Parallel Developments in Sufficiency Economy Concepts ===== Simultaneous inventions are not new phenomena. The gasoline powered automobile (Daimler and Benz), the bicycle (Fahrrad and Laufmaschine), the telephone (Bell and Reis), the light bulb (Edison and Swan) and the more recent invention of radar simultaneously in Japan, Great Britain, Germany and the US are all examples. How does this happen? In 1987 historian Thomas Hughes proposed a description of these technological advances using the concept of a salient. A salient is a protrusion in a line or battle front. He proposed that as the body of knowledge develops there are missing pieces that produce what he referred to as reverse salients. Particularly in technology, a lot of attention focuses on the missing piece, as there is a potential for great fame and fortune to fill in the missing piece. This then, often results in parallel inventions. Even though there are many similar inventions, one of the inventions usually dominates. Bell’s phone was better technology than Reis’. VHS tape format won out over beta probably because of poor marketing and development. How does any of this relate to Buddhist Economics? ===== As we have seen over the last 60 years, as the economic development of the west has progressed, the south and most of the east has not been able to compete. This might be described as a reverse salient in the progress of international development. If we look at under-developed societies, our attention is draw first to the people in the society who are most vulnerable: the poor and starving, children and women, and populations in areas that have been affected by tragedies like natural disaster, war or health epidemics. All of these vulnerable groups are faced first and foremost with sustaining life and providing themselves and their families with food. The importance of agriculture in human life is indisputable. It is the source of all life. Human dependence on agriculture is, at its core, the center of survival. A source of food is a species’ most important need. If we are looking at a development plan with the strongest foundations, we need then to look first at the foundations of its agricultural economy. No matter the scope of the economy, it is mandatory that there be a strong agricultural economy. Once the people in a society have food security and excess for the market, the society is ready to make other personal developments that might include education and the development of technical skills. It might also allow for and lead to the development of related business such as food processing or restaurants. It has become clear to many people and organizations that a system of outside aid and control is not going to work to raise the development levels of the people especially the people who are most vulnerable. In systems of external aid, the disparity of income between those at the top of the society and those at the bottom increases and those at the bottom feel even more disenfranchised. Capitalistic models exacerbate this disparity. Given an environment of ongoing external aid, often a mind set, sometimes referred to as a welfare mentality, is established where the people come to believe that they are entitled to hand-outs. This development need of providing a society with a secure food source has led to the simultaneous development of a number of development tactics based on the concept of sufficiency. Thailand’s Sufficiency Economy Philosophy ===== Individuals and societies need to be developed in an integrated fashion. People are more than hungry animals. They need to develop physically, socially, economically, mentally and morally in a balanced fashion. Without that, they remain vulnerable. I would like to look at three specific examples of sufficiency-based development in terms of the sufficiency Economy Philosophy developed by HRH King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. The King has suggested, based on his observations over many years, that development needs to be deliberate grassroots development. He has described this as an “explosion from within.” It is a type of development that starts with the development of the individual and progresses through the family, the community, the region and the nation. Another way to describe this is in the analogy of raising a child into a strong adult. A child needs to be prepared with the knowledge and wisdom to deal with the world. We give them knowledge of language and communication. As parents we attempt to teach them good morals in order to give them a foundation on which they can build. We provide them with educational opportunities and watch over them. As they mature, they are able to step out of their homes and interact with society in good and productive ways. In the King’s words: “…Development of the nation must be carried out in stages, starting with the laying of the foundation by ensuring the majority of the people have their basic necessities through the use of economical means and equipment in accordance with theoretical principles. Once a reasonably firm foundation has been laid and in effect, higher levels of economic growth and development should be promoted…” Some people have viewed this concept as being old-fashioned. The King anticipated this. In his Birthday speech on December 4, 1974 His Majesty the King added that it is not important whether Thailand would be accused of being old-fashioned; what