Perversely, Web 2.0 has become synonymous with an American mythology of freedom. But information technology works best in small well-organised political units with high levels of social protection. So there is every reason to believe that the net works best with another notion of freedom – the security of knowing that failure will not have [...]
Tag Archives: Development
Oil on troubled waters
February 5, 2009 – 8:25 pm
We need to double food production, but we’re running out of oil and water. Obviously the market will sort this one out…
By Daniel Taghioff, India
When the Food and Agricultural Organisation says that another 40 million were pushed into hunger in 2008, what images spring into your mind? Is it possible to imagine that many people [...]
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) illustrate [...]
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 in [...]
Take me to the river…
November 30, 2008 – 2:17 pm
As the furore over Mumbai resolves into Indian rage towards Pakistan, it is worth taking a step back to look at what the tensions between these countries are about. Traditional explanations centre around partition, and about the holy status of Kashmir in the Hindu imaginary as a place of heaven, portrayed as a form of [...]
The spoils of famine
November 24, 2008 – 8:42 pm
Thanks to Jack Roberts of Big Idea and the Herald Sun for pointing out that Saint Bob Geldof charged $100,000 to speak in Australia recently about ‘the tragedy of world famine.’ Guests weren’t told that it was a paid gig, by no means the first, for Geldof, friend of the man who has done [...]
There is a word for it ….
November 19, 2008 – 4:41 pm
I love online dictionaries. Does this make me a Dork, a Geek or a Nerd? I especially like the OneLook Reverse Dictionary. If you ever feel lost for words, take a concept that leaves you speechless, put it in, and out come the suggestions.
One concept that has been leaving me speechless recently is how many [...]
Beyond Them and Us
November 8, 2008 – 10:45 am
It is sobering to consider that half of humanity exists at a level of the economic inferno which we blithely label as “less than a dollar a day.” Just stop and think about what that means. Is there any part of your own life that you can recognise in that? I live in India, and [...]