In The News

Preservation of Asia’s Forests: A Global Hurdle

Takeshi Toma July 9, 2003
The destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests is a local problem with global consequences and solutions, this Jakarta Post article maintains. While forests provide integral resources both locally and globally, curbing their degradation requires a collective effort. The recently formed Asia Forest Partnership (AFP), comprised now of 10 member countries, provides an excellent start. However,...

A Helping Hand from Bush to Africans?

Abdallah Abu-Younis July 8, 2003
US President Bush’s agenda for his upcoming trip to Africa is packed with high stakes issues. AIDS, poverty, corruption, and state failure run rampant across the continent, threatening US interests by providing the shroud of chaos for terrorist groups. However, as this editorial in The Arab News points out, Bush must be careful not to generalize about Africa’s problems and solutions. African...

Closing Doors to Growth

July 8, 2003
Having the most closed markets in the world is nothing to be proud of, this editorial in an influential Indian business daily maintains. According to a recent World Trade Organization report, less globalized countries saw per capita income growth just 0.9 percent per annum, while those that were highly globalized saw annual incomes grow by 4.3 percent. Therefore, the editorial argues, if India...

African Pundits Heckle Bush for ‘Safari’

Jefferson Morley July 8, 2003
Africa’s online media has been attacking US President Bush’s agenda even before his five-day trip around the continent got under way.. Journalists in each of the countries he is visiting – as well as in some that he’s not – doubt Bush’s sincerity and motivations vocally or tacitly. Concern over American hegemony figured prominently in the South African and Zambian press, which maintained Bush...

Non-Globalized States Pose a Threat

Banning N. Garrett July 7, 2003
Liberia's raging civil war is bringing the issue of failing states in Africa dramatically to the fore as US President Bush begins his first ever trip to the continent. Amidst domestic bloodbath, the threat posed to the interconnected world by failing states like Liberia or other rogue or weak states may not be immediately apparent. However, as this article points out, the weakness of such...

Where Have All the Chinese Gone?

Sunil Jain July 7, 2003
Multinational corporations aggressively courted China, the world’s most populous nation, in the hope of tapping into what they hoped would be the largest consumer market. However, as an Indian journalist notes, increasingly MNCs are discovering that China’s population does not necessarily translate into a consumer market. For one thing, rural Chinese – a substantial percentage of the population...

Indonesian Muslims Can Consume GMO Foods

July 7, 2003
Muslims in Indonesia are now free to consume genetically modified organism (GMO) foods. Though there has been no official statement, the highest Indonesian Muslim body authorized to approve and make religious rulings on processed foods distributed within the country, the Ulemas Council (MUI), has implicitly approved the products by not issuing a fatwa (legal advice). Without a fatwa, Muslims...