Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"The world is a complex and intricate place. So how are we to understand even just a piece of it, say, the United States government and its economic policies? It is a big problem, for the standard sources that I was taught as a child to rely upon – newspapers and television news – are breaking down.": J Bradford DeLong

"Globalization has two driving forces: technology and policy. Thus far, policy has reinforced the flattening effects of technology. As the world’s largest economy, the US has taken the lead in promoting policies that reduce barriers. But events could reverse such policies. Some critics of globalization might welcome such an outcome. But the result, as we saw after 1914, would be the worst of both worlds – reversal of the economic globalization that spreads technology and power, but reinforcement of negative dimensions of military and ecological globalization, such as war, terror, climate change, and the spread of infectious diseases. In that case, the flat world could become a desert." Joseph S Nye

"The biggest rally in Melbourne since last November, against the attacks on working conditions and pay rates in John Howard's 'Workchoices' legislation, took place yesterday morning. While the turnout was short of the mammoth 170,000 plus that turned up last time, a fair estimate would put the crowd well within the 100,000 range.": Tony Phillips

"I'm pretty sure we've stuffed something up for somebody. I'd give my right arm to know the full extent of plans for this area, and how they might relate to the national defence picture. Maybe there's nothing in it, and all of the above pieces of trivia have no connection to each other."

"Generations of doctors, politicians, and public health officials have struggled to defeat tuberculosis. But, after years of success, TB is making a comeback. Unless we act to step up the fight against TB, many health-care systems may find themselves facing a less abstract problem: securing the economic resources and organizational capacity to ensure treatment for the growing number of patients who want and need it.": Annunziata Faustini

Haifa Zangana examines the plight of Iraq's female security detainees.

The MetaCapitalism Research Programme within the University of Wollongong is hosting Professor Ian Angell from the LSE to speak on his experience in the UK National ID Cards debate at a lecture, titled "Can Technology Manage Identity?", on the 17th of July in Wollongong, at 7pm, repeated in Sydney on the 18th at 12 noon.

"After spending three years incarcerated at various locations by the US Army, you’d expect this book to be one long vituperative tirade. Despite Moazzam Begg’s hardships, the former Guantanamo prisoner comes across more an impatient rather than angry man.": Chris Saliba

"If the Bolivians do not get fair value for their country’s natural wealth, their prospects are bleak. Even if they do, they will need assistance, not only to extract their resources, but also to improve the health and education of all Bolivians – to ensure long-term economic growth and social welfare." Joseph Stiglitz

"Even when politicians don’t lead, it is still possible for committed individuals and voluntary organizations to change the world. The key is to link a bold idea with a practical and powerful technology, and then to push the idea and technology forward through mass citizen action." Jeffrey D Sachs

Some notes on why comments might not be published.

"Unfortunately, it appears that, among other presumptions, the PM has already decided that ecological impacts and community concern aren’t relevant issues to the proposal for a major expansion of the nuclear industry in Australia.": Justin Tutty
... brought back to the front page because the questions are still the same / unanswered by the report ...

"Communist China has experienced a monumental capitalist revolution in the last two decades, with an economy that is now six times bigger than it was 20 years ago. A minor player in the global economy in the 1980’s, China today is the world’s third largest trading power. But if these stunning economic statistics make you think that so much capitalist development must also have brought more democracy to China, think again.": Minxin Pei

Details on how the comments box works, and what happens when we edit / moderate comments

"Global meat consumption is predicted to double by 2020. Yet in Europe and North America, there is growing concern about the ethics of the way meat and eggs are produced. ... As consumers, we have the power – and the moral obligation – to refuse to support farming methods that are cruel to animals and bad for us.": Peter Singer

" 'Europe’s universities, taken as a group, are failing to provide the intellectual and creative energy that is required to improve the continent’s poor economic performance.' This dramatic statement introduces a new pamphlet whose subtitle, “Renaissance or Decay,” I have borrowed for this reflection. What they say about Europe probably applies to most other parts of the world as well, though not to the United States." Ralf Dahrendorf

Webdiary state-of-play - and some significant changes and questions for Webdiarists.

"If every first world country adopted Australia’s approach the protection of refugees under the Convention would collapse. As UNHCR put it, the Howard Government’s new measures 'would be an unfortunate precedent, being for the first time … that a country with a fully functioning and credible asylum system, in the absence of anything approximating a mass influx, decides to transfer elsewhere the responsibility to handle claims made actually on the territory of the state' ": David Curry

"Over the last decade there has been increasing acceptance that the Republican debate has delivered to this country the classic rock and a hard place proposition. Which is to say; "we'll be damned if do and we'll be damned if we don't!" Option 'C' is therefore a concept that is set to provide a bridge over these troubled waters.": Max Wilkinson

"The list of urgent challenges facing humanity is depressingly long. AIDS, hunger, armed conflict, and global warming compete for attention alongside government failure, malaria, and the latest natural disaster. While our compassion is great, our resources are limited. So who should be helped first?": Bjørn Lomborg