Bounty offered for arrest of Condoleezza Rice

Auckland University students today offered a reward for a citizen’s arrest of Rice for her role in “overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation” of Iraq.

Which made me proud to be a kiwi student.

But it seems the police have made some heavy threats and the reward has now been withdrawn.

Police 1: Students 0
Condoleezza Rice?  History will tell I’m sure.

Filed under: New Zealand, news, politics, social justice , auckland university, condoleezza rice

The new rulers of the world

I was doing a bit of ‘research’ today, looking for videos on the World Bank and IMF for a tutorial I am teaching tomorrow (I got locked out of the department video library…), and came across this 2002 documentary The New Rulers of the World, by British journalist John Pilger. Here’s part of the blurb from the producers:

In order to examine the true effects of globalization, Pilger turns the spotlight on Indonesia, a country described by the World Bank as a model pupil until its globalized economy collapsed in 1998. The film examines the use of sweatshop factories by famous brand names, and asks some penetrating questions. Who are the real beneficiaries of the globalized economy? Who really rules the world now? Is it governments or a handful of huge companies? The Ford Motor Company alone is bigger than the economy of South Africa. Enormously rich men, like Bill Gates, have a wealth greater than all of Africa.

If you have a spare 53 minutes I strongly recommend you watch this. Unfortunately my class doesn’t so we will just watch the IMF/ World Bank section but I will advise they watch the rest, if nothing else as a counter to the economics stuff they have been reading.

Filed under: development, ethical living, politics, poverty, social justice, video , globalisation, globalization, IMF, John Pilger, New Rulers of the World, World Bank

A day in the life PhD student

Today was very enjoyable and I thought I’d post here about it- if for no other reason than to remind myself of what I like about being a PhD student on those days when I wonder why I ever started this journey.

I was up early this morning and enjoyed the sunny, clear morning air (despite the frosty cold) on my walk to the university. I left early as I had some prep to do before my first tutorial of the semester. The class is a first year (undergrad) development studies course called “Rich World Poor World”. It went well. The class was mostly already there when I arrived 10 minutes early and participated well in discussions on “what is development” and “can development be measured”. Of course after years of study I think have even less idea about what development is than I did when I was in thier place, but it’s good to get people starting to think critically about thier assumptions about the world and our place in it.

After that I spent some time answering emails, arranging meetings and trying to organise accomodation for our trip to Honduras in September, which I am starting to get quite excited about.

Then I had a meeting with a PhD reading group we are starting up- lunch, hot chocolate and nearly 2 hours discussing post-development theories and politics. Sounds dry and boring? It wasn’t. Trust me!

Then back to my desk for a couple of hours writing, trying to sort out my ideas on international volunteering and volunteer tourism, being hopeful about the potential while not ignoring the pitfalls.

And then the walk home. Not a stunningly special day, nor even particularly exciting. But it is such a priviledge to have the space to explore new ideas and to share them with others. To often at work and in daily life we get caught up in the routine and in what needs to be done. To be able to think- that to me is a joy.

Filed under: Thoughts, development, phd, study

Just spreading the word

I have just watched an item on Campbell Live about the school holiday programme at Auckland Zoo, which is supposed to start next week. It seems that the Zoo has had to cancel the programme because the sponsors have withdrawn thier support.

The reason for this withdrawl is related to the completion of a workbook which is part of the programme.  One of the questions in the workbook was about the orangutans, specifically, it asked what is the greatest threat to the survival of orangutans. The answer is palm oil.

Palm oil is something most consumers know little about, yet eat and use on a daily basis.  It is used in hundreds of different types of processed food from margarine to noodles to crackers to chocolate.  It is also used in cosmetics and cleaning products.  And it is increasingly being used as a biofuel.  As a result vast swathes of countryside in tropical regions is being cleared to for palm oil plantations- out of sight and out of mind for most Westerners.  Honduras is one of those places.  ALthough more known for fruit growing (the original ‘banana republic’), following Hurricane Mitch much of the fruit growing land has been converted to palm oil plantations.  We travelled through miles and miles of these on our last trip to Honduras.

Malaysia is one of the worlds largest palm oil producers, and the destruction of rain forest for palm oil has been accelerating significantly.  This rainforest is the home of the orangutan, and the destruction of it’s habitat is placing the already endangered primate at even greater risk- hence the question and answer in the Auckland Zoo workbook.

Turns out the sponser for the school holiday project is Tourism Malaysia.  Tourism Malaysia objected to the workbook question and asked Auckland Zoo to remove itd.  Auckland Zoo said no, education about Palm Oil was part of the programme.  So Tourism Malaysia has pulled thier support for the programme.

Of course the supreme irony is that I’m blogging on this now.  Because I’m only blogging about it because of the item which was broadcast on national tv. The issue has obviously gained significantly more exposure now than it would have if they had just left the holiday programme alone.

Filed under: Honduras, environment, ethical living , Auckland zoo, Malaysia, orangutan, palm oil