Article
Many analysts have described the current global economic crisis as being cataclysmic and unprecedented. Though the crisis originated with the sub-prime mortgages and risk hedging instruments in the financial sector of the United States, soon its effects have reached countries in Europe, Asia and Africa not to mention neighbours within Americas. As we write this editorial, violent protests in Greece and the loss of life of three bank workers exemplify how the tremors from the financial world translate into events with a true human cost. Many people, also in the global South have lost their jobs or fear to lose them if the economic situation does not improve. They, often the same ones, have lost their houses; others have lost their life-long savings. But this is not just an economic crisis; it is much more. First of all, one can imagine the strain that job losses and their consequences have on people themselves, their families, their children and the wider society in which they live. But then, thinking about the reasons for this crisis, one cannot avoid a deep feeling of rage and injustice – and maybe also of sheer astonishment.