Arundhati Roy on Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, Kashmir & Other Issues 1 (of4)

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LISTENING TO GRASSHOPPERS

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[Note to WoP readers: On request from a large number of our readers who find it more convenient to read sizable documents in a serialized set of posts, we have divided Arundhati Roy’s interview to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now in 4 parts. Readers who may still want to read this interview in a continuous, singular post (1 piece format) can as usual take the link].

Author Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama from New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak

Note for WoP readers: In March ‘09 issue (here and here) of WoP we brought to you a detailed essay on 26/11 attacks in Mumbai by Arundhati Roy, India‘s most independent writer who has won the Booker Prize for her novel, The God of Small Things, and in 2002, was awarded the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize. Roy is also a well known activist for social and economic justice.

In our current issue, we bring now courtesy ‘Democracy now’ an interview from this world renowned figure of literature. While reading the transcribed text, however, often you may note a repetition which might seem disturbing but in audiovisual sessions, such repetitions are indeed necessary. Since I am reproducing the transcribed text done by ‘Democracy Now’ editorial staff in verbatim, therefore, every thing has been put up as was asked and replied in this session. [Nayyar]

To listen to original radio interview follow the link to Democracy now at http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/28/author_arundhati_roy_on_conflicts_and

We’re joined from the Indian capital of New Delhi by the Booker Prize-winning novelist, political essayist and global justice activist Arundhati Roy. Her books include the Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things and her latest essay collection, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers. We speak to Roy about India’s conflict with Maoist rebels, the occupation of Kashmir, ongoing Indian-Pakistani tensions, Obama’s war in “Af-Pak,” and more

Guest:

Arundhati Roy, world-renowned Indian author and global justice activist. Her first novel, The God of Small Things, won the Booker Prize in 1997. Since then she has written numerous essays on war, climate change and the dangers of free market development in India. Her new book, published in September this year, by Haymarket Books, is called Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers. But first an adapted introduction to the book from Tomdispatch.com.

Captioned Is Democracy Melting? writes Tom:

So you, as a citizen, want to run for a seat in the House of Representatives? Well, you may be too late. Back in 1990, according to OpenSecrets.org, a website of the Center for Responsive Politics, the average cost of a winning campaign for the House was $407,556. Pocket change for your average citizen. But that was so twentieth century. The average cost for winning a House seat in 2008: almost $1.4 million. Keep in mind, as well, that most of those House seats don’t change hands, because in the American democratic system of the twenty-first century, incumbents basically don’t lose, they retire or die.

In 2008, 403 incumbents ran for seats in the House and 380 of them won. Just to run a losing race last year would have cost you, on average, $492,928, almost $100,000 more than it cost to win in 1990.  As for becoming a Senator? Not in your wildest dreams, unless you have some really good pals in pharmaceuticals and health care ($236,022,031 in lobbying paid out in 2008), insurance ($153,694,224), or oil and gas ($131,978,521). A winning senatorial seat came in at a nifty $8,531,267 and a losing seat at $4,130,078 in 2008. In other words, you don’t have a hope in hell of being a loser in the American Congressional system, and what does that make you?

Of course, if you’re a young, red-blooded American, you may have set your sights a little higher. So you want to be president? In that case, just to be safe for 2012, you probably should consider raising somewhere in the range of one billion dollars. After all, the 2008 campaign cost Barack Obama’s team approximately $730 million and the price of a place at the table just keeps going up. Of course, it helps to know the right people. Last year, the total lobbying bill, including money that went out for electoral campaigns and for lobbying Congress and federal agencies, came to $3.3 billion and almost 9 months into 2009, another $1.63 billion has already gone out without an election in sight.

Let’s face it. At the national level, this is what American democracy comes down to today, and this is what George W. Bush & Co. were so infernally proud to export by force of arms to Afghanistan and Iraq. This is why we need to think about the questions that Arundhati Roy — to my mind, a heroic figure in a rather unheroic age — raises about democracy globally in an essay adapted from the introduction to her latest book. That book, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers, has just been published (with one essay included thatoriginally appeared at TomDispatch). Let’s face it, she’s just one of those authors — I count Eduardo Galeano as another — who must be read. Need I say more? Tom

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Scurce: Democracy Now Cross posted at: www.outlookindia.com

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