Andy Roberts

Home › Items tagged with world-news

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  How gold farmers reap huge harvest from online gaming

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/29/how-gold-farmers-reap-huge-harvest-from-online-gaming

  Estimates suggest 400,000 people are employed to build up credits in online games such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest by virtual gold mining or r such ways of building up in-game credits that can be translated into real value.This article titled “How gold farmers reap huge harvest from online gaming” was written by Josh Halliday, for The Guardian on Wednesday 25th May 2011 19.15 UTCTens of millions of people spend hours and pay big money for virtual gains on the most popular multiplayer online games, including World of Warcraft, Eve Online and EverQuest.Behind these games are “gold farmers”, who spend hours within the games each day, gathering virtual credits and selling them to gamers for real world cash.The most recent estimates, from 2009, suggest that 400,000 people are employed as gold farmers across the world, with 85% of those in China and Vietnam, according to Professor Richard Heeks of the University of Manchester.These gold farmers are almost entirely males between 18 and 25, and most are either cash-strapped college students or unemployed rural migrants. They sell in-game advantages – an increased skill level, or a virtual ore – to players eager to boost their online reputation.The multiplayer online games industry has boomed in recent years thanks to increased internet access and the rise of social networks. World of Warcraft, easily the most popular of its kind, had 12 million subscribers last year.According to a report published by the World Bank last month, gold farming was worth about $3bn (£1.85bn) in 2009 – most of which was kept by developing countries. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogHow gold farmers reap huge harvest from online gamingRelated posts:Farmers collaborate online to face rural uncertaintyOnline advertising in the UKRolling Your Own Online Office

  

  • Tags:
  • harvest
  • internet
  • Randomness
  • internet access
  • technology
  • China
  • The Guardian
  • News
  • Article
  • Main section
  • World news
  • Top stories
  • Josh Halliday
  • reputation
  • Games
  • Cash
  • Farming
  • world bank
  • Vietnam
  • everquest
  • game credits
  • gold mining
  • multiplayer online games
  • Professor Richard Heeks
  • richard heeks
  • social networks
  • world of warcraft

  May 29 2011, 9:16am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/23/ash-cloud-moves-towards-uk-airspace

  Ash from Iceland’s Grimsvötn volcano could affect Heathrow by the end of the weekThis article titled “Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace” was written by Dan Milmo and Adam Gabbatt, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 23rd May 2011 10.04 UTCAirlines and airports have been warned to expect ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano to arrive in UK airspace by Tuesday, with the possibility that it could affect Heathrow airport by the end of the week.The safety watchdog for British airlines and airports, the Civil Aviation Authority, said today that particles from the Grimsvötn volcano could reach Scotland by midnight tonight and western England by Thursday or Friday, depending on wind direction.If airspace in western England, Ireland and the Atlantic is affected by the smoke plume transatlantic flights in and out of Heathrow could suffer delays later this week as planes are diverted around the most dense parts of the cloud.However, the Civil Aviation Authority said it was confident that a new Europe-wide safety regime introduced after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption last year would reduce disruption significantly and avoid the continental shutdown that stranded millions. Under the new operating procedures, it is understood that the effect of last year’s plume on commercial routes would have been 75% smaller.Nonetheless, some disruption is expected as airplanes divert around the heaviest parts of the cloud. According to the latest forecasts, Inverness and Aberdeen are the most likely airports to suffer disruption tomorrow, although the most accurate estimates can only predict six hours ahead.“Our number one priority is to ensure the safety of people both on board aircraft and on the ground. We can’t rule out disruption, but the new arrangements that have been put in place since last year’s ash cloud mean the aviation sector is better prepared and will help to reduce any disruption in the event that volcanic ash affects UK airspace,” said Andrew Haines, CAA chief executive.Under previous guidelines, aircraft were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they can demonstrate that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash.The Met Office’s volcanic ash advisory centre will identify the density and location of the cloud, aided by satellite images, weather balloons and a radar specially installed for monitoring purposes in Iceland last year. Once those zones are relayed to airlines, they will need to prove that they can fly through them by producing “safety cases” that will include information from aircraft and engine manufacturers on the airline’s tolerance to volcanic ash.A CAA spokesman said all major UK airlines already had safety preparations for medium-density ash clouds.“We are in a much better position than last time,” he said. “Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash.” The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajökull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. “It will be a different picture.” However, jets will have to divert around high-density clouds, causing delays on some routes, because no UK airline has submitted a safety case for flying through heavy ash plumes.BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from Eurocontrol and the UK air traffic controller, Nats. “We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace,” it said.Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low, medium and high. Once the Met Office assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per 10 cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per 10 cubic metres. Anything above 4g is deemed high density.The Grimsvötn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had in April 2010.“At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week,” said Helen Chivers, a Met Office spokeswoman. “Quite when and how much we can’t really define at the moment.”She said the weather situation was likely to be different from last year, with the wind direction set to change continuously. She added: “If it moves in the way that we’re currently looking, with the eruption continuing the way it is, then if the UK is at risk later this week, then France and Spain could be as well.”While the ash has grounded aircraft in Iceland, it is not anticipated that it will have a similar impact in the rest of Europe.Dr Dave McGarvie, volcanologist at the Open University, said the amount of ash reaching the UK was “likely to be less than in the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption”, and the last two times Grimsvötn erupted it had not affected UK air travel.“In addition, the experience gained from the 2010 eruption, especially by the Met Office, the airline industry, and the engine manufacturers, should mean less disruption to travellers,” he said.The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in south-east Iceland in April 2010 caused the worst disruption to international air travel since 9/11. Flights across Europe were cancelled for six days, stranding tens of thousands of people, and the eruption was estimated to have cost airlines £130m a day.Eurocontrol said in a statement: “There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours. Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogAsh cloud moves towards UK airspaceRelated posts:How to pronounce EyjafjallajoekullAsh Grounds Planes, Rest Of World Cut OffTag Cloud

  

  • Tags:
  • iceland
  • transport
  • UK
  • Travel
  • scotland
  • airline
  • Airport
  • volcano
  • aircraft
  • Europe
  • United Kingdom
  • business
  • Edinburgh
  • UK news
  • News
  • Article
  • World news
  • Dan Milmo
  • Natural disasters and extreme weather
  • disruption
  • Airline industry
  • Adam Gabbatt
  • Atlantic
  • Glasgow
  • Air transport
  • ash cloud
  • aviation
  • BAA
  • british airlines
  • heathrow airport
  • smoke plume
  • transatlantic flights
  • uk airspace
  • volcanic ash

  May 23 2011, 4:09pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/23/zapateros-socialists-defeated-by-peoples-party-in-regional-elections

  Results seen as protest vote against Spain’s José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s handling of the Spanish economy since 2008This article titled “Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for The Guardian on Monday 23rd May 2011 17.28 UTCThe socialist party of Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is licking its wounds after defeat by the conservative opposition People’s party (PP) in municipal and regional elections.In what was widely seen as a protest vote against Zapatero himself and his handling of Spain’s economy, his party lost control of key city halls in places such as Barcelona and Seville while the PP took control of most of the country’s powerful regional governments.The central Castilla La Mancha region, Aragon and the Balearic islands all ejected socialist administrations.“We are aware of the situation that had distanced people from our party and caused them to criticise us with their vote or abstention,” party spokesman José Blanco said.The socialist drubbing came just 10 months before a general election and appeared to clear the way for PP leader Mariano Rajoy to take possession of the prime minister’s Moncloa Palace residence on his third attempt.The voting coincided with the eruption of numerous popular protests against established politics across Spain, with demonstrators camping out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and in dozens of other cities. A backdrop of 21% unemployment and sluggish growth has spread pessimism throughout Spain as the country struggles to find its feet after the 2008 crash.The socialists lost one in five voters on Sunday, compared to the municipal elections of 2007. Not all those votes were picked up by other mainstream parties, however, and the number of spoilt ballots doubled. But overall turnout was a high 66%.Zapatero is blamed by some for mismanaging a debt crisis that saw Spain on the edge of disaster last year. Others dislike the austerity measures he has since imposed in order to avoid a Portuguese- or Greek-style debacle in Spain.His popularity has plunged since a U-turn last year saw him bring in a strict deficit-cutting plan, which he has pledged to stick to, along with labour and pensions reforms.Markets reacted nervously to the poll result on Monday, pushing up the price of Spanish bonds and pushing down Spanish share prices.The PP urged Zapatero to call a snap general election. “Zapatero and the whole socialist party must reflect on what has happened. Spain cannot waste another year like this,” said the party’s general secretary María Dolores de Cospedal.The one socialist leader to have survived Sunday’s debacle, the head of the Extramadura regional government Guillermo Fernández, also suggested that an early general election might be considered.The socialists must first choose a new leader to take them into those elections, with deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and defence minister Carme Chacón as favourites.Party officials said that a timetable for electing the new leader would be set on Saturday.With a general election due in Portugal on 5 June, and with opinion polls showing that socialist prime minister José Sócrates will struggle to hang on to power, the rolling back of leftwing politics that has already taken place in northern Europe now appears to have moved south. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogZapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional electionsRelated posts:Blair to go, now give back the Labour PartyCatalan independence boost after Barcelona voteZapatero says Spain safe from bailout

  

