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    O/T: CEO-friendly gurus re-visited Archived Message

    Posted by Ian M on April 24, 2022, 11:52 pm

    Back at the place that worships this guy...





    Here's my previous critical thread fyi: https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/archive/1603622363.html

    Further to his previous comments about how 'India has immense use for copper' and 'lynching large businesses is economic suicide', I was hearing about the Indian billionaire coal magnate, Gautam Adani hobnobbing with Boris Johnson:

    Boris Johnson has met with the head of an Indian multinational conglomerate building Australia’s largest coal mine, despite having called on the world to phase out the fuel as part of the UK’s COP26 presidency.

    The UK prime minister met with billionaire Gautam Adani this week on a trip to India to strengthen relations between the two countries and promote “jobs, growth and opportunity”.

    Adani tweeted a photo of the meeting with Johnson today, writing: “Honoured to host @BorisJohnson, the first UK PM to visit Gujarat, at Adani HQ. Delighted to support climate & sustainability agenda with focus on renewables, green H2 & new energy. Will also work with UK companies to co-create defence & aerospace technologies.”

    Adani Group has pledged to be carbon neutral and embrace renewable energy, but at the same time is expanding its coal production, with plans to double its coal-fired power capacity to 24GW, according to analysis last year by campaign group Market Forces.

    Honoured to host @BorisJohnson, the first UK PM to visit Gujarat, at Adani HQ. Delighted to support climate & sustainability agenda with focus on renewables, green H2 & new energy. Will also work with UK companies to co-create defence & aerospace technologies. #AtmanirbharBharat pic.twitter.com/IzoRpIV6ns
    — Gautam Adani (@gautam_adani) April 21, 2022     - https://www.desmog.com/2022/04/21/boris-johnson-meets-coal-baron-on-india-tour-despite-calling-for-end-to-dirtiest-fossil-fuel/

    ...and wondered if the wise guru had anything to say. A twitter search on his account for 'adani' turned up these results:

    Sadhguru @SadhguruJV
    ·
    Jan 15, 2019
    Mundra port with multi mode evacuation and design to handle 400 million tonnes in a year is unique and of great significance to the economic strides of the Nation. Success of a nation is in the success of its businesses. -Sg @gautam_adani
    #MundraPort

    Sadhguru @SadhguruJV
    ·
    Sep 16, 2017
    .@Gautam_adani bhai, #Rallyforrivers has become a people phenomenon. Thank you for your concern and contribution. Blessings. - Sg

    Sadhguru @SadhguruJV
    ·
    Mar 15, 2017
    With @gautam_adani
    , an inspiration for all ambitious entrepreneurs of India. -Sg



    - https://twitter.com/search?q=adani%20(from%3ASadhguruJV)&src=typed_query&f=live

    Mundra port:

    is the largest private port of India located on the north shores of the Gulf of Kutch near Mundra, Kutch district, Gujarat. Formerly operated by Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone Limited (MPSEZ) owned by Adani Group,[2] it was later expanded into Adani Ports & SEZ Limited (APSEZ) managing several ports.

    In FY 2020–21, Mundra Port handled 144.4 million tonnes of cargo. It is the largest container port in India.

    [...]

    Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Limited handles commodities including:

    Fertilizers like urea, DAP, MOP etc.
    Agri commodities like yellow peas, DOC, wheat etc.
    Liquid cargo including crude oil, POL, chemicals, edible oil etc.
    Steam coal, coking coal, containers, automobiles, steel cargo, project cargo and minerals     - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mundra_Port

    A search for 'coal' turned up no comments and 'adivasi' only one tweet thanking them for a donation. I've been hearing lots about the indigenous Adivasis from Survival International lately because coal companies including Adani are kicking them off their land and destroying their forests, some having already been displaced by hydroelectric dams and previous coal extraction since the 1950s:

    'Large numbers of Adivasi people are staging an indefinite protest in Hasdeo. Muneshwar Porte, an Adivasi man from Fatehpur village, which is now scheduled to be destroyed, said: “We are facing a critical situation now and so we are doing an indefinite protest. If our lands are taken away, our future generations will lose their identity and our existence will be lost forever.”

