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Zimbabwe: wrong way, right way, John MakumbeThe opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) decided on 30 January 2009 to join a unity government for Zimbabwe in which power will ostensibly be shared between Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC. The long-delayed implementation of a compromise agreement brokered on 15 September 2008 and now reinforced by Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) may seem a plausible answer to the country's economic collapse. But the... more » The Carnival on Modern Liberty, Tom Griffin
Tom Griffin (London, OK): Welcome to the second edition of the Carnival on Modern Liberty, chronicling the online debate in the run up to the Convention on Modern Liberty at the end of the month. It's been a week that has highlighted the state's interest in diverse areas of our private lives, especially our online activities. There's good news for file-sharers... more » A world on the edge, Paul RogersThe global financial downturn that accelerated throughout 2007-08 for some time seemed to be largely confined to a cluster of western states - the United States, Spain, Japan and Britain among them. Yet the greater extent and severity of the crisis that erupted on "debtonation day", 9 August 2007, is becoming clearer. As late as November 2008, the International Monetary Fund (IMF's) monthly update was forecasting that overall world output would rise by 2.2% in 2009; the leaders... more » Need new governance, Simon Zadek
more » NGOs in Gaza: humanity vs politics, Hugo SlimThe Israel-Palestine conflict is striking for the intense emotions that it generates. These encompass not just the people directly involved on both sides but outsiders, especially in the western world - from cyber-activists waging a "virtual' war in the blogosphere and comment-forums to NGOs, civil-society movements and international humanitarian agencies. Hugo Slim is the author of Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War (C Hurst and Columbia University... more » Georgia war: auditing the damage, Tanya LokshinaOn January 23, Human Rights Watch published a 200-page report, Up in Flames: Humanitarian Law Violations in the Conflict Over South Ossetia, summing up its extensive findings regarding the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that occurred during the conflict in South Ossetia and uncontested Georgian territories. The armed conflict as such lasted only one week in August 2008, but the consequences will indubitably endure for much longer. The conflict and its aftermath... more » John Updike: singing America, James SchiffI was in class with ten students on the afternoon of 27 January 2009, teaching a graduate seminar titled "Updike and Atwood", when my phone buzzed. I ignored it and all subsequent vibrations because our discussion of Rabbit, Run was going well. It wasn't until break (it's a three-hour class) that I read the text messages: John Updike had died. I was devastated. We had just been discussing the raw kinetic energy, zigzag structure and lyrical passages of his first... more » Lib Dems to the rescue?, Tom GriffinTom Griffin (London, OK): It seems that Tom Nairn, Peter Oborne and our own Anthony Barnett were on to something with their suspicions that Gordon Brown would seek to shore up his authority with some kind of cross-party pact. The Fabian Society's Sunder Katwala offers just such a proposal in this week's New Statesman: A Lab-Lib deal is possible - but only if a pre-emptive progressive coalition is formed soon. By the time Barack Obama leaves these shores in April, Gordon... more » |
This was originally posted on the 29th of January, at the end of OurKingdom's week hosting the Carnival 
Friday, (Day 3): over the peak and heading for end-station Sunday...there is a seriousness here, a focused concern that is strangely settling...despite the usual chaos of Davos’s unfounded hopes, dissassociations of responsibility, technological idealism and the occasional relapses into post-Friedmanite market mania...there is an inner reality that most folks here seem to share, that the exercise of globalisation has indeed gone wrong, that Business as Usual will deliver more of the same... 
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