Some Observations
Mohsin R. Siddique
Abstract
Bangladesh, like many other developing countries, has been struggling with the problems that are common to all the countries in this category: providing for the basic needs of the people and improvement of the quality of their lives with limited resources and an ever increasing population. The need to pay attention to the environment has complicated the task. The response of the policy makers to this requirement varies from efforts to belittle the problems to exasperation with the complexities involved. The pressures to deal with the problems have primarily been exerted by the developed countries that play critical role in financing development efforts. Along with the financial assistance come the premises which operate in pursuing economic activities in the donor countries. Incorporation into the global market, either by a deliberate policy of emphasizing export oriented economic policy, or because of the dependence on external resources for local economic development, imposes further limits on balancing development and protection of the environment. But the questions remain: can economic development in the traditional sense be shifted to sustainable economic development while operating within the parameters set by forces which have driven the development efforts so far? Specifically, can the environment and natural resource base of Bangladesh be protected while pursuing the current economic policies? If not what might be the consequences? What development policy will allow integrity of the natural system while meeting human needs? In this paper these and other related issues are examined.
I. Introduction
II. Our Physical Being & the Environment
The point here is that how we live our lives in relation to the rest of the physical or natural world is every one's concern. Basically, our failure to make a conscious decision about it, individually and collectively, has led us to a situation of grave danger in that now our very existence may be threatened. The fundamental objective condition for our existence is our dependence on nature. In the process, we impact upon it; this obviously cannot be avoided. Although not sure about how prehistoric humans treated, and more importantly, viewed rest of nature, the evidence is clear that by and large, since the dawn of civilization, and until very recently, we have, for all practical purposes, discounted the impact we make on our surroundings in the process of assuring our physical existence and reproduction. Indeed, those countries which today are known as "developed", primarily because of their success in acquiring material wealth, have achieved this status by militantly promoting the idea that the basic relationship between humans and nature is adversarial. Since the dominant ideology in the world is the ideology of the dominant economies, the necessity of conquering nature has been imprinted upon the collective psyche of the world as the absolute condition for human existence. Thus, the idea of struggle with nature has been imbedded in all aspects of human culture. Most religion, philosophy, art, literature, etc., have provided the rationalization and extolled the virtues of this war against all that are essential for our existence. Human civilization has been measured by the increasing efficiency and ferocity with which each successive generations have launched their assault on the natural system which supports life on the planet. There have always been lonely voices in the wilderness warning us to be cautious but they were ignored. It is only recently, in the face of impending calamities of enormous proportion, from near destruction of the tropical rain forest to damages to the ozone layer protecting the planet from ultra violet radiation, from global warming and potential rise in the sea level to desertification, it has become impossible to hide the consequences of our collective and personal greed, avarice and callousness.
Considering that the basic question is one of viability of the very conditions of our existence, it is rather disconcerting that up to now it has been categorized mostly as an environmental and natural resources management problem. The way we live, i.e., the conditions we have imposed on nature, is the way we have lived forever. It has made civilization possible, science and technology, art and culture, everything, including our ability to reflect upon this problem. Indeed, along with the biological imperatives implied in our being, the relationship we have established with nature is one of the principal ingredients of what we call human nature.
Therefore, the project to reestablish a viable relationship with our surroundings that will sustain human life, indeed, any form of life, may very well turn out to be a project to undo many, if not most of the assumptions, attitudes, values, habits, practices, etc., that have a history as long as the species homo sapiens. This cannot be the task of a few specialists.
counted as signals in the local and global market, in the political arena, in the community, and in the family. Whereas the "socio-economic system" plays a strong role in shaping the choices, individual responsibilities in pursuing them cannot be denied. The choices of course turn into policies and practices. To determine what we must do to repair the damages we have done to the natural world, and to chart a new course for the future, for ourselves and for our descendants, - who, it should be recognized, are unable to make the choices themselves, but will have to face the consequences, - requires involvement of all segment of the world's population. Resolution of this issue can only take place by deliberation of it in the public domain. It is not a subject that can be resolved in the narrow confine of any one discipline. The leadership of the intellectual
community committed to a broad outlook and capable of undertaking a comprehensive approach to problems of collective living and individuals' role in this regard, is essential.
Changing human nature is a daunting task. Indeed, given the genealogy of human nature, its vulnerability to an infinite number of variables, as well as the experience of past failures of attempts from time to time to alter it by deliberate actions, it is difficult to be hopeful regarding the prospect of bringing any change in our relationship with nature, even if intimidated by the recognition that our lives may depend on it. But if one accepts the materialist view that human nature is not of divine origin nor is absolute for any other reasons, but that it is a product of biology, historical process and the objective conditions which enable existence as species and as social beings, one can be optimistic that at least there is potential for changing past practices and for establishing a relationship with the surroundings to ensure our existence on the planet for the remainder of the time when life will still be possible here. This of course says nothing about how difficult it is, nor does it guarantee that the potential will actually be realized. One is reminded of the dilemma between the pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will, as bemoaned by Antonio Gramsci. The question is, what are the alternatives? At the present, many development professionals have become engaged in activities which at best can be described as tinkering with the symptoms, and are far removed from the questions of causality. This must change, however complicated, gigantic, and nearly impossible the task may seem.
