I was almost brought to tears.....

books:

	• Power Politics (Second Edition) Arundhati Roy South End Press, 2002 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I was almost brought to tears.....

As someone who is admittedly and shamefully, completely ignorant about the current socio-political situation in India, I was nevertheless nearly moved to tears at the heroism of how so many displaced villagers gathered up the courage to protest the outrages of being forced to abandon their homes due to pointless and environmentally-harmful "big dams"

I also felt great outrage over how unfairly Roy was being persecuted by her own government and courts for simply writing what she believes in. However, through her bravery, she never even contemplates leaving her country for greater personal (or economic)security but stays on to fight the good fight. Truly commendable person. And this is a powerful book surely not to be missed.

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state of affairs for india

This book is the state of affairs for whats happening in India currently(2006) and concludes with a discussion of world affairs and the relationship of India to the world. A very intersesting discussion is presented about outsourcing to India.

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Politics of Persuasion

I really wanted to give this book a 5 star review. I admire Roy's courage. I think that Power Politics raises some serious questions about globalization, dam development, the war on terror, etc. The style of her writing is also very engaging. I think it keeps the reader off balance and unsure of what will come next, but in a good way that adds to the impact of her writing.

However, I absolutely cannot give this book more than 3 stars for 2 reasons. First, the 5 essays in this book really don't feel like they belong together. Roy starts off talking about her role as a writer, then its on to "Big Dams", then the Indian Supreme Court and finally the war on terrorism. While I think all of these are important topics, Roy did not do a good job of integrating them into one coherent idea.

Secondly, I thought Roy presented some pretty startling statistics in Power Politics, so I did a little fact checking. While some of her statistics definitely check out, others do not. Some of those numbers she throws out without citing any source at all and in one instance she attributes something to a source that is no where in that source! ("Today, a chapter in the India Country Study says the figure [of people displaced by Big Dams in India] could be as high as fifty-six million people." p 67) You can read the study yourself online (dams(dot)org). It never says anything about 56 million people being displaced by Big Dams in India.

Maybe it's a personal pet-peeve, but making up your own numbers and misquoting studies does not fly with me. So read Power Politics if you want to. It is a very engaging book. But I encourage everyone to take Roy's "facts" with a grain of salt.

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Fresh take on globalization

Arundhati Roy bristles at being called a "writer-activist" (too much like sofa-bed, she says), but the rest of us should be grateful that the author of "The God of Small Things" is taking on the establishment, here and in India.

Part of Mrs. Roy's greatness is that she is not colored by the partisan debates that influence the dialogue on issues such as globalization in America. She is an equal-opportunity critic, taking on Clinton and Bush. Although other authors pledge no allegiance to either side of the aisle, Roy has a fresh perspective, and has a take on globalization that I haven't found in works by American authors.

This book is set up as a collection (a rather random collection) of several essays. The first essay gives a wonderful perspective of globalization (ie. the expansion of American business interests) from a foreign perspective. She examines the impact of the global economic movement on the actual people being affected by it at the lowest level. She reveals the influence of the privatization of the electric industry through the eyes of India's poorest citizens.

The second essay goes in-depth into politics in India, primarily addressing the enormous number of dams being built in the country, and the impacts (economic, environmental, social) that they will have. Mrs. Roy explicitly recounts how Enron scammed the Indian government into building new power generators, and how this will cost India hundreds of millions per year while lining the pockets of American business interests.

Critics will say that "Power Politics" is devoid of hard facts and analysis, but there can be no doubt that this book is worth a read. She may lack the economic background of Stiglitz, but her passion and style, in addition to her ability to articulate the important issues in the globalization debate in a readable manner, will be appreciated by anyone with an interest in global economic expansion.

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A Message for the Ages

Still wondering if corporations are calling the shots in the global economy? You won't be after reading this book. And don't be fooled because some of the book focuses on India - the same industrializing machinations are at work in every country on the globe. The `power' referred to in the title has to do with dams being built on major rivers throughout the developing world, but the politics of corporate money and influence go far beyond dams.

One of the best parts of reading this book is Roy's consistent use of visual imagery. For example, in the section titled "The Reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin," Roy makes the following statements:

"(It's common knowledge that water is becoming a scarce resource. One billion people in the world have no access to safe drinking water.) The "market" decrees that the scarcer something is, the more expensive it becomes. But there is a difference between valuing water and putting a market value on water. No one values water more than a village woman who has to walk miles to fetch it. No one values it less than urban folk who pay for it to flow endlessly at the turn of a tap."

Roy's passion, intelligence, and commitment to social justice shine throughout every chapter. If you've ever heard her speak, you can imagine her saying the words in her soft voice as you read them.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Arundhati Roy -"India's most impassioned critic of globalization" (New York Times)-has expanded the compelling first edition of Power Politics with two new essays on the U.S. war on terrorism. A Book Sense 76 choice for November/December 2001 and Los Angeles Times "Discoveries" selection, Power Politics challenges the idea that only experts can speak out on such urgent matters as nuclear war, the privatization of India's power supply by U.S.-based energy companies, and the construction of monumental dams in India.

Arundhati Roy, the internationally acclaimed author of The God of Small Things, brings her keen novelist's eye to her analysis of the tragic events of September 11 and the military response, starting with the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.

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