#connectography

[quixoticanarchy]

what is the connectography book and why is it so terrible?

Sorry this took a while to collect my thoughts! where do I start.....

tl;dr it's a paean to enlisting every corner of the earth in the global neoliberal economy so that each can maximize their natural role in the supply chain and achieve Development™. All resources feasible to extract should be extracted, "connectivity" is the most important goal and value and metric in the world, supply chains matter more than nations, globalization is an inexorable force for good, we should focus on mass infrastructure projects to speed development (including a bizarre amount of fossil fuel infrastructure projects). yes there are downsides and yes there's a climate crisis going on but don't mind that, it'll actually be quite profitable

long answer under the cut:

Connectography is a book by Parag Khanna - CNN consultant, Brookings Institute guy, former Special Ops embed, National Intelligence Council advisor etc. So off the bat he’s quite embedded (so to speak) and aligned with the US military and national security apparatus, although the focus of the book is economic. The main arguments are that the world can no longer be thought of as a discrete set of countries setting and fighting over national policies, but an interconnected “supply chain world” where systems of production, transportation, and consumption drive policy and development in and of themselves. Consequently he argues for the diminishing importance of the nation-state and an increasing importance of smaller units of power geography like cities as well as broader ones like regions. He then argues that authority will and should devolve from centralized states to smaller units, and that global conflict would diminish or disappear if we could just give every tribal group its own state or at least autonomy within a larger state. Which is..... already quite a take.

His other main contention is that investing in mass infrastructure projects (oil pipelines, trains, highways, ports) is the best way to maximize "connectivity" and speedrun modernity and urbanization and development and industrial exploitation of poor countries. Demands that everyone and everything serve the market's invisible hand have become demands to bow to the needs of supply chains - which despite being quite based in the material world, are often invoked as something of a mystical force with their own whims and desires, uncoupled from human action.

In a way, there are principles that I also hold which show up in a strange twisted mirror version here. He isn't interested in preserving the nation-state as a form - but it's bc he prioritizes transnational supply chains and rule by corporatocracy. He would like to see a more borderless world - but he's also in favor of more borders (give every ethnic group a state, but also states don't matter anymore?), which counterintuitively he says would lead to a more interconnected and frictionless world. He's pro-immigration and freedom of mobility - but elsewhere it's made clear that he's also invested in blocking undesirable "flows" across borders, and is pro-mobility of people just as long as they enhance economic productivity. He makes some cogent critiques of maps and what is obscured by treating political maps of country borders as true and absolute, for instance - but the ways in which he would re-map the world are all to reflect and further the hyperconnected hypercapitalism he applauds. He would rather see structural adjustment programs prescribe infrastructure investments than austerity - but he still supports "developing" countries being forcibly drafted into the global economy and structured according to the (politely vague and innocuous-sounding) demands of supply chains.

The cheerleading for infrastructure projects, which might be mistaken for a benevolent interest in public spending, is much less "repair bridges so they won't collapse and kill people" and much more "repair and build more and bigger bridges so that more and bigger trucks can carry more cargo across them faster". His rather unoriginal instruction to "developing" countries is to accept globalization is inevitable so it's best to get yours where you can: start by selling off your resources and turning them over to private industry, open SEZs (Special Economic Zones, aka Free Trade Zones) and let the corporations use your cheap labor until you ‘develop’ enough to move up the value chain and those industries depart for cheaper and more lawless shores. He's really into SEZs. It's the classic race to the bottom, except he does not dwell whatsoever on that bottom and its conditions, nor its necessity - someone somewhere will always have to be the cheapest, the most exploitable, the most business-friendly. Instead we get, predictably, the argument that the race to the bottom actually lifts all boats bc corporate investment through SEZs teaches backwards countries how to develop faster and better.

Nothing makes me see red like considering how the version of the future which to me is a nightmare - a fully urbanized integrated modernized hypercapitalist corporate-run world of endless growth and consumption and extraction and waste mediated by advanced technology and surveillance, all consequences be damned - is seen as good and desirable and inevitable by various political and military leaders, economists, think tanks, corporations, etc.

