Written by Karima Hamdan
Last week the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, gave his own stark assessment of our current worldwide financial prospects when he said the global economy is “one shock away” from a crisis in food supplies and prices. It isn’t just third world nations who are continuing to feel the squeeze: this last fortnight has seen Portugal becoming the latest European nation to require a multi-billion Euro bailout and the economy of Spain is perilously close to meltdown. In the midst of this, China, the world’s second largest economy, is gestating its own inflation and debt time bomb that threatens to scupper any chance of a global recovery. At home, the NHS is facing a Tory-style slash and burn revamp, unemployment is at an all-time high and the gap between rich and poor is widening into a gulf. With crises abounding, it is good to know that as a society we focus in on the really important issues to debate and discuss: whether or not a relatively small group of women covering the lower half of their faces represents the end of western society as we know it.
