Pambazuka News has a fine article on how land-grabs in Africa are being driven by the biofuels bonanza in which the man who I idolised in the early 1980s, Bob Geldof, falls even further from his pedestal. More below the fold. ... read more »

Raj's blog | 3 comments

Posted on 9 October, 2009 - 15:36

African countries aren't the only ones where you can see land grabs. If you live in Asia, the sport of the rich can also be seen there. In Pakistan, a new website Zamana tells of the larceny happening there, even though the country is already at extreme risk of hunger... Predictably, the World Bank and IMF are up to their necks in this mess. Important reading.

Raj's blog | 1 comment

Posted on 30 September, 2009 - 14:36

At President Obama’s inauguration, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger thumped out this splendid tune, a rendition of Woodie Guthrie’s classic This Land Is Your Land. The most delightful verse appears at around 2:25 -

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

As one commentator has noted, this isn’t the version of the song that gets sung at the Democratic National Convention, preferred as a less chauvinist substitute for Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.

The Democratic Party doesn’t like to mess around with the fundamentals of private property – land in particular - and its obfuscating habits are being propagated internationally by the current administration, at an immense human cost. ... read more »

Raj's blog | 9 comments

Posted on 10 August, 2009 - 08:31