Action And Worth Reading On... Economics -- New Internationalist

new internationalist 134 April 1984

ECONOMICS

Action and reading

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IDEAS FOR ACTION

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Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing
22 Renaissance Arcade
Adelaide SA 5000
Australia

AIMS

To inform Doctors, Pharmacists and the general public about inappropriate, international marketing causing danger to health in the Third World.

To create an informed lobby to encourage transnational companies to improve their. marketing practices.

METHODS

Every month lobby members receive a summary of the problem with one product and positive suggestions for improvement. Members then sign and send their summaries as a letter to the company responsible. Topics covered include dangerous drugs, dangerous advertising of useful drugs, pesticides and infant milk formulas. MLAM focuses on transnational companies which operate in Australia.

SUCCESSES

MLAM is able to present an issue in a way that makes it easy for people to act. We have achieved standards of research and presentation which are convincing for sceptical doctors.

FAILURES

We don’t yet have enough contacts with people in the Third World who can keep us informed of changes in dangerous marketing in their country.

FUTURE PLANS

After initially concentrating on building up membership in Australia we plan to expand membership throughout the world.

HELP NEEDED

Please send us any examples of ongoing dangerous marketing in the Third World. Sending physical evidence e.g. a misleading advertisement with source and date is the best way to help. If the information is useful we will pay for any expense incurred.

Please join MLAM

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One World Link,
c/o 32a Bath Street,
Leamington Spa,
Warwickshire.

AIMS

To create a link between the peoples of Warwick, UK, and Bo District, Sierre Leone, to enable better understanding of each other’s culture and life styles.

To act as a focal point for friendship and sharing knowledge and experience among members and the wider community.

To increase understanding of world interdependence through first hand knowledge of other groups and cultures: therefore to help create a climate in which sound political and economic decisions are made.

METHODS

Working Committees at both ends of the Link develop it and co-ordinate activities in keeping with their local culture, effect exchanges, organise exhibitions and events, and make information and appropriate aid available.

SUCCESSES

People from both districts have visited each other. Sixteen schools are linked, health care groups exchange knowledge and information, libraries are linked. Students from Bo District studying in the UK have visited people’s homes, met national and Euro MP’s to put their points of view. A comprehensive information pack on Bo District has been prepared by a group from both ends of the Link.

FAILURES

Have not yet resolved the problem that, although Bo has as much to offer Warwick and vice versa, in order to visit Warwick Bo friends need airfares.

FUTURE PLANS

To involve more people; to adapt to and accept an appropriate function of aid based on actual necds; to spread the concept that ‘giving’ is not only about material things, but include knowledge, wisdom, skills etc. To increase information about both ends of the Link, including an information pack on Warwick District. To assist groups in other areas to establish similar links.

HELP NEEDED

More members able to develop the Link with the degree of interest and adaptability needed.


	This page of New Internationalist is written by the groups featured on it. The space is available free and a guide for writing entries can be obtained from New Internationalist, 42 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, OX1 2EP.

Worth reading on... ECONOMICS

For all my criticisms about the confusion and mystery that surrounds much economic writing there are - mercifully - a few economists who take great pains to demythologise their profession.

British economist Peter Donaldson, who provided the inspiration for the cartoon in the centre of this issue, has many other insights to convey in a series of paperbacks.

Economics of the Real World Pelican 1971 is still available and conveys the basic principles of Keynesianism and monetarism in a lucid and engaging way. A new revised edition should be available shortly.

10 x Economics Pelican 1982 is more for British readers, who will find a clear explanation of what Mrs Thatcher is doing to them - if that is any comfort.

Professor J.K Galbraith is a globe-trotting international pundit who is always worth listening to. If you haven’t read any of his books you are in for a treat. His witty style may be a bit over-polished at times, but he is often hilarious.

Almost everyone’s guide to economics Pelican 1981 is a conversation with French journalist Nicole Salinger. One particular concern of his has been the rise in corporate growth - well explained here.

Money: whence it came, where it went Pelican 1975 is an altogether more detailed affair, but still embedded with enough Galbraithisms to make it palatable. An entertaining account of an elusive commodity.

Other books on specific issues are:

The Moneylenders, by Anthony Sampson; HodderandStoughton, 1981. A readable journalistic account of the rise and practice of banking from its seedy and irresponsible past to its respectable and irresponsible present.

The Poverty Brokers; Latin America Bureau, 1983. Focuses paticularly on the IMF in Latin America, but gives a good explanation of its general role.

The World Bank: a critical analysis by Cheryl Payer, Monthly Review Press 1982 For the more dedicated reader,this one. A nicely written dissection of one of the most important development organisations.