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:: We're reading ::
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"Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice : An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Rain Forest" by Mark J. Plotkin
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A century ago, malaria was killing Washingtonians, Londoners, Parisians. Today HIV, along with various cancers, has taken its place among worldwide epidemics. Quinine, extracted from the cinchona tree of the Amazonian rainforest, quelled malaria; alkaloids taken from trees in the West African rainforest may well yield a cure for AIDS. Yet those woods, Mark Plotkin tells us, are fast disappearing, along with the native peoples who know the powers of the plants that dwell there. His account of wandering through the Amazonian jungles focuses on local knowledge about plants, whose uses range from the mundane to the magical. The rainforests of the world, Plotkin notes, are our greatest natural resource, an intercultural pharmacy that can cure woes both known and yet unvisited.
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"Profit Over People - Neoliberalism and Global Order" by Noam Chomsky
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In Profit Over People Noam Chomsky takes on neoliberalism, the pro-corporate system of economic and political policies presently waging a form of class war worldwide. By examining the contradictions between the democratic and market principles proclaimed by those in power and those actually practiced, Chomsky critiques the tyranny of the few that restricts the public arena and enacts policies that vastly increase private wealth, often with complete disregard for social and ecological consequences.
In clear, understandable language, Chomksy charts the dramatic shift away from a public-interest interpretation of democracy and toward a top-down model that serves the profit incentive of massive corporations. Profit Over People also presents Chomsky's thoughts on free market philosophy, corporate control of public opinion, and the unreported impact of nondemocratic forces and policies like the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
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"For Tibet, with Love: A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World" by Isabel Losada
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‘Sometimes you just have to do something, don’t you? Sometimes an injustice comes along and you think "No, this cannot be", and rather than just turn off the TV, you know it’s time to act.’ So begins Isabel Losada’s extraordinary For Tibet, with Love in which she explores whether it’s possible for an ordinary person to change the world, just a little… Isabel demonstrates, falls for a monk in Nepal, gets sick in Tibet, upsets BP, faces some hard truths, starts a company, irritates the Chinese Ambassador, falls from a great height, keeps her bra on, breaks the law, and captures headlines worldwide.
And then she meets the Dalai Lama.
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