Globalization on the rocks

A note from the editor

David Ransom

Some time ago I read two pretty harrowing accounts of ‘seriously organized crime’. Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah describes it in the industrial hinterland of Naples. Misha Glenny’s McMafia visits similar territory almost everywhere else. The closer I looked into corporate globalization for this issue, the more it appeared to inhabit much the same place. The brutality, the banality, the blackmail, the bribes, the bets, the bag-carriers, the big bosses, the booty – the business model must surely have come from the same maker.

The clearest difference between them is, of course, that one is considered legitimate. But even that has begun to blur. For instance, in Britain a venal but relatively paltry system of parliamentary expenses has been aping the antics of the corporate world for years. Was it really pure chance – I began to wonder – that induced the corporate media to ‘expose’ it, (thereby distracting public attention and discrediting parliament) only when immeasurably larger and more fateful sums of public cash were being requisitioned to salvage corporate globalization? Pure chance would be a fine thing. A profound conflict between corporate globalization and democratic legitimacy looks set to take centre stage for some time to come.

After the Copenhagen climate change fiasco, more hopeful signs are now visible in Bolivia. A People’s World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights starts in Cochabamba on 19 April. The prospects are explored in some depth on pages 21-24. By way of a reminder that the most significant causes always endure, on pages 34-35 some striking photographs celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

David Ransom for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

High spirits in hell: clubbing on a Wednesday night in Ciudad Juárez. fernando moleves / panos

High spirits in hell: clubbing on a Wednesday night in Ciudad Juárez.

fernando moleves / panos

Globalization on the rocks

David Ransom argues that a corporate shipwreck lies behind the collapse of financial markets.

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Features

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Downside up

Downside up

The upside of markets that failed, suggests Indian economist Jayati Ghosh, is the chance to do better.

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Deglobalization - reflections of a Filipino MP

Deglobalization - reflections of a Filipino MP

For a decade Walden Bello has known what really has to be done.

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Crisis, crash, crunch - the lowlights Illustration by Kate Charlesworth

Crisis, crash, crunch - the lowlights

A sorry saga since corporate globalization got going in 1971.

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Getting a grip on democracy

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Richard Swift finds some traces in Egypt and Latin America.

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Shipwreck - the facts

The facts about globalization, world trade, unemployment, economic activity and the bailouts.

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Connections

Connections

Books, websites, contacts on Democracy.

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Optimism in action as a Bolivian bus crosses a flooded high plain. M Rogers / UNEP / Still Pictures

To live...

New hope for international action on global warming has come from Bolivia, where President Evo Morales is convening a People’s World Conference on Climate Change. Vanessa Baird reports on a multifaceted initiative.

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Blogs

Storm warnings

Storm warnings

Latin America is backing Argentina in its dispute with Britain over oil exploration rights in the Malvinas.

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Opinion

The book dresser of Istanbul

The book dresser of Istanbul

Azad Essa meets a man who has dedicated his life to restoring books.

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Currents

A brighter future: Zabbaleen locals involved in the recycling business.Photo by: Jehan Casinader

Learning while earning

Cairo’s ‘garbage people’ are improving their standard of living

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Top of the class

Top of the class

Rome is bucking the school dinner trend, providing its students with wholesome, organic fare.

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Yasuní RIP? Photo by MAURO BURZIO / www.yasunigreengold.org

Yasuní RIP?

President Correa sends shockwaves around the world

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Growing pains

Growing pains

Africa’s great biofuel land grab continues

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Small change

Small change

The ugly side of microfinance

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Regulars

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The pampered paws

A trip to the pedicurist reveals the changing face of Egypt’s middle class to Maria Golia.

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Big Bad World - Nuke

Big Bad World - Nuke

Creative destruction? in Polyp’s cartoon.

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Be very afraid: Taser International co-founder Tom Smith has you in his sights.Mary Godleski / AP / Press Association Images

Taser International Inc.

Trigger-happy Taser International under the spotlight.

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Somaly Mam Photo by ROXANA OLIVERA

Somaly Mam

Somaly Mam has experienced the horrors of sexual slavery. She is now fighting to ensure other young women don’t.

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Toiling in the paddy fields in Vietnam.

Women at work

Smita Barooah Sanyal photographs women at work.

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Film, Book & Music Reviews

Tsikaya: Músicos do Interior

Tsikaya: Músicos do Interior

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Food, Inc.

Food, Inc.

This documentary raises the bar in not only looking good, but in putting it all in context.

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Ali & Toumani

Ali & Toumani

An intimate album with the space for real spontaneity

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The Idiot Cycle

The Idiot Cycle

The emotion is raw and the message simple: the ‘war on cancer’ is a hoax.

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The Headless Woman

The Headless Woman

Martel shows the mentality of people complicit in Argentina’s repression and ‘disappearances’.

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Going Rouge - Sarah Palin - An American Nightmare

Going Rouge - Sarah Palin - An American Nightmare

This book provides some amusing and insightful analysis of the way in which knee-jerk fundamentalism mixes with the celebrity sell to provide a personal narrative on which the hopes of the Republican Right have come to reside.

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The Unit

The Unit

Ninni Holmqvist's début novel is a dystopia in the tradition of Margaret Atwood and Marge Piercy.

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