Archive | Commentary

For some time now it has been clear that standard measurements of growth and development are inadequate and possibly even misleading.  The problem of looking at only the aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) has been widely noted: its blindness to distributional issues and its inability to measure either the quality of life or the sustainability […]

October 7th marked the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic, and the media let no one forget it!  Sarcasm prevailed, the attacks were all-embracing and almost interrupted, the only GDR relics spared in the attacks were the TV Sandman broadcasts for children, the jolly green and red figures on traffic lights […]

  “The people living in the 100 developing countries most affected by climate change are responsible for only 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.” This film is one of the three winners of the Germanwatch screenplay competition about climate justice. | | Print

During 2010, two important centenaries in the history of Sudanese nationalism occur — dates when armies from Darfur resisted colonial occupation.  But, these anniversaries have never been commemorated before, and the historical significance of the dates may pass without mention. The dates in question are two battles in which Darfurian armies fought against colonial invaders. […]

  Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced an investigation of low-level CIA operatives who exceeded the grisly authority provided by the “torture memos.” But the superiors who ordered these actions and the lawyers who provided the legal cover have not been held accountable.  Will there be a full investigation that follows the evidence up the […]

  Play now: Doug Henwood: What I think I like about your work is that you don’t romanticize the working class.  Your story of the town you grew up in, the community that is very stratified by ethnicity, race, and religion — this is not an innocent, dynamic working class that we would like to […]

There is no doubt that the financial sector in India was generally much less affected by the global financial crisis of the past year than in many other developed and developing countries.  This is not to say that Indian finance was unaffected: there were wild swings in external capital flows (particularly portfolio flows) as well […]

Chandra Muzaffar is Malaysia’s best-known public intellectual.  He has written widely on questions related to Islam, inter-faith relations and liberation theology, issues that he discusses in this interview with Yoginder Sikand. Q: Much of your writing focuses on a critique of capitalism and consumerism, or what you very aptly term as ‘moneytheism’, which you contrast […]

  The news coming out of Geneva these days is indeed very shocking and depressing.  The Abbas government, whose term in office expired long ago, has succumbed to pressure being exerted by Hillary Clinton and Avigdor Lieberman to defer any and all discussion of the Goldstone report on the war crimes in Gaza until next […]

Michael Moore‘s latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, is so far ahead of the historical/political curve that even people who consider themselves progressives will have to run at full speed to keep up with this renegade filmmaker. Moore has always been ahead of the curve. Twenty years ago with Roger & Me he demonstrated a […]

  “This is really a simple picture, and yet it explains so much of what Asia is today.  It looks at developing Asia as a whole region, from China and India to places in-between, and breaks the overall GDP down into two main shares: the black line is the export share and the red line […]

Gregory S. Taylor.  The History of the North Carolina Communist Party.   Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2009.  258 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-57003-802-0. The History of the North Carolina Party by Gregory S. Taylor offers a window into the efforts of the North Carolina Communist Party (NCCP) and further dispels stereotypes that early […]

It does not really need a crisis to show us that our current development strategy is flawed.  Even during the previous boom, the pattern of growth in developing Asia had too many limitations, paradoxes and inherent fragilities.  Much was wrong with the global economic boom that preceded the crisis.  Everyone now knows that it was […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.

  In a brash move, the White House is again demonstrating the exclusion of those who advocate for real health reform.  At the end of August, in response to the heated Town Halls and the opposition to health reform, Physicians for a National Health Program and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care sent letters […]

Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa, one of the most celebrated voices of Latin America, died on Sunday, 4 October 2009, at the age of 74 after a long illness, according to the announcement by the hospital where she had been under intensive care since 18 September 2009. Nicknamed “La Negra,” she won the hearts and minds […]

  I don’t want to serve. . . .  I think that in fighting in the cinema, through our movies, for a freer, more authentic expression, with weapons that can include joie de vivre and comedy, we are waging the same war as those who fight on the barricades. — Dušan Makavejev (1971) Infamous Yugoslavian […]

Rajendra Pachauri heads TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute, based in New Delhi.  An engineer of the railways in his early career, Pachauri went to the United States to earn a PhD in industrial engineering and another in economics, after which he returned to India in 1981 to work with TERI.  In 1995, he joined […]

  I wish to congratulate you on your election and reiterate to you our confidence on your capacity to unerringly conduct our works and deliberations. Likewise I would like to recognize the excellent work developed by Father Miguel D’Escoto, President of the recently concluded session.  The ethical dimension and the political scope of his presidency, […]

  In its last Tuesday issue [22 September 2009], Al-Akhbar carried a short news story about “Helem,” an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of homosexuals in Lebanon, which soon became an organization to combat all forms of discrimination. The news story covered Helem’s protest against the “International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association” conference […]