Tag Archives: Wall Street Journal

Bad ideas, Ecology/Environment, Empire/ Imperialism, Government, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

What the Wall Street Journal Can’t See in India’s Forests: Aruna Chandrashekhar

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 Guest post by ARUNA CHANDRASEKHAR

If we cut the entire forest down, where will we live?’- Muria adivasi, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh 

I don’t even know how to begin addressing a story as blindly biased in its premise as this one in the Wall Street Journal, which draws an obtuse line between loss of forest cover and land usage by adivasis, when it is land grab by industrialization that is endangering all we have left.

So I’m going to do this paragraph by paragraph.

India’s forest cover decreased by 367 square kilometers between 2007 and 2009, and it was primarily tribal and hilly regions that were to blame.

The tribal and hilly regions are the last vestiges of India’s forests.  How can you blame entire regions, without casting any aspersions on institutions or practices responsible? Continue reading What the Wall Street Journal Can’t See in India’s Forests: Aruna Chandrashekhar →

Capitalism, Debates, Everyday Life

The Rise of the Underground – A New Discovery?

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Believe it or not, experts at the World Bank and the IMF are disovering the virtues of something we at Kafila have been, off and on, debating: the so-called ‘underground economy’, the ‘informal sector’ or what has also been called the sphere of ‘noncorporate capital’.

“Economists have long thought the underground economy — the vast, unregulated market encompassing everything from street vendors to unlicensed cab drivers — was bad news for the world economy. Now it’s taking on a new role as one of the last safe havens in a darkening financial climate, forcing analysts to rethink their views”, states a recent Wall Street Journal report from Ahmedabad. Continue reading The Rise of the Underground – A New Discovery? →