If the Narendra Modi government needed any more warning that it could undo the gains of prioritising the Northeast over the last few years by pushing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill now, then the latest missive by Tez, son of Bharat Ratna Bhupen Hazarika, should jolt it out of its brazen arrogance or single-minded presumptions. It would do well to review the Citizenship Bill before turning it into a law or risk alienating the region it had so carefully nurtured through development. Tez merely articulated the general discontent in the region, saying his "father's name and words are being invoked and celebrated publicly while plans are afoot to pass a painfully unpopular bill regarding citizenship that is actually undermining his documented position. It would, in reality, be in direct opposition to what Bhupenda believed in his heart of hearts." Calling the bill grossly unconstitutional, undemocratic and unIndian, he reminded that just by appealing to the people's memory of an icon, be it by dangling the carrot of the nation's highest honour or a bridge on the Brahmaputra, the government of the day could not run roughshod over people's rights to their land and identity. Or obfuscate the issue. Coming as it does close to the rejection of the Padma Shri by author Gita Mehta, sister of BJD chief Naveen Patnaik, who thought the honour was more politically driven, intended to woo Patnaik, this certainly raises questions about how we value, rather trivialise our own talent. While awards and titles are necessary for acknowledging contributions by pioneering citizens, they shouldn't be conferred with political gains in mind. In that case, they wouldn't be an honour but an insult to the personality and with respect to Hazarika his legacy. If anybody had even listened to Hazarika's song Aami Ek Jajabor (I am a wanderer), he would know that he was all-embracing of people, particularly of the disadvantaged, and wouldn't have endorsed segregation of any kind.
The Centre had clearly moved the Bill to bring back persecuted Hindus from polarised border states of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, hoping for an enhanced cushion of returnee Hindu votes before the Lok Sabha elections. And though Modi himself seems committed to the Bill, saying it would not bring about a cataclysmic demographic change, the BJP's own allies are upset. The AGP has walked out of the Assam government saying any refugee, irrespective of religion, would swamp Ahom identity and the right of indigenous people over their land, opportunities and resources. The Conrad Sangma-led Meghalaya government, where BJP is a coalition partner, has asked for a review while the Mizos are fearing an influx by Buddhist Chakmas. Manipuris are on a massive anti-Bill showdown and there are reports of internet being shut down in their state. The indigenous people argue that the Northeastern states are yet to recover from the influx of Hindu Bengalis from 1971 and of course, the subsequent illegal Muslim migrants, a process encouraged by national parties for shoring up votebases. Besides, one must not forget the colonial legacy, which ensured the import and predominance of educated communities in civil and administrative structures, one that significantly shaped the local economy and social hierarchies. Any further change would mean a flood of refugees and a drought of economic opportunities for local people. The BJP might use the Hindu refugees as the Congress did the Muslim refugees but both encourage alienation of locals rather than integration. What everybody seems to forget is that it has taken years of confrontation, violence, deaths and negotiation to build an alliance of trust. If the BJP underestimates this clamour for identity to serve its Hindutva core, it could knowingly fuel the return of extremist organisations that are lying dormant or have lost relevance. We cannot afford to derail the peace by stoking separatist sentiments.


Ships worldwide from SE Wisconsin - the historic home of the Parker Pen Co. Vintage PARKER VECTOR Fountain Pen Set of 3 Rollerball Pens Red White & BlueVector Prime was created by Primus at the very beginning of its struggle with Unicron drawn from the sublime material of a multiverse at the far end of entropy.
Explore the forces at work when pulling against a cart and pushing a refrigerator crate or person. Create an applied force and see how it makes objects move. Change friction and see how it affects the motion of objects.gregersn 2 August 2013 at 1413. Seems like theres a lot of problems with rendering the formulas. At least with Chrome as I am using here.
Vector Markup Language (VML) was an XML-based file format for two-dimensional vector graphics.. VML was specified in Part 4 of the Office Open XML standards ISOIEC 29500 and ECMA-376.According to the specification VML is a deprecated format included in Office Open XML for legacy reasons only.


The holidays are over, the kids are back in school and long winter days include hours at the rink, cold car pools and frequent snow days here in Maine. The mom uniform is real right now, and I have the same items on repeat. I've rounded up some of must-haves for this season. The good news is you don't have to spend a fortune; there are so many affordable options out there and some great sales going too.
If you live in a cold climate a warm coat is a necessity. If you're like me and basically live in a coat, you need to find one that makes you feel cute. I love this versatile coat that's on mega sale at Abercrombie & Fitch. Also, I was hesitant about the Teddy coat trend, but now I'm fully embracing the oversized fleece in all its glory. I got mine at J. Crew Factory on clearance, this one also at A+F is also great and on clearance.
Every mom needs at least one pair of leggings that she feels good in. I like to wear mine with a long sweater or tunic and sneakers most days but can easily swap out my favorite flats and a dressier top for moms night out. Spanx leggings are my top pick for around town leggings (these aren't for working out). These Aerie leggings are a close 2nd; they are much more affordable and can be worn for anything!
Local friends may just assume I live in my fleece pullovers, which isn't far from the truth, and I know I'm not alone. They are so easy to throw over a tunic and leggings or pair with you favorite jeans and sneakers and be extra warm. I have and love this one from J. Crew; it's a great one to snag on sale right now. The one pictured below is from Abercrombie, they have some other great ones like this one that you've probably seen on instagram, and I assure you it is just as great as everyone says. If you're looking for an even bigger save option, check out Walmart. I'm shocked how much I like their version of popular styles; like this one, and this one.
My hats save me for early mornings at the hockey rink. They cover up bad hair days and keep you toasty, win-win. There are so many cute options these days. Always great to shop local for these when you can; Betty Louise Studio and Bebo Hats are two brands that are local to me. I also love Anchored Heart Hats; they have adorable colors and patterns and are a lower price point.
Vests are another one of my most worn items in my closet; they're so versatile. Great for layering or as your top layering on warming days. I love a cozy vest like this soft L.L Bean fleece vest or or this faux fur style from Abercrombie that's on sale. I also have this quilted vest from J. Crew Factory is multiple colors; it's lightweight easy to layer and easily pulls an outfit together.
Big cozy sweaters are a must for me. I like open front and layering tees with jeans or oversized ones with leggings for the win. Throwing one on is a quick way to feel put together. I love this one from Target with a tee and jeans. This Aerie chenille sweater is one of my favorites this season, I have it on repeat with leggings or skinny jeans.
It's a necessity for some of us to find footwear options that help keep our feet nice and toasty. Personally, I'm still a fan of Uggs. I haven't found anything that is a warm and fluffy only my feet and I love wearing them barefoot. This pair is a cute option and a great price-point for Uggs. If you're looking for more of a shoe style to pair with jeans, these ones are great and you can't beat the price. Also I can't get through winter without my slippers. While the Ugg slippers look amazing, this pair from Old Navy is equally as cute and so cozy.
I am always cold in the Winter so while I usually layer in tanks, this time of year I have to switch gears and find long sleeve layers. I also like to have shirts and tunics that are a bit longer for leggings. This is my absolute favorite layering tee, I always stock up when they go on sale. I also love this one from Free People its great for layering especially under vests, but also looks good on its own in the Spring.
I think having a pair of jeans you love to wear and feel good wearing is key for a moms' wardrobe. Your "mom jean" can be whatever style or color feels good to you. With that said, I've been loving the classic high waisted mom jean style, it's so comfortable which to me is what winter is all about. I'm a big fan of Madewell denim, but I try to wait until they go on sale like right now. I am also surprised how much I love this jean from Old Navy, and this pair from American Eagle; both are currently on repeat for me.
What's your Winter mom-uniform? Are any of these pieces must haves in your closet?


boundary 2 (2016) 43 (4): 155-167.
Written at the height of the Greek/German economic standoff of July 2015, this review article finds in Stathis Gourgouris's Lessons in Secular Criticism a powerful critique of some of the legacies of Europe's attachment to Greece as well as a reactivation of some of its potentials. Arguing for a newly articulated referentiality between the classical tradition and the streets of contemporary Athens, Gourgouris provides a kind of political philology, a sense of every generation's potential emancipatory activation of language. Political philology might be understood to operate as a frontal critique of political theology and partner to the secular humanism proposed by Edward Said. The political and aesthetic activation of secular criticism involves a practical poetics as well as a critique of the conceits of the postsecular, of the notion of a political theology, and the claims of heteronomy.


While she can't discuss all the details of her super-secret job, she fills us in on how she got to where she is now. You'll hear about the benefits of her university degrees and how supportive communities have helped her along the way, why she loves tough problems and how she battles her insecurities, and why she takes time to learn new things, like how to play the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer.
Ariel offers an interesting perspective on being a woman in tech, how various mentors have helped her become the developer she is today, and how she tackles imposter syndrome.


And when special little parcel arrived yesterday with tea in it, from Daisy there was instant smile. As I am writing this, actually drinking one of tea's sachets she gave me, for the longest time I've wanted to try this tea, so had to be the first, finally drinking Chash tea.
I know I am always saying this, I am like broken record, sorry about the quality. However this photo was taken by my friend's phone, then emailed to me, as my laptop is out of action this week because my charger broke, and for odd reasons my pc don't ever like loading my pictures up.
And breath, sip on my tea…..
Have you had a cup of tea today or coffee?
I hope you enjoy them all ! The chai tea is fab with warm milk!
I love tea, too. Once I participated in a tea swap online! It was fun! When I was in high school I had over 50 pen pals and we all wrote and traded zines with each other.
Yes water, I do love my water. What type of coffee do you usually like to drink? by the way just looked at your blog, love your style NRC.


