Though it may be true that certain issues are more dominant than others, that certainly shouldn’t imply that the so called “free ASSK crowd” are any less deserving to be heard than anyone else. Aung San Suu Kyi, could arrange to leave Burma with her freedom any time she wanted and has refused to do so time and time again, the only conditions of her freedom would be to never return to Burma, but instead she remains, suffering equally with her people and for that she deserves equal respect.
To suggest that sanctions are not relevant to the work of refugees and exiles is absurd, they are the leading antecedent, the only difference being that activist and exiles might not focus exclusively on such things because they can only deal with one thing at a time, and are most productive focusing on their immediate goals.
Besides, it is unrealistic to expect the average person in just about any international community to be intimately familiar with all conditions on the ground. It is the repsonsiblity of those who can make a diference to do so to their capacity.
Catagorizing groups and individuals into levels of importance alienates brothers all fighting for the same cause.
I lived and taught in a small Karen village on the Moei River for a while in the 1990s with some other foreigners at the small Anglican church school. The village had two leaders: the KNU forestry official and the Thai Karen headman.
There were two clear groups in the village: the hill Karens and the Karens of Burmese origin, two groups that didn’t really seem to have much in common, except language, but there certainly was a consensus among the Karens who hailed from Burma, I remember one Karen nurse wanted to go visit the Queen, in London that is, and like you point out:
“…to my reading, there is too much emphasis on cultural determinism and not enough on historical development and geographic constraint.”
The involvement of western missionaries in their culture goes back to the early 19th century with publications that haven’t been matched since, like the wonderful Karen Thesaurus. Seems like, to what extent this over 150-year old synthetic-hybrid western-Karen cultural has dispersed over time over the border into Thailand would be a “geographical constraint” issue. Lieberman cites a paper in Strange Parallels on how minority ethnic groups have used Christianity as a cultural survival mechanism.
The Chins in Burma, despite Burma’s perennial isolation retain strong identifications with the individual founding American pastors of their respective churches. Furthermore, missionaries continue contact with them along Burma’;s western Indian border. IMHO history, geography, and comparison across ethnic groups are more important than isolated regressions that are always going to raise so many methodology questions. I would use exploratory date analysis (EDA) before regressions, anyday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_data_analysis http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/
Personally, I love to see HMK freely **inspire people to do great things**, and I loath it when I see powerful people use the institution of kingship to **tighten their own absolute control and stifle all free thought and innovation**.
Believe me, I personally know what it feels like because I have been part of such a system at the university I worked at, luckily I work at a place nowadays where people are more inspired by HMK’s example.
If selfish people stifle free though, they will ultimately drive people and money out of the very educational systems they are attempting to stifle intellectually. Everyone with money in Thailand will go an study in Australia, Canada, Europe, or the United States.
#7 That looks like the very general problem of seniority to me; have observed this in inumerable situations that were not about sufficiency economy.
In fact, the constitution draft codifies this sort of behavior. For example, in Section 79 (3) we read that the state must develop the quality and standards of education so that they might be in accordance with economic and social change. Moreover, the state must support that learners have constructive thinking and promote and instill the correct knowledge and consciousness concerning virtue, ethics, self sufficiency economy, knowledge and love of unity, and discipline.
“Constructive thinking” is the code for “follow the leader, do not disagree, and do not criticize, do not have and show your own opinions.” They could have written “analytical, independent, and critical thinking”, after all it would better conform to economic and social challenges Thailand has been facing. But they did not. The drafters also did not mention anything of a self-conscious citizen in a pluralistic society. Rather, people are to be indoctrinated about “unity”, as defined by the leader(s), and “discipline”, in following those leaders.
These stipulations reflect a very conservative and patrimonial concept of “democracy with the King as head of state.”
[quote=Jon]Not so remarkable. It’s not so amazing that small Special Economic Zones like Shenzhen or Singapore, and in the future in the Iskandar Development Region across the straits in Johore, can develop more quickly. They are not saddled with the burden of a huge slow moving rural periphery like Thailand is.[/quote]
Neither is Singapore in any way has a natural or national resource the size of Thailand’s or any other sizeable countries.
