Arundhati Roy
"There is a
high-stakes drama playing out in India these days, and the novelist Arundhati
Roy is one of its most visible actors. Multinational companies, in collusion
with much of India's upper class, are lining up to turn the country into
one big franchise. Roy puts it this way: "Is globalization about 'the
eradication of world poverty,' or is it a mutant variety of colonialism,
remote controlled and digitally operated?" ....
David Barsamian interview, The Progressive
April 2001
photo:
http://www.hindu.com/2004/01/18/stories/2004011800181400.htm
A good background site about the novelist-activist, with links to her
major publications and speeches is:
ARUNDHATI ROY | A LIFE
FULL OF BEGINNINGS AND NO ENDS
TIDE? OR IVORY SNOW? Public Power in the Age of Empire
Transcript of full speech by Arundhati Roy in San Francisco, California
on August 16th, 2004.
Arundhati Roy: The Road to Harsud
At the end of June 2004, the town of Harsud was destroyed to make
way for the reservoir of the Narmada Sagar dam on the Narmada River. The
Narmada Sagar Project is being built by India’s National Hydroelectric
Power Corporation (NHPC). The World Bank, export credit agencies and private
banks are currently considering support for NHPC. In its draft India Country
Assistance Strategy of June 2004, the World Bank claims that NHPC has
“started to improve (its) environmental and social practices”. The Bank’s
Board of Directors will discuss the new India Strategy on August 26.
Arundhati Roy published an article on the destruction of Harsud and the
policies of NHPC in the Indian weekly, Outlook, on July 26, 2004. The
article can be downloaded from www.irn.org/programs/india/index.asp?id=roy.roadtoharsud.html,
or (in ten shorter segments) from http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040726&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=1
Arundhati
Roy, Hans Von Sponeck Respond to Bush's State of the Union on Iraq
Democracy
Now, 21 January 2004
" In
his State of the Union address, Bush claimed if the US did not invade
Iraq, "the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would
continue to this day." He did not acknowledge, however, that U.S.
inspectors have uncovered no unconventional weapons.
A year ago at the 2003 State of the Union, Bush made the case for war
by claiming that Iraq had 25,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum
toxin, 500 tones of sarin, mustard and VX nerve gas and 30,000 munitions
capable of delivering chemical agents. After 10 months of weapons searches,
none of this has been uncovered. We hear from acclaimed Indian author
and activist Arundhati Roy and Hans Von Sponeck, the former head of the
UN mission to Iraq. [includes
transcript]"
Arundhati
Roy Speech at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India
16 January 2004
Do
Turkeys Enjoy Thanksgiving?
... "Unlike in the old days the New Imperialist doesn't need to trudge
around the tropics risking malaria or diahorrea or early death. New Imperialism
can be conducted on e-mail. The vulgar, hands-on racism of Old Imperialism
is outdated. The cornerstone of New Imperialism is New Racism.
The tradition
of `turkey pardoning' in the U.S. is a wonderful allegory for New Racism..."
(This talk is also
on-line at: http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0403/040312.htm)
2001:
Arundhati Roy on the war in Afghanistan: "War is Peace"
"As darkness deepened over Afghanistan on Sunday, October 7, 2001,
the US government, backed by the International Coalition Against Terror
(the new, amenable surrogate for the United Nations), launched air strikes
against Afghanistan. TV channels lingered on computer-animated images
of Cruise missiles, stealth bombers, Tomahawks, 'bunker-busting' missiles
and Mark 82 high-drag bombs. All over the world, little boys watched goggle-eyed
and stopped clamouring for new video games..."
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/9-11/warispeace.htm
|
"In the
aftermath of the unconscionable September 11 suicide attacks on
the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, an American newscaster
said: "Good and evil rarely manifest themselves as clearly
as they did last Tuesday. People who we don't know massacred people
who we do. And they did so with contemptuous glee." Then he
broke down and wept. The texts of most speeches can also be found at: http://www.outlookindia.com/author.asp?name=Arundhati+Roy |
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