We are facing an environmental, economic, and human spirit crisis

- Ladak in Himalayas one of the highest inhabited places , remote land, for centuries isolated from
outside world, sustained themselves from farming and regional trade (way of life finely tuned to
the local environment
Economic analyst Helena Norber Hodge: Ladakh stories could shed light on the root cause of the
crisis facing planet ; huge source inspiration; social ecological and personal well-being about the
roots of happiness; radiance and vitality; large spacious house and plenty leisure time; no
unemployment and no hunger; way of life far more joyous and rich;
(mid 1970s) Ladakh was exposed to outside world; cheap subsidized goods; backward primitive
and poor; balimbing yung lalake; ladakh faces problems; depression pollution, rich and poor,
results of outside economic pressure which breaks down community and connection to nature
that had been the cornerstone for ladakhi culture [result of globalization]
- Globalization most powerful force for change in the world affecting not only remote places but
societies across the planet; for some people globalizing economic activities is our hope for the
future ; the solution to world poverty; for others, a fundamental cause of the many problems we
face today; increased competition and division;
- Europeans conquered and colonized the world; dismantled self-reliant economies and enslaved
their populations; forcing them to work in mines fuels; mid 2oth century, colonialism gave way
to a more subtle form of enslavement extract money resources and cheap labor; today
transnational businesses can control governments, dictate economic policy, and shape people’s
opinions and world views
- Inconvenient truths; Globalization makes us unhappy; It has a profound effect in every aspect of
our lives even our sense of self; accdg to dr. chris johnstone rising levels of depression stress in
demanding jobs more travel longer commutes; constant pressure on people to be bigger and
better but it doesn’t bring us happiness such as material reward; 1956 less happy but more
globalized; undermines communities; only people who are more happy and secure are people
who know they can rely on someone else in life;
- Globalization breeds insecurity; corporations who raise our children; driving food,
entertainment, what they want to buy and what they care about of children; human greed is
very easy to exploit; method of exploiting greed very cruel comparison and competition; people
lose their identity right from childhood; children don’t want to speak their own languages, no
association with own culture, degradation of agriculture, young people are looking for
acceptance, they must have trendy things to be accepted by their peer groups, goes down to
consumer path it leads to separation and envy; before times people’s identity are shaped by
their communities; package identity to create a sense of self; sales of blue contact lenses are
escalating; living the American dream;
- Natural resources are stretched to their breaking points but population pressures and we have a
consumerist system; urbanization is resource intensive; Foods with chemicals, dams and man
made reservoirs; energy production means huge centralized powerplant; thousands of miles of
transmission lines; much of the waste of this produce are incinerated or dumped at sea;
consume more of non renewable resources; if we decide to industrialize, the result would be
universal starvation
- Rising of co2 emmissions are threatening our own survival due to constant manufacturing and
processing of goods
- Urbanization reduces the number of farmers; they become cheap labor for industry; removing
the people from a land is a root to unemployment;
- Members of diverse ethnic and religious groups are forced to intense competition to few
available jobs; create terrorism and disharmony; not healthy for harmonizing societies;
- Globalization is an inevitable and almost natural process driven by free markets and efficiencies
of scale enjoyed by bigger businesses; support for big business In the form of subsidies and
deregulation of trade and finance. This places an unfair disproportionate burden on SMEs and
every year hundreds of them are going out of business;
- As if every problem we have can be solve by increasing GDP, economic growth is the answer of
enivironmental, social, and economic problems, GPI genuine progress index – count things more
accurately and comprehensively to take into account our human, social community natural
wealth in addition to our produce and material wealth and actually count full social and
environmental and economic benefits and costs. Only with the full cost accounting system we
begin to understand that goods shipped from miles away are far more expensive than goods
produced locally . Localizaytion is a systemic and alternative, creating more accountable and
sustainable communities