Vanadana Shiva invited to lecture in Canada

TORONTO - India’s award-winning ecologist Vandana Shiva has been invited to speak on alternative forms of democracy at the world-famous University of Waterloo in Canada.

A recipient of the 1993 Right Livelihood Award - which is considered to be the alternative Nobel Prize - Shiva has been given the honour of speaking on ‘Earth Democracy: Beyond Dead Democracy and Killing Economies’ at this year’s Hagey lecture series at the university next week.

Named after Gerry Hagey, the first president of the university, the lecture series has invited many Nobel laureates and world-renowned scholar since its inception in 1970.

Waterloo city near here is the headquarters of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM).

Amid the global crisis, Shiva will expound her views on an alternative form of democracy to counter financial, social and climate meltdowns October 21, the university said Wednesday.

The author of ‘Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace,’ she has been invited by the university for her work for the marginalized section of society.

In keeping with her work under Navdanya, a movement she started in India to promote biodiversity, conservation and farmers’ rights, Shiva will discuss how democracy is under siege, yielding to both corporate dictatorship and violent extremism from excluded elements of society, the Canadian university said.

“The Hagey Lectures have always provided a platform to renowned speakers in different fields,” said Hamid Tizhoosh who heads the lecture committee.

“We are especially excited that Dr Vandana Shiva has agreed to travel to Canada to share her urgent concerns with us about such pivotal topics as food, agriculture and earth democracy,” he said.

Shiva, who incidentally completed her PhD at the University of Western Ontario not far from here in 1978, is the first Indian to be invited to the lecture series.