In The News

Wrong on Rights

Harold Hongju Koh July 18, 2003
A powerful recourse for human rights victims is in danger, says Harold Hongju Koh, Professor of International Law at Yale University and former US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. In response to a lawsuit brought by Burmese citizens against the US energy company Unocal, the Bush White House has filed a brief in a California Federal Court to overhaul a...

Cancun: A Battle for Life

Yanuar Nugroho July 16, 2003
Developing countries must be prepared to wage war on unfair trade regulations at the next round of WTO talks in Cancun, says an Indonesian scholar in the Jakarta Post. Recession has slowed the economies of the developed world and the September meeting in Cancun will likely be aimed at reducing trade barriers and opening the markets of developing countries to rich nations like the United States...

Norway vs. the Glass Ceiling

Lizette Alvarez July 14, 2003
Women could soon find themselves much more at home in boardrooms across Norway. Part of a legislative trend spreading across Europe, at summer's end Norway's parliament is expected to reconfigure the sex ratio of corporate boardrooms so that women will occupy 40 percent of board seats by 2007. The bill is drawing concern from domestic business groups but arrives at a time when the...

Employers Take United Stand in Insisting on Labor Concessions

Steven Greenhouse July 11, 2003
The situation of American workers in several large corporations is a striking illustration of the negative effects of globalization and a more integrated world economy. In large part because of low-cost foreign labor, American corporations are gaining the upper hand in negotiations with worker unions. Even in industries that are thriving, management claims that the pressure to compete requires...

Where Have All the Chinese Gone?

Sunil Jain July 7, 2003
Multinational corporations aggressively courted China, the world’s most populous nation, in the hope of tapping into what they hoped would be the largest consumer market. However, as an Indian journalist notes, increasingly MNCs are discovering that China’s population does not necessarily translate into a consumer market. For one thing, rural Chinese – a substantial percentage of the population...

Foreign Influence Growing in Telecom Sector

Yang Sung-jin July 3, 2003
In South Korea, foreign investment firms are putting pressure on the government to allow greater foreign ownership of telecommunication companies. South Korea is one of the leading East Asian countries in deregulation, allowing foreign investment and market forces to have a considerable degree of influence. While the telecommunications sector is currently in much need of capital, some of the...

Welcome to the Grid: Unlimited PC Power at Your Fingertips

Alok Jha July 3, 2003
The internet changed the world by making information accessible to computer users across the globe. Now, the evolution of the internet will increase those global ties tenfold while changing the way the world solves problems. Most users of the internet currently download information from servers onto their personal computers, or PCs. They are limited in how they use that information by the power...