Grappling with theory and practice : search for people's alternatives and alliances

The financial crisis hitting Asia in 1997 compelled an incisive analysis of the myth of capitalist expansion in East Asia that would see East Asia becoming the centre of world development in the 2l" century. National governments were not only incompetent in the rescue of their national economy, they were also impotent in the face of the powers of Soros, a material as well as symbolic staging of global capitalism. With almost all sectors of the population being affected, the crisis apparently acquired a universal character in the victimisation of both the rich and the poor. However, an apocalyptic view of the crisis is irrelevant to itnn1ecliate pragmatic remedies for especially the marginal sectors, nor is it productive in offering different readings and experiences of the crisis in order to probe alternatives for the rallying of forces to counter the negative impacts on the people.