by Richard Gowan | Jun 6, 2011 | Economics and development, Global system, Off topic
While everyone is asking who will be the next boss of the IMF, another top international job is becoming vacant. The current Economist contains an ad for a new Director General of the International Dairy Federation, which has members in 56 countries accounting for “86% of current milk production worldwide.”
As you’d expect, the organization that publishes the annual World Dairy Situation is not looking for amateurs. “The successful candidate possesses several years experience in the dairy industry,” says the ad, “as well as experience in international affairs.” An ability to pun is also apparently requirement: this year the IDF is hosting a World Dairy Summit in Parma, Italy, which it is calling a “Summilk”.
This sounds like a wonderful job. If you’d like to apply, drop a line to Richard Doyle – the IDF’s president – at IDF-president@dfc-plca.ca by 21 July. But “only selected candidates will be contacted.” There’s no room for dreamers in milky multilateralism.
by Ryan Gawn | Jun 3, 2011 | Conflict and security, Global system, Middle East and North Africa
Yemen and Arab Spring watchers will be fascinated by the Al Jazeera New Media team’s Interactive Twitter Dashboard, illustrating what is being tweeted about and where. Tracking tweets on Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, the recent Yemen spike (turquoise) is very telling following today’s attack on the presidential palace.
by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2011 | Articles and Publications, Reports
Why sustainable development still isn’t a reality 20 years after the Earth Summit – and what Rio 2012 can do to turn the tide. CIC report by Alex Evans and David Steven. (June 2011)
Download Report
by Alex Evans | Jun 2, 2011 | Climate and resource scarcity, Cooperation and coherence, Economics and development, Global Dashboard, Global system, Influence and networks
One year from now, on 4 June 2012, the Rio summit on sustainable development will begin, at the same time marking the twentieth anniversary of the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in the same city. Preparations are well behind where they should be at this stage, and there is a real risk that it will be the latest in a series of damp squibs for the international sustainable development agenda.
David Steven and I have just completed a new paper (pdf) on the summit, which is the latest output from the NYU Center on International Cooperation’s resource scarcity program. In it, we explore the reasons why so little progress has been made on making development sustainable since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 – and set out some suggestions for how Rio 2012 could start to turn things around, not just within the environment policy silo, but also more broadly on renewing the international development agenda beyond 2015 and tackling the global risks that make up the ‘long crisis’ of globalisation that we have written about before for the Brookings Institution.
We argue that three overarching themes will be critical for making progress on these areas: greening growth, facing up to the issues of fair shares that arise in a world of limits, and building resilience to shocks and stresses, both internationally and within states (especially fragile ones). While Rio 2012 faces a tough political context, it could still – with a major push from key actors – make a tangible difference on all three fronts.
You can download the paper here.
by Richard Gowan | Jun 2, 2011 | Off topic, UK
Worrisome news from Guernsey, the nicest of the Channel Islands:
A MARMITE ban in Denmark has shown what could happen in Guernsey if deputies sign up to EU food supplement legislation, a campaigner has said.
Liz Adams yesterday dressed herself as a jar of Marmite and staged a protest outside the States [Guernsey’s parliament] with fellow campaigners to stop deputies accepting proposals to tie the island into European Union food supplement standards.
Earlier this week, news broke that Denmark had stripped stocks of the yeast extract from its shelves, enforcing a law made in 2004 that restricts products fortified with added vitamins.
Mrs Adams said that in some ways she was pleased Denmark had made the ban as it brought to light what could one day happen to Guernsey.
Weirdly, Marmite ran an ad campaign last year which claimed that a new British political party made up of Marmite Haters was going to “send all Marmite lovers to Guernsey.” I had always assumed that was a joke. Until now.
