[GJM] Fw: [globalnetnews-summary] Suicide of farmer poet highlights the poverty trap in India

[mary rose]

The important part of this message is contained in the sentence below 
excerpted from this article, as we are again told of the effect that U.S. 
grown and subsidized products have on the those in other countries, as 
companies like Cargill are able to undercut substantially the prices that 
local farmers are able to obtain for their products.  .

". . . farmers are not being protected from the impact of subsidised farming 
elsewhere and. . . seed producers are, in effect, holding farmers to 
ransom."

And, it is we, the U.S. American taxpayers, who are paying for these 
subsidies and are ultimately responsible for the
seriousness of the food crisis in many countries, not only in India, but 
around the world. It is also a U.S. based corporation that is largely 
responsible for the distribution of patented GM seeds which require 
oil-based fertilizers and repurchase every year.  These are the things that 
are driving farmers around the world into desperation and suicide.  .

So, what are we going to do about it?  This is a tough question when we have 
little or no control over what goes on in the U.S. government -- when we are 
just pawns in the game.

mary rose

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Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 6:13 AM
Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Suicide of farmer poet highlights the 
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Suicide of farmer poet highlights the poverty trap in India
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/suicide-of-farmer-poet-highlights-the-poverty-trap-in-india-821617.htmlJAIDEEP HARDIKARBy Andrew Buncombe and Jaideep Hardikar in MurtijapurTuesday, 6 May 2008Farming and poetry were inextricably linked for Shrikrishna Kalamb. As hepoured his efforts into scraping a livelihood for him and his family fromthe unyielding land, so he described in verse the scale of his struggle.It was a struggle he ultimately lost. Confronted by large debts, a mountingsense of futility and worried as to how he would pay for the weddings of hisfive daughters, Mr Kalamb, 50, hanged himself. In his final poem, writtenjust two days before he took life, he wrote: "My life is different; my deathwill be like untimely rain."Mr Kalamb took his life at the end of March, one of tens of thousands ofIndian farmers who have committed suicide in recent years. But rather thanallowing her father to become another simple statistic, Mr Kalamb's eldestdaughter, Usha, has gathered together the 50 or so poems that he wrote andis seeking to have them published. "My father died as a farmer, in perpetualdebt and worries. But he lived as a poet, and will remain immortal in hispoems," she said.No one knows precisely how many farmers have taken their lives in recentyears but campaign groups say the problem is huge as India's rural communityseeks to deal with a downturn in prices and trade policies that have forcedthem to compete with subsidised products from other countries.In the Vindarbha district of Maharashtra state in western India, where MrKalamb grew cotton, it is estimated that one farmer commits suicide everyeight hours. "A mass clinical depression is silently sweeping the farmers ofVidarbha," said Dr Sujay Patil, a local psychiatrist who offers freetreatment and counselling to farmers."The solution is to help farming. The farmers are feeling hopeless, they arefeeling worthless and they are feeling helpless."The Indian government is well aware of the scale of the crisis playing outin its agricultural sector, an area on which 70 per cent of the populationdepends for its livelihood. In this year's budget, about £8bn was set asideas a debt waiver for millions of small farmers across the country.But campaigners say that still enough is not being done. They also claimthat farmers are not being protected from the impact of subsidised farmingelsewhere and that seed producers are, in effect, holding farmers to ransom.The group Navdanya, headed by Dr Vandana Shiva, claims that that more150,000 farmers have taken their lives in the past decade as a result of theimpact of liberalisation policies in the agricultural sector."It's all related to the land," said Dr Shiva. "When they get into debt ...this is why they are committing suicide. Whatever the government has doneissuperficial."Mr Kalamb had been struggling for some time to eke out a living from hisfive acres of unproductive land. The plot brought in little money and 10years ago he had been forced to sell off a section. His attempt to set up athreshing plant in his village also failed.A decade later and owing more than 20,000 rupees (£250) to the bank and aminimum of 50,000 in private loans he was confronted by having to sell someof what little remained. That troubled him greatly. He was also upset thathis eldest daughter had been forced to give up her education to find a jobto help the family.Usha Kalamb said: "He sustained us on that money [from the sale] for 10years. But now, we had little options so he was contemplating sellingremaining land. He had asthma and could not work hard in the fields."Although Mr Kalamb poured his emotion into his poetry, written in Warhadi, adialect of the Marathi language, his friends and family said he never spokeabout his worries. "He would hold us in rapt attention and sometime intears, when he would recite his poems," said Vitthal Patond, a childhoodfriend. "Financial problems played heavily on his mind. But he would nevershow it. He abhorred an exploitative system and rebelled against it."Vasare (Calves)Amhi vasare vasare, muki upasi vasareGaya panhavato amhi, chor kalatat dharTapa tapa gham unarato, unarato bhuivarMoti pikavato amhi, tari upasi lekare.""We are calves, dumb hungry calvesWe tend to the cows, thieves walk away with milk and creamWe sweat and sweat on the fieldsWe cultivate pearls, but our children remain hungry."