Everywhere the market society is producing more crime. More acts are being defined as crimes. More people are classified as criminals, and more are being locked up in prison. With globalization, the crime and punishment problem is no longer insulated from pressures beyond national borders. The rich may retreat behind their expensive security into gated communities, but the poor are more and more at the mercy of criminals and corrupt policing. Vivien Stern argues that the trends towards more criminalization and more imprisonment are not making for more effective crime control or safer communities. She shows how the poor are criminalized and how commercial interests now shape society's response to crime. She argues that the prospects for the future are serious without a new movement for reform.

‘It’s fascinating to see some myths bite the dust. Sjoberg and Gentry shake down the women-as-mostly-nonviolent-victims-of-men’s-wars myth with accounts of women war enthusiasts and perpetrators. More, they show how women’s violent activities can exhibit agency in international relations rather than pathology. Everyone will want to read this.’

–Christine Sylvester, Professor of International Relations and Development, Lancaster University

‘Reading Mothers, Monsters, Whores underscores the urgency for us all to come to grips with the reality of women wielding militarized violence. Sjoberg and Gentry reveal graphically the way we construct media images that prop up patriarchal ways of explaining the world.’

–Cynthia Enloe, Clark University, author of Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link

Conspiracy of Silence
The Government of India's Anthropological Sur vey of India (ASI), under the leadership of K S Singh (IAS), brought out a series of publications ti tle d the Peoples of India. This project identified 2,800 castes including 450 Scheduled Castes, 461 Sc hed u led Tribes and 766 Backward Castes. It concludes that 'Caste continues to be the basic buildi ng br ick. of Indian society'. The verdict of the ASI project is that 'Indian soc iety continues to be a colle ction of castes and communities', This historic verdict of the ASI pr oject did not get any publicity in India's brahminical press because our ruling class (up per caste) is shy of admitting this fact which has made them the rulers.

Why this all-round c onsp iracy of silence?
Almost all polit ical party leaders - be they nationalists, socialists, communists an d Hindu Nazis - hav e a uniform opinion on caste 'caste is bad and hence it has to be d estroyed'. Indian schol ars and researchers have p roduced mountains of li

The rich say, “What is your problem? You clean our toilets. We’ll give you food. What more do you want?” The author’s anguish is, “Will the people of our country finally come forward to eradicate this evil of our times? Or will India’s Bhangis have to wait another fifty years for dignity, justice and equality?”

Over the years, the quality of life in cities all over India has deteriorated. Urban India is faced with master plan violations, congestions, cramming of residential layouts in unauthorised and unplanned areas, and crumbling or inadequate infrastructure delivery systems, resulting in degradation of sanitary and environmental conditions. The stark reality is that the development authority and para-statal agency model adopted in the country for master plan preparation, implementation and enforcement have failed to achieve their objectives. Serious doubts are now being raised in various quarters about the efficacy of the current town planning and urban governance practices. Many see these practices themselves as the main culprit responsible for the current urban crisis, and feel that our town planning process is at the crossroads.

With great passion and clarity, Barlow traces the history of these international battles, documents the life-and-death stakes involved in the fight for the right to water, and lays out the actions that we as global citizens must take to secure a water-just world—a “blue covenant”—for all. A recipient of Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award (the “Alternative Nobel”) and a Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship, Maude Barlow is head of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, and founder of the Blue Planet Project. She is the author of sixteen books, including Blue Gold (The New Press)—published in over fifty countries—and is on the board of Food and Water Watch and the International Forum on Globalization. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

In Kyoto2 the writer, journalist and broadcaster Oliver Tickell puts forward a strikingly original new solution. Using a system of finite production rights for greenhouse gases, which would be traded by organisations on a global auction, Kyoto2 seeks to succeed where the original agreement failed. Regulated by an independent body, the funds could be poured back into healing the wounds inflicted by climate change. In his combination of idealism with realistic proposals, Tickell exposes the flaws in current approaches, and envisions a fairer and more effective system.