John Feffer
Autore di Splinterlands
Sull'Autore
John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the author of Aftershock (2017) and the novel Splinterlands
Opere di John Feffer
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Splinterlands: A Novel di John Feffer
A dystopian essay written as a book, but without any great insight. What if nationalism, global warming, jihadism, and unrestrained inequality all run their course? Bad things.
Such a strange book. If you like sci fi, or dystopias, you should read this one. It does not read like your standard fiction as it presents itself as a critical edition of the protagonist’s final text.
The pandemic has given the people of the world an(other) opportunity to pivot. It could be the opportunity to get together over issues in common. It could be the opportunity to alter the paths mankind and the nations of the world have been blindly rolling down. John Feffer has put together a whole congress of activists from all over the world. In The Pandemic Pivot, they add comments from their specialties and how things have unraveled for their concerns because of the pandemic. Their eloquent opinions are a common sense, sensible and often profound analysis of the state of society. It is a delightfully different kind of book, a sort of informal report card by expert watchers and witnesses. Sadly, it is still not pretty.
Feffer says COVID-19 “warns us what will happen if countries continue to refuse to co-operate, if resources continue to be misused, if individuals and groups continue to fail to act on behalf of the common good. It’s a warning of what will happen if we fail to pivot.”
The book breaks into clearly separate chapters on borders and migration, authoritarianism, climate change, the global economy, international cooperation and other distinct issues. Following each chapter is a bio of each of the participants, all of whom have absolutely sterling credentials and field experience to be making the kinds of observations, criticisms and recommendations on the topic as Feffer quotes them in the chapter. They are largely free of politics and full of direct experience. It makes the whole exercise refreshing and insightful.
The participants are full of great ideas, because they have been living and thinking about them for decades. They frame the pandemic as a golden opportunity to address, if not leverage their issues to a higher level. Countries could ameliorate all kinds of negative situations if they used the pandemic to do so. From creating employment to permanently capping pollution, to dealing with homelessness and health issues, they are ready, and hopeful.
Worryingly, the pandemic has showcased the truly ugly side of nations. Instead of coming together, co-operating and coming to each other’s aide, the nations of the world sealed their borders, hoarded supplies, stole from each other, and when some did come together, it was for war. In past cross-border issues, be they storms or earthquakes or pandemics, international co-operation shone. No more. It’s every country for itself, and increasingly, every citizen for themselves. You’re on your own and Carry On Regardless are the new global common denominators.
On the pandemic itself, Lisi Krall notes the stunning situation where American states have had to bid against the bottomless wallet of the federal government for personal protective equipment (PPE). The result is low and inadequate stocks of necessary equipment and prices higher than the states should have had to pay. A fairly absurd situation at a time when all parties should have been working together. She says “You cannot use those kinds of market mechanisms to respond to a crisis like this.” Unfortunately it is actually worse than this, as the federal government took to buying up PPE already loaded and taxiing down the runway for delivery to some other country. It simply called up and agreed to pay three times as much if the flight were diverted to the USA right then and there. It left the original buyer emptyhanded – and furious at the underhanded actions of a supposed ally.
Jake Werner thinks the pandemic is a great opportunity to harmonize universal labor standards to lift everyone up instead of the current race to the bottom. But if anything, workers have been abused as badly as ever. Employers have used the pandemic to refuse to pay wages earned, or making workers labor full-time , while claiming to government they were part-time (and therefore paidcless). And no one is talking about global standards, let alone higher standards.
The pandemic should also have resulted in lower military expenditure, as countries deal with the huge burden of added emergency funding of business, health expenditures and unemployment insurance. Instead, military spending has ballooned. Wars, like the coronavirus, know no borders or seasons. It is simply onward. The UN actually called for a temporary global ceasefire during the pandemic, but no one paid it the least attention.
The USA continues to modernize, update and upgrade its nuclear arsenal. So everyone else has to follow suit. Senator Bernie Sanders proposed a modest (if not trivial) 10% cut in the military budget in the summer of 2020. His bill was voted down by an overwhelming 77-23.
Also backward is authoritarian leaders using the pandemic as a rationale for cracking down on their own citizens. They have muzzled journalists, arrested opponents and protestors, and worse. This, for most experts, is a bizarre reaction to a health crisis.
Several experts commented that the biggest four right-wing run countries have performed the most dismally for their own citizens during the pandemic. The USA, Russia, India and Brazil have all done approximately nothing whatsoever to rein in the coronavirus. They have denied it, ignored it, minimized it and refused to take charge of any kind of prevention policy. Their message to their own people has been to just ignore it. It is no big deal and will go away by itself. Go back to work as usual. And their citizens have been dropping dead in stunning numbers, leading the world in cases and deaths per hundred thousand.
Ultimately, there is nothing new or different today from yesterday. The same social and economic problems are as evident as ever. The recommendation to use this pandemic as a launch pad to deal with those problems is nothing new. That every individual in the world is focused on their own issues should not be a surprise. That only the activists are at all motivated to leverage the pandemic for their specific focuses and issues is an old story, too.
What is clearly lacking from world leaders is clarity of vision, perspective, and concern for the common good. It would be nice to report that this time, it’s different. That the world came together to learn from the pandemic of a century ago and really nail this coronavirus out of action. That the reduced levels of carbon emissions have been made permanent. That healthcare for all became an obvious necessity that would save not just lives, but also control future crises, even if just financially. That war was shown to be a pointless exercise, able to be turned off at will.