Shenzhen and Iskandar is backed by a sizeable political, natural and national resource hinterland. Something Singapore in the 70s and even today do not enjoy.
The UN nationhood survival evaluation of Singapore when it first broke off from Malaysia is that of failure. Today it has a GDP of more than 100 Billion USD. This look pretty remarkable to me.
“Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont yesterday told his cabinet that the prosecution’s recent decision to drop lese majeste charges accorded with His Majesty the King’s wishes, a well-informed source said. According to the source, Gen Surayud said he was informed by the Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary that the monarch would rather not see this kind of case in court. He also urged his cabinet ministers to put the matter to rest as criticisms against the public prosecution grew.”
DW: One of these PhD students is Sascha Helbardt from the University of Passau, Germany. A few weeks ago, he finished his first four months of initial field orientation. Now, he is back in Germany to try to get funding for a longer stay. The quote above is from him.
Of course, you are quite right in your remarks about the (im)possibility of doing substantial research in the South. Doing research on a situation without being able directly to analyze the major actors leaves you with a black box and doing research on the effects this black box has, or on factors that supposedly contribute to the shape of the box, rather than with opening this box and look what’s inside.
There is a Thai PhD student at the University of Muenster, Germany, also working on the South. But it seems that he could not go down to the field, probably because of security concerns. I don’t know his name. There should be one or two more people doing work there, but I have no concrete information about them.
Distribute resources equally? You must be kidding. Certainly, this constitution doesn’t really tried to promote any wealth redistribution. There was an effort to put in heritage and real estate tax in the constitution. The result of the votes by the Constitution Drafting Committees were,
For real estate tax:
р╕бр╕▓р╕Хр╕гр╕▓ 81 р╣Гр╕лр╣Йр╕Ър╕▒р╕Нр╕Нр╕▒р╕Хр╕┤р╕ар╕▓р╕йр╕╡р╕нр╕кр╕▒р╕Зр╕лр╕▓р╕гр╕┤р╕бр╕Чр╕гр╕▒р╕Юр╕вр╣Мр╣Др╕зр╣Йр╣Гр╕Щр╕бр╕▓р╕Хр╕гр╕▓ 81(3)
р╕бр╕╡р╕Ьр╕╣р╣Йр╣Ар╕лр╣Зр╕Щр╕Фр╣Йр╕зр╕в 8 р╕Др╕Щ р╣Др╕бр╣Ир╣Ар╕лр╣Зр╕Щр╕Фр╣Йр╕зр╕в 20 р╕Др╕Щ
(info. from prachatai.com)
Moreover, how will sufficiency economy going to bring in resources redistribution? will that be against the idea of being “sufficient”??
Finally, the authorization of local council? Considering that the Constitution Drafting Committees did cut the world “civil society” out from the constitution, it’s so kind of them that at least they allow people to form up such a council to be the dominates by the elders.
Very simply, Settakhit paw piang is whatever the “tallest” person in the room says it is. I have done “field research” under a very big benefactor fromBangkok on this issue and all day long people were saying fifty million different things about what it meant. In the end? Everyone would always nod their head at the biggest professor/male in the room and then end any discussion. There was not a single criticism of anyone’s ideas. Though the Thai was very tough for me to keep up with I never once heard anyone defend their views in light of what the Biggest one says. Probably because it isn’t all too clear.
Srithanonchai: Thanks for the suggestions of works to be on the lookout for. I have a copy of Duncan’s recent AAS paper, which was informative as it was filled with on the ground recent empirical details I haven’t previously heard about. Can you provide the names of the PhD students so locating their future work will be easier?
My greatest worry given the need for more on the ground information & documentation AND a paradigm shift in conceptualization and analysis is that because the violence is so severe and unrelenting we are likely to always be looking at events in the rear view mirror of a rapidly accelerating car. All scholarly work is inevitably retrospective, especially regarding contemporary events. But given the dilemma that access to informants is so much harder now than in the past and access to fieldsites is so much more restricted and fragmented than was possible in the past, it is hard to see how scholars can rethink issues in the South in a broadly informed and comprehensive manner. Which makes whatever work does emerge even more valuable, of course.
