Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Patrick in the Northeast this week


My friend Patrick Bond is over from South Africa giving several talks in the Northeast this week. Check them out if you're in Boston, NYC, or D.C. this week:


6 APRIL: CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, GRADUATE CENTER

CLIMATE POLITICS OR CARBON TRADING?
The Story of Cap and Trade

Film screening and discussion with Patrick Bond

The Story of Cap and Trade (http://www.storyofcapandtrade.org, featuring Annie Leonard), launched on December 1, 2009 and was seen 400,000 times before the end of the (failed) Copenhagen Climate Summit. The nine-minute film helped open a global and US debate about the core modus operandi for top-down climate governance: commodification of the air. Patrick Bond, an advisor to the film, will address social, spatial and temporal features of climate politics in an era of fading financialization but durable neoliberalism.

PATRICK BOND is senior professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies in Durban, South Africa, where since 2004 he has directed the Centre for Civil Society: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs. He has written or edited numerous books including Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society(2009); and Looting Africa (2006). He was a founding member of the Durban Group for Climate Justice and is active in Climate Justice Now!’s South Africa branch.

Moderated by ASHLEY DAWSON, Faculty Fellow, the Center for Place, Culture and Politics

April 6, 2010
Room C198 at 6:30 pm

THE CENTER FOR PLACE, CULTURE AND POLITICS * CUNY GRADUATE CENTER * 365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street

***

8 APRIL, CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

Patrick Bond speaks on Development, Environment and Social Struggle at Clark University, 8 April

10.25-11.30am: Development Policy class, Geog104: “RDP, GEAR and South African Development Policy”

12.00 noon “Carbon Trading: A Critique” and “Dennis Brutus: A Tribute”

3pm Worcester State College Dennis Brutus Memorial

***

9 APRIL, ENCUENTRO 5, BOSTON

http://www.justicewithpeace.org/node/1243

Patrick Bond on South Africa, the World Bank, and Climate Justice

When: Friday, April 9, 2010, 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Where: Encuentro 5 • 33 Harrison Ave, 5th Floor • Chinatown T Stop • Boston

Start: 2010 Apr 9 - 12:00pm

End: 2010 Apr 9 - 2:00pm

South Africa now has its 4th post-Apartheid president... But the country is more unequal than ever! It is also under consideration for a World Bank loan to “modernize” it ailing electrical power generation and distribution infrastructure. Revamping its grid would normally be a decisive opportunity to set a new course, redress inequalities and deveop a green strategy. But activist-intellectual Patrick Bond warns that the opposite seems likely with the Bank loan. It will strengthen the private sector and sharpen the gap between rich and poor: urban residents prepay their electricity at 4 times the rate of large transnational corporations. Further, the proposed loan will finance the world's 4th largest coal-fired plant and raise rates on working people.

On April 8, 2010, the World Bank will make its decision. Patrick Bond will reflect on the outcome.

Also invited to the conversation is Tufts University professor, William Moomaw who consulted with the World Bank and who is in support of the loan.

This Bank critic meets Bank supporter discussion allows for a reasoned engagement of ideas.

For Patrick Bond's biography, see: http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?10,24,8,55

For William Moomaw's biography, see: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/Moomaw/

See http://www.encuentro5.org for more directions. Also check website

***

10 APRIL, BUSBOYS&POETS, 5TH & K Sts, WASHINGTON

Social Movements; the World Bank and Energy Financing

Africa Action

With: Friends of the Earth- US, GroundWork, Institute for Policy Studies: Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, Institute for Policy Studies: Foreign Policy In Focus, Jubilee USA and Haymarket Books

This week, Thursday, April 8th, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors will decided whether or not to lend a US$3.75 billion loan, the vast majority of which would be for the 4800 MW Medupi coal fired plant in South Africa.

Africa Action and coalition partners will be hosting a public education event Saturday, April 10th at Bus Boys and Poets (5th/K Streets, DC) at 6:00pm to learn more about the loan to Eskom and its affect on communities and the environment.

Who: Patrick Bond

Patrick Bond has longstanding research interests and applied work in global governance and national policy debates, in urban communities and with global justice movements in several countries. He is professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies where since 2004 he has directed the Centre for Civil Society. His research focuses on political economy, environment (energy, water and climate change), social policy and geopolitics, with publications covering South Africa, Zimbabwe, the African continent and global-scale processes.

Dave Zirin

Named of the UTNE Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World", Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM Radio's popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He has been called "the best sportswriter in the United States," by Robert Lipsyte. Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM Magazine, the Progressive, and a regular op-ed writer for the Los Angeles Times. He was Press Action's 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the year. He recently traveled to South Africa and he will share his experiences interacting with social movements and civil society.

And….

This discussion will include other coalition partners involved in the No Coal Loan Campaign

Where: Bus Boys and Poets, 5th and K Streets (1025 5th Street NW, DC)

When: Saturday, April 10th at 6:00pm

For more information on the loan, please visit

http://www.africaaction.org/no-coal-loan.html

Be sure to read our new resources, including a response to World Bank-Eskom Panel Report and Fact Sheet, the coalition statement, and Letter to World Bank Executive Director

RSVP to outreach@africaaction.org for updates before coming to the event.


Also check out this video clip from the Colbert show with Patrick's friend Annie Leonard (scroll down): http://www.storyofstuff.org/

- Perry

1 comment:

  1. Please inquire whether Patrick B would be interested in speaking in the Gulf South, and specifically in New Orleans. There's an audience here, and I think I could draw together a group of sponsor organizations.

    Julie Whitbeck (S'more '85)
    jlwhitbeck at mac dot com

    ReplyDelete