(The State and its Crooks)
By Thounaojam Brinda
The Trickle Down has never and will never trickle. What will trickle down passing through a shameless layer of corporate controlled sieve whose only purpose is ruthless exploitation to the complete annihilation of the indigenous? The solution is in ourselves. It has to start from the bottom, from the farmers to free ourselves from exploitation. Farmers are the kings in rags in the empire of capitalism where crooks sit on the throne while the real kings are reduced to raged slaves. The state and its crooks.
This spring rain is generously rich. It is a much needed respite from the over glaring shameless summer heat that spoiled the earlier days incessantly as an unwanted and uninvited guest. I love rain anyday anytime, all time. Without rain, life is a desert. Cloud and rain. Rain is life`s fortune, privileged by the cloud for life alone. Bless us to stop shedding trees, to plant everywhere, anyhow, any tree, any plant, any food in any garden and everywhere. To gardenelise everything everywhere. For this, we need to sow the seeds, own the seeds and nurture our plants, be the owner of our land, be the owner of the means of production, be the owner of our surplus. The farmers are the most privileged to do this. Aesthetic is not just skin deep but it contributes a lot to emotional well being of the individual and the whole society. A beautiful freely branched tree is the most beautiful being on earth. The tree and the rain are so interdependent that each exists for for the other so much so is the cloud and the rain. Nature is composite of all goodness, anything detrimental to works towards self annihilation. Example is human being. We are digging our own grave by isolating ourself as superior to the rest of all beings and species.
Thus, the importance of Forest Gods of the indigenous. Pertinent to know the relevancy of forest god worshipping in relation to the well being of its dwellers. The forest is the life of the forest dwellers most importantly. It shapes so much of the geography of the forest dependent areas that the forest is entwined in every walk of the life of the people. It shapes the way of life of the people who depend on it. Peoples’ socio-political-economic health is directly proportional to the well being of the forest. Tree is the life of rain so much so is rain the life of tree. Instead of being fearful of cyclone, why don`t we try to know why cyclones are formed and are human activities responsible for intensifying it? They are natural but it is our responsibility to adjust to nature rather than making nature furious and blaming it for our karma. Instead of harping at the symptomatic issue, why don`t we ask why the issues? We seem to have forgotten that there is no might to fight nature and truth. People will never be empowered from the top because it is against the exploitative capital accumulation interest of the rulers. This is how we start for the desired change. We cannot simply doctorate them with socio-political-economic superseding the a b c of their rights and how to protect themselves. It is an Ars Poetica of village autonomy, an art for sake of mankind, of a non-dependent, self sustaining system that holistically respects the life of every being and its relation with nature. Forest god worshiping is not religion but the respect we pay to the forest and its guardians.
The trickle down filtrates are for the upper echelon, made by the same echelon for the material advancement of same echelon. The farmers need to empower themselves. People do not need welfare but empowerment. Here, people are handicapped to the point of self-destruction in the name of empowering them through countless schemes and Acts. Development in the name of development for the private material wealth accumulation of the have few is no development but a farce on the plight of the people. Any community development program including tourism should be a community responsibility along with ownership. No private ownership of tourism beyond a certain point should be encouraged and must be resisted by the people. The corporate cyclone is furious enough to annihilate the hapless population in its path. History is the testimony. In this rapid thunderstorm, the unskilled agrarian farmers and workers will be worse hit. We, the indigenous, who have been ruthlessly colonised, will be swept away in a nano fraction of a second by the capital accumulators` suppressive cyclone that sucks all the energy of its lower class victims unlike a natural cyclogenesis where energy is released and dissipated upon hitting a sturdy landmass.
We have everything the corporates whore for. The corporate cyclone is what we should be fighting against. Bring on any cyclone engined by its puppet state and series of selected regimes you have, till you shed the last blood drop of indigenous, before you steal the peoples` land and all its resources. The upper echelon is never going to empower the people. The people must start from themselves. If one has the will, there is nothing that can stop the individual from achieving one`s dream. No dream is too big, especially when it involves the interest of the people. Corporates are private parasites whereas cooperative is the most democratic method till now to address all needs and bring the marginalised into a common class. Let the rain come, may the harvest be rich to strengthen the farmers one step at a time. May the villages be resistant and flourishing. Resistance must be renewed and more intensified. This time, the need of a reproach, not with the guns but from the farmers and their farms and gardens. Private sector should no more be allowed to spread its cancerous tentacles into the villages, through leased out Public-Private-Partnership in the name of tourism and any name. It is only cooperative which can build immunity of villages. Why PPP and not cooperatives?
Come what may ! Not your Tupul Railway and its branches. Not your oil exploration and drilling. Not your land grabbings. Not your forced evictions. Not your arson on the poor huts of the landless. Not your resource ownership thieves. Not your big corporates. No big capital accumulators. Not your look east. Not your ethnic genocide. Not your war crimes. Not until all victims have been heard. Not until all forms of exploitations have been killed by the farmers. Redemption.
Thus, lower class, who have no capital and mostly exploited, must stand up for themselves. And let the middle class awaken. The fruits are for the people. The natural cyclone dissipate on hitting the land mass but the parasitic corporate cyclone will only leave after total robbery, virulent and thus, we, the oppressed people must stand up against all forms of exploitations to neutralize the ill effects of corporate cyclone which is as lethal as it is plastic. Fear of not the nature but to shed the fear of speaking up and to die for our rights. There is nothing called as Trickle Down.
Let the lies of the state be slayed.
Let imperialism die in the hands of the farmers.
An awakened never goes back to slavedom.
It`s honourable to die fighting for rights than be living dead without the honour.
Farmers, the saviours.