Vandana Shiva Achieves Amazing Feat Of Appropriating Her Own Culture

[HuckleB]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kavinsenapathy/2015/11/03/vandana-shiva-appropriating-her-own-culture/

"Vandana Shiva, widely beloved by anti-GMO activists worldwide, is an author, feminist, environmentalist and anti-biotechnology leader who opposes modern agriculture. She is a frontrunner in the opposition to crops created with modern molecular genetic engineering, better known as Genetically Modified Organisms–an unscientific and arbitrary term, because the vast majority of the foods we consume have had their genomes altered in the field or in a lab. The anti-globalization camp touts Shiva, a physicist seemingly turned voice for the downtrodden Indian people and environment, as a hero.

At the risk of generalizing, people of Indian descent take pride in our community’s achievements (I am an American-born daughter of Indian immigrants myself). A “model minority” in the USA, the ethnic group makes up a disproportionate percentage of physicians, scientists, millionaires and Scripps National Spelling Bee winners. Whether they like to admit it or not, ask any member of the Indian diaspora–if he doesn’t take pride in some of this, he is probably lying. Problems with the model minority as a stereotype aside, flies on Indian-American dining room walls nationwide hear tales of nieces, friends, and cousins out-achieving and out-earning their counterparts.

That’s where the unanimous pride ends. There are prominent Indian-Americans who inspire controversy at the Indian dinner party, forging a deep chasm between the proud and the embarrassed. Take Governor Bobby Jindal for example: though he has ascended to one of the highest offices in the nation, some Indians wonder how a person of color and child of immigrants can rightfully reject the hyphenated title of “Indian-American.” Then, there’s film producer and director M. Night Shyamalan, best known for the thriller Sixth Sense: though most wouldn’t balk at his fortune and fame, many Indian and non Indian-Americans alike cringe at the predictable twist movie endings.

This brings us back to Vandana Shiva. Undoubtedly a controversial albeit prominent Indian public figure, the stately, self-proclaimed food activist and feminist rakes in big bucks to rival the incomes of doctors and business moguls, and does so on the premise of benevolence. Shiva’s website, which notes that Time Magazine honored the activist as an environmental “hero” in 2003, describes her as working alongside peasants; images of Shiva posing on Indian farms litter the internet. Demanding $40,000 a pop and round trip business class air fare from New Delhi for her promotional talks, she has achieved the deplorable yet amazing feat of appropriating her own culture. Though defined in varying ways, the term “cultural appropriation” usually describes the use and adulteration of elements of one culture by another. In Shiva’s case, she has managed to exploit and demean her own culture under the guise of standing up for her countrymen, as a means to advance her anti-biotechnology agenda.

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Regardless, Shiva is one unethical individual, and yet she is beloved by many at DU, and in other arenas.

[progressoid]

1. Excellent commentary.