To illustrate the problems associated with this necessarily global project, I wish to focus on the specific case of Bangladesh. It is a place familiar to us, which is one advantage. As a physical entity and a society, it presents certain advantage for analytical purposes. Besides, this approach is consistent with the notion of acting locally and thinking globally!
III. The Case of Bangladesh: the Physical Basis of the Economy
formation of the landmass which lies in the Ganga-Brhamaputra system long before the epic was composed [2]. It is true that rivers have changed courses many times, and continue to do so today, but the deltaic character of the area has remained basically unaltered. The observation that is relevant here is that the principal economic activity which could have been possible when the author of the Mahabharat took note of Bengal must have been agriculture, and the type of agriculture that was most likely practiced then was what was feasible in a deltaic land, which is more or less what it is today. Thus it can be surmised that production of sustenance in a tropical delta has been the basis of life for as long as human beings have lived here. And throughout this long period of time the inhabitants of this particular geo-morphological entity have found their unique ways of living with what nature has given them, and have learned to adopt themselves to their natural surroundings. In the process they have established a knowledge-base which is magnificent in its complexity, yet simple in its relevance to the land and making of livelihood in it. The essence of it is the balance between satisfying human needs and the regeneration of the material resources of production by conscious human action. The cultivators have always recognized that the very deltaic nature of the land and the climatic cycle that prevails in this part of the world have shaped their lives for thousands of years.
It is of utmost importance to understand that the physical basis of human existence here, on which the society, the economy and the culture rest, is what in ecological science, is defined as a tropical wetland. About two thirds of the country is under water at some time during the year on a cyclical basis. In this annual cycle of various levels of standing as well as moving water are integrated a vast and diverse yet typical flora and fauna which also contribute to the
characterization of it as a wetland. This cyclic inundation helps to keep the land fertile by helping to redistribute nutrients. It helps to regenerate the micro and the macroinvertabrates which
convert organic matter to inorganic matter usable by vegetation, and also forms the basis of the food chain that supports all forms of life. In recent years, scientists have come to recognize the invaluable qualities of wetlands in supporting the planet's ecosystem, as a store house of the genetic material for plants and wildlife, as source of clean water and provider of fish and other aquatic natural resources and for maintaining biodiversity. In Bangladesh, it forms the material basis of its agriculture dependent economy, the basic conditions of production. This has
determined what we grow to support ourselves, how we grow it, and what the limitations are. All of this should be obvious, yet it is completely ignored in deliberations associated with the current development activities. There is no awareness among the development professionals about how this specific tropical wetland ecosystem is impacted in the short and long run when replicates of projects created by Western technology are thrust upon it [3].
many of these were invented and practiced to tragic ends. Development policies and practices which evolved in very alien geomorphological conditions are being imposed on Bangladesh in the name of modernization by those, who in their arrogance, routinely disguise their ignorance of the land, its people, their culture, and the time tested system of production. They completely ignore the vulnerabilities of this tropical wetland ecosystem.
There are a number of questions which arise in view of the history of human beings' relation with nature in the Indian Subcontinent in general, and in Bengal in particular. One is that of the
relative stability of the mechanics of production, while changes in the relations of production continued over the historical period. Is it related to the awareness of the need to maintain the balance between production process and nature? Is it the reason why, until colonization (perhaps post-Aryan, but more so post-European) there was no widespread environmental crisis and no significant irreversible changes in the condition of production? Did Hindu, Buddhist and other indigenous religious ideologies and the attended cultures, by their strong de-emphasis of the aspirations for material goods endlessly, provide a framework for sustaining the balance? Did the lack of development of science and technology in the service of production as it occurred in the West helped in maintaining this balance? Compared to the ambitions which drove production processes in the West, the Indian system of production remained stagnant in the relative absence of this force, as was noted by Marx [4] and other observers. Acceptance of the influence of cultures which support and encourage unending "need", and therefore assume the purpose of social and collective living to be continuous increase in consumption, requiring continuous increase in production, eventually causing unsustainable impact on the natural environment, seem to be the reason for the departure from the traditional relationship between the production process and the geological and climatological facilities which made production possible in the first place in Bengal and the Indian Subcontinent. I am aware that many of these issues have been discussed in the past, but in different contexts. I suggest that it is necessary to reexamine them in the light of the new awareness of our relationship with our surroundings.
IV. What Development has meant to the Environment: Some Examples
through the food chain, and being at the top of the chain, many of these substances continue to accumulate in various parts of the human body, often with tragic consequences.