It's also kind of sickening how incredibly out of touch all these visions are. There is no discussion of resource scarcity or limits. There is no discussion of waste. My guy Khanna's acknowledgments of climate change are so blasé and opportunistic I would rather he were a rabid climate denier. How do you acknowledge the destabilizing and deadly effects of climate crisis and yet promote and lionize policies that ensure more of those effects? How are mass scale infrastructure projects supposed to knit people together though lasting physical and supply chain interdependence when so fucking many of them are fossil fuel infrastructure projects?? I cannot emphasize enough how much he gushes over countries and companies building ever more oil pipelines, opening up new deposits for drilling (including in the arctic), and putting aside border disputes to transport oil faster and faster to the biggest consumers.

Well, don’t worry - he’s got the climate-meltdown world all figured out. No mention of cutting emissions or keeping temperature rise down or even many mentions of "green" energy; it's still drill baby drill til we die. Most coastal cities will drown and most latitudes will become uninhabitable but it’s ok, Canada and Russia can become the breadbaskets of the world and we’ll tap all those good good arctic basin resources as the ice melts. Probably throw in some geoengineering too. Climate migrants can move north in their millions, and Canada and Russia will welcome them; really, it's convenient, bc they’re too sparsely populated up there anyway and could use some fresh blood.

There are many other ridiculous or appalling things here I could go into if this post weren't already too long - the statement that colonialism is over, inequality is inevitable and a worthy price to pay, antiglobalization activists are naïve and basically a dying breed anyway, the world has gotten so good at controlling desirable flows and preventing undesirable ones--in particular, we're soo good at controlling infectious disease these days (lol. lmao even), the discussion of Dubai and Doha as prime examples of interconnected hyperglobal cities without going into like. human trafficking, the mocking of countries that tried to choose a third way decades ago and were brutally punished, the disparaging of swana/african countries as weak and crisis-ridden (seemingly idiopathic idk. funny), the shameless extolling of the lovely resources found in war zones which sadly preclude their needful exploitation.. etc. Etc.

I hated this book and would only recommend as a know-thine-enemy exercise; I did get a fair bit out of it from that perspective, and it's worthwhile to consider the implications of the worldview that people like this espouse. But it's incredibly depressing and infuriating that the admitted endgame of all this really is to consume everything there is on this planet to squeeze out every drop of profit, and then flee to the poles when it all comes crashing down.

[tbbrown90]

United, not divided. #Africa #connectography

[xtruss]

Anyone Who Wants To Be President Needs To Understand These 5 Maps

Parag Khanna, "Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization" Jul 4, 2017 | Business Insider

Maps shape how we see the world. But most of the maps hanging on our walls are dangerously incomplete because they emphasize political borders rather than functional connections.

The world has less than 500,000 kilometers of borders. By comparison, it has 64 million km of highways, 4 million km of railways, 2 million km of pipelines and more than 1 million km of Internet cables ­­all part of a rapidly expanding global infrastructural Matrix.

As such, in the 21st century, we need maps that show connections over divisions, for these reveal not only how we cooperate across borders, but also the valuable corridors of energy, trade and data that we compete over.

Here are 5 of the most important maps for the future. The next president would be wise to study them carefully.

This post was originally written in April 2016. These maps are part of a set designed exclusively for the publication of Parag Khanna's new book, "Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization."

Here Is The Map Donald Trump Doesn’t Seem To Understand.

Here is the map Donald Trump doesn’t seem to understand. No matter what walls he may seek to expand along the Mexican border, the truth is that both the Mexican and American populations along the border have risen by 20 percent in the past decade.

Why? Because business is booming between Mexico’s fast-­growing market and American businesses. That’s not all. Even though the XL pipeline failed, there are already dozens of freight rails, pipelines, electricity grids and trade corridors that unite the US, Canada, and Mexico, which has just welcomed huge American investment to modernize its oil industry. American car companies are thriving in Mexican factories, but this is actually creating American jobs producing high­quality auto­parts.

Now fast forward and think about droughts caused by climate change wiping out much of America’s breadbasket region. It turns out that Canada will be the world’s largest food producer as temperatures rise and its permafrost thaws, meaning it will become America’s principal source of both food and freshwater through the massive hydro­canals featured in this map. Americans should embrace the emergence of a genuine North American Union.

