The New Monsoon
"Yaathum Oore, Yaavarum Kelir"- Kaniyan Poongundranar
[Tamil poet from Pre-Christian Sangham era]
July 04
“All the world is my world, all humanity is my fraternity”
- Translated  By Eelam Tamil Scholar Rev Fr. Xavier Thaninayagam
India's economy - oil the nuts and bolts [BBC News]
Purely in terms of time, let alone the costs of clearing the legal and
bureaucratic hurdles and the pressure on the heart, it cannot be easy
starting a private business in India.
Dinars, Dirhams, Riyals, Syrian Pounds..[NPR Audio].
Arab traders and Arab currencies once dominated the global economy,
but ever since its peak in the 15th century, the pan-Arab economy hasn’t
been doing very well overall. Journalist Stephen Glain looks at the
economic history of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and Egypt.
Then, some concrete evidence of global warming – disappearing Pacific
islands, melting Alaska permafrost, and rising temperatures in England.
Kenneth Turan Review: 'Farenheit 9/11' [NPR Audio]
Farenheit 9/11, director Michael Moore's scathing depiction of the Bush
administration's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, opens in U.S. theaters
Friday. The controversial film won the top prize at this year's Cannes
Film Festival. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.
Wal-Mart's success makes it a target [The Globe and Mail]
It is the largest class-action lawsuit ever certified against a private
employer and it's not surprising that the target is Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,
whose spectacular success as a low-cost retail juggernaut has made it a
symbol of destructive capitalism for local politicians, union officials and
anti-globalism activists.
When farmers die [The Hindu]
ANDHRA PRADESH is in the midst of an agrarian Emergency. The tragic
farmers' suicides are, finally, an extreme symptom of a much deeper rural
distress. The result of a decade-long onslaught on the livelihoods of
millions. The crisis now goes way beyond the families ravaged by the
suicides. And beyond the farming community itself. There is an urgent
need to end the suicides. But doing so without addressing the larger
distress is to try and mop the floor dry with the taps open.
Tamil author writes on Third world's financial woes [Tamilnet]
Professor Mohanadas said there are eight faculties in the Jaffna
University and three of them deal with the teaching of finance and other
related subjects. The book on "Monetary Exploitation" is useful not only to
academics but also to students interested in the economics.

With the collapse of Marxism, globalization leaves third world countries to
be monetarily exploited, he said.
Just waiting out the business cycle [Boston Globe]
Were Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton more effective presidents than
Jimmy Carter and George Bush the elder, or were they just luckier?
Reagan and Clinton, both two-termers, boasted long economic expansions
while the latter two presidents were spurned under clouds of economic
malaise.
Faces of Globalization: It takes a village [UPI]
At first as I drove I saw a silvery surface, beneath the grey sky -- the
cooler, rainy season has come -- close by low green hills. It might have
been a lake, but the eye deceived. The feature in the landscape was not
natural at all but technology planted in the middle of a poor rural region in
central Mexico. The money it generates irrigates some nearby pueblos,
mitigating a little their poverty.
Waking Up to the Terror Threat in Southern Thailand [Yale Global]
HIDDEN a few kilometres down a remote country lane in the heart of
Thailand's troubled deep south, where a Muslim separatist uprising has so far
this year left more than 200 dead, is the brand new, multimillion-dollar new
campus of Yala Islamic College. With more than a dozen Arab teachers from
across the Middle East and a seemingly endless flow of funds from Saudi
Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, the college has become the most obvious
manifestation of a non-violent Arab threat to the traditionally moderate and
tolerant Islamic traditions of southern Thailand (and the wider South-east
Asian region).
DVDs under $20 at A&E (468x60)