Bruce's GreenWatch
The Clash of Civilizations — Remaking of World Order, by Samuel P. Huntington
Forget the fact that this work was first published in 1996 — the late Sam Huntington's spot-on post-Cold War analysis of global power structures reads as if it were released a week ago. A must-read for comprehending the steadily-shifting geo-political forces at play in today's world (yeah, tomorrow's too).
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Dead Aid — Why Aid Is Not Working And How There Is A Better Way For Africa, by Dambisa Moyo
Western nations have invested more than $2 trillion in aid money over the past 50 years, most of it in Africa. And for what? Not much, says author Moyo, a native of Zambia and former Goldman Sachs economist. She backs up her critique with solid ideas for new approaches, including easing hurdles for business investment and tying aid more directly to government performance. She also tracks how China has become a major global force in Africa by making such changes happen.
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A Book of Silence, by Sara Maitland
Some people talk about "getting away from it all"; British author Maitland actually did something about it — and how! Facing life-changing developments at age 50, Maitland decided to transform her life by living in utter silence — at first totally alone on the Isle of Skye and then in a new home on a remote Scottish moor. This account of her experience explores the spiritual, natural, and physical dimensions of a life of silence - deeply moving and uniquely inspirational.
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The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence From A Randomized Evaluation
The concept of microfinance was developed most notably by Nobel Prize winner Mohammad Yunus as a means of reducing world poverty, but this is not to say the practice is without its critics - principally along the lines that microfinance tends to benefit most those who would likely have succeeded in any event. This report by four MIT researchers is among the first to attempt actual measurement of the benefits of microfinance, being based on a "randomized evaluation" of the impact of opening loan offices in one-half of the 104 slum neighborhoods in Hyderabad, India in 2005, while the other half had no such access to microfinance institutions (MFIs). The results are complex, inconclusive - yet largely promising: "On balance, our results show significant and not insubstantial impact on both how many new businesses get started and the profitability of pre-existing businesses."
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Corporate Social Responsibility — From Corporate Strategy to Global Justice, by Jessica Ludescher
Seattle University business school professor Ludescher is a Big Time CSR skeptic, maintaining that businesses' CSR initiatives "endanger governments' capacity to fulfill their role as guardians of the public welfare." Moreover, she contends in this Harvard International Review article, "CSR may be most dangerous when practiced by multi- and transnational corporations operating in the global economic arena," because, since "wealth maximization is the primary function of corporations, executives are obligated to pursue CSR only when it is strategic for them to do so."
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