  • Tags:
  • UK
  • spain
  • politics
  • General
  • Europe
  • election
  • The Guardian
  • News
  • Article
  • Main section
  • Protest
  • World news
  • Giles Tremlett
  • International
  • socialist
  • socialist party
  • Global recession
  • Recession
  • austerity measures
  • Portugal
  • Portuguese
  • Barcelona
  • Madrid
  • debt crisis
  • Euro
  • unemployment
  • josé luis rodríguez zapatero
  • José Luis Zapatero
  • socialist prime minister
  • puerta del sol
  • regional government
  • Aragon
  • balearic islands
  • Camping
  • central Castilla
  • municipal elections
  • northern Europe
  • pensions
  • protest vote
  • regional elections
  • regional governments
  • Seville
  • spanish economy
  • spanish prime minister

  May 23 2011, 12:35pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Cut red meat intake and don’t eat ham, say cancer researchers

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/23/cut-red-meat-intake-and-dont-eat-ham-say-cancer-researchers

  World Cancer Research Fund advises people to limit consumption of beef, pork and lamb and avoid processed meatThis article titled “Cut red meat intake and don’t eat ham, say cancer researchers” was written by Denis Campbell, health correspondent, for The Guardian on Sunday 22nd May 2011 23.06 UTCCancer experts have issued a fresh warning about eating red and processed meat after “the most authoritative report” on the subject blamed them for causing the disease.The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) is advising people to limit their intake of red meats such as beef, pork and lamb, and to avoid processed meat such as ham and salami altogether. “Convincing evidence” that both types of meat increase the risk of bowel cancer means people should think seriously about reducing how much they eat, it recommends.The charity kickstarted a global debate in 2007 when it published a study which identified meat as a risk factor for a number of different forms of cancer.WCRF-funded scientists at Imperial College London led by Dr Teresa Norat studied 263 research papers that have come out since then looking at the role of diet, weight and physical activity in bowel cancer. An independent panel of leading cancer experts then reviewed their conclusions. “For red and processed meat, findings of 10 new studies were added to the 14 analysed as part of the 2007 report. The panel confirmed that there is convincing evidence that both red and processed meat increase bowel cancer risk,” said the report .“WCRF recommends that people limit consumption to 500g (cooked weight) of red meat a week – roughly the equivalent of five or six medium portions of roast beef, lamb or pork – and avoid processed meat,” it added. About 36,000 Britons a develop bowel cancer every year, and some 16,500 die from it. It is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer after lung cancer.About 17,000 cases a year (43%) could be prevented if people ate less meat and more fibre, drank less, maintained a healthy weight and kept active, the WCRF says.Its 850-page report, releasedon Monday, is “the most authoritative ever report of bowel cancer risk”, cancer prevention experts claim.Professor Alan Jackson of Southampton University, the chair of the WCRF’s continuous update project expert panel, said: “On meat, the clear message that comes out of our report is that red and processed meat increase risk of bowel cancer and that people who want to reduce their risk should consider cutting down the amount they eat.”Growing concern about red and processed meat prompted the government in February to advise consumers for the first time to consider cutting down. That came after the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), experts who advise the government, examined the evidence on the subject. It decided that those meats probably increase the risk of bowel cancer.People who eat 90g or more a day should cut down to the UK average of 70g, SACN recommended. It advised having smaller portions or eating those meats less often. A 70g serving could be three slices of ham, a lamb chop or two standard beef burgers.WCRF’s review has also firmed up from “probable” to “convincing” its view of the protection against bowel cancer afforded by eating foods containing fibre, such as wholegrains, pulses, fruit and vegetables.Milk, garlic and dietary supplements containing calcium also “probably” reduce the risk, the expert panel concluded.But farmers’ leaders denounced the WCRF’s new report and accused it of deliberately choosing the first day of National Vegetarian Week to publish it in order to maximise publicity for conclusions which the charity first reached years ago.Chris Lamb, a spokesman for BPEX and EBLEX, which represents England’s pig, beef and lamb farmers, said: “Average consumption has been in or around 500g a week for a few years. The vast majority of consumers aren’t exceeding this and don’t have to worry about [this]“, he said.The risks identified by the WCRF were unchanged, he stressed.Lamb argued it was unfair for the WCRF to highlight meat as a contributory cause of bowel cancer when the main risk was to people who are generally unhealthy, for example by consuming too much food, alcohol or fizzy drink.“They aren’t assisting consumers. Consumers eat and enjoy meat as part of a balanced diet, and meat plays a valuable part in that balanced diet”, said Lamb. “If you eat or drink anything in excess it’s a danger. Therefore, if you can pick on meat in order to get headlines, then you aren’t actually helping consumers.”Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, said red meat can form part of a healthy, balanced diet. “It is a good source of protein and vitamins and minerals, such as iron, selenium, zinc and B vitamins,” she said, “but people who eat a lot of red and processed meat should consider cutting down. The occasional steak or extra few slices of lamb is fine but regularly eating a lot could increase your risk of bowel cancer.”Bowel Cancer UK chief executive Deborah Alsina said: “The report significantly adds to the available evidence into the increased risk of bowel cancer from eating too much red and processed meat; and strengthens the evidence of how eating food with fibre in it protects people against the disease.Hazel Nunn, a senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “With barbeque season just round the corner, this is a timely reminder that how much alcohol you drink, how active you are, your weight, and how much red and processed meat and fibre you eat can all have a bearing on your risk of bowel cancer.”• Growing numbers of lung cancer patients are having life-saving operations thanks to advances in surgical techniques. The proportion of patients with the disease who undergo surgery has risen from one in 11 in 2005 to one in seven last year, according to a study by the NHS Information Centre. Lung cancer kills more people than any other form of cancer. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogCut red meat intake and don’t eat ham, say cancer researchersRelated posts:Alcohol to blame for 13,000 cancer cases a year in UKTurkey Ham?World Development Report: Why no mention of Paris?

  

  • Tags:
  • General
  • fruit
  • tea
  • pig
  • Ham
  • vegetable
  • warning
  • health
  • review
  • Government
  • port
  • The Guardian
  • UK news
  • News
  • Food & drink
  • Life and style
  • Article
  • Main section
  • research
  • Society
  • World news
  • proportion
  • Britons
  • researcher
  • cancer
  • equivalent
  • bowel cancer
  • cancer research fund
  • Chris Lamb
  • consuming
  • convincing evidence
  • Denis Campbell
  • disease
  • Dr Teresa Norat
  • fibre
  • imperial college london
  • lung
  • meat intake
  • protein
  • red meat
  • salami
  • Scientific
  • vegetarian

  May 23 2011, 4:36am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/21/spain-reveals-pain-over-cuts-and-unemployment

