A Siamese Tragedy: Development and Degradation in Modern Thailand
(This book argues that, even before the catastrophic colla...)
This book argues that, even before the catastrophic collapse of 1997-98, the Thai economic miracle of the previous decade had feet of clay. The authors provide a comprehensive and cogent examination of the country’s economic, environmental and human record.
(In this important policy-and campaign-relevant book, econ...)
In this important policy-and campaign-relevant book, economists, intellectuals and NGO leaders from both North and South confront what has now become the central issue of the new globalized world economy. Ever since the Asian crisis of 1997 threatened a chain-reaction of economic destabilization, governments, the IMF, even the G7, and even George Soros, have concluded that something needs to be done.
(This is a short and trenchant history of the organization...)
This is a short and trenchant history of the organizations - the World Bank, IMF, WTO, and Group of Seven - that have promoted economic globalization and which are now trying to manage the unmanageable. Walden Bello points to their manifest failings, seen in recurrent financial crises, the ever-widening gulf between developing and industrialized countries, the persistence of gross inequalities, and mass poverty.
The Anti-Development State: The Political Economy of Permanent Crisis in the Philippines
(Seven million Filipinos live or work abroad. One in five ...)
Seven million Filipinos live or work abroad. One in five wants to emigrate. What has gone wrong in the 20 years since the popular ousting of President Marcos? In this analysis of the roots of failure, Walden Bello shows how the political system remains dominated by a competitive elite who oppose any significant attempts to address the country's huge social inequalities. The way out, he argues, is through the wholesale overhaul of the system of governance, leading to a new development strategy based on more, not less, state intervention, the domestic market as the driver of growth, and working together with other countries in the South.
(Violent protests across the global South, in response to ...)
Violent protests across the global South, in response to rocketing food prices from 2006 to 2008, highlighted an intrinsic flaw in the modern system of world trade - one that poses a serious threat to regional and international stability. In The Food Wars, Walden Bello traces the evolution of this crisis, examining its eruption in Mexico, Africa, the Philippines, and China. Daring in vision and impassioned in tone, The Food Wars speaks out against the obscene imbalance in the most basic commodities between northern and southern hemispheres.
Capitalism's Last Stand?: Deglobalization in the Age of Austerity
(In this eye-opening and often scathing book, Walden Bello...)
In this eye-opening and often scathing book, Walden Bello provides a forensic dissection of contemporary capitalism's multiple crises. Trenchant but constructive, Bello's analysis of the collapse of the global real economy, covering such issues as the Wall Street meltdown, the disintegration of the Greek economy, and the rise of China, emphasizes the ever more pressing need to engage in a radical process of deglobalization towards a decentralized, pluralistic world system. Only then will we be able to construct a fairer and more equitable society. A stirring call to arms for all those interested in global economic justice.
( Emerging relatively unscathed from the banking crisis of...)
Emerging relatively unscathed from the banking crisis of 2008, China has been viewed as a model of both rampant success and fiscal stability. But beneath the surface lies a network of fissures that look likely to erupt into the next big financial crash. A bloated real-estate sector, roller-coaster stock market, and rapidly growing shadow-banking sector have all coalesced to create a perfect storm: one that is in danger of taking the rest of the world’s economy with it.
Walden Flores Bello is a Filipino environmentalist, journalist, social worker, educator, and writer. He is currently a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton and executive director of Focus on the Global S.
Background
Walden Bello was born in Manila in the Philippines in 1945. His father was in the movie business in the Philippines, and involved in advertising and entertainment. His mother was a singer and composer - both of them were interested in the arts.
Education
Bello got his Bachelor of Arts from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1966. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology at Princeton University in 1975. He also has honorary doctorates from Panteion University in Athens and Murdoch University in Perth.
Walden Bello became a political activist following the declaration of Martial Law by Ferdinand Marcos on 21 September 1972. Over the next two decades, he became a key figure in the international movement to restore democracy in the Philippines, coordinating the Anti-Martial Law Coalition and establishing the Philippines Human Rights Lobby in Washington, District of Columbia. He was arrested repeatedly and finally jailed by the United States authorities in 1978 for leading the non-violent takeover of the Philippine consulate in San Francisco. He was released three weeks later after a hunger strike to publicize human rights abuses in his home country. While campaigning on human rights he took the risk of breaking into the World Bank headquarters in Washington and brought out 3,000 pages of confidential documents that provided the material for a book of his that became an underground bestseller in the Philippines and contributed to expanding the citizen's movement that eventually deposed Marcos in 1986.
After the fall of Marcos, Bello joined the non-governmental organization Food First in the United States. In 1995, he co-founded the Focus on the Global South, of which he is now executive director. He has also played a leading role as an environmentalist and a chairman of the board of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. Bello has campaigned for years for the withdrawal of the United States military bases in the Philippines, Okinawa, and Korea, and has helped set up several regional coalitions dedicated to denuclearization and demilitarization.
Bello's current and immediate past roles include: National Chairman Emeritus and National Chairman of the party Akbayan, Professor of Sociology and Public Administration at the University of the Philippines at Diliman since 1997, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South, member and former Chairman of the Board of Greenpeace South East Asia and member of the Board of Food First, the International Forum on Globalisation, and the Transnational Institute. He is currently a columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Foreign Policy in Focus and co-editor of Review of International Political Economy. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1978–1982 and was a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2002 and UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara in 2006. He is also a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton and senior research fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Kyoto University in Japan.
Bello is the author or co-author of 14 books on global, Asian, and Philippines issues, including Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines and The Anti-Development State: The Political Economy of Permanent Crisis in the Philippines. His most recent work, Paper Dragons: China and the Next Crash, was published in August 2019. He has also contributed numerous articles in periodicals, including Review of International Political Economy, Third World Quarterly, Foreign Policy, Race and Class, Le Monde Diplomatique, Le Monde, Guardian, Boston Globe, Far Eastern Economic Review, and La Jornada.
(Seven million Filipinos live or work abroad. One in five ...)
2006
Politics
Before 2000s Bello was a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines, after that he became a representative of the Akbayan Citizens' Action Party. Bello is one of the most articulate and prolific voices on the international left and he has devoted most of his life to fighting imperialism and corporate globalization. Bello was also a supporter of Hugo Chávez and was impressed by his opposition to the United States.
Interests
Politicians
Hugo Chávez
Connections
Bello got married to his partner, Thai executive Suranuch Thongsila - known to their peers as Ko - in a private civil ceremony in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, on April 13, 2015.