Walden Bello

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Walden Bello

Walden Bello (* 1945 in Manila ) is a Filipino sociologist and politician ( Akbayan ). He is a professor at the University of the Philippines and a globalization critic .

Act

His theses are mainly received in the southern countries and meet the mood of many activists there . In 2003, he and Nicanor Perlas received the Right Livelihood Award , “for their excellent contributions to educating civil society about the effects of globalization and how alternatives to it can be realized”.

Bello tries to contrast globalization with deglobalization : "Every country must be able to develop its own policy for its own values ​​and its own rhythm." When globalization is discussed, alternatives should not be concealed. Deglobalization raises the question of how the power of the states of the north in economic and political matters can be restricted. He suggests that developing countries should once again produce more for their respective local markets and restrict their exports . The uniform neoliberal thinking should be countered by diversity in the form of decentralized economic processes in local communities . The international organizations such as WTO , IMF and World Bank should therefore give up their influence and not impose so-called structural adjustment programs on economically weaker states .

From 2007 to 2015 Bello was a member of the Philippine House of Representatives for the left-wing Akbayan party . He gained some attention in 2010 when he denounced the corruption of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a parliamentary speech.

Bello in Rostock 2007

A statement by Walden Bello during a rally on June 2, 2007 in Rostock that was directed against the G8 summit received a lot of media attention: "We have to bring the war right into this meeting - because without peace there can be no justice." This sentence was translated correctly by the live translation on site, including the context of the speech, among other things, on the Iraq war.

In numerous media (including Spiegel Online, " Bild " and n-tv; sometimes also as headline), based on a false dpa report, the speech was misrepresented as: "We have to bring the war into this demonstration. By peaceful means we achieve nothing ". The wrong quote was also further embellished in the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . The globalization-critical network Attac pointed out that Bello was quoted incorrectly and asked dpa to correct the false report. The passage actually referred to the war in Iraq: This war must be made the topic of the summit, because without peace all efforts would be in vain - Original text context: “Two years ago they said: Do not bring the war into the discussions. Just focus on poverty reduction. Well, we say: We have to bring the war right into this meeting. Because without peace there can be no justice. "

The dpa news agency publicly asked Bello to apologize for the false news that had spread.

Fonts (selection)

  • DEGLOBALIZATION Ideas for a new world economy. Bello reviews the institutions' crisis of legitimacy and examines the major new ideas for reform. Zed Books, 2002, ISBN 1-84277-305-4 .
  • De-globalization. Resistance to the new world order. Edited by Oliver Nachtwey and Peter Strotmann. VSA-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-89965-091-3 .
  • Capitalism's Last Stand: Deglobalization in the Age of Austerity. ZED BOOKS LTD, 2013
  • Politics of hunger. Association A Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-9359-3691-0 .
  • Counterrevolution. The global rise of the far right . Fernwood Publishing, Rugby (UK) 2019, ISBN 978-1-7736-3221-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ White: Philippine Politics. 2015, p. 149.
  2. ↑ a b Minutes of the riots: "Stones, stinky fingers, burning cars" (with correction). In: Spiegel Online . June 2, 2007, accessed February 10, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b The life of a false report, ZDFblog, URL:, as of June 4, 2007 ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zdf.de
  4. ↑ cf. also: Copies of the media headline arranged as a chronology in Stefan Niggemeier's blog , June 5, 2007.
  5. ↑ G8: Don't believe the hype! ( Memento from February 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Malte Kreutzfeld: A lot of peace. In: taz.de . June 8, 2007, accessed February 10, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Bello, Walden
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bello, Walden F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Filipino sociologist, professor of sociology and critic of globalization
DATE OF BIRTH 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Manila