No Fear of Globalization: Welfare and Work For All

Book Description

Oskar Lafontaine served for five months as Finance Minister in the newly elected SPD government in Germany, resigning when his differences with President Gerhardt Schrder became insurmountable. In No Fear of Globalization, Lafontaine and his co-author, the economist Christa Mller, offer an economic and political program that breaks with the dominant orthodoxies of our time. They present a thorough empirical critique of the notion that globalization threatens German industry and prosperity. Lafontaine and Mller contend that the extent and impact of globalization have been exaggerated, and that the Right has propagated a myth of economic peril to justify neo-liberal policies. Viewing globalization rather as a welcome process that brings development to poorer countries but in no way necessarily forces richer countries into anti-social directions, Lafontaine and Mller offer a range of policies that combine fairness and competitiveness. For all those despairing at the apparent lack of imagination on the Left in the face of neo-liberalism and wishing to gain access to the reasoning behind one of the most influential forces in contemporary European politics, this book is a breath of fresh air.

Book Description

This work presents a critical analysis and evaluation of the current Korean banking regulatory and supervisory system. It identifies the continuing structural weaknesses of the Korean banking system, which were thrown into sharp relief by the 1997 financial crisis, and focuses on the need for reform in order to achieve financial stability. The study centres around three central questions:

+ Who should be the regulator? + What substantive standards of supervision should be applied? + Administratively, in what manner should these standards be applied? The book argues that the Korean banking system, characterised as a `governmental control system' for credit allocation, should be removed from undue governmental and political interference, thus allowing the involvement of banks in commercially oriented practices without exposure to the significant risks incurred by governmental policy directed lending. The author calls for a high degree of transparency and accountability, for a clear, realistic timetable for restructuring, and for an effective exit policy for troubled commercial banks. This book will be of value to practitioners, researchers and academics working in the field of banking law, particularly those with a special interest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
Average customer rating:

an unfortunate title done only for marketing purposes

Very funny, engaging

A good bit of light ethnotourism

Learning about Vanuatu

An inspired romp through the islands...

Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
J. Maarten Troost
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fiji | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books
Vanuatu | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books
Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief

An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude

No Shoes Allowed

Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea

ASIN: 0767921992
Release Date: 2006-06-13

Book Description

With The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Maarten Troost established himself as one of the most engaging and original travel writers around. Getting Stoned with Savages again reveals his wry wit and infectious joy of discovery in a side-splittingly funny account of life in the farthest reaches of the world. After two grueling years on the island of Tarawa, battling feral dogs, machete-wielding neighbors, and a lack of beer on a daily basis, Maarten Troost was in no hurry to return to the South Pacific. But as time went on, he realized he felt remarkably out of place among the trappings of twenty-first-century America. When he found himself holding down a job—one that might possibly lead to a career—he knew it was time for him and his wife, Sylvia, to repack their bags and set off for parts unknown.

Getting Stoned with Savages tells the hilarious story of Troost’s time on Vanuatu—a rugged cluster of islands where the natives gorge themselves on kava and are still known to “eat the man.” Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles against typhoons, earthquakes, and giant centipedes and soon finds himself swept up in the laid-back, clothing-optional lifestyle of the islanders. When Sylvia gets pregnant, they decamp for slightly-more-civilized Fiji, a fallen paradise where the local chiefs can be found watching rugby in the house next door. And as they contend with new parenthood in a country rife with prostitutes and government coups, their son begins to take quite naturally to island living—in complete contrast to his dad.

Customer Reviews:

an unfortunate title done only for marketing purposes.......2007-07-31

Troost book begins with him working in Washington D.C. for the World Bank. He worries himself with questions like "what tie to wear?" and "how much money did I make in the market today?"

Troost realizes the same maxim that many wisemen have realized since the dawn of civilization: money doesn't buy one happiness. Troost begins to think of the blue water and the truly meaningful days that he experienced in the South Pacific of his first book (which my roommate and almost every reviewer on Amazon cite as a superior book -- I'll read it within the next year). And then he utters a line at the bottom of page one that defines him:

"The escapist doesn't want to get ahead. He simply wants to get away."

He and his wife go to Vanuatu and move on to Fiji when she gets pregnant. He indulges in Kava (the getting stoned reference), fights large insects, hikes up a volcano, talks with cannibals and gives the reader a brief history about John From (Cargo Cults). He does a wonderful job mingling with the locals. He also has some nice insights into the long-term impact of colonialism, Indian-Fijian relations and the corruption in island politics.

