The recent revival of Marx on the Continent is causing a lot of chatter. Das Kapital is now selling like the latest batch of hot cakes, proving that even commies prefer to own the book. Ironic because they could watch David Harvey’s lecture series on Das Kapital online for free. By Daniel Taghioff. This development [...]
Category Archives: Environment
Call me Ishmael, but I'm pleased that the Japanese whaling fleet missed its quota
April 15, 2009 – 10:49 am
I’m no Cousteau, as you will plainly see from this article, but it has come to my attention that several species of the world’s fish stocks are running close to extinction. The success of the whaling moratorium serve as an example that positive action can lead to permanent results. By John J Kelly Over Easter [...]
Adaptation, not mitigation, is the fairest way to address climate change effects
March 31, 2009 – 2:33 pm
The poor must use every form of leverage they can find to get the support they need to survive climate change. Control of land is key. By Daniel Taghioff, India. Foolish people have argued that there is a choice between preventing the worst effects of climate change and adapting to unavoidable changes, despite compelling evidence, such [...]
This is not a detour on the road to Shangri-la. It's the path to perdition.
January 30, 2009 – 10:33 pm
Sally Buchanan made an important point about the inflation/deflation question in her comment below. We may require a re-alignment of our entire value system. The much-misued Utilitarian term ‘greatest good for the greatest possible number’ might depend on thinking about what we do and how we do it based upon what we, and the planet, [...]
So, where are the poor in the Brave New World?
January 13, 2009 – 3:03 pm
Authors and filmmakers can answer this question but policy makers and pundits seem not to have a clue. Perhaps it’s because they see them as statistics, not people. By Daniel Taghioff, India. Aravind Adiga’s Booker winner White Tiger and Danny Boyle’s Golden-Globe-harvesting film Slumdog Millionaire (based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A) [...]
Ignoring India's poverty is a recipe for nuclear Armageddon
December 19, 2008 – 3:14 pm
Thank God for George Bush. He laughs in the face of fear as he gives more nukes to the country with the most hungry people in it. And the funny bit is that despite parts of the American Christian right actually jockeying for Armegeddon, he probably achieved all this by mistake, and in the process he [...]
Houston, we have a problem. We're running out of planet.
December 12, 2008 – 10:40 am
By Daniel Taghioff, India. We need a Global Climate Deal right now, but when even a Greeny like Al Gore worked hard to dilute the Kyoto Protocol, you start to wonder if the Americans have a collective death-wish. The answer, of course, is no. But why then the insistence on oil? Why the crazy misadventures [...]
Throw away your crutches and limp down to the McJobCentre, says PM
December 10, 2008 – 7:55 pm
By John J Kelly In yet another demonstration of the sort of lateral thinking that has made Gordon Brown not only saviour of the banks but saviour of the world, Work and Pensions Minister James Purnell announced a government pledge to force long term sickness benefits claimants and some single mothers back to work. The Welfare Reform White [...]
Climate change is too important to be left to politicians
November 26, 2008 – 6:24 pm
Every now and again (actually most times) The Economist says something I wanted to say, better than I could. This week, the free market bible points out that posturing aside, the current UK government’s record on implementing effective climate change legislation leaves much to be desired. A new initiative, spearheaded by climate change Czar Adair [...]