We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Financial secrecy: We really are in it together

Click here to access article by Charles Abugre from Pambazuka News (Africa). 

The author provides a good, succinct explanation of how financial deregulation and banking secrecy, the latter involved in what is known as the "shadow banking system", often has disastrous effects on the lives of ordinary people.