Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Stories of Interest


The Little Village that Could: Fascinating story about a village in Andalucía called Marinaleda which has managed to create a communist-style utopia over the last 50 years is told in a recent book, The Village Against the World, by Don Hancox.

Spain is more corrupt: A recent report by Transparency International has Spain sliding way down the list of corrupt countries, to 40th spot, between Poland and Cap Verde (out of 177 countries ranked). New Zealand and Denmark came joint first. The US ranked 19th and Canada 9th. Comments in The Guardian emphasize the PP's scandals and also the royal troubles of Iñaki Urdangarin, the king's son-in-law. Apparently Spain will now draw up its first Freedom of Information Act, though it has already been criticized as not going far enough.

US Government Cheating on Pensions: An astonishingly hard-hitting essay on Newsweek shows how governments and companies are cheating workers out of their pensions, and being supported by the courts. This is very chilling reading.






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