The environmental case for drug legalisation

The number of people in Colombia killed by US tobacco is way beyond the number of Americans killed by Colombian cocaine… Do they have a right to come to the United States and carry out chemical warfare on North Carolina and Kentucky because they have a tobacco problem and it’s coming from here?

Reaping the political rewards of the Iranian nuclear crisis

Both Iranian and Israeli governments mutually benefit from the threat of war, as they both use the excuse to polish their propaganda and to silence internal opposition.

The Mexico you didn’t see (this Adventure World Travel Summit)

Despite what the Mexican Federal government would have us believe, especially since taking presidency of the G20 summit, racism and repression against the indigenous people of Mexico remains strong, in fact it could be called a way of life.

Energy, land and food

As the EU and the UN work to expand access to sustainable energy for all, the land and food rights of millions of people in the developing world must not be jeopardised, argues Aaron Akinyemi.

French elections: what does normal stand for?

The vote for Hollande is not so much a radical desire for change as a possibly illusory desire to go back to the pre-crisis period. The socialists have meanwhile opened up a new approach to the economy. But 'racism from above' has led the way in this historic fight over what is normal 

Egypt’s uncertain road to prosperity: economic challenges to long‐term stability

The livelihoods of the Egyptian people are a political priority. In the 1990s, at the behest of the IMF and the US, neoliberalism exacerbated the gap between the haves and the have-nots by ensuring that the primary benefactors of growth have been wealthy Egyptians.

10 years after: taking stock of China’s WTO membership

China's accession into the WTO in 2001 sparked fierce debate as to its consequences for China's development, the impact on (un)employment in economically advanced states, and the effect on the international devision of labor. Ten years later, it is time to take stock.

Out of view: the unnameable poor in India and Bangladesh

My friends in teaching jobs in Afghanistan and Korea or aid organizations in Bangladesh, nearly all returned to the United States, to ask themselves hard questions about their educational pursuits or their student loans. Suffering offers infinite growth. But faith is like a blanket, only large enough to keep so many children warm. 

Biopolitics, territories and signs of crisis in multinational network companies

There is still a solid social cushion in France if we compare it to other European countries. But the pressure for work-hour productivity – one of the highest in the world – oppresses generations of digital cognitive workers. 

UK security firm G4S provides services to Israeli prisons, police and army

The world’s biggest security company, fast devouring UK public services — police, justice, health, asylum housing, is complicit in Israeli human rights abuses

Jobless reindustrialisation: down and out in Detroit and Turin

The consensus of the UK's three main political parties of the need to 'rebalance' the economy fails to acknowledge the paradoxes of modern systems of production. Aaron Peters examines how the global processes of mechanisation and outsourcing have together made impotent the possibility of recovery via 'reindustrialisation'. 

Goldman Sachs and hard work

Since trucking deregulation began under President Jimmy Carter, trucking rates are no longer set by the federal government, but by companies like SSA Marine, who can avoid paying benefits if their truckers are not classified as employees

Desertec video - solar power from the Sahara

A Scriberia animation describes the "Desertec" project - using solar power concentrators in North Africa and bringing power to Europe with High Voltage DC lines. Why not?

Murdoch and the Big Lie

The Murdoch affair is demonstrating not only that Rupert and James are not 'fit and proper' people to run a media empire in Britain, but that David Cameron and George Osborne are ill-suited to running a government.

Marlière across La Manche: a diary of the 2012 French presidential election

Charles de Gaulle once said that the French presidential election was “an encounter between the nation and a man” (sic). Big Charles may have been right in suggesting that this election is about personality politics. There is much more to it though. Through this election diary, I invite you to follow my journey into this historic European election: analysis of results, as well as personal thoughts on candidates, debates, the media, opinion polls and the “mood” of French voters.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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