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Award winning writer, activist and academic Raj Patel, author of the recently published bestseller, The Value of Nothing, will be speaking in Ottawa at Southminster United Church on Monday May 31 at 7 PM as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival’s Global Perspectives Series.

One of the world’s most respected young visionaries and one of the most controversial and outspoken, Mr. Patel does not mince words or approach the current economic crisis with the delicacy of a diplomat. “We have mortgaged our future and called it freedom,” he says. The Value of Nothing systematically points out some of the major flaws in our current economic model and goes on to speak of alternatives to the market as it is presently
configured. “Our economy has been hijacked by free market fundamentalists and what we are left with is debt and diabetes.” He salutes the growing grass roots movements that are capturing the imaginations of ordinary citizens around the world outraged that some agriculture workers, for example, make less in a year than some Wall Street stock brokers make in an hour.

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo says “This is a deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness.” And Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, writes, “Raj Patel offers us a whole new way to think about price and value… showing us a path out of the darkness of the economic woods.”

This is a rare opportunity to hear from one of the world’s most influential thinkers and humanitarians. Tickets are $30 / $25 for Students and Seniors and free for Festival members and Carleton students.

Tickets are available online at www.writersfestival.org, in person at Nicholas Hoare, Collected Works, Octopus Books, and the Mayfair Theatre or by calling the Writers Festival box office at 613 562 1243.