The Greater Common Good by Arundhati Roy - Essay Example

The Greater Common Good by Arundhati Roy Abstract Rich and powerful nations have exercised control over the natural resources of the poor nations by using their political, military and economic power. In this agenda they were aided and assisted by the corrupt political elements in the developing nations. Wangari Maathai in the text “Deficits: Indebtedness and Unfair Trade” sheds light on how the developed world exploited and plundered the natural resources of Africa in a historical and current context. Maathai’s conclusions are supported by ample factual and statistical evidence. Arundhati Roy in her online open essay The Greater Common Good explains this trend by focusing on the politics of large dams in India. The one conclusion that follows from these texts is that the natural wealth of the third world nations can only be saved by cleansing their political system. This will reduce their dependence on the developed nations and will allow them to use their natural wealth for supporting a long term and inclusive development. The excerpt “Deficits: Indebtedness and Unfair Trade” from Wangari Maathai’s book The Challenge for Africa and the open online essay The Greater Common Good by Arundhati Roy discuss the continual plundering of the natural wealth of the third world nations by both the exploitative developed nations and the greedy elements in power within these nations. These texts explain as to how the developed nations and the corrupt politicians and policy makers in the developing nations cooperate with each other to benefit from the corrupt exploitation of the natural resources in these countries. Wangari Maathai was a well known environmental activist from Kenya. She started the Green Belt Movement that played an important role in the area of environment, conservation and women empowerment in Africa. Wangari Maathai work was recognized and she was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 2004. Arundhati Roy is a reputed Indian author who is also associated with political and environmental activism in India. She has been closely associated with the Narmada Dam agitation. Hence, there is no doubt that the views expressed by both these writers regarding the plundering of natural resources in the developing nations, in the texts being discussed here are credible and based on actual realities. Both these texts tend to explain as to how the greedy developed nations have been relying on the corrupt and selfish policy makers in the developing nations to cheat them of their natural wealth, both in the past and the present. In the text “Deficits: Indebtedness and Unfair Trade” Wangari Maathai discusses as to how the African nations have traditionally been the victims of the political tussle between the world powers (Maathai, 2009). Yet, the sad thing is that these political powers never intended to benefit the African nations under their influence. Instead they used the political influence they had over these third world nations to deprive them of their natural resources (Maathai, 2009). Two things helped the developed nations in plundering the natural wealth of the poor African nations. One was their weak status before the developed nations. The other was the dishonesty and corruption of the politicians that ruled them. This senseless exploitation of the natural resources of the African nations by stronger nations like Russia, the USA, and many European nations has deprived the Africans of the basic necessities like food and nutrition (Maathai, 2009). In a very interesting manner Wangari Maathai goes on the show as to how this exploitation that began during the colonial times and during the Cold War is still being carried on by the developed world in the name of the so called development politics. The international financial institutions dominated by the Western nations use economic aid and development loans as means to trap the African nations in a vicious cycle of debt, “seeking to maximize their opportunities and minimize their costs, often at the expense of those who are not in a position to do either (Maathai, 2009, p. 88). The dependence of the African nations on the rich countries for loans and aid allows them to play a powerful role in the harvesting and trading of their natural resources. The approach of Maathai here is fact based instead of being emotional and her conclusions are based on the evidence provided by the international institutions like the UN, the World Bank, IMF and varied environmental and political bodies. In this text Maathai relies on a facts based illustration of his argument and an expert analysis to make her point. Nowhere her line of argument seems to be influenced by conflicting emotions and her tone is academic and analytical. His analysis of the plundering of wealth of the African nations and its impact on the common Africans is social, historical and economic in its scope. The amazing thing is that nowhere has Maathai used ambiguous and vague terms and ideas to confuse the readers or to make them draw different conclusions. Maathai has also considered the positive role played by the developed world in helping the African nations in the recent times. Her argument is guided by the political conviction that the natural wealth of the African nations must be used to help the poor people of Africa. In her online essay The Greater Common Good Arundhati Roy exposes a different aspect of the control of natural resources of the poor nations like India by the local politicians, a thing which the rich nations used to sell their out of date and obsolete development technologies to the poor nations (Roy, 1999). Roy uses the environmental activism marking the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam over the Narmada River in India to show as to how such large