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n the likelihood that any of them can knock off the Patriots.Vasilis' Predictions:1. New England PatriotsBill Belichick's coaching system has lead the Patriots to five Super Bowl championships. Despite losing some key personnel in the offseason, it is difficult to project much of a regression for last season's runner-up. After jilting Indianapolis, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels will return to work with a now 41-year-old Tom Brady. New England may employ a more run-first offense after the departures of Brandin Cooks, Danny Amendola and Nate Solder. Still, Rob Gronkowski, Rex Burkhead and rookie Sony Michel will allow them to devise weekly game plans that create advantageous match ups. On defense, Jason McCourty was acquired to replace Malcolm Butler. He, along with his brother Devin McCourty and high paid corner Stephon Gilmore should form a capable secondary. Pass rush remains a weakness, but the Patriots should cruise into the postseason due to the weakness of their division.2. Miami DolphinsMiami appears to be a team in transition. Ryan Tannehill will return from injury but with his go-to target Jarvis Landry gone, giving DeVante Parker another chance to realize his potential. Kenyan Drake will try to maintain his production from the second half of last season behind a middling offensive line, and Mike Gesicki was drafted to become a mismatch tight end. The Dolphins run defense could take a step back without Ndamukong Suh. However, versatile rookie defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick should immediately improve a lacking secondary. Overall, Miami's talented young players should win some games for them, but they do not have the quality across the roster to become a genuine contender.3. Buffalo BillsThe strength of the Bills team is clearly their secondary. They have transformed this unit over the last two offseasons by drafting Tre'Davious White and signing Micah Hyde and Vontae Davis. High upside rookie Tremaine Edmunds was selected to become the centerpiece of their defense, yet Buffalo's pass rush is well below average. The outlook is less than ideal on the other side of the ball. An offense that previously relied on LeSean McCoy's running faces serious questions after losing the majority of their starting lineman. AJ McCarron was brought in as a placeholder quarterback until rookie Josh Allen is ready to take over, and they have traded for two former first round receivers in Kelvin Benjamin and Corey Coleman. Nonetheless, it is unlikely this group will fare well this season.4. New York JetsTodd Bowles' squad is heading in the right direction, but they are still another year away from contention. The acquisitions of Avery Williamson and Trumaine Johnson add more quality to an underrated defense that already featured Jamal Adams and Leonard Williams. Rookie quarterback Sam Darnold will probably take over for Josh McCown relatively soon. However, besides Robby Anderson, the Jets lack the playmakers or offensive line to produce an above average offense. A group of journeymen running backs, tight ends and receivers is not enough to compete in 2018.Sage's Predictions:1. New England PatriotsThe Patriots have not lost the division since 2008 when Tom Brady tore his ACL in Week 1. Barring a similar fate to the league's best quarterback, the Patriots are once again a lock to win the division and a one of the favorites to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. Though there has been some turmoil this offseason with the departure of Malcolm Butler and the four-game suspension of Julian Edelman, Bill Belichick will likely continue his reign of terror in the AFC East. New England ranked first in total offense in 2017 Baltimore Ravens Hats , and despite turning 41 this month, Brady recorded a 100+ passer rating for the third year in a row last season. With the departure of Matt Patricia to Detroit, long time linebackers coach Brian Flores will take over to try to turn around the defense, which ranked 29th in 2017. If the defense can elevate their play and Brady maintains his excellence, an already battered division is in for another season of Patriots dominance. 2. Miami DolphinsThe loss of Ryan Tannehill to a left knee injury doomed the Dolphins hopes last season as they finished with just six wins. While Tannehill has not appeared in a regular season game since the end of the 2016, he is a significant upgrade from the Jay Cutler bandage Miami leveraged last season. The loss of Jarvis Landry, who led the team in receiving yards for the last three years, will have an impact on the offense. The Dolphins will hope that former Patriots receiver Danny Amendola can bring some of New England's winning ways down the east coast to Miami to support the efforts of emerging receivers DeVante Parker and Kenny Stills. On defense, the Dolphins acquired defensive end Robert Quinn and released defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh this offseason. With the Bills and the Jets yet to solidify a signal caller, the edge goes to Tannehill to lead his team to a distant second place finish, even with his sub .500 winning percentage as a starter. 3. Buffalo BillsDespite appearing in the playoffs for the first time since the 1999 season last year, the Bills decided to part ways with quarterback Tyrod Taylor. The prospects of an AJ McCarron, Nathan Peterman or Josh Allen led team are not all that promising for the 2018 season. Regardless of who is starting, the addition of Kelvin Benjamin for an entire season should help an offense whose leading receiver in 2017 recorded only 83 more yards than Benjamin did in just six games with Buffalo last year. With an offense that ranked 29th and a defense that ranked 26th last season, the Bills have a lot of room for improvement but continue to lack the pieces and leadership to bridge the considerable gap in the AFC East. 4. New York JetsTodd Bowles has not been within striking distance of his first season win total (10), finishing 5-11 in the last two years. The Jets have not made the playoffs since 2010, starting seven different quarterbacks in as many seasons. While some have hopes that USC product Sam Darnold will change the tide, he is still competing against Teddy Bridgewater and Josh McCown for the spot. Regardless of who earns the honor, the starter will lack offensive weapons to target as the Jets leading wide receiver Robby Anderson will have to prove he can overcome recent arrests and character concerns to record his first 1,000+ yard and double digit touchdown total season. On defense, the Jets ranked just one slot above the Bills in total defense (25th) and forced only 11 turnovers in 2017. The likelihood that the Jets are truly competitive with another new starting quarterback, limited talent and a bottom feeder defense is slim. Jake's Predictions:1. New England PatriotsThere would have to be a combined spontaneous combustion of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady to pick against New England at this point. The coaching is consistently top notch, the quarterback just took home league MVP and the Patriots have appeared in three of the last four Super Bowls. The expectation is the same this year, without much resistance from the rest of this division.2. Miami DolphinsIs this the year Ryan Tannehill finally puts it all together? Probably not, and it is fair to question if the 30-year-old is ever going to live up to the high hopes the Dolphins had when they drafted him eighth overall in 2012. However Baltimore Ravens Womens Hoodie , Miami still has enough talent to be considered second best in a weak division, and Adam Gase should have enough tricks up his sleeve to keep them relatively competitive this season.3. New York JetsMany have been high on Sam Darnold's stock, and he certainly looked the part in his first preseason action against Atlanta. Expect him to win the job and go wire-to-wire as the Jets starter from Week 1, but fans should not anticipate New York to win a lot of contests in 2018. Rather, this will be a growing year where Darnold shows promise for the future, and Todd Bowles keeps his job as a result.4. Buffalo BillsWhile Josh Allen has more potential than some experts believe, he is in a tough spot to begin his career. The surrounding offensive talent is reminiscent of the historically bad group that Mitchell Trubisky inherited last year, and it does not bode well for Buffalo that AJ McCarron has not secured the starting spot to take some pressure off the rookie. Ultimately, it would not be surprising to see Buffalo picking in the top three of the 2019 draft, even if Allen shows the promise that led the team to select him seventh overall in April. OAKLAND RAIDERS (6-10)New faces: Coach Jon Gruden, defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, WR Jordy Nelson, RB Doug Martin, CB Rashaan Melvin, CB Daryl Worley, CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, LB Derrick Johnson, S Marcus Gilchrist, LB Emmanuel Lamur, LB Tahir Whitehead, FB Keith Smith, DL Tank Carradine, QB AJ McCarron, OL Kolton Miller, DT Maurice Hurst Womens Customized Baltimore Ravens Jerseys , DE Arden Key, DT P.J. Hall.Key losses: Coach Jack Del Rio, DE Khalil Mack, WR Michael Crabtree, RT Marshall Newhouse, LB NaVorro Bowman, CB TJ Carrie, CB Sean Smith, CB David Amerson, P Marquette King, S Obi Melifonwu, DT Mario Edwards Jr., QB E.J. Manuel.Strengths: Few teams invested more in interior of offensive line than Raiders with center Rodney Hudson, guards Kelechi Osemele and Gabe Jackson. Gruden seeks power-running offense with Marshawn Lynch behind trio. Successful run game could open up play-action passing game for QB Derek Carr. Carr seeks bounce back from down season plagued by back injury, unimaginative offense.Weaknesses: Secondary full of questions for coordinator Guenther. CB Gareon Conley struggled to stay healthy since being drafted in first round in 2017. Melvin had strong season with Indianapolis last year but only got one-year, prove-it contract. Safeties have mix of unproven young players and aging ones. 2016 first-round pick Karl Joseph yet to develop into playmaker. Reggie Nelson brought back at age 34 but seemed to be step slow last year. Marcus Gilchrist provides versatility with ability to cover slot.Fantasy Players To Watch: WR Amari Cooper. Considered top receiver heading into last year. Cooper had career lows with 48 catches for 680 yards in 2017. Raiders believe he can get back to 1,000-yard level from first two seasons. Red-zone favorite Crabtree let go this offseason, possibly creating more TD chances for Cooper.Vegas Says: Super Bowl 35-1. Over/under wins 8.Expectations: Return of Gruden brings optimism to Raiders fans who have had just two winning seasons since he left following 2001 and seeking success before move to Las Vegas in 2020. That changed when team traded best player in Mack before start of season following contract holdout. Questions remain about how Gruden will fare after nine seasons away from sideline. He seeks return to power football and old-school styles successful in first stint. Gruden likely adding new modern wrinkles to offense as well. Best move might be hiring of Guenther, which gives Raiders first proven DC in years. Defense needs better schemes with Mack gone following trade to Chicago. Pressure on rookies Hurst, Hall, Key to make up for pass rush missing with Mack's trade.


