The Young, Old And An Unequal World

Younger, meaner, more self-indulgent, angry and insecure in a climate risked world. We don’t deserve this.

- Sunita Narain

IN JANUARY 1993, Down To Earth published the original “World on a Boil”. Its then editor, Anil Agarwal, wrote forcefully that in 1992, the world had moved several steps towards globalisation, but without giving attention to the sharp economic, social and cultural divides. He wrote—in what seems so prophetic today—that this tumultuous year, which saw the launch of (unfair) world trade rules and climate agreements, would set the agenda for globalisation in an intensely unequal world.

It is May 2018—a quarter of a century later—and it seems that the world has not just imploded, but it has also come apart, unraveled. Sins of deliberate omission have come home to roost. Our time is a time of deep crisis.

Today, the rules of global trade—which were made by the then rich to get richer at the cost of the poor people and their environment—are not working for the so-called rich as well. In the past 25 years, globalisation has indeed linked markets, opened up trade and made some in the world much more affluent. This globalisation of markets was combined with another major development in the past 25 years —the unexpected but marvelous growth of the Internet. This connected people, but more importantly, it has brought the marketplace into our space. Connected cyberspace. Connected consumers.