blessed britons

From 1757 to 1947 during British rule in India, there was no increase in India's per capita income for almost two hundred years. Indeed, in the last half of the nineteenth century, income probably declined by more than 50 per cent. In effect, there was no economic development at all in the usual sense of the term.

— — Mike Davis,

mad world

* One quarter of the aid [provided by rich countries] – $20bn a year – funds expensive and often ineffective western consultants, research and training.

* In the UK, for example, almost half of TA spending goes on consultants and other experts, the vast majority of them British.

* A typical cost of an expatriate consultant will be in the region of $200,000 a year. According to the OECD, in typical cases more than one third of this is spent on school fees and child allowances – spending which would not be needed if local consultants were used.

— Action Aid

Real Aid II

Lisbon Treaty

EU democracy

Submitted by antarchi on June 22, 2008 - 10:18.

We cannot have an expansive monetary policy, not because we voted for a restrictive policy, but because the European Central Bank makes the rules, even for member states outside the euro-zone.
We cannot write to ask a government minister or our MEP to propose a particular change in European law unless there happens to be a relevant proposal before the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, because only the unelected European Commission has the right to propose new legislation.
We cannot refuse to have genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our country because an EU directive says that, except under extremely limited conditions, we have to have them.

— Steve McGiffen

, in The End of Democracy

The End of Democracy