The desires of five billion

June 9, 2011


Most of us buy into the story of the two giant engines of growth in Asia, China and India. China is already the second largest economy in the world, and India is straining to catch up. As Indians, we're thrilled that the best amongst us are running corporations that are creating enormous wealth. We cheer along with the economists and the businessmen that this growth is unstoppable.


Chandran Nair, CEO of GIFT puts this growth in a very dramatic perspective.

"To have four to five billion Asians over the next two to three decades consuming like Americans, or even Europeans, is simply a very bad idea as the consequences will be catastrophic. It urges Asian governments to not have such blinkered views. But three years on little has in fact changed: Western economic models have not taken a radical shift to question their economic policies and have instead taken to talking about temporary austerity measures with the promise that the good times will be back. Asian governments simply cannot afford to loose this opportunity to question this model, reject it and engage in a bold political discourse with their populace to then create more equitable societies."

Nothing exemplifies what Chandran Nair says more than the current challenges with Sagarmāthā aka Mount Everest. In the 58 years since Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first climbed it, it has become a magnet for mountain climbers as a way to celebrate their prowess. This rose to the level of absurdity when the Chinese decided to subtly (or perhaps arrogantly) assert Chinese glory by sending the Olympic flame in preparation for the Beijing Olympics. Sadly, today the trash builds up. According to this Worldwatch report,

"The daily trash, food waste, and human excrement generated by these thousands of temporary residents is a growing environmental problem. Currently, each tent collects its trash in a large wooden basket to be picked up by truck once a week and sent to a remote landfill. Most of the waste is not separated before collection, and non-biodegradable plastic bags are typically mixed in with food remains. Nearly every tent digs a hole outside as a natural toilet and later transports its human waste downhill, though leaching into the soil can happen easily due to poor preventative measures.

The lack of efficient waste treatment systems is not just an issue for Everest, but a bottleneck for some of Tibet's major cities. Lhasa, the region's capital, does not yet have a municipal wastewater treatment plant, though a new facility is slated to begin construction later this year. As a result, every day some 100,000 tons of wastewater flow directly into the Lhasa River through small channels and waterways. The old Lhasa landfill exceeded its capacity in 2002 and was converted into a park; a new and bigger plot has been built in Qushui County.

Pollutants emitted from vehicles and restaurants have become the main source of local air pollution. The roughly 1,000 taxis and 100,000 private cars moving around Lhasa mainly use gas and diesel, and only a few are fueled by CNG (compressed natural gas) or LPG (liquefied petroleum gas)."

Which brings me to the Geeta. Śrī Kṛṣṇa refers to desire, काम as mahaashanah महाशनः (3-37). The word mahaashanah means a great fire indicating that human desires are by nature unquenchable. Someone once said, "there are never enough objects in the world to satisfy all those who desire them".

If the desires in the heart of one person are mahaashanah, will human beings have the wisdom, the tenacity and the foresight to tackle the global impact of the growing desires of the billions chasing the American, the Chinese and the Indian dream?


Hari Om and Namaskaar till the next post