But that would take us into the realm of fiction.
David Wineberg… (altro)
Feffer says COVID-19 “warns us what will happen if countries continue to refuse to co-operate, if resources continue to be misused, if individuals and groups continue to fail to act on behalf of the common good. It’s a warning of what will happen if we fail to pivot.”
The book breaks into clearly separate chapters on borders and migration, authoritarianism, climate change, the global economy, international cooperation and other distinct issues. Following each chapter is a bio of each of the participants, all of whom have absolutely sterling credentials and field experience to be making the kinds of observations, criticisms and recommendations on the topic as Feffer quotes them in the chapter. They are largely free of politics and full of direct experience. It makes the whole exercise refreshing and insightful.
The participants are full of great ideas, because they have been living and thinking about them for decades. They frame the pandemic as a golden opportunity to address, if not leverage their issues to a higher level. Countries could ameliorate all kinds of negative situations if they used the pandemic to do so. From creating employment to permanently capping pollution, to dealing with homelessness and health issues, they are ready, and hopeful.
Worryingly, the pandemic has showcased the truly ugly side of nations. Instead of coming together, co-operating and coming to each other’s aide, the nations of the world sealed their borders, hoarded supplies, stole from each other, and when some did come together, it was for war. In past cross-border issues, be they storms or earthquakes or pandemics, international co-operation shone. No more. It’s every country for itself, and increasingly, every citizen for themselves. You’re on your own and Carry On Regardless are the new global common denominators.
On the pandemic itself, Lisi Krall notes the stunning situation where American states have had to bid against the bottomless wallet of the federal government for personal protective equipment (PPE). The result is low and inadequate stocks of necessary equipment and prices higher than the states should have had to pay. A fairly absurd situation at a time when all parties should have been working together. She says “You cannot use those kinds of market mechanisms to respond to a crisis like this.” Unfortunately it is actually worse than this, as the federal government took to buying up PPE already loaded and taxiing down the runway for delivery to some other country. It simply called up and agreed to pay three times as much if the flight were diverted to the USA right then and there. It left the original buyer emptyhanded – and furious at the underhanded actions of a supposed ally.
Jake Werner thinks the pandemic is a great opportunity to harmonize universal labor standards to lift everyone up instead of the current race to the bottom. But if anything, workers have been abused as badly as ever. Employers have used the pandemic to refuse to pay wages earned, or making workers labor full-time , while claiming to government they were part-time (and therefore paidcless). And no one is talking about global standards, let alone higher standards.
The pandemic should also have resulted in lower military expenditure, as countries deal with the huge burden of added emergency funding of business, health expenditures and unemployment insurance. Instead, military spending has ballooned. Wars, like the coronavirus, know no borders or seasons. It is simply onward. The UN actually called for a temporary global ceasefire during the pandemic, but no one paid it the least attention.
The USA continues to modernize, update and upgrade its nuclear arsenal. So everyone else has to follow suit. Senator Bernie Sanders proposed a modest (if not trivial) 10% cut in the military budget in the summer of 2020. His bill was voted down by an overwhelming 77-23.
Also backward is authoritarian leaders using the pandemic as a rationale for cracking down on their own citizens. They have muzzled journalists, arrested opponents and protestors, and worse. This, for most experts, is a bizarre reaction to a health crisis.
Several experts commented that the biggest four right-wing run countries have performed the most dismally for their own citizens during the pandemic. The USA, Russia, India and Brazil have all done approximately nothing whatsoever to rein in the coronavirus. They have denied it, ignored it, minimized it and refused to take charge of any kind of prevention policy. Their message to their own people has been to just ignore it. It is no big deal and will go away by itself. Go back to work as usual. And their citizens have been dropping dead in stunning numbers, leading the world in cases and deaths per hundred thousand.
Ultimately, there is nothing new or different today from yesterday. The same social and economic problems are as evident as ever. The recommendation to use this pandemic as a launch pad to deal with those problems is nothing new. That every individual in the world is focused on their own issues should not be a surprise. That only the activists are at all motivated to leverage the pandemic for their specific focuses and issues is an old story, too.
What is clearly lacking from world leaders is clarity of vision, perspective, and concern for the common good. It would be nice to report that this time, it’s different. That the world came together to learn from the pandemic of a century ago and really nail this coronavirus out of action. That the reduced levels of carbon emissions have been made permanent. That healthcare for all became an obvious necessity that would save not just lives, but also control future crises, even if just financially. That war was shown to be a pointless exercise, able to be turned off at will.
But that would take us into the realm of fiction.
David Wineberg… (altro)
A concise dissection of the new U.S. unilateralism, Power Trip is the first book-length critique of this fundamental shift in U.S. foreign policy to consolidate and extend U.S. global control. Charting the new terrain of foreign policy after September 11 and demonstrating how the Bush administration is building on the policies of its successors, here are Barbara Ehrenreich, William Hartung, Ahmed Rashid, Michael Ratner, Noy Thrupkaew, Coletta Youngers, Mark Weisbrot, and their contemporaries on the Bush administration and its flawed ambition to control the world.… (altro)
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- Opere
- 16
- Utenti
- 277
- Popolarità
- #83,813
- Voto
- 3.6
- Recensioni
- 5
- ISBN
- 38
- Lingue
- 1