There are a host of global concerns. Paul Rogers asks why the ‘intergovernmental body with the best record in supporting the interests of the poorest’ - UNCTAD - gets the least attention and support; while David Franco calls for a Global Day of Action on Military Spending as the business fosters war and conflict around the world at an alarming rate. At the interface between the nation and these trends, John Grayson and Clare Sambrook track for Our Kingdom highly revealing connections between the world’s largest security company, G4S, and the former senior politicians, civil servants and diplomats who ‘advise’ and lobby for them, asking if policing by corporate power is replacing policing by consent.
Meanwhile, people are learning how to read the political labyrinths they wish to change, whether this is our new Arab rapper friends from Libya and Egypt; Habiba Insaf introducing us to the hidden and not so hidden political and religious repercussions of a once popular Indian calendar art; or N. Jayaram probing the meaning of the death penalty in the world’s largest democracy. In oD Russia, they continue to be helped in the task of assessing Putin’s room for manoeuvre by David Travin’s illuminating thread.
Three links you will not want to miss:
Gillian Tett on Disney World as a religious experience
Far right anti-Muslim network on the rise by Mark Townsend
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