Art Ranger, along with her colleague Michael Sheridan, review “War is a Racket” by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler. This highly decorated war hero becomes dogged activist and tours the country giving speeches about how he was in effect, a bully for the corporations, then quit. Art Ranger and Sheridan share excerpts of the text as well as a piece of their minds. Sonic textures provided by our back up band, The Dirty Pens.
On Social and Economic Development
ON DEVELOPMENT | Soaring humanitarian costs in 2023, The New Humanitarian
More hunger, more displacement, more people in crisis, and a soaring price tag: Humanitarian needs and costs will once again shatter records in 2023, but available funding – and the system itself – isn’t keeping pace.
Source: Soaring humanitarian costs in 2023: Key takeaways, The New Humanitarian, by Irwin Loy and Jessica Alexander, December 1, 2022
ON DEVELOPMENT | Protecting 30% of Earth’s surface for nature means thinking about connections near and far, The Conversation
Governments, scientists and conservation groups are working to protect 30% of Earth’s land and water for nature by 2030. Scientists say that protecting 30% of Earth’s surface will help species and ecosystems recover from the stresses that are depleting them. It also will conserve valuable services that nature provides to humans, such as buffering coasts from storms and filtering drinking water. Protecting forests and grasslands can help slow climate change by promoting carbon storage in soil and plants.
ON DEVELOPMENT | This Planet Is Drying Up. And these Are the Consequences, IPS News
Drought is one of the ‘most destructive’ natural disasters in terms of the loss of life, arising from impacts, such as wide-scale crop failure, wildfires and water stress. Droughts are one of the “most feared natural phenomena in the world;” they devastate farmland, destroy livelihoods and cause untold suffering.
ON DEVELOPMENT | Five international NGOs launch fresh bid to tackle power imbalances in aid
Can a new set of unbinding promises really accelerate progress towards a more equal aid ecosystem by 2030?
ON DEVELOPMENT | The Solution to the Global Food Crisis Isn’t More Food
There’s plenty [of food] to go around, but it’s going to the wrong places.
ON THE MEDIA, ON DEVELOPMENT | Humanitarian communication: a future that is more ethical, sensitive and inclusive
Language [and images are] part of a cycle that retains and reinforces historically rooted unequal power relations, which are often expressed and reinforced in colonialist, racist, sexist and other forms of oppressive practices.
ON AFGHANISTAN, ON DEVELOPMENT | Unfreeze Afghan assets or more hungry children may die
With international monitoring and more trust in Afghanistan’s central bank, t
ON HAITI, ON DEVELOPMENT | The international community must own its role in Haiti’s food crisis
It’s time for a different approach in Haiti – one that reckons with the enduring harms Global North policies have inflicted in the country.
ON DEVELOPMENT | The Global South’s Looming Debt Crisis—and How to Stop It
Many poor countries face major economic disruption and possible default on their sovereign debt in 2022.
ON AFGHANISTAN, ON DEVELOPMENT | Afghanistan: ‘38 million people are suffering because a few hundred are in power’
A year after the Taliban took power, humanitarian needs are rising even as foreign aid has dried up.
During the former Islamic Republic, foreign aid grants funded 75 percent of public spending. Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the United States has provided $775 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, but the UN says at least $4.4 billion is needed to address the emergency needs of more than 24 million Afghans – 60 percent of the population.
ON DEVELOPMENT | Policymakers and racial justice activists came together to discuss decolonizing aid. Here’s what happened…Behind closed doors: Views on decolonizing aid
Earlier this year, dozens of senior policymakers in humanitarian response gathered virtually to discuss “decolonising” an international aid sector accused of being top-down, unaccountable, and – in some cases – racist and with unhealthy levels of power over the people it serves.