and other studies points to contrary and have pointed to a gap that is widening at an alarming rate not only at the societal level but also organizational level since 1990s. The ILO report last year titled Income inequalities in the age of financial globalization has this to say “As economies expanded, global employment rose by 30 per cent between the early 1990s and 2007 alongside a redistribution of income away from labor, with the share of wages in total national income (GDP) declining significantly”. The report noted that while some income inequality is useful in rewarding effort, talent and innovation, huge differences can be counter-productive and damaging for most economies, adding that “rising income inequality represents a danger to the social fabric”. The gap in income inequality is also widening between top executives and the average employee, with the chief executive officers of the 15 largest companies in the United States, for example, earning 520 times more than the average worker in 2007, up from 360 times more in 2003 noted the report. And the crude nature of capitalism has seen to it that these are celebrated as merit!!. In a poor country like India when these issues are taken up TRP driven orangutans are asked to go hysterical.

It is very clear that Capitalism as is being practiced is increasingly threatening equitable, inclusive progress as also environmental sustainability. Let’s understand absence of violence is not peace. Collective violence from impoverished sections happen when they seem to have lost all other options, it is much worst than basic necessities it is about dwindling means to survive. As is the case of climate issues the sufferers are not really the perpetrators but poorest and marginalized pay for indulgence of few. Same is the case of “development” few get richer and other pay heavy price. Even though the economic crisis was significantly influenced by porcine species at Wall Street but funnily they don’t pay for it, the poorest and vulnerable pay for what is the mistake of greedy moneybags. That is what this system done to us. It is no longer funny.