Category Archives: Environment, society, politics and economics
Cheerful idealism to cure the world’s ills
Here is some cheerful idealism for sorting out the world’s double whammy of ecological cataclysm and economical disaster. In the press there is much deliberation about how to rebuild the economy. Even the FT, which is fairly practical and does … Continue reading
Romanticism
In May this year (before the world changed) Professor Paul Collier of Oxford University wrote in the Financial Times on the topic of rising food prices, globalisation, and poverty. In this article he criticises defenders of sustainable agriculture, repeatedly using … Continue reading
Why grown ups vote for the bad fairy
Could there be a connection between infantile aesthetics and some of our problems with the man and the environment? The average garden in Budapest comprises a neat strip of green lawn and lines of flowers in primary colours. Probably there … Continue reading
Hope is a fish
It is rare that good news hits the headlines. But a report on the strike by fishermen in Europe is indeed joyful. For decades industrial fishermen have been raping the seas, putting at threat of extinction innumerable marine species, polluting … Continue reading
Out of sight, out of mind – similarities between sub-prime and climate change
The Financial Times recently quoted George Soros in the context of the sub-prime crisis. “Securitisation had the effect of transferring risk from people who are supposed to know risk and know the borrowers to people who don’t.” This observation points … Continue reading