  Spain protests: Young protesters in Madrid and beyond have many different demands, but they are united in opposing the Spanish governmentThis article titled “Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 21st May 2011 11.59 UTCThe arrival of the table, a battered piece of formica bashed on top of four rough, oversized legs raised a cry of joy. Never mind that anyone on a normal chair would barely be able to see over the top – here was another small triumph of the new Spanish revolution, the gathering of angry Spaniards of all colours, ages and persuasions that is sweeping across the country and beyond its borders.The table that arrived in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square was part of the swirl of creative chaos, naive enthusiasm and pent-up frustration that has transformed it into a makeshift camp for thousand of protesters who call themselves los indignados, the indignant ones.Tents and mattresses, armchairs and sofas, a canteen, portaloos and solar panels have sprung up in a remarkable display of organisational prowess. And the mass of people jostling around, each pursuing their own dream or demand, or just watching others doing the same, seemed more like something transported from the Arab spring in North Africa than from Europe.As the protests continued to swell on Friday, with 60,000 people defying authorities to obey the campaign’s “Take over the square!” slogan in dozens of Spanish cities, and with copycat demonstrations across Europe, the question was whether this was the new May 1968 – a youth-led popular revolt against an establishment deemed to have failed an entire generation.Esther Gutierréz, an elfin 26-year-old, wandered through the crowd with a battered shopping cart full of fruit.“We’ve got so much food we don’t know what to do with it. People just bring it to us for free and it’s wonderful stuff,” she said. “We want real democracy. Not just freedom for bankers. You’re not from the Spanish press, are you? We don’t speak to them.”Cynical and ingenuous by turns, the Madrid protesters and those who last week refused to obey orders to budge from the occupied city squares have torn up the rule book of Spanish public politics. The heavyweights of old – political parties, trade unions and media commentators – are not wanted here.“I was sacked when the Madrid regional government closed down a women’s centre last year when it imposed cuts,” explained Beatriz García as she bashed a small frying pan with a wooden spoon. “The unions didn’t even bother to turn up.”The political parties were worse, she said. “There is no renovation. There is nothing new or different, just two parties who take it in turn to govern because our electoral laws favour them.”Just a week ago Spain was known for the passivity of its citizens as they put up with one of the most depressing eras in recent history. Despite unemployment hitting 21%, widespread spending cuts and a socialist government bound to obey the diktats of Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the financial markets, they had refused to show their pain. Marches, sit-ins or riots were for the French – or British students. The real drama, anyway, was in North Africa. Spaniards stayed at home.All that changed this week as demonstrations organised via Facebook and Twitter became static protests in city squares, mushrooming into something that caught politicians, unions and the media by surprise.While journalists were following the dull routine of campaigning for Sunday’s municipal and regional elections, the steam was beginning to escape from a pressure cooker of discontent.Many Spaniards had told pollsters they were tired of the same, well-known political faces – especially those who are due to be re-elected despite being mired in corruption scandals. Politicians have rarely been held in such disregard, with the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People’s party, rating lowest. Rajoy seems set to take over after a general election next March.When police forcibly evicted the Madrid demonstrators on Tuesday morning, they came back in even greater numbers later that day. By Friday night authorities had lost the battle to impose rules banning public politics on the day before elections. Police could only look on. “Join us, police officers!” the demonstrators shouted.By the early hours of Friday, it was already elbow-room only in the Puerta del Sol – the square which prides itself on being Spain’s “kilometre zero”, the spot from which all other distances are measured.On the statue of King Carlos III, somebody had pinned a sign that read: “We are anti-idiots, not anti-politicians.” Other placards read: “We aren’t against the system, we want to change it”, “Democracy, a daily fight”, and “Take your money out of the bank!”“We’ve brought tents, food and even Trivial Pursuit to keep us entertained,” said Pablo Cantó, a fresh-faced 23-year-old journalism student. Like many younger protesters, and the movement as a whole, he had trouble expressing exactly why he was here. “We want change,” he said. “Things just can’t carry on as they are.”The heavy clouds of cannabis smoke suggested others had brought their own form of entertainment.“I’ve been protesting for decades,” said 60-year-old school teacher Rosa Marín. “I’m glad to see so many young people here. The questions is this: Is this another May 1968, or are they just here for the party?”A gang of drunken skinheads, mindlessly chanting football terrace slogans, were there for the latter.But a neat, disciplined circle of people intently debating social reform showed many were here in earnest. They took turns to stand up and make their proposals, the audience listening and using the sign language applause of the deaf – by shaking their hands above their heads – to show approval without drowning the speakers out.The proposals, due to make their way through a laborious process of committees, working parties and general assemblies, varied from calls for less spending on the military to helping businesses. “Because it is not just money for the owners. They are the ones who give people like us jobs,” said one young man.For some younger protesters, it was a political baptism. “I don’t know what will come out of this, but it is enough just to show everyone how upset we are,” explained Javier de Coca by phone from the protest camp in Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya, where there was a surprising absence of the nationalist or separatist symbols of protest movements in recent years.“It’s as if they’ve realised they have more serious problems to deal with,” said one protester. One of those problems is 45% youth unemployment.On a wall beside the tarpaulin-covered command centre in what some were calling Madrid’s “Republic of Sol” – home to a press office, an infirmary and a legal centre – a list of needs had been pinned up. Toilet paper and food were scratched off the list. Bookshelves, wood, rubber gloves and bottles of cooking gas were on it. Volunteers were needed for a creche.“We process the proposals and try to turn them into something that makes legal sense,” explained a volunteer at the legal centre.However, the open assemblies are painfully slow. Some last for hours, as everybody is given their turn to speak. After almost a week of protests, the demonstrators have failed to come up with a coherent set of demands.Electoral reform to end the two-party system and action to both punish corrupt politicians and limit their luxuries and privileges were the main areas of agreement.So is the Arab spring spreading to southern Europe? “You can’t really compare us to people who were risking their lives by protesting,” said 23-year-old computer engineer Jaime Viyuela. “But yes, you can say that we are inspired by the courage of the Arab spring.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogSpain reveals pain over cuts and unemploymentRelated posts:Zapatero says Spain safe from bailoutProtest march against coalition cuts expected to attract 300,000Anti-cuts campaigners plan to turn Trafalgar Square into Tahrir Square

  

  • Tags:
  • money
  • spain
  • food
  • king
  • Europe
  • election
  • business
  • crowd
  • Article
  • demands
  • Protest
  • Protesters
  • World news
  • democracy
  • Giles Tremlett
  • Arab Spring
  • Global economy
  • socialist
  • Demonstrators
  • rage
  • demonstration
  • youth
  • Global recession
  • Recession
  • Angela Merkel
  • Germany
  • north Africa
  • financial markets
  • protester
  • reform
  • Barcelona
  • movement
  • gathering
  • Regional
  • Madrid
  • Euro
  • unemployment
  • Trade unions
  • spanish government
  • josé luis rodríguez zapatero
  • José Luis Zapatero
  • socialist government
  • Carlos III
  • Mariano Rajoy
  • puerta del sol
  • regional government
  • revolt
  • spaniards
  • spanish cities
  • spanish revolution

  May 21 2011, 8:54am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Karl Marx, part 6: The economics of power

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/09/karl-marx-part-6-the-economics-of-power

  Karl Marxand Marxist economics are often accused of reducing humans to mere expendable specks of matter within the greater economic scheme of things

  This article titled “Karl Marx, part 6: The economics of power” was written by Peter Thompson, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 9th May 2011 09.00 UTC Having so far concentrated on philosophy and politics we now turn to what was the major part of Marx’s output, namely the economics. But it is in the economics where his political philosophy begins to take on real form. There is not space enough here to cover the enormous range of his economics but there are a few basics which need to be dealt with in this slightly longer piece and which can be fought out below the line as usual. Alan Budd, who was an economic adviser to Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s once made an interesting point about Marxist economic theory and government policy on the fight against inflation at the time:

  “[People] did see that it would be a very, very good way to raise unemployment, and raising unemployment was an extremely desirable way of reducing the strength of the working classes – if you like, that what was engineered there in Marxist terms was a crisis of capitalism which re-created a reserve army of labour and has allowed the capitalists to make high profits ever since.”

  Marx’s basic starting point was that in contrast to all previous historical epochs capitalism is a system of “generalised commodity production” in which the workers’ abstracted labour power itself became a commodity to be traded. In all previous epochs, human labour had been used to create a surplus product, usually subsistence farming and a surplus used for first bartering and then trading. Under the ancient mode and slavery through to feudalism, the product and the means of producing it was clear; food, clothing, the means of life. You worked for the master and you belonged to the master in one way or another. The German word for serf, for example, is Leibeigener; your body literally belongs to the master. Capitalism liberates you from that and turns you into a free agent, apparently able to enter into a free contract to sell your labour to whomsoever you see fit. You are cast out of your old existence and are set on the route to making your own. The second verse of All Things Bright and Beautiful – “the rich man in his castle/ the poor man at his gate/God made them high and lowly/ and ordered their estate” – no longer applies. Whereas before you were a bondsman, now you are a journeyman and you can set off to make your own fortune, as the fairy tales have it. In economic terms, what before was a tangible surplus product is now transformed into intangible surplus value. You enter into this apparently free contract with an employer but the wage you draw from that employment is only a part of the value you create. Just as before a portion of the cabbages and linen you made belonged to the master, now a proportion of the monetary value you make through the production process belongs to the employer and you will only be employed if a competitive rate of surplus value can be generated through your labour. This is at the root of Marx’s version of the labour theory of value. The employer will provide the machines or tools for the completion of the task (constant capital) while the worker provides the labour power (variable capital). The employer will always be trying to improve labour productivity and can do so in various ways, but all of them boil down to improving the gap between your wage and the amount of value created by your labour power. This means that for Marx the commodity labour power has a special character in that it is the only commodity which can be employed to increase value, while all the others are merely reified forms of dead human labour, useless without labour input. An advanced car-producing robot no more creates value than does a peasant’s shovel. In theory there is no difference here to previous epochs where we accept the labour theory of value because it is measured in tons of cabbages and yards of linen but now that it becomes a commodified and monetarised relationship it also becomes a quasi-mystical one, with value apparently emerging mysteriously out of all sorts of transactions and technologies and with market mechanisms and competition wiping out and obfuscating the distinction between what it costs to produce something and its price. On these threads, for example, a critique of Marx has emerged which posits a kind of paradoxical capitalist utopia in which we have reached 100% automation of production with no labour input at all anywhere by anyone. This reductio ad absurdum is of course as realistic as the world of Arnie’s Terminator or of Joh Fredersen’s Metropolis in which workers become surplus to requirements, but it does serve to illustrate a point because the further question then emerges as to how the goods produced are going to be purchased if no one is earning any wages through the productive process. Under capitalism labour productivity may improve massively, but it can never be reduced to zero because that would remove all demand for the goods produced. You would then have to distribute commodities or vouchers to the entire population based on some sort of criteria not linked to labour input and then where do we end up? Oh, of course, at communism, in which each gives according to their ability and receives according to their need. Capitalist competition over labour productivity thus not only produces its own gravediggers but also provides the shovels (or robots) to finish the job. Labour productivity can be increased in all sorts of traditional ways such as making workers work harder for less money, speeding up the production lines, extending the working day, getting people to work longer for the same or even less money, seeking out newer, cheaper labour sources through globalisation etc and, as Alan Budd points out, all of the above are regularly used, but for Marx they all only put off the dread day of collapse in which the workers realise that the harder and more productively they work, the smaller the proportion of the surplus value they create comes to them. Since the mid-1970s the common way to put this off has been through enormous levels of debt, either by the state or the private individual. It is that tendency which both brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union – which over-borrowed in order to maintain full employment as a political necessity without raising productivity – and the current crisis in the west where a debt-fuelled asset price bubble in order to artificially stimulate demand has created the greatest economic crisis in a century. But for Marx, at the root of it all is the question of how surplus value is created and distributed and, most of all, what this does to human relations and desires. The commodification of labour power also brings with it the commodification of humans and their alienation from both themselves and the products of their labour power. It is an accusation often aimed at Marx that he reduces human beings to mere expendable specks of matter within the greater economic scheme of things, but it could be argued that the opposite is the case and that the whole point of Marxist economic analysis is precisely about trying to bring about a recognition that it is generalised commodity production which has commodified people and that it doesn’t have to be like that. The final two columns in this series will go on to discuss how this process of economic alienation feeds through into religion and ideology and the means by which people manage to cope with being mere playthings of larger forces; how a sense of autonomy, faith and hope are maintained in an apparently constrained, rationalistic and futureless world. This will bring us right back to where we started: the land of Ideologiekritik.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogKarl Marx, part 6: The economics of power

