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Precariousness is here to Stay - What do you Say? |
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Written by Gitanjali
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In Kolkata every other day we are held up on the road with processions; Every other moment we get stuck in traffic jams. I asked my driver one day "Why do we close all the streets and cause all this mayhem?” He was not impressed and just watched the hawkers, vans etc. in the commotion. Then later in the day BBC showed us the scenes from a series of protests against the First Employment Contract in France. Thousands of young people in blue jeans and backpacks on the streets like in a carnival. Both Kolkata and France take great pride in their heritage and for good reasons but these are coupled with a sense of threat from the storm of capitalist economic liberalism blowing in from the Anglo-Saxon world.
There was a time when we were guaranteed a decent job on graduating. Life was then a highway. Those days are gone. We live in precariousness or insecurity, our futures threatened by global terrorism, environmental destruction and social instability. Precariousness is like a nightmare, which hovers on our psyche. Is it an image or concept? As an image it brings to mind someone losing a footing. As a concept, it keeps us at the whims of fate beyond our control and unable to relax even for an instant. Life is indeed precarious for two-thirds of the planet, but why has it become such an issue in some of the richest nations of the globe? |
Tibetan's Voice Of Struggle
