In The News

World Set Back 10 Years by Bush's New World Order, Says Blair Aide

Paul Brown April 14, 2004
In a recent statement, the British prime minister's senior advisor Jonathan Porritt says US President George W. Bush has had a "devastating impact" on the world's work on sustainable development. Porrit accused the Bush administration's bad policies in a wide range of issues related to sustainable development, including climate change, international aid, family planning,...

Uzbeks' Anger at Rulers Boils Over

Seth Mydans April 8, 2004
The recent terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan highlight the country's overall decay and discontent. Ruled since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 by President Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan appears mired in economic depression, and political terror: 80% of the people live in poverty and most talk as if still living under Soviet era oppression. Furthermore, lack of civil society groups, a free press...

EU Food Rules Test African Development

William Wallis April 6, 2004
New food safety regulations, implemented by the European Union (EU), will make it mandatory "for all fruit and vegetable products arriving in the EU to be traceable at all stages of production, processing and distribution." These new regulations are intended to ensure against potential public health scares such as the mad cow disease that have plagued the EU in recent years. Yet, the...

Bombings and Shootings Rock Uzbekistan

Esmer Islamov March 30, 2004
Bombs have ripped through Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capitol. While no group has claimed responsibility, officials have suggested foreign terrorists and Muslim radicals as the possible cause. But many Uzbeki's are more likely to blame the widespread discontent with President Islam Karimov's government: the result of the deepening sense of loss of liberty and democracy, and the...

74 Illegal Immigrants Held in Surprise Raid in Abu Dhabi

Muawia E. Ibrahim March 24, 2004
The movement of people across countries is very much a fact of modern life. International migration is instrumental in decreasing the distance between different cultures and people. Yet, in the contemporary period of global terrorism and ethno-religious violence, migrants can also be the source of tremendous anxiety. This week in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, immigration squads...

Making Business Work for the Poor

Ernesto Zedillo March 17, 2004
As the debate on how to best alleviate poverty in developing countries continue to rage, Ernesto Zedillo, the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and the former president of Mexico, suggests one commonsense solution – facilitating private entrepreneurship to help people pull themselves out of the informal economy and into the larger formal marketplace. Current difficulties...

Still Not Too Late to Prevent a Doomsday

James Gustave Speth March 10, 2004
When it comes to the global environment, optimistic views are few and far between. In his new book, Red Sky at Morning, James Gustave Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, tackles the challenges posed by global environmental problems with rare optimism. In this essay adapted from his book, he acknowledges that there is much to be pessimistic about. Although some...