In The News

Southeast Asian Democratization in the Era of Globalization

Roy Voragen January 16, 2008
Anticipating the consequences of globalization is one way of adapting to the rapid change. Increasingly, individuals acquire wealth not so much through hard work or innovation than by predicting globalization’s intricate twisting paths. Cities and citizens in the developed nations, while they complain about globalization, are better prepared for adapting to the effects than citizens in developing...

Europe Takes Africa’s Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow

Sharon LaFraniere January 15, 2008
Huge industrial trawlers, most from Europe, push through waters off the African coast, efficiently scraping sea beds clean of fish. Such nonselective industrial fishing has devastated fish populations and habitat, destroying a livelihood and encouraging more African fishermen to use their boats to assist fellow Africans in fleeing their homelands for work in Europe. Governments throughout Africa...

Malawi's “Free Trade” Revolt

Benjamin R. Barber January 14, 2008
“Free trade” conditions accompany foreign aid, forcing the poor farmers in developing countries to compete with subsidized crops produced by powerful wealthy nations. In following the strict conditions to secure aid, Malawi had to battle starvation. Frustrated, Malawi defied World Bank policy in recent years by subsidizing fertilizer and seed programs for its farmers, allowing crops to expand...

World Food Stocks Dwindling Rapidly, UN Warns

Elisabeth Rosenthal January 10, 2008
Extreme weather events, a growing population, increasing affluence adding more meat to diets and diversion of grain crops for subsidized biofuels have led to depleted food reserves and soaring prices reserves. High oil prices add to the complications of transferring food aid to the most vulnerable developing nations. Wealthy nations can compensate by reducing tariffs and importing more grain,...

2007 DMN Texan of the Year: The Illegal Immigrant

January 4, 2008
Undocumented immigrants are no longer a rarity in the US, representing a hefty and growing percentage of workers in the cleaning, agriculture, food-processing, landscaping, restaurant and construction industries. US immigration rates since 2000 have exceeded those from previous historical periods, and government enforcement has essentially vanished. The Dallas Morning News, in naming a "...

African Aid Projects That Work: Partnerships on the Ground, Not Donations From a Distance

January 1, 2008
Donors who want to help Africa, by sending funds or supplies, must do research about the real needs and support systems in any community: Funds can go unspent or into the pockets of corrupt officials; sending electrical devices to communities that lack power or office supplies to organizations lacking desks or office space can often end up frustrating both donors and Africans alike. Gifts that...

A Young Tinkerer Builds a Windmill, Electrifying a Nation

Sarah Childress December 31, 2007
Forced to drop out of school at age 14 because his family could no longer afford tuition, William Kamkwamba of Malawi set out to study energy and build windmills on his own. “Energy poverty” limits development, economies and jobs in the world’s poorest nations, explains Sarah Childress for the Wall Street Journal. Kamkwamba, now 20, built his windmill, by lashing blue-gum tree trunks together for...