Alternative Perspective
 Issue 2, October 1, 2002
 Compiled byMadhukar Shukla

Introduction: Alternative Perspective is an attempt to widen our awareness about issues related to business, environment, role and influence of media, geo-politics, culture, etc. It aims to share, on a regular basis, some of those pieces of news and information, which do not find place in the highly monopolised mainstream media.



In This Issue:
  • Joe Stiglitz on "IMF's Four Steps to Damnation"
     Joseph Stiglitz is the Noble Prize winner for Economics (2000), and the ex-Chief Economist of the World Bank - till he was fired in 1999 for voicing his views about IMF and World Bank Policies. This report by George Palast describes Stiglitz's point of view. In another interview, given to The Guardian, Stiglitz questions IMF and World Bank's policies and ways of working, and narrates how, from being the Presidential Adivsor, he became an Adversory.
    http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,480069,00.html

  • Victims of Groupthink???
    Three decades back, Irving Janis discovered the phenomenon of Groupthink through his analysis of the American foreign policy disaster in The Bay of Pigs episode. He described certain symptoms (illusion of invulnerability, mind-guards, stereotped perception of enemy, etc.) of Groupthink. This article describes the similarities between those symptoms, and the conditions under which the plans to invade Iraq are being drawn these days.
    http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/259/oped/Is_groupthink_driving_us_to_war_%2B.shtml

  • Islam & Christianity: Nearest in Love
    The contemporary - i.e., post-911 - polarised world is full of tales and "expert theories" of how Islam and Chrstianity were always at loggerhead, substantiated by stories of Muslim Jihad vs. Christian Crusade. This article by William Dalrymple shows the history otherwise. In another article about the myths about islam, he goes on to discuss the co-existence of Muslims, Jews and Christians for more than a millenia.
    http://ship-of-fools.com/Features/Dalrymple_body.html

  • The Eleventh Round
    We mostly take an interest-based monetary system - earning and paying interest on money - for granted, even though it is a relatively recent system. The Eleventh Round is a simple fable narrated by Bernard Lietaer in his book, The Future of Money, which shows how such a system automatically divides the society between winners and losers. There are more cooperative and sustainable options in interest-free currency systems, which are practiced around the world. In fact, there is even a case that interest-free monetary systems are more efficient [pdf file].
    http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/pkt/dec97/0183.html

  • US National Debt Clock
    In the present day zeitgeist, in which higher consumption is supposed to lead to growth, prosperity and happiness, it may be sometime useful to look at the other side also. The four-fold growth in debt/person in USA within last 25 years, shows the other side of the "richest" nation in the world...
    http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/


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