In The News

Baby Perks for Parents

Daniel Buenas August 24, 2004
The flipside of the myriad benefits enjoyed by economically developed countries is a general decrease in birth rates. When fewer children are born, a dwindling working class must support the elderly population’s increasing healthcare costs while maintaining economic output. Singapore is combating this trend by offering women incentives for childbirth: an additional month of maternity leave and...

Coping with World Population Boom and Bust – Part II

Joseph Chamie August 24, 2004
In a growing number of countries, average fertility rates have fallen below replacement levels, the numbers necessary to ensure stable population. While concerns about shrinking populations have arisen in the past, the issue now affects almost all regions of the world. In the second installment of a two-part series, UN demographer Joseph Chamie details governments' struggles to curb the...

A Little Red Dot and Tension Across the Taiwan Strait

Lee Hsien Loong August 23, 2004
During his first National Day Rally speech, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced and expounded upon the continuance of Singapore’s “One China” policy in the wake of his non-official visit to Taiwan. Tracing the root of the policy back to Singapore’s independence in 1965, Lee emphasized his nation’s desire for good relations with both Taiwan and the mainland. At the same time, he...

Soccer “Match for Peace”

Michael A.W. Ottey August 19, 2004
Only a few months ago, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody revolt and peacekeepers sanctioned by the United Nations descended upon the country to restore order. Among the international forces was a large contingent of Brazilian troops. A different group of Brazilians, however, stole Haiti’s national limelight recently when the Brazilian soccer team squared off...

Coping with World Population Boom and Bust – Part I

Joseph Chamie August 19, 2004
The world’s population - currently at 6.4 billion - has quadrupled over the past century. In the first of a two-part series, UN demographer Joseph Chamie says that the global population boom has been accompanied by revolutionary changes in life expectancy, fertility, population aging, and large-scale migration – issues that will fundamentally shape the politics of the next century. Even with...

Report Reveals London's Sex Slaves

Simon Jeffery August 19, 2004
A