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Bush and Blair should ‘Answer for their actions’

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush to be hauled before an international criminal court and delivered a damning critique of the physical and moral devastation caused by the Iraq war. Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”The Iraq war “has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984. “Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” he added. The Hague, Netherlands, based court is the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal and has been in operation for 10 years. So far it has launched prosecutions only in Africa, including in Sudan, Congo, Libya and Ivory Coast. TutuÊhas long been a staunch critic of the Iraq war, while others opposed to the conflict including playwright Harold Pinter have previously called for Bush and Blair to face prosecution at the Hague. “The then-leaders of the U.S. and U.K. fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us,” said Tutu, who last week withdrew from a conference in South Africa due to Blair’s presence at the event. While the International Criminal Court can handle cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it does not currently have the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of aggression. Any potential prosecution over the […]

Investing with Impact: Why Finance Is a Force for Good

By Jeremy Balkin Investing with Impact: Why Finance Is a Force for Good outlines the roadmap to reinvigorating a skeptical public and demoralised financial services industry by making the case that, contrary to popular misconception, finance is not the cause of the world’s problems; in fact, it can provide the solution. Author Jeremy Balkin presents the case that the finance industry can improve the state of the world by positively influencing the allocation of capital. Investing with Impact explains the methodology of Balkin’s 6 E Paradigm, opening the toolbox to this revolutionary framework for the first time. In so doing, Balkin expands the impact investment universe, enabling mainstream capital to flow where opportunities generate positive investment returns and have demonstrable social impact. Described by the Huffington Post as the “Anti-Wolf of Wall Street,” Balkin is challenging the status quo on Wall Street by leading the intellectual debate embracing the $1 trillion frontier impact investment market opportunity. The book demonstrates conclusively that, if we can change the culture in finance, we can change the world for the better.

Commuter families: Analysis from Malaysia

Commuter families normally consist of dual-career marriages that choose to establish separate homes to fulfill their career commitments. Around the world, the numbers of dual-income, dual-household families is on the rise, fuelled by such reasons as the desire of spouses to improve their lifestyle, obtain a higher family income, or pursue better opportunities for career advancement. However, in Malaysia, the most common reason (44.4%) that married couples adopt a “commuter family” lifestyle is that they are required to by their employers, according to a recent study published in the Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. Conducted by researchers at the Universiti Putra Malaysia, this study is the first in Malaysia to investigate the challenges faced by long-distance commuters and their families. The study involved families based in Klang Valley that had one spouse working outside this region. Commuter families normally consist of dual-career marriages that choose to establish separate homes to fulfil their career commitments. However, life for these families can be challenging and difficult to manage due to such factors as the time spent travelling back and forth every week, increased expenditures and financial cost, as well as changes in the relationship dynamics with spouses, family and friends. According to the study, among commuter families, more men than women (60.2% versus 39.8%) work away from home in Malaysia. However, no gender differences were observed in terms of how commuting impacts personal wellbeing. Overall, the study found that most respondents have a negative perception of their commuting lifestyle (80.6% of males versus 96.5% of females). “This may be because the majority of these commuters not only did not choose to work away from home and their families, but also they did not receive any financial incentive or stipend to cover commuting expenses such as accommodation, transport or food while […]

Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Some books just remain, no matter when you read them. It doesn’t matter. They are beyond time perhaps. The Catcher in the Rye is one such book. I have heard a lot of people say a lot of things, about it, however to me it still remains special. Why, you ask? Maybe because I read it at sixteen. Maybe because I read it when I was away from my family – the plot had some perspective I think. I didn’t want to be Holden, but certainly thoughts drifted in the manner he thought. J.D. Salinger knew what he was doing I think while writing this novel. What he didn’t know was the reaction or strings of actions would be created by this book. The Catcher in the Rye is not just another novel. It is the voice of several generations of teenagers in the sense of the world. It is the world of angst and no sense of direction. Or maybe it is the voice of intellectualising everything or trivialising it all. Holden Caulfield is more than an icon. He is someone who is trying to make sense of his life and life around him. It might appear to be as simple as this, when it is not or may be it is. He encounters people – different people as he takes off from his fancy school Pencey Prep and takes on his journey in New York City. This is where it all begins or almost. Originally, the book was banned in most schools in the USA. It was because of its vulgar language, which honestly I did not have a problem with then or now. To me the writing is just surreal, even after rereading it after fourteen years. It just manages to evoke the same sentiments in me […]

