Aid, and how it is administered and used, is a huge subject. There is a whole industry around the delivery of aid, global transport networks, ambitious programmes and huge multinational experiments. But as writers like Dambisa Moyo or William Easterly have been at pains to point out, the legacy of aid is pretty mixed. $2.3 [...]
Archive | June, 2010
Turned out nice, by Marek Kohn
Fresh from the future predictions of $20 a Gallon, I thought I’d read something similar on climate change and round out the picture of where we might be going. That thought led me to Turned out nice: How the British Isles will change as the world heats up, by Marek Kohn, who starts with that [...]
What’s on the G20′s mind?
Just put the G20′s statement (pdf) through Wordle to get a snapshot of their discussions this week. ‘Growth’ occurs 67 times ‘Climate change’ occurs 4 times ‘Poverty’ is mentioned 4 times There is no mention of the oil price The search terms ‘justice’ and ‘human rights’ return no results
Big oil and big art
Today there’s a big reception at Tate Britain to celebrate 20 years of BP sponsorship. Now is not a great time to be celebrating BP, as you may have noticed, and a group of artists will be protesting outside the London art gallery. It’s not the first time they’ve been targetted. Protestors crashed the party [...]
What we learned this week
Someone called Nigel Williams has written a book called The Green Millionaire, which appears to have been offered free on TV somewhere. For some reason Google points people to Make Wealth History, and I have had a string of people asking me for their free book. If you are one of them, I am not [...]
The software that helps you do less
This week I came across a remarkable sub-genre of software that I wasn’t aware of – programs to help you do less. Or more to the point, to help you do fewer things. Apparently our computers can do too much at once, and our ability to multitask actually means we never focus on one thing. [...]
The giving pledge
Could you give away 99% of what you own? Probably not, but that’s something Warren Buffett has promised recently. ”More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death” he wrote recently (pdf). “I will continue to live in a manner that gives me everything that I could possibly want in [...]
Break up with your old appliances
Until very recently, we had a drawer in our house with three old mobile phones, and in this we are not alone. Almost half of us have a unused mobile lying around somewhere, with or without its charger. A third of us have an unused camera, one in five has a computer they no longer use. 17% have [...]
The shanty town white house
To highlight a recent international meeting on water and sanitation in Washington, Wateraid USA created this striking photomontage with design agency Saddington and Baynes. “There is no doubt that if ministers and leaders had to endure these conditions in their own backyard they would take immediate action” said Wateraid’s Barbara Frost.
The steady state economy conference
I spent Saturday in Leeds at the Steady State Economy conference, organised by CASSE and Economic Justice for All. It was a fascinating day of speakers and workshops and I will tell you all about it soon. This week I’m on holiday however, so it’ll have to wait a few days. In the meantime, you [...]
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