development projects whose benefits are being suspected by many credible institutions the world over are being used by the local politicians and the international lending bodies as an excuse to reap profits (Roy, 1999). Like Maathai, the objective of Roy is to show as to how the natural resources in poor and developing nations benefit a few local and foreign elites (Roy, 1999). However, the one important thing about this essay is that it also refers to the adverse environmental impact of the large dams (Roy, 1999) In this essay Roy’s tone is highly emotive and her style comes out as being literary. Yet, she relies on the facts and evidence from the past and the present to support her point. However, many a times Roy’s massage gets confusing and ambiguous by her complex writing. Roy’s essay narrates more of a personal perspective, rather than being strictly academic. She elaborately explains as to how the natural resources in the developing nations not only become a means for making money for the corrupt politicians and the rich nations, but they are also used as a tool to exercise power. However, Roy has not given consideration to the pro-development views. In this essay Roy comes out as being driven by altruistic motives, shown by her sympathy for the poor displaced by large dam projects in India. Her approach is emotional and radical. It is but evident that the powerful nations have been interested in the developing nations because they do know that these nations have immense natural wealth (Bannon & Collier, 2003). Realistically speaking this natural wealth belongs to the people of the developing countries. Yet, the reality is not so. In the colonial times the colonizing nations plundered the wealth of the poor nations of Africa and Asia. The Western nations continued this trend during the Cold War by using the political and economic influence they exercised over the third world (Maathai, 2009). However, with the end of colonialism and the Cold War, it was expected that the poor nations of Asia and Africa will be able to use their natural resources for economic development and for helping their poor masses. To some extent such positive expectations did turn out to be true. In the modern times the third world nations have succeeded in using their natural resources to achieve economic growth and development (Maathai, 2009). Yet, this growth is not that impressive (Maathai, 2009). As is said by Maathai and Roy in the texts being analyzed, the rich and developed nations still continue to command great influence on the international platform. They use this influence to forward and sell their idea of development. The hidden objective is to use this influence to convert and buy the corrupt politicians in the third world nations so as to be able to exercise control over their natural wealth. The one big fact that comes out from the writings of Maathai and Roy is that the developed nations take interest in the economy and politics of poor nations, not to benefit them, but to profit by manipulating their natural wealth. Hence, the third world nations and the developing nations can only use their national wealth for an inclusive and long term development, if they have a dedicated and sincere political leadership that uses this natural wealth in a planned manner to better the lot of the masses, without getting influenced by external powers (Bannon & Collier, 2003). One way the rich and powerful nations have been able to loot the natural resources of the poor nations is by making the poor nations dependent on them. Right from the colonial times the priority of the developed nations had been to either plunder the natural resources of the developing nations through political scheming or military might, or to manipulate the trade terms in a way that the poor nations are made to export their raw materials cheap. The powerful nations exploited the political instability in the poor nations to exercise control over their wealth by increasing their dependence through political and military means. In the current times this is again being done in a different form. As explained by Maathai and Roy, the developed world commands immense influence over the international political and financial institutions and bodies. They use this influence to sell their economics of development to the corrupt politicians in the third world nations. Hence, to save the natural wealth of poor nations from the developed nations, it is important to cleanse the political system in the third world nations (Hellinger, 2006). This is the only way to reduce their actual or perceived dependence on the developed nations. An honest and sincere leadership could use the natural resources to fuel the long term economic and social progress in the developed nations (Hellinger, 2006). In her book Maathai gives the example as to how UAE and Norway used their petroleum resources to support their long term development, without being manipulated by outside powers (Maathai, 2009, p. 99). Thereby, to prevent the influence and control of the developed nations over the natural resources of the third world nations, it is important to cleanse the political setup in the poor nations, so to allow the honest political leadership in these nations to use these national resources for a planned and inclusive growth and development. References Bannon, I., & Collier, P. (2003). Natural Resources and Violent Conflict. Washington, DC: World Bank. Hellinger, D. (2006). Venezuelan Oil: Free Gift of Nature or Wealth of a Nation? International Journal, 62(1), 55-59. Maathai, W. (2009). Deficits: Indebtedness and Unfair Trade. In The Challenge for Africa (pp. 83-110). New York: Random House. Roy, A. (1999). The Greater Common Good. Friends of River Narmada. Retrieved from http://www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html Read More