Posts

Showing posts from February, 2015

Sense with a human face. Turning the market economy upside down

Image
MANILA: William Dar was the superlative Team Captain of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India. Under him, the mantra of ICRISAT was "Science with a human face." Towards the end of his 15-year reign as Director General of ICRISAT, he wrote a book and founded a movement in the same year, 2014. The book is  Greening The Grey ,   subtitled "Expanding The Green Revolution," and the movement is  Inanglupa  (which is Tagalog for  Ina Daga , which is Ilocano for  Mother Earth ). (Image: I cut my original scan of the book cover into two and combined them to make one rectangular image, which I prefer.) The book has been written; the movement is beginning to write its story. Now, what story? William Dar's reason for writing Greening The Grey can be found, surprise! on page 180, the last page before the Epilogue, where he says: Can a visionary inspiration of an agricultural scientist make a difference in the life of a

How many poor have you helped? That depends on the help

Image
MANILA: By email, in response to my earlier essay, "Whose inclusive capitalism? Our poor are poor out of our poor thinking" (16 February 2015,  Law of the Empty Head ,  blogspot.com ), Angelito Sarmiento writes to ask me, "How many have you lifted out of poverty? pwde copy  ." My immediate answer was: "You become an associate member or an investor of our cooperative Nagkaisa MPC in Asingan and you will see." (Minimum share: 5K.) Actually, Angel's comment is anything but angelic; in fact, it is acerbic. But I forgive him. In fact, I thank him because he just gave me another good reason for doing what I love the most – writing about poverty. I have been writing about poverty emancipation for at least 5 years now – visit my dedicated blog  iCRiSAT Watch  if you wish,  blogspot.com , and search for IMOD, about which I have written 111 essays! IMOD is  inclusive market-oriented development , a genius of an improvement over the World Bank's  market orie

Whose inclusive capitalism? Our poor are poor out of our poor thinking

Image
MANILA: We men and women, when it comes to thinking about the poor, we have shown a very rich accumulation of the poverty of theory and practice. That's because since our thinking is cramped, therefore our priorities are wrong, our programs are incorrect, and our processes are erroneous. I wasn't minding the ladies, and then it took a lady to stir me to action not simply thinking but writing again about the poor. Emma Batha of Thomson Reuters Foundation was that lady; she wrote the article "Ten laws that unashamedly discriminate against women" 14 February 2015,  ph.news.yahoo.com ): (1)       Congo – A wife must obey her husband. (2)       India – Sexual intercourse between husband and wife cannot be considered rape. (3)       Iran – A man can marry an adopted daughter at the age of 13. (4)       Kenya – Under Islam, all marriages are polygamous. (5)       Lebanon – Rape is not a crime if the rapist marries his victim. (6)       Malta – Kidnapping is not a crime if th