The end is a little trite, as he finds himself when he becomes a father: "You can go far and wide and you can keep moving on and on through places and years, but somehow you never escape your own life. I, finally, knew where my life belonged. Home." While it's a nice sentiment, I hope that readers have already figured themselves out (or if they haven't, that they aren't looking to someone else's travelogue for the answer).

I liked the book. Very much so. It seems that other reviewers here were disappointed that it wasn't as good as his first book. I have not read his first book yet, so I didn't come to it with the same high expectations they did.

Very funny, engaging .......2007-05-29

This is the first Troost novel that I have read, but it certainly won't be the last. Very entertaining, and at times hilarious, this is a look at island life that most of us don't get to see. A word of warning though, I got kicked out of bed for laughing too much while reading this!

A good bit of light ethnotourism.......2007-05-28

If you're looking for a basic book on Vanuatu -- one which sticks to the strictly scholarly -- don't buy this book. But if you want an interesting and unusually emotionally candid firsthand account of one suburbanite's experience of flying halfway around the globe to find paradise only to discover that even paradise has its troubles and complexitiies, then this one's for you. It makes quick and easy reading, and would be especially valuable on a plane bound for Vanuatu or Fiji as it raises and deals forthrightly with the big issues: post-modern ennui, canabalism and the rich/poor and colonial/native divides, as well as showing the challenges a real middle class American couple faces in relocating to the islands longterm, rather than as tourists. The author is thoughtful and manages insight at times, though it's a bit uneven because of all his fairly predictable hangups and prejudices. But these actually make this book better than if he'd pretended to be an ivory tower academic, as does his undisguised foibles (read to find out). Finally, this may be the only book you'll find in which an American expat couple in the South Pacific deals with the arrival of a child, a choice they make for reasons explained quite well and tied in nicely with the overall themes of the whole book. Bottom line: Not an academic tome, but rather a thought-provoking layperson's travel experience. Enjoy!

Learning about Vanuatu.......2007-05-11

Vanuatu is a series of small islands in the Pacific that speaks 113 distinct languages and gave me reason to stop and think, "I need to go there." Then I stopped and thought, "Holy crap, how can I get good information on Vanuatu?" There is not much available and I am not planning a trip there in the short term. Then I got good news. I read "Getting Stoned with Savages," by J. Maarten Troost.

I am not much of a book review person, so I won't pretend, or try to be cutesy. It is a good, fast read filled with memorable personal adventures of the author while he and his wife lived in Vanuatu and Fiji. However, these stories do not mean to inspire vacationers. They are glimpses into these unique cultures through the eyes of someone from the outside, doing his best to battle enormous centipedes, unpredictable weather, shark infested waters, a growling stomach for cannibalism, and the potent differences between kava -- the interesting sounding and popular hallucinogen -- found on Fiji and Vanuatu.

I must have liked it. I was willing to sit under a sizzling Yucatan sky to finish the last twenty pages and come home with third degree burns instead of putting it down to pick up some SPF 45. Now it looks like I have to start planning a trip to Vanuatu and get some real experience.

An inspired romp through the islands..........2007-03-21

Getting Stoned with Savages: Tripping Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu is the second offering from travel writer, J. Maarten Troost. I read and adored his first book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific, a few years ago and fell instantly in love with Troost's humor and candor. So, as you might imagine, when I heard about Getting Stoned with Savages, I quickly and single-mindedly stalked it on BookMooch.com until I had a pristine copy in my talons.

Maarten and his wife, Sylvia, after returning from a harrowing few years on the South Pacific atoll of Tarawa, resume a somewhat normal life in Washington, D.C. Maarten, with an eye on earning a living, takes a job as a consultant for the World Bank but soon finds that he is inching dangerously closer to what seems a full-blown career. With that horrifying fact in mind, he promptly gets fired and the Troosts set off for a life in Vanuatu, a small, rugged cluster of islands. Sylvia works for an international aid organization and earns a Western living that comes in handy on Vanuatu, and the arrangement leaves Maarten the time and opportunity to write. When Sylvia becomes pregnant the family relocates to the slightly more "civilized" Fiji where they round out their latest round of island adventures.

