Live Streamed Lecture by Vandana Shiva

Posted in Arts & Culture, Culture, Events by Anastasia Chipelski on March 24, 2014

Internationally renowned eco-feminist, philosopher, and activist Vandana Shiva will be paying a visit to Winnipeg this weekend, and while her ticketed event is now sold out, local organizers have arranged an alternate, free live-streamed teach-in.

Shiva will be speaking to a group of paying attendees on the evening of March 28 as part of the “Fragile Freedoms” lecture series, presented by the University of Manitoba’s centre for professional and applied ethics, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the CBC.

On March 29, Shiva will be giving a lecture about Earth democracy from 90 Sinclair Street, which will be broadcast as a live-streamed teach-in to other locations across Canada, including a secondary location in Winnipeg.

The organizers of this event state that “there is no lecture hall or community centre with the capacity to hold everyone who should hear her inspirational and empowering message,” which is why they are offering this free, live-streamed event “in the spirit of decentralized knowledge-sharing and radical self-education.”

The notion of radical education, and radical self-education, is part of a larger movement to create spaces of knowledge-sharing outside of formal educational structures.

British scholar David Hicks believes that in its current form education “inevitably reproduces the social, political and economic norms of the dominant ideology. In the west this is capitalist, technocratic, individualistic, materialist, and patriarchal.”

In contrast to the Fragile Freedoms event, the teach-in on March 29 is free, and organizers of the second Winnipeg location—the University of Winnipeg Womyn’s Centre and the Women’s and Gender Studies Students’ Association—are attempting to make it as accessible as possible.

Free snacks, coffee, tea, bus tickets, and childminding are all offered as part of the event. It’s also being offered in a wheelchair accessible room in proximity to accessible washrooms.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the concept of Earth democracy, organizers of the teach-in provide a definition to use as a starting point before hearing Shiva’s thoughts: “Earth democracy is the worldview that we as humans can be part of a healthy planet, but we must take action to protect peace and swaraj (sovereignty) for all living beings: Let us learn about our right to water, our right to seed and to food, and our right to life.”

Join in the live-streamed teach-in at 7:00 p.m. on March 29 at room 2M70 at the University of Winnipeg.

Whole Earth Summit: An online conference to inspire and create a more resilient world

EPIC EVENT ALERT [Free & Online]: 42 extraordinary visionaries, including Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, Charles Eisenstein, Joel Salatin, the founders of the Small Planet Fund, Living Building Challenge, Transition Town, Pachamama Alliance, Bioneers, Appropedia, Kid’s Right to Know, Wise Women Tradition, and many others are joining together to share valuable insights around food, water, the commons, ecological activism, regenerative design, social transformation, collective vision and practical models for making a difference.

The Whole Earth Summit airs March 11-13. Free registration is now available online atwww.WholeEarthSummit.org. Participants will have access to conversations with all 42 presenters–some of the world’s leading changemakers who will be sharing their stories, strategies and visions for a whole earth.

Co-producers, Janell Kapoor and Stacey Murphy, say that their goal is “to inspire all of us in creating regenerative communities and a more resilient world.”

Through the generosity of the presenters, their organizations and partners, summit participants will have access to the Whole Earth Toolkit — an extensive collection of online programs, videos, e-books, discounts and skill-building tools designed for people to strengthen their practice of creating the world they want for themselves, future generations, and for life on earth.

The instigators of the Whole Earth Summit bring 34 collective years of hands-on social and environmental activism to this work. Janell Kapoor, founder of Kleiwerks International, has led on-the-ground natural building trainings for people from over 52 countries. Stacey Murphy, founder of BK Farmyards, inoculated renegade farming tactics throughout the backyards of Brooklyn, NY. The two have teamed up to launch this first-ever online global summit through the Ashevillage Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit organization they co-direct. “It’s another way we can give back to benefit people and our earth, only at a larger scale,” they say.

Ashevillage Institute, based out of Asheville, NC, brings together individuals in community for hands-on, skilling-up, educational programs that activate on-the-ground, nature-based projects with the aim of fostering a vibrant, just and resilient world. Contact: Communications Support Team EmailInfo@WholeEarthSummit.org | Website www.WholeEarthSummit.org | Twitterwww.twitter.com/Ashevillage | Facebook www.facebook.com/Ashevillage

Monsanto Seed Patents Create Modern Day Zamindari System

In an interview with Darshan Kakri at the Mahesh Chandra Regmi Lecture series, Vandana Shiva was asked, “Why should countries like Nepal with a predominantly traditional agricultural base be concerned about the entry of a company like Monsanto in its territory?” Regardless of how you feel about the safety of their genetically modified seeds, Shiva’s response provides one of the best reasons why the products of companies like Monsanto should be categorically rejected.

