politics | Terry Bell Writes

Browsing All posts tagged under »politics«

A Covid-19 wake up call for fairness

March 22, 2020

The spread around the world of Covid-19 by jet set and cruise travellers has heightened the fear of the horrendous human cost that this virus — no respecter of class, caste or colour — could cause should it reach the teeming favelas, squatter camps and shacklands of the working class poor. This should bring to the fore the gross neglect of the poor, many of whom continue to live — and die — as a result of treatable and curable epidemics such as tuberculosis (TB).

Middle class is not defined by income alone

March 11, 2020

Beware the anger of those individual workers, who finding themselves jobless, realise they were conned into believing that they had ascended to middle class status and supposedly shared greater interests with the owners of capital than with the other sellers of labour, the working class majority.

The green irony at Davos

January 31, 2020

It is ironic that the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum has announced that the “transition to a greener and more equal economy is not just possible but imperative for restoring productivity”. Because the members of this private rich boys' club, representatives of the 1% who comprise the apex of the global wealth pyramid, are primarily responsible for the crisis: they are part of the problem, not the solution.

Strap in — it’s the rise of the machines

January 21, 2020

Artificial Intelligence and the technology employing it is not our enemy; it is who controls it and to what end that will determine whether humanity benefits or finds itself in the sort of dystopian world only imagine4d by the most pessimistic speculative fiction writers. The technology now being developed, displaces human labour; it does not (as in previous industrial revolutions) provide machines that make human labour more productive. It has never been more imperative for working people to take democratic control and perhaop liuberate humanity.

2020: Tumult lies ahead — but hope too

January 17, 2020

Hope for the future lies in placing the massive advances in technology and AI under democratic, accountable and transparent control. Failure to do so could result in a dystopian future that only the most pessimistic of speculative fiction writers have imagined.

Time to stop thinking & acting in silos

December 15, 2019

If wishes were dinners, the hungry would eat. It's a variation on an old Scottish proverb about beggars and horses, but it seems worth bearing in mind as this year draws quite grimly to a close. Because wishes and hopes are, in themselves, futile at a time when clarity of thought and analysis, followed by appropriate action is called for.

Journalism & the media: time to be afraid, very afraid

December 2, 2019

Honest, evidence-based journalism is under increasing pressure, especially with so many media outlets compromised or captured. South African provides classic examples and reasons why fulsome support should be given to the fight for continued — and expanded — access to information.

Knaves, fools and responsibility

November 19, 2019

It may be too simple to say that only fools institutes the same policies time after time, on each occasion expecting a different outcome. This could be knavish behaviour, with the policymakers and their backers — the few — continuing to benefit at the expense of the many they profess to support.