While both of Troost's travel memoirs have undoubtedly catchy titles, this second offering has much more to do with its respective title than Troost's first book. On the islands of Fiji and Vanuatu a most popular social activity is the consumption of a hallucinogenic drink called kava. Traditionally produced by the chewing of a root by male adolescents and then mixing with water, the kava is then served in bars (shacks more like) called nakamals. Shortly after arriving in Vanuatu, Maarten and Sylvia have the pleasure of consuming a few "shells" of kava. Troost writes:

Clearly this was different than drinking wine. With kava, one didn't admire its lush hue, or revel in its aromatic bouquet, or note the complex interplay of oak and black currant. This was more like heroin. Its consumption was something that was to be endured. The effect was everything. What concerned me, however, was not the taste but the possibility that this bowl of swirling brown liquid may have had as one of its essential ingredients the spit of unseen boys, which, frankly, I found a little off-putting.

Much to Maarten's relief, a friend informs him that while the chewing of the kava is generally the preferred method because it produces a supremely potent product, the kava they ingest is simply ground and strained through a sock. Better? Perhaps.

The kava story is just one of many instances that are enlivened by Troost's humor. But beyond the blatant out-loud laughing that I did while reading the book, there's also a real humanity and wonder in Troost's writing. The overall theme of the work is aptly expressed when he writes, "Paradise was a place that could be seen only from a distance, but it pleased me knowing that we lived so close to it."

Quite literally there is a dark side to island life. The islands harbor a history of cannibalism, there is overwhelming poverty, rampant prostitution, and political instability. On the side of the positive, however, the majority of the people are friendly and welcoming and willing to help the foreigners along in their new surroundings. In a more philosophical way, Maarten begins to see that while chasing paradise has been a good experience for his family, and they quite often find it in even the most outrageous of circumstances, at some point it becomes important to pursue a type of paradise near family and friends, even if it means rejoining the Western world with all of its bustle and baggage.

I think what I admire most about Troost's writing is his supreme respect for the cultures in which he lives. While he is quick to make jokes about his feelings and reactions to new cultural experiences, he is also more than willing to devote time to evaluation of the culture's economy, hardships, priorities, and the well-being of native peoples. What sets the Troost family apart from the tourists they often encounter on the islands is a seemingly honest willingness to engage with the culture, observe it, and try to avoid infringing too much on the world in which they live, even if some parts of their character and situation will always make them outsiders. It is this attitude of curiosity and respect which really makes me a fan of J. Maarten Troost and his adventures.

Average customer rating:

3 for Fiji

Fiji Islands Map (Travel Reference Map)
ITMB
Manufacturer: ITMB
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Map

Fiji | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Reference | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Travel | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Lonely Planet Fiji
Moon Handbooks Fiji
Fijian: Lonely Planet Phrasebook
Moon Fiji (Moon Handbooks)
Frommer's South Pacific (Frommer's Complete)

ASIN: 1553412095

Product Description

Travel map of the islands in color. Color changes show elevation levels. Distinguishes roads from major roads (mostly paved) to tracks; railways (for sugar cane); ferries and cargo vessels; airports; national parks; cities and other settlements; accommodations; beaches; diving/snorkeling; surfing; points of interest. With information about cruises, temples, and other things to do and see. Shows airports, ports, bus stations, gasoline stations, post offices, medical facilities, accommodations, museums, points of interest, archaeological sites, mines, oases, caves, beaches, hiking, more. Index of islands and villages. Reverse side has close-up maps of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, Suva City, each with its own index. Latitude/longitude grid. Main map scale 1:525,000. Distances in kilometers and miles. Printed on both sides.

Customer Reviews:

3 for Fiji.......2006-02-15

We used the Moon Handbook Fiji and the Lonely Planet Fiji books along with this map and got along fine. All three were useful for different purposes. Although weight is a factor when traveling this far and dragging all the baggage through checkpoints, its worth having all the right information to get you in tune with the customs and on the rightroad. You can never have enough maps, this one is one of the most current.

