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Medha Patkar delivers Sheth Lecture at Emory University, Atlanta Watch Amy Goodman interview Medha Patkar on Democracy Now! Medha Patkar fired up a large and diverse crowd of Atlanta’s Indian business community leaders, professionals, students, progressive local activists and AID-volunteers on the afternoon of March 22nd, 2009, at Emory University School of Law. She came to the US for less than three days as a guest of the Seth Lectures. She arrived in Atlanta on Saturday and went back to India after a short stop in Boston on Monday. Her talk, People’s Movement: The State and Civil Society, was on World Water Day, so she started with issues of water rights building the connection to land rights and how land is tied to other resources, culture, history, livelihood, etc. She questioned the inequity of development. Why do the poor to have to face the higher cost and be repeatedly displaced? She asked the audience how they would feel if they were forcibly removed from their Emory campus without being told what would be done with the land and without a viable alternative. She warned against commoditization of natural resources including water and talked about what Coca-cola, Pepsi and watering plants are doing in India and the world. She called on everyone to demand accountability and “popularizing”, in the true meaning of the word, the way resources are managed across the population. We had managed a short visit to the Martin Luther King Center on Saturday. She quoted from MLK during her speech on Sunday, talking about the effectiveness and need for non-violence in people’s movements. She stressed that this approach should be valued and supported and pointed out how the Emory Conference Center (where she stayed) failed to mention the MLK center in its list of Atlanta tourist spots. Her talk went for over an hour followed by some passionate Q&A. The crowd stayed till the end and gave her a standing ovation. A reception followed and lasted for over an hour. The AID-volunteers had two tables set-up with the bags, calendars and documents that Medha di had brought. She was constantly surrounded by people. She handed them documents, pamphlets on Jeevan Shala, took their cards. Again, a lot of people from Atlanta’s business community were there because Dr. Seth is a marketing lecturer and a businessman in Atlanta. Prior to the talk on Sunday and most of the day Saturday,
Medha di, though jet-lagged and preoccupied with the petitions that had to be
edited and filed, emails and faxes that had to be sent and documents that had
to be drafted, copied and distributed, graciously met people at two informal
sessions held by AID-volunteers (from Atlanta, Clemson, Duke, Columbus,
Charlotte, Seattle). Visitors from Amnesty International and WAND
(Women’s Action for New Direction), a group that is also working to stop the
new nuclear reactors that are being built in Georgia, also joined the discussion
on Saturday. Medha di mentioned the Vogel plant and the dangers of
nuclear reactors to the population, water and land resources during her talk at
Emory. Emory arranged for a private dinner for her on Saturday night where she met groups like Georgia Indo Chamber of Commerce and Indo-China committee along with the Seth family and Emory faculty. Medha di was interviewed by a local magazine (Khabar), covered by a local radio station (WRFG) in addition to Democracy Now coverage which had to wait for a weekday and was conducted in Boston on Monday morning. I don’t know how she kept a straight face when Amy Goodman asked her to explain what SEZs are and how people are organizing against it in one minute. The producer sent a note saying Medha di was fantastic. In Atlanta, the weather cooperated and we had two beautiful spring days. It was an inspiring and wonderful visit. We only wish she wasn’t so rushed. Look for links (audio, video) of the talk and pictures and a list of emails from the sign-up sheet. Sounds like things went well in Boston also. Hope she has reached India safely and caught some sleep during the flight. - Alka Roy. AID-Atlanta ------------------------------- Association For India's Development is proud to announce that Medha Patkar, the inspiring environmental and human rights activist will be in the United States from March 21 - 23, 2009. Her talks will focus on learnings and wisdoms from the grassroots realities of the lives of the tribal, rural poor and dispossed whose resilience inspire and give rise to social movements, the costs of "development" and facing the economic crisis. The Details of her US Tour:
We are looking for collaborating with other like-minded groups to co-sponsor this talk in order to increase the publicity of this talk series.Regards, AID Volunteers For recent happenings on Narmada issue click here.
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