‘and don’t criticise what you can’t understand’. Miche Doherty got there first…..
The UN’s new, top secret, irony working group splashed big last week. After rejecting all seven of the qualified female candidates for Secretary General, the UN has chosen Wonder Woman as an honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls. [h/t Kate Cronin-Furman]
My How Change Happens launch tour (aka ‘From Poverty to Powerpoint’) rolls on: this week Warwick, SOAS and Newcastle; next week Oxford, Sheffield, LSE and Edinburgh. That’s a lot of station sandwiches.
In 2001, only 15 international borders were fenced or walled off. Now there are 63 border fences on four continents. 3 part Washington Post video series.
The IMF is actually two institutions, according to the Guardian’s Larry Elliott. Its Research Department has broken with the Washington consensus, but the programme teams are still in the 1990s. Jekyll? Hyde? Can never remember which is which.
Getting there on Robin Hood? “EU financial transaction tax to be unveiled this year” [h/t Jon Slater]
The most dangerous moment in a kleptocracy (South Sudan, Yemen) is when it slides into insolvency. So why advocate for it, asks Alex de Waal?
Surrounded by piles of trash in the Macedonian city of Tetovo (one of the most polluted in Europe), two classical musicians protested by playing Bach. Classy and memorable protest.