Gunter Grass on globalisation

[Brad DeLong]

>  >From an interview with Günter Grass with the Indian magazine Outlook.
>Full text at:
>http://www.outlookindia.com/
>
>Mr Grass, you are a stern critic of globalisation, why? Further, what sort
>of a role do you envisage for India and the developing world in a globalised
>scenario?
>
>When I was in Calcutta, the process had begun. It was 1987 and the Gorbachev
>era was unfolding itself. That the Soviet Union would collapse was becoming
>clearer every day. Two years after my return to Germany, the Berlin Wall
>fell in 1989. Since then, the world, for all practical purposes, has really
>had only one superpower-the United States-and one ideology which is
>market-driven capitalism. In other words, the earlier impulses and signs
>have now turned into a powerful reality which we call globalisation. This
>globalisation is marching ahead at the expense of human beings.
>
>What does this globalisation involve?
>
>A fusion of large corporations driven by profit only, layoffs and
>unemployment, concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, and a world of
>luxury for some slender layers of society which we can all see. In short, a
>rampant increase of poverty and misery for the vast sections. Of course,
>politicians are uttering the right pious words but they have not been able
>to reverse the trend. Yes, we all have an expression for this trend of
>neo-liberalism whose impact can be traced everywhere, even in India.

Has he bothered to learn anything about the effects of 
"neoliberalism" on India?

Brad DeLong
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