Every Surface product Microsoft has ever launched has centered on the wants of a selected area of interest of customers. You will want to keep the Zephyrus plugged in for the very best performance, anyway. Click on on via to the MrMobile Floor Laptop computer review for the rundown, and for all the details I didn't have time for, do not miss Daniel Rubino's full Floor Laptop evaluation right right here on Home windows Central!
Keyboard could possibly be beefed up. Prime of screen gets highly regarded beneath load. After utilizing it for the better a part of a month, here's the take care of the Surface Laptop — and the one factor it's best to look out for. I also wish to discuss just a little bit about Microsoft's battery life guarantees with the Surface Laptop.
I just lately received the possibility to place these questions to the check with a Surface Laptop computer evaluation gadget from Microsoft. You will not mistake it for an ultraportable like the MacBook or ASUS's Zenbook , but it surely additionally would not betray itself as a very decked out gaming laptop computer, like Dell's Alienware lineup.
We assessment tons of of products in a wide range of categories each year. Nothing drastic has changed between the 2017 Spectre x2 and the previous model of the product, which arrived in early 2016. There's bad news for many people with Home windows gadgets launched a couple of years ago: They won't have the ability to install the version of Home windows 10 introduced this spring.
The display screen on the Surface E book lifts straight off the laptop's base to develop into a pill in its own proper. The Dell XPS thirteen continues to be probably the greatest ultraportables round, with an impressive processor and added Thunderbolt 3. That's probably as a result of large amount of juice the laptop computer needs if you're gaming.


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DISNEY CUTS 'FROZEN' PRICES
April 30, 2018 by Philip Boroff
Frozen/ Deen van Meer
EXCLUSIVE: Maybe Frozen isn't critic-proof after all.
Following mixed reviews and turmoil in the secondary market, Disney has cut some ticket prices for the musical — one of the most highly anticipated of the season.
The best orchestra seats for Tuesday and Thursday of this week were originally $227.50, according to a February group sales memo from Disney. As of Monday afternoon, Ticketmaster was offering three tickets 11th-row center at the St. James for Tuesday for $100 less — $127.50 each — plus fees. Other center orchestra for both nights near the stage are $169.50. Balcony seats that were $99.50 are now $79.50.
FROZEN COMPOSER'S A CAPPELLA MUSICAL 'IN TRANSIT' SEEKS EXPRESS TRAIN TO BROADWAY
March 21, 2016 by Philip Boroff
A musical without musicians is an untested concept on Broadway. Janet B. Rosen, the freshman lead producer of In Transit, a long-gestating a cappella romantic comedy circling Broadway, says she's undaunted.
In Transit employs the subway as a setting and plot line and is arranged by Deke Sharon, the arranger and music director of the a cappella movies Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2 (worldwide gross $400 million). A national a cappella tour he oversees, Vocalosity, appears to be selling well. And Kristen Anderson-Lopez — who wrote In Transit with Sara Wordsworth, James Allen-Ford and Russ Kaplan — co-wrote Disney's Frozen ($1.3 billion). "We are ready to take it to Broadway," Rosen, who holds the rights to In Transit, told Broadway Journal last night at a concert presentation at Feinstein's/54 Below. She said it would be Broadway's first a cappella musical. "A cappella is huge right now."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Default on voluntary repayments by debtors.
Likelihood of continued repayments is low.
Although the total amount claimed is large, it comprises of small individual claims, rendering the debt-collection costs disproportionately high.
Management costs for debtor privacy information are high.
We offer corporations flexibility, such as through fully contingent fee plans.
We pride ourselves on the many satisfactory results achieved in matters commissioned by a major Internet e-commerce site hosting food and healthcare retailers, and a local government entity, so far.
We will offer the most suitable solution by creating a data management system on a per-client basis and collecting debts by means of mail, phone calls, demands for payment, small claims, and litigation.


text:
Posted at: Dec 30, 2018, 1:53 AM; last updated: Dec 30, 2018, 1:53 AM (IST)HIMACHAL
Saffron agenda dwarfed development
The Himachal Pradesh government took to cow politics; killer roads continued to claim lives
Lost in line of duty: Assistant town planner Shail Bala (L) with Vijay Singh (R) before he reportedly shot her
Pratibha Chauhan
Much in line with the Hindutva ideology, the new BJP regime in the state took several steps towards treating the cow as a sacred entity. It set up a Gau Sewa Aayog and the Assembly passed a resolution seeking the status of "mother of the nation" for the cow. Interestingly, the resolution seeking the status was moved by Congress legislator Anirudh Singh.
The Assembly also passed the Bill for the setting up of the HP Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Samvadhan Bill 2018 on December 12 to take care of the abandoned and stray cows. The BJP regime decided to set up gau sadans with a major chunk of the money coming from a portion of the temple offerings and Rs 1 from the sale of every liquor bottle in the state. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur faced criticism for toeing the RSS line and pushing the agenda of saffronisation.
The opposition Congress, meanwhile, remained divided as former CM Virbhadra Singh continued his tirade against state Congress Chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, demanding his removal.
As politicking continued, peace and tranquility of the hills was shattered when a seemingly timid hotel owner shot down assistant town planner Shail Bala. She was executing court orders of demolishing unauthorised construction of 13 hotels in Kasauli on the morning of May 1.
The unfortunate incident did not just make national headlines, but enraged the court for laxity on part of the administration and the police. The obvious fallout was that the courts, including the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal, took a stringent view of the hills being turned into concrete jungles by way of illegal haphazard constructions right under the nose of the authorities. The image of Himachal being a peaceful state took a major beating.
In the state known for its killer roads, the death of 24 schoolchildren, two teachers, driver and another woman in a school bus mishap near Gurchal village, 12 km from Nurpur town, came as a shock in April. The photos of school bags, bottles and books strewn across the hill side haunted one and all.
Dissatisfied with the magisterial inquiry, the parents and families of children are still seeking justice for the callousness of the school authorities for flouting transportation safety norms. The accident served as a wake-up call forcing the transport department to frame guidelines for school buses.
September saw a Shimla court bring culprits to the book as it awarded death sentence to the three killers of four-year-old Yug Gupta in September.
With growing concerns over turning of the state's hill towns into urban jungle, a ban had been put on all new constructions in the core area of Shimla last year. This year, the regulations got stricter with Kasauli, Manali and Dharamsala too facing the ire of the courts. The NGT imposed complete ban on new hotels and construction in Kasauli on May 17 and constituted committees to look at the concrete mess in Dharamsala and Manali. Shimla also faced its worst-ever water shortage in summer, exposing the absence of preparedness and delay in augmenting the supply to the town. This resulted in tourism taking a severe beating.
Tourist raped
A 33-year-old Russian tourist, who was walking down from Old Manali to Manali town via Dhungri village, was allegedly raped by two unidentified men in a reserve forest area in October. In December, the police made two arrests in the case. The accused were identified as Sanjay Kumar (39) from Palampur and Sanjay Tamang (28) from Nepal.
Death on roads
Nine persons were killed and 51 injured when a private bus fell into a river at Jalal Bridge near Dadadu in Sirmaur on November 24. The speeding bus broke the railing erected on the bridge and plunged into the river. Earlier in May, 8 persons were killed as a bus rolled down a gorge near Theog in Shimla.
Chargesheet, finally
In May, the CBI filed a chargesheet in the rape and murder of a minor schoolgirl in Kotkhai that shook the state last year. The CBI claimed Anil Kumar alias Nilu from Baijnath had committed the crime.
Poster girl
Manali girl Anchal Thakur made history by winning India's first-ever international medal in skiing in January at the coveted Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup.


