In The News

Can Corporations Safeguard Labor and Human Rights?

Susan Ariel Aaronson June 24, 2004
Recent scandals over US mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan have badly tarnished America’s human rights record. Grave as the abuses are, says globalization scholar Susan Ariel Aaronson, the Bush administration can help restore at least a measure of goodwill by promoting human rights and labor protections in the factories of US-based multinational corporations. The anti-...

Key Cocaine Routes Closed, Feds Say

Jay Weaver June 24, 2004
US officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration have arrested another 50 cocaine smugglers, cutting the total supply of cocaine entering the US by 10 percent over five years. Colombia has long been the main source of cocaine for the American market, but smugglers have had to take a circuitous route through the Caribbean island nations to get to their drop off points in southern Florida....

Unravelling 'Enlightened Moderation'

Masooda Bano June 18, 2004
In a critical rejoinder to an article by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Masooda Bano chastise Musharraf for calling on all Muslims to "bow unquestioningly to US demands." The "apologetic mindset" Musharraf evidences is an insult to Muslims worldwide and overlooks the achievements and strengths of many Muslims. He accepts that Muslim groups are responsible for...

Court Limits Sales on eBay

Kristina Merkner June 18, 2004
A Frankfurt court has decided that it will enforce a German law allowing publishers to fix the prices of their books. An entrepreneurial journalist who had sold about 40 review copies of a book on the online auction site, eBay, was in violation of the law, the court said. There was some legal debate over whether European Union free-trade regulation made the law invalid, but the German book...

Private Schools Asked to Revise Textbooks

Mohsen Rashid June 15, 2004
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all private schools – regardless of the curricula they teach – might soon come under the strict control of Islamic social and religious codes. This article in the Khaleej Times reports that all private schools have been ordered by the Ministry of Education and Youth to revise their textbooks in order to disallow ideas and concepts contrary to Islamic teachings....

'Radical' A-Mei Cancels Show in China

Chiu Yu-tzu June 14, 2004
Do pop artists' politics matter? Some students in China apparently think so. As Taiwanese pop singer A-Mei prepared to take the stage in the Chinese city of Hangzhou last weekend, local university students – her natural fan base – unfurled banners protesting her presumed support of Taiwanese independence. A-Mei is not alone, however. Other Taiwanese pop singers, who generally enjoy...

Indonesia's Shameful Export

Devi Asmarani June 8, 2004
Last month, Indonesia was forced to face the reality of a widespread child prostitution network when a woman was arrested for employing young schoolgirls as prostitutes from a food stall in a densely populated neighborhood in South Jakarta. This article in the Straits Times reports that the 1997 economic crisis has caused millions of children to take to the worst of forms of child labor,...