THE GLOBAL AND THE LOCAL

Sushma Joshi Ancient Greece is known as the birthplace of democracy. Their ideas and practice does not correspond exactly to the various different forms of democracies that we are familiar with in the contemporary moment. Their political and intellectual achievements, however, were clearly instrumental in shaping the foundations. What did democracy mean to the ancient Greeks, and how did it get started in that part of the world, and not any other? The Egyptians and the Persians were ruling far more civilized and wealthier civilizations, but their empires did not give birth to ideals of democracy. Even in the Greek isles, mountainous areas and areas lacking communications did not develop democracy, an interesting historical fact that might shed some light on the turmoil of our own nation. The Greeks distinguished themselves from the “barbarous”, or people who said “bar-bar” when they talked. According to classic scholar H.D.F Kitto, the barbarians were not denigrate...

FABULOUSLY YOURS People read newspapers and magazines expecting to believe what they read. They do not usually wonder whether what they are reading is partially or entirely fabricated. In countries where there are only a few media companies controlling entire conglomerates of television and print media, the independent newspaper and magazine becomes even more of a vital source of information. The United States, for instance, where four or five major corporations control the majority of news media in the entire continent, is often cited as a nation where the quality of news suffers as a consequence of the consolidation of media outlets. So its independent news sources are often elevated to a higher status. The New Republic is a policy magazine published out of Washington DC that boasts of being the "inflight magazine of Airforce 1" - Airforce 1 being the airforce of the president. Started in 1914, the magazine has enjoyed respectable influence in the upper echelons of ...

Bonded to Labor The Contemporary Situation in Nepal By Sushma Joshi This piece originally appeared in Samar 16: Fall/Winter, 2003 Bonded labor, or debt bondage, is the least known form of slavery that exists today, yet it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. At least 20 million people throughout the world are bonded laborers: whole families of agricultural laborers in India; Togolese girls sold as maids in Gabon; eastern European women tricked into prostitution in western Europe. A complete mixture of people who have one thing in common: a debt they are forced to repay with their labor. On January 13, 2000 the Nepali government, through the Local Self-Governance Act, established a minimum wage for agricultural laborers -- Rs. 74, or just over US$1 per 8-hour workday. On May 1, also International Labor Day, 19 Kamaiya (bonded labor) families filed a petition against their master, ex-minister Shiva Raj Pant, demanding minimum wages in compliance with the new re...