text:
"How Does an Art Critic Obtain the Credentials to be One?"
Weng Choy February 26, 2019 Ask a CriticOpinions
"How does an art critic obtain the credentials to be one? At the end of the day, isn't a critic merely an opinionated arbiter of taste with his or her own preferences? What checks and balances are in place to ensure that a critic's commentary will be fair, informative and actually constructive to artists?"
There are credentials, and there is credibility. For most practising art critics, I'd wager that it's the latter that matters more. As someone who's been writing criticism for a quarter of a century, naturally, it's something I care a lot about, and today's question cut close to home.
So let's get started. First, credentials. For quite some time, various intellectual activities have been regulated and credentialed, by convention if not by law. If you want to become an art historian, then you get your PhD from a university art history department. It's a great thing that today our great minds come from places other than the privileged classes.
But higher education is far from universal, more expensive than it should be, and there aren't enough scholarships to go around. What's worse, these days, too many universities act too much like businesses and factories rather than educational institutions, being all too happy to pump out dodgy degrees – badly researched or argued PhDs and MAs, but paid for and passed nonetheless. Moreover, academics themselves have sometimes criticised the academy for being overly regimented and for stifling creativity and genuine intellectual achievement.
All this to say that the process of getting a degree in one's respective field is not a guarantee of true worthiness. But complications and caveats aside, I'm not suggesting that we become cynical about credentials, just skeptical (hey, I'm a critic, I advocate skepticism about almost everything).
You may have noticed that there are virtually no PhD programmes or university departments for art criticism. There are courses, to be sure, but art criticism is not what we call an academic discipline. That's because it has been, and continues to be, a mongrel practice. Each critic has his or her own mix of influences and training, drawing from philosophy, theory, art history, literary criticism, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, journalism, poetry, fiction and so on.
There is no standard preparation for practising criticism, and I think that's a good thing. But if critics shouldn't have to go through a credentialing process like getting a PhD, it's still important that we find ways to establish credibility.
Art critic Jerry Saltz, who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, only started writing about art at age 40. He had previously attended (and dropped out of) art school and briefly ran a gallery. Image credit: New York Magazine.
Let's step back a bit. How does one become a critic? Actually, it's rather simple: start writing criticism. Say a person is very interested in art, maybe even attended a few art history lectures during university. But this person isn't an arts professional – let's say she currently works as a dental hygienist. She decides one day to start a blog writing reviews about the shows she sees in town, and when she travels, which she does regularly, she makes the effort to visit galleries and museums, and writes about those exhibitions too.
Let's say she's a talented and prolific writer, and it's been four years since she's started the blog, which has a good number of readers. Not only does she write reviews, when she can make the connection she also does interviews with artists, curators and art historians as well. Once in a while, she posts a longform essay. And all this as an "amateur", since she's dedicated to her day job. How does she find the time and energy! Sometimes she wonders if she should make a career switch, and go back to school, get a degree in art history, maybe eventually a PhD, and become an academic.
I could tell a similar story, but this time instead of writing about art, our dental hygienist decides to start drawing, and she exhibits these on her Instagram profile, which now has many followers. She reads voraciously about art history and theory and everything else. Her drawings often make social commentary as well as satirise the artworld. She is talented and has thought about one day making a career switch and going to art school …
We tend to compare critics with art historians, because they both write about art. But what about seeing the kinship between critics and artists. Both a critic and an artist can decide to become what they want to be by virtue of practising the craft. While going to school is often what ends up happening, that is not necessary, just recommended. I emphasise this kinship, because I detected an assumption of antagonism in today's question, pitting critic against artist, viewing the former as "merely an opinionated arbiter of taste."
Some artists make all sorts of commentary, explicitly or implicitly, about social values and taste. They don't need to be credentialed for us to take them seriously, they just need to be good – howsoever one defines that. A good novelist, painter, filmmaker – they can be very opinionated, but generally, audiences accept an artist's right to her opinions, even if they don't always agree.
But once in a while, I notice someone questioning the rights of critics to have their own opinions. Why? Why do we value individuality and independence in an artist, but not in a critic?
Somehow the critic's opinion becomes "mere" opinion, and her independent perspective, self-appointed. When we challenge a critic's opinions, are we saying that she doesn't have the requisite legitimacy or expertise to make her arguments, or that we disagree with her?
Let's get back to our hypothetical dental hygienist art critic. One thing that is missing in her writing career is the continual interaction with editors, as well as a more intense engagement, beyond the occasional interview, with artists, art historians, curators and other art writers, and a full immersion into local, regional and international arts communities. Together, these multi-level engagements with arts professionals provide the "checks and balances" that today's questioner asks about.
Lorenzo Quinn's monumental sculpture, Support, at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
To wrap up, let me share a real-world story about "checks and balances" and "mere opinions". When Singapore set up its first pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001, the local media were giddy with pronouncements of how the country had arrived at the world's most prestigious contemporary art event.
A couple of years later, a local newspaper sent a food critic to cover the following Venice Biennale. The journalist defiantly and proudly proclaimed that she was an "arts idiot". Baffled by a good deal of what she saw in Venice, she was dismissive of it; she even ended her piece by suggesting some art stunt that she might do, if ever she was invited to participate in the Biennale. It was her version of knowing nothing about abstract painting, looking at a Jackson Pollock, and scoffing, "my child could do that."
The blame lies mostly with the editors. First of all, they shouldn't have given the assignment to someone without credentials or credibility. The media has a responsibility to cover the Biennale – which they had touted as being of such major importance – and to cover it in good faith. You wouldn't send a sports writer to a summit of world leaders.
But even if the editors did grant the Venice assignment to a food critic, which could have been a brave editorial choice, then they should have worked closely with her to produce a text that made a virtue of the art novice's perspective, one that endeavoured to make different and difficult encounters more accessible to the general audience. Instead of allowing the writer to entrench her own prejudices, the editors should have helped her realise the occasion was an opportunity to be curious.
Weng Choy
Everyone's a critic, or so they say. But some actually take it up as a profession, and not just in London or New York, but even in this part of the world. Lee Weng Choy is the president of the Singapore Section of the International Association of Art Critics. He's been writing art criticism for a quarter of a century. He's also taught as a visiting lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the School of the Art Institute Chicago; he has worked as the Artistic Co-Director of The Substation arts centre, and done consultation work for National Gallery Singapore, NTU CCA Singapore, ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, and A+ Works of Art, Kuala Lumpur. In this "advice column" for Plural, Weng Choy answers your questions about art, culture and life, with a lot of sincerity and just the right amount of sarcasm. (Profile pic by Len Finocchio)
Weng Choy June 22, 2019
Artworld Insider May 4, 2019
Nicole Soriano April 18, 2019
Are We There Yet? Into The Future, With Carla Bianpoen
Bethany Burton April 13, 2019


text:
<?php

/**
 * @file
 * Definition of Drupal\system\Tests\Module\EnableDisableTest.
 */

namespace Drupal\system\Tests\Module;

/**
 * Tests functionality for enabling and disabling modules.
 */
class EnableDisableTest extends ModuleTestBase {
  public static function getInfo() {
    return array(
      'name' => 'Enable/disable modules',
      'description' => 'Enable/disable core module and confirm table creation/deletion.',
      'group' => 'Module',
    );
  }

  /**
   * Tests that all core modules can be enabled, disabled and uninstalled.
   */
  function testEnableDisable() {
    $modules = system_rebuild_module_data();
    foreach ($modules as $name => $module) {
      // Filters all modules under core directory.
      $in_core_path = (strpos($module->uri, 'core/modules') === 0);
      // Filters test modules under Testing package.
      $in_testing_package = ($module->info['package'] == 'Testing');
      // Try to enable, disable and uninstall all core modules, unless they are
      // hidden or required or system test modules.
      if (!$in_core_path || !empty($module->info['hidden']) || !empty($module->info['required']) || $in_testing_package) {
        unset($modules[$name]);
      }
    }

    // Throughout this test, some modules may be automatically enabled (due to
    // dependencies). We'll keep track of them in an array, so we can handle
    // them separately.
    $automatically_enabled = array();

    // Remove already enabled modules (via installation profile).
    // @todo Remove this after removing all dependencies from Testing profile.
    foreach ($this->container->get('module_handler')->getModuleList() as $dependency => $filename) {
      // Exclude required modules. Only installation profile "suggestions" can
      // be disabled and uninstalled.
      if (isset($modules[$dependency])) {
        $automatically_enabled[$dependency] = TRUE;
      }
    }

    $this->assertTrue(count($modules), format_string('Found @count modules that can be enabled: %modules', array(
      '@count' => count($modules),
      '%modules' => implode(', ', array_keys($modules)),
    )));

    // Enable the dblog module first, since we will be asserting the presence
    // of log messages throughout the test.
    if (isset($modules['dblog'])) {
      $modules = array('dblog' => $modules['dblog']) + $modules;
    }

    // Set a variable so that the hook implementations in system_test.module
    // will display messages via drupal_set_message().
    \Drupal::state()->set('system_test.verbose_module_hooks', TRUE);

    // Go through each module in the list and try to enable it (unless it was
    // already enabled automatically due to a dependency).
    foreach ($modules as $name => $module) {
      if (empty($automatically_enabled[$name])) {
        // Start a list of modules that we expect to be enabled this time.
        $modules_to_enable = array($name);

        // Find out if the module has any dependencies that aren't enabled yet;
        // if so, add them to the list of modules we expect to be automatically
        // enabled.
        foreach (array_keys($module->requires) as $dependency) {
          if (isset($modules[$dependency]) && empty($automatically_enabled[$dependency])) {
            $modules_to_enable[] = $dependency;
            $automatically_enabled[$dependency] = TRUE;
          }
        }

        // Check that each module is not yet enabled and does not have any
        // database tables yet.
        foreach ($modules_to_enable as $module_to_enable) {
          $this->assertModules(array($module_to_enable), FALSE);
          $this->assertModuleTablesDoNotExist($module_to_enable);
        }

        // Install and enable the module.
        $edit = array();
        $package = $module->info['package'];
        $edit['modules[' . $package . '][' . $name . '][enable]'] = $name;
        $this->drupalPost('admin/modules', $edit, t('Save configuration'));
        // Handle the case where modules were installed along with this one and
        // where we therefore hit a confirmation screen.
        if (count($modules_to_enable) > 1) {
          $this->drupalPost(NULL, array(), t('Continue'));
        }
        $this->assertText(t('The configuration options have been saved.'), 'Modules status has been updated.');