Flowers of the Pacific Island Seashore: A Guide to the Littoral Plants of Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Fiji and Micronesia

Average customer rating:

Flowers of the Pacific Island Seashore: A Guide to the Littoral Plants of Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Fiji and Micronesia
W. Arthur Whistler
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Wayside Plants of the Islands: A Guide to the Lowland Flora of the Pacific Islands

ASIN: 0824815289

Frommer's South Pacific: Including Tahiti, Fiji, & the Cook Islands (5th ed)

Average customer rating:

Frommer's South Pacific: Including Tahiti, Fiji, & the Cook Islands (5th ed)
Bill Goodwin
Manufacturer: Frommer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fiji | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books

Tahiti | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Frommer's | Guidebook Series | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Moon Handbooks Fiji
Frommer's South Pacific (Frommer's Complete)

ASIN: 0028608690

Average customer rating:

Moon Handbooks Fiji
No info on smaller islands
Fifi
Book lacks details for actual travelers
A great guide

Fiji Islands Handbook (4th ed)
David Stanley
Manufacturer: Moon Travel Handbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fiji | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Caribbean | Travel | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Fiji Islands Map (Travel Reference Map)
Lonely Planet Fiji
Fijian: Lonely Planet Phrasebook
Lonely Planet Fiji
Moon Handbooks South Pacific

ASIN: 1566910382

Book Description

Veteran South Pacific writer David Stanley tells it like it is, so with this guide you can be sure you're getting accurate and updated information on the real Fiji. Stanley provides frank reviews of hotels and restaurants, thorough coverage of sports and recreation opportunities, thought-provoking sidebars on Fiji's turbulent history and fascinating culture, and hundreds of websites and email addresses to help you plan your trip.

Customer Reviews:

Moon Handbooks Fiji.......2007-07-17

Moon Handbooks Fiji is the ultimate overview for traveling on any of the 322-islands of Fiji. This book contains 357 pages of travel information but is still small enough to tuck in a daypack for easy reference. Furthermore, this book has plenty of fairly detailed maps, complete with accurate distance scales, for easy travel planning or reference while you travel.

There are fourteen chapters in Moon Handbooks Fiji: Introduction; Exploring the Islands; Nada and the Mamanucas; Southern Vita Levu; Suva and Vincinity; Northern Vita Levu; Lautoka and Vicinity; The Yasawa Islands; Kadava; The Lomaivita Group; Vannua Levu; Taveuni; The Lau Group; and Resources. The introduction chapter contains an overview on Fiji group. This detailed information includes geology, climate, flora, fauna, history, economy, and the government of these islands. The next chapter, Exploring the Islands, contains general information on sports and recreation; entertainment; public holidays and festivals; arts and crafts; shopping; and accommodations; food; money; communications; media as well as contacts for tourist information; visas; health and safety; getting there; getting around; and airports while in Fiji. This chapter also includes a what to take section. The Resources chapter contains further information on suggested readings and internet resources.

The rest of the chapters in Moon Handbooks Fiji focus on particular geographical regions, islands, or groups of islands with the Fiji group. The first paragraph or page of each regional section describes a little about the region. After this overview, individual sights, recreation areas, special events, accommodations, food services, information services, and transportation services are depicted in detail. Depending on the size and general amount of facilities in a given region, there may be only one or two entries per category or over a dozen. Each entry contains the location, contacts, costs, and a short paragraph description of the facility or event featured. Several black and white maps and photographs accompany each section, clearly marked with the various facilities described in that particular section.

Moon Handbooks Fiji is a helpful guide for anyone planning on traveling to any of the islands of the Fiji group. Very complete key information is provided for easy reference while planning or while travel. However, this book may also be just as interesting for the armchair traveler as this book contains ample information about the natural environment, history, and culture on these beautiful islands.

No info on smaller islands.......2007-03-06

I went to the island of Tavenui (third largest) and the book had no info about that island.

Fifi.......2006-08-07

Excellent guide to Fiji.

Hope to go there and check it out.

Book lacks details for actual travelers.......2006-08-02

Although I agree that the sections on the history and culture of Fiji are excellent, this by itself does not make for a good guide book. This book first appeared in the 1980's and it seems as if all subsequent updates were soleley made by contributing readers and businesses. I used the book recently for travel in Fiji and could not shake the impression that the author has not been to Fiji in a long time. While he lists all of the main attractions, many details are sketchy at best. To give an example, he mentions the Sikatoga sand dunes as one of the main attractions on Fiji but then uses a single paragraph(!) to describe them. No detailed description of any interesting features that could be used as a guide for a visit. Similarly when describing the Yasawa islands he is busy listing all the resorts but does not seem to care too much about what actually can be done on these islands. Bottom line: The book is an excellent reference on history and culture of Fiji (something one could write after some diligent research) but lacks useful details for actual travelers.

