Monday, November 19, 2012

HARDtalk with Vanada Shiva

Vananda Shiva from Wikipedia


HARDtalk is a BBC News programme the does extended interviews. At 4:30 am on 19 Nov. 2012, the extended interview is/was with Vananda Shiva, the original treehugger (no, really. In the '70s, she and a group of women hugged trees to keep them from being cut down). She:
(...) is a philosopher, environmental activist, author and eco feminist.[1] Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books.[2] She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 1978 with the doctoral dissertation "Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory."[3][4]
She is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization, (along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Rifkin, et al.), and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. She has argued for the wisdom of many traditional practices, as is evident from her interview in the book Vedic Ecology (by Ranchor Prime) that draws upon India's Vedic heritage. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain's Socialist Party's think tank. She is also a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society.[5]
She was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. [via wikipedia]
There's a great deal of info on Vanada Shiva available (like this interview).  But the HARDtalk interview is really quite good. When the interviewer says that cotton yields have increased with the introduction of BT cotton from Monsanto, Vanada calls her out, saying, in essence  "Bull. The yields have increased not because its bt cotton, but because its now being monocropped instead of intercropped. There's simply more cotton being grown." The interview isn't available for download yet--as the programme hasn't yet been aired in most of the world. But the link above will make it available soon. And I'll post it once it becomes available.
UPDATE: BBC has restricted viewing of HARDtalk to the UK. There is a clip from the interview here.

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