As someone living in India, where worship of gross domestic product (GDP) growth (GDPism) is the official religion, I am struck by the utter bankruptcy of neoliberalism. India’s two decades-long annual growth of 6-8% has done little to pull the bottom third of its 1.1 billion people out of grinding, degrading poverty or provide healthcare, safe drinking water and education to the majority of... Read more
When initial reports appeared in the media that a new bill had been introduced that would alter the way the state regulates education, the arts and social services, many people refused to believe that it would actually be passed. But when deputies actually passed the bill, hope still remained that President Dmitry Medvedev would not sign it. But the law has been passed and signed.... Read more
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It’s no aberration that the first anniversary of the return to power of the United Progressive Alliance should coincide with a tsunami of grassroots protests: from Orissa to Maharashtra, and from Tamil Nadu to Uttarakhand, through tribal Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The protests represent popular resistance to UPA-2’s industrialisation and mining policies and its zealous... Read more
El asunto de la corrupción resuena en los países en desarrollo. En las Filipinas, por ejemplo, la consigna de la coalición que verosímilmente ganará las elecciones presidenciales de 2010 es: “Sin funcionarios corruptos, no hay pobres”. No es sorprendente que las instituciones financieras internacionales lo ponderen. El Banco Mundial ha hecho de la “buena gobernanza” un baluarte decisivo de su... Read more
For much of history, most of the world's peoples lived as subjects under despotic emperors, kings and princes. The monarch's will was all that mattered -- there was no rule of law. It's only in the last century that significant numbers of people became citizens with political rights.Until the Modern Age, governments made no distinction between proper armed services and the police. Soldiers... Read more
Cita a Susan George... Read more
“La universidad latinoamericana pasó de ser uno de los grandes focos del pensamiento contestatario, donde abundaban las ideas de cambio y de transformación social, a ser un cenáculo blindado por un pensamiento absolutamente fragmentario y tecnocrático.” En diálogo con Página/12, el politólogo Atilio Boron, director del Programa Latinoamericano de Educación en Ciencias Sociales del Centro... Read more