The Hazaribagh area of Dhaka city, like rest of the city, is densely populated. In its midst are located a number of tanneries. Not long ago, while in Dhaka, I had the opportunity to visit one of the tanneries. You may know that tanneries use a chemical solvent containing a highly toxic substance named hexavalent chromium to strip the hair off the hide. Effluent from the tanneries in the area run out of the facilities into open street drains, in which the children play. The effluent end up into ditches which are separated from the Buriganga River by dikes, but eventually flow into the river. Acres of agricultural land in the area have been contaminated. The pollutants spread far and wide being transported by flood water. On a hot day, the chemicals in the ditches, directly around which is located a sprawling basti where thousands of people live, exude a strong and suffocating fume. Middle class households in the area, there are a lot of them, are not exempt from the toxic chemicals that are in their neighborhood. Inside the tannery itself, the workers are drenched with the chromium solution. Inquiry regarding the health of the workers revealed that these workers are routinely fired every few months, so that the owners and
operators of these facilities do not have to deal with the health effects of the work environment. By any standard, the entire area is a major hazardous waste site. The government officers recognize the problem, but weakness of the political leadership in the country, close alliance of the ruling establishment and the owners of these facilities have resulted in continuation of the status quo, while public health and the environment are being devastated. Cases of such
disastrous impact of industrial practices are many. But this is not the source of the biggest threat to the integrity of the natural resources, because industries constitute a small fraction of the total economy. The biggest threat is from Western technology based agricultural practices introduced in recent years.
With the imposition of the Green Revolution technology, far reaching changes have been introduced in the system of production practiced in agriculture in Bangladesh. Traditional agriculture, systematized over thousands of years of practice in the specific geomorphological conditions, was based on the principal of regeneration of the productivity of the soil by reuse and recycling of the biomass obtained as crop residue. It was essentially a close-cycle of production and consumption, in which most of what was taken from nature was given back to it for
subsequent rounds. An incredible variety of crop production was practiced providing a variety in the diet. It is said that Bengal used to produce some 1,000 to 5,000 different variety of rice alone. The production system supported a vast fishery, the main supplier of protein. The agricultural residues also provided most of the fodder for the farm animal and a large part of the fuel for domestic use. Cultivation of land was rotated on a regular basis to allow time for regeneration. The production system was truly what in the late twentieth century has come to be known as "sustainable". In the final analysis, what was really sustained in Bengal was a viable relation between human beings and nature.
technologies invented by Western experts. I will not comment on the geo-politics and the
political economy of the Green Revolution here. For an intriguing view of what was behind it, its impact, and because of its relevance to the Subcontinent, I recommend the book "Violence of the Green Revolution" by Dr. Vandana Shiva [5], Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in Dheradun. In Bangladesh this approach to
cultivation has initiated a steady replacement of ecologically sound agricultural practices and reduction in the diversity of the cultivated crop, which is being replaced by the so called high yield variety (HYV). What is often not knwon by the public is that HYV also requires very high input of manufactured fertilizers, pesticides and other agro-chemicals. It has been argued [ibid] that if the input requirements are considered, compared to the native variety, the so called HYV are not what they are touted to be. Less biomass is produced than the traditional variety which is causing shortage of fodder and fuel. In addition to manufactured fertilizers, pesticides have to be added because HYV are more susceptible to the indigenous insect population. Application of these chemicals is destroying the microbial population in the soil which helps to break-down the vegetation into humus material, critical for retaining the nutrients and regeneration of the soil's richness.
In Bangladesh, what has resulted can only be described as an ever increasing drug-dependency among the cultivators, which is not unlike cocaine or heroin addiction. According to a group of farmers [6], every year they are compelled to buy increasing amounts of manufactured fertilizers and other agro-chemicals to maintain the level of production. The allure of chemicals' power has also lead to extension of cultivation in areas that were once left fallow according to local
customs. The logic of chemical-based agriculture requires addition of chemicals far exceeding what the plants are capable of utilizing. Lack of awareness of the dangers of these chemicals among the villagers also leads to over use. And again, because the country is a wetland, all chemicals not taken up by the plants spread far and wide. The pesticides applied kill
indiscriminately. The insects that are killed are the ones that are food for fish, birds and other wildlife. Loss of a number of species of wild life in Bangladesh has been reported, and a lot more may become extinct [7]. There is a steady decline in the fisheries resources [8]. Spreading of the residue generated by the development policies, if continued, can cause irreversible changes to the ecosystem. It is sure to shatter the balance between the inhabitants of this land and the land itself that has been built over a very long period of time.
Yet, the greatest danger is probably faced by the people. I wish to make a point here that may appear redundant. It is necessary to accept the fact that toxic pollutants do not discriminate ethnically or racially. If a substance is toxic to Americans, it is toxic to Bangladeshis as well. In fact, people who suffer from malnutrition and poor health, as is the case for many in Bangladesh, are more vulnerable to the affects of pollution. You may not be aware, but many policy decisions are made based on the hideous assumption that the peoples of the developing countries have higher tolerance to hazardous materials.
