Thursday, January 29, 2004

Hutton and the support of the center when there is no alternative. Posted here Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 6:38:39 AM     The tendency in the Huttton report to support the government and attack the BBC, without a broader perspective on the issues of how a press can cope with a government that creates a war based on  a false picture, is distressing. The support of the center in difficult circumstances is the best argument. Which raises again the ugly issue that apparently there is no alternative policy that coheres so that a society can function. ********

Hutton and Blair and Iraq Posted here Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 6:19:15 AM     "Hutton attacked the BBC hierarchy for allowing one of their journalists to criticise the government on the basis of one uncorroborated report from a source ... But he was only too happy in another part of his report for the government to make the 45-minute claim on the basis of - yes - a single uncorroborated report from within Iraq." ********

Friedman on globalization Posted here Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 6:14:36 AM     From Thom Friedman in the NYT The last elephant to crash were the antiglobalization protesters, who almost shut Davos down the last two years. This year, they were nowhere. Maybe because this year it was the Western business executives who were besieging their colleagues from India and China. They wanted to hear from the Indians about how Western firms can shift more service jobs  ranging from software design to reading X-rays  to India, and from the Chinese how they can absorb more manufacturing. With the world's two biggest developing countries doing so well by globalizing in their own ways, it's no wonder much of the hot air has come out of the antiglobalization movement, which never did have any real alternative growth strategy. Comment: this is the problem: no altenative. But the underlying model of job loss in the US and cream skimming in China and India, leaving much of the population behind, is not a winning strategy, not humane, not filled with social justice. ********