“authorize the formation of local councils, such as councils of the elderly, to strengthen Thai society”
That’s a good point. Respect for the elderly is one of Thailand’s strong points (and Burma’s). In the west they tend to stick them in nursing homes and forget about them.
I still don’t know exactly what Setthakit Paw Phiang is.
Is it something that people besides Thais can do?
Has it ever been done before? Is it similar in some respects to things people have tried in the past?
Is it defined solely in terms of the words and ideas of HMK?
Is it extensible by other thinkers and intellectuals?
Can it be criticized in any way?
When I first read about it, I thought, my favorite economist Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz seemed to have a philosophy of economics that is close to Paw Phiang, but I don’t know now.
If someone told me that an approach to economics was completely new and uniquely and had never tried before, by definition, my first impulse would be to ask them for specific details, so I could compare it to other philosophies to find out the ways that it is similar and different. That’s what I teach students to do when they write a comparison essay, in fact.
Will Paw Phiang be a philosophy that students will be able to have their own creative ideas about?
For one, I disagree with Chris (75th post) on this. Based on rankings, ANU is far higher than any of those in my opinion, substandard Universities. It tops Singapore’s NUS in surveys. I’m sorry Chris, in Singapore, we PAY a measly sum to enter those schools you’ve mentioned. People who can’t enter Singapore Unis and can’t afford more expensive UK and US education go there. Where I live, I get lame brochures with the rest of my junk mail to study at Monash/Melbourne with shitty grades.
As for Lee, while I don’t passionately advocate pro-Lee feelings, I do feel that this man has done much for Singapore that not many can replicate.
No, I don’t mean that the ends justify such means, but being such a small country that we are, without proper planning from the government, how are we supposed to survive? Can we really? Are we really mature enough as a nation to make wise and weighed decision regarding matters on a national level? It took decades for the Swiss to master this. I do not completely agree with all his decisions, but you guys make him sound inhuman, and that’s not what he is. Every leader has made their fair share of mistakes, and I don’t think Lee deserves such violent condemnation.
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Sonthi on sufficiency economy
I did not know Sonthi had this much sense of humor!
Liberating Burma with $2 million a year?
Though it may be true that certain issues are more dominant than others, that certainly shouldn’t imply that the so called “free ASSK crowd” are any less deserving to be heard than anyone else. Aung San Suu Kyi, could arrange to leave Burma with her freedom any time she wanted and has refused to do so time and time again, the only conditions of her freedom would be to never return to Burma, but instead she remains, suffering equally with her people and for that she deserves equal respect.
To suggest that sanctions are not relevant to the work of refugees and exiles is absurd, they are the leading antecedent, the only difference being that activist and exiles might not focus exclusively on such things because they can only deal with one thing at a time, and are most productive focusing on their immediate goals.
Besides, it is unrealistic to expect the average person in just about any international community to be intimately familiar with all conditions on the ground. It is the repsonsiblity of those who can make a diference to do so to their capacity.
Catagorizing groups and individuals into levels of importance alienates brothers all fighting for the same cause.
Living at the edge
I lived and taught in a small Karen village on the Moei River for a while in the 1990s with some other foreigners at the small Anglican church school. The village had two leaders: the KNU forestry official and the Thai Karen headman.
There were two clear groups in the village: the hill Karens and the Karens of Burmese origin, two groups that didn’t really seem to have much in common, except language, but there certainly was a consensus among the Karens who hailed from Burma, I remember one Karen nurse wanted to go visit the Queen, in London that is, and like you point out:
The involvement of western missionaries in their culture goes back to the early 19th century with publications that haven’t been matched since, like the wonderful Karen Thesaurus. Seems like, to what extent this over 150-year old synthetic-hybrid western-Karen cultural has dispersed over time over the border into Thailand would be a “geographical constraint” issue. Lieberman cites a paper in Strange Parallels on how minority ethnic groups have used Christianity as a cultural survival mechanism.
