varnam

Yazad has a link to an article by Madhu Kishwar in which she says that NGOs who accept foregin aid grants should not be lecturing the world against Globalization.

There is something similarly comic about the AGBs warning us about the evils of globalisation despite their own politics being altogether dependent on international aid money. Most of the NGOs who have organised events at the World Social Forum could as well advertise their NGOs as being ��run with 100 per cent imported money.��

If the government were to impose similar restrictions on their receiving foreign money as they would like to impose on lesser mortals in the industrial sector and the farm sector, our NGOs would go screaming all over the world that their democratic rights and civil liberties are being violated. They want a jet-setting globalised politics for themselves but a closed-door economy for Indian farmers and industry.

The WSF meet was best summarized in this editorial in Hindustan Times, aptly titled If you believe in fairies

As these heart-felt cries show, the WSF is run by people who are finding their world collapsing around them. And the reason is simple. In the name of helping the poor, they seem to want to turn their back on the technology-driven world and return to an idyllic, even bucolic, past of self-contained communities. Instead of bemoaning the state of the poor, these nay-sayers should try to understand what has prompted Mr Lula to bid goodbye to their cherished �socialism� and, in India, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to wait with bated breath for a visit to West Bengal by the representatives of Gucci, a �greedy� Italian company. The problem with the votaries of the WSF is that, apart from being trapped by stale communist jargon, they are unable to offer a credible alternative vision to the world of private enterprise.