        // Check that hook_modules_installed() and hook_modules_enabled() were
        // invoked with the expected list of modules, that each module's
        // database tables now exist, and that appropriate messages appear in
        // the logs.
        foreach ($modules_to_enable as $module_to_enable) {
          $this->assertText(t('hook_modules_installed fired for @module', array('@module' => $module_to_enable)));
          $this->assertText(t('hook_modules_enabled fired for @module', array('@module' => $module_to_enable)));
          $this->assertModules(array($module_to_enable), TRUE);
          $this->assertModuleTablesExist($module_to_enable);
          $this->assertModuleConfig($module_to_enable);
          $this->assertLogMessage('system', "%module module installed.", array('%module' => $module_to_enable), WATCHDOG_INFO);
          $this->assertLogMessage('system', "%module module enabled.", array('%module' => $module_to_enable), WATCHDOG_INFO);
        }

        // Disable and uninstall the original module, and check appropriate
        // hooks, tables, and log messages. (Later, we'll go back and do the
        // same thing for modules that were enabled automatically.) Skip this
        // for the dblog module, because that is needed for the test; we'll go
        // back and do that one at the end also.
        if ($name != 'dblog') {
          $this->assertSuccessfulDisableAndUninstall($name, $package);
        }
      }
    }

    // Go through all modules that were automatically enabled, and try to
    // disable and uninstall them one by one.
    while (!empty($automatically_enabled)) {
      $initial_count = count($automatically_enabled);
      foreach (array_keys($automatically_enabled) as $name) {
        $module = $modules[$name];
        $package = $module->info['package'];
        // If the module can't be disabled due to dependencies, skip it and try
        // again the next time. Otherwise, try to disable it.
        $this->drupalGet('admin/modules');
        $disabled_checkbox = $this->xpath('//input[@type="checkbox" and @disabled="disabled" and @name="modules[' . $package . '][' . $name . '][enable]"]');
        if (empty($disabled_checkbox) && $name != 'dblog') {
          unset($automatically_enabled[$name]);
          $this->assertSuccessfulDisableAndUninstall($name, $package);
        }
      }
      $final_count = count($automatically_enabled);
      // If all checkboxes were disabled, something is really wrong with the
      // test. Throw a failure and avoid an infinite loop.
      if ($initial_count == $final_count) {
        $this->fail(t('Remaining modules could not be disabled.'));
        break;
      }
    }

    // Disable and uninstall the dblog module last, since we needed it for
    // assertions in all the above tests.
    if (isset($modules['dblog'])) {
      $this->assertSuccessfulDisableAndUninstall('dblog');
    }

    // Now that all modules have been tested, go back and try to enable them
    // all again at once. This tests two things:
    // - That each module can be successfully enabled again after being
    //   uninstalled.
    // - That enabling more than one module at the same time does not lead to
    //   any errors.
    $edit = array();
    foreach ($modules as $name => $module) {
      $edit['modules[' . $module->info['package'] . '][' . $name . '][enable]'] = $name;
    }
    $this->drupalPost('admin/modules', $edit, t('Save configuration'));
    $this->assertText(t('The configuration options have been saved.'), 'Modules status has been updated.');
  }

  /**
   * Disables and uninstalls a module and asserts that it was done correctly.
   *
   * @param string $module
   *   The name of the module to disable and uninstall.
   * @param string $package
   *   (optional) The package of the module to disable and uninstall. Defaults
   *   to 'Core'.
   */
  function assertSuccessfulDisableAndUninstall($module, $package = 'Core') {
    // Disable the module.
    $edit = array();
    $edit['modules[' . $package . '][' . $module . '][enable]'] = FALSE;
    $this->drupalPost('admin/modules', $edit, t('Save configuration'));
    $this->assertText(t('The configuration options have been saved.'), 'Modules status has been updated.');
    $this->assertModules(array($module), FALSE);

    // Check that the appropriate hook was fired and the appropriate log
    // message appears.
    $this->assertText(t('hook_modules_disabled fired for @module', array('@module' => $module)));
    if ($module != 'dblog') {
      $this->assertLogMessage('system', "%module module disabled.", array('%module' => $module), WATCHDOG_INFO);
    }

    //  Check that the module's database tables still exist.
    $this->assertModuleTablesExist($module);
    //  Check that the module's config files still exist.
    $this->assertModuleConfig($module);

    // Uninstall the module.
    $edit = array();
    $edit['uninstall[' . $module . ']'] = $module;
    $this->drupalPost('admin/modules/uninstall', $edit, t('Uninstall'));
    $this->drupalPost(NULL, NULL, t('Uninstall'));
    $this->assertText(t('The selected modules have been uninstalled.'), 'Modules status has been updated.');
    $this->assertModules(array($module), FALSE);

    // Check that the appropriate hook was fired and the appropriate log
    // message appears. (But don't check for the log message if the dblog
    // module was just uninstalled, since the {watchdog} table won't be there
    // anymore.)
    $this->assertText(t('hook_modules_uninstalled fired for @module', array('@module' => $module)));
    if ($module != 'dblog') {
      $this->assertLogMessage('system', "%module module uninstalled.", array('%module' => $module), WATCHDOG_INFO);
    }

    // Check that the module's database tables no longer exist.
    $this->assertModuleTablesDoNotExist($module);
    // Check that the module's config files no longer exist.
    $this->assertNoModuleConfig($module);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Motor vehicle accidents are expensive, both in terms of damage to personal property and damage to the people involved. Expenses related to hospital stays, surgeries and ongoing therapies can be more devastating than the physical injuries and can last long after the injuries heal.
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The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal helps to raise money to look after those whose lives have been affected by war. We learned how poppies are made. We tried to assemble poppies with our eyes closed, or with just one hand. These are challenges which many injured service men have to face every day.
Afterwards, we explored some of the memorials in the arboretum. At school, we had painted special stones and laid these on The Royal Mail memorial.
We left special messages on our painted stones.
We saw a memorial to a Staffordshire soldier who had received the Victoria Cross for incredible bravery.
We visited the British Limbless Ex Service Men's Association Garden (BLESMA). This was a garden designed for people who have lost limbs to enjoy. The apple trees are special low growing trees (dwarf apple trees) and there are also lots of plants to touch - thinking of people who may have lost their sight.
We spent time at the National Memorial and saw the names of those who had lost their lives from our armed forces. The names have been carved into the stone.
The weather was kind for most of the day.
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month hour, the sun shines through.
We learned about the Bevin Boys. Every tenth person who joined up to fight in World War Two, was ordered to go and work in the coal mines, to keep the factories working.
We visited the Gallipoli Garden. This has been designed to help us to remember the terrible suffering which took place in Gallipoli, which is in Turkey, during World War One. The 9 trees represent the nine countries involved. The trees represent the soldiers calling for help as they were left stranded on the beach.
The nine trees represent the soldiers from the nine countries involved in the Gallipoli Campaign 1915.
We visited the memorial to The Land Girls. During The Second World War (1939 -1945) the men had gone away to fight, and so it was left to the ladies to do the jobs which the men had previously been doing. Find the rat on the memorial- think why rats were called 'Hitler's Little Helpers" during the war.
Can you spot "Hitler's Little Helper?"
A day full of memories!
Created with images by Milos Tonchevski - "Poppies"