is important is the fact that the people have enough to live and to eat. “…no matter what others say – whether they will accuse Thailand of being old-fashioned or obscurantist. So long as we have enough to live on and to live for – and this should be the wish and determination of all of us – without aiming for the apex of prosperity, we shall already be considered as the top in comparison with other countries in the present world…” Sufficiency entails three components: 1. moderation 2. reasonableness 3. a self-immunity system, i.e. being able to cope with shocks from internal and external changes. Two underlying conditions are necessary to achieve this sufficiency: 1. knowledge (breadth and thoroughness in planning, and carefulness in applying knowledge and in the implementation of those plans are required) 2. morality (people are to possess honesty and integrity, while conducting their lives with perseverance, harmlessness and generosity) If we try to visualize what this philosophy is and how it relates to life and development we might use this diagram. (Figure 1) .. Image :: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1060/1007465931_f51a4c0cb6.jpg Figure 1 – A Vision of Sufficiency Economy At the center of this philosophy and movement is a strong moral foundation and a personal commitment to the concepts. The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board presented to the nation an official definition of the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy that was written by a group of eminent people. In part, it says: “Sufficiency” means moderation, reasonableness, and the need of self-immunity mechanism for sufficient protection from impact arising from internal and external changes. To achieve this, an application of knowledge with due consideration and prudence is essential. In particular great care is needed in the utilization of theories and methodologies for planning and implementation in every step. At the same time, it is essential to strengthen the moral fiber of the nation, so that everyone, particularly public officials, academic, (sic) businessmen at all levels, adheres first and foremost to the principle of honesty and integrity. In addition, a way of life based on patience, perseverance, diligence, wisdom and prudence is indispensable to create balance and be able to cope appropriately with critical challenges arising from extensive and rapid socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural changes in the world.” Clarification of Terms ===== Because of the similarity between the words, the perceived goals and the visible resultant life style, many people interchangeably use the terms sufficiency economy, self-sufficiency and other related terms. I think it is important that we establish the distinctions between these processes. Self-sufficiency is simple being able to provide for your own needs without help from others. Often “others” is defined as the government or other institutions that provide welfare support. This concept of self-sufficiency is most prevalent in societies that have significant programs to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial need. Factions, particularly in the US, who have a distrust of the government and have sometimes even withdrawn from society, have used the concept of self-sufficiency to show that they do not need the government. The sufficiency economy is more a philosophy of how you approach your life in order to achieve relative economic safety. It does not even pretend that we can live our lives independent of others. It does not advocate self-sufficiency. In fact, it encourages those who have established ways to insulate themselves from shocks to expand their reach economically and globally always using reasonableness and moderation. Attempts have been made, not always successfully, to demonstrate the affects of the sufficiency economy philosophy on small and medium enterprises, large corporations and governments. Since most of the work in sufficiency economy application has been based on grounded theory, there is work to be done to round out the theory and examples. All of the examples I will look at deal with providing the individuals and communities with a level of security by providing sufficient food to live on. Sufficiency Economy Examples ===== The three examples I would like to look at are 1) the nation of Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Block in 1991, 2) a study by Robert Tripp looking at communities in Kenya, Honduras and Sri Lanka and 3) the Asoke Communities in Thailand. All of these projects are agricultural, however, I want to reiterate that the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy is not about agriculture alone. Cuba +++++ Cuba is probably a unique nation in a number of ways. In particular it is an island nation mere miles from the shores of the US and has been successfully isolated from world trade by the US embargos for over 40 years. The Cuban culture is also special in that it does not have a taste for local foods but rather has a more European diet that is dependant on crops and food products not indigenous to Cuba and not easily grown in a tropical climate. Prior to 1991, Cuba’s economy was built on a strong mono-cropping agricultural scheme growing sugar cane that was exported to the Soviet Block that paid prices substantially over market. This provided Cuba with the wheat, rice, tractors and foreign exchange income required to purchase oil (used as fuel and in pesticide and fertilizer production), and other food supplies. