A treatise on Globalization (part 2)

(I apologize for the poor formatting of the last post. I typed it in word and pasted it into my email. The first part of this continuation begins below in the previous post.)

So we left off exploring the right to choose a way of life. There are many different directions to go here and there is a British journalist, Paul Kingsforth (something like that), who cites specific examples of communities and cultures asserting this right successfully and sustainable (One No, Many Yesses). We will be sticking strictly with the Mayan people in the highlands of Guatemala.

There is an anthropologist/sociologist from the States who identifies five characteristics or categories of cultures (Gerhard Lenski):
1: Hunter/Gather communities - typical of the Bedouins or the Dakotas for you Great Plains people.
2: Simple agriculture/horticulture - Stick and hole type farming predominant in Africa
3: Advanced Agriculture/horticulture - Small, local farms without heavy machinery. People own their own land, set own prices, make own decisions among a community basis. Rousseau would most likely support such a community as the best option for man to live in.

It gets a bit fuzzy here but this is how Father Greg presented the remaining two.

4: Agrarian - mechanical farms, mostly one cropping leaving the farmer with no say in the value of the product. (Che Guevara writes extensively on the social ills that Cuba suffered because of such a policy with regards to Sugar Cane) In up and coming countries looking for assistance with their development, what typically happens is the World Bank or IMF dictate a specific commodity or resource or product to become the sole means of production for a state, pumping all resources into the development of this product for the world market. This often leaves little political or economic leverage for a newly developed nation to negotiate prices, values, tariffs for their own resources, but rather rely on the whims of the market. A look at the collapse of the coffee industry a few years ago and how many Latin and South American countries suffered is an example of this (simplified of course!!!).

5: Industrialists - typified by high energy consumption, waste and want, the need to buy as the dominating force is the market. The brain child of Adam Smith and John Locke. In real terms, the G8: US, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Japan. This would also include China but they are excluded from the table. For the most part the culture is democratic and capitalist with neo-liberalistic policy toward trade. The criteria for what makes a country developed is GROWTH. Growth = Profits. In the simplest terms, nations want to produce at a low cost and sell it at a high price. These principles, unfortunately, do not encourage respect for markets as the motivating force is the philosophy to always find and create new markets. Even the technology and laws that a nation adheres too support this economic principle driving the ability to respect other cultures further out of grasp.

How does this apply to the situation in Guatemala and San Lucas? Father presented three sources of evidence that propel the belief that an Advanced Horticulture/Hands On Agriculture is best for this region. These also serve as an indication of how the struggle to achieve it will unfold.

1: Heritage - the Mayan people have a deep, religious and spiritual connection to their land and the fruit they reap from their land. I wish I could go further into this with more concrete examples and stories, but I do not have my books or notes with me right now.

2: Support of the Episcopal Conference (Bishops of Guatemala) - Religious, especially the Bishops, are very revered and respected here in Latin America, generally much more so than in the U.S. In the past 20 years, they have published two pastoral letters decrying the injustice of land distribution in Guatemala. In 1988, The Cry for Land spoke for the people in their desire to own their own piece of land. Again, in 1992, celebrating 500 years since Columbus "discovered" the New World, the Bishops released another letter, written by a Spanish graduate student, finding that all the land grants written and given out by the Spanish government in the past few hundreds of years, it still remains in control of some 22 extended families. That translated into roughly 94% of the land to some 7% of the people. Some years later, Prensa Libre, one of the two main newspapers in Guatemala, found that of all arable land, approximately 80% of it is in the hands of some 2% of the people (foreign and domestic owners).

3: Newspaper/ Journalistic Accounts - At least twice a week, without fail, there is some article, demonstration, movement, op-op-ed piece concerning the need for better ownership.

So Land is clearly on everybody´S mind (even in the U.S. how land is valued can help us appreciate the need for a person to have a place to call their own). So what does all of this add up? A culture that values and desires to be Advanced Horticulturists (to some extent). This is not true for the entire country as there are many parts developing rapidly in tourism and industry, but we will touch both of these at a later time as it is beginning to rain and I need to run back and get my clothes off the line).

By the way, I have like 6 blisters today from shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow and taking it about 15 meters away, dumping it, and doing it all over. But I´m not complaining, I love it here and keeps me out of too much trouble. Paz y Amor.