China Is Now The Top Trade Partner For Twice As Many Countries As America.

Globalization has catapulted China to superpower status. It is now the top trade partner for twice as many countries (124) as America (56). While many strategists focus on China’s mostly regional military maneuvers, the supply chain complementarities it has built worldwide are the true source of its leverage.

China may have only one aircraft carrier, but it operates by far the world’s largest merchant navy of more than one thousand tankers and shipping vessels that ply these global trade routes. Even as China’s imports slow, it continues to be the fastest growing global investor, boosting its ownership of factories and ports, banks and telecoms along these same axes, so don’t bet on its influence diminishing just because its growth has decelerated.

What this map also reveals is that even as the US pursues a TPP trade agreement with many Asian countries other than China, it may yet benefit China, which will use its strong linkages into these economies to create joint ventures that more easily access the US market without forcing its own companies to reform the way TPP requires.

Does It Really Make Sense For America To Be Organized As 50 States Anymore?

Does it really make sense for America to be organized as 50 states anymore? Countries from China to Italy to France and Great Britain are all reorganizing themselves around viable urban centers, metropolitan regions centered on large and productive cities. America needs to do the same.

This map shows how the US is actually made up of about seven distinct economic regions, each with anchor cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago or New York. Rather than rich states, paying taxes to Washington which then gives meager hand­outs to poor states, America’s economic system ­­and even politics ­­could be rearranged to reflect this reality of mega­urban corridors and their dependent regions. At the same time, America’s strength comes from connecting efficiently across this vast scale, hence the need for high­speed rail networks crisscrossing the continent to form a much more dynamic United City ­States of America.

The Grand Strategy America Will Find Very Difficult To Contain.

The Chinese­-led Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) was not just a big geopolitical story of 2015, but it will be in 2020 and 2025 as well. More than 60 countries have signed on to China’s plan to build “iron Silk Roads” from Shanghai to Lisbon. President Obama badly misplayed the Bank’s launch, choosing to oppose it.

But in the decade ahead, these mega-projects that extend Chinese influence from Russia to Turkey will continue. This map shows many of the potential oil and pipelines, railways, electricity grids, water canals and other infrastructures emerging from Korea to Iran, bringing to life how even though China has more neighbors than any country in the world, and has serious tensions with many of them, its long-term strategy is to pave across them to access their resources and markets rather than invade them.

This is the kind of grand strategy America will find very difficult to contain ­especially since all of the countries involved actually want these projects to continue. Indeed, Europeans are among the biggest beneficiaries due to their large engineering companies winning big contracts.

As European trade with China nearly equals that with the US, connectivity across Eurasia is starting to compete with culture across the Atlantic. Students are taught that Europe and Asia are two continents, but 21st century infrastructure is making it one efficiently connected landmass.

The Mideast Needs A Whole New Map — One Focused On Connectivity Rather Than Division.

The Middle East continues to crumble, and the next American administration may inherit an even wider swatch of crises. Jordan, Lebanon and even Saudi Arabia could fail through a combination of ISIS attacks and the oil price collapse.

Exactly a century after the Sykes­-Picot agreement that created the Mideast’s artificial borders, the region needs a whole new map, one focused on connectivity rather than division. Indeed, almost all the 400 million people of the Arab world live in cities, thus the Arab map should be much more one of connected oases than divided tribes.

This map shows the many current, half-­built and potential pipelines, water canals and electricity grids that can correct Arab societies’ vast mismatches between those that are water­rich and water­poor, energy­rich and energy­poor. Instead of letting the Arab Spring become a Thirty Years War, now is the time to get Europeans and China, Iranians and Turks, and even Israel involved in building the infrastructures Arab societies need to create jobs, diversify their economies, stabilize the region and contribute to trade and energy security worldwide.

— Source: Connectography | Parag Khanna, Connectography

[cognify]

A Internet não tem fronteiras, mas existe uma geografia?

Há alguns dias escrevemos um artigo entitulado "onde estão as fronteiras?", que nos serviu como introito para este e próximos artigo  que tratam do confuso cenário introduzido pela Internet no que diz respeito a fronteiras nacionais, poder soberano das Nações e batalhas travadas no ciberespaço.