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly independent countries did not feel obligated to pay premium prices for Cuban sugar just to support a former Leninist compatriot. With no foreign exchange, the Cuban life style changed over night. Both private and public transportation came to a halt and workers were forced to depend on bicycles for work commutes that could be up to two hours. Electricity was often turned off to conserve limited fuel reserves. People valiantly improvised for many things but it is difficult to improvise for food. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that in 1989, on average, Cubans were eating approximately 3,000 calories per day. Four years later that figure had fallen to 1,900. Faced with hunger, the people started farming for themselves. They planted vegetable gardens on empty lots in the city. They planted vegetables on small private farms. The government redistributed state lands to cooperatives and individual farmers. As incentives to encourage increased production, the farmers continued to receive supplies from the state in return for delivery of a contracted amount of their produce. Any surplus over that contracted amount, the farmer was permitted to sell. The government opened farmer’s markets in 1994 to provide an outlet for the produce. Without the oil imports there were no pesticides and no fertilizer so the food was by necessity, organic. With no fuel, the tractors are idle and the herds of oxen have increased. Without the imported grain, beef cattle and dairy cattle that were unable to survive on the tropical grasses, died by the thousands. The country is still lacking in dairy products and their diets remain protein deficient. Cuban has the most educated population in Latin America. After the revolution in 1960, the university student population went from 18,000 to 200,000. The government focused resources on the development of bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers. Now the universities are “filled with students looking at antagonist fungi, lion-ant production for sweet potato weevil control, how to inter-crop tomatoes and sesame to control the tobacco whitefly, how much yield grows when you mix green beans and cassava in the same rows (60 percent), what happens to plantain production when you cut back on the fertilizer and substitute a natural bacterium called A chroococcum (it stays the same), how much you can reduce fertilizer on potatoes if you grow a rotation of jack beans to fix nitrogen (75 percent), and on and on and on.” By 1998 the caloric intake was back to almost 3000 calories per day. A sufficiency economy is working. It has produced the only nationwide sustainable agriculture program in the world. But can it last? Because of the US embargo there are very few people who are traveling to Cuba to study the work going on there. But from all of the reports that have been done, the consensus is that if Cuba’s markets opened up the farmers would be back on tractors and using fertilizers and pesticides to make the work easier. Honduras, Kenya and Sri Lanka +++++ Robert Tripp is a research fellow with the Overseas Development Institute and the author of Self-sufficient Agriculture dealing with labor and knowledge in small-scale farming. In November of 2006 he wrote an article, is Low External Input Technology contributing to Sustainable Agricultural Development? In this article he looks at attempts to provide farmers and communities with tools that are commonly believed to be more accessible to resource-poor households and communities: tools that will reduce the cash and time outputs required to improve the productivity and sustainability of the farming. In each case he found limited adoption of the techniques taught and little transfer to others in the community. In these cases, farming is not the primary source of income and the households did not have the time or labor to invest in learning the new techniques even if they would result in future time and or resource savings. Interestingly, Tripp includes in his summary the following: “Agricultural technology is only one part of the solution to persistent rural poverty, and technology projects must be linked with broader rural development strategies (Dorward et al, 2004) … “The crisis in agricultural extension derives in part from the realisation that supply-led strategies should largely be replaced by demand-led alternatives. …... Project activity is not an efficient way of making up for deficiencies in basic education, information, and markets, nor is it a likely strategy for building relevant human or social capital. Farmer organisations will only be sustainable if they address major issues of concern to their members. Access to technology may be one of these, but it is unlikely that technology generation, on its own, will be the basis of a significant growth in viable organisations; it is less likely that specific technological issues would provide such a basis. Organisations need to offer as many advantages to farmers as possible in order to elicit commitment and offer varying levels of participation.” Thailand +++++ The Asoke communities are affiliated with the Asoke Sect of Buddhism. The sect was founded in 1971 when the founder Phra Phothirak criticized the Thai Buddhist