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

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

'The Slums of the 21st Century Are Being Built in Dubai'

Spiegel Interview with Architect Albert Speer Jr.  

Money from taxpayer bailout that went to help US banks recover, also went to Dubai’s extravaganza 

Dubai is where the rich and wannabees go to party.  “It will take more than bad debt to stop the partying in Dubai, as Collette Lyons found out when she took a job on a magazine in the hedonists' paradise”


See what life is really like in this “glittering monument to Arab enterprise and Western capitalism”.
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