| Ten Lashes Against Humanism
A minor tradition in conservative thought is the definition of the dialectical adversary as mentally deficient and lacking in morality. As this never constitutes an argument, the outburst is covered up with some fragmented and repetitious reasoning, proper to the postmodern thought of political propaganda. It is no accident that in Latin America other writers repeat the US experience, with books like Manual del perfecto idiota latinoamericano (Manual for the Perfect Latin American Idiot, 1996) or making up lists about Los diez estúpidos más estúpidos de América Latina (The Top Ten Stupid People in Latin America). A list that is usually headed up, with elegant indifference, by our friend, the phoenix Eduardo Galeano. They have killed him off so many times he has grown accustomed to being reborn.
Government's taste high, buries country in debt
Finance minister Dr Omar Davies in his 2006 budget speech clearly stated that government would increase the threshold below which Jamaicans would not have to pay income tax by 42 per cent to $275,000 with effect from January 1 this year. This means government would have to give up a large amount of money at the same time. I wondered then how this was possible when the government was running a high fiscal deficit of more than $38 billion. The fiscal deficit is the difference between what government earns as revenue and grants and what it spends. Government is therefore spending far more than it earns so it has to borrow billions to close the gap, pushing up the total public debt to nearly $1 trillion which Jamaicans will never be able to pay off. At the same time, what is alarming is that the debt is running 130 per cent of what the country produces in goods and services or what in economic terms is known as the Gross Domestic Product.
Joint Interview Given by Premier Wen Jiabao to ROK Press
Shortly before his official visit to the Republic of Korea, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao gave a joint interview at Ziguangge, Zhongnanhai in Beijing on 5 April to resident reporters of 19 ROK news agencies, including Yonghap News, Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo and KBS. Wen Jiabao: Good afternoon. I have long been looking forward to visiting the Republic of Korea. I will bring with me friendship and cooperation on my visit. Let me first convey, through you, warm greetings and best wishes of the Chinese people to the ROK people. Now I am ready to take your questions. Question: Thank you, Premier Wen, for giving this interview out of your busy schedule. I wish your visit to the ROK and Japan a success. China plays a very important role in the Six-Party Talks. What is your view on the establishment of a peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula? What role can China play on the issue of achieving North-South unification? Wen Jiabao: More than half a century has passed since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed.
Trade unions must join the struggle against HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS is surely the most central subject in the agenda of all the various groups represented in Guyana today. It is a concern that transcends all boundaries and it is continuing its deadly march around the world. Permit me to startle us for a minute with some statistics for the figures are haunting, almost paralysing. The most recent figures, according to UNAIDS, on trends in HIV/AIDS globally show that the epidemic is out-pacing action: According to UNAIDS report, "Accurate statistics (in the Carib-bean) are difficult to come by as the quality of the surveillance and monitoring system varies highly across the region. This makes it quite possible that the seriousness of this epidemic may be escaping attention. Trade unions and their membership have recognized this reality and begun to address HIV/AIDS as a workplace issue.
Frame or be framed?
The blogosphere crashes into the peer-reviewed academic sphere this week with an essay that tells scientists they must “frame" their findings on controversial issues such as climate change and stem cells, or risk being run over by political spin machines. It's a view you often find on science blogs - and indeed, the co-authors of this week's piece are two well-known science bloggers. But this essay appears in Science, America's most prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal. The authors of the piece, "Framing Science," are Matthew Nisbet (a professor at the American University who has a blog also titled Framing Science) and Chris Mooney (author of "The Republican War on Science" and The Intersection's blogmaster). For now, the Policy Forum essay is available only to Science's subscribers, but I would argue this is one article that should be put out in the open online: After all, it's designed to spark a wider discussion about how scientists engage themselves with the public, and makes great fodder for a host of Weblogs to chew on.
Remembering International Women’s Day 1917
The demands of those Russian women on International Working Women's Day in 1917 were finally met when the working class as a whole, women and men, came together to overthrow the hated Tsarist regime , and with it both capitalism and feudalism. It was the joint struggle of working women and men that led to the socialist revolution, which in turn laid the material basis for all those progressive reforms. We can do this again today in the 21st century, but on a much higher level. There has been huge progress in technology and an amazing development of the productive forces since 1917. The only problem is that all this is controlled by a tiny minority of capitalists, who use their ownership of the means of production to generate profit for themselves to detriment of the overwhelming majority of the world population.
Farm productivity holds the key
The Economic Survey and the budgetary proposals have rightly drawn the attention of the country to the lopsidedness in our economic growth. The manufacturing and the service sectors are doing very well while the agricultural sector is not doing very well. The year 2003-04 witnessed a record agricultural production; almost 19 per cent increase in the foodgrain production and a record oilseeds crop. This has not been sustained in the subsequent years, which partly explains the current spurt in the prices of essential commodities like wheat, rice, edible oil and pulses. The continuous fall in their production for the last three years was indicative enough of the crises and inflationary prices. The situation could have been avoided through timely imports; but this at best is a temporary solution.
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