 Many of the books reviewed here can now be purchased over the internet from amazon.co.uk. There is a search facility at the end of the page. |
In print
The
end of poverty: How we can make it happen in our lifetime
By Jeffrey Sachs
Published by Penguin
Website: www.penguin.com
2005, 416pp, ISBN 0 141 01866 6(Pb), £7.99
It is nearly five years since world leaders agreed that the injustices of unequal development urgently needed to be addressed, and the Millennium Declaration was articulated. From this the Millennium Development Goals were set out, the first - and arguably the most critical - being to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Yet despite the fine sentiments at the time, progress has been disappointing. This book is a rallying cry to try to put the rich countries back on track, by the director of the Millennium Project.
Jeffrey Sachs is passionate about ending world poverty - indeed, he has dedicated his professional life to this cause, using his skills as an economist but also his talents as a persuasive speaker, writer, mediator and ambassador. He very successfully transmits his passion through these pages: the reader cannot fail to be moved by the undeserved plight of the world's poorest people, described from Sachs' first-hand experiences in Asia, Latin America and Africa, and - more importantly - to be inspired to believe that solutions are within our reach.
This is Sachs' message, repeated frequently throughout the book: practical solutions do exist, it is simply failure to implement them in the right places and on the right scale that is keeping one billion people in extreme poverty. Africa's problems, for example, "are especially difficult but still solvable with practical and proven technologies. Diseases can be controlled, crop yields can be sharply increased, and basic infrastructure such as paved roads and electricity can be extended to villages. A combination of investments well attuned to local needs and conditions can enable African economies to break out of the poverty trap."
It is mainly the lack of sufficient investments that has up to now limited the application of these practical solutions. Sachs reverts to economist to explain not only how the rich countries can easily afford the relatively modest amounts needed to end extreme poverty, but how it will cost them dearly if they continue to fail to respond adequately. "The more one looks at it, the more one sees that the question isn't whether the rich can afford to help the poor, but whether they can afford not to."
The end of poverty is a powerful combination of motivating prose and practical strategies for rising to this most important of challenges. It is unreservedly recommended to all, but most especially to the world's richest one billion, who today have it within their power to end the suffering of the world's poorest one billion.
Spice:
The history of a temptation
By Jack Turner
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers
Website: www.harpercollins.co.uk
2005, 352pp, ISBN 0 00 655173 4(Pb), £8.99
A book telling the history of spice may be thought to be fairly limited in scope. But reading this book reveals that the history of spice is, in many respects, the history of Western civilisation. It is a history of desire, trade, discovery, disease, love, death, and magic - and Turner tells it beautifully.
Spices came from the East and were rare, exotic and coveted in the West. Over centuries, they were variously attributed with culinary, medicinal, magical, spiritual and aphrodisiac properties, but in the end "the charms of spices admit no easy explanation... Part of their attraction, and the source of much of their value, was simply that they were inexplicable... Emerging from the fabulous obscurity of the East they were arrivals from another world. For the spices, so it was believed, grew in paradise."
Beginning with the "spice-seekers" of the 15th and 16th centuries, when cloves, nutmeg and mace were as prized as gold, Turner brings to life the heady days when uncharted seas were crossed in search of mysterious islands bearing spice treasure. "Columbus, da Gama and Magellan, the three standard-bearers of the age of discovery, were spice-seekers before they became discoverers," he reveals. And, indeed, Columbus was searching for a shorter route to the spice supplies in the East when he came across the continent of America.
But long before the 15th century, spice routes between East and West had been active, supplying the kitchens of ancient Greece and later the Roman Empire. Turner speculates that, ironically, spice contributed to the fall of Rome. Spice came to represent the luxury and decadence that became "an insidious cancer eating away at Rome's personal and public vigour". Later in the history of spice he sees this repeated, as "the vanity of their uses...riled their more puritan critics". In the Middle Ages for example, many - particularly in the Christian church - thought spices were sinful, representing excess and debauchery.
Spices are "exotic, rare and inexplicable", and they seem to inspire the romantic in all who write about them. Quotations throughout the book, from across the centuries and from all corners of the Old World, are beautifully crafted. And Turner himself is also inspired to a romantic turn of phrase by his subject matter: "They were, in a sense, magical if not divine, arriving by unknown means from the vast blank spaces on the map, spaces populated by dragons, gods and monsters." Turner's writing may also be described as "magical if not divine", and Spice is an enchanting read.
Sharing power: Learning by doing in co-management of
natural resources throughout the world
By Grazia Borrini-Feyeraband, Michel Pimbert et al.
Published by IIED and IUCN
Email: info@iied.org and comanagement@cenesta.org
Available from www.earthprint.com
2004, 456pp, ISBN 1 84369 444 1(Pb), US$52.50
Co-management of natural resources, as distinct from top-down imposition of rules, or unfettered exploitation by private interests, is gaining respect as the fairest and most effective way for those resources to be both exploited and protected for future generations. This substantial volume offers a detailed framework for such co-management, based on lessons learned from every part of the globe. Having set out the basics of what co-management means in a variety of natural resource contexts, the authors move on to the nitty-gritty of how to achieve it. In 'Towards effective processes' they look at the various stages needed in the formation of a management agreement. This includes creating procedures for the vital negotiation meetings, how to cope with an impasse in the negotiations, and developing a shared vision and common strategy. Another major section, 'Towards effective institutions', looks in more detail at the necessary characteristics of co-management agreements and organisations. Much of the focus is highly practical, but is complemented - and leavened - by numerous examples from both developed and developing countries. For all working in the field of natural resource management where local communities are involved in the process, this book is a must.
Family
nutrition guide
Women
and sustainable agriculture: Interviews with 14 agents of change