  Related posts:Economics Theory 3. Robots The latest word on globalisation Visualising radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power plant

  

  • Tags:
  • economics
  • labour
  • learning
  • politics
  • economic crisis
  • General
  • economic theory
  • labour theory
  • Mac
  • competition
  • Government
  • Comment
  • Article
  • Cif belief
  • World news
  • Commodities
  • Books
  • Comment is free
  • Marxists
  • Philosophy
  • inflation
  • tendency
  • commodity
  • Margaret Thatcher
  • Monetary
  • Economic
  • unemployment
  • Farming
  • Communism
  • transaction
  • Alan Budd
  • commodity production
  • crisis of capitalism
  • epochs
  • feudalism
  • How to believe
  • human labour
  • karl marx
  • labour power
  • Mandel
  • marxist economics
  • Peter Thompson
  • philosophy and politics
  • political philosophy
  • subsistence farming
  • surplus product

  May 9 2011, 5:15am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Flybe profit warning sends share price crashing down

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/05/flybe-profit-warning-sends-share-price-crashing-down

  Flybe shares drop 25% as airline admits cash-strapped consumers are cutting back on air travel

  This article titled “Flybe profit warning sends share price crashing down” was written by Dan Milmo, for The Guardian on Thursday 5th May 2011 16.42 UTC Flybe’s £215m flotation has come crashing down as the carrier’s shares shed 25% of their value in the wake of a profit warning over waning consumer appetite for air travel. The Exeter-based regional carrier bases its appeal on “affordable travel from the most convenient airport” but admitted that lower high street spending in the UK had affected demand for cheap flights since the new year, with domestic routes among the hardest hit. Despite warning of cash-strapped customers, Flybe also announced a £3 fuel surcharge on all flights from September. Flybe said the slowdown in consumer outlay, already indicated by trading woes at high street names such as HMV and Mothercare, had affected “discretionary spend” on air travel and triggered significant analysts’ downgrades. Flybe said it expected pre-tax profits for this year to be broadly in line with the 2010/11 figures, which put it heavily out of kilter with analysts’ expectations. Investors ignored Flybe’s defence of its “resilient and flexible” business model of flying from small airports such as Southampton and Norwich, and sold the shares heavily. Shareholders had expected a pre-tax profit of about £36m, not the £22m indicated in the trading update, and Flybe’s shares slumped 25% to 172.50p, far below the flotation price of 295p last December. Flybe’s new investors included George Soros, the hedge fund tycoon, who acquired a 3.4% stake on flotation and whose more assured bets included starting a run on the pound in 1992. British Airways owns a further 15% of the business. One of the pioneers of add-on charges including baggage fees when it rebranded from British European in 2002, Flybe said the £3 fuel surcharge would be dropped if the price of Brent crude fell below $75 (£45.60) per barrel for 28 consecutive days; its current price is $117 per barrel. Flybe also indicated cutbacks on its domestic routes as it flagged the possible disposal of surplus aircraft, believed to include the Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes that are used on its UK services. In its trading update the company did not expand on its strategy of building its presence in continental Europe but it is understood that Flybe is standing by plans to add 35 Embraer aircraft to its 68-strong fleet, with the option of buying 105 more. The £66m float proceeds have been earmarked for the expansion, which includes codeshare deals where it operates flights on another carrier’s behalf. Iata warning The International Air Transport Association (Iata) warned that the financial markets have taken a bearish stance on airlines. Airline share prices have underperformed stock markets by 17% this year, Iata said, and investors now fear that carriers will be hard hit by higher fuel costs – about a quarter of the industry’s cost base – and the consequent effect on demand as higher prices hit sales. “Financial markets, bullish over airlines through 2010, now believe the industry will suffer more than most in this high fuel cost and demand-shock environment,” said Iata. Flybe said demand from business travellers, who account for 45% of its customers, remained strong. “This sector has proved very resilient,” said Flybe, echoing recent comments by Iata, which said demand for business class travel was holding up more strongly than in the back of the cabin. The premium airline market grew 7.7% in February, compared with a 3.3% improvement in economy class traffic.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogFlybe profit warning sends share price crashing down

  Related posts:Oil price surge risking global recovery, says IEA chief Oil price soars after UN resolution against Muammar Gaddafi Oil price jumps nearly $2 on continuing concerns about Libya and Bahrain

  

  • Tags:
  • transport
  • General
  • Travel
  • barrel
  • airline
  • Airport
  • Airports
  • aircraft
  • business
  • british
  • Tax
  • The Guardian
  • Financial
  • News
  • Article
  • Main section
  • World news
  • International
  • carrier
  • Dan Milmo
  • profit
  • Flights
  • stock markets
  • Airline industry
  • Euro
  • consumer
  • Southampton
  • European
  • Norwich
  • stock market
  • affordable travel
  • Air transport
  • Bombardier
  • brent crude
  • british airways
  • cabin
  • cheap flights
  • downgrades
  • flybe
  • fuel surcharge
  • george soros
  • traffic
  • turboprop

  May 5 2011, 12:46pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Portuguese learn price of €78bn debt bailout

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/04/portuguese-learn-price-of-e78bn-debt-bailout

  Health and education spending in Portugal to be cut by €745m, state pensions reduced and major building projects axed

  This article titled “Portuguese learn price of €78bn debt bailout” was written by Giles Tremlett, for The Guardian on Wednesday 4th May 2011 15.20 UTC

  Portugal woke up to the price of its €78bn (£70bn) bailout on Wednesday as new airports and high-speed rail lines were sacrificed in a package of austerity measures and the government pledged to freeze pensions and shrink the civil service. Lisbon’s new international airport, already on hold, and the building of a high-speed rail link between Lisbon and Oporto will now be put back until after 2013, according to state news agency Lusa. Health and education spending will be cut by €745m, civil service pay and pensions will be frozen, and people on state pensions above €1,500 a month will have them reduced. Civil service staffing is to be squeezed by 1% a year in central government, while regional administrations and town halls will be told to shed 2% of their employees annually. Portugal’s banks will take up to €12bn of the bailout funds to rebuild their capital ratios, according to reports. The banks would have to raise their core tier one capital ratio – a gauge of higher quality capital that mainly comprises equity and retained earnings – to 9% at the end of this year and to 10% by the end of 2012, Reuters said. The country will also carry out a fire sale of the nationalised Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) bank. “The authorities are launching a process to sell BPN on an accelerated schedule and without a minimum price,” according to a memorandum of understanding seen by the Guardian, which added that the sale should be finished in July. Portugal is expected to reduce public spending by 3.4% of its GDP this year and raise an extra 1.7% of GDP by raising taxes on cars, tobacco and electricity and getting rid of income and corporation tax loopholes. A detailed investigation of public-private partnerships (PPPs), which have been used for building hospitals, roads and rail lines, will be carried out to see if they are hiding extra government debt. New PPP projects will be suspended. José Sócrates, Portugal’s caretaker prime minister, announced the areas that would remain untouched when he explained the bailout during a television address to the nation on Tuesday night. These included pensions for the worse-off and the retirement age. But he failed to reveal what austerity measures came with the bailout package, beyond saying they would be similar to those rejected by parliament in March. The March defeat brought down his minority socialist government and a snap election was called for 5 June. Polls show the opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD), which rejected the March austerity package, may win that vote. Representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank met Social Democrat leaders on Wednesday morning to seek their backing for the plan. “The PSD will give its opinion on what it has read and heard late today or early tomorrow,” said Carlos Moedas, the party’s economics advisor, after the meeting. Social Democrat leaders had already indicated they might change elements of any bailout-related austerity package if they were elected to government, although always with the aim of hitting this year’s target of reducing the budget deficit to 5.9% of GDP. The IMF said: “We have said from the start that it is important that any agreement have multi-party support and we shall continue in our efforts with opposition parties to show that this is the case.” Portugal managed to raise €1.12bn euros in three-month treasury bills today with demand almost doubling the offer, but investors insisted on a 4.65% interest rate – up from 4.05% two weeks ago. Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics in London, said the bailout might not be enough to stave off restructuring: “It won’t put an end to speculation that – along with Greece and perhaps others – it will sooner or later need to undertake some form of debt restructuring.”

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogPortuguese learn price of €78bn debt bailout

  Related posts:Ireland forced into new £21bn bailout by debt crisis Portugal bailout fears rise as credit rating cut Portugal’s PM calls on EU for bailout

  

  • Tags:
  • economics
  • greece
  • US
  • General
  • World
  • Hospital
  • Europe
  • election
  • health
  • business
  • Government
  • Tax
  • The Guardian
  • Financial
  • News
  • Article
  • Main section
  • World news
  • Giles Tremlett
  • International
  • Global economy
  • capital
  • budget
  • austerity
  • interest
  • parliament
  • Central government
  • European Union
  • European debt crisis
  • government debt
  • European Central Bank
  • austerity measures
  • European banks
  • imf
  • Portugal
  • Portuguese
  • bailout
  • international monetary fund
  • high speed rail
  • bailout package
  • Lisbon
  • Monetary
  • opposition parties
  • budget deficit
  • Economic
  • Euro
  • income
  • socialist government
  • European
  • USA
  • capital ratio
  • capital ratios
  • debt restructuring
  • GDP
  • memorandum of understanding
  • Poll
  • state pensions
  • tax loopholes
  • tier one
  • town halls

  May 4 2011, 10:30am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Best in dough! French bakers battle to bag best baguette bounty

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/03/best-in-dough-french-bakers-best-baguette-paris

  Paris bakers competition. With a punishing criteria and several entries stakes are high at a Parisian contest seeking to identify best stick of bread

  This article titled “Best in dough! French bakers battle to bag best baguette bounty” was written by Agnes Poirier in Paris, for The Guardian on Tuesday 3rd May 2011 21.00 UTC They are hot, golden and crispy. Their makers hold them like saints’ relics and the judges in charge of inspecting them wear white gloves. These are the prized entries competing to be named Paris’s best baguette. At the head office of the bakers and pâtissiers’ union in the heart of Paris, young and old bakers queue up to enter the competition, first held in 1994. Pascal Guenard, a baker and pâtissier for more than 20 years is entering a baguette in the contest for the first time. He wears his white uniform and has flour in his hair; his pair of baguettes smell divine. “It’s the first time I’ve competed for best baguette but I came fourth once in the best croissant competition,” he said. “This award is very important for us and for our clients. I want them to be proud and be able to say that their baker makes the best baguette in Paris. It’s also a way for us artisans to fight the big supermarkets which sell crap baguettes for 50 cents. At €1.10, our baguette had better be good.” On the second floor, white-gloved ladies give a number to each pair of baguettes, register every baker’s name and address, and wish them “bonne chance”. Each baguette is then measured and weighed. This is the guillotine moment. Baguettes must measure between 55 and 70cm and weigh between 240g and 310g, criteria that were established 20 years ago. “We had to set up rules,” said Jacques Mabille, president of the bakers union. “During the war, baguette’s crumb was grey. The French grew to hate it. “So after the war, the whiter the crumb, the happier the people were. However, to get a very white crumb, you must compromise on the overall quality of the bread and on its taste. So we chose to return to a more balanced baguette and set up a few rules. … Today, a good baguette has a creamy-looking crumb, a crispy crust, a distinctive flavour and a delicious smell of wheat. And it shouldn’t have more than 18g of salt.” Each year, a third of baguettes are disqualified, usually because they are too heavy and too long. At the end of the queue stands Lahoussaine Damer, 26, a baker and pâtissier since the age of 18. “It’s the third time I’ve competed but I’ve never got into the top 10. This time, I have tried to perfect the cooking. Also, I was careful with the measurement and weight. They are ruthless. My baguette was disqualified last year for one centimetre.” Which French baker does he admire most? “Djibril Bodian.” Bodian, a member of the jury this year, was the winner of last year’s competition. He came to France from Senegal at the age of six, and fell in love with bread through his father, who set up a boulangerie in the Paris suburb of Pantin. After he won, Bodian became the French president’s personal baker, delivering his baguettes every day to the Elysée Palace. “We were never complimented by the Elysée Palace but were told that if nothing was said then it was a good sign, that they liked it” he says. “We have today a whole new generation of bakers in Paris, of African origin, from the Maghreb but also many Japanese and Cambodians,” said Mabille. “Baguettes have universal appeal. Besides, bakers are usually trained in French schools with traditional recipes and savoir faire.” A total of 174 baguettes were entered for the prize, with 38 disqualified. Among the 15 judges was a fromager, a teacher at the boulangerie school of Paris, and a food critic, as well as six Parisians chosen randomly after they entered a lottery. They touched, stroked, chewed, smelled, and even listened to the baguettes, inspecting their backs and bellies. Their colour and holes were closely inspected and intensely debated. Some judges spat out their samples . Three hours later, the verdict was given: after competing for the eighth time, Pascal Barillon, from Montmartre has won the best baguette accolade. As of Wednesday, he will be Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s official supplier.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogBest in dough! French bakers battle to bag best baguette bounty

  Related posts:What is French for a vegan? French high-speed rail on track but progress too slow on commuter lines Wisconsin is making the battle lines clear in America’s hidden class war

  

  • Tags:
  • General
  • cooking
  • train
  • food
  • croissant
  • france
  • paris
  • Europe
  • competition
  • french
  • The Guardian
  • News
  • Food & drink
  • Life and style
  • Article
  • Main section
  • World news
  • International
  • dough
  • flour
  • french president
  • battle
  • sarkozy
  • Euro
  • Parisians
  • quality
  • Agnès Poirier
  • artisans
  • baguette
  • bakers
  • Bodian
  • bonne chance
  • boulangerie
  • Carla Bruni-
  • crumb
  • fromager
  • guillotine
  • heart of paris
  • Jacques Mabille
  • Lahoussaine
  • Maghreb
  • Montmartre
  • Pascal Barillon
  • Pascal Guenard

  May 3 2011, 5:06pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Tesco protesters charged after second night of violence in Bristol

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/02/tesco-protesters-charged-after-second-night-of-violence-in-bristol

  Police appeal for informants to identify others involved in violent disorder surrounding Tesco opening in Bristol Stokes Croft riots area

  This article titled “Tesco protesters charged after second night of violence in Bristol” was written by Jamie Doward, for The Observer on Saturday 30th April 2011 23.06 UTC Two people have been charged following a second round of violent protests against the opening of a Tesco shop in Bristol. Stephen Carroll, 32, was charged with assaulting a police officer and criminal damage. A 17-year-old, who cannot be named, is accused of violent disorder and theft. The two were among 30 people detained after violence in the Stokes Croft area of the city saw officers and protesters injured early on Friday. A further 13 men and two women remain in custody, while 12 men have been released on bail pending further inquiries, police said. The violence, which saw stones, bottles and other missiles thrown, came a week after high-profile demonstrations followed the shop’s opening. CCTV images of more than 80 people were issued by police following the first eruption, which came after officers raided a flat in search of petrol bombs they believed were about to be thrown at the shop. “I am appealing to the community, to residents, and traders and other people whose lives have been severely disrupted, whose property may have been damaged and whose personal safety may have been put at risk by the violence,” said assistant chief constable Rod Hansen. “I urge people to study the photographs, and if you think you know any of these people and where they might be, please contact us.” Police said Thursday night’s demonstration began as a “good-spirited event” attended by eight neighbourhood beat officers. But the crowd grew from about 250 to more than 400.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogTesco protesters charged after second night of violence in Bristol

  Related posts:Bristol Stokes Croft Riot Bristol 1831 Mural Artist compares Arab Spring 2011 and Bristol Stokes Croft Riots UK Uncut accuses police of politically motivated arrests

  

  • Tags:
  • Art
  • UK
  • politics
  • Photograph
  • photo
  • photographs
  • business
  • crowd
  • neighbourhood
  • UK news
  • News
  • Article
  • Main section
  • Protest
  • Protesters
  • Jamie Doward
  • The Observer
  • World news
  • demonstration
  • Retail industry
  • Supermarkets
  • Tesco
  • supermarket
  • identify
  • police officer
  • bristol
  • CCTV
  • chief constable
  • Crime
  • Croft
  • informants
  • missiles
  • petrol bombs
  • rod hansen
  • Stephen Carroll
  • Stokes

  May 2 2011, 9:33am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  China’s insatiable thirst for fine wine threatens to burst Bordeaux bubble

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/01/chinas-insatiable-thirst-for-fine-wine-threatens-to-burst-bordeaux-bubble

  Bordeaux prices are soaring as buyers in Hong Kong develop a taste for the famed French wine, and this is why you can’t find a reasonably priced real claret in England any more, amongst all the new world wines that fill up the majority of shelf space

