In The News

China’s Portuguese Connection

Loro Horta June 22, 2006
Patience is power, suggests a Chinese proverb, and that describes how China pursues diplomacy. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) consists of eight states around the world, encompassing 230 million people – but is rarely regarded as a priority in global politics. Bucking conventional thinking, China diligently pursues diplomacy with the CPLP, foreseeing benefits such as new...

Africa Cannot Catch Up Until the West Keeps to Its Deal

Larry Elliott June 1, 2006
Ghana benefits from relative economic advantages over many of its neighbors in Africa. The country does, after all, have its own stock exchange. Alan Kyerematen, Ghana’s minister of trade, points to four levels on which improvement is needed for sub-Saharan countries to rise from debt: the firm, where investment is needed in both physical and human capital; the government, which must pursue...

The West Is Teeming with Africans Doing Odd Jobs Because Our Leaders Can’t Provide Vision or Hope

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem May 31, 2006
The narratives of illegal immigration in both Europe and North America often focus on the problems faced by receiving countries or the trials of those forced to live covert lives in foreign lands. The exodus of citizens from underdeveloped states, however, imposes the most harm on the countries that are abandoned. Author Abdul-Raheem describes the irony of sitting on a plane next to a man who...

Drought Insurance for the Third World

Beat Balzli May 15, 2006
After a year of natural disasters, the international community may shrug about the possibility of 6 million Kenyans, Ethiopians and Somalis facing drought and possible starvation. In response, the World Food Program and the World Bank have developed a new plan to replace aid: famine insurance. The new model of relief shifts emphasis from donations to arrangements with international financial...

US Privacy Campaigners Fear Mark of the Beast

James Sturcke May 12, 2006
If a diner in the US falls ill in the near future, the government plans to turn to a computer database to learn the source of any last bite of meat. Privacy advocates complain that the ambitious tagging program is expensive and excessive, and could potentially be used on humans. The US Department of Agriculture insists that the proposal is “technology neutral,” but critics anticipate heavy...

The Silent Globalization of Remittances

Richard Reeves April 26, 2006
When immigrants work in wealth countries like the US, they often send money back home to families. Such remittance income far exceeds foreign aid or direct foreign investment in Central America and the Caribbean region. The World Bank estimates that such foreign exchange is on the rise, with more than $223 billion transferred from rich countries to poor in 2005. The distribution is direct and...

High Stakes in US-South Korea Pact

Bruce Stokes March 24, 2006
In what is shaping up to be the most controversial trade deal since the signing of NAFTA in the early 1990s, the US is inching closer toward a free-trade agreement with South Korea. For US automakers and farmers, whose access to Korean consumers is currently limited by strict regulations and high tariffs, the deal offers an opportunity to profit from the tenth largest economy in the world. For...