Fazendo uma comparação grosseira entre o total de fronteiras no mundo e a distância total percorrida por cabos submarinos que interconectam os continentes suportando a Internet temos, de acordo com Parag Khanna, autor do livro "Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization", 500 mil Km de fronteiras contra 1 milhão de Km de cabos de Internet. A título de curiosidade o nome do livro é uma contração das palavras connectivity e geography. 

Aproveitando a ideia desenvolvida no artigo da semana passada,John Lennon estaria feliz com esta informação. Pela utopia criada em sua música Imagine, o astro pop sonhava com uma união global e já temos hoje, o dobro do comprimento de cabos que unem povos em comparação com a distância das fronteiras que os separam. A música de Lennon em certos momentos parece um roteiro visionário para um cenário de união e compartilhamento global provida pela Internet. Porém em outros, não representa nem de longe o que realmente acontece no ciberespaço.

Numa tentativa  de representar geográficamente o ciber espaço, apelamos para um excelente pesquisa recente realizada pelo Defcon Lab, que mapeou os hosts IPv4 pelo mundo e traduziu este mapeamento com o seguinte mapa de calor:

Este mapa apresenta pontos com concentração mínima de 100 registros. Os detalhes da metodologia podem ser conferidos em https://www.defcon-lab.org/world-ipv4-map/.

Apesar de toda essa geografia, as guerras que ocorrem na grande rede mundial não são travadas territorialmente. Nos dias de hoje dados são um bem muito mais precioso do que terras. Em muitos casos é bem difícil inclusive definir o ponto inicial de um ataque dada a identificação de uma batalha em curso. E mesmo quando se encontra um ponto tal de origem, não necessariamente significa que a responsabilidade pelo ataque provém do responsável por aquele host. Considerar esta dificuldade esclarece o quão difícil pode ser responsabilizar uma Nação por um ciberataque.

Em 2009, o site do Festival Internacional de Artes de Melbourne (MIAF) foi hackeado, aparentemente por nacionalistas chineses que protestavam contra a chegada da exilada líder uigur Rebiya Kadeer à Austrália. A caracterização da origem chinesa foi dado por uma pixação digital feita no site, apresentando uma bandeira chinesa, conforme abaixo:

 Mas isto garante que tenha havido alguma orquestração do Estado Chinês? O governo da China, é claro, negou seu envolvimento. A pergunta mais difícil de ser respondida para casos desta natureza é: que evidências são necessárias para caracterizar uma ação de Estado com repercussões sobre a soberania de outro Estado na Internet? Alguém se arriscaria em estabelecer critérios mínimos? Comentários serão bem vindos!

Muito do que se sabe sobre o envolvimento militar chinês em eventos maliciosos ocorridos na Internet foi exposto por um trabalho realizado pela empresa de  Mandiant*, que publicou um relatório em Fevereiro de 2013 apresentando indícios que implicavam diretamente a China em ações de ciberespionagem. A Mandiant analisou atividades da Unidade 61398 do Exército Popular de Libertação da China que, de acordo com o relatório, atacou 141 empresas durante um período de sete anos, visando qualquer propriedade intelectual que pudesse encontrar.

Conforme a publicação, durante esse período, a Unidade 61398 roubou centenas de terabytes de dados, às vezes ao longo de um período de anos. A Mandiant elaborou um perfil dessa unidade, que emprega centenas de funcionários com diversas habilidades técnicas e linguísticas. Foi capaz de identificar indivíduos específicos dentro da unidade e as responsabilidades de trabalho que cada um deles tinha.

No caso da análise da unidade 61398 da Mandiant, todos os ataques analisados foram originados em Xangai. Mas uma análise para identificação de um ataque advindo de um grupo específico envolve a criação de uma “impressão digital” dos hackers de forma a distinguir um grupo de todos os outros. Esse processo analisa os métodos e ferramentas que os hackers usam para entrar nos sistemas, quais informações eles escolhem tomar e os cuidados que eles exercem para desabilitar os alarmes e remover qualquer evidência. É uma tarefa extremamente complexa e que, mesmo bem feita, dá margem a controvérsia na sua conclusão.