 Monsanto has a history in making war chemicals like Agent Orange (also called Herbicide Orange) which was used in Vietnam War, not in working with seeds or agriculture. In 1972, university scientists first discovered the recombinant DNA technology, in which you can take the gene from one species and transfer them into another. A few years later, the scientists who evolved those techniques put a ban on it themselves as they decided that they did not know its consequences. This is called the Asilomar Declaration. But the companies thought otherwise. This new technology made it possible to insert human genes into cows, cow genes into wheat as they are doing in England or scorpion genes into cabbage or bacterium genes, which is the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), into maize or cotton. Therefore, a group of companies like Monsanto got together and formed the intellectual property committee of industries. They thought if seeds could be patented, they could make trillions of dollars, as every farmer will have to pay them royalty. Just like in a zamindari system, the peasant works on the land and the landowner gets the revenue. In a life zamindari, which is what patents on life are, the seeds are the peasants and with a little tinkering, companies like Monsanto collect royalties.

My Two Favorite Eco-Feminists

At the recent International Women’s Earth and Climate Initiative Summit, Jane Goodall and Vandana Shiva discuss their decades of work devoted to protecting nature and saving future generations from the dangers of climate change. A renowned primatologist, Goodall is best known for her groundbreaking work with chimpanzees and baboons. An environmental leader, feminist and thinker, Shiva is the author of many books, including “Making Peace with the Earth: Beyond Resource, Land and Food Wars” and “Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace.”

Interview: Part 1

Inteview: Part 2

 

People Are Not Disposable

Vandana Shiva’s article How Economic Growth Has Become Anti-Life is so “right on” that I’ve posted it in its entirety.  In it she expresses how our obsession with growth has eclipsed our concern for sustainability, justice and human dignity.

Limitless growth is the fantasy of economists, businesses and politicians. It is seen as a measure of progress. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP), which is supposed to measure the wealth of nations, has emerged as both the most powerful number and dominant concept in our times. However, economic growth hides the poverty it creates through the destruction of nature, which in turn leads to communities lacking the capacity to provide for themselves.

Women Uniting to Save the Planet

Jensine Larsen writes about her experience at this year’s International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit.

‘Women everywhere are claiming power and linking networks to restore the Earth and address climate change. They are harnessing digital media and in-person convenings to accelerate the movement, operating as an immune system to boost the Earth’s resilience.’

It was that moment on stage when Jane Goodall turned to Vandana Shiva and said, “We should start working together,” and without a beat Vandana replied, “Yes, Let’s!”

Watching two legends of the environmental movement linking up before my eyes was more evidence of a wider phenomenon I am increasingly witnessing around the world, and that was ever present at this week’s International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit.

It is becoming clear to me that women everywhere are taking action for the planet into their own hands. They are throwing down the gauntlet to claim power and link networks to restore the Earth and address climate change. They are harnessing digital media and in-person convenings to accelerate the movement, operating as an immune system to boost the Earth’s resilience.

 

Vandana Shiva Speaking at “Justice Begins With Seeds 2013 International Conference”

Talk by Vandana Shiva, author of “Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge” speaking August 2, 2013 at the “Justice Begins With Seeds 2013 International Conference” at Seattle First Presbyterian Church in Seattle, WA.

In addition to her lectures, Vandana Shiva has authored more than 20 books.  Here are some of her more popular titles:

Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge
Making Peace with the Earth
Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace
Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis
The Violence of Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics

Here’s Why I Am Such a Huge Fan of Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva, physicist and environmental activist. en.wikipedia.org

HOMEINTERVIEW

THURSDAY, 11 JULY, 2013 | 12:24 WIB

Vandana Shiva: Ecology, Economy Come from the Same Root Word

 

Vandana Shiva is a member of the World Future Council, holder of the 1993 Right Livelihood Award, and a 2003 Time Environmental Hero. In her speech at Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum in Bonn two weeks ago, she said, “Sadly greed has become the value of our times. We are witnessing what it is costing us. How ecosystem after ecosystem is under collapse, how societies are on such a fragile edge, in Turkey, it takes protection of one park to create a crisis, in Egypt a piece of bread, in Tunisia a vegetable vendor. Syria wasn’t a religious conflict; it was a protest by farmers around a drought.” She spoke to Debra Yatim of Tempo English after the session. Excerpts:

Why do you think ordinary people would tell us how to save ourselves from global warming?

Forty years ago, peasant women told us something we had forgotten: that somehow forests were connected to water. My country exploited forests. Forests were just that much square foot of timber. They were timber mines. Then in 1972, we had a horrible flood. Women came out and said, “These trees protect us. They prevent landslides and flooding. They give us food. They are our mothers, and you can’t cut them!” That became my university of ecology. I did a PhD in the foundations of quantum theory in Canada, but my real PhD is with women who never went to school.

Leaders of world sovereignty movement react to 2013 world food prize going to GMO scientists

Lappé and Shiva’s remarks echo those of the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance, which stated that the prize going to the biotech giants “sends precisely the wrong message about sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty.”

“Never mind that Monsanto is a sponsor of the prize (and that the list of other backers reads like a who’s who of big ag and big food), or that we never get to know the names of either the nominees or the nominators,” New York Times‘ Mark Bittman noted.

The GMO work by the winning scientists “betrays the mandate of the very World Food Prize,” explains Lappé, “which is all about focus on the importance of nutritious food and food for all, whereas GMO seeds, their design and the way they are spread to the world has nothing to do with better nutrition.”