scientific evidence that it causes learning disability in children in addition to other ailments among adults, especially pregnant women. In urban areas in Bangladesh, a major source of lead is petroleum used by automobiles. Every one, irrespective of their social classes, are subjected to this toxic substance from fumes discharged by motor vehicles. Exposure of the agricultural workers, indeed of the entire rural population to agro-chemicals is extensive. The city dwellers are exposed to them via agricultural products, especially food products. There is indication of rising incidents of cancer in Bangladesh today. And a variety of other diseases are showing up as well. Many of these are directly linked to the chemicals that are being discharged into the
environment. An example is the situation resulting from the Chandpur-Dhonagoda Flood Control Project. Created at the behest of the rich farmers in the area to protect their crops, the dikes surrounding the area have shut it off from normal flow of water. Agro-chemicals applied to the land wash into the ponds and channels and become concentrated, since flow with the outside has been curtailed drastically. Pollution of the water within the embankment area is so bad that people cannot even wash themselves in it because of the skin irritations caused by the chemicals [6]. It is my understanding that production of galada-chingri, which is of much commercial importance to the people in the area, has declined sharply as well. Because of the long life of chemicals in the environment, we may have already made this Sonar Bangla inhospitable for normal habitation by the future generations.
Bangladesh has very little that is saleable in the global market. However, its inability to define a development goal for itself that is consistent with its location on the planet, its history and culture, as well as its weak political institutions and rudimentary public concern for the protection of the integrity of its natural capital, can become saleable commodity for the unscrupulous traders in the world's market place. That is why it is an attractive place to sell obsolete technology that are unsafe for the environment and the workers. That is why it is an attractive place for the purveyors of hazardous material in the developed countries, who are looking for dumping grounds to dispose of waste material which the countries of origin themselves do not know how to deal with. It is also attractive to those who are still trying to make a buck by selling contaminated products which have been condemned and made illegal in the countries where these are produced.
There are extensive and direct adverse economic impacts of pollution. Without getting into a detail discussion of the subject [9], it can be pointed out that someone, although most often not those who create the problem, always pays for pollution: either having to pay for the clean-up, or having to seek alternate source of the impacted resources, or having to pay for health care, etc. These costs are often not apparent, because the dominant economic theories and practices have traditionally worked hard to make them invisible. The alternative many economists are
culture of the market economy.
In presenting the examples of development activities in Bangladesh and impacts these are having, the purpose is not to analyze technical details of the projects, for it is possible to argue that the damages can be minimized when undertaking design and construction of the projects, perhaps if accompanied by the right kind of orientation. Neither is this an advocacy of anti-science or technology sentiments. The criticism is not of scientific theories or technological possibilities, but of science and technology becoming fetish. It translates in failure to understand the
disjuncture between the general and the particular. In spite of the fashionable and short period of interest in the so called "appropriate technology", transplanting of value driven solutions of one place to another has remained a major source of problem. The subject of inquiry here is the related ideological context of the development process itself, and the idea is to examine why we do what we do. Because, it is this context which drives development policies and implementation of those policies directly, which in turn result in the destruction of the natural basis of the
production process, as can be witnessed in Bangladesh today.
To be sure, Bangladesh faces serious economic problems, and they are not unique: burgeoning population, lack of resources, well intentioned but incompetent politicians and bad politics exist in varying degrees in all developing countries. In view of its economic status, the norms of modern national and global politics have lead to asking for help from the international
community. And for a whole complex of reasons, from genuine humanitarian sympathy of the people in the developed countries for the people in Bangladesh to the machinations of world capitalism and intricacies of global political alliances in which it has a role, though
inconsequential, the country has been receiving large sums as assistance from what is known as the "donor community". In fact most of its development activities are financed with assistance from outside. It is not that there is no awareness of the problems associated with forever remaining economically dependent on the kindness of strangers. The few among the policy makers who are trying to maintain some semblance of self respect, find themselves in a bind and the prospect of ever escaping from the situation seems hopeless.
V. Development: For What and How Much?
There has been a great deal of discussion since the development drive began with the onset of the Cold War on the politics, affects and implications of the related post-colonial relationship
they operate [10], they have turned economic theories into religion like dogma. In addition to the academic training which is often irrelevant to the historically given local conditions in the
developing countries, the native professionals, dazzled by the developed countries, play a more insidious role as the agent for the propagation of the dominant culture by importing to the developing countries values and ambitions of societies which have brought havoc to the planet's environment and its resources through over consumption, misuse and exploitation.
Although there is not enough room here to review the various theories of development, suffice it to say that the traditional debates on this issue in general have not questioned the narrow confine set, a priori, by the goal of economic activities: ever increasing production and consumption of goods and services. Thus, economic development has always implied economic growth, although in recent times the term has been in use when referring to the developing countries. The debates on development theories have largely been centered on which of the production relations can best ensure growth as measured in gross national product, per capita income, etc., as well as on how to distribute the products of the economy in a more rational way to reduce the disparity between individuals and nations [11]. The contradictions entailed in the system of production based on the social nature of production and the private ownership of the means of production, as articulated in struggles between the two broad classes along these lines, have lead to radical advances in economic theories. But in the implementation of the alternate approaches, to the extent these entailed economic activities driven by unending demand, nothing new has been achieved towards reformulating our relationship with nature and in redefining the goals of economic activities. Both the continued dominance of the individual and market-centered economies and the limited experience of the collectivized economic practices have demonstrated that the argument
regarding ownership of the means of production by the individual or the collective can only be productive if a rational correlation between biological and reproductive needs and the continued viability of the entity which is objectively fundamental to that process can be assured. This however, is not to ignore that the viability of the natural system itself can be threatened by specific relations between the workers and the owners of the production system, as has been highlighted in the present epoch.
