Geography News - December 2nd 2012

• 1) India GDP growth slows down to 5.3% per year - The Indian economic growth has decreased slightly from it's previous 5.5% three months ago to 5.3% for this quarter of the year. The main reason for this decline is weaker global demand for exports and key political reforms implemented last month. This economic drop has meant that new policies to increase foreign direct investments and trade will need to be introduced by the Indian government in order to prevent more decline in the future. The Indian government wants to raise the growth to 6%, and will open up the aviation sector to FDIs and control how much banks can lend so that spending is encouraged. 
• India, like China, is a rising superpower in the global economy. With their sheer population numbers and vast quantities of human resources, China and India's growth rate in economic terms has been unprecedented in the last decade. Even though this report noted how there's a drop in economic growth for India this quarter, a 0.2% drop can hardly qualify as "significant" enough to impact upon the masses. 
• The fact that Indian authorities are so concerned upon a relatively small dip in economic output signals, to me, how the BRICs are focused almost entirely on economic growth. These nations aim for massive economic boom and China is an excellent example of rapid GDP growth (approximately 10% per annum) leading to a higher standard of living for many citizens. The question is two-folds: 
• To what extent is India (and China) growing economically at the extent of it's people ? Again, the issue is - can economic development signal high standards of living or high social development ? There is no fixed definition of development and economic development does not necessarily mean people are happy, "developed" or healthy. This ties in with a criticism of the Western model of development and Rostow's flawed model. 
• Can the world sustain both India and China's massive yearly GDP growth in terms of resources ? It is a known fact that if each person in China lived the life of an American (in terms of consumption of energy) there would not be enough resources in this earth to sustain the population. With China rising and seemingly unstoppable, will the rise of India also lead to the same conflicts ? 

• 2) Bhutan's Gross National Happiness (GNH) gaining attention in UN Climate Change Conference 2012 - Bhutan has always been a maverick in tackling developmental policies, claiming that national "happiness" is the most important indicator of well-being. Bhutan has ignored GDP as an indicato since the 1970s, and has accused other countries of putting the economy first over the environment. The authorities at the UN Climate Conference in Doha has called attention to Bhutan's GNH as a possible new indicator for "development" that the Global North / Western world should use and replicate in their policy and development models. 
• This article provides food for thought as to what exactly constitutes "development" and questions modernisation theories and development models. 
• It links in with Edward Said's theory about "The Oriental". Said claims that the Western nations create binaries and divides the world into an uncivilised "them" and a civilised "us", using this divide to justify developmental theories and colonialism. The Global North perceives the "East" (India, China, Middle East) as exotic, foreign, feminized, intriguing, mythical and uncivilized, versus the civilised, educated, enlightened and developed West. 
• This ideology and way of thinking has meant that the Western panel that dominates most of the seats of the UN Climate Change conference, will likely view nations like Bhutan as the "other" - foreign, culturally other and hence, under-developed in every way. Perhaps this is why the Bhutanese "oriental concept" (that happiness, rather than economic growth is true development) is currently subjected to much speculation and scrutinisation, and most importantly, FASCINATION. 
• Happiness aside, Bhutan also faces serious environmental threats exacerbated by climate change. Flooding is more serious, as with land and water degradation, which affects farmer's livelihoods. Can and will Bhutan prioritize "happiness", an intangible "soft" concept, over it's economic growth if it means people's livelihoods suffer ? Also, how do you measure happiness exactly ? 
• If you give a farmer a high-paying job in the city, or give him a lot of wealth, won't he be happy ? Economic gain and happiness, I believe, correlates to a certain extent. You can be happy being rich. 

Academic reading: Edward Said - I watched several of Said's lectures and can sum up his main theory. 

Said coined the term "Orientalism" to mean the attitudes and ways the Western nations view Eastern nations. Although he talks specifically about Arabic countries, this theory applies to China and Asia in general. The theory says that the West views the East with a certain ideology and stereotyped images - exotic, foreign, dangerous, sensual, feminine, uncivilized, barbaric, uncultured... and these values reinforce the West's own perception of themselves as cultured, civilised, stable, safe and developed. 

These binaries, and this ideology in viewing the "East" reinforced why development theories categorize the First world and Third World, and why colonialism leaves behind legacies that are often internalized. These perceptions (or stereotypes) are often internalized into both East and West nations. They are also used to justify colonialism ("we need to teach the orientals and help them improve") and to create a sense of self-congratulation / self-pride ("we are their savoirs").