[Buddha-l] Re: A Maitreya theme park projected for Kushinagar--goodgrief!

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

jkirk schreef:
>  
> This article is well-worth reading:
>
> http://www.wildriverreview.com/airmail_india-maitreya.php
> Excerpt:
> ...The state government of Uttar Pradesh has offered to give the Maitreya
> Project an expansive tract of land (between 660 and 750 acres, depending on
> whom you ask) on which to build their giant statue. However, the tract of
> land isn't owned by the state government; it's owned by small local farmers.
> Villagers from seven villages (including Anirudhwa) stand to lose some or
> all their farmland, and many will lose their homes as well.
>
> How many people will be affected? It's difficult to say, partly due to the
> fact that extended families sometimes live under the same roof, partly due
> to quickly changing and contested demographics, and partly due to politics:
> A Maitreya Project official told me 1100 families, local newspapers were
> consistently reporting 1400 families, the farmers said it was closer to 2000
> families; recently, a government official told me that it was actually 3000
> families.
>
> The minority who are losing their homes face additional uncertainty. They've
> been told they will be “rehabilitated,” but state officials have no plan yet
> to resettle them elsewhere. A government Land Acquisition Officer told me
> that instead of being resettled, they will be given a check to compensate
> them and will have to find someplace else to move, whether they agree to the
> terms or not.
>
> Very few farmers have agreed to the terms, and therein lies the problem. In
> rural India, land is “Mother.” It feeds, it provides, it breathes. The
> government officials are crystal clear: If the farmers refuse to budge, then
> police will be mobilized to clear the land. [more]
>
> Joanna
>
>
>   
One thing didn't come up, which is another kind of magic: the art of 
turning a poor rural area into a rich tourist resort a new miracle of 
Lourdes. Anyone who has seen the stream of capital that floods to a 
touristic pilgrimage spot, understands that this is big business. The 
more now the Indian and Chinese bourgeoisy is getting richer every day. 
The M-project may well be a machine that generates symbolic capital 
(gooood karma) in order to transform it into economic capital. If it 
were true, it would make the DL less mai"ve, but also less HH. :-)


-- 


Erik

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