The stated purpose of development is satisfying human needs. What is commonly understood as human need obviously has to do with requirements of physical existence and the necessities of biological reproduction (propagation of the species). It appears that the long period during which production of goods and services have taken place, this driving force, human need, has assumed dimensions that far exceed the requirement of purely physical and biological need, and has given way to what is loosely termed as cultural need. This points to the fact that human need, in
addition to being determined by physical and biological requirements, is also historically
context of a culture based on endless demand can the so called runaway success of the economic systems built on the notion of supply and demand can be explained.
The continuation of this demand is fundamental to the operations of the market economy. Its importance is well recognized in the market place, so much so that a great deal of resources is devoted to the constant reproduction of this demand. The literature is replete with justifications for the creation and protection of the middle class - the bed rock of consumerism - for the success of the market economy, and a market-based democracy to secure the economic system. It is necessary to note that in societies which are considered developed, where the standard of living is the measure of success, such achievements have been possible at an enormous cost. It involved consumption of the world's resources by these countries far in excess of what is consumed by the people in the developing countries and therefore occurred at the latter's expense. It is
accompanied by sever pollution in the developed and the developing countries and destruction of the natural resource base of the latter who supplied the raw material for making the life which people in the developed countries are so proud of, possible. And it has made wastage of
resources an integral part of the production process itself. Even those societies which professed a more rational approach to the production process, in reality emulated the developed countries in this respect, albeit within the framework of some central planning.
All major economic theories, including Marxist economic theory, have taken the open-endedness of human needs for material goods as an axiom. Nature is seen as a bottomless repository of everything human beings need to fulfill their exponentially growing desires. It has been the assumption all along, in fact, it is described as a certain fact by professionals of all types that we need not be concerned with any limits, and only limit is the delay involved in identifying our yet unknown desires. The task then is to mold nature into yielding to our desires. This essentially is the basis for rendering the natural world as the "externality" in the classical economic theories, policies based on these theories, and development projects undertaken in accordance with those policies.
Only in recent decades the problems of rapidly shrinking resources in developed and developing countries have began to shake the very foundation of the edifice built on the idea that supply and demand in the market place is the cure for all social and economic problems for all time to come. Scarcities which were not imagined even a generation ago in the developed countries are forcing the public to become aware of the magnitude of the crisis. Whereas increasing demand due to various factors such as increasing population and rising standards of living were well known to economists and the public, the non-availability or limitations imposed on the availability of resources because of human actions, such as pollution, unsustainable rate of consumption of natural resources, misuse, waste, etc., have now become causes for alarm. And unlike the past great hurdles of the global economy, there is not much opportunity to maneuver within the prevailing development paradigm without doing more irreparable harm.
natural limitations of resources in Bangladesh also. Specifically, requirements to consider impact of projects on the environment have been imposed via conditions for financial assistance by international funding agencies. As described above, there exists a considerable internal pressure to make it a matter of national concern, but it has not become so. Among a powerful segment of the development policy makers there is very effective skepticism regarding the need to pay attention to the environment and resource conservation [12]. There are also influential segments who are convinced that the notion of sustainable development has given a new lease on the life of traditional development policies, and/or provide a convenient disguise to ignore what they view as worries about impending collapse of the sky. While redressing the question of unequal consumption of the world’s resources and demand for global environmental justice continue to be legitimate issues, the general trend in Bangladesh, as in many Third World countries, is to use the concerns for the health of the planet as a pawn in international politics by denying or
minimizing their responsibilities and to extract more concessions from the Western countries in the form of increased assistance.
For about two decades now qualitative changes have been observed in our surroundings which are being increasingly linked to the quantitative changes that have been introduced by human beings. If for analytical purposes we consider ourselves as a part of nature, but separate from the rest, as the system, and the rest as the surrounding - to apply the concepts from thermodynamics loosely, this can be traced to transfer of vast quantities of mass and energy from it, and waste material and energy back into that surrounding directly as a result of human actions, and the concomitant entropic effect. About thirty years ago an economist named Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen [13] made an intellectually heroic attempt to bring this issue into the realm of social and economic policy making. It was heroic because attempts to apply concepts and theories that are applicable to physical sciences such as thermodynamics can be fraught with embarrassing
pitfalls. At issue here is the empirical evidence regarding the inevitable "loss" associated with all state of existence mediated by the absoluteness of change. By its very nature, and in the final analysis, production process converts resources into waste. Of course, this transformation takes place by human use of the resources. The entropy law is a generalization why waste cannot be converted back to resource without expanding a great deal more resource. Thus, it is not possible to attain complete desired use, i.e., extract full use-value, out of matter and energy. Roegen pointed out the inevitability of the same principal being applicable to economic activities as well. He argued for paying heed to this limitation in theoretical work, policies and programs. His work largely remains ignored even now. And in spite of the dogged attempt by Roegen's intellectual disciples such as Herman Daley [10,14], the subject of reconsidering the traditional assumptions in support of endless economic growth remains in the periphery of economic and social policy making.
