In The News

The Women Bringing Solar Power to Sierra Leone

September 15, 2011
Developing renewables to meet the growing demand for energy is a top priority in the 21st century. So is enhancing collaboration among developing countries. By training semi-literate women from rural Sierra Leone in solar-energy techniques, Barefoot College in western India works towards achieving both these goals. Twelve women attended and then returned to villages in Sierra Leone to assemble 1,...

Writing the Global Journey

Salil Tripathi September 12, 2011
The age-old quest for a better life, the ever-increasing speed of travel that forms the heart of globalization, has also transformed modern literature. London-based writer Salil Tripathi describes Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdie, both born in India and now living and celebrated in the West, as among the most successful authors in portraying an individual’s ability to survive and adapt to a...

Saving the Environment for 9 Billion – II

Chandran Nair August 30, 2011
Those who care about the life of future generations recognize that today’s unbridled economic growth is unsustainable, and the world must prepare for 9 billion inhabitants by 2050, contends Chandran Nair in the second article of a two-part YaleGlobal series. Asia cannot afford to mimic the American lifestyle and would be wise to ignore western encouragement for greater consumption in pursuit of...

China's Businesses Boom, But Its Brands Don't

Rob Gifford July 25, 2011
China is the world’s factory, yet other countries supply most of the designs. Chinese brands aren’t flowing along with the “Made in China” labels on products. “A key problem for Chinese businesses is a comparative lack of legal protection,” explains Rob Gifford for NPR. For China to move toward innovation, with corporate research and development, it must develop intellectual property rights to...

Asia Matters for America

Satu Limaye June 28, 2011
US workers and politicians rail about jobs lost to Asia. But Asian-US interactions in education, immigration, investment, tourism and trade produce US jobs and income, explains Satu Limaye, director of the East-West Center in Washington. He created Asia Matters for America, an online map that relies on US government data to show exports, as well as their growth and percentage of total trade,...

More Foreign Interns Seek Work in China

Xu Junqian and Duan Yan June 28, 2011
Adventurous graduates, facing a troubled job market in the US, turn to internships and work for free in exchange for experience. Spurred by publicity about the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then the global financial crisis, increasing numbers head to China, reports China Daily. The international program AIESEC, based in the Netherlands, arranges internships in 107 nations; China is now the most...

Could Compost Piles Someday Heat a Home?

Kenneth Sturtz June 28, 2011
Organic waste is part of everyone’s garbage, and a group of high school students in upstate New York have set out to study if compost piles could someday heat homes. In that part of the world average low mid-winter temperatures dip below -10 degrees Celsius. Bacteria and microorganisms break down organic materials and produce heat as a byproduct. The students studied three industrial-sized...