In The News

Globalization of Beauty Makes Slimness Trendy

Noritmitsu Onishi October 3, 2002
When a Nigerian woman won the Miss World in 2001, she created a buzz in a nation that thought it would never win a competition based on western standards of beauty. Suddenly, Nigeria was number one and modeling agencies were looking for more 'It' girls in Africa. But many Nigerians never found the winner very beautiful. As some said, she was 'a white girl in black skin.' For...

Step Aside, L.A. and Bombay, for Nollywood

Norimitsu Onishi September 16, 2002
In the Surulere district of Lagos, Nigeria the lure of the silver screen beckons aspiring actors and actresses. Quickly assuming the role of the African counterpart to Bombay’s Bollywood and L.A.’s Hollywood, “Nollywood” represents a trend towards the globalization of the entertainment industry. Once Nigeria began exporting its blockbuster films throughout Africa, the market soared, producing...

Oh Blue-Eyed Thais, Flaunt Your Western Genes!

Seth Mydans August 29, 2002
People have traversed the world for millennia, marrying and producing children of multiple heritages. In some parts of the world, the ethnically mixed 'look' is quickly becoming a new trend in beauty. In Thailand, mixed-race people discriminated against for looking “different” when they were younger are finding themselves rising to fame as models, pop stars, and game show hosts. Some...

Asian Tigers May Slay Hollywood Dragon

Tom Plate August 26, 2002
In recent years, film industries in India, China, and several other nations have begun to challenge Hollywood’s hegemonic rule of the global movie market. While the claim has often been that American films, like many other products of globalization, lead to cultural erosion in the rest of the world, the rise in popularity of foreign productions in the United States could symbolize globalization...

Central Asian University Aims to Train Region's Next Leaders

Barbara Crossette August 26, 2002
The new Central Asian University will soon educate students of this multilingual region in a language that goes beyond borders—English. The liberal arts and strong science curriculum contrasts with the specialized Soviet curriculum offered in the past and will be preceded by English lessons and computer-training courses. Some have questioned the choice of language, arguing that Russian is already...

Cybercafe Crackdown May Trip up Leering Boys

Ian Fisher August 1, 2002
In the name of fighting terrorism, the Government of Pakistan has imposed new regulations that would keep track of cybercafe users. The new rules require cybercafes to register with the government and to ask every customer for proof of identity so as to track terrorists and deny them access to public computers. However, like the rest of the world, porn sites, email accounts and chat sites are...

Net Users Try to Elude the Google Grasp

Jennifer Lee July 25, 2002
The stories about two people ‘meeting’ over the internet (and later falling in love) are countless and even old. Scandals and tragedies over personal information being disclosed without one’s approval, however, are beginning to alarm people. Search engines like Google and Altavista, portals through which over 3 billion pages can be accessed, yield thousands of results upon typing in a person’s...