    Both projects will be operated by Adani, the notorious company that operates the existing PEKB coal mine in Hasdeo.

    The Parsa mine will produce 5 million tonnes of coal a year over 45 years to provide power for the state of Rajasthan – despite Rajasthan having enormous solar energy potential.

    Dr. Jo Woodman of Survival International said: “The Adivasi people of Hasdeo have spent a decade knocking with all their might on every door to protect their sacred and vital forest, including marching 300km to meet the Chief Minister. But the government has chosen to prioritise coal mining above the rights of Indigenous people and India’s Constitution and laws.

    “It’s also catastrophic for the fight against climate change. The Adivasis, the true owners of Hasdeo Forest, are stepping up their brave resistance to mining that they have not consented to. Standing with them as they defend the Forest and strive to keep the coal in the ground should be a global priority.” '     - https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/12811

    A report from the ground:

    'Binod, an orphan who lives alone in a ramshackle dwelling next to the mine’s dilapidated wall, had spent the earlier part of the day hacking and picking small boulders of coal from the unattended mining pit. After a bath, he is now ready to transport the scavenged coal on a bicycle for sale in the local market.

    ‘I sell the coal to small eateries and tea shops that use it as fuel for cooking. On an average day, I earn between Rs 300 and Rs 400 [around USD $5] by selling the coal. There is nothing else I can do for a living. Our forests and their resources have been lost to the coal mines. I am an orphan and had no schooling. I never got a chance for a decent job in the mines,’ Binod tells us, his breath reeking of mahuli wine.

    Like Binod, there are scores of young men and their families in Beheramunda, a locality in Rengali block (an administrative unit) in the Sambalpur district of Odisha, who make their living by pilfering or scavenging coal. Most of these families living right next to Talabira I are landless. Huge swathes of agricultural land on which they used to find employment throughout the year have long been taken over to extract coal. The only other source of employment for landless families is work as manual laborers at the nearby coal pits or distant construction sites. At times, they also find work in road-building or pipeline-laying projects undertaken by the state government.

    Scavenged coal is transported to the nearest village for sale, a hard way of making a living.

    Almost all families of Beheramunda depend for their daily bath on the water-filled coal pit after their community well collapsed a few years ago following a large blast in another nearby mine. Their miserable lives manifest the lop-sided development in the mining areas of India. Their lot is a stark contrast to the rich deposits of coal which have helped enrich many a corporate entity.'     - https://www.adaniwatch.org/a_community_lives_in_fear_as_authorities_pave_the_way_for_the_takeover_of_land_for_adani_s_talabira_coal_mines

    Adani also opened basically genocidal 'factory schools' to indoctrinate the indigenous children in the best tradition of residential schools from the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere:

    'Adani is collaborating with the Kalinga Institute for Social Sciences (“KISS”), the biggest Factory School in the world. KISS is home to 30,000 tribal children: it states openly that its mission is to turn “tax consumers into tax payers, liabilities into assets.”
    Factory Schools existed in the colonial histories of Canada, Australia, and the US, where they were usually known as Residential Schools or Boarding Schools. Colonizers set up such institutions explicitly to “kill the Indian” in indigenous children and remold them as servants of the colony. Factory Schools today share the same fundamental goal: the assimilation of indigenous peoples in service of the mainstream economy.

    Factory schools like KISS teach indigenous and tribal children that their family’s ways are “primitive” and “uncivilized,” making the children ashamed of who they are and where they come from, in order to destroy their connections to their land and their people. The school then indoctrinates the children with a new set of values and ideas that also happen to benefit the school’s backers, who gain compliant workers that believe in the company’s mission and do not obstruct their access to land, resources, and profit.

    [...]