text:
Tag Archives: new economic system
Is it time for a Global Planetary Authority?
I have been reading a blog, written by Angus Forbes, on the website of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), which exists to help bring about a transformation of the economic system, of society and of institutions so that all actors prioritise shared wellbeing on a healthy planet.
The WEAll Amp team
The piece by Angus Forbes is the first in a series of guest blogs, exploring a range of new ideas for how we can move forward and create a future economy with human and environmental wellbeing at its heart. I will not copy it in its entirety but just give extracts here. Those who want to respond to his ideas should do so in the comments section of his blog:
Guest blog: Is it time for a Global Planetary Authority? – by Angus Forbes
"Two extraordinary things have just happened to the human race. The first is the understanding that we now run, along with Mother Nature, the life-support system of our planet. This is tantamount to a second Copernican revolution. The second is that we have now formed into a connected global citizenship.
From this point on, the future of both Earth and us humans is inextricably linked due to our size and power. So, we now have part responsibility for the planet's ability to sustain life as we know it. We, yes, us humans, have to decide what the biophysical integrity of this planet will be in 2120, 3020, 4020 and thereafter.
We created our 200 countries though numerous acts of national self-determination when the global population was, on average, just under two billion (1924). Now we number just under eight billion people, we are urban, we are powerful and things have changed.
We now have a global problem that clearly cannot be handled by the system of independent countries and their multilateral organizations that we have created. For in the 50 years since the 1972 UN Stockholm Declaration which stated that the natural assets of Earth must be safeguarded, we have witnessed the accelerating destruction of our most valuable global asset, the biosphere. So something is structurally very wrong….
I am absolutely convinced that in order to protect the biosphere, we need a specialist global authority to do the job. We need to give it powers of regulation and revenue collection over all human organizational form (including the nation state) sufficient to impose the necessary biophysical boundaries for us all. Our new specialist authority will make decisions based on time frames different from those used by any existing human organization, i.e. 100, 500 and 1,000 years.
I believe that humanity is just about to embark upon our first act of global self-determination and enter the current void in global governance to create this authority. In 2022, 32 years after Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote the computer program HTML and gave us the World Wide Web, five billion of us will be connected to each other via the internet. Five billion global citizens who are only seconds apart….."
It is interesting that I have just been sent the link to this piece, for I was at a workshop two nights ago, with presentations from different people involved in various ways to try to reduce the impact of climate change. One spoke about upskilling people to do green jobs, another talked about the importance of supply chains and another about reparation needed for those countries who were most affected by climate change but who had done nothing themselves to cause it. This last speaker used the following phrase: "We need a global reset of systems rather than carrying on as things are at present." Perhaps what she was saying is similar to Angus Forbes comments above.
I am not an economist but, for a long time, I have realised that national and global economies need to be reformed. You will find my comments on this in my book and in several blogs posted on this site. I have been hoping that progressive economists would get together and tease out a workable structure that will reform the way economics is taught and implemented. Maybe the Wellbeing Economy Alliance is a body that could take this forward.
And this morning I have been sent a link to another publication on a similar theme:
"Economics: a Crash Course: become an Instant Expert" by David Boyle and Andrew Simms, available for £9.69 at:
https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/David-Boyle/Economics-A-Crash-Course–Become-An-Instant-Expert/23812700
Categories: climate change, economy, nature, Vulnerable Countries | Tags: global authority, global citizenship, global co-operation, global inequality, internet connectedness, new economic system, reset of systems | Permalink.
Climate economics need updating
Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (LSE), has written a letter to the Financial Times on 28th December 2018. It is copied in its entirety below:
"Your excellent editorial " How to rescue the global climate change agenda" (December 27) is right to call for a transformation of the policy discussion on climate change in order to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon economy. However, you neglected to highlight a key solution: economists and finance ministries must stop relying on models that are simply not fit for purpose when making investment decisions.
The potential impacts of climate change caused by fossil fuel use are grossly underestimated by the current generation of economic models, which cannot quantify the cost of, and therefore omit, tipping points in the climate system, such as the destabilisation of the land-based ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica, and apply inappropriate discounting such that huge damages to future generations are trivialised.
Similarly, economic models overestimate the costs of new zero-carbon technologies because they do not take adequate account of co-benefits, such as reductions in local air pollution, and of processes such as learning by doing. These models have failed to forecast how quickly the production and development costs of renewable energy technologies, such as wind and solar, have fallen over the past few decades and years.
The consequence of these shortcomings was starkly illustrated earlier this month during the Nobel Prize lecture by William Nordhaus, the great pioneer of climate economics. He told the audience in Stockholm that his widely used model indicates "optimal climate policy" would result in global warming of 3C by the end of this century and 4C by 2150. Such a result is simply not credible when compared with the scientific evidence collated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this year, showing how devastating a global temperature rise of more than 1.5C would be."
Categories: air pollution, climate change, economy | Tags: 1.5 degrees, climate change, fossil fuels, new economic system, progressive economists, zero emissions | Permalink.
The economy sometimes seems like a mysterious thing to ordinary people – something that is hard to understand – but there is nothing mysterious about it really. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "the state of a country in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money". So, in everyday language it is how we, as a country, make use of available money, to ensure that everybody has enough to live on. In a way, it is about balancing the books on a national scale. It is about money.
I have been able to discover five different types of economy. Before the industrial revolution, local communities in the UK lived largely in farming cultures and the economic system was structured around this. But this changed significantly as the industrial revolution gained momentum. An agrarian economic system has also been called A Traditional Economy, and some countries which did not become industrialised, still use this type of economic system. Other countries, which followed Britain in becoming industrialised, developed economies based on trading links and, like the UK, developed A Market Economy, which is largely regulated by demand and supply. For some, a market economy is another way of describing Capitalism. Some countries have a mixture of traditional and market economies, called A Mixed Economy. Yet other parts of the world have government control of their economies and this has been termed A Command Economy or totalitarianism; this would include countries like North Korea.
A recent article by Pat Conaty describes a Collaborative Economy for the Common Good70. He suggests that co-operatives and social enterprises are bringing a new dimension to national economies and have been more successful in delivering growth than market economies (in Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Canada etc.). Some call it community economic development whilst others call it a social economy. From this has developed a Solidarity Economy, which seeks to secure systemic change by organising small business and self-employed networks, bringing them into a collaborative economy movement. Such an economy is gaining strength across Europe, as it is based on serving the welfare of people and planet.
The relationship between trade and economies
In chapter 4, I discussed trading systems and how market economies first developed. One suggestion mooted there was that each country, instead of getting involved in complex and comprehensive international trading, should seek to be self-sufficient, only importing goods that they cannot produce themselves. However, I am pragmatic enough to realise that this is not going to happen overnight, as there are too many vested interests in the business world. So in this chapter, I will be looking at other measures that could be introduced, by modifying a market economy to a different (and new) form of economy, which helps to reduce the escalation of carbon emissions.
An uncontrolled market economy
But first, I want to look at the reality of what happens in an uncontrolled market economy. One way of doing this is to look at the measures introduced in the UK by the Conservative government since 2010, which wholeheartedly supports a market economy. These measures are set within the context of a belief that encouraging big business is the only means of making a country wealthy. Thus, the government introduced measures that enhanced the opportunities of the business world to make money: cutting taxes for the richest 4% and for corporations, whilst reducing the amount spent on benefits for the disabled and for the poorest in society. The measures were introduced in the name of so-called austerity which, the government argued, is necessary for reducing the deficit in the balance of payments. In practical terms, the outcome of this is that the government is giving away to the richest people in Britain more money than they are saving by reducing benefits for the disabled and the poorest in society. This does not make sense in a civilised society, as it will lead to further divisions and discontent in society, with the poorest becoming ever more militant.
Fig.60 used by permission
And big business, empowered by the extra money they have been given, use it to continue manufacturing and selling those products which add to emissions of carbon products and other pollutants. This enhances the rate at which climate change is escalating. So, in addition to being in the ever-speeding Industrial Revolution (IR) Continuum, our present government is encouraging businesses to feed that continuum, so that it runs ever more quickly out of control, producing ever more carbon emissions in the process.
A sensible economy in today's circumstances needs to reduce carbon emissions, encourage businesses which produce goods and services which reduce carbon emissions and maintain its benefits systems for the poorest and most disadvantaged.
A market economy provides unfettered freedom for businesses to carry out their activities, with little government control and little expectation that they will show responsibility for those less well off than themselves, or any responsibility for restricting climate change. And the UK is not alone in encouraging this. It happens in most of the industrialised countries of the world, which are in vigorous competition with each other. Businesses like this freedom of course, to make as much money as they can, but this should not be at the expense of the planet, nor of the poorest in our society.
David Cameron swept to power in the UK in 2010, saying that his would be the "greenest government ever". Jonathon Porritt, in his article: "The Coalition Government 2010-2015; The Greenest Government Ever: By no stretch of the imagination"61 has demonstrated that, in fact, carbon emissions increased during that term of office (2010-15). This has been reinforced by an article by Michael Le Page in the New Scientist, entitled "Ungreen and not-so-pleasant land"62. Le Page provides statistics that show that the UK is not on track to meet its climate goals (agreed in Kyoto Summit 1997) and that, rather than increasing its efforts to do this, the government has blocked a series of green measures, thus leading the country even further off course. Perhaps the most contentious is the proposed axing of feed-in-tariffs (FITs), which were available to people investing in solar panels for their domestic electricity needs. Because of these changes the UK has now slipped from 8th to 11th in the RECAI table73. (Renewable energy country attractiveness, published by www.ey.com).
Rewarding the rich is not the only way of creating wealth for a country. A recent article by Donald Braben, also in The New Scientist74, stated that it can be demonstrated that innovation is more likely to produce growth than existing market economy methods. His thesis is based on the history of scientific discoveries which, indeed, started off the industrial revolution in the first place. He has shown that some of the biggest scientific discoveries in our history led to the greatest growth in the economy. If this is true then, rather than funding big business, we should be funding research into new innovatory discoveries, such as carbon-free steel. I would add a rider to this, that the innovation encouraged in this way should also be about reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.
