In The News

China's Conquest of Africa

Andreas Lorenz June 15, 2007
China is purchasing and investing in Africa’s natural resources and, in return, providing the continent with cheap consumer goods and a powerful trading partner. Not all Africans are pleased. Some, such as Michael Chilufya Sata, head of Zambia’s Patriotic Front, an opposition group, points out that the Chinese don’t have to pay taxes and warns voters that China could export dictatorship to Africa...

Megacities, Mega Dreams for a Connected World

Suketu Mehta June 14, 2007
Throughout the history of the world, cities have lured people for both cooperation and competition. Megacities of the modern era such as Bombay not only symbolize dreams and dashed hopes, they also pose an array of consequences for the interconnected world. The paradoxes are many, with disaster making way for renewal and today’s sacrifices and long-term planning delivering future promise, writes...

The Last 'Competitive Advantage': Letter From China

Jehangir S. Pocha June 12, 2007
Workers of the West resent the transfer of manufacturing jobs to China, as companies pursue cost advantages and low wages. With good jobs hard to come by, the Chinese have little choice but to work long days for low wages. Some employers withhold wages altogether. Allowing competition to take its course and viewing jobs of any sort as the best way to alleviate poverty, the Chinese government has...

Seething Anger in a Broken Middle East

Fawaz A. Gerges June 12, 2007
Early in 2003, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman applied a rule common in retail pottery stores, “You break it, you own it,” to the then-impending invasion in Iraq. The succinct analogy warned that the US and other invading nations would bear responsibility for rebuilding Iraq. More than four years later, political and social institutions throughout the Middle East are in ruins, with...

Sari Weavers Struggle Amid Economic Boom

Emily Wax June 11, 2007
In India, weaving saris is a common way to earn a living, second only to farming in terms of the country’s most popular occupation. “The father of independent India, Mohandas Gandhi, clad in his homespun loincloth, launched his nationalist movement to defy colonialism by encouraging Indians to stop wearing cheap British machine-made cloth in favor of Indian-made fabrics, partly as a gesture of...

Today’s Iraqi Refugees Key to Tomorrow’s Stability

Humphrey Hawksley June 7, 2007
On the surface, China’s gradual transition from Tiananmen-era suppression of dissent to controlled-yet-liberating market economics would seem to hold few lessons for turbulent Iraq. After all, Iraq needs many more resources, including an end to sectarian violence, before even attempting to emulate China’s evolution toward a competitive and developed economy, one achieved through careful...

Betting on Biofuels

William K. Caesar June 7, 2007
Potential in the biofuel industry depends on three factors: feedstock costs and availability, government regulations, and conversion technology. With feedstock responsible for at least 50 percent of biofuel production costs, the price has a huge impact on the profits a company can make. However, growing demand for feedstock poses consequences: Rising demand for ethanol increases US corn prices;...