In The News

Here's All the News on TV that Fits the Muslim Stereotype

Gwynne Dyer August 21, 2003
News channels – even the most reputable ones – are disproportionately covering stories about violent Muslims, London journalist Gwynne Dyer maintains. On any given night, the international news is likely to be dominated by stories about Iraqi guerrillas, Islamic terrorists in Indonesia, rioting between Muslim sects in Pakistan, and Europeans taken hostage by Muslim guerillas in Mali. Covering...

Indian Companies Are Adding Western Flavor

Saritha Rai August 19, 2003
American corporations are increasingly sending service-oriented, knowledge-intensive jobs to India. The new employees are well-educated, English-speaking, and fully prepared to answer any technical question an American customer might ask. Just don't expect them to know how to sip wine at a business party or the appropriate way to greet an American colleague. Such subtle, Western, cultural...

Exploited and Far from Home, Some Au Pairs Are Mistreated

Anna von Münchhausen August 15, 2003
Working and living abroad as an au pair should be an exciting and rewarding experience for young men and women. It gives them the opportunity to stay with a family while they experience an unfamiliar culture. But this very unfamiliarity – so exciting when the au pairs are warmly received – can also leave them vulnerable to abuse. In March 2002, the German au pair market was liberalized and...

Why the Jemaah Islamiah is Still Alive in Indonesia

Derwin Pereira August 13, 2003
The Indonesian government cannot directly attack Jemaah Islamiah, the infamous terrorist network responsible for the bombing of Jakarta's Marriot Hotel last week. Though the country supported the UN's blacklisting of the group and knows that members were responsible for the two bloodiest terror attacks in Indonesian history, officials remain reluctant to target the group as a whole....

MTV Goes to Asia

Kenny Santana August 12, 2003
MTV and American pop music have invaded Asia. Still, local music is flourishing. Though Britney Spears and the show "Punk'd" regularly appear on Asian television screens, locally themed shows currently comprise up to 80 percent of MTV Asia's programming. MTV's strategy has always been to tailor its programming to local tastes, says Jakarta-based writer Kenny Santana....

Antitobacco Trend Has Reached Europe

Lizette Alvarez August 11, 2003
A sip from a pint and a drag on a cigarette are almost ritualistic in pubs across Ireland. Yet, come January 1, the Irish government will impose a ban on smoking in pubs and perhaps permanently change an age-old part of Irish culture. Ireland will be the first country to impose such a ban in Europe. However, its strict new law is merely the most recent development in a growing wave of anti-...

Conservatives Protest Gay Bishop

Ryan Alexander August 6, 2003
Will the Anglican Church split now that the US branch has confirmed an openly gay man as a bishop? The most vocal threats warning of a schism in Anglican unity are coming from the conservative Anglican dioceses in Asia and Africa, where church membership is growing the most rapidly. The Anglican Church's leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is responding to the controversy by beseeching...