A great guide.......2005-09-19

We used this guide on our trip last summer. We had an excellent time off the beaten track, and this book got us where we wanted to go, with the relavant phone numbers and lots of tips. The 100 or so pages on Fiji's history and culture were also of great interest while we rode on boats to where we were going.

Life in Feejee: Five Years Among the Cannibals : A Woman's Account of Voyaging the Fiji Islands Aboard the "Zotoff" (1844-49)

Average customer rating:

Life in Feejee: Five Years Among the Cannibals : A Woman's Account of Voyaging the Fiji Islands Aboard the "Zotoff" (1844-49)
Mary D. Wallis
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Diary of Jean Hays: A WWII Army Nurse in Fiji
Fiji Islands Map (Travel Reference Map)
Moon Handbooks Fiji
Lonely Planet Fiji

ASIN: 1589762088

Ten Months in the Fiji Islands: With an introduction and appendix by Colonel W. J. Smythe

Average customer rating:

Ten Months in the Fiji Islands: With an introduction and appendix by Colonel W. J. Smythe
Sarah Maria Bland Smythe
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Australia | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

Fiji | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

General | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

General | Africa | Travel | Subjects | Books

Australia & Oceania | History | Historical Reproductions | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1421227150
Release Date: 2001-12-06

Product Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1864 edition by John Henry and James Parker, Oxford and London.

King and People of Fiji (The Pasifika Library)

Average customer rating:

King and People of Fiji (The Pasifika Library)
Joseph Waterhouse
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Australia | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

Fiji | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

New Zealand | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

General | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0824819209

Average customer rating:

Great book to read if traveling to Fiji

On Fiji Islands (Travel Library)
Ronald Wright
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Travel | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

Fiji | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Moon Handbooks Fiji
Fiji Islands Map (Travel Reference Map)
Lonely Planet Fiji

ASIN: 0140095519

Customer Reviews:

Great book to read if traveling to Fiji.......2003-07-03

This was a fun book to read while traveling in Fiji. It provides a great perspective of the history of the islands complete with interesting and sometimes entertaining antecdotes of the author's travels through Fiji. The text alternates between the author's personal travel experiences and a drier (but still interesting) history of Fijian native culture and colonial influences.

Average customer rating:

Fiji: Islands of the dawn
Leonard Wibberley
Manufacturer: Washburn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Fiji | Australia & South Pacific | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007DZMEO

Book Description

Three quarters of the American workforce is now employed in services, a substantial portion in low-paying, dead-end jobs. Can the service economy do as well by the American worker as the old manufacturing economy? Can the widely shared prosperity that accompanied steady increases in productivity and performance in manufacturing be replicated in the services? They can and they will, the authors of this timely book contend, but only if outmoded policies and practices are brought into line with the new economy. New Rules for a New Economy explains why this must be accomplished and how we can start.

The authors call for new, decentralized institutions suited to a dynamic economy in which change is constant and rapid. In particular, they see a need for job ladders and worker associations that cut across firm boundaries. These institutions would foster individual and collective learning, mark out career paths, and facilitate coordination among both individuals and organizations in a networked economy. The authors propose new rules to reshape labor market institutions and policy, improving economic performance and opportunities for workers.

Unusual in providing a comprehensive theoretical perspective that is grounded in detailed case research, this book points the way to a better future, not just for elite knowledge workers but for everyone.

Customer Reviews:

essential reading for economic policy.......1999-01-23

Everybody knows that the US economy is generating a lot of low-wage, dead-end service jobs. Now there's a book that knows what to do about it. This book is chock full of cheap, practical, useful ways of turning dead-end jobs into careers, linking jobs to training, facilitating employee organization. Should be part of the platform for Republicans and Democrats.

Understanding the Service Economy.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Dollars & Sense

Average customer rating:

Understanding the Service Economy.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Dollars & Sense
Chris Tilly
Manufacturer: Economic Affairs Bureau
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00098Z7AQ
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Dollars & Sense, published by Economic Affairs Bureau on September 1, 1999. The length of the article is 842 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Understanding the Service Economy.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: Chris Tilly
Publication: Dollars & Sense (Newsletter)
Date: September 1, 1999
Publisher: Economic Affairs Bureau
Page: 56

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books