“We might not achieve that today, but at the very least we have to call upon our politicians and our media to drop the language of fear and be far more tolerant of one another.”
Alexander Betts
www.ted.com
Tag: globalisation
The Left confuses globalisation with neo-liberalism and gets lost
“But the problem is not the global trends in supply chains etc. Rather it is that their elected representatives have become co-opted by neo-liberal elites who fully understand that state power can be skewed to work in their favour and deprive a vast majority of citizens of the benefits of such global economic activity.” Bill Mitchell questions the sustainability of economic growth with labour productivity growth continuing to outstrip growth in real wages.
bilbo.economicoutlook.net
Our students were right to walk out
“Rights go hand in hand with responsibilities; you have the right to fart in [sic] public lift, it doesn’t mean you should exercise it.“ Ali Milani is proud to be representing Brunel students who respectfully showed their discontent with rightwing columnist Katie Hopkins’ views.
brunelstudents.com
Can we afford to ignore what Katie Hopkins says about migrants drowning in the Med?
“So while we ought noisily to challenge her incitement to hatred and violence against the most vulnerable groups in society and to condemn the fact that major media outlets are providing her with the microphone to do this, we also need to organise for a different kind of politics in which those escaping war and poverty are welcomed and not left to drown in the seas that surround us.“ Des Freedman regards Katie Hopkins as merely a sideshow in an age of neoliberal politicians protecting uninhibited cross-border flow of capital while barring people fleeing poverty and persecution and refusing to help them when they vanish into the sea.
www.opendemocracy.net
Europas Schuld
“Natürlich kann Europa nicht jeden Krieg verhindern und jeden gescheiterten Staat aufbauen. Doch Europa muss für instabile und Not leidende Staaten bei Weitem mehr tun als bisher. Ansonsten darf es sich nicht wundern, wenn deren verzweifelte Bewohner in Richtung Hoffnung aufbrechen—und sich weder von Meeren noch von Zäunen aufhalten lassen.” Markus Becker sieht eine klare Mitverantwortung Europas für das Flüchtlingsdrama. Pflichtlektüre.
www.spiegel.de
David Cameron used swarm instead of plague in case it implied that God had sent the migrants
“There has to be something wrong with a world where the best employment option for a farmer in sub-Saharan Africa isn’t being a farmer in sub-Saharan Africa, but crossing the Mediterranean on a punctured lilo, only to spend days dangling under a lorry so that he can end up selling lollipops in a nightclub toilet. Our indifference is staggering.”
Frankie Boyle
www.theguardian.com
Meet Fethullah Üzümcüoğlu and Esra Polat, the Turkish couple who spent their wedding day feeding 4,000 Syrian refugees.
Darwinian markets
“I’m struck by the work of some of the anti-globalization protesters, which has been admirably out-of-the-tunnel in terms of motivation, but naively ill-informed about how the world economy works.” Economist Paul Seabright on how human beings developed a complex system of cooperation and specialization between unrelated individuals.
www.reason.com
10 truths about trade
“Is globalisation sending the best American jobs overseas? If you get your news from CNN’s Lou Dobbs, the answer is ‘of course’.” Brink Lindsey puts some commonly made assumptions about the US American economy to the test. Useful reading even if, like me, you do not live in North America.
www.reason.com