  This article titled “China’s insatiable thirst for fine wine threatens to burst Bordeaux bubble” was written by Jamie Doward, for The Observer on Saturday 30th April 2011 23.05 UTC It is one of the most hotly debated topics in the world of wine: is the Bordeaux bubble about to burst? The price of one of France’s most celebrated wines has soared over the last 12 months as British buyers compete with an increasing number of Chinese oenophiles to snap up the all too precious cases of claret. With the likes of Chris de Burgh and Sir David Frost recently selling their Bordeaux collections for six-figure sums, attention has focused on the top-tier wines such as Château Lafite, cases of which are going for as much as £15,000. At the start of the year, Lord Lloyd-Webber sold off a large part of his cellar, including a 12-bottle lot of Château Pétrus 1982 for $77,564 (around £48,500). Berry Brothers recently sold three cases of the same vintage for £58,000 a case. A dozen bottles of a typical second-tier Bordeaux was selling for around £600 a year ago, according to Berry Brothers, the wine merchants, but is now going for anything up to £2,000. But experts say the demand for Bordeaux is now so great that even wines from less well known producers have seen prices rocket. A decision by the Hong Kong government to abolish wine and beer duties has fuelled the demand. Berry Brothers estimates that last year, of the £110m of Bordeaux it sold “en primeur” – while still in the barrel – some £30m worth went through Hong Kong, compared with just £10m the year before. With en primeur sales of the 2010 vintage, which was apparently a fantastic year, soon to take place, the company is anticipating substantial demand from Chinese buyers. “We’ve got fewer than 100 customers in China, so you can imagine what happens if more Chinese people get a thirst for Bordeaux,” said Simon Staples, sales and marketing director at Berry Brothers. Intriguingly, the demand among Chinese buyers is only for red wine and only for Bordeaux. “Burgundy is much more complicated, the knowledge among Chinese buyers isn’t there yet, whereas Bordeaux is much easier to understand,” Staples said. “They want red wine; it’s a male thing, it’s good for the heart, good for the libido.” Staples has remortgaged his home three times in the last 10 years (in 2000, 2005 and 2009) to buy Bordeaux. Last year he recommended that his mother-in-law buy five cases of a particular Bordeaux at £2,400. These are now selling for £7,800. Chateaux producing the wine have responded to the surge in interest, investing in sophisticated machinery and a more rigorous selection policy for their grapes. A taste among a new generation of drinkers to consume Bordeaux much earlier than their predecessors has been driven by an earlier ripening of the grapes, in part down to longer, hotter summers in France. Vineyards have also started to strip leaves to give grapes more sun while leaving them longer on the vine so they are softer and sweeter. “It’s coincided with a new style of Bordeaux,” said Adam Lechmere, the news editor at Decanter magazine. “The vintages are drinkable much younger. You used to have to lay them down for 15 years or so, but now they’re softer and don’t have such harsh tannins.” Staples is confident heightened global demand means Bordeaux prices will not fall even if the UK economy enters a double dip. But others are wary. “People who work in the City tell me this has all the hallmarks of a Bordeaux bubble,” Lechmere said.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogChina’s insatiable thirst for fine wine threatens to burst Bordeaux bubble

  Related posts:Bordeaux uncorked Are social photo apps trapped in a Silicon Valley bubble? Firstbuy could lock young homebuyers into falling property market

  

  • Tags:
  • UK
  • producers
  • wine
  • General
  • World
  • france
  • China
  • Europe
  • England
  • News
  • Life and style
  • Article
  • Main section
  • Jamie Doward
  • The Observer
  • World news
  • Bordeaux
  • vineyard
  • producer
  • Adam Lechmere
  • celebrated wines
  • Chateaux
  • Chris de Burgh
  • claret
  • fine wine
  • french wine
  • hong kong government
  • Lord Lloyd-Webber
  • oenophiles
  • shelf space
  • Simon Staples
  • Sir David Frost
  • wine merchants
  • world of wine
  • world wines

  May 1 2011, 1:17pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Warning: bossy bollards!

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/26/warning-bossy-bollards

  The number and pointlessness of ‘street furniture’ has reached hallucinatory levels – thank goodness it’s under review. It,’s time something was done about all the writing that clutters up our journeys.

  This article titled “Warning: bossy bollards!” was written by Martin Wainwright, for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 24th April 2011 09.00 UTC It is my birthday soon and one present I would like is a really robust report from the government’s current investigation into the UK’s ever-growing crop of “street furniture” and signs. I don’t suppose that Eric Pickles has a very large fan club on Cif, but one thing he got absolutely right was his targeting of this “bossy clutter” last August, which prompted the present review, due to be published any time now. The number and pointlessness of signs, especially, has reached almost hallucinatory levels and it surprises me that our Eric met with a somewhat muted response. Noble bodies such as Civic Voice and the Council for the Protection of Rural England gave their backing, but citizens didn’t exactly rise up and cheer. Why not? Is it a national weakness for being told what to do, and indeed for telling others? That old favourite decoration of the Englishman’s castle, Private Keep Out, is increasingly accompanied these days by supporting warnings of CCTV. There would be money to be made in mine signs: “Mine all mine”. I’m not being holier-than-them; my childhood home was heavily labelled inside by my otherwise benign and right-thinking father. One notice in the kitchen cupboard comes to me in my dreams: “Large plates only here”, with a later amendment in red Biro: “Here means here”. What was it all about? Too late to ask now, but I wish we children had carried out a plan to add more labels asking, “Why all these signs? We know where the crockery goes.” Pickles is also up against the dreadful twin gods of liability and insurance, which panic councils into – for example, on my Leeds doorstep – forests of signs to cover potential accident litigants whencesoever they may come. On Kirkstall Road, a series of small side turnings opposite the medieval abbey has prompted a blue bike sign every 50 yards. Madness, unless you are a blue bike sign manufacturer. It’s the same going along the ring road between Rodley and Pudsey, a stretch famous for beautiful daffodil planting but now forested with “No U-turn” signs. By the time I get to the footbridge to Priesthorpe school I am passionately determined to do a U-turn. Oh for a really reforming lord chief justice, greater even than Denning and Scarman, to establish a common law of personal responsibility. And for judges and magistrates who throw out claims based on the absence of written warnings that a river, cliff or beach may be dangerous. We’ve done it before. We did it before the Warboys committee of 1963 unleashed the mighty tide of modern signage on the UK’s roads. Look at the graceful artistry of hoop-topped signposts with clear and simple directions and distances that still survive in many rural back lanes. Look, more exotically, at Zimbabwe’s colonial legacy: a sparingly used red and yellow sign saying “Deadly Hazard” covers everything from the vicious bends across the Umvumvumvu river in the Chimanimani mountains, to the possible presence of Gaboon vipers.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogWarning: bossy bollards!

  Related posts:Japan hit by earthquake and tsunami warning Blue – Andy Roberts

  

  • Tags:
  • UK
  • politics
  • bbc
  • England
  • kitchen
  • bike
  • forest
  • Comment
  • Article
  • World news
  • Comment is free
  • Eric Pickles
  • Leeds
  • Martin Wainwright
  • danger
  • colonial
  • Road transport
  • Baron Scarman
  • biro
  • bollards
  • bossy
  • CCTV
  • civic voice
  • clutter
  • crockery
  • englishman
  • forests
  • journeys
  • Kirkstall Road
  • kitchen cupboard
  • pickles
  • street furniture
  • Umvumvumvu
  • Zimbabwe

  April 26 2011, 12:43pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Red songs ring out in Chinese city’s new cultural revolution

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/24/red-songs-ring-out-in-chinese-citys-new-cultural-revolution

  Chinese city Chongqing’s ambitious party boss Bo Xilai has got the population singing red songs such as Road to Revitalisation and Love of the Red Flag

  This article titled “Red songs ring out in Chinese city’s new cultural revolution” was written by Tania Branigan in Beijing, for The Guardian on Friday 22nd April 2011 15.46 UTC Road to Revitalisation may not sound like the most catchy name for a tune, but authorities in Chongqing are urging residents to sing along to it – and 35 more carefully selected “red songs”. The south-western Chinese city has launched the musical campaign to mark this year’s 90th anniversary of the Communist party’s birth. Television and radio stations are broadcasting the tunes, newspapers are carrying the scores and officials are arranging public performances of Love of the Red Flag and Good Men Should Become Soldiers. Officials are also urging artists to help train people “to raise a fever of singing red [revolutionary] songs,” according to the People’s Daily website. The initiative is the latest phase in the “red culture movement” launched by the city’s ambitious party boss Bo Xilai. “Red songs won public support because they depicted China’s path in a simple, sincere and vivid way,” Bo said last year. “There’s no need to be artsy-fartsy … only dilettantes prefer enigmatic works.” Chongqing television was recently ordered to drop popular soap operas and sitcoms. Instead, it airs improving material such as classic dramas and red song shows, reportedly leading to a sharp drop in ratings and advertising revenue. Other initiatives include ordering students to work in the countryside and getting cadres to don Red Army uniforms and follow the path of their forebears “to deepen their understanding and experience of hardships”.

  While most expect Bo to be included in the top political body, the politburo standing committee, it is not clear what position he might take. His other striking initiatives have included a mass drive to urbanise the population and a campaign against organised crime, which won him plaudits but raised concerns about the manner of the crackdown. “He is a maverick. He has the confidence of his family background,” Bo’s father was a Communist “immortal”, rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution, in which Bo’s mother died. “Bo’s approach appears to be gaining some traction among some very high-level leaders,” said Beijing-based political analyst Russell Leigh Moses. Several senior figures have visited Chongqing recently, notably Xi Jinping, the vice president expected to take the top job next year, who praised Bo’s cultural drive. Moses said: “Bo’s campaign is multidimensional, but its primary objective seems to be trying to redefine local affairs as mass politics. [It] is not about policy as much as it is about a new communist theology that is nostalgic and not like anyone else’s.” Brady said propaganda had changed so much in content as well as method that comparisons to Maoism were lazy. When Bo invokes Mao Zedong in text messages to residents, instead of references to class struggle he chooses feelgood quotations such as: “The world is ours, we should unite for achievements.” “Some appear to have misunderstood the message in our campaign,” Xu Chao, the official leading the red song drive, told the Global Times. “‘Red’ doesn’t only represent revolution, communism or socialism. It also includes elements that represent happiness, harmony, being positive and healthy. The term is actually quite inclusive.” There are no Mao-era songs on the 36-strong list and many are recent popular hits about loving one’s family or one’s nation. Go China! praises Olympicdiver Guo Jingjing, baseball star Yao Ming and film director Zhang Yimou rather than Communist cadres. “It’s definitely not on-message in terms of what was traditionally regarded as ‘red’,” said Brady. “I think a Cultural Revolution-era propagandist would be appalled.”

