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

Saturday, January 12, 2019

Two recommended articles (that I read) for Saturday, January 12, 2019

  • Philanthropic Capitalist Foundations and Corporate Environmentalism by Nicolas Casaux from Le Partage (in French) and translated into English with a very good machine translator and posted on Wrong Kind of Green. Despite this type of translation one can easily get the point of this article that NGOs in many cases funnel funds from large corporations to fund sources that are less inimical to their profitable interests. A prime example that always comes to my mind is "Democracy Now".