In The News

With Little Loans, Mexican Women Overcome

Tim Weiner March 19, 2003
Still struggling after decades of failed poverty alleviation schemes and IMF-imposed structural adjustment programs, poor women in some developing countries are finding hope and success in micro-loans. In Mexico, where banks have generally ignored the financial services needs of the poor, microcredit organizations offer poor people loans of a few hundred dollars to start new small businesses....

No More E-6 Visas for Foreign Dancers

Kim Kyung-ho February 27, 2003
Each year, hundreds of foreign women arrive in South Korea seeking employment as dancers or performers. Now, reports have surfaced of women promised decent jobs and then forced to become bar hostesses or perform sexual acts. As a result, the South Korean government has decided to cancel visas for women who plan to dance at nightspots, but not in stage arts performances. Still, the government may...

Behind Roses' Beauty, Poor and Ill Workers

Ginger Thompson February 13, 2003
In only five years Ecuadorean roses have become one of the most popular Valentine’s Day flowers on the international market. Born out of the anti-drug war in the US, which encouraged Central American farmers to convert to flowers rather than cocoa, Ecuador's flower industry now boasts 50,000 thousand jobs and salaries above minimum wage; the success has transformed a once impoverished...

Islam, Disney Style

Amina Elbendary November 28, 2002
UK-produced Muhammad (Pbuh) The Last Prophet, a story that traces the life of Mohammad and the birth and rise of Islam, arrives in theaters after overcoming impediments over Islamic law's ban on depicting the Prophet and other notable figures. The cartoon tells the story of Muhammad through the voice of Malek, the father of a little girl who, eager to sell her sheep's wool in the market...

No More Fanaticism as Usual

Salman Rushdie November 27, 2002
Globalization of the media allows us to hear and see almost instantly news from around the world, creating a space for global perspectives on important issues that affect people everywhere. Recounting recent events in Egypt, Iran, Nigeria, and the Netherlands involving religious violence and Islamicists, author Salman Rushdie calls on fair-minded Muslims the world over to stand up for their...

100 Die in Nigerian Riot over Miss World Article

November 22, 2002
International television programs are not yet universally accepted in Nigeria. Conservative Muslims have shown serious misgivings about the upcoming world beauty pageant soon to be hosted in their capital city. The nation’s leading newspaper struck a discordant note when it published an article suggesting that Prophet Mohammed desired to marry a Miss World beauty queen. Subsequently, Muslim...

What AIDS Means in a Famine

Alex De Waal November 19, 2002
With 29 million Africans infected with H.I.V. and a life expectancy of under 40 for countries hit hardest by the disease, the last thing African governments need is a famine. Without assistance from resource-poor African governments, African families will have to develop new tactics to confront the dual threat of H.I.V. and famine. Prior to the outbreak of AIDS, families were experts at...