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The Anti-Globalization Breakfast Club

The Anti-Globalization Breakfast Club Manifesto for a Peaceful Revolution

Author: Laurence J. Brahm
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780470823170
Published In: March 2009
Format: Hardback , 256 pages
Jurisdiction: International ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Alternative models for grass roots economic development such as micro-financing are now being widely adopted in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and elsewhere. New views on measuring development such as GDH (gross domestic happiness) have been adopted by Bhutan rather than GDP, and China's own hybrid approach combining market and planned policy to achieve economic transformation offer new choices for developing countries. All of these are representative of a new wave of thinking that rejects the increasingly discredited policies of the IMF and World Bank.

It is easy to criticise the views of activists who take to the street every time the World Bank, IMF, WTO or World Economic Forum meet. However they are driven by hard concerns which are not calling for an end to globalization but a reorientation of what this means. They are challenging notions of accepted economic and business parlance, calling for fair trade rather than just free trade; balanced rather than fast growth; and protection of domestic cottage industries and with it ethnic diversification and social identity. In many respects the term is a misnomer. They are calling for fairer re-distribution of the fruits of globalization and a humane reduction of its side-effects through sensitivities to local conditional realities.

This book brings together the views of many of the world's leading thinkers in alternative policy studies. Their collective views represent a fascinating insight into a growing movement that is slowly but surely affecting the way the world does business.

Acknowledgments.

INTRODUCTION Global Meltdown.

The Washington Consensus Goes Bust.

CHAPTER 1 What’s Wrong with the Washington Consensus?

It Forces Alien, Irrelevant Models on Developing Societies.

CHAPTER 2 The World Needs an Alternative.

Confessions of a Former Commercial Lawyer.

CHAPTER 3 Grassroots Approaches That Solve Real Problems.

Founding an NGO in the Himalayas.

CHAPTER 4 The Anti-Globalization Breakfast Club.

Emergence of a Global Justice Movement.

CHAPTER 5 Time to Revamp the WTO.

Joining the Anti-Globalization Breakfast Club.

CHAPTER 6 Redefining Contemporary Development.

Trash the Ideology and Use What Works.

CHAPTER 7 The Environmental Priority.

We Are Ruining the Earth Faster Than the Global Economy Is Growing.

CHAPTER 8 The Micro-credit Revolution Works.

Small Finance Is Beautiful and Can Improve Lives.

CHAPTER 9 Begin by Reshaping Values.

The “Gross National Happiness” Alternative.

CHAPTER 10 Empowering the Marginalized.

To Stop Terrorism, Focus on Its Roots.

CHAPTER 11 “High Time to Shut Up”.

Moving Towards Multilateralism.

CHAPTER 12 The Revolt Against Cyclical Poverty.

Nepalese Maoists Come in From the Cold.

CHAPTER 13 Starting From the Villages.

In Sri Lanka’s Countryside, a Middle Road.

CHAPTER 14 The Buddhist Revolution.

Why Compassion Should Be Combined With Capitalism.

CONCLUSION Enter the Himalayan Consensus.

Manifesto for a Peaceful Revolution.

Index.

Laurence J. Brahm is a global activist, international crisis mediator, political economist and author.

A lawyer and economist by profession, during the 1990s he served as an advisor to the central banks of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, guiding them on financial reforms in their transition from socialism, and to Mongolia on enterprise restructuring. Brahm advised China ’s leadership on state-owned enterprise reforms throughout the 1990s. During this period he advocated practical solutions to development as alternatives to those espoused by the Washington Consensus and stood up against “shock therapy.”

Since 2002 Brahm has worked in the Himalayan plateau, evolving new models of cultural and ecotourism development through heritage restoration boutique inns, pioneering micro-equity projects for marginalized women and the handicapped, and organizing rural medical and educational outreach programs. Brahm founded the NGO Shambhala. He has also served as interlocutor and bridge between Beijing and Dalai Lama in their negotiations, and worked with Nepal’s Maoists during their transition from guerilla fighters to a legitimate political party in a democratic system.

Author of more than 20 books on the Asian region, Brahm has covered a wide spectrum of topics in his writings. These include economic development, financial reform and monetary policy in China and Southeast Asia, as well as new-era travel in Tibet.

Brahm is a columnist and commentator for Hong Kong South China Morning Post and for

ReviewAsia magazine. He divides his time between Lhasa and Beijing.