Conversations In Development

Government aid programs are increasingly associated with business interests, blurring the line between philanthropy and financial gain. How does this impact developing countries - both in the short and long term? We speak with journalist Antony Loewenstein who has spent years documenting what he calls ‘disaster capitalism’ in Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Haiti. Antony Loewenstein is an independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian and blogger. Antony’s best-selling books include My Israel Question, on the Israel/Palestine conflict, The Blogging Revolution, on the internet in repressive regimes, Profits of Doom, about privatisation. His latest book is Disaster Capitalism: Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe, about fortunes made from disaster, poverty and catastrophe. His first film is Disaster Capitalism. He’s currently working on a book about the global “war on drugs”.This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific .