Interesting Reading: 1/5
Two from the New York Times
A 50-Year Farm Bill
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05berry.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Industrial agricultural has made our food supply entirely dependent on
fossil fuels and, by substituting technological "solutions" for human work
and care, has virtually destroyed the cultures of husbandry (imperfect as
they may have been) once indigenous to family farms and farming
neighborhoods.
Clearly, our present ways of agriculture are not sustainable, and so our
food supply is not sustainable. We must restore ecological health to our
agricultural landscapes, as well as economic and cultural stability to our
rural communities.
For 50 or 60 years, we have let ourselves believe that as long as we have
money we will have food. That is a mistake. If we continue our offenses
against the land and the labor by which we are fed, the food supply will
decline, and we will have a problem far more complex than the failure of
our paper economy. The government will bring forth no food by providing
hundreds of billons of dollars to the agribusiness corporations
"
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Fighting Off Depression
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05krugman.html?ref=opinion
"If we don't act swiftly and boldly," declared President-elect Barack
Obama in his latest weekly address, "we could see a much deeper economic
downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment." If you ask me, he
was understating the case.
The fact is that recent economic numbers have been terrifying, not just in
the United States but around the world. Manufacturing, in particular, is
plunging everywhere. Banks aren't lending; businesses and consumers aren't
spending. Let's not mince words: This looks an awful lot like the
beginning of a second Great Depression.
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The Top Ten Best (and Worst) Communicators of 2008
http://www.bertdecker.com/experience/2008/12/top-ten-best-and-worst-communicators-of-2008.html
This Annual List of Top Ten Communicators of 2008 highlights the best (and
worst) from business, politics (big this year), entertainment, sports and
the professions. Take a look to see how communication skills helped make
or break these notable individuals
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Mumbai: A Battle in the War for Pakistan
http://www.cfr.org/publication/17981/
"
Mumbai is not simply a story of weak Indian security institutions or a
replay of past Indo-Pak hostilities. We must now recognize that Mumbai
represents a dangerous escalation in what might best be described as the
"war for Pakistan": a civil conflict over whether nuclear-armed Pakistan
succumbs to extremist, Taliban-like ideologies or gropes its way toward a
more moderate, modern path. Even if Pakistan's moderates eventually
prevail, this war threatens to destabilize the region, especially
neighboring India and Afghanistan. If the war is lost, the consequences
will be far worse. Building and sustaining stability in Pakistan must be
at the top of the agenda for Obama's national security team
.
In the end, Mumbai serves as a timely reminder that Pakistan's terrorism
problem is not confined to the Pashtun badlands bordering Afghanistan.
Over decades, extremism and militancy has seeped into the institutions,
political culture, and society of the entire country, from its Punjabi
heartland to its coastal megacity of Karachi. Winning the war for Pakistan
will require an urgent, massive, and sustained effort by the United States
in coordination with other international partners and allies in Pakistan."
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