The World’s Greatest Economists founded the World Bank in 1944 while wearing matching blue jumpsuits. This is why we no longer have poverty in the world.
Find out about more in these two videos from from Comedy Central’s Daily Show and their analysis of the Bank, and Wolfowitz. Keep Reading »
My friend Walden Bello has been characteristically busy. He has just announced his intention to run for parliament in the Philippines (check out his site here, which is already gathering vast numbers of endorsements from the global left). Part of the reason so many regard him so highly is that he’s an unusually lucid and clear thinker. A couple of days ago, he wrote this excellent and readable review of the plight of farmers struggling against international trade. Check it out, and see why he concludes that Keep Reading »
Here’s an icon of global inequality – a map of consumption, put together by PTHBB. Click the image for more, bigger, and updated.
ActionAid, one of the UK’s best aid organisations, has come out with a new report:
Who Pays: How British Supermarkets Are Keeping Women in Poverty”.
It’s not a promising tag-line, but Christine Dann, frequent Contributor of Things to Stuffed and Starved says that We Feed the World is an Austrian documentary well worth looking out for. It covers the film-maker’s quest for the source of his food, taking him on a European tour from France, Spain, Romania, Switzerland, Brazil and back to Austria again… The trailer’s in German, but the images are universal. Even if the soundtrack is a little heavy-handed.
Here’s a story well worth reading, one that gives the lie to the ‘biofuels boom’ promoted by, among others, The World Bank as a balm to poverty. As if further evidence were needed.
The folk over at Portside have circulated an article from the San Jose Mercury News. It decries the treatment of workers at local neighbourhood stores, and is another reminder that ‘local’ need not be synonymous with ‘ethical’….
The wags at Avaaz.org have been drawing attention to their Fire Paul Wolfowitz campaign by mashing up some pop culture with footage of the Embattled World Bank President. (I think they’re making “Embattled” a permanent feature of the job description.) Here’s the result – thanks to Dan for sending it on. And Dan’s right. The British version is funnier.
The Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration – the ETC Group – is a touchstone for research on corporate concentration in agriculture. Here’s a release from them about the ‘New Green Revolution in Africa’. Keep Reading »
It’s a long list, but a good reminder that, throughout the world, there are dozens of events to celebrate International Peasants Day today, April 17th.
Bolivia
Via Campesina Bolivia is celebrating the 17th of April in Montero, in the rural area around Santa Cruz. The event on Agrarian Reform, Food sovereignty and Gender will also be attended by the members of the International Coordinating Committee of La Vía Campesina.
Contact: lulabar_yuramihuilai@yahoo.es
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