How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate Isabella M. Weber Routledge, 2021 China’s Great Road: Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices John Ross Praxis Press, 2021 China’s Engine of Environmental Collapse Richard Smith Pluto Press, 2021 The Chinese Communist party’s central committee recently held its sixth plenum,
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Things Are Good: Watch These Documentaries to Better Understand SE Asia
The environmental movement is a global struggle against big corporations and corrupted governments, which means each struggle has commonalities while also being unique to its region. Over at Global Voices they compiled a list of documentaries that cover various environmental movements in south east Asia. Some of the content in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: How China is building a non-imperialist model of international development
China’s South-South model of international development suggests a new, anti-imperialist model of global governance may be taking shape. Photo from Pixabay. China presents its Belt and Road Initiative as a way to address global deficits of development, peace and governance and has called for an international community with a shared
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Kerala’s Social Policies Are the Best Prevention Against Future Pandemics
With almost 35 million inhabitants, Kerala is the most stable and progressive state in India, with the highest literacy rate, a very high life expectancy and a high number of medical centres. Photo by Oscar Espinosa/Amalgama Project. Since March 24, the second most populous country in the world, with 1.3
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: There is reason to fear for the safety of every Kashmiri in India
An Indian army soldier patrols on a bridge during restrictions in Jammu on 5 August 2019 (Reuters) Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP government has rushed through a presidential decree to revoke the part of the constitution that gives Indian-administered Kashmir special status, fueling growing Kashmiri fears
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Hong Kong phooey! Would you like any hypocrisy with that?
Photo by Las Vegas Review-Journal Where to start? For nearly 40 weeks hundreds of thousands of French people have been on the streets in anti-government demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s rule. Some have lost eyes and hands in the police response. The public has begun to view the smell of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Coverage of Hong Kong protests shrouded in hypocrisy
Photo by Las Vegas Review-Journal Where to start? For nearly 40 weeks hundreds of thousands of French people have been on the streets in anti-government demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s rule. Some have lost eyes and hands in the police response. The public has begun to view the smell of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Question For Us All. Defending Our Food Security.
Californians, now just recovering from a multi-year drought, are debating the merits of a foreign resource grab, in this case water. At the center of this issue is a tract of farmland belonging to Fondomonte Farms, a subsidiary of a Saudi food giant. Fondomonte grows alfalfa that is then exported
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Changes and Continuity: Four Decades of Industrial Relations in China
Photo by Dan Lin China’s economic reforms started exactly forty years ago. Labour scholars today are debating the extent to which labour relations and the labour movement in China have changed, and where they may be heading. Positions are polarized between pessimists who emphasise the structural power of the market
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Indonesia Massacre’s Historic Message
Senior Republicans in both the House and Senate have called on the President to “reject any claims for the continued postponement” of declassification. “Transparency in government is critical not only to ensuring accountability; it’s also essential to understanding our nation’s history,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Senate
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: A Murderous History of Korea
Photo by Stephan More than four decades ago I went to lunch with a diplomatic historian who, like me, was going through Korea-related documents at the National Archives in Washington. He happened to remark that he sometimes wondered whether the Korean Demilitarised Zone might be ground zero for the end
Continue readingThings Are Good: Renewables Had a Record Year in 2016
Renewable energy production is growing more every year and 2016 was no exception to that growth. In 2016 capacity of renewables increased by 8.7% and for the first time solar growth outpaced wind energy. Unsurprisingly the majority of the growth occurred in Asia seeing 58% of global growth happening in
Continue readingThe Wandering Joe: Oil Oil Everywhere, and not a Barrel to Burn
There has been a lot of hand-wringing over the recent crash in crude oil prices. Ironically, both environmentalists who want people to stop buying oil and many of the producers who need people to buy more are both challenged by the current price point. To be honest, I couldn’t give
Continue readingThe Wandering Joe: Oil Oil Everywhere, and not a Barrel to Burn
There has been a lot of hand-wringing over the recent crash in crude oil prices. Ironically, both environmentalists who want people to stop buying oil and many of the producers who need people to buy more are both challenged by the current price point. To be honest, I couldn’t give
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: South Korean Protests Growing
Photo by Workers Solidarity For the sixth straight weekend, hundreds of thousands of Koreans came out in Seoul (and with other Korean cities estimates approaching 2 million people on the streets) to demand the resignation of President Park Geun-hye. This Saturday December 3, the protests marched on the Presidential Blue
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Aral Sea Rises Again
The Aral Sea was once one of the largest lakes in the world, but today all that remains is just two small lakes. Insanely bad environmental practices killed the lake which has had negative impacts on nature (obviously) and on humans who used to live on the shore. Since the sea was declared dead years […]
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Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Corporate and military plunder in the Philippines
Photo by Keith Bacongco For many in the Global North, certain countries only appear on our radar screens as discount winter vacation hotspots. Other times, when natural disaster strikes, these countries serve as empathy-building backdrops to raise millions for charities that, after skimming some off the top, may distribute some
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: China: Reformers and Compradors
18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, November 2012 • Photo by 东方 China’s wealthiest classes have secured their recent fortunes through various means, both legal and illegal: These include (1) the privatization of public enterprises; (2) the savage exploitation of cheap labor after destroying workers rights, protections
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Asia’s Dreadnoughts
Dreadnoughts. The first modern battleship – big guns and steam turbine power. Prior to WWI these new super-warships triggered a major naval arms race between Britain and Germany. Something similar is underway today across Asia and the South Pacific only this time its a naval arms race focused on submarine
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When the Shooting Starts, It’ll Probably be Here
Sure this is a bummer to start the new year but arms races are a major cause of war, often unintended and undesired. It’s not just the country buying all the new hardware that starts this sort of war but also the country that fears it will be even more
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