The media's attention is on terrorism. Yet, in the background are other critical issues. Perhaps none so important as to what is happening to the global economy. The mantra of free trade and open markets has widened the gap between rich and poor nations. Level playing fields don't seem very level to the have-nots. Democracy is weakened by powerful institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. The US largely dominates these organizations. The massive monopoly of resources by the US and a handful of other countries has created tremendous imbalance and inequality. Vandana Shiva says, "The dispossession from the Earth's natural wealth is at the root of instability."

Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva is an internationally renowned voice for sustainable development and social justice. A physicist, scholar, political activist and feminist, she is Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in New Delhi . She's the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize. Author of many books, her latest are "Earth Democracy" and "Soil Not Oil."