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A review by cmjustice
Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate by Naomi Klein
4.0
Both Inspiring/enlightening and discouraging. Much has remained the same or has gotten worse. Great writing; well deserved praise for her reports and observations, she nails it frequently:
"....when Wally Olins, co-founder of... brand consultancy, was asked for his take on America’s image problem, he complained that people don’t have a single clear idea about what the country stands for but rather have dozens if not hundreds of ideas that ”are mixed up in people’s heads in a most extraordinary way. So you will often find people both admiring and abusing America, even in the same sentence.”....
Having conflicting views about the U.S.- admiring its creativity, for instance, but resenting its double standards- doesn’t mean you are mixed up” to use Olin’s phrase, it means you are paying attention.”
The possibilities-...”’the participatory budget,’ a system that allows direct citizen participation in the allocation of scarce city resources. Through a network of neighbourhood and issue councils, residents vote directly on which roads will be paved and which health care facilities will be built. In Porte Alegre (Brazil), this devolution of power has brought results that are the mirror opposite of global economic trends. For instance, rather than scaling back on public services for the poor, as is the case nearly everywhere else, the city has increased those services substantially. And rather than spiralling cynicism and voter dropout, democratic participation increases every year.”
"....when Wally Olins, co-founder of... brand consultancy, was asked for his take on America’s image problem, he complained that people don’t have a single clear idea about what the country stands for but rather have dozens if not hundreds of ideas that ”are mixed up in people’s heads in a most extraordinary way. So you will often find people both admiring and abusing America, even in the same sentence.”....
Having conflicting views about the U.S.- admiring its creativity, for instance, but resenting its double standards- doesn’t mean you are mixed up” to use Olin’s phrase, it means you are paying attention.”
The possibilities-...”’the participatory budget,’ a system that allows direct citizen participation in the allocation of scarce city resources. Through a network of neighbourhood and issue councils, residents vote directly on which roads will be paved and which health care facilities will be built. In Porte Alegre (Brazil), this devolution of power has brought results that are the mirror opposite of global economic trends. For instance, rather than scaling back on public services for the poor, as is the case nearly everywhere else, the city has increased those services substantially. And rather than spiralling cynicism and voter dropout, democratic participation increases every year.”