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2 Osamanomics and the
greens By Chan Akya
Does Osama bin Laden read my column?
In his latest couple of videos, the dyed
one mentioned Western civilization's contribution
to global warming among his list of complaints of
quite what was wrong with the state of affairs,
which he suggested a bout of Osamanomics could
cure. The generation of largely American (which is
not a comment on their girth) economists brought
up on the ideas of Reaganomics who now
rule
the roost across the global financial system can
perhaps imagine the very opposite of what they
believe in, namely a demand-led reduction of Group
of Seven (G7) economies that culminates in
collapsing economic growth across Asia, thereby
keeping billions of people mired in poverty.
Interestingly, and perhaps not
coincidentally, the green movement appears to want
exactly the same thing.
In one of my
articles last year, [1] I wrote:
Terrorism could actually play a
large part in reducing the world's carbon
emissions, and that alone should make bin Laden
and his ilk the new poster-boys of the green
movement.
This seemingly
counterintuitive idea is explained in a subsequent
paragraph:
Terrorism, by targeting ... urban
centers, can produce a visible difference to the
scenarios envisaged by the SciAm (2) writers.
More atrocities on the lines of New York, Madrid
or London would likely induce a gradual shift
away from concentrated urban centers like
Manhattan to satellite locations that have
affordable residential accommodation in close
proximity. In turn, this would allow many
mass-transit systems to reduce their operations
while also reducing the annual mileage of
Americans and Europeans by a factor of 20-40%.
Additionally, currently available technologies
such as telecommuting would likely accelerate in
this scenario, producing even more energy
savings.
Much of that article was
written with tongue firmly in cheek, as the
introduction to the section on terrorism's
"contribution" to reducing global warming makes
clear:
In the spirit of solving the world's
carbon emissions problem using fresh thinking,
we could then consider truly different
alternatives.
When you are living in a
cave in some God-forsaken part of Pakistan, albeit
with broadband connections and the services of an
eccentric barber, it is possible that subtle
sarcasm can be easily missed; but then again,
being a literalist Wahhabi, Osama probably never
had any grasp of such thought forms in the first
place.
The enemy of my enemy The
widely accepted notion of what constitutes the
establishment in the G7 today points to
distressing levels of homogeneity (no, George, not
homosexuality), with leaders viewed as ruthless,
voracious, capitalist bottom-feeders with no
regard for either cultural or environmental
matters. Of course, one arrives at this composite
picture by mainly reading the left-leaning media
across G7 countries, while leaving aside the
staunchly pro-establishment newspapers and
television channels. In other words, don't read or
watch anything to do with Rupert Murdoch, and this
is the Identi-Kit picture of world leaders you
will invariably get.
Ensconced in this
comfortable fiction of the avaricious and the
grubby, the media then lurch from one topical
problem to the next, which are all conveniently
laid at the feet of the above-mentioned leaders.
Be it global warming, African poverty, the war in
the Middle East (I cannot in good conscience call
it the war in Iraq anymore now, what with the
steady drumbeats for a new front against Iran
growing ever so steadily into a crescendo) or
China's problems with manufacturing Barbie dolls,
the culprits are inevitably the same cast of
characters, namely the Identi-Kit world leader
from above.
Tapping into the apparently
bottomless reservoir of discontent building
against these world leaders are both the greens
and terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. While the
greens rue the passing of the Kyoto Protocol into
the dustbin of history, despite US President
George W Bush's extremely late conversion to the
issue, they have upped the shrillness considerably
in the past few months.
It appears that
not a day goes by in the non-Murdoch media when
some new environmental disaster isn't revealed.
Many key political figures have tapped into this
river of discontent, highlighting their commitment
to resolving environmental issues. The most
oddball conversion in this regard is that of the
British Conservative Party, which has somehow
sprouted green wings in its battle against the
Labour establishment.
Leaders with
anti-establishment credentials are also duty-bound
to criticize the war in the Middle East, even if
most of them supported the original invasion in
2003. This slippery slope, though, immediately
puts them on the road to endorsing the objectives
if not the methods of the al-Qaeda - namely
withdrawal of US troops from the region,
resistance to Israel's policies, and reforming the
military government in Pakistan, among others.
Perhaps thankful of such support, Osama has shown
interest in green issues of late.
There
are economic reasons for Osama and his ilk to
support the campaign against liberal capitalism,
too. In another article, [3] I wrote the
following:
Secular societies "work" because
underlying economic organization allows them -
indeed forces them - to separate religion from
state. It is here that radical Islam fails to
make the case. When removed from its agrarian or
military origins and plonked into the modern
world requiring frequent interactions with other
communities, competitive industries and
innovative thinking, it is secular countries
that outrun their unilateralist counterparts.
The difference between the economic performance
of South Asian states highlights this view, and
emphatically so. As an example, Wahhabi notions
of restricting the economic participation of
women simply do not work in resource-poor
states.
In turn, the economic failures
of economies founded on the antiquated principles
espoused by al-Qaeda - such as Taliban
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