Roegen's work forms the basis of the questions which have been raised about the inherent limitations of nature in supporting our existence; it has raised questions about the way we use and abuse nature; and, it has raised questions about what we can do about all of this. It is
leads to a most unpleasant conclusion, that we must accept limits on our desires for material wealth, because of limitations on what is available and the adverse impact our use creates for our future ability to derive those resources from nature. Since the initiation of the environmental movement and the debate which ensued, what has been accomplished so far is a compromise, which emerged during the controversies that surfaced around the time of preparation for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992: the notion of sustainable development. It is a compromise because while adoption of the concept of
"sustainability" is a positive step, hanging on to the idea of "development", with all that it connotes, provides the loophole necessary for the world's development-mafia to continue
business as usual. Nevertheless, the need for a new paradigm for development has become quite clear. And if the intellectual energy is focused on this issue, it is predicted that the need to expand investigations beyond strictly "development issues" will become apparent, and the importance of examining the entire spectrum of human endeavor in this context will be realized.
It should be pointed out that in the Indian Subcontinent, the effort to link development policy to the question of the goals of development is not entirely new. It was started by Mahatma Gandhi, who tried without success to fend off Nehru's approach based on the Western model of
development with a socialistic twist. Gandhi argued for an economic policy based on decentralization, and less emphasis on industrialization [5, 15]. He was concerned about uprooting India's rural population and turning them into industrial laborers and urban ghetto dwellers. He was not convinced that Nehru's policy will improve the quality of life of the people in India. Clearly, he was deeply concerned with the plight of India's rural poor. He hoped that it could be addressed within the context of a rural economy, perhaps with some modifications. His argument for limiting the ambitions of individuals and the society was not based on an
appreciation of the natural limits, but it seems that he had an intuitive sense of the
near-equilibrium that had developed between expectations and potentials over thousands of years of living on the land and was keenly interested in preserving the stability which had emerged in the process.
There remains a burning question: what about the population increase? How can a country not pursue an aggressive growth-centered policy while millions of people live below subsistence level and their number is increasing rapidly? Increasing population and lack of basic necessities for this population are problems of enormous proportion in the developing countries, and are proximate causes of the demand on resources which have been stretched to the limit. It has to be agreed with most of the policy makers that without solving the population problem, protection of the environment, that is to say, practicing sustainable development, not to speak of considering a more viable policy of collective living, is all but impossible. However, the evidence of demand exceeding the capacity of the natural resource base even in the absence of an increasing
cultural problem. It is a product of human actions, conscious and unconscious, driven by subjective and objective factors pertaining to specific conditions of social living.
What needs to be recognized is that no matter what the reasons are, population problems can not be solved at the expense of the natural world, because there exist absolute limits. Unfortunately, instead of tackling the problem, and not just because endless increase in population is
inconvenient for the current economic policies, but it also provides another avenue to do so, it is more often used, internally and in international relations, for opportunistic purposes unrelated to the problem of pursuing sustainable development. What is ignored, and which is common among the developed countries and the developing countries is the question: what kind of collective living is viable for the present generation, so that something similar remains viable for the future generations?
Sometime during preparation for the UNCED, in an interview with the Minister for Environment of Thailand conducted by a Western television journalist the following was observed. At issue was the Thai government's policy of fueling the growth of the country's economy, which has impressed many around the world, by devastating over exploitation of its forest resources. Continued decline of the forest resources worldwide, its impact on local and global environment, the related loss of biodiversity, etc., are concerns many share today, and was conveyed to the Minister. He responded, and it is paraphrased here, that just like your people (i.e., Westerners), our people also want to live in Waldorf Astoria (in New York), and to do so, they have to be provided income opportunities and standard of living which will make that possible. Hopefully, the honorable Minister was not being literal. Nevertheless, he expressed succinctly, what is believed to be at the root of the biggest challenge human beings face today: coping with ambitions that have already cost the planet dearly. Like Thailand, indeed like all the other countries and societies in the world today, that is also the challenge in Bangladesh.
It is not written in any document, but it should be clear that certain desires drive economic policies in our society. To put it bluntly, that desire in Bangladesh, as in most developing countries, is to live like the Americans, that is, to attain, as closely as possible, the standard of living which has been attained in the developed countries. In real terms it translates into a drive to acquire by the middle class the goods and services that are being acquired by the similar social classes in the developed countries. And because of the social and cultural hegemony of the middle class, this becomes the dominant social aspiration. When articulated in these stark terms, the absurdity of this endeavor becomes obvious. And obviously it brings complete denial by those who formulate economic policies in the country. Probably, in the minds of many policy makers their work do not appear to be so. If that is the case, at the very least, it is indicative of the absence of an articulated development goal. In reality this blind ambition is vivid among those who are in charge of formulating development policies, and in policies they implement.
established as the poverty-line has continued to increase in most cases. Blaming population increase is a pathetic attempt to hide the overall failure of the development policies, since the population policy is a component of it. We are fortunate in Bangladesh to have the most convincing proof that building sky-scrappers, five star hotels and creating traffic-jams do not contribute to alleviation of poverty, but efforts such as the Grameen Bank [16] does.
