Once we reach a certain age, we find ourselves going to more funerals than weddings or baptisms. There we meet friends and acquaintances we have not seen in a while. After exchanging notes about family and the state of the nation, we usually end up talking about diets, doctors, and the untimely death of someone … Read more
The 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded not to an economist but to a political scientist who refuses to be boxed by disciplinal boundaries. Elinor Ostrom, a professor of political science at Indiana University, is being recognized for her path-breaking research on economic governance, particularly the administration of what are called “common-pool resources,” … Read more
In our daily lives, we expect government to be the source of capabilities that are beyond the reach of individuals. We accept its enormous power over our lives, trusting implicitly in its ability to use this power for the common good. This trust, so easily given, is however also easily shaken. It took only two … Read more
We all know by now that while typhoons and earthquakes are natural phenomena (“acts of God,” as insurance firms refer to them), the disasters they cause are largely shaped by the way we live. Some disasters are traceable to gross negligence and ignorance, others to irresponsible risk-taking. Some are by-products of greed and incompetence, while … Read more
Contemplating the massive devastation wrought by last week’s floods, many of us are prompted to do two things we do not ordinarily do. One, we start to “count our blessings” and re-assess our values. Two, from our self-absorption, we slowly wake up to our responsibility to help maintain the delicate balance between our way of … Read more