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogRed songs ring out in Chinese city’s new cultural revolution

  Related posts:Chinese New Year February 14th 2010 Chinese Lute The YouView revolution will not be televised just yet

  

  • Tags:
  • Music
  • politics
  • Chinese
  • paris
  • China
  • musical
  • socialism
  • The Guardian
  • News
  • Article
  • culture
  • Main section
  • World news
  • Beijing
  • Tania Branigan
  • International
  • Maverick
  • president
  • Olympic
  • Population
  • Evita
  • Army
  • army uniforms
  • artsy fartsy
  • Beijing-based
  • Bo Xilai
  • chinese city
  • Chongqing
  • Communism
  • Communist
  • communist party
  • cultural revolution
  • culture movement
  • politburo standing committee
  • public performances
  • red flag
  • Revitalisation
  • revolutionary songs
  • south-western Chinese
  • struggle
  • urbanise
  • Xu Chao
  • Yao Ming
  • Zhang

  April 24 2011, 4:21am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Libya crisis: US involvement deepens with deployment of Predator drones

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/24/libya-crisis-us-involvement-deepens-with-deployment-of-predator-drones

  John McCain describes Libyan rebels as his ‘heroes’ as US appears to be attempting renewed effort to relieve siege of Misrata

  This article titled “Libya crisis: US involvement deepens with deployment of Predator drones” was written by Harriet Sherwood in Tripoli, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 22nd April 2011 15.44 UTC American involvement in the Libyan crisis appeared to be deepening on Friday following the announcement that US Predator drones would be deployed and praise from an influential senator for the “heroes” of the rebel opposition. John McCain, the most senior Republican on the Senate armed services committee and a strong advocate of intervention in the Libyan civil war, visited the rebel opposition leadership in its eastern stronghold of Benghazi for an “on the ground assessment” of the situation. “These are my heroes,” he said, referring to the rebels. McCain has pushed for the US to arm the opposition as part of a drive to force Muammar Gaddafi from power, and has criticised America’s decision to take a back seat in the international military action against Libyan government forces. However, the announcement on Thursday night of the US deployment of armed Predator drones over Libya indicates a renewed effort to relieve the siege of Misrata and force a breakthrough in the deadlocked conflict in the east. Predator drones – controversial because of their use against targets in Pakistan and Afghanistan in which civilians have been killed – were expected to be deployed over Misrata immediately. However, the first mission, armed with Hellfire missiles, was forced to turn back because of bad weather. The Libyan government said their use would result in the deaths of “more civilians” and was “illegitimate”. The authorities claim many civilians have been killed by Nato airstrikes, although they have failed to provide evidence to foreign media based in the west of the country. The deployment of Predators follows the despatch of military advisers from Britain, France and Italy, plus the allocation of an expected $25m (£15.15m) worth of “non-lethal” equipment from the US to the rebel opposition. The leaders of the international alliance against Libya claims such steps are within the remit of the UN security council resolution allowing action to protect civilians, but some countries have warned against mission creep. Rebel leaders have appealed for intensified action from Nato and some have demanded ground troops. The Libyan government said the presence of foreign troops in the country would be viewed as an act of war and that it would arm its civilians to resist. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said Nato action had reduced Gaddafi’s military capability by about a third. “We’ve attrited somewhere between 30 and 40% of his main ground forces, his ground force capabilities. Those will continue to go away over time,” he told US troops in Baghdad. He said the conflict was “moving towards a stalemate”. Many military analysts have concluded that a stalemate was reached some time ago. Libyan state TV claimed nine people were killed in an overnight air strike in the western city of Sirte, although that could not be verified. Meanwhile, a border post between Libya and Tunisia was reported to be in rebel hands despite claims by the Libyan government that its forces had retaken the crossing. Rebel forces displayed weapons seized from fleeing government troops, according to Reuters, and the rebel tricolour flag was flying above the border post near the Tunisian town of Dehiba, witnesses said.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLibya crisis: US involvement deepens with deployment of Predator drones

  Related posts:Libya rebels on the defensive as Gaddafi forces enter Benghazi Sarkozy election campaign was funded by Libya, claims Gaddafi’s son Libya military action: live updates

  

  • Tags:
  • politics
  • Afghanistan
  • America
  • Pakistan
  • Middle East
  • News
  • United States
  • Article
  • Libya
  • Muammar Gaddafi
  • World news
  • Benghazi
  • International
  • Tripoli
  • Tunisia
  • Tunisian
  • arab
  • Tunis
  • opposition leaders
  • libyan government
  • security council resolution
  • un security council
  • Baghdad
  • Arab and Middle East unrest
  • government forces
  • stalemate
  • Harriet Sherwood
  • thursday night
  • Admiral Mike Mullen
  • Dehiba
  • Hellfire
  • John McCain
  • military action
  • military advisers
  • Muammar
  • nato airstrikes
  • Obama administration
  • predator drones
  • Republican
  • US foreign policy

  April 24 2011, 4:15am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Gaddafi’s daughter whips supporters into a frenzy with speech in Tripoli

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/15/gaddafis-daughter-whips-supporters-into-a-frenzy-with-speech-in-tripoli

  Aisha Gaddafi tells a roaring crowd her father moammar Gaddafi will not step down – 25 years after US forces bombed his Tripoli home.

  This article titled “Gaddafi’s daughter whips supporters into a frenzy with speech in Tripoli” was written by Harriet Sherwood in Tripoli, for The Guardian on Friday 15th April 2011 14.21 UTC They gather nightly, ready to die for the Brother Leader. Wrapped in loyalist green, waving flags, chanting slogans, holding aloft portraits of their “Guide”, singing, dancing and praying, they are Muammar Gaddafi’s human shields against Nato air strikes. In the early hours of Friday, exactly 25 years after US forces bombed Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound in central Tripoli, thousands gathered in defiance of the new international coalition against the Libyan regime’s brutal efforts to suppress the uprising from the east. Whipped up by loyalist chants led from loudspeakers and patriotic songs, they were already in a state of fervour when Aisha Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s daughter, appeared high in the skeleton of a bombed-out building. Against a backdrop of the shattered facade and draped in a flowing headscarf of green and gold, Aisha pumped her fists at the crowd as they roared and ululated their approval. Just a few hours earlier, Nato warplanes had flown sorties over Tripoli. Explosions and responding gunfire and anti-aircraft fire echoed around the capital, destroying at least one military site and causing blast damage to a nearby university cafeteria. Aisha’s message was one of uncompromising defiance. Referring to the strike in 1986, she said: “They rained down on us their missiles and bombs, they tried to kill me and they killed dozens of children in Libya. Now a quarter of a century later the same missiles and bombs are raining down on the heads of my and your children.” Below her was a statue of a giant golden fist crushing a western warplane in its grip. The throbbing crowd – mainly men, but including hundreds of women separated to one side – appeared intoxicated on love and loyalty. “Talk about Gaddafi stepping down is an insult to all Libyans because Gaddafi is not in Libya, but in the hearts of all Libyans,” Aisha told them. “Gaddafi said if the Libyan people don’t want me I don’t deserve to live. The Libyan people responded, ‘He who doesn’t want you does not deserve life’.” Half a dozen of Gaddafi’s fabled female protection guards stood to the side as Aisha spoke, some with their faces covered, amid an atmosphere akin to a hyped-up football crowd crossed with a rock concert. The cult of Gaddafi is evident across the capital. Huge portraits of him – saluting with a stern expression, beaming with his hands clasped, silhouetted against the rays of a rising sun – hang from buildings. Many in the crowd on Friday night wore miniature laminated versions on green ribbons around their necks. “I love him more than my husband,” said Randa Mohamed, 28, her voice hoarse from shouting and chanting. “We will never leave him. I will do anything to protect him.” This overt display of loyalty fractures when rare opportunities for rushed conversations out of earshot of the ubiquitous regime minders and informants arise. “He must go for the sake of Libya,” is a view expressed in whispers. These few glimpses beneath the surface are always accompanied by visible fear at the possibility of being overheard and punished. But in the Bab al-Aziziya compound, there was only one message: devotion to Gaddafi and hatred of Nato and Libya’s rebel opposition. “We will never give up. Victorious or we die,” ran one chant. As the foreign media were escorted from the compound at the end of Aisha’s speech, the “Zenga Zenga” song blared from speakers. The words are taken from a speech by Saif al-Islam, Aisha’s brother and Gaddafi’s son, early in the conflict, in which he pledged to hunt down the rebels. “House to house, room to room, alley to alley, person to person we will disinfect the whole country from filth,” it goes. “Zenga Zenga” – alley to alley – has now become part of loyalist Libya’s lexicon, a chilling term of approval among people in Gaddafi’s grip.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogGaddafi’s daughter whips supporters into a frenzy with speech in Tripoli

  Related posts:Benghazi celebrates as reports emerge of battles in central Tripoli Libya and Middle East uprising – live updates Gaddafi issues defiant challenge to Libya conference in London

  

  • Tags:
  • politics
  • Portrait
  • female
  • crowd
  • The Guardian
  • Middle East
  • News
  • Article
  • Main section
  • uprising
  • Libya
  • Muammar Gaddafi
  • World news
  • Arab Spring
  • International
  • Tripoli
  • Islam
  • libyans
  • libyan leader
  • air strikes
  • defiance
  • green and gold
  • gunfire
  • Harriet Sherwood
  • headscarf
  • human shields
  • international coalition
  • nato warplanes
  • patriotic songs
  • warplane

  April 15 2011, 10:32am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Catalan independence boost after Barcelona vote

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/11/catalan-independence-boost-after-barcelona-vote

  Nine out of 10 of voters in Barcelona backed independence for Catalonia.

