Last week, local activist and author, Helena Norberg-Hodge, celebrated a milestone – her 80th birthday!
For those unaware of Helena’s work, here is just one of many birthday tributes she received from her friends and colleagues: ‘As you know, I have long admired your insights and commitment to creating resilient communities. We don’t define ourselves by victories or failures, but by the fact that we try. Thank you for your tireless efforts to change society’s direction. May you live many more years’ – David Suzuki, author and broadcaster.
Over her 50 years of grass-roots activism, Helena has been involved, not just with international projects such as Local Futures, but has been a force locally.
She was instrumental in setting up all the four local farmers’ markets for example, and has organised countless events with international leaders from the localisation and circular economy sector.
For decades, she has informed and inspired locals to look more closely at predatory capitalism and solutions that move us away from the old paradigms of enslavement and extraction.
Helena is the author of several books, including the international best-seller Ancient Futures, a moving portrait of tradition and change in Ladakh. Its culture and history are closely related to Tibet.
That experience – being the first westerner to learn the Ladakh language – helped shaped her worldview.
‘My work, until I die, is raising awareness about the importance of strengthening local communities and economies’, says Helena.
‘This means not only financial independence and food security, but health care, education and land management’, she says.
System enriches the super-wealthy
‘Most people realise that the system doesn’t work for most of us, and that it is actually tuned to enrich the super-wealthy. But until now there has been too little focus on the structural side – on how both left and right governments have created a sort of “empire” of interlinked banks and multinational monopolies.
‘This has happened primarily through a process of trade treaties in which countries sign clauses called ISDS (investor state dispute settlements) saying in black and white that they won’t be doing anything that could threaten foreign corporations’ anticipated profits. In effect, they agree that they can be taken to court if they ban toxic chemicals, try to raise the minimum wage, or protect their natural resources!
‘The end result of this handover of power and wealth to global corporations and elites is that virtually everyone has to work harder and harder just to put food on the table and a roof over their head. At the same time as energy consumption and pollution are skyrocketing’, she told The Echo.
Small is beautiful
Helena also highlighted how corporate food monoculture and chemicals are impacting younger generations, which results in a shorter life expectancy through obesity and cancer.
‘Monoculture-farmed land can be reversed to almost organic after three to five years’, she says.
‘And smaller farms are more easily adapted to climate change. A biodiverse crop can withstand intense storms and dry weather. And they can move to being organic much easier’, she says.
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