The Chins in Burma, despite Burma’s perennial isolation retain strong identifications with the individual founding American pastors of their respective churches. Furthermore, missionaries continue contact with them along Burma’;s western Indian border. IMHO history, geography, and comparison across ethnic groups are more important than isolated regressions that are always going to raise so many methodology questions. I would use exploratory date analysis (EDA) before regressions, anyday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_data_analysis
http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
Personally, I love to see HMK freely **inspire people to do great things**, and I loath it when I see powerful people use the institution of kingship to **tighten their own absolute control and stifle all free thought and innovation**.
Believe me, I personally know what it feels like because I have been part of such a system at the university I worked at, luckily I work at a place nowadays where people are more inspired by HMK’s example.
If selfish people stifle free though, they will ultimately drive people and money out of the very educational systems they are attempting to stifle intellectually. Everyone with money in Thailand will go an study in Australia, Canada, Europe, or the United States.
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
#7 That looks like the very general problem of seniority to me; have observed this in inumerable situations that were not about sufficiency economy.
In fact, the constitution draft codifies this sort of behavior. For example, in Section 79 (3) we read that the state must develop the quality and standards of education so that they might be in accordance with economic and social change. Moreover, the state must support that learners have constructive thinking and promote and instill the correct knowledge and consciousness concerning virtue, ethics, self sufficiency economy, knowledge and love of unity, and discipline.
“Constructive thinking” is the code for “follow the leader, do not disagree, and do not criticize, do not have and show your own opinions.” They could have written “analytical, independent, and critical thinking”, after all it would better conform to economic and social challenges Thailand has been facing. But they did not. The drafters also did not mention anything of a self-conscious citizen in a pluralistic society. Rather, people are to be indoctrinated about “unity”, as defined by the leader(s), and “discipline”, in following those leaders.
These stipulations reflect a very conservative and patrimonial concept of “democracy with the King as head of state.”
ANU College of Law condemns Lee’s degree
[quote=Jon]Not so remarkable. It’s not so amazing that small Special Economic Zones like Shenzhen or Singapore, and in the future in the Iskandar Development Region across the straits in Johore, can develop more quickly. They are not saddled with the burden of a huge slow moving rural periphery like Thailand is.[/quote]
Neither is Singapore in any way has a natural or national resource the size of Thailand’s or any other sizeable countries.
Shenzhen and Iskandar is backed by a sizeable political, natural and national resource hinterland. Something Singapore in the 70s and even today do not enjoy.
The UN nationhood survival evaluation of Singapore when it first broke off from Malaysia is that of failure. Today it has a GDP of more than 100 Billion USD. This look pretty remarkable to me.
Koala bears offspring in Chiang Mai
Let us hope that the birth of this incipient marsupial will not be seen as an occultly auspicious sign blessing the new regime in Bangkok.
Will Thaksin join Jufer on lèse majesté charges?
King: don’t charge Thaksin with lese majeste:
“Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont yesterday told his cabinet that the prosecution’s recent decision to drop lese majeste charges accorded with His Majesty the King’s wishes, a well-informed source said. According to the source, Gen Surayud said he was informed by the Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary that the monarch would rather not see this kind of case in court. He also urged his cabinet ministers to put the matter to rest as criticisms against the public prosecution grew.”
Bangkok Post, April 19, 2007
Southern insight
DW: One of these PhD students is Sascha Helbardt from the University of Passau, Germany. A few weeks ago, he finished his first four months of initial field orientation. Now, he is back in Germany to try to get funding for a longer stay. The quote above is from him.
Of course, you are quite right in your remarks about the (im)possibility of doing substantial research in the South. Doing research on a situation without being able directly to analyze the major actors leaves you with a black box and doing research on the effects this black box has, or on factors that supposedly contribute to the shape of the box, rather than with opening this box and look what’s inside.
There is a Thai PhD student at the University of Muenster, Germany, also working on the South. But it seems that he could not go down to the field, probably because of security concerns. I don’t know his name. There should be one or two more people doing work there, but I have no concrete information about them.