  This article titled “Catalan independence boost after Barcelona vote” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for The Guardian on Monday 11th April 2011 17.08 UTC Campaigners for Catalan independence claim they have made significant advances after one in five people in the region’s capital city, Barcelona, backed a call for a separate state in Sunday’s unofficial referendum. Although the vote was organised by volunteers and had no legal standing, organisers said it had pushed the issue of independence further into mainstream political debate in this wealthy and populous north-eastern Spanish region. Alfred Bosch, spokesman for the organising committee, was happy with the 21% turnout. “We could never, even in our wildest dreams, have imagined a turnout like this,” he said. Nine out of 10 of those who took part backed a separate state, reflecting an overall 20% support for independence seen in similar votes held in hundreds of Catalan towns and villages over the past 18 months.   Among key politicians reported to have voted in favour of independence was the regional prime minister, Artur Mas, of the nationalist Convergence and Union coalition. “This marks a change in the political cycle,” Felip Puig, a senior member of Mas’s government, told the Catalan language newspaper Ara. Critics accused Mas of being a “Sunday separatist” as his party has indicated it would not back a vote calling for independence in the Catalan regional parliament on Wednesday. Some observers claimed Mas was using the referendum to put pressure on the central Spanish government of Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero amid a bruising battle over funding of the Catalan government. The regional government, which is in charge of major services such as education, health and policing, must cut spending to help Spain meet its deficit reduction targets this year. Mas has vowed to negotiate a new and exclusive fiscal deal with Madrid. Anti-Madrid sentiment has been on the increase in Catalonia ever since the constitutional court last year struck out parts of a new autonomy charter for the region that had been approved at a legal referendum. Non-separatists pointed out that the weekend referendum in Barcelona showed the vast majority of Catalans were not interested enough in independence to take part. Spain’s constitution does not allow for the independence of any of the 17 regions into which it is divided. Constitutional change requires the approval of two-thirds of the deputies in the Spanish parliament and two-thirds of the people at a national referendum. Both of Spain’s two largest parties, the governing socialists and the opposition People’s party, oppose the independence of Catalonia. They jointly account for 323 of the 350 votes in parliament.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogCatalan independence boost after Barcelona vote

  Related posts:Will anyone vote for AV in the electoral reform referendum? to Wikiversity or not to Wikiversity? Vote now. St George in England and Spain

  

  • Tags:
  • spain
  • politics
  • Europe
  • city
  • The Guardian
  • News
  • Article
  • Main section
  • Campaign
  • World news
  • Giles Tremlett
  • International
  • Language
  • socialist
  • committee
  • constitution
  • Barcelona
  • Regional
  • Madrid
  • deficit reduction
  • majority
  • Turnout
  • spanish government
  • josé luis rodríguez zapatero
  • socialist prime minister
  • Alfred Bosch
  • autonomy
  • catalan government
  • Catalonia
  • convergence
  • political debate
  • referendum
  • region
  • regional parliament

  April 11 2011, 12:16pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  World Development Report: Why no mention of Paris?

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/11/world-development-report-why-no-mention-of-paris

  The World Bank report offers some welcome suggestions on reforming institutions to address conflict, but it is strange that it fails to mention the Paris agenda on aid effectiveness.

  This article titled “World Development Report: Why no mention of Paris?” was written by Jonathan Glennie, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 11th April 2011 09.10 UTC The World Bank has published its annual World Development Report and, as usual, it is a good read. This year its focus is on insecurity, conflict and fragility. It aims to build the evidence linking development, the bank’s primary area of expertise, and insecurity, one of the biggest constraints on progress.   The first things you can expect from a report like this are some new era-defining stats. So we get this: “One-and-a-half billion people live in areas affected by fragility, conflict or large-scale, organised criminal violence, and no low-income fragile or conflict-affected country has yet to achieve a single UN millennium development goal.”   The first part of the report shares a lot of helpful evidence for something that should be obvious – conflict is one of the biggest enemies of development. Anyone Ivorian would be able to thoroughly back that assessment at the moment as they watch the development gains of recent years being put at risk by the present violence.   To pick from one of the many statistics: “Mozambique more than tripled its primary [school] completion rate in just eight years, from 14% in 1999 [seven years after the fighting ended] to 46% in 2007.”   So far, so obvious. What does the World Bank think should be done? It has one clear and compelling answer: Make institutions more legitimate. Legitimate institutions are what the report cleverly describes as a country’s “immune system” against conflict.   The report turns out to be one more example of how “institutions” have finally made it to the very top of the development hierarchy, trumping “good policy” as the latest key to development progress. The report is impressive in scope, seeking to reassess an international order built in the wake of two world wars and finding it wanting for the new reality of conflict today, with its complex, repeated and inter-related forms of violence.   Commendably, it mentions the big issues, like the drugs trade and international channels of corruption, that development experts often prefer to leave to others. It emphasises the importance of improved data collection to track stolen money. But on drugs it is weaker, mustering only the following recommendation: “Exploring the costs and benefits of different combinations of demand and supply-side measures would be a first step to underpinning more decisive demand-side actions.” Hmmm.   Being the World Bank, there is not the slightest hint that western powers could be at fault for any of the violence and conflict in the world. It might have been nice to acknowledge that violence is not a developing world phenomenon, by adding a few examples of western problems.   The style of the report is humble, which is all the rage in development nowadays. It is an attitude taking some time to filter down to country managers, though, where anecdotal tales of arrogant westerners insisting on rapid change along Washington Consensus lines are still all too common. But at least there is change at the top.   One thing I particularly liked was the emphasis on job creation because it is unemployment that is the major driver behind young people joining rebel groups or criminal gangs (according to the surveys quoted). Again, it’s common sense, but it’s always useful to have it written down. Jobless growth is not good enough.   First prize for most glaring omission is shared between Colombo and Paris. The major story in internal armed conflict recently, the crushing of the Tamil uprising in Sri Lanka, gets not one mention in the whole report. I expect there are complicated politics behind this silence.   But there is no such excuse for the failure to mention the Paris agenda on aid effectiveness. Fundamental to the legitimacy of institutions is where their money comes from. So the report is right to focus on the donor-recipient relationship, which muddies the supposed accountability links between citizen and government. It is good that this link (a particular beef of mine) is being recognised in such an important report.   But to engage in a long list of (very welcome) suggestions for how international agencies should reform without mentioning the major international initiative seeking to achieve such reform is strange. While calling for donors to work better together, the World Bank is in danger of looking like it prefers to go it alone, setting up a new group of “WDR principles”.   What about the future? The WDR recognises that climate change and increased competition for natural resources are likely to heighten the risk of conflict in the years to come. And there are some very useful pointers as to what makes for a potentially more peaceful future.   One that particularly hit me was this: “Some states have tried to maintain stability through coercion and patronage networks, but those with high levels of corruption and human rights abuses increase their risks of violence breaking out in the future.” Or in layman’s terms, you need to deal with the causes of the problem. The causes are usually linked to poverty and injustice, as a later graphic makes clear.   That is also one of the conclusions (obviously) of a separate initiative that is worth looking at. The Global Peace Index ranks countries according to how peaceful they are, and while the methodology behind it can be criticised (as any index can) it adds important evidence to the debate about which policies really do contribute to peace.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogWorld Development Report: Why no mention of Paris?

  Related posts:Joomla 1.5 and the limits of open source development Why is Samaritaine in Paris still closed? South of Pigalle Paris Breaks Competition

  

  • Tags:
  • mozambique
  • paris
  • competition
  • millennium
  • Article
  • World news
  • International
  • Blogposts
  • Global development
  • violence
  • Aid
  • Colombo
  • conflict
  • Conflict and development
  • Jonathan Glennie
  • millennium development
  • Poverty matters blog
  • Sri Lanka
  • world bank
  • world bank report

  April 11 2011, 4:18am | Comments »

1 2 3 4 5 6

Visit Andy Roberts Music sites

For Andy Roberts music online with free downloads, mp3player widgets and further jumping off points please visit the external links below:

• Weekly Podcast
• ReverbNation
• Last.fm
• Andy Roberts Podcast on iTunes

Get Andy Roberts Sampler CD

The Andy Roberts Sampler CD has four tracks including Gernika. Available from Havering Folk Club on Wednesdays or from Andy Roberts Sampler CD page.

Listen Right here Right Now:

Andy Roberts Photos

More than 3,000 pictures in sets imported from Flickr here on

• Andy Roberts Photo Blog

London Theatre Breaks

Andy Roberts is an editor writer at:

• London Theatre Breaks

Browse via Popular Tags here

• Music
• Andy Roberts
• London
• Article
• The Guardian
• News
• Havering Folk Club
• podcast
• spain
• UK
• status
• theatre
• Main section
• andyroberts
• General
• breaks
• politics
• World news
• gardens
• andy
• song
• roberts
• folk
• kew
• wanstead
• People
• UK news
• thames
• 2008
• video
• park
• ustream
• river
• Andy Roberts Music
• twitter
• business
• flats
• richmond
• culture
• guitar
• youtube
• cover
• original
• Environment
• economics
• 2010
• Blogposts
• The
• loudon wainwright

Search