It is recognized that the problem of disparities between classes and nations remain an unresolved and an unfinished task. But it must be addressed in the context of our knowledge of the
limitations involved in satisfying material needs. In view of this, it seems unavoidable that while the struggle to improve the lots of the down-trodden must continue, economic and social justice will most likely be attained by a major emphasis on a downward shift rather than the traditional practice of promising everyone a chicken in the pot, a house, a car in the garage, and the lure of endless effluence. This is expected to be true within nations and among nations of the world.
VI. Economic Development and the Future of Environment in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh today, there is no emphatically articulated ownership of its environment and its natural resources. No one has proclaimed as their own by their commitment to protect the integrity of this vast wetland, with all its diversity, its proven success in sustaining life for
thousands of years and as long as the need to balance between what it can offer and what is taken out of it was respected, the magnificence of its beauty attributable exclusively to its address on planet Earth, the climate it is privileged with, and the flora and fauna all of these make possible. There is no recognition that the present generation only has this most unique place as an amanat
from the future generations to preserve and protect. Except a few so called non-governmental organizations, most of whom are also dependent on the external donor agencies for their survival, none of the political parties has an articulated, considered policy for the protection of the
environment and for natural resource management. And no one has critically examined the fundamental problems of development in a world of limited potential for material possession. These issues have not found any place in their policies and proposed programs. It is not part of their day to day political work. By and large, they remain confined within the prevailing
development theology, and at best, the criticism they have is related to the distribution of goods and services, and in that context, of the relations of production. With this fundamental limitation, there is no reason to expect any major change in the course already taken towards economic development no matter which political party is in power. The added reason for it is the traditional complete dependency of the ruling party for development policies on the technocrats. And technocracy is where the professionals imbued in Western values make their marks.
It should be apparent that the policy issues are so broad that these can only be sorted out by extensive debate and discussion in the public domain. This is where the pivotal role of the
World economy, which is tantamount to a drive to install the golden arches of the McDonald fast food restaurants in the villages of Asia, Africa and Latin America, has been accepted by the world as the main task, it is nothing short of political suicide for a politician anywhere in the world seeking office to profess imposing limitations on ambitions for material goods.
What is necessary is to begin analyses of actions of the past, and based on the knowledge of the world we have available today ask ourselves, where are we heading? What kind of economic and other development goals we should set for ourselves? Given the historical role played by the intellectual community as the vanguard for forcing issues of critical importance into the arena where ideologies are formed, where mass opinions are structured, where the questions of leadership are sorted out, it is incumbent upon this community to take up this most critical challenge. To do so would be in the grand tradition of intellectual endeavor in Bengal.
The challenge in Bangladesh today is to pursue its own dreams, its own aspirations, instead of striving to live someone else's lives. What is needed is an awareness of the objective conditions which ensure our physical existence, and the absolute necessity of ensuring the integrity of those conditions so that reproduction and propagation of the species is possible. It requires
reevaluation of the past practices which have lead us to a situation which simply can not be sustained. We need to understand and appreciate the lives our ancestors lived, and the values that evolved in the process.
Since the beginning, human beings have lived in a relationship of antagonism with their
surroundings. They also have lived in social formations which have been beset by contradictions caused by the objective needs of the collective and the subjective desires of the individual members of the society. It can be argued that without resolving class contradictions, the relationship with our surroundings cannot be altered. Resolving class contradictions might turn out to be a necessary condition, but recent history has demonstrated that it is not a sufficient condition for finding a way to establish a balance between us and the rest of nature, if the goal of economic activities remains the same. The reason is that it requires accepting the idea of limit. This may be the most difficult project we have to undertake because it is completely opposite of what we have been used to since our emergence as a species. And none of the major social philosophies have accepted this view. The best that even the most conscientious economists today have to offer is the idea of looking for economically viable solutions to environmental problems. This is based on a view of the world standing on the head. What is imperative is to find economic solutions that are environmentally viable.
with.
VII. Conclusion
In conclusion the following observation is made. Bangladesh being small and a country with glaringly few resources has a certain advantage in undertaking this project. First of all what choice does it really has? Accept for a very small fraction of the population, its people cannot achieve the standards of living of the developed countries; those who do so, they do it at the expense of the rest. Second, unlike its neighbors India and China, Bangladesh has no reason to get caught up in the ambitions of big nations, to aspire to become a "world power", and orient its economy following the footsteps of the big powers in the world. Under the clutches of its middle class, executed through its hold on the state apparatus, India has embarked on an effort to
westernize its economy and has both promoted and adopted the voracious consumerism of its middle class as the driving force for its growth-centered economic policy. Its resource base, size, the ideological, political and economic dominance of its middle class, etc., make it possible for India to take this path and ignore the consequences for some time. A similar situation is also emerging in China. The middle class in Bangladesh is not different, but there exists clearly identifiable limiting factors. That is what makes Bangladesh a suitable place to begin the discussion on living within our means. It is a complex task, and a long and difficult journey lies ahead. Yet there is not much alternative.
