Bold gambit for disjointed UN: Launched this year in 8 countries, the One UN pilot aims to improve coordination between agencies. Don’t Kick the Inspectors Out of the U.N.: While individual governments will always track and analyze weaponry, their own national conclusions can never form a credible basis for action by the international community. From The Economist, a review of Swords and Ploughshares: Bringing Peace to the 21st Century by Paddy Ashdown.
From Fortune, Jeffrey Sachs on how he'd fix the World Bank. Protecting the global poor: Almost all rich countries got wealthy by protecting infant industries and limiting foreign investment. But these countries are now denying poor ones the same chance to grow by forcing free-trade rules on them before they are strong enough. From New Statesman, a review of State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth. The combined forces of population growth and urbanisation are creating a planet of slums, where the urban population will have doubled by 2030, according to a report released by the United Nations. With 4D Cities, now we can watch for ourselves the way great cities have grown upwards through time, using software that creates a virtual historical tour. Designing Cities for People: In an age where parks are sacrificed for parking lots, how can city planning benefit people — not cars?
The FT Global 500: The annual snapshot of the world’s largest companies gives a remarkable picture of how corporate fortunes have changed in the past year; and for richer, for poorer: Income inequality within a country can make those at the bottom feel poorer, no matter how high their absolute income. A report finds the number of wealthy individuals worldwide climbed to 9.5 million in 2006, an 8.3% increase from 2005, according to the report. The combined wealth of high-net-worth individuals world-wide increased to $37.2 trillion, up 11.4% from 2005. An article on The Case for Taxing Globalization's Big Winners. The Double Edge of Globalization: An excerpt from Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization by Nayan Chanda.
From The Walrus, Alienated Cosmopolitans: Can we be world citizens yet still retain a sense of place? From Ode, an essay on the instinct to save the planet; the world grows Wiser A new global databank aims to connect good work everywhere; solutions for the problems of growing megacities can be found in their slums and shantytowns; anthropologist Jeremy Narby is bringing together indigenous knowledge and Western science to inform the search for a sustainable future; and a review of We-Think: The Power of Mass Creativity by Charles Leadbeater. Make the game, change the world: agoraXchange is an online community for designing a massive multi-player global politics game challenging the violence and inequality of our present political system.
