Toma nota.../Take note...

We may learn from recent history that globalization has not been a smooth process. The rapid trade volume increase and initial ourput growth caused by the fast and wide globalization trend during the last 70 years went often together with major shifts in the relative size of the economies involved. According to a World Trade Organization report, the "structure and size of international capital flows has varied greatly over the last 60 years. In the aftermath of WWII, the economies of Europe and Japan suffered large trade deficits and could generate only limited savings for rebuilding their capital stock. The Marshall Plan, the European Payments Union and at a later stage United States’ foreign direct investment (FDI) provided the necessary liquidity for the expansion of international trade." Those remedies are no longer available. The facts in recent years prove that the gap in incomes between the 20% of the world's population in the richest and poorest countries has grown considerably and per capita incomes have fallen in more than 70 countries over the past 20 years. A reassessment of this trend is essential. The Economist offers its own point of view on this issue:

Globalisation’s losers – The right way to help declining places

Time for fresh thinking about the changing economics of geography   

Oct.21.– Populism's wave has yet to crest. That is the sobering lesson of recent elections in Germany and Austria, where the success of anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation parties showed that a message of hostility to elites and outsiders resonates as strongly as ever among those fed up with the status quo. It is also the lesson from America, where Donald Trump is doubling down on gestures to his angry base, most recently by adopting a negotiating position on NAFTA that is more likely to wreck than remake the trade agreement (see article). 

These remedies will not work. The demise of NAFTA will disproportionately hurt the blue-collar workers who back Mr Trump. Getting tough on immigrants will do nothing to improve economic conditions in eastern Germany, where 20% of voters backed the far-right Alternative for Germany. But the self-defeating nature of populist policies will not blunt their appeal. Mainstream parties must offer voters who feel left behind a better vision of the future, one that takes greater account of the geographical reality behind the politics of anger.

Peace Prize   

• International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

Norweigan Nobel Committee says award made ""in recognition of work to draw attention to catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons".

Physics

• Barry Barish
• Kip Thorne
• Rainer Weiss

"For decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves"

Chemistry

Corruption is flooding Latin American democracies and leading to their disintegration, until they fall into the hands of ambitious populist politicians who end up destroying the remnants of the rule of law and sink their countries into a corrupt totalitarianism from whose grip peoples find it very difficult to free themselves. That is the stark reality in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, among others. It is essential to wake up the peoples of our Continent before it is too late, so that they understand that absolute power corrupts absolutely and work together to fight the enemies of democracy, crouched in the pit of totalitarianism. This initiative reported below aimed at the Latin American youth is a ray of hope.

As colleagues at Harvest Collegiate High School, Andy Snyder and I talk a lot about the way humans develop. In this essay he presents a vision for how to reform social studies curriculum, one that I have seen him enact with good results: students who are engaged, thinking critically, and actively developing meaningful skills. Regardless of what you teach, and especially if you teach social studies, your students could also benefit from his ideas, written below, that help students engage in meaningful disciplinary skills.— John T. McCrann 

Imagine a basketball coach with no hoops and no ball who provided a textbook history of basketball, showed video of some of the greatest games, and imparted a passion for teamwork. But she never held a practic and the players never bounced a ball. How would her team do in a game? How well do our students and former students do as participants in a democracy—with all that we've taught them of history, geography, government, and economics? Knowledge, skills, and values are necessary aspects of a good civic education but the most important element has been left out—action. Civic duties involve doing things in the world—pushing us to go beyond knowledge, thinking skills, and values within our classrooms. Civic education requires practice working with others to take action.