Alternative Perspective
 Issue 23, March 5th, 2003
 Compiled by Madhukar 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. Please feel free to share/ forward/ distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested.



Note: The URLs of sources used in the text are numbered and given at the end of the Newsletter.

In This Issue:
  • War as a means of Utilisation of Surplus Capital
     How can a prosperous country maintain its economy - in a oversaturated global market - when it has surplus capital and surplus labour for its own needs? To most people, War on Iraq is about saving democracy, human rights, WMDs, terrosism, oil, etc., but as this article by George Monbiot (based on Oxford Professor, Davis Harvey's lectures) shows, the aim is perhaps larger and different - finding new gounds for utilisation of surplus capital. In many ways, this article also echoes the idea of backing globalisation with military might[1], which featured in the first issue of Alternative Perspective
    http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=563

  • "Washington Consensus" Revisted
    When, in 1989, Economist William Johnson coined the term "Washington Consensus" in a background paper on Latin American Economic Policy Reforms for the World Bank, he would have never anticipated that in a short span, this term will become so maligned - to be used interchageably with "economic fundamentalism", "economic imperialism" and "new-liberal economics", etc. In describing (defending) what the term originally meant, he also highlights how the 10 policy reforms he had suggested were sometimes distorted in practice, and often implemented selectively (e.g., the IMF/WB conditions for loan are often just opposite to his suggestion about the "redirection of public expenditure priorities toward fields offering both high economic returns and the potential to improve income distribution, such as primary health care, primary education, and infrastructure").
    http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/williamson0799.htm

  • Anatomy of Collateral Damage
    All wars are fought/sold for the most noblest of motives, and with due regards to safeguarding the civilian lives (after all, President Harry Truman had announced to the world in a radio speech in August, 1945, that "the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima... to avoid, in so far as possible, the killing of civilians."!!!). Nevertheless, people die in wars, and fade away from the public memory as "collateral damage"... I had written this piece in the wake of Afghanistan War - in some ways, it was also the genesis of the "concept" (not the newsletter - that came a year later) of Alternative Perspective...
    http://www.geocities.com/madhukar_shukla/alt1.html

  • How Free is Free India?
    I am quite sure that many would not agree with Vandana Shiva - some may even see her as a xenophobic and regressive mind... the funny thing about such a point of view is that those who disagree, will not even read the full text of this article (will just mutter "what crap" after a couple of paragraphs, and move on;0)... and yet there is something pretty potent - and real - in her argument...
    http://resurgence.gn.apc.org/articles/shiva_jun97.htm

  • Resignation Letter of a US Diplomat
    Two days from now, on March 7th, John Brady Kiesling, a US diplomat posted in Greece will hand over his charge to his successor. This is a copy of his letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell... at least, there is a hope for democracy (not as a political ideology, but as a way of public discource and living) if there still exist such dissenters within a system...
    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/international/27WEB-TNAT.html?pagewanted=print&position=top


    Other Sources Quoted in the Newsletter:
    [1]: http://www.covertaction.org/full_text_68_03a.htm


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