clerical practices. There are now more than 24 communities in locations all over Thailand. The people in these communities come together for the main purpose of practicing dharma. This dharma practice has shaped the development of the community. Suwida Sangsehanat has broken the communities into 4 basic groups of people. The first group is made up of monks, sikkhamats, novices and laypeople adhering to at least 8 precepts. These are referred to as khon wat (people of the temple). The next group of people is made up of those laypeople observing at least 5 precepts and living in the community. The third group of people living in the community is the Samma Sikkha School group. The Asoke communities also have many supporters who make up the fourth group and do not live in the communities for various reasons but rather live in their own homes. The people in the communities are diverse. They are married, single, divorced, widowed, men, women, old, young, from rural areas, provincial towns and Bangkok, with educational levels from none to post graduate degrees and from occupational backgrounds just as diverse. Some of the people have been members of the community for over 30 years while others have just joined. Their individual goals in the community vary as well. Some have joined strictly for religious goals while others have joined to bring a child to the school, to learn natural farming, to help Thai society, or just to have a peaceful life. They have differing opinions on what the goals of the community are including those presented by Juliana Essen: * The target is to have people come and practice together, uphold the precepts, eat vegetarian, work, and sacrifice; * To build everyone to be saints; * The target is for humanity, to help humans, to help bring them above suffering, to be cheerful and economical; * The target is to help Thai society to be safe, to not fall to being the slave of other countries; and One important target is to build community to be a model and expand the good model toward other communities that need to develop quality of life. The communities started out growing their own food. They often had excess that they offered to the community at large for low or no cost. They have now developed a number of vegetarian restaurants to serve the public near their communities. They developed processes for producing herbal soaps and detergents to be used in the community that have been expanded to offer for sale to the general public in shops. Some of the communities make herbal medicines. At least one community has modified construction of a rice mill that makes it smaller and more accessible to the local farmers in terms of size and cost. Always however, the pricing of the products they sell is such that it makes the products available to the society without a goal of excess profits. In fact, there are times of the year where the community sells products at below cost. Conclusion ===== The term economics derives from the Greek words οίκω [okos], 'house', and νέμω [nemo], 'rules' hence household management. In the Topics, Aristotle provides his philosophical analysis of human ends and means. He explains that means or instruments of production are valuable because their end products are useful to people. The more useful or desirable a good is, the higher the value of the means of production is. Aristotle then goes on to derive a number of economic ideas from axiomatic concepts including the necessity of human action, the pursuit of ends by ordering and allocating scarce means, and the reality of human inequality and diversity. For Aristotle, the individual human action of using wealth is what constitutes the economic dimension. The purpose of economic action is to use things that are necessary for life (i.e., survival) and for the Good Life (i.e., flourishing). The Good Life is the moral life of virtue through which human beings attain happiness. He says that, in the end, the basic requirement of value is utility regarding a person's desires. Value is the ability to satisfy wants. Demand is governed by the desirability of a good (i.e., its use value). According to Aristotle, exchange value is derived from use value as communicated through market demand. Aristotle defines four forms of exchange: 1. Barter – The direct non-monetary exchange of commodities 2. Monitized exchange – The exchange of goods between households mediated by money 3. Retail trade – The purchase of good to sell at a profit. 4. Usury – Earning money on money Although he realized that wanting too much is a human failing, he placed a great deal of blame on money because it had no natural terminus. Aristotle taught that when a man pursues wealth in the form of exchange value he would undermine the proper and moral use of his human capacities. Aristotle led and taught of a life centered in metaphysics and ethics. Those areas gave life meaning and direction. As the study of economics has developed, we can see that centered grounding disappear. The Sufficiency Economy Philosophy, particularly when it is applied in developmental agricultural settings, is basically common sense. It makes sense as the development of a strong agricultural sector provides the society with a relatively secure source of sustenance and once people are not spending all of their time worrying about the source of their next meal they have time to focus on other personal and economic developments. These