People who like to make money, in any part of the world, appear to have a mind-set that it is their right to do so without hindrance. Many have no conscience about the impact of their money-making on others and have little compassion for those who are the victims of their acquisitiveness, whether they are those in poverty, members of the animal kingdom or, indeed, the whole planet (see also in Chapter 4 – Paul Tudor Jones II).
Table 4: RECAI List of renewable energy country attractiveness (first 15 countries in the list) as at Sept 2015. (See: http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/RECAI-45-September-15-LR/$FILE/RECAI_45_Sept_15_LR.pdf)
Tax evasion (mainly by the rich) is a major source of lost funds for the economy (£5 billion a year), yet it is often the people who need to claim benefits who are castigated for playing the system. A recent article by James Bloodworth in The Independent75 showed that four times more money is lost to the economy by tax evasion than by benefit fraud, though the difference may be even greater than this if incompetence within the DWP is taken into consideration (www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/its-time-to-bust-some-myths-about-benefit-fraud-and-tax-evasion). He described this as a double standard, with one rule for the rich and another for the poor
Fig.61 with permission from David Baldinger
In the last few years in Britain a number of scandals have been uncovered, all related to this same acquisitiveness: MPs claiming expenses they were not eligible for, bankers and chief executives getting bonuses, even when they have failed in the job; companies and individuals avoiding the payment of taxes, by using offshore business accounts – and so on. All of these are linked to the same acquisitiveness that fuels a market economy. And the general public in this country have had enough of this. They want to see some honesty – in politicians and in big business – and to see signs of the responsibility referred to above.
A recent scandal has been leaked about the super-rich hiding away their fortunes in tax havens, with details of the names of some of the people who are doing this. As a result, the Prime Minister of Iceland has had to resign and this may be followed by other resignations. Yet, we knew 6 years ago, in a study reported by Heather Stewart in the Guardian76, that a staggering 21 trillion dollars has been lost to the global economy through tax revenues, as it has been stashed away in tax havens.
Yet it is encouraging that, recently, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney77, made some warning statements in a dinner speech, that the impact climate change could trigger a new financial crisis and derail the economy, as it currently stands. He based this analysis on the effects climate change has had in Britain on the insurance industry. Since the 1980s, the number of weather-related events, such as storms and floods, has tripled and the cost to insurers has increased from £6.5 billion to £33 billion, mainly to cover the cost of damaged property and of disrupted trade. He warned that, once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late.
What he identified is that much of the current financial investment is in companies which will be affected by climate change, such as energy suppliers, insurance companies, and oil suppliers etc., whose share prices will fall as climate change begins to bite. If these companies then fail, due to the pressures on them, the value of all kinds of investments, such as pensions and savings, could be affected. In the case of energy companies, if they do not convert to sustainable forms of energy, the pressure to reduce carbon emissions will also make them vulnerable to a reduction in the value of their shares. Oil companies and other polluting industries may be besieged by increasing numbers of claims upon them for compensation. This is already happening for Volkswagen, through their deception about carbon emissions from their diesel cars; and is likely to happen to ExxonMobil, who actively deceived the public about the reality of climate change over many years. The US coal giant, Peabody Energy, has already filed for bankruptcy.
If a financial crisis does occur and affects pensions, for example, the consequent loss of value (and potential income to pensioners) will come at a time when unprecedented numbers of people in the population reach pensionable age. The financial future of many thousands of people could thus be bleak.
This winter, there has been another catastrophic flooding event in the north of England, damaging many people's homes and putting even more pressure on the insurance industry, as well as causing £1.5 billion worth of damage to bridges, roads and other infrastructure.
Also, a recent investigation has shown that, of 20 zones earmarked by the UK government for the building of new homes, five were hit with alerts and warnings during these recent floods and storms.
Fig.63 Flooding in Appleby, Cumbria
Fig.64 The destruction of Pooley Bridge, Cumbria by flooding
From: www.bbc.co.uk
There is growing evidence that population growth and, more significantly, economic growth are the most important drivers in the increase in CO₂ emissions. Since 1970, emissions of CO₂ from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes contributed to about 78% of the total GHG emission increase78.
Professor Justin Lewis, in an article to The Independent79 about a growing right-leaning bias in the BBC, argues that there is now a growing body of evidence suggesting that a model of permanent economic growth is of dwindling benefit to wealthy countries such as the UK. He cites research which shows that GDP growth is no longer linked to improvements in health or happiness, is environmentally unsustainable and stretches commodity choice far beyond the time we have available to us as consumers. He concludes that there is a serious debate about whether wealthy consumer economies should still rely on growth to generate prosperity.
Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of a new economic system. Just as the industrial revolution became the trigger for a change from agrarian economies to a market economy, there needs to be a development of a new economic system that is triggered by climate change. I do feel that the balance of the economy can be, and should be, adjusted to allow for the crisis that is heading our way. We can no longer continue to run the economy as if nothing is happening, with businesses maximising their short-term profit, with no heed for the wider damage that their activities are doing. It is not "Business as Usual". Those who currently make vast profits from a market economy, and who promote it as the only way forward, need to take stock and change their attitudes and behaviour. Our planet can no longer sustain the robbing of its resources, and the contamination of its atmosphere, in the name of progress (see chapter 3).
Richard Douthwaite, in his book entitled "The Growth Illusion: How economic growth has enriched the few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet"6,80, states that economic growth does not have the benefits that many (mainly economists) claim for it. He demonstrates that, if the rate of growth is fast enough, there may be increased business profits and extra jobs but little improvements in the lives of ordinary people. Douthwaite goes on to say that the benefits for businesses come at the cost of lower wages and reduced job security. He also comments that achieving growth through the global system exposes each of us personally, and the countries to which we belong, to much higher levels of financial and environmental risk than did the more nation-state-based economies of earlier generations. A full quotation from Douthwaite is given at the end of this chapter (5).
Both Douthwaite6 and Fletcher81 (in "Free Trade Doesn't Work", 2010) are of the opinion that economists have got things badly wrong, most of their theories being based on inappropriate mathematical equations. This thesis is further developed by Paul Krugman in the New York Times82 in an article entitled, "How did Economists get it so Wrong?"
George Monbiot also addresses the issue of the mathematics being wrong in his article to The Guardian82 and on his website. The article suggests that the calculations have given a false sense of reduction in the use of the earth's resources because they have failed to include goods purchased from abroad in the equation. Indeed, if you look at the UK alone, where carbon dioxide emissions apparently fell by 194 million tonnes between 2002 and 2012 (using the wrong calculations), the real figure cancels this out and gives in fact an increase in emissions, related to the commissioning and importing of goods.
The New Economics Foundation (NEF)83 has done much work on alternative, more sustainable, economic systems. They are the UK's leading think tank on promoting social, economic and environmental justice. Their aim is to transform the economy, so that it works for people and the planet. However, one learns that they have received a large government grant to develop their work. Let us hope that they remain objective and are not influenced in their thinking by right-wing pressures.
They state on their website that:
"A strong national economy needs a flourishing network of local economies. These are shown to give resilience in times of crisis, but are consistently undermined by the sprawl of supermarkets and other chains – the kind of businesses that are most likely to up and leave in times of trouble. We should be ensuring that money stays in local communities rather than leaking out to distant head offices, and encouraging a range of diverse high streets rather than clone towns."
On Bankers and Banking, they state:
"A dysfunctional financial sector led us to the brink of disaster in 2008, and yet bank reforms aren't going far enough to tackle the root causes of the economic crisis. Our four big banks remain too big to fail, and continue to engage in the risky and unproductive activities that caused the crash. We need to establish a more stable, sustainable and socially useful banking system.
Jeremy Corbyn, in an article to The Times84, stated that Britain must empower citizen suppliers and direct private investment into green technology. He believes that our weakened public services will not be able to cope with the consequences of drastic weather events, such as the floods in Cumbria (2015) and Somerset (2013-4). He states that we need carbon budgeting to be the centrepiece of trade and commerce, taking the planet back to sustainable levels of CO₂ emissions. Environmental politics must include people working in today's economy and decisions by government must not take us backwards but must instead invest in the huge opportunities that the low-carbon sector offers.
Colin Tudge presented a paper entitled "Economic Renaissance: Holistic Economics for the 21st century"85 to a think tank at the Schumacher college in 2007. The think tank explored what the key components are of an economic system which would successfully achieve poverty elimination, climate sustainability and human fulfilment. What kind of economy do we need to protect ecosystems and people's livelihoods at the same time?
Professor Richard Murphy and Colin Hines wrote a report for discussion at the Paris 2015 Summit86, which provides solutions for how new green measures might be funded. The suggestion is that some of the funds already allocated for Quantitative Easing to keep the financial system afloat by the European Central Bank (€7 trillion of new money being printed), should be allocated in the form of Climate QE to save the planet – a figure of €10 million a month is suggested. This could be used in the form of climate change bonds from the European Investment Bank. These funds could then be directed to climate change programmes in Europe and in developing countries.
Fig.66 European currency
Other economists have suggested a different form of Quantitative Easing87.
Some countries have introduced a carbon tax and, in some cases, this has been successful in lowering carbon emissions88. Sweden has been particularly successful, first introducing a carbon tax in 1991. Their economy has grown by 50% since that time89 and their emissions of greenhouse gases have declined and been decoupled from economic growth. The OECD report89, which looks in detail at a number of pollution factors showed that Sweden has cleaner air than most other countries in the world (OECD Environmental Performance Reviews Sweden 2014).
The experience of Australia has been different90. They introduced a carbon tax in 2012, whilst led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard under a coalition with the Greens. This act was extremely unpopular and was repealed two years later by Prime Minister Tony Abbot. Full details of how they implemented the carbon tax can be found in Wikipedia. The chart in figure 69 shows the carbon emissions falling during the carbon tax period (2012-14) and then increasing again after it was repealed90. The decision to repeal the tax has led to Australia slipping from 10th to 13th in the RECAI list (see Table 4).
Fig.67 Carbon emissions in Australia before and after the carbon tax was repealed
A report from Climate News Network91 indicates that Brazil, whose president Dilma Rousseff is at risk of being impeached, will dismantle their environmental protection laws after the impeachment, in defiance of commitments made in the Paris Agreement. It would appear that the leaders in the impeachment process are businessmen who would benefit from these laws being repealed. Here is yet another female leader, who introduced environmental safeguards, being undermined by big business. Brazil has just suffered the worst environmental disaster in its history: the bursting of a dam of toxic mud last year in Minas Gerais state. All animal and plant life was destroyed by this disaster, which is said to be the worst since Chernobyl.
