De regio Ladakh in India is in zeer rap tempo geïndustrialiseerd én verweven geraakt in internationale handel. Vanaf dit moment erodeert de traditionele cultuur en gemeenschap én verdwijnt de lokale balans en veerkracht in de regio. Een typisch voorbeeld dat de keerzijde van globalisering toont.
[youtube lMD8J3W9MjU]An important and interesting documentary based on the same named book by Helena Norberg-Hodge. This documentary describes the untouched land of Ladakh, when Helena first arrived in 1975, on how everyone is so happy and contented. In the “olden” world, Ladakhis women enjoyed high social status and families and communities ties were very strong.
Then the documentary moves over to showing how the peaceful land of Ladakh changed socially, ecologically and economically when “development” set in. Ladakhis starts to enjoy the comfort and convenience of modernization, at the same time, increasing greed, intolerance, unemployment, inflation, pollution etc. set in and is threatening the ecological balance and social harmony which were maintained over the past centuries.
The film and book rais important questions about the whole notion of progress, and explores the root causes of the problems faced by a highly industrialized society to create awareness.
Is this ‘development’ truely progress?