new developments might include education and development of technical skills or development of related industries such and value added processes or eco-tourism. Jules Janik noted, “The strength of the industrial sector of the economy depends, inter alia, on the strength of the agricultural sector.” The sale of excess agricultural goods generates currency flow for the farmer that can then be used to purchase other consumer products expanding the general economy in the process. The question then remains of what factors insure the sustainability of the concepts. “Agricultural development makes a critical contribution to overall economic growth in many developing countries. As farmers’ incomes rise, so does their demand both for farm inputs and services, and for non-farm goods. Increased agricultural production also leads to increased demand for processing facilities.” The Asoke communities in Thailand have demonstrated the possibility of sustainability and long-term endurance. The oldest of the communities have been functioning for over 30 years and yet they are still vital and attracting younger members. What makes these communities different than the communities described in Cuba, Honduras, Kenya and Sri Lanka? The one thing that presents itself as an answer is the personal moral commitment to the concept and the community. Although, as pointed out, the communities are very diverse, all of the members have a commitment to community AND personal growth and development. We talked about the varying degrees of commitment to ten Buddhist precepts. The ten precepts referred to are: 1. to refrain from destroying living creatures. (this underlies the vegetarianism of the community) 2. to refrain from taking that which is not given. (not stealing) 3. to refrain from sexual misconduct. 4. to refrain from incorrect speech. Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter. 5. to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness. 6. to refrain from eating at the forbidden time (i.e., after noon). 7. to refrain from dancing, singing, music, going to see entertainments. 8. to refrain from wearing garlands, using perfumes, and beautifying the body with cosmetics. 9. to refrain from lying on a high or luxurious sleeping place. 10. to refrain from accepting gold and silver (money). In joining the community, all of the members agree to abide by at least the first 5 precepts. These vows are taken seriously and once a week the community gathers in groups to discuss personal infractions and support each other in the personal development required to keep them diligently. This focus seems to provide for a strong commitment to develop the community and support the individuals. Another Buddhist principle that seems to have direct impact on the strength of the community and its ability to survive is the concept of detachment. There are two words in Pali that are often translated as detachment: viveka and viraaga. As Elizabeth Harris describes, non-attachment is a better English translation of the Pali word viraaga. Viraaga means literally the absence of raaga: the absence of lust, desire and craving for existence. She also points to the 3 forms of viveka: kaaya-viveka (physical withdrawal), citta-viveka (mental withdrawal), and upadhi-viveka (withdrawal from the roots of suffering). . Kaaya-viveka was valuable only if seen as a means to the inner purging and mental transformation connected with the destruction of craving. Compare this to Aristotle’s acknowledgement of the human failing to want too much. The Asoke communities’ members’ commitment to personal development encourages a development of the understanding of the effects of attachment and craving and the effects of that craving on human suffering. This is played out in an understanding of the ill effects of consumerism on individuals and the society as a whole. This allows them to proudly declare that they choose to be poor as is demonstrated in one of their slogans. In this declaration, they are making an economic statement not a spiritual statement. Often, people who have been unduly influenced by consumerism look at the economic condition of being poor, or having little as a measure of development. The Asoke communities have looked beyond the neo-classical definition of economic development as something to be measured by consumption to the more inclusive definition of economic development as something to be measured by human well-being: a definition that takes us back to Aristotle. Thomas Princen has said that sufficiency is not about denial, not about sacrifice or doing without. Rather, when resource depletion and over consumption are real, sufficiency is about doing well. It is about good work and good governance; it is about goods that are good only to a point. A community that makes a conscious moral commitment to wellness of individuals, communities and society as a whole can make a sufficiency economy philosophy work. So we are taken back to the King’s description of his philosophy as an explosion from within. Buddhist Economics has been described as where Economics meets Ethics. Ethics is in the final analysis an individual thing. Groups and societies can promote ethics but the application is on an individual, one-person-at-a-time basis. In order for Buddhist Economics to influence human social behavior, it requires the commitment of individuals. 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