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Title: Infrastructure mega corridors: a way out (or in) to the crisis? |
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Author: Recommon |
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*"Infrastructure mega corridors: a way out (or in) to the crisis?"* |
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*Translated from an original blogpost in Italian by Elena Gerebizza and |
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Filippo Taglieri from Re:Common introducing their new report: ["The |
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great illusion. Special economic zones and infrastructure |
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mega-corridors, the way to |
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go?"](https://web.archive.org/web/20200814132820/https://www.recommon.org/la-grande-illusione/)* |
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In the last few months our lives have changed dramatically. Many of us |
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lost their jobs while many others continued working under extreme |
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conditions. Inequality and social injustices have become increasingly |
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visible features of the economic system and the society in which we |
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live. |
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The pandemic might have impacted everyone's life, but it has not |
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affected everyone in the same way. Among the sectors that did not |
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suffer, but rather benefited from the crisis, are online platforms such |
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as Amazon and the likes. Those sectors have become the vehicles for the |
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transfer from "real life" to a virtual dimension for our working, |
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schooling, sporting and socialising. Fortunately, many have been |
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questioning what the implications of all this would be; including what |
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might happen to the data generated by our online lives; by whom and how |
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is this data being treated; and what are the implications? This is a |
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debate that we hope will remain open, since it concerns aspects that are |
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not contingent to the health crisis, but are instead key factors in the |
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reorganization of "the extractivist society". A society that enables a |
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few elites to extract more and more material and financial wealth from |
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the territories and local communities that inhabit them, effectively |
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expropriating them from the power to decide upon their own lives. |
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While most ongoing conversations center around the health crisis and the |
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resulting recession, we want to bring attention to the systemic |
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reorganization that is taking place as we speak. We are talking about a |
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process that began before the pandemic, a new way of organizing large |
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infrastructure according to the logics of mega-corridors, to reduce time |
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and space, with the aim of continuously increasing profits on an |
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increasing scale in the face of a slowdown in the growth of global |
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trade. This process, which remains only partly visible, is highly |
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energy-intensive and rooted in the fossil fuel economy, involving the |
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construction of new high-speed railways for the transport of goods, port |
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terminals, data centres and power stations, as well as new logistics |
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centres covering hundreds of hectares. All this implies a radical and |
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irreversible transformation of territories for the benefit of large |
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private capital, where ports and production areas identified as "free |
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trade", or "Special Economic Zones" (SEZs), all become interconnected. |
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What are the manifestations in Italy and Europe of this global capital |
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agenda? How will it change the social, economic and productive structure |
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of our country and the continent? What impact will it have on the |
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climate and the environment, two central areas where failures and |
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systemic contradictions are already very visible? The question is partly |
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rhetorical: it is difficult to imagine a "globalization 2.0" which will |
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accelerate production, transport and consumption of goods at an |
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unprecedented speed while at the same time profoundly reduce the |
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systemic impact on the environment and climate, an impact that goes far |
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beyond proposed calculations of direct and indirect emissions generated. |
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Will the major infrastructure mega-corridors plan be challenged in the |
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post-pandemic economic crisis or will the current crisis be an excuse to |
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accelerate it? Will its overall impact be properly assessed? This |
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remains doubtful since harmful impacts of the global infrastructure |
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agenda are so far considered as the least of their problems by investors |
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and policy makers dazzled by forecasts and data about the production, |
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logistics and global trade that is starting again. |
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How does this infrastructure masterplan meet the needs of the millions |
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of people who are already paying the highest costs of a profit-driven |
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model at all costs? How does it meet the needs of communities that will |
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be removed from their lands to make way for new mega infrastructure? How |
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will it make our societies more resilient to the great droughts, |
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typhoons, and increasingly heavy rains? How will it counteract the |
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increasing cementing of the most densely populated areas and how will it |
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enable everyone to have a roof over their heads? |
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We believe that it is high time to open up to such far-reaching |
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questions. |
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The original article and link to the report can be found |
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[[here]{.underline}](https://web.archive.org/web/20200814132820/https://www.recommon.org/la-grande-illusione/). |
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