Does anyone have any knowledge of Shiva's relationship to the Chipko movement? Apparently that movement changed direction considerably after Shiva and other enivironmentalists became involved. Shiva's interpretation of the original movement is apparently way off base as well. Both males and females were involved from the first and the motivation was economic rather than environmental. Locals wanted rights to fell that had been going to non-locals. They were interested in using the forest. One group was a local co-op implement maker. The peasants wanted to get firewood. Later on the emphasis of environmentalists who intervened apparently stressed forest preservation etc. Anyone know much about this?
Has anyone criticised her feminist views, particularly her stress upon caring and nurturing as part of woman's "nature"? Not only does this ignore the manner in which woman's "nature" is a function of cultural factors and historically conditioned but it also picks out characteristics used to stereotype women in highly patriarchal societies
Cheers, Ken Hanly
Lisa & Ian Murray wrote:
> > CBC's Counterspin did a live show from DC on Monday night. I'm told
> > by someone who was there that a young Indian woman in the audience
> > denounced Vandana Shiva for being "out of touch with the realities of
> > modern India," and that Shiva got all "defensive" in return. Would
> > love to hear more about this, if anyone was in the audience or saw
> > the show.
>
> I was at the show, which almost brought a tear to my eye. I had spent so
> much time in the past week organizing, networking, socializing, and
> stressing our over the black bloc and the arrests, that it was during
> this show that I finally appreciated what we had accomplished this
> weekend. There at the table, sitting next to Danaher, Shiva, and a woman
> from the IPS, was Jaggi Singh, who articulated the anarchist position on
> so many issues so well. I really liked how he responded to Danaher's
> call for more international "progressive parties."
>
> Yes, Shiva practically lost her temper with the young Indian woman. I've
> never seen Shiva speak, either in person or on TV, but for most of the
> show she was this model of Third World wisdom. She got one tough
> question from another Indian and almost went ballistic.
>
> =========
> Under a couple of constraints [was she wearing glasses? Did she introduce
> herself as a grad student at Simon Fraser Univ.?]
> I'd be willing to bet that the woman in question is Nandita Sharma of the
> Basmati Action Group; she's pretty good friends with Jaggi and gives one of
> the best rants on property rights and partriarchy on the planet. I'm trying
> to dig through my WTO files for a contact # for possible verification
>
> Ian