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
Distribute resources equally? You must be kidding. Certainly, this constitution doesn’t really tried to promote any wealth redistribution. There was an effort to put in heritage and real estate tax in the constitution. The result of the votes by the Constitution Drafting Committees were,
For heritage tax:
р╕бр╕▓р╕Хр╕гр╕▓ 81 р╣Гр╕лр╣Йр╕Ър╕▒р╕Нр╕Нр╕▒р╕Хр╕┤р╕ар╕▓р╕йр╕╡р╕бр╕гр╕Фр╕Бр╣Др╕зр╣Йр╣Гр╕Щр╕бр╕▓р╕Хр╕гр╕▓ 81 (3)
р╕бр╕╡р╕Ьр╕╣р╣Йр╣Ар╕лр╣Зр╕Щр╕Фр╣Йр╕зр╕в 12 р╕Др╕Щ р╣Др╕бр╣Ир╣Ар╕лр╣Зр╕Щр╕Фр╣Йр╕зр╕в 16 р╕Др╕Щ
For real estate tax:
р╕бр╕▓р╕Хр╕гр╕▓ 81 р╣Гр╕лр╣Йр╕Ър╕▒р╕Нр╕Нр╕▒р╕Хр╕┤р╕ар╕▓р╕йр╕╡р╕нр╕кр╕▒р╕Зр╕лр╕▓р╕гр╕┤р╕бр╕Чр╕гр╕▒р╕Юр╕вр╣Мр╣Др╕зр╣Йр╣Гр╕Щр╕бр╕▓р╕Хр╕гр╕▓ 81(3)
р╕бр╕╡р╕Ьр╕╣р╣Йр╣Ар╕лр╣Зр╕Щр╕Фр╣Йр╕зр╕в 8 р╕Др╕Щ р╣Др╕бр╣Ир╣Ар╕лр╣Зр╕Щр╕Фр╣Йр╕зр╕в 20 р╕Др╕Щ
(info. from prachatai.com)
Moreover, how will sufficiency economy going to bring in resources redistribution? will that be against the idea of being “sufficient”??
Finally, the authorization of local council? Considering that the Constitution Drafting Committees did cut the world “civil society” out from the constitution, it’s so kind of them that at least they allow people to form up such a council to be the dominates by the elders.
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
Jon Fernquest –
Very simply, Settakhit paw piang is whatever the “tallest” person in the room says it is. I have done “field research” under a very big benefactor fromBangkok on this issue and all day long people were saying fifty million different things about what it meant. In the end? Everyone would always nod their head at the biggest professor/male in the room and then end any discussion. There was not a single criticism of anyone’s ideas. Though the Thai was very tough for me to keep up with I never once heard anyone defend their views in light of what the Biggest one says. Probably because it isn’t all too clear.
Southern insight
Srithanonchai: Thanks for the suggestions of works to be on the lookout for. I have a copy of Duncan’s recent AAS paper, which was informative as it was filled with on the ground recent empirical details I haven’t previously heard about. Can you provide the names of the PhD students so locating their future work will be easier?
My greatest worry given the need for more on the ground information & documentation AND a paradigm shift in conceptualization and analysis is that because the violence is so severe and unrelenting we are likely to always be looking at events in the rear view mirror of a rapidly accelerating car. All scholarly work is inevitably retrospective, especially regarding contemporary events. But given the dilemma that access to informants is so much harder now than in the past and access to fieldsites is so much more restricted and fragmented than was possible in the past, it is hard to see how scholars can rethink issues in the South in a broadly informed and comprehensive manner. Which makes whatever work does emerge even more valuable, of course.
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
P.S.: The 116-pp pdf version of the original CDC documents can be downloaded at
http://www.parliament.go.th/news/ssrnews/images/Pdf_58783.pdf
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
“authorize the formation of local councils, such as councils of the elderly, to strengthen Thai society”
That’s a good point. Respect for the elderly is one of Thailand’s strong points (and Burma’s). In the west they tend to stick them in nursing homes and forget about them.
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
“р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Хр╣Йр╕нр╕Зр╕кр╣Ир╕Зр╣Ар╕кр╕гр╕┤р╕бр╣Бр╕ер╕░р╕кр╕Щр╕▒р╕Ър╕кр╕Щр╕╕р╕Щр╣Гр╕лр╣Йр╕бр╕╡р╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╕Фр╕│р╣Ар╕Щр╕┤р╕Щр╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╕Хр╕▓р╕бр╣Бр╕Щр╕зр╕Ыр╕гр╕▒р╕Кр╕Нр╕▓р╣Ар╕ир╕гр╕йр╕Рр╕Бр╕┤р╕Ир╕Юр╕нр╣Ар╕Юр╕╡р╕вр╕З”
I still don’t know exactly what Setthakit Paw Phiang is.
