In The News

Why Africa Fears Western Medicine

Harriet A. Washington August 14, 2007
Africa has a history of Western doctors who claim to provide health care while in reality “administrating deadly agents.” The most infamous example is Wouter Basson, who killed hundreds through injecting poisons, but was never convicted. More recently, a Libyan court convicted a foreign physician and five nurses of infecting children with AIDS, before releasing the providers to Bulgaria. Many...

Kenyan Farmers’ Fate Caught Up in US Aid Rules

Celia W. Dugger August 2, 2007
US legislators debate a massive farm bill – estimated at more than $260 billion – which will fund loans, subsidies, conservation and many other agriculture activities over the next five years. The Bush administration has proposed allowing the purchase of up to $300 million worth of food in poor countries to quicken response times during times of emergency. The US often provides food aid to Africa...

Globalization Study Moves Past Rhetoric

David Wessel July 27, 2007
Corporations have long insisted that globalization delivers prosperity. But a report commissioned by the Financial Services Forum, an association of CEOs of 20 major financial firms, admits that most benefits have gone to a select few. International operations increasingly account for most sales and business conducted by multinational firms, writes David Wessel for the Wall Street Journal. But...

Interrupting a History of Tolerance – Part II

Riaz Hassan July 24, 2007
The roots of anti-Semitism in the Middle East are based not in Islamic traditions, but in practical opposition to external intervention, argues Riaz Hassan, professor of sociology in Australia. The first two articles of this three-part series analyze historical events that allowed anti-Semitism to permeate the Middle East. In the early 20th century, Palestinians fiercely resisted Jewish settlers...

Libya’s Release of 6 Prisoners Raises Criticism

Matthew Brunwasser and Elaine Sciolino July 24, 2007
In 1999, Libya accused five nurses and a physician, based in Benghazi, of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Over the next eight years, the health-care providers, five from Bulgaria and one from Palestine, endured imprisonment, three trials and death sentences. Analysts suggest that the unsanitary conditions in the hospitals infected the children...

Global Fishing Trade Depletes African Waters

John W. Miller July 23, 2007
Fish is a favorite food for the global palate. Since 1982, a United Nations treaty allowed countries to restrict fishing within 231 miles of their coasts. Poor African nations, such as Mauritania or Senegal, found a lucrative source for cash when they started selling fishing rights to wealthy European and Asian countries that had already depleted stocks in their own waters. Most of the African...

We Should Welcome the Dawn of the Migration Age

Ban Ki-moon July 17, 2007
Globalization, like other phenomena, occurs in stages, explains Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations. In the first stage, the flow of capital and goods increased, and, for the most part, developed countries benefited. That stage prompted the age of mobility, with people crossing borders in search a better life and opportunities. Mobility has benefits – for example, remittances,...