This gives the Bangladeshis reason to explore a radically different approach for social collective living. As a collective, it can ask itself the question, what is possible for sustaining life given the place and time we must live in, recognizing our responsibilities towards future generations, to preserve and not degrade the viability of the system of reproduction. We need to question our loyalty to Western methods of measuring success by gross national product, per capita income, etc. We need to rethink the pejorative "poverty". As opposed to the specific problems such as hunger, illiteracy, homelessness, etc., poverty is a subjective notion, but one that is often used as a cover for policies that have very little to do with the professed goals of these policies. What needs to be considered are concepts such as quality of life for which material possessions are a part and not an end in itself. Quality of life takes into account of where one lives, including the physical environment, cultural environment, relationship with the family and their fellow human beings, etc. Our ability to make this radical change in millennia-old habits of abusing the place we call home can be our contribution to the world.
Bengalis. And more importantly, love for a home we hope to leave behind for our children and their descendants. (Dr. Siddique is Editor of the South Asia Forum Quarterly. This paper was presented at the 27th Bengal Studies Conference, May 27-29, 1994, at the University of New York, Old Westbury, Long Island, NY. A modified version of it was published in the Holiday (weekly, Dhaka, Bangladesh), in January, 1995, and also in th book "Bengal Studies 1994: Essays on Economics Society & Culture", Sachi G. Dastidar, Editor, published by the SUNY College at Westbury Foundation, Inc., NY 11568-0210.)
[1] See Chapter 29, "Bheem Conquers Bengal" in " Mahabharat" (in Bengali), Vol 1, trans. by Kaliprasanna Sinha, first Tuli-Kolom edition, June 1987, Calcutta, India.
[2] The Farakka Barrage and its effects on the Geology of the Bengal Basin by David Alexander, South Asia Forum Quarterly, Vol 7, No 2: Spring, 1994.
[3] An example is the so called Flood Action Plan (FAP) being implemented by the World Bank, which may change the very face of the country; see "Flood Control in Bangladesh and Concern for the Environment" by Mohsin R. Siddique, The Holiday, July 10 & 17, 1992, Dhaka.
[4] See "The Future of British Rule In India" in Selected Works in 2 Volumes, Vol II, by Karl Marx, International Publishers, New York, 1952.
[5] "The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics" by Vandana Shiva, Zed Books Ltd., London, UK, 1991.
[6] Consult video testimony gathered by the Non-governmental Organization "Proshika" in Manikganj, Bangladesh, engaged in propagating ecologically sound agricultural practices. [7] Species Depletion in Bangladesh, in Bangladesh Environmental News Letter, Vol 2, No 3, July-September, 1991, Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
[8] Wetlands and Fisheries by A. K. Ataur Rahman, Director, Department of Fisheries, Matsya Bhavan, Dhaka; paper presented at the National Workshop on Conservation and Sustainable Management of Freshwater Wetlands in Bangladesh, Dhaka, December 9-11, 1992.
[9] I have discussed this issue a bit in "A Proposed Environmental Regulatory Framework for Bangladesh" prepared for the Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of Bangladesh, Dhaka, November-December, 1992.
[10] See Introduction to the "Steady-State Economics", by Herman E. Daley, Island Press, Washington D.C., 1991.
[11] For a discussion on various schools of development theories, see "Development Theory in Transition" by Magnus Blomstrom and Bjorn Hettne, Zed Books Ltd., London, UK, 1988. [12] For example, at the end of the first day of the National Workshop on Conservation and Sustainable Management of Freshwater Wetlands in Bangladesh, which took place in Dhaka, in December 9-11, 1992, the Chairman of the session, a Secretary of a certain Ministry boldly declared that there was no real need to be concerned about the environment in Bangladesh, and that the country is too poor to bother about it any way!
[13 ] "The Entropy Law and the Economic Process" by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1976.
and a Sustainable Future", by Herman E. Daley and John B. Cobb, Jr, Beacon Press, Boston, 1989.
[15] "Economic Development & Environment: A Case Study of India" by Kartik C. Roy, Clement A. Tisdell & Raj Kumar Sen, Oxford University Press, Calcutta, 1992.
[16] Grameen Bank, established by Prof. Mohamad Yunus, is a lending institution which extends credit to the traditionally considered not-credit-worthy, i.e., the rural poor, especially women in Bangladesh, and supports their efforts towards economic independence. Its success as a vehicle for economic well being can be seen in the tremendous participation of its intended customers, and as a lending institution, in the over 90% rate of return by the lenders.