Is it something that people besides Thais can do?
Has it ever been done before? Is it similar in some respects to things people have tried in the past?
Is it defined solely in terms of the words and ideas of HMK?
Is it extensible by other thinkers and intellectuals?
Can it be criticized in any way?
When I first read about it, I thought, my favorite economist Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz seemed to have a philosophy of economics that is close to Paw Phiang, but I don’t know now.
If someone told me that an approach to economics was completely new and uniquely and had never tried before, by definition, my first impulse would be to ask them for specific details, so I could compare it to other philosophies to find out the ways that it is similar and different. That’s what I teach students to do when they write a comparison essay, in fact.
Will Paw Phiang be a philosophy that students will be able to have their own creative ideas about?
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
… and Clause 83 mandates the state to support the free market economy:
р╕бр╕▓р╕Хр╕гр╕▓ р╣Шр╣У р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Хр╣Йр╕нр╕Зр╕Фр╕│р╣Ар╕Щр╕┤р╕Щр╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╕Хр╕▓р╕бр╣Бр╕Щр╕зр╕Щр╣Вр╕вр╕Ър╕▓р╕вр╕Фр╣Йр╕▓р╕Щр╣Ар╕ир╕гр╕йр╕Рр╕Бр╕┤р╕И р╕Фр╕▒р╕Зр╕Хр╣Ир╕нр╣Др╕Ыр╕Щр╕╡р╣Й
(р╣С) р╕кр╕Щр╕▒р╕Ър╕кр╕Щр╕╕р╕Щр╕гр╕░р╕Ър╕Ър╣Ар╕ир╕гр╕йр╕Рр╕Бр╕┤р╕Ир╣Бр╕Ър╕Ър╣Ар╕кр╕гр╕╡р╣Вр╕Фр╕вр╕нр╕▓р╕ир╕▒р╕вр╕Бр╕ер╣Др╕Бр╕Хр╕ер╕▓р╕Ф
But, as we know, a free market economy and the self sufficiency economy do not contradict each other!
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
I read the draft and from what I see, it’s Corporatism/Right-Wing Syndicalism, plain and simple.
From what I hear, State Corporatism quite in vogue with many Asian political scientists and other “academics” at the moment.
Interestingly enough, I predicted this about six months ago.
Draft Thai charter: Councils of the elderly and distributive equality?
I’m a little confused. Is this meant to shed a light on the constitution draft or on the poor reporting by Thaisnews?
ANU honours Lee Kuan Yew. Why?
For one, I disagree with Chris (75th post) on this. Based on rankings, ANU is far higher than any of those in my opinion, substandard Universities. It tops Singapore’s NUS in surveys. I’m sorry Chris, in Singapore, we PAY a measly sum to enter those schools you’ve mentioned. People who can’t enter Singapore Unis and can’t afford more expensive UK and US education go there. Where I live, I get lame brochures with the rest of my junk mail to study at Monash/Melbourne with shitty grades.
As for Lee, while I don’t passionately advocate pro-Lee feelings, I do feel that this man has done much for Singapore that not many can replicate.
No, I don’t mean that the ends justify such means, but being such a small country that we are, without proper planning from the government, how are we supposed to survive? Can we really? Are we really mature enough as a nation to make wise and weighed decision regarding matters on a national level? It took decades for the Swiss to master this. I do not completely agree with all his decisions, but you guys make him sound inhuman, and that’s not what he is. Every leader has made their fair share of mistakes, and I don’t think Lee deserves such violent condemnation.
Sufficiency conference in Bangkok
Their conference on Burma last year sure challenged existing preconceptions (downloadable ebook):
http://www.boell.de/en/05_world/4756.html
The motto/quote from Heinrich Boll on their website does too:
“Meddling is the only way to stay relevant.”