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What Gingrich Didn't Learn in Congo - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...rich-didnt-learn-in-congo.html colonialism empire US USA politics Belgium Africa Congo history
shared by Ed Webb on 05 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 05 Dec 11
     
    In shocking news, Newt probably speaks and reads French.
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Bring U.S. military in line with new reality - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html military USA empire US bases opinion
shared by Ed Webb on 22 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • we should conduct a global posture review with the goal of closing at least 50 overseas military installations. The U.S. military maintains more than 700 installations outside the United States, the vast majority of which were opened during the Cold War. With a more mobile and flexible force, we simply don't need as many facilities overseas.
  • America alone cannot police the world. We should increase burden-sharing for the protection of the global commons among countries that share our values and security objectives. Unfortunately, we are not the only democracy stuck in a Cold War mentality. It is time for countries such as Japan and India to play a greater role in regional security matters. We must also throw out the old map and forge new security arrangements with regional partners such as Vietnam and Brazil.
  • For America to remain a global force for good, we must maintain the world's most capable military. And being the best is not simply a function of spending the most. Staying on top will increasingly depend on our willingness to adapt to the realities of the 21st century security environment.
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Niall Ferguson: How American Civilization Can Avoid Collapse - The Daily Beast - 0 views

www.thedailybeast.com/...zation-can-avoid-collapse.html empire US USA politics opinion ferguson
shared by Ed Webb on 01 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 01 Nov 11
     
    Be sure to enjoy the readers' comments!
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Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British by Jeremy Paxman - review | Books | Th... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ire-ruling-world-paxman-review Britain empire opinion imperialism book review
shared by Ed Webb on 14 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • periodic spasms of moral self-questioning, which is unusual for empires
  • "The British empire had begun with a series of pounces. Then it marched. Next it swaggered. Finally, after wandering aimlessly for a while, it slunk away."
  • At times he appears to be going along with what he takes to be the 19th-century historian JR Seeley's view, that the empire was accumulated "absent-mindedly". (In fact Seeley said the opposite. Everyone gets this wrong.) To his credit, Paxman repeatedly confesses his own puzzlement: "there was something inherently nonsensical about it … How could the ultimate purpose of colonisation be freedom?" Well, there is an answer to that. He might not agree with it, but he should try to understand it. Dismissing things as "nonsense" is a way of avoiding the bother of explaining them.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • nothing here on the economic, cultural or any other roots of British imperialism
  • very woolly about whom he means by "the British" in this context
  • widespread public amnesia
  • Ed Webb on 14 Oct 11
     
    Thanks, Ian, for flagging this up for the seminar
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Climate Change Could Make Chocolate A Luxury Item, Report Finds - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...e-climate-change_n_992762.html commodities climate warming agriculture
shared by Ed Webb on 04 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 04 Oct 11
     
    Uh-oh
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The Duck of Minerva: R2Paternalism - 0 views

duckofminerva.blogspot.com/...r2paternalism.html colonialism development UN images imperialism military analysis
shared by Ed Webb on 19 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • In the absence of any context, the image becomes an abstraction; it is an image of European soldiers, acting in the name of the international community and benevolently protecting a group of happy but poor, brown children in some nameless tropical locale. In other words, this is the new portrait of the white man's burden.
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UK riots were product of consumerism and will hit economy, says City broker | Business ... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ots-economy-consumerism-values UK riots consumerism analysis opinion globalization
shared by Ed Webb on 07 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • the rioting reflects a deeply flawed economic and social ethos… recklessly borrowed consumption, the breakdown both of top-end accountability and of trust in institutions, and severe failings by governments over more than two decades
  • an over-consuming west has borrowed and spent the surpluses of the increasingly productive and under-consuming East
  • Saving needs to be encouraged, and private investment needs to be channelled into asset creation, not asset inflation
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • material values are only for the rich. The poor should get religion, etc. Marx understood the issue
  • Surprised it is from a City firm, especially one that encouraged its employees to leave the UK to avoid the 50% tax on bankers bonuses in 2009/2010. Now they are calling for more public investment
  • Blimey! What a terrible shock. Looting the result of consumerism, excessive advertising and a me-me-me society! I wouldn't have been able to work that out for myself. Two and a half cheers for Thatcher's 'There is no such thing as society. There are individuals and there are families.' So, we are now reaping the benefits of the legacy of the Thatcher/Reagan years. But how do we reverse a whole generation's worth of incredible greed, selfishness and vaingloriousness?
  • The full note isn't about the riots, it's more some ideas for reforming the UK economy. Ideas like investment to create assets rather than creating asset price inflation are valid, the same for the need for widespread public investment in infrastructure and housing.It's all useful for discussion, reflection and analysis but I expect the messenger to get shot to pieces in the comments below.
  • it has often struck me as ironic that on a planet of presently limited usable resources the measure of individual success is the one who can afford to consume the most. if a group of people were shut in a room with a finite supply of food and a choice of who stayed in the room i imagine that the individuals who were able to consume the least would be the preferred choice of companions.
  • The overall pattern has been that an over-consuming West has borrowed and spent the surpluses of the increasingly productive and under-consuming East.Increasingly productive East because Western CEO's have shifted production there to take advantage of cheap labour for short term profit.The West took centuries to build its wealth but this wealth has been given away in only a couple of decades by the process of globalisation. So far, the CEO's of big organisations have got away without being blamed for the disastrous globalisation process but I hope if we're going to examine causes of social malaise, that sooner rather than later, we turn the spotlight on their incredibly short term personal 'cashing in' at the expense of us all.
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