A LIVERPOOL vice chancellor has attacked “the dictatorship of self-interest” in society in the week World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks collapsed in Geneva.
Gerald Pillay, vice chancellor of Liverpool Hope University, has criticised self-interest for being the default setting for society.
He was speaking in Switzerland on the day that the Doha Round of WTO talks towards liberalising world trade collapsed in Geneva.
Dr Pillay made no direct reference to the WTO talks but he said “more and more countries are pulling up the drawbridge and closing the shutters. The optimism is gone.”
He was addressing an international Tools for Change conference in the Swiss mountain village of Caux, near Montreux, at the east end of the Lake of Geneva.
He said society needed a sense of humility as developed countries with science and technology also nurture poverty on their doorsteps.
The Tools for Change conference attracted 400 people and aimed to equip young people with the skills needed for peace-building.