    “We resist this kind of education, whoever it comes from — Adani or anyone. They give their kind of education because they want our children to hate jungles. They want our children to hate their own culture. They want to create distance between children and parents,” says Indian tribal rights activist Soni Sori.

    [...]

    Factory Schools have tragic consequences: between 2000–2015, just in Maharashtra state alone, over one thousand tribal children died in residential schools, including over 30 suicides. Rates of sexual abuse are terrifyingly high. Only time will tell if the Adani-KISS school in Odisha will add to these horrific statistics'     - https://www.survivalinternational.org/articles/adani-kiss-factory-school

    'Success of a nation is in the success of its businesses' eh? Not a peep about any of this from our guru (ie: no results for 'factory school', 'kalinga' or related searches), best pals with 'ambitious entrepreneur' Gataum Adani. Perhaps this explains his odd climate denialist stance that all you need to do to keep cool is to plant more tress and stand in their shade, and that it's a terrible thing to attack fossil fuel companies because they're only giving us what we ask of them, and 'why would you get angry at a butcher for providing you with meat?' - the old misdirection of taking personal responsibility for a problem caused by structural injustices which you are effectively forced to collude with because other options have been taken away from you. Watch from around 12:15:





    'I met some environmental ministers from several different countries [at COP26]. They said we were there for a whole week, Sadhguru, we never heard the word soil. When people are talking about climate change and people are talking about global warming, how come you're not talking about soil? Because exposed soil, ploughed soil and paved soil, are the two main problems on the planet which account for 40% of the global warming [citation needed], and you don't talk about it. Then I enquired into this, people who are there, various activists and others, I enquired: Why is it we are dodging soil? What is the thing behind this? Then they said, Sadhguru, if we find natural solutions all these oil companies will get away. What's happened to us? Is it always about fixing somebody? Is this what our life is about: always fix that guy, fix this guy, punch somebody in the face, is this what it's about? Oil company is not drinking oil by themselves, all of us are using it, all right? Hello? The simple way to close down oil business is you and me don't use it, if we are capable of that. We are not capable of that, all of us drove in here, yes or no? Hello? But we like to make somebody else the culprit. No, consumption is by us. Production is by them. It's like blaming the butcher for the meat that you eat. Hello? He is doing the dirty job for you, that's all it is, isn't it? Hello? Somebody is drilling oil, somebody is digging out coal because we are using it, or no? All of us, as a generation of people, every one of us is responsible for what is happening. Yes, somebody may be doing less, somebody may be doing more, but if you want to just punch people in the faces, it clearly shows you're not interested in a solution, you just enjoy the problem. You are making a living out of the problem, that's all the problem is.

    If people don't understand what climate change is let me give you a simple example, you don't have to study all the science. In England if it's sunny you say it's a gorgeous day. We come from India where sun is always on for us 365 days. So in the summer months if I make you stand in the hot sun for two hours and then let you come under the tree shade, you'll understand climate change. Clearly, under the shade it's a different climate, yes or no? [etc etc]'

    Hmmm, can't think why he would want to protect those oil companies who are giving his projects big donations from getting 'punched in the face' by those poor, spiritually unenlightened activists... Getting people to focus on 'natural solutions' like this, at the expense of demanding justice and reparations from the giant corporate interests that are continuing to immiserate humanity and drive us off the climate precipice, is arguably providing a vital service to global capitalism. We'll busy ourselves with planting a few trees, lobbying farmers to do something totally unfeasible and otherwise continue as normal, making no effort to stop the destructive processes that are continuing to escalate the crisis because hey, we're all in this together and they're only doing those bad things because that's what we've asked them to do. So pernicious...

    Anyway, I've probably expended way too much energy on this, so I'll leave it there. Hopefully someone gets something out of it and at least I'll have it for reference if I ever pluck up the courage/patience to explain to our lord-of-the-manor why his guru is a reactionary sh1thead (!)

    cheers,
    I

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