Thursday 25 October 2007

LSE Public Lecture Podcasts

One of the many things I have missed since leaving London has been the ability to go along to the LSE to participate in their public lectures. The first series I went to a couple of years ago was a series of lectures by ex-chancellors. Which were excellent and surprisingly Norman Lamont was probably the most impressive of the speakers.
So I was very happy a few months ago to discover that the LSE now has its public lectures available on podcast. This week I have listened to two very interesting ones.
Firstly:
Utopian Hope and Apocalyptic Religion given by Professor John Gray in which he discusses how he believes our world view of civil society is still entirely influenced by the Judeo-Christian belief systems of an earlier time. He refutes a linear narrative to history preferring to see it as cyclical. Seeing the present 'civilised' world not necessary as a step towards a better more peaceful and more just world but just as likely a historically local high water mark before the world recedes into barbarism. While I agree we must be aware of the possibility of the world becoming a more barbarous place, one only has to look at the example of torture and it's recent apparent re-acceptance by both Britain and the States in the name of The War on Terror to see the beginings of this. What I have a harder time agreeing with was Professor Grays belief that we are at a stage where our leaders primary concern should be the preservation of our current state of civilisation rather than following the big ideas to make the world a better place. Without wanting to sound too naive, without this willingness to believe the world can be a better place it certainly will never be so.

The Second Lecture was:
The Divergence of the Bottom Billion given by Professor Paul Collier based on his successful new book (I feel like a marketing whore) The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It . Professor Collier describes how The UN's millennium goals of reducing poverty by simply counting the number of people who live under an arbitrary poverty level misses the key point of poverty and globalisation in the last 40 or 50 years. Explaining how while overall number of people in poverty may be reducing this has more to do with the economic developments in the Far East and India than on the west's poverty aid. He believes the major poverty problem now is the divergence of the bottom billion people in the world from the rest of the planet. The bottom billion, being described as "Africa plus", becoming more and more poor compared to the rest of the planet. He goes on to describe the traps that keep countries and regions poor, including bad governance, conflict, being land locked as well as others. He also describes what he believes to be some of the solutions, using the Marshall plan as an example of how development aid can work when the planet is serious about it. All in all a highly informative and positive lecture suggesting trade policy and the encouragement of good governance is the best way to aid in the development of Africa. He also believes that the only way to get the international community to really help Africa is from citizens of the developed world to force our leaders in to a radical aid policy rethink. I highly recommend this podcast it has certainly got me thinking and rethinking.