Thanks John for throwing the spotlight on India. The Neoliberal brand of capitalism is particularly ugly in such poor countries.

I travelled there in 1981 and remember some stats from that time - 600m people; a 'dual economy' with about 100m receiving regular wages/ salary, the rest living 'hand to mouth'; 13% mortality of infants under 5. There were about the same number of cars in India in 1981 as there were in Australia and all were made in India - no foreign imports. I do remember that the English language newspapers were really informative; with world news that you'd never find in the Murdoch dominated press here.

How things have changed, in some ways at least, but the massive 'underclass' has grown and no doubt still lives the hand to mouth existence it always has.

Roses1
yes, poverty in India is widespread and distressing, but povery rates are on the decline, contrary to what this article implies. And it is since the "neoliberal" reforms of the 1980s that India's growth rate has picked up and its poverty rates have started to improve significantly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India

Surely a vastly complex society and economy as India should feel blessed by the cherry picked stats and sundry simplifications of Pilger's Christmas message to India, a country with around a fifth of the world's population.

Attempting to lock in our loyalty by being described as "Australian" rather than an UKlander - he moved to London 50 years ago.

I admire John Pilger's work as one of the major critics of wars and acts of state aggression in our time. But he has this amazing double standard, this cognitive dissonance where on the one hand, when he sees political states aggressing against people *outside* the country, he rightly sees this as unjustifiable aggression. But when he sees them aggressing against people *inside* their country, all of a sudden he thinks it's social justice.

It is of course hyperbole to talk of businesses such as Pizza Hut and Microsoft as "predators". They're not eating people: they're selling them stuff!

If people want to buy or sell pizzas, or software, or seed, who does John Pilger think he is to say they should be prevented from doing so by threats of physical attack by the state?

One can only shake one's head in wonder at the confusion of someone who criticises mass hunger and economic growth in the one breath.