Acknowledgements

Introduction
Global Meltdown
The Washington Consensus Goes Bust
The “worst crash since the Great Depression” means that the Washington Consensus of neo-liberal economic policies cannot be sustained. The costs of preserving the West’s consumption-oriented values can no longer be passed onto the rest of the world.

Chapter 1
What’s Wrong with the Washington Consensus?
It Forces Alien, Irrelevant Models on Developing Societies
The development models favored by the Consensus force theories upon societies whose cultures, heritages and social matrices may not be able to accept them. What’s needed are practical solutions, not theoretical fundamentalism driven by ideology.

Chapter 2
The World Needs an Alternative
Confessions of a Former Commercial Lawyer
China rejected Washington Consensus models and blazed its own economic path. Customized development approaches, based on what’s appropriate locally, are a right of nations. Small can be beautiful. NGOs and grassroots efforts can improve lives and inspire others.

Chapter 3
Grassroots Approaches That Solve Real Problems
Founding an NGO in the Himalayas
Globalization needs balance to protect ethnic diversity and indigenous cultures. Grassroots economic alternatives can be powerful. Sustainable eco-tourism can preserve culture and help it evolve. An NGO is founded to apply a fresh model.

Chapter 4
The Anti-Globalization Breakfast Club
Emergence of a Global Justice Movement
Massive protests incapacitate World Bank, IMF, World Economic Forum and G8 meetings, often erupting in violent protest. People’s justice groups react against globalization, spurring the rise of a new global movement.

Chapter 5
Time to Re-Vamp the WTO
Joining the Anti-Globalization Breakfast Club
The World Trade Organization needs to be re-engineered. It has failed in its aims, as deregulation can destabilize. Globalization serves corporate profitability but not ordinary people. More practical are bilateral and regional alternatives. A return to the principles of GATT is needed.

Chapter 6
Redefining Contemporary Development
Trash the Ideology and Use What Works
Development means more than urbanization. Longer-term, holistic approaches go beyond immediate growth, seeking a balance between humanity and nature. True development should protect the environment and ethnic diversity, as well as heritage and culture.

Chapter 7
The Environmental Priority
We Are Ruining the Earth Faster Than the Global Economy Is Growing
Greenhouse gas emissions are destroying our planet at rates faster than nations are growing. The Kyoto Protocol cannot make reductions binding on the great powers responsible for most pollution. Wasteful lifestyles are to blame and need to change.

Chapter 8
The Microcredit Revolution Works
Small (Finance) Is Beautiful and Can Improve Lives
Microfinance offers a grassroots solution for improving lives that’s forgotten by institutional economic theory. Economists ignore individuals. Small amounts of money can change lives enormously. Credit is a human right.

Chapter 9
Begin by Reshaping Values
The ‘Gross National Happiness’ Alternative
Quality can be more important than quantity. GNP is not the only benchmark of economic policy success. GNH measures human happiness. Cultural values and environmental conservation can outweigh economic mega-growth.

Chapter 10
Empowering the Marginalized
To Stop Terrorism, Focus on Its Roots
Terrorism arises from hopeless frustration, when people suffer from cyclical impoverishment, social alienation, and media offer no outlet for outrage. Sustainable development and respect for ethnic identities can help avert such dangerous desperation.

Chapter 11
‘High Time to Shut Up’ Moving Towards Multilateralism
Can the world’s great powers accept peaceful coexistence? Or will they impose their values upon others through economic or and military means? When people’s identity is under siege, they resist collectively. When attacked, they react violently.

Chapter 12
The Revolt Against Cyclical Poverty
Nepalese Maoists Come in From the Cold
In Nepal, Washington Consensus economics have spawned cyclical poverty, giving the Himalayan kingdom’s Maoist guerillas a national constituency. They disarmed and won elections. Their triumph underscores the power of people’s movements and peaceful resistance.

Chapter 13
Starting From the Villages
In Sri Lanka’s Countryside, a Middle Road
Sri Lanka’s “compassionate capitalism” offers a middle road to development. By promoting sustainable businesses, cottage industry programs at village level are able to help beneficiaries retain their local identity.

Chapter 14
The Buddhist Revolution
Why Compassion Should Be Combined With Capitalism
Greed cannot be the only basis for economic thinking. Two-and-a-half millennia ago, the Buddha led a revolution against the old caste system. Today we need an uprising against the new one. One means would be to enable local platforms to go global.

Conclusion
Enter the Himalayan Consensus
Manifesto for a Peaceful Revolution
The world needs to drop the Washington Consensus into the dustbin of history. Each country must forge and follow its own path, based on its unique culture, history and social values. Enter the Himalayan Consensus, a development paradigm based on the timeless values of Asia’s great civilizations.

Index