Vandana Shiva – Shakti: Feminine Power for Change (lecture)
When you hear the word Shakti you may think of the great fusion band of a few years back. But it has another meaning and dimension. In Sanskrit it means "female creative power." In Hindu cosmology Shakti is the divine force, manifesting to destroy demonic forces and restore balance. Humanity is facing unprecedented threats, a veritable perfect storm of dangers from climate change to water and food shortages. One-sixth of the world’s population is hungry. A quarter of all grains now grown in the U.S. end up as biofuel for cars thus adversely affecting global food supplies. While the military-industrial complex attracts some attention, the industrial agri-foods complex gets virtually none. Corporate decisions, motivated by profits, drive not just the production of food but its distribution. In this equation, the poor are left out. Maybe we all need some Shakti.
Vandana Shiva is an internationally renowned voice for sustainable development and social justice. A physicist, scholar, political activist and feminist, she is Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in New Delhi. She's the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize. She is the author of many books including “Water Wars,” “Earth Democracy,” and “Soil Not Oil.”