Conforme falamos, a origem do ataque não é capaz de denunciar o grupo mal feitor. Em outro ataque atribuído a hackers chineses, o Escritório de Administração de Pessoal dos EUA foi invadido, resultando no roubo de informações pessoais sobre 22 milhões de funcionários do governo dos EUA. O grupo usou servidores baseados nos EUA para seus ataques. 

Como as técnicas dos hackers mudam constantemente à medida que trabalham para ficar à frente dos que tentam identificá-las é bastante difícil de se estabelecer uma "impressão digital" fidedigna. Se em dado momento sabe-se que determinado grupo utiliza um conjunto específico de malwares identificáveis, isto não quer dizer que num momento posterior eles continuem a ser utilizados. Aliás, é mais provável que se modifiquem, pela própria necessidade do ataque, já que as defesas se adaptam ao que se torna conhecido.

Até certo ponto, todos os hackers são parecidos. Eles podem ser identificados como não falantes de inglês, mas identificá-los como chineses depende do rastreamento de uma fonte que não está localizada apenas na China. É preciso demonstrar que o usuário usava um teclado chinês ou tinha o idioma do computador definido como chinês etc, ainda quem nem mesmo tudo isto sirva como uma garantia 100%.

Identificar hackers como chineses não garante também que ajam a partir de uma ação governamental. Porém o governo chinês nunca se mobilizou para deter esses grupos e aparentemente não os entregaria aos governos ocidentais para julgamento.

Além disso, é inteiramente possível que hackers de outros países possam utilizar servidores chineses como outra camada de cobertura para suas próprias atividades. Seria tolice acreditar que apenas o governo chinês está envolvido em ataques patrocinados pelo Estado, já que todos os governos têm interesse em espionagem comercial, militar e, em alguns casos até, simples influência política.

Infelizmente, parece que o sonho de Lennon de um cenário pacífico a partir de um mundo sem fronteiras se torna mais distante. Esta nova guerra, sem fronteiras estabelecidas, comparativamente às guerras convencionais territoriais, estabelece uma dificuldade adicional em termos de estabelecimento de um tratado de Paz que ajuste os ponteiros entre os países e resolva o contencioso. Em muitos casos sequer existe um contencioso claro, ou seja, "essa guerra tá na paz".

* A Mandiant foi adquirida em dezembro de 2013 pela FireEye.

[mailinvest]

Connectography: Mapping the Way forward for International Civilization

[valentinagioialevy]

ART & CONNECTOGRAPHY. REMAPPING THE GLOBAL WORLD  THROUGH ART

A collateral event of Manifesta12 curated by Valentina Gioia Levy & Rikke Jorgensen

https://www.scribd.com/document/380378611/ART-CONNECTOGRAPHY-REMAPPING-THE-GLOBAL-WORLD-THROUGH-ART

[tastydregs]

Geoengineering Is the Only Solution to Our Climate Calamities

If global warming were an extraterrestrial adversary, it would not have to fear a diplomatically unified Earth. The past decade of climate summits in Copenhagen, Bali, Cancun, and Paris have only nudged us towards the limp goal of business as usual until 2050. One wonders how much ice will be left in Greenland by then, and how many billions will have died from the ecocide of rising sea levels, endless droughts, and other climate-change-related catastrophes, to say nothing of the already tragic effects of natural disasters such as the wildfires burning with ever greater intensity in California. Even in the best of times, collective action doesn’t come naturally.

The time has come to place our faith in technological innovation rather than universal enlightenment. We have been wrestling with our habitat, and now it is fighting back. We are locked in a violent embrace in search of a new equilibrium.

WIRED OPINION

ABOUT

Parag Khanna is the author of Connectography (2016) and The Future is Asian (2019). Michael Ferrari is managing partner at Atlas Research Innovations and a senior fellow at the Wharton School.

If the Industrial Revolution and borderless capitalism are the forces that have brought us to this environmental apotheosis, then it will have to be geoengineering moon shots and scientific collaboration that buy us time to reverse the damage. Geoengineering proposals generally fall into two categories: removing carbon from the atmosphere, or shielding Earth from solar radiation. The most ambitious proposal for carbon removal involves fertilizing the ocean with iron sulfate and other nutrients to stimulate algae growth that could potentially revitalize the marine food chain while also absorbing atmospheric carbon. In terms of slowing global warming, injecting sulphur dioxide aerosol particles in the atmosphere would reflect sunlight and cool temperatures across the globe.

