In The News

Gay Bombay Comes Out

Zubair Ahmed June 19, 2003
In the last decade, Indian gay men in cosmopolitan cities like New Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta have established international social networks, organizations and Internet forums to create a modern and global gay community. The publication of The Boyfriend, a love story between two men, one openly gay and the other unable to accept his homosexuality, typifies the increasingly unapologetic public...

A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom June 16, 2003
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman argues for a world united by common cultural experiences. But cultural globalization, writes historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom, is not so simple as eating a McDonald's hamburger that tastes the same on every continent. Standardized products like Big Macs and Starbucks coffee hold very different meanings in different countries, argues Wasserstrom. In China...

Students Roil Iranian Capital in 3rd Night of Protests

Neil MacFarquhar June 13, 2003
Violent and vocal, Iranian students marched in protest again this week. The immediate stimulus was a government proposal to privatize the universities, but, according to one government worker who joined in, "For 25 years we have lived without any freedom. We want social freedom, economic freedom and political freedom." Cell phone calls by protesters to a Persian-language television...

Crisis Puts Burma Back in the Spotlight

David I. Steinberg June 11, 2003
The current flurry of interest in Burma occasioned by the arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will likely wane, as it has so often in the past, before another episode thrusts it back to the world's attention. David Steinberg, a Burma scholar, says that such sporadic focus, accompanied by sanctions, has not made any change in the Burmese situation. He maintains that current policies...

Asia Takes Starring Role

Kenny Stantara June 11, 2003
Hollywood has recently begun to take notice of South East Asian stars and movies, introducing actresses such as Fann Wong to American cinema and expanding the repertoire of Asian films released in the United States. Southeast Asia’s time in the US limelight is largely due to the influence of major Hollywood names, including actor Tom Cruise and director Francis Ford Coppola, who have ensured...

E-Mail Message Blitz Creates What May Be Fastest Fad Ever

Saul Hansell June 9, 2003
After the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency announced that they would create a deck of playing cards with the names and photos of the top Iraqi leaders to be distributed to border guards, Internet marketing companies all rushed to get reproduction rights. One company, GreatUSAflags.com, along with its partner Lionstone International, sold 1.5 million decks via email within a matter of days,...

Globalization with Few Discontents?

June 3, 2003
As a sub-section of the Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, "View of a Changing World," this article examines the global public's attitudes towards globalization in the past five years. Generally, peoples of the world agree - albeit to different degrees - that after experiencing globalization through trade, finance, travel, communication and culture, they favor an interconnected...