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A Report on Self-Devouring Growth in Pakistan: In Light of Julie
Livingston's Book
About "Self-Devouring Growth: A Planetary Parable"

Julie Livingston, who is an American medical historian, has worked at the crossroads of history,
anthropology, and public health
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She is also
interested in writing and questions of formal expression
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It has been narrated in the form of a story, and Julie has played the role of a
storyteller
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This story takes place in Botswana, which is a “miracle land” in
southern Africa
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She talks of how “parable” and “parabola”
have same origins, how this journey of ours that we will trace through this parable is going to be
parabolic
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This is what
one actually feels while giving this book a study
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The different definitions of this concept of self-devouring growth that Livingston introduced
include,
a) The ways that the super-organism of human beings is consuming itself
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This concept has the significance of highlighting the side effects of our deeds
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Being conscious of the price one pays is very important
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The writer believes that stories are effective mediums when it comes to revealing urgent (at
times uncomfortable) truths that might be hiding in plain sight
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This is the motive of this paper
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The author is of the view that rather than blaming the scientific authorities on the surface level,
we should go to the root of the problem
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This makes this book a critique on these two
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Livingston is not against growth
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But
growth becomes dangerous when it is done blindly, ignoring the cost of it
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This kind of growth has
been analogized with cancer
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Because, according to her, the ultimate problem is human greed and its
fulfilment and then more and more increase in it through corporate capitalism
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We do not think
outside this economic race
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Due to colonialism and the concepts of enlightenment that were presented to us as being
rational, we ignored the collective wisdom of humanity because it was deemed as “irrational”
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The world that there concepts have created turned out to be
self-devouring and suicidal in the long run
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Not to the older ways that we start living in the caves again
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Julia also shares the view of Arturo Escobar (1999), when she wants us to redefine the concepts
that have become corrupted with time
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Her approach is like that for which Roy Rappaport (1968) had set the grounds,
but it is much more refined, easily accessible, and in-depth
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Her work seems a
clever and to-the-point amalgam of all these approaches
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Moreover, she
has a deep linguistic and cultural understanding, which she has mixed with a literary (storytelling) way
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Rainmaking and Other Forgotten Things
This is the first chapter of Livingston’s research in which she highlights the water crisis
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Along with that she also sheds light on the change
that has taken place in the concepts of “politics”
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We see different definitions of happiness in this chapter, how Batswana took it in a political
sense, the schadenfreude of German people, and ending with a question that to what kind of
happiness this “technopolitics” is taking us
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They used this water for making
the best health systems
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Their political system was based upon the concept of rain-making
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After modernization, this political conception has totally

changed
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The water system in Botswana that was based on rain, got transformed into pipe-line system
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And how high that cost could be, people of Botswana
might not have imagined
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In the race of economic growth, boreholes were made, pipelines got established, and dams were
built
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For a short time ease, the natural system got broken
and destroyed
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More and more boreholes were being done, lack of water
remained the same, at times lasting even for days or weeks, and then came the floods
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There are instances of so many waterborne diseases
from which these people suffered
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There are
examples from other countries too, like Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan (Aral Sea), and Soviet region
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Criticism is found on the capitalistic approach of “selling” water
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Human beings are stuck between artificiality, e
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use of more and more
chemicals (for agriculture, health, etc
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There are a lot of side effects to this blind
growth, but they get ignored due to zero concern for after-effects, mismanagement, and bad
policy making
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We see nature as an enemy, in search of taming it, domesticating
it, and finding ways of “endless” growth
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We say nature is angry at us, it is taking revenge, when actually we are
just facing the ignored side effects of our own doings
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Instances from Our Country: Pakistan
After having an overview of the model and criticism of self-devouring growth presented by Julia
Livingston, we can move forward to having a view of such instances in our region
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So can you
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Let’s start with some basic points of general knowledge and history
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The region in which Pakistan is located, the
subcontinent, became the victim of the conceptions of civilization under the banner of “white
man’s burden”
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When the colonizers left, we
couldn’t even fulfil our basic needs, environmental safety and its awareness was far out of sight
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Now
we will have a look at the self-devouring growth happening here, the roots of which we have very
briefly discussed
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Although the economy is highly dependent on agriculture,

Pakistan is become more and more arid with passing time
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Now, less than 10 percent of
Pakistan’s water is left for drinking and sanitation purposes
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The extent of mismanagement of water system is visible at its extreme level in the province of
Sindh
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The most powerful factor behind Pakistan’s water crisis is global warming (which is another
product of this self-devouring growth)
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However, few, if
any, areas of the world are struggling from the results of climate trade as great deal as this
mythical mountain region
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This speedy melting sample, coupled with some other effect of worldwide warming e
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highdepth precipitation, is predicted to worsen river flooding
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What does this entail for Pakistan? According to
the World Bank, it manner an exacerbation of the “already extreme troubles” of flooding and
terrible drainage inside the Indus Basin over the next 50 years, accompanied by as much as a
“terrifying” thirty to forty percent drop in river flows in one hundred years’ time
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And this kind of blindness can be
seen on a global level
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A few reasons of flooding have
already been discussed
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Although it was a capitalist flood, which could have been
prevented, nobody held the capitalists or the system that they are running accountable
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As per the data of August 30th, 2022, over 1,100 people had passed
away due to flooding
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People didn't have safe water to drink and they were forced to drink stagnant and
contaminated water
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Without timely
medical support, these diseases have becoming fatal very quickly
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And they in turn happen due to
blind consumer capitalism
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There is an increase in the span of
summer season as well
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The Bahria Town system is being established in every city
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This is growth, cities are growing, country is becoming modern, but
the side effects that come with all this growth are worth noticing
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We have priorly discussed that Pakistan is an agricultural country
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Moreover, we are witnessing a huge gap being
created between the poor and the rich, the elite due to this "growth" which is actually the basis
of an overall collateral damage
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Even after radical resistance from the students
and the teachers, the project is still going on
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Firstly it was said that there will be no environmental damage due to this project
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Where were they before? When even the laymen could see the damage being done but the

authorities couldn't
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Where he mentioned these "little sufferings" like
remaining thirsty to be "small sacrifices" for the "greater good" of the whole nation
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The basis are once again economic growth, trade facilities, etc
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There is a huge release of polluting
gases in the atmosphere
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Here too, lots
of trees are being cut for the construction of roads
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They are being cut like they are nothing
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This is the self-devouring growth we have indulged ourselves
in, where the "growth" is taking away the life sustaining components like water, trees, air
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Lahore has become so advanced, with a highly established road system
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With time, Lahore became one of the busiest traffic cities
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And with that comes all the traffic on the roads
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There is a layer of pollution in the stratosphere which has become a permanent part
of it
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Moreover, this layer of pollution is getting denser and denser
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According to the Center for Disease Control, air
pollution increases the risk of many preexisting conditions, including diabetes, lung diseases,
asthma, heart disease and cancer
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(B
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The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
(PAEC) has allegedly used the area, originally the site of Uranium mines, as a nuclear dump
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But at what
rate we are buying this safety? We are doing that at the cost of lungs and livers of the people
who are living in the surrounding areas
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But as
there has been a population rise, people are forced to live near the plant
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