One might recoil at such audacious plans to intentionally alter the geophysical environment, yet that is precisely what we have unintentionally been doing for the past century. At least this time we can direct our efforts in the right direction. As Stewart Brand memorably wrote in the first edition of the Whole Earth Catalog in 1968, “We are as gods and might as well get good at it.”

We have a long way to go before we gain divine mastery over nature. More than a dozen iron fertilization experiments have been undertaken in the past two decades, but only two have resulted in any carbon being absorbed into the deep sea. Despite this limited success, in 2008 the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity imposed a moratorium on such efforts.

Solar geoengineering lags even further behind. To date the only significant real-world initiative in the field is Harvard’s Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx), which plans to inject calcium carbonate particles high above the Earth to reflect some of the sun's rays back into space, effectively simulating a volcanic explosion over a small patch of desert in the southwestern US. Beyond the science, the chief obstacle to the project, according to director David Keith, is that funding agencies fear backlash from environmental groups. Similar to the fate of ocean fertilization, in 2019 a Swiss-backed proposal for a multilateral research initiative on atmospheric geoengineering was rejected.

This is as ironic as it is unacceptable. Activism has neither stopped oil producers (whether Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, or the US) from pumping hydrocarbons nor industrial consumers (such as China, India, the US, and Japan) from consuming them. The crucial change agent has been technology, primarily nuclear, solar, and wind power. But even under the best-case scenarios of renewable energy adoption, we are past the point of no return: Accumulated carbon emissions will wreak ever more havoc on all living organisms. It is well past time to abide by the precautionary principle—an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

We need to get all hands on deck. The combined resources of progressive government agencies, the scientific community, and private backers represent the political willpower, technical know-how, and financial muscle necessary to offset the current trajectory of 2°C or higher temperature rise, which estimates suggest could cost tens of billions of dollars per year. European and Asian governments support geoengineering in principle, and it now has bipartisan support in the US, which recently approved $4 million for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to assess solar climate interventions. But this is half-hearted, timid support, and it will not be enough.

[yourkingdomcomechristjesus]

1. 2. So as serve all KIngHe submits not to border political demands contaminatingby even ‘What?’ Principality of even a Xi Jinping. if less than TRUE Serve-all-Authority king China Ope…

[kimludcom]

Dambisa MoyoDr. Dambisa Moyo, Global Economist & Author, 5/21/18

Dr. Dambisa Moyo, Global Economist & Author, spoke to The Economic Club of Chicago on May 21, 2018. Following her remarks, she participated in a Q&A session with Club Chair Mellody Hobson, President, Ariel Investments. Dr. Moyo is the author of "Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth - and How to Fix It."

Link to this page here: http://bit.ly/2ML3Bjt

Official Website: http://dambisamoyo.com

Videos Updates: http://bit.ly/2DN4XYc

Youtube Channel: http://bit.ly/2MJyrsF

Books (4): http://bit.ly/2DO68Xlh2>

4) Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth and How to Fix It (2018)

3) Winner Take All: China’s race for Resources and What it Means for the World (2012)

2) How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly and the Stark Choices Ahead (2011)

1) Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa (2009)

New Power and Global Politics: Navigating A Hyperconected World I Fortune

Brexit. Catalan’s independence movement in Spain. Trump’s potential trade wars with China and other nations. Uncertain detente efforts with North Korea. Geopolitical events are sculpting the environment in which businesses operate. Which front-page geopolitical stories will have the most impact on global businesses? What emerging-market political risks and uncertainties should we have on our radar? What steps can business leaders take to address these concerns and how can companies fill the gaps created by global governments and institutions?

Parag Khanna, Founder and Managing Partner, FutureMap; Author, Connectography

Dambisa Moyo, Global Economist; Director, 3M, Barclays Bank, and Chevron; and Author, Edge of Chaos

Moderator: Nina Easton, Fortune

Is Democracy Dying? A Talk with Dr. Dambisa Moyo

Dr. Dambisa Moyo, Global Economist, Author, and Investor in the Future, speaks on the intersection of democracy and future economic growth. This lecture is the latest installment of the Foreign Policy Association’s Centennial Lecture Series.

