We want to live, we want to live. We want to live in our land, in our environment. We didn't want countries to come, rich countries came and conquered us. They have to listen to what the tribal people need, tribal people are thinking. And they have to respect and they have to listen to what they want and what they really want.
I come from West Papua, I live in the UK, in Oxford now. I just want to say what is happening with women in West Papua. Before we had leaders of women groups, or something. But then missionaries they went there and said, “Oh you have to be part of men, and you can not talk, and you can not stand up and talk a lot. And you have to stay at home, only that. But you can not stand up and become leader and talking, you can not.
We don't want multinational companies to operate in West Papua because they came, took our land and destroyed our environment, our way of life. Their interested not in human beings, they're interested in our resources. So that's why there's the impacts of killing, that's why they are moving people to other villages. This is the impact of rich people in the world. I would say – leave us alone. That's very good. We want to run everything, we want control. But people came and said, “do this, do this.
Yes I want to say to G8 countries, or rich countries, first thing respect tribal people. Specifically West Papuan and around the world struggling for freedom, for life. That's very important that they understand. And they must respect every human being in the world especially tribal people. This is the very important message I want to give.
G8 is going to adversely affect the forest dwellers as it is going to adversely or negatively affect the others sections of society. Because the basic issue is the control over the global natural resources. And most of the resources are limited now to the forest area. Therefore once the powerful nations put up a joint front to exploit the natural resources and the forest resources, so the people are out of the whole thing. So it is going to very, very negatively affect, not only the forest dwellers, but the forest resources as well. Because then resource depletion will take place very fast in Third World countries. The whole tendency is that First World countries, the G8 countries, want to preserve and protect their own natural resources. Whereas, they want to exploit, for their own industries and other purposes, the natural resources of the Third World countries. Whether they are forests or lands.
There's a huge impact of G8 capital basically coming into a country like India in the natural resource sector in the name of bilateral funding, DFID, JBIC and all those. And what they are basically doing is that they are first going into policy reforms. Then they're promoting privatisation of resources like water. And then they are penetrating into taking control over the varied and natural resource base on which millions of Indian communities are actually surviving for their livelihoods. And in that process, what they're doing, they're restricting access to those varied and natural resources that the communities are living for centuries.
Women suffer a lot because of these policies. Women have been playing a vital role in the production of food grain in India. But because of mechanised farming and cash crop production they are thrown out of this system. The most vulnerable situation which has been created is of migration. And because of migration women suffer. They get sexually harassed, exploited...The living conditions in urban areas are very poor, especially for women. Their living pattern changes. The life is more insecure as compared to their native places. And all this is definitely going to affect our society at a larger level.
Yeah, primarily G8 policies have been affecting our agrarian relations for the last fifty years. And the present strategy of the G8 will destroy our cultivating peasants. The peasants who cultivate. The apprehension and the imminent danger is that they will lose the land, lose their job and will be in the free labour market. And that's their policy. They want to capture our natural resources, land, forest and water, mines so they can impose their economic profit-making economy on our social economic conditions.
The biggest impact of the G8 countries is the economy, or the type of economy they want to promote in the developing countries. The most direct impact of that can be felt in the forestry sector, along with land of course. In forestry what's been happening is that the way is being prepared for the entry of multinationals and global capital in a big, big way. So it comes in the name of development for the extraction of natural resources and also for conservation. For ostensible reasons of preventing climate change, for preventing pollution and for promoting ecosystems services in the forests.
The G8 is a economic united front of some of the most powerful countries in the world. So once they put up a united economic front, they will be in a position to exploit the markets and resources of the whole world. And in particular the developing countries will be suffering the effect. Now what we see today is that 70% of Indian population depends on agriculture for its sustenance and livelihood. And now agriculture sector is going to be affected very very negatively. If multinationals make their entry, big multinational companies, in the agriculture sector, then what happens to almost 20-25% of the agricultural workers in India? Because multinationals will have their agriculture with big machines. What happens to millions and millions of sharecroppers? What happens to the small peasantry?