In The News

Bush's Proposal for Immigration Reform Misses the Point

Andres Oppenheimer January 8, 2004
A day after US President George W. Bush announced proposed changes to US immigration policy, some are saying the changes do not go deep enough. If it meets with approval from the US Congress, Bush's proposal would grant identity cards to millions of illegal workers and allow them to continue to work legally for three years. The plans were announced just one week before Bush meets with the...

Rethinking Globalization: Nirvana or Armageddon?

Yanuar Nugroho January 5, 2004
Globalization has been promoted and denounced by people around the world, but who is right? Yanuar Nugroho, Director of Business Watch Indonesia, writes that those arguments miss the point, because the processes of globalization are inevitable and unstoppable. To make globalization work for all, he argues, we must develop a people-centered globalization that focuses on pulling the world's...

Foreign Adoptions Tricky, Tough

Ashley Fantz December 17, 2003
American and European childless couples often make the choice to adopt from another country, assuming that the process will be quicker and easier. Instead, couples often find difficult hurdles to overcome, such as domestic and foreign laws, illegal kidnapping, greedy middlemen, visa trouble, and agencies that do not properly determine if the child was legitimately taken from the birth mother....

'Hasten Slowly' in Reviving the Doha Round

Ernesto Zedillo December 12, 2003
Reviving the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) after the debacle in Cancun will not be possible if negotiators pretend that nothing has happened. Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico and Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, argues that further trade talks will only be useful if the participating countries recognize the lessons that should have been...

Japan's Mating Culture Extends Baby Drought

David Turner December 9, 2003
The world population will rise to slightly over 9 billion people within the next century. Yet Japan and many European countries face possibly catastrophic population declines. Strikingly low birthrates don’t only threaten economic growth and domestic familial dynamics, but could provoke "shifts in the political weights of countries in the international arena." Concern is so great...

UN Calls for More Aid to Help North Korea Reform

Andrew Ward December 3, 2003
North Korea has seen much of its food aid disappear in the past year, presumably as donor nations aim to pressure Pyongyang to stop its nuclear weapons program. In the shift to a market economy, one million people were left without food, and analysts say that the politically-minded decision to cut off aid is starving the public. Without an increase in aid, North Koreans will be in dire straits...

Africa: Gender Inequality Fuels AIDS Crisis

December 3, 2003
Agencies trying to curb the AIDS crisis in Africa need to expand their approach, argues Human Rights Watch. There is a crucial link between gender inequality and the spread of AIDS. Sexual assault, the use of rape as a mechanism of war, the cultural acceptance of domestic violence, and women's lack of voice have kept women at the mercy of the disease in Africa. On that continent, women are...