Limits of growth

World is at the threshold of an environmental crisis. It is far more threatening than the present global financial crisis. Depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere, global warming and attendant problems such as the rise of sea levels which would submerge many habitations, increasing natural disasters all these have placed on the agenda the question whether the human species would face extinction.

This is no longer a question of political or religious ideology. Hence, what is required is a united effort of all nations, big and small, to the challenge and save mankind.

The question is whether the economic model that is currently in vogue or prevailing could ensure sustainable development. The answer given almost universally is a definitive no. Hence, the necessity of finding a new economic model, one that could ensure sustainable development is urgent.

The present economic model based on neo-liberalism has already brought many contradictions to the fore. One glaring shortcoming is economic bi-polarization. The rich become richer and the poor poorer.

Even in the United States, the citadel of capitalism the same phenomena holds. According to data of the United States Internal Revenue Service the top one percent of wealthiest Americans earned 21.2 percent of the total aggregate income of the country while the bottom 50 percent earned a little over half that amount, i.e. 12.83 percent.

What is true of nations is true for the world as a whole. The disparities in income between nations have also widened. According to UNDP sources, between 1960 and 1991, the richest fifth of all nations had its share of world GNP rise from 70.2 percent to 84.7 percent while the poorest fifth of all nations had its share fall from 2.3 percent to 1.4 percent.

Such wide disparities generate social instability and threaten the very survival of the society. The above mentioned environmental crisis has imposed further limits to growth.

The consumption pattern advocated by agents of neo-liberalism is clearly untenable. With the destruction of the ecology due to fossil fuel consumption for purposes of energy generation and transport adds to environmental pollution besides depleting its world reserves within a short time.

With more than half the world population below minimum poverty level and the numbers of the hungry increasing by millions each year a radical change in consumption is urgently required. For example it is simply untenable to expect each household to own an automobile though such concepts are marketed and catch on among the gullible. An automobile, taken by itself is one of the most unproductive means of transport for it takes a huge structure of steel, rubber and many more materials weighing over 1,000 kilograms to carry a passenger weighing about 70 kilograms.

This has led to certain economists to propose the change over to an economy of frugality where the production of luxury goods would decline in favour of the production of basic necessities of life. They argue that a happy life stems from frugality rather than from prosperity. This is nothing new. It is part of the eastern way of life put forward by many great leaders such as Confucius and the Buddha.

An American example

The Time magazine recently carried an article about a pioneering education project in the United States. Children of Chinese immigrants in a neighbourhood of Minnesota are being taught all subjects in Mandarin from the elementary level. Under an immersion program the children learn everything from Mathematics to American History in Mandarin. English language is also taught as a subject and by Fifth Grade students become completely bilingual.

“Research has shown that in the long run, immersion programs can provide cognitive benefits, including more flexible, creative thinking”, says the Time report. It further says that the performance of the students is even better than that of students in monolingual schools.

Perhaps, educationists and the education authorities in Sri Lanka could take a cue. This is not the first time that the superiority of bilingual education has been found. UNESCO had arrived at the same conclusion after extensive research in several countries including the United States and some countries of Africa. It is time to reconsider the decisions of certain parents and education authorities to teach the children from the kindergarden in a foreign language.