Fergus Green, a Policy Analyst and Research Advisor to Professor Stern, recently published a paper, which gave evidence that a nation can develop and implement green policies, without damaging the economy92. The paper was issued to encourage discussion on the issues.
Professor Nicholas Stern has written a paper for Nature93 in which he says that current economic models tend to underestimate seriously both the potential impacts of dangerous climate change and the wider benefits of a transition to low-carbon growth. He thinks that there is an urgent need for a new generation of models that give a more accurate picture and suggests that researchers across a range of disciplines (economics, engineering, science) work together to help those developing policy.
Other ideas have been to develop a system whereby the worst polluters have to foot the bill for cleaning up the damage they have wreaked on the planet.
Another group, linked to Feasta, have come up with a suggestion of capping the use of fossil fuels globally by introducing a global taxation system94. CapGlobalCarbon (CGC) aims to ensure that the aggregate global emissions from fossil fuels steadily decrease to zero. This would be achieved by a progressively tightening cap on fossil fuel extraction. Revenues from the extraction permits would be used to benefit the lowest consumers of fossil fuels. Such compensation could substantially alleviate poverty and reduce global inequality. By steadily and predictably reducing the global dependence on fossil fuels the process would also hasten a smooth transition to a zero-carbon economy.
Yet, despite all these well-argued documents and postings, in the UK at least, our present Government in the UK is rushing headlong into yet another era of austerity measures, based on the old economics, promoting growth and rewarding big business at the expense of the environment and the poorest in our society. And part of their strategy in taking this forward is to reduce spending on, and support for, green initiatives, aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
I am not an economist so I don't feel qualified to come up with a new system; there are others much better qualified than me to do this. All I have done here is to demonstrate how everything in this world is interconnected: ecosystems, the stratosphere, the industrial revolution and its continuum, population explosion, trading systems, weaponry and war, the rise of big business and bankers and the failed economics which they promote. This interconnectedness means that, if any one of these goes wrong or out of balance, then this will bring down all the others in a domino effect. Denial of this effect has only made things worse, with so much more to do to reverse the destruction.
It is interesting that the word economy has a similar root (eco) to the word ecosystem or ecology. I am told that eco comes from the Greek oikos, meaning 'house' or 'household'. I have shown in this book how ecosystems and the economy are inter-connected but what is needed is a new form of economy – or a new discipline – that appraises the needs of both through this inter-connectedness. Perhaps we should call it ecosystomics – a new form of the economy that provides for the human race, without damaging the ecosystems of the world.
Although I am not an economist, I feel I must put together some pointers (or suggestions) for those who do have the ability to construct such a system, making the changes necessary to have a balanced green economy. Shall I call it Economy 6? My readers may wish to add to it. It is my first venture into the new discipline of ecosytomics.
Suggestions for Economy 6
Some measures which might move us towards a new, balanced, green economy:
For the introduction of greater incentive schemes to encourage businesses to develop, use and market greener technologies and to penalise those who don't. Examples of this could include: using and developing renewable forms of energy; phasing out motor vehicles which use petrol or diesel and introducing those that run on easily-accessible clean energy;
Investing in research institutions which have the ability to develop innovative solutions to today's climate-change problems;
Introducing legislation to reduce the use of the motor car, such as restricting the number of cars owned by each household, unless they run on clean energy;
Phasing out coal-fired power generation and ending fossil fuel subsidies;
Introducing a carbon tax on those companies who continue to use fossil fuels;
Rebalancing the economy, so that the rich are not rewarded for irresponsible behaviour that adds to the carbon load;
Setting targets, for meaningful reductions in carbon emissions by an early date, as suggested by Desmond Tutu in his petition (chapter 1) and ensuring that the calculations for this are correct;
Phasing out nuclear power and nuclear weapons worldwide and re-channelling the money saved into the incentive-schemes and investments mentioned above;
Proper funding of those institutions regulating the tax system, so that tax evasion and avoidance is properly penalised;
Shifting the tax system to penalise those activities which need to be discouraged, such as greenhouse gas emissions and the accumulation of wealth;
Banning certain household appliances and gadgets, which are not necessary and only add to the carbon load;
Establishing a new institution, which will monitor the use of fossil fuels by companies and promote, and provide support for, the use of greener forms of energy;
Encourage less air travel, by raising awareness about the damage this is doing to the planet and encouraging airlines to invest instead in technologies that do not damage the planet;
Work globally with other partners to reduce deforestation;
Re-balancing international trading systems, so that goods and animals are not transported unnecessarily across continents and seas, adding to the carbon load;
Encouraging countries worldwide to be self-sufficient in terms of goods and resources, so that goods are not imported which can be produced internally;
Re-think and re-balance entirely transnational trading systems;
Work globally to find a better means of international co-operation in working jointly to reduce and reverse that damage that is currently being done to the planet;
Encourage partnerships between local government and local cooperatives and social enterprises;
Encouraging the setting up of local groups (3G groups), where individuals can meet together to share what they are doing to reduce their carbon emissions and to encourage each other to keep going with it, even if the majority of others are still in denial (3G stands for three generations – the amount of time we have left).
Some of the ideas above are already being worked on, and others are not about changing the economic system but about reducing carbon emissions, but I hope these are a starting point for others to add to, if we are really serious about taking meaningful anti-climate-change measures before it is too late.
Green Economy is not a new expression. It has been promoted by other groups, including the European Environment Agency, who produced the diagram in Fig.68:
Their definition of a Green Economy is one that generates increasing prosperity while maintaining the natural systems that sustain us95.
Their website goes on to say that:
Historically, the trend has not been towards green growth. On the contrary, economic expansion has imposed ever greater demands on natural systems — both in terms of the amount of resources that we extract or harvest, and the volume of emissions and waste that we expect the environment to absorb and neutralise.
As is increasingly understood, this cannot continue indefinitely: the environment has natural limits in terms of how much it can provide and absorb.
There is also a body called "The Green Economy Coalition", which is a global network of organisations committed to accelerating a transition to a new green inclusive economy96. They believe the crisis we are in is profound and that piecemeal policy change is not good enough. They want to see deep-rooted transformation and the courage to forge a new economic vision.
Their vision is to develop an economy that provides a better quality of life for all, within the ecological limits of the planet. They are working on five action areas to make that vision a reality:
Managing our natural systems – people and economies depend on nature for everything; until now our economies have not reflected that dependency;
Investing in people – evidence shows that more equitable access to our natural resources benefits both people and planet; where communities have secure tenure and a say in decisions there are better outcomes for the environment as well as for the local economy;
Greening high impact sectors – these sectors include food, housing and transport and their embedded energy needs – accounting for 63% of the global ecological footprint;
Influencing financial flows – capital markets are dominated by large banks but smaller, values-based banks, which base their decisions on the needs of the people and the environment, have proved to outperform traditional mainstream banks on all indicators, including financial ones;
Measuring what matters – economic metrics, such as GDP and quarterly reports, tell us nothing about the resilience of an economy or business; some investors are asking for new metrics. Governments in Canada, Botswana and India are already working on this.
And just recently, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has invited 120-odd nations to join a new International Agency for Solar Policy and Application97, aimed at helping poorer countries in the tropics develop solar power. India is investing $30 million to set up a headquarters and aims to raise a further $400 million. Modi has also written an article in The Economist (Gathering steam: The World in 2016, p70)98, which outlines the basic precepts of India's economy, to include incentivising afforestation, setting ambitious targets for renewable energy, faster and more inclusive growth and eliminating poverty.
It is encouraging to know that many people across the globe are already looking to develop new economies that no longer threaten the sustainability of the planet. The agreement signed at the COP21 talks at the PARIS Summit also takes us in the right direction, even though fossil fuels are not mentioned in the wording of this agreement. The detail of this agreement will be discussed in chapter 8.
From: http://www.propostalavoro.com with permission
I have come to the end of describing the interconnected factors which have worked together to bring about a situation where the future of this planet is at risk. Many other people, apart from me, have realised this and are working in various ways to raise awareness and to lobby for change. However, I feel that far too many people, all over the world, do not understand the urgency of the situation and have not really curtailed their activities as a result. This is why I have written this book and tried to keep it simple.
The following chapters will look at how we may work towards global co-operation in a united effort to bring about a sustainable future. The final chapter looks at why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, there has been so much lethargy about doing something about it.
Table 5: Quotation from the Introduction to Richard Douthwaite's book:
"The Growth Illusion" Green Books, 1999
"A decade ago, few of us had any doubt about what growth was for. It was to lift people out of poverty and enable them to have a better quality of life. Political parties dressed these
expectations up in different ways: the left would talk about growth leading to higher wages, improved social welfare, better hospitals, a lower pupil-teacher ratio and so on, while
the right would stress greater profits and a wider range of choice.
But now much of the old confidence about the results of the growth process has evaporated…the only benefits many of us expect from economic growth are increased business profits and – if the rate of growth is fast enough – extra jobs……..
So why, since we know the benefits of growth have… hefty price tags attached, is it still considered so important to achieve it? One reason is that firms are constantly trying to lower their costs by introducing labour-saving technologies. Naturally these technologies cost jobs, so every year, unless the total amount of activity in the economy increases by about 3 per cent, unemployment will rise. As far as jobs are concerned therefore, national economies have to grow pretty quickly just to stand still.
The second reason our countries need growth is that between 15 and 20 per cent of their workforces are employed at any time on investment projects designed to expand their economies in the coming years. If growth fails one year, firms that invested but couldn't increase their sales in the flat
market will find themselves with surplus capacity. This will cause them to cut any further nvestment plans they might have, throwing the people who would have built their new
factories, offices and shopping centres out of work. And since these newly unemployed people will obviously have less to spend, further jobs will be lost in other sectors of the economy. Consumer spending will fall even more, causing more job losses. In short, a downward spiral could develop
leading to a serious depression. The possibility of this happening terrifies every government in the world to such an extent that they are prepared to do almost anything to ensure that growth carries on regardless of its social or environmental consequences……
In 1998, I conducted an Internet survey for almost 700 participants from over 50 countries. I had expected that it would take most of the seminar to reach some sort of agreement that, whatever growth might have achieved in the past, current growth was not benefiting ordinary people. Not
at all. It took a bare 24 hours, so most of the seminary was spent discussing how the economic system could be altered to remove its need to grow."
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