Dambisa Moyo | Full Address and Q&A | Oxford Union

Dambisa Moyo is a Zambian-born international economist and author who analyzes the macroeconomy and global affairs. She currently serves on the boards of Barclays Bank, the financial services group, Seagate Technology, Chevron Corporation, and Barrick Gold, the global miner. She worked for two years at the World Bank and eight years at Goldman Sachs before becoming an author and international public speaker.

ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: The Oxford Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. Since 1823, the Union has been promoting debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.

Why Democracies Aren't Producing Economic Growth - Dambisa Moyo

Dambisa Moyo international economist and author who analyzes the macroeconomy and global affairs. She received her DPhil in Economics from Oxford.

Economic growth has stalled. Let's fix it | Dambisa Moyo

Economic growth is the defining challenge of our time; without it, political and social instability rises, human progress stagnates and societies grow dimmer. But, says economist Dambisa Moyo, dogmatic capitalism isn't creating the growth we need. As she shows, in both state-sponsored and market-driven models, capitalism is failing to solve social ills, fostering corruption and creating income inequality. Moyo surveys the current economic landscape and suggests that we have to start thinking about capitalism as a spectrum so we can blend the best of different models together to foster growth.

Dambisa Moyo: Is China the new idol for emerging economies?

The developed world holds up the ideals of capitalism, democracy and political rights for all. Those in emerging markets often don't have that luxury. In this powerful talk, economist Dambisa Moyo makes the case that the west can't afford to rest on its laurels and imagine others will blindly follow. Instead, a different model, embodied by China, is increasingly appealing. A call for open-minded political and economic cooperation in the name of transforming the world.

Economist Dambisa Moyo on China's Pursuit of Resources

International Peace Institute

Published on Sep 18, 2012

International economist and bestselling author Dambisa Moyo discussed the commodity dynamics that the world will face over the next several decades, focusing in particular on the implications of China's global rush for resources.These topics are the subject of her book Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World.

The event was moderated by IPI Senior Adviser for External Relations, Warren Hoge.

C-SPAN Book TV: Winner Take All Presentation

International economist Dambisa Moyo talked about the huge impact of China's efforts to control basic resources around the world. She used some slides during her presentation, which was followed by a questions and answer session moderated by Professor Yang. This World Affairs Council of Seattle program, held at the Swedish Cultural Center, was sponsored by Microsoft. The co-presenters included the Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Seattle University's Asian Studies and Global African Studies Programs, and the University of Washington African Studies Program and Evans School of Public Affairs (Jun 14, 2012).

Africa with Dambisa Moyo

During the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Moyo asserts, however, that this assistance has made African people no better off. Africas real per capita income today is lower than in the 1970s, with over half of the 700 million Africans living on less than a dollar a day. Eschewing the glamour aid of celebrities such as Bob Geldof and Bono, she argues that the key to transforming African countries is to make them less reliant on foreign aid and compel them to enforce rules of prudence and not live beyond their means.

[quixoticanarchy]

im like a mirror variant of the type of guy who hears even the most milquetoast socialist proposals or whatever and goes “but who’s gonna pay for all that” except in my case i hear someone wax poetic about fully automated luxury greentech socialism or all but jack off to the idea of ~connectivity~ and massive infrastructure projects and im like ok who’s gonna provide the raw materials. who’s gonna mine all that

[fundgruber]

https://qz.com/666153/megacities-not-nations-are-the-worlds-most-dominant-enduring-social-structures-adapted-from-connectography/

[artificialintelligenceindonesia]

Belt and Road Initiatives

Belt and Road Initiatives

Oleh: Ricky Suwarno

27 April 2019

Presiden China Xi Jinping menjadi tuan rumah bagi 37 kepala negara dan pemerintah di forum Belt and Road kedua, yang sedang diadakan di Beijing sekarang. Dimulai dari 25-27 April. Forum ini diharapkan akan menghasilkan lebih banyak kesepakatan bagi perusahaan, bank dan Negara yang menginginkan proyek mega-proyek Silk Road di dunia.

Parag Khanna, peneliti di Bruce…

[camiloandrecabezas-blog]

How megacities are changing the world

These two forces of geography and connectivity as fusing together into what he calls "connectography." Connectography represents an evolution of the world from political geography, which is how we legally divide the world, to functional geography, which is how we actually use the world. We are becoming a global network civilisation. Our global infrastructure spending is projected to rise to nine trillion dollars per year within the coming decade. We will build more infrastructure over the next 40 years, than we have in the past 4,000 years. A twin megatrend in the 21st century is planetary urbanisation. Cities are the infrastructures that most define us. By 2030, more than two thirds of the world's population will live in cities. And these are not mere dots on the map, they are vast archipelagos stretching hundreds of kilometers. 

[talabib]

TED Tuesday: Emerging Markets

On TED Tuesday, we will share videos that will inspire you to be a better leader. Learn from thought leaders on subjects of leadership and success. This week, we will share videos on emerging  markets.  Hope these videos make your day

How do we build a society without fossil fuels? Using her native Costa Rica as an example of positive action on environmental protection and renewables, climate advocate Monica Araya outlines a bold vision for a world committed to clean energy in all sectors.

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We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts. How do we now address that fear as well as growing disillusionment with the political establishment, while refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism? Join Betts as he discusses four post-Brexit steps toward a more inclusive world.

Economic growth has been slowing for the past 50 years, but relief might come from an unexpected place -- a new form of manufacturing that is neither what you thought it was nor where you thought it was. Industrial systems thinker Olivier Scalabre details how a fourth manufacturing revolution will produce a macroeconomic shift and boost employment, productivity and growth.

What does the world look like when you map it using data? Social geographer Danny Dorling invites us to see the world anew, with his captivating and insightful maps that show Earth as it truly is -- a connected, ever-changing and fascinating place in which we all belong. You'll never look at a map the same way again.

"I want you to reimagine how life is organized on earth," says global strategist Parag Khanna. As our expanding cities grow ever more connected through transportation, energy and communications networks, we evolve from geography to what he calls "connectography." This emerging global network civilization holds the promise of reducing pollution and inequality -- and even overcoming geopolitical rivalries. In this talk, Khanna asks us to embrace a new maxim for the future: "Connectivity is destiny."

Economic growth is the defining challenge of our time; without it, political and social instability rises, human progress stagnates and societies grow dimmer. But, says economist Dambisa Moyo, dogmatic capitalism isn't creating the growth we need. As she shows, in both state-sponsored and market-driven models, capitalism is failing to solve social ills, fostering corruption and creating income inequality. Moyo surveys the current economic landscape and suggests that we have to start thinking about capitalism as a spectrum so we can blend the best of different models together to foster growth.

   The term Gross Domestic Product is often talked about as if it were “handed down from god on tablets of stone.” But this concept was invented by an economist in the 1930s. We need a more effective measurement tool to match 21st century needs, says Michael Green: the Social Progress Index. With charm and wit, he shows how this tool measures societies across the three dimensions that actually matter. And reveals the dramatic reordering of nations that occurs when you use it.

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Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin outlines her ambitious vision to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia. Her plan would create wealth, minimize risk for farmers and turn the world's largest recipient of food aid into a regional food basket.

[tennesseewatchman-com-news-blog]

Nihil Sub Sole Novum (There Is Nothing New Under the Sun)

Nihil Sub Sole Novum (There Is Nothing New Under the Sun)

29 Aug Nihil Sub Sole Novum (There Is Nothing New Under the Sun) Posted at 17:46h in NewsWire by Kathleen Marquardt

How is man the better for all this toiling of his, here under the sun? Age succeeds age, and the world goes on unaltered. Sun may rise and sun may set, but ever it goes back and is reborn. Ecclesiastes 1:3-5

Parag Khanna, in his book, “Connectography”, talks about the global genetic…

[alanlaidlaw]

Parag Khanna believes that “democracy might be incompatible with globalization and capitalism,” arguing that we should thus embrace authoritarian, Chinese-style capitalism. In his own review of Khanna’s Connectography, Drezner characterized his thinking as “globaloney” and likened his prose style to “a TED talk on a recursive loop.”

The Rise of the Thought Leader