some inspiration from an interview with an indian physicist, scholar, political activist and feminist named vandana shiva.

“swadeshi means self-making. in the name of progress, in the name of development, we have been made to walk down the road of depending. today all of america depends on something made in a factory somewhere in china. that kind of economy prevents everyone from making what they could make. and you lose quality, because self-making builds in caring. self-making goes with wanting to put out the ultimate quality. just as much as when you cook your own food, you will make sure you cook a good dish. sacrifice quality, and cheap becomes the label for humanity’s existence.

if we’re going to live in a world beyond the financial crisis, we’d better start doing things for ourselves, growing our food, making our homes, creating our education and health systems. putting pressure on the state is fine, but ultimately i believe we need to go beyond the centralized state and centralized corporate control. we need to go into decentralized communities that reclaim the capacity to make. and that is swadeshi.”

- from david barsamian’s alternative radio interview with vandana shiva.