Sonja Bettel
"Buen vivir is about material, social and spiritual satisfaction for all members of a community that can not be at the expense of others and not at the expense of natural resources."
Ten years ago, the financial crisis shook the world. The collapse of a bloated mortgage market in the US resulted in billions in losses at major banks, followed by a global economic slump and public finances in many countries. The euro and the European Monetary Union fell into a deep crisis of confidence.
Many realized in 2008 at the latest that our prevailing financial and economic system is on a completely wrong path. Those who caused the Great Depression were "saved," placed under a "protective screen" and given bonuses. Those who felt their negative effects were "punished" by cuts in social benefits, job losses, loss of housing and health restrictions.
Buen Vivir - cooperation instead of competition
"In our friendship and everyday relationships, we are fine when we live human values: confidence building, honesty, listening, empathy, appreciation, cooperation, mutual help and sharing. The "free" market economy, on the other hand, is based on the basic values of profit and competition, "writes Christian Felber in his 2010 book" Gemeinwohlökonomie. The economic model of the future. "This contradiction is not just a blemish in a complex or multivalent world, but a cultural catastrophe. He divides us as individuals and as a society.
The common good economy refers to an economic system that promotes the common good, rather than profit, competition, greed and envy. You could also say that she strives for a good life for all, instead of luxury for a few.
The "good life for all" has become in recent years a term that is used variously. While some mean that you should take more time and enjoy your life, maybe separate a bit more garbage and take the Café Latte to go in the reusable cup, the others understand a radical change. The latter is certainly the more exciting story, because it goes back to the indigenous Latin America and has in addition to their political and socio-economic importance also a spiritual background.
"It's about building a solidary and sustainable society in an institutional framework that ensures life."
Good life for everyone or Buen Vivir?
Latin America has been shaped by colonialism and oppression, imposed "development" and neoliberalism in the past centuries. 1992, 500 Years after Christopher Columbus discovered America, a movement of new appreciation for indigenous peoples began, says political scientist and Latin American expert Ulrich Brand. As 2005 in Bolivia win the presidential elections with Evo Morales and 2006 in Ecuador with Rafael Correa "left" candidates and form new progressive alliances, the indigenous people are also involved. New constitutions should make a fresh start after authoritarian regimes and economic exploitation clear. Both countries include in their constitutions the concept of "good life" and see in nature a subject who can have rights.
Bolivia and Ecuador refer here to the indigenous, so non-colonial tradition of the Andes. Specifically, they refer to the Quechua word "Sumak Kawsay" (spoken: sumak kausai), translated in Spanish as "buen vivir" or "vivir bien". It is about material, social and spiritual contentment for all members of a community that can not be at the expense of others and not at the expense of natural resources. The preamble to the Ecuadorian constitution speaks of living together in diversity and harmony with nature. In his book Buen Vivir, Alberto Acosta, President of the constituent assembly of Ecuador, explains how it came about and what it means. The concept of "good life" should not be confused with "living better," he clarifies, "because the latter is based on unlimited material progress." On the contrary, it is about "building a solidary and sustainable society within an institutional framework who secures life. "
In contrast to Alberto Acosta, President Rafael Correa was well aware of developments in the Western, economic-liberal sense, which led to a break between the two, says Johannes Waldmüller. The Austrian has lived in Latin America for ten years and researches politics and international relations at the Universidad de Las Americas in the Ecuadorian capital Quito. On the outside Correa continued to adore "buen vivir" and the protection of the environment, at the same time it came to repression against the indigenous people (which constitute in Ecuador only 20 percent of the population), a continuation of the "extractivism", ie the exploitation of Natural resources, the destruction of biodiversity parks for soybean cultivation or infrastructure projects, and the destruction of mangrove forests for shrimp farms.
For the mestizos, the descendants of Europeans and the indigenous population, "buen vivir" means to have a good life like the people in the west, ie in the industrialized countries, says Ulrich Brand. Even young Indians would live in the city on weekdays, doing jobs, wearing jeans and using mobile phones. At the weekend they return to their communities and maintain the traditions there.
For Ulrich Brand it is very interesting how the individuality that modernity has brought us into a productive tension with the communitarian thinking of the indigenous people, where there is often no word for "me". Their self-understanding of plurinationality, which recognizes different life experiences, economies, and legal systems in a non-authoritarian way, is something we could learn from Latin America in Europe, especially with regard to the current migration.
"It would be incredibly important to continue exploring the 'buen vivir' and the rights of nature," says Johannes Waldmüller. Although the "buen vivir" propagated by the state in Ecuador is now viewed by the indigenous people as suspicious, it has sparked interesting discussions and led to a return to the "Sumak Kawsay". Latin America could thus - in combination with the ideas of the common good economy, degrowth, transition and post-growth economy - serve as a place of utopian hope.
Buen Vivir: Sumak Kawsay and Pachamama
"Sumak kawsay" literally translated from the Quechua means "beautiful life" and is a central principle in the living environment of the indigenous peoples of the Andes. The term was first written in socio-anthropological diploma theses in the 1960 / 1970 years, says political scientist Johannes Waldmüller, who lives in Ecuador. Around the year 2000 he became a political term.
Traditionally, "sumak kawsay" is inextricably linked to agriculture. It means, for example, that each family has to help others with sowing and harvesting, building houses, etc., that they run irrigation systems together and also eat together after work. "Sumak kawsay" has similarities with values in other indigenous communities, such as the Maori in New Zealand or the Ubuntu in South Africa. Ubuntu literally means "I am because we are," explains Johannes Waldmüller. But also in Austria, for example, it used to be common for relatives and neighbors to help each other and to share the fruits of work or support each other when someone is in need. The incredible help from civil society during the great refugee movement 2015 / 2016 or new platforms for neighborly help such as "Frag next door" show that the sense of community still exists today and only in the meantime has been spilled by individualization.
In the political rhetoric of Bolivia a second term is interesting: "Pachamama". Mostly it is translated as "Mother Earth". The Government of Bolivia has even achieved that of the 22. April was declared "the day of Pachamama" by the United Nations. "Pacha" does not mean "earth" in the western sense, but "time and space". "Pa" means two, "cha" energy, adds Johannes Waldmüller. "Pachamama" makes it clear why the "good life" in the sense of the indigenous people of the Andes should not be considered without its spiritual component. For "Pacha" is an ambiguous term that aims at the totality of being, which is not linear but cyclical.
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