Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Creating the Future OK, last post of the night [Conversations with Dina]: A wonderful argument for and against scenarios ...... "The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created -- created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination." - John Schaar 10:11:52 PM    comment []  trackback []

More on agriculture, subsidies and the developing world The Rigged Trade Game. Poor countries trying to pull themselves into the world market keep coming up against the richest nations' insistence on stacking the deck for their own farmers. [New York Times: Opinion] Underdevelopment as a verb. With apologies to AJ Leibling: Free markets belong to those who own them? 9:54:52 PM    comment []  trackback []

Bottom of the pyramid? or bottom of the barrel? [Davos Newbies]: Frightening statistics  Martin Wolf in yesterday's Financial Times pulled out some frightening statistics. The OECD countries -- essentially the world's 30 richest nations -- spent $311 billion on domestic agricultural subsidies in 2001. They spent $52 billion on aid to all countries. The 2001 GDP of sub-Saharan Africa was $301 billion. Worse, the annual dairy subsidy in the European Union in 2000 was $913 per cow. The average income in sub-Saharan Africa was $490 per capita. The EU's annual aid to sub-Saharan Africa was $8 per person. These are truly shaming figures. 9:26:10 PM    comment []  trackback []