The Emperor’s Few Clothes 13 February 2007
Posted by VARANGALI in Economics, VARANGALI.4 comments
The US trade deficit … was financed by a steady sale of American assets – stocks bonds, real estate, and, increasingly, whole corporations to foreigners.
Paul Krugman
Economic indicators that catch our eye tend to be short- or medium-term ones: unemployment, inflation, budget deficit, etc. Since such indicators tend to be cyclical (unemployment goes up then down then up); they mask the tectonic shifts that are slowly but surely eroding the American economy. The emperor still has some clothes left, but has been shedding them faster and faster.
retread| Whole Foods v. the Local, Organic Farmer 3 February 2007
Posted by EDITOR in Culture, Economics, VARANGALI.2 comments
Retreads are quality posts from yesterweeks that are given a second run on Saturdays. This piece was originally posted by VARANGALI on 10 Oct 2006.
Proponents of the organic food movement often argue that organic goods are not expensive-–-it is conventional produce that is artificially inexpensive.
Organic foods seem elitist only because industrial food is artificially cheap, with its real costs being charged to the public purse, the public health and the environment.
- Alice Waters
The Africa Diaries: Of Atrocities and Religion 30 January 2007
Posted by VARANGALI in History, Theology, VARANGALI.1 comment so far
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Blaise Pascal
For many, religion is by definition the purveyor of injustice: by legislating morality, it declares abhorrent certain behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. Given fervor and authority, such behaviors are often repressed society-wide, introducing the possibility of state-sponsored atrocity. Hence the Crusades, the Armenian Genocide, the Spanish Inquisition, etc. I was reminded of this last week, peering at the slave dungeons of Elmina and Cape Coast in Ghana, and the chapels built right above.
The Africa Diaries: Is Your Wife a Man or a Woman? 23 January 2007
Posted by VARANGALI in Humor, VARANGALI.add a comment
The Brits mock the Americans. The Americans laugh at the French. The French have their Polish jokes. And the list goes on, but it ends at the Ghanaians. The Ghanaians don’t have any jokes.
Ghanaians smile like it’s the national pastime. I’ve never been around so smiley a people – they must go to sleep smiling and wake up grinning. And they laugh, at my clumsy attempts to hack open a coconut with a machete, or just for the heck of it. But they don’t have any jokes. None.
The Africa Diaries: Sidi Santa 4 January 2007
Posted by VARANGALI in Culture, Humor, VARANGALI.add a comment
Window shopping for electronics in Fes (you’d be surprised how expensive irons can be in Morocco), I came across this gem: the Muslim Santa Claus.