Greenpeace at war in India

By Rajesh Chhabara – Ethical Corp The Indian government, under the new leadership of Narendi Modi, has taken a harsh line against Greenpeace’s opposition to several development projects – blocking funds and preventing individuals from travelling. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has run into serious trouble in India. The government has barred Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funding and has frozen all its bank accounts. As a result, Greenpeace India has no access to funding, including any new local or foreign funding. The government’s tough stand against Greenpeace is based on a report submitted by the Intelligence Bureau to the prime minister’s office last June when the new federal government was taking charge. The report, leaked to media, calls Greenpeace a “threat to India’s economic and national security”. The report says a number of large development projects have been cancelled, disrupted or delayed because of Greenpeace campaigns against coal mining, coal fired power plants, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), hydro power projects, tea farming practices and several large industrial projects. The intelligence report has named London-based Vedanta’s bauxite project, South Korean company Posco’s steel plant in Odisha state and hydro power projects in Arunachal Pradesh state bordering China as examples of affected projects. The intelligence agency estimates that disruptions to large projects have cut India’s gross domestic product growth by 2-3% a year. Greenpeace has different ideas for India The intelligence agency has noted that Greenpeace and other NGOs are using funds from donors in the US, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands to mobilise protests against development projects in India. The agency alleged that Greenpeace has flouted laws relating to receiving and accounting for foreign funding. It has raised questions about the intentions of a number of expat Greenpeace officials, consultants and journalists who were brought to India for various campaigns […]

Blair Inc: The Man Behind the Mask

Take a closer look at the world of Tony Blair, whose private financial dealings within a complex web of business relationships he tries to keep hidden from the public eye. Since leaving office in 2007, the secretive empire of Tony Blair has grown exponentially. As a businessman he has been unprecedentedly successful for a former public servant, with a large property portfolio and an estimated £80 million of earnings accrued in just a few short years. But how has he managed to achieve this? Being an ex-Prime Minister comes with certain advantages, and besides his excellent state pension and 24-hour security team, Blair enjoys the best contacts that money can buy—as do those willing to pay him for access to them. Consequently, Tony Blair Associates’ clients can be found around the world, and include the morally distasteful presidents of Kazakhstan and Burma. There is also Blair’s role as special envoy in the Middle East. While his record as a peacemaker is in doubt, the position has brought him into contact with a variety of oil-rich potentates in the region who now number among his most profitable clients. Blair Inc.: The Man behind the Mask takes a close look at the world that Blair attempts to hide from scrutiny—his own. From the complex financial structures he uses to hide his profits—and the amount of tax he pays—to the multiple conflicts of interest produced by his increasing web of relationships, this book attempts to expose the dubious private dealings of this very public figure. About the Authors Francis Beckett is a journalist, broadcaster, playwright, and historian. He is the author of 16 books, including Marching to the Fault Line, Money Makes You Happy, andThe Survivor: Tony Blair in Peace and War. David Hencke is a journalist and writer, and was named Political […]

The romance of the blue bloods

The victory of David Cameron’s party at the UK elections shows a continuing romance of countries with the middle-class side of politics when you also consider similar governments of such countries as Australian and New Zealand. All British – based political systems going back a long way. The three leaders – Cameron, Abbot and Key – are cut from the same cloth and adhere to similar political philosophies and ways of being. And as they are inclined to govern, they rule over three countries that are leaving a lot of their people behind. This is not to say their parties control the destiny of every citizen’s lives. But it can be said that they are seen to be hugely linked with the status-quo and indicate a push for the blue bloods to continue ruling, maintaining financial control above all else. Today, two days after the British elections there are demonstrations in the streets of London from people concerned about the proposed cuts from the re-elected government.

The four global forces breaking all the trends

This article is an edited extraction from No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends to be be published on May 12 by Public Affairs. -McKinsey. In the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, one new force changed everything. Today our world is undergoing an even more dramatic transition due to the confluence of four fundamental disruptive forces—any of which would rank among the greatest changes the global economy has ever seen. Compared with the Industrial Revolution, we estimate that this change is happening ten times faster and at 300 times the scale, or roughly 3,000 times the impact. Although we all know that these disruptions are happening, most of us fail to comprehend their full magnitude and the second- and third-order effects that will result. Much as waves can amplify one another, these trends are gaining strength, magnitude, and influence as they interact with, coincide with, and feed upon one another. [sam id=”1″ codes=”true”] [sam_block id=”1″] Together, these four fundamental disruptive trends are producing monumental change. 1. Beyond Shanghai: The Age of Urbanisation The first trend is the shifting of the locus of economic activity and dynamism to emerging markets like China and to cities within those markets. These emerging markets are going through simultaneous industrial and urban revolutions, shifting the center of the world economy east and south at a speed never before witnessed. As recently as 2000, 95 percent of the Fortune Global 500—the world’s largest international companies including Airbus, IBM, Nestlé, Shell, and The Coca-Cola Company, to name a few—were headquartered in developed economies. By 2025, when China will be home to more large companies than either the United States or Europe, we expect nearly half of the world’s large companies—defined as those with revenue of $1 billion or […]

Books: Marissa Mayer and the fight to save Yahoo

From her controversial rise and fall from power at Google, to her dramatic reshaping of Yahoo’s work culture, people are obsessed with, and polarised by, Marissa Mayer’s every move. She is full of fascinating contradictions: a feminist who rejects feminism, a charmer in front of a crowd who can’t hold eye contact in one-on-ones and a geek who is Oscar de la Renta’s best customer. Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! tells her story. Back in the 1990s, Yahoo was the internet. It was also a $120 billion company. But just as quickly as it became the world’s most famous internet company, it crashed to earth during the dotcom bust. And yet, Yahoo is still here, with nearly a billion people visiting it each month. Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! tells the fly-on-the-wall story of Yahoo’s history for the first time, getting inside the board room as executives make genius calls and massive blunders. Dan Loeb, a tough-talking hedge fund manager, set his sights on Yahoo in 2011. He grew up idolising the corporate raiders of the 1980s, building a career being more vicious than any of them. Without Loeb’s initiative, Marissa Mayer would never have been given her chance to save the company. This book tells the tale of how Dan Loeb spotted the real problem inside Yahoo – its awful board – and tore it apart, getting two CEOs fired in the process.When Marissa Mayer first started at Yahoo in 2012, the car parks would empty every week by 4.00 p.m. on Thursday. Over the next two years she made plenty of mistakes, but she learned from them. Now Yahoo’s culture is vibrant and users are coming back. In Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! Nicholas Carlson also explores what may […]

Productivity across all sectors

Over the last couple of years I have been receiving information from Wal Mart workers in the USA about their conditions and terms of employment and salary. They have a very intensive campaign which continues their push for improved wages so they have a fair deal and can afford to pay their bills. So my ears pricked up here – naturally enough – when the plight of the takeaway workers became apparent with their employers over zero-hour contracts. At this time, let’s give some credit for the role of the trade unions doing the right thing by the above mentioned workers. Trade unions support workers, they want to see people getting a fair go and being able to feed their children and not left at the bottom of the pecking order. Trade unions are a compass to show the direction to better things. And even if you are not a member of a union you can still applaud their pro-activity for attempting to make life better for others. If we measure the take away worker on a low income as against, say, a tradesman the salary is miles apart. The take away worker is still productive, however, and through their efforts allows their employer to add to the nation’s GDP. Maybe less skilled but still a valued member of society, of a community and contributing in domestic and business environments. New Zealand is a high tech country. However, not all of our citizens are into hi-tech working at Fisher & Paykel or the Reserve Bank. We are all, though, the sum of parts that make up this country and contribute to our going forward. All countries are categorised as having blue and white collar workers. The colour of your collar is not what makes you a better person, is it? […]

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