Globalization and Its Discontents - Joseph Stiglitz

Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Laureate for Economics, 2001. And I thought, well, if he has an opinion on the problems of globalization, I might as well listen. The blurb says – From a leader of the anti-globalization movement, a statement like this [how globalization is not working] would not be remarkable. But coming from Joseph Stiglitz – former Chief Economist at the Worlkd Bank – it is startling and challenging. Exactly my opinion. And the Chief economist was also the Chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. And if anyone would have a pro-globalization agenda, it would be him, considering his loyalties.
But the author doesn’t have any loyalties so to speak. And he raises his voice as an economist working towards the “greater good”. He analyzes the failings of globalization in varied situations; which leads to the revelation that it is not globalization in itself which has failed, but the manner in which “Globalization” has been imposed on countries not ready for it, through economic and political pressures, or downright blackmail if one were to not mince words.
At some point the book does tend to get repetitive and feels like it is basically a vent to bash IMF. But then whatever the motive of the author, the theories as proposed by the author do seem very credible. I would love to read a counter-view of the author’s allegations against the IMF.
The most disturbing chapter would be the “The IMF’s other agenda”, where the author suggests that IMF, more than acting to bring about a global financial stability, is working for the benefit of “international financial community”. And international financial community for all practical purposes translates to the global mammoth banks and other financial organizations. This does provide a lot sense behind the actions of IMF during the financial crises across South East Asia, Mexico, or Russia. The stand of IMF on trade deficits, fiscal deficits, interest rates, monetary policies, etc. which seem without any reason or logic, with the new agenda in mind, seem perfectly logical. And this is alarming. If we have an international organization working with a bias, it cannot be good for the world.
The book ends with the hope of promise, which is just as good, since the overall picture looks extremely grim and gloomy. A lot of things that matter so much to us seem so paltry and trivial in the larger scheme of things. And the world desperately needs who have the intent and the authority to set things right at the larger stage. It’s a question of yours and mine daily bread.

A Pelican At Blandings - P.G. Wodehouse

Things are stirring up at Blandings castle again, disrupting the peace in the life of Clarance Threepwood, or Lord Emsworth.
The first ominous signs are when his formidable sister Constance, shows up. As if that wasn’t enough, she has invited a Duke Dunstable, a loud and rude mustached walrus who loves throwing his weight around. And to add to that company, Dunstable brings his niece, Linda Gilpin, along. He also invites Wilbur Trout, a habitually marriage-and-divorce addict who is pining for his last wife. Of course Duke’s intentions are not to give Trout the necessary distance and healing touch of a new place and new air, but to make money out of his misery. He plans to sell a painting of a woman, referred to as the reclining nude, which reminds Trout of his last wife and something that he’d pay anything for to possess. And in the spirit of treating Blandings Castle as his own home he invites a John Halliday around who is supposed to observe Lord Emsworth and suggest psychiatric treatment to cure the whims of nightly prowls in pig sties that Lord Emsworth was so prone to. Lastly there is a Vanessa Polk, daughter of the American millionaire J.B. Polk who Connie invites along hoping she could marry old Duke of Dunstable. That’s quite a few characters. Oh wait, there is one more, a friend of Clarence’s son, Freddie Threepwood, This is not mentioning some other peripheral characters, who while not important will still make you laugh, doing their good deed for the day.
Ok, so let’s take an imposter count.
Freddie’s friend, is not really is friend but an American crook come to make merry in foreign lands. Vanessa Polk is not J.B. Polk’s daughter but his secretary and has the same last name by mere coincidence. John Halliday is not a psychiatrist but a barrister and a sleeping partner at an art gallery from where the Duke has bought the reclining nude to sell to Trout.
And now let’s list down the tangles.
John Halliday is actually the heart broken lover of Linda Gilpin, Duke’s niece, who has turned him down because of professional reasons. And when they do make up, they realize that Linda is a court of ward of the Duke, effectively giving the Duke the veto power to decide who she married. Vanessa Polk is an ex-flame of Wilbur Trout, and is being wooed by the Duke. And she plans on stealing the reclining nude from the Duke for Trout while their romance rises from the dead and sways its merry head. The crook who is enjoying the English weather is in danger because John Halliday knows his identity and could bust him. And John Halliday’s art gallery has accidentally sold the fake painting of the reclining nude putting the reputation of the art gallery in a grave danger. So he is after the painting as well, wanting to replace the fake with the original.
That is all too much to handle for Clarence alone ofcourse. So he calls in for reinforcements, or back up if you prefer US Police lingo. Enter Galahad. And sit back and enjoy as he weaves his magic to lead to the eventual happy ending.

Strangers - Dean Koontz

Horror reading, while I enjoy it tremendously has mostly been limited to Stephen King. There have been few other one off novels like Shadowland, Walkers, etc. not written by King that I have read, but there is no author that I have really read on a consistent basis. And Dean Koontz is, well, popular in the genre, and I thought why not.
So I picked up Strangers.
Firstly, at 700 pages, Strangers is a big book. It is classified in sections on the basis of dates at which events occur in the lives of the central characters. And while you do not pay any attention to the dates whatsoever, you do understand what the author was trying to achieve. So there is Dominick Corvaisis – a writer who has sleep walking incidents which escalate to frightening nightmares, Ginger Weiss – a surgeon with a lot of promise whose career is threatened by blackouts and violent fugues, Father Brendan Cronin – who suffers a loss of faith and starts exhibiting mystical curing powers, Jack Twist – a ex-military ops, wronged by his country and ends up being a highly sophisticated thief, Ernie Block, who runs a Tranquility motel with his wife and suddenly develops a phobia for the dark and some other seemingly inconsequential people, as far as their import in the world is concerned, whose life is unraveling with similar disturbing symptoms.
The build-up of this part of the book is great. The way Koontz breaks on to the reader the causes for the above disturbances, and how the characters, at least some of them discover, which all seem psychological in their origin, is exceptionally well handled.
So then these ‘Strangers’ gang up and try to determine the cause, and correct it, not realizing the scale of the foes that they are up against… which is where the book starts its downward slide.
Climax of the any book, more so horror books, is vital. A bad climax will leave an extremely bad after taste in your mouth after you have turned that last page. And if the climax is as long drawn, and eventually as bad as it is in Strangers, the feeling of regret of reading 700 pages is overwhelming and takes away most of the good aspects of the book that you thought were there. There are some well thought out characters, but filling up volumes of pages so you can build them and losing the plot in the purpose does not serve any purpose.
And plus the book is not scary at all, primarily because it is not really a horror book. So the choice went wrong all the way.