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Brief Summary Gross Domestic Problem: The Politics Behind the World's Most Powerful Number. Gross domestic product is arguably the best-known statistic in the contemporary world, and certainly amongst the most powerful. It drives government policy and sets priorities in a variety of vital social fields - from schooling to healthcare. Yet for perhaps the first time since it was invented in the 1930s, this popular icon of economic growth has come to be regarded by a wide range of people as a 'problem'. After all, does our quality of life really improve when our economy grows 2 or 3 per cent? Can we continue to sacrifice the environment to safeguard a vision of the world based on the illusion of infinite economic growth? Lorenzo Fioramonti takes apart the 'content' of GDP - what it measures, what it doesn't and why - and reveals the powerful political interests that have allowed it to dominate today's economies. In doing so, he demonstrates just how little relevance GDP has to moral principles such as equity, social justice and redistribution, and shows that an alternative is possible, as evinced by the 'de-growth' movement and initiatives such as transition towns. A startling insight into the politics of a number that has come to dominate our everyday lives. ISBN:9781780322759 Author:Lorenzo Fioramonti

Brief Summary Over the decades a great deal has been written about Shaka, the most famous—or infamous—of Zulu leaders. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that even the most basic facts about his life are locked in obscurity. His date of birth, what he looked like, and the circumstances of his assassination remain unknown. Meanwhile the public image, sometimes monstrous, sometimes heroic, juggernauts on—truly a "myth of iron” that is so intriguing, so dramatic, so archetypal, and sometimes so politically useful that few have subjected it to proper scrutiny. Myth of Iron: Shaka in History is the first book-length scholarly study of Shaka to be published. It lays out, as far as possible, all the available evidence—mainly hitherto underutilized Zulu oral testimonies, supported by other documentary sources—and decides, item by item, legend by legend, what exactly is known about Shaka’s reign. The picture that emerges in this meticulously researched and absorbing antibiography is very different from the popular narrative. ISBN:9780821418482 Author:Dan Wylie

Brief Summary Be warned not to miss your lunch or flight because the story is so enthralling that when you open the book it becomes hard to close it until you complete it! And we are sure you will read the book again and again! The fiction blend with facts in this book makes it the only book of its kind in the world for the world! But in essence, it is a truth and accountability quest of a person who survived a terrorist attack because of a flat tyre that delayed him to the venue of the 7/11/2010 Kampala bombings. This attack was handiwork of Al-Qaeda linked Al-shabaab group. Like it is with most attacks, the leaders of the terrorists celebrated the attack and called their suicide bombers martyrs! This attitude of terrorists lived to confront Francis Tucungwirwe’s conscience as a survivor-Imagine somebody attacks and kills people and believes that in front of his God, he will be a martyr; that he will be rewarded with prizes and will be welcomed by angels after his death. But is this true? The book seeks for some actual answers and accountability through an alien process in some Africa societies called Rutangaaza that was used to hold the dead accountable or consult them. The main episode in the book is the Rutangaaza Global Peace Conference. Where some answers and accountability are derived and felt when one sees Osama bin Laden expressing apology to the world for his terror deeds and for misrepresenting Islam. And you see him crying and promising that if he got chance to come back on earth he would be a leading demobiliser of terrorists in the world. But also some moments at the conference piss you off like when you see him (Osama bin Laden) saying that he misses his family especially his mother and children then you ask yourself where were these feelings when he was executing plots to kill people in masses. And indeed at the conference some participants heckled at him and when you as the reader you are about to burst with questions for him and possibly contemplating to attack him at the conference screen, then he tells you that terrorism ideology and propaganda is powerful because it deludes people of such normal feelings and makes them objects of terror. Then when you analyse his response you realize that the world could have spent over $ 5 trillion since 9/11 fighting terrorists yet the problem is terrorism- indeed it is a fact that you can shoot a terrorist and kill him like Osama bin Laden but miss terrorism. So what can we do to shoot terrorism? Osama bin Laden, 9/11 victims and the global delegates made suggestions to the world. Indeed the Rutangaaza conference ends well with a communiqué from the 9/11 victims, Osama bin Laden and the global witnesses. In the end you realize this is a book that could end terrorists and terrorism and save the world billions of dollars that are spent on terror related wars every year. Finally If you have lost a loved one like the 9/11 victim families or any other person in the world has who lost loved ones to terrorists, at the glance of this title you probably feel like no this book is an insult to me-how can the killer of my loved one meet them like in case of 9/11 families, but when you realise the fact that the author of the book was meters away to a devastating terrorist attack of Al-Qaeda mentored Al-shabaab then you are comforted that you are in safe hands because the writer took care of any emotions and ethics relating to terrorist victims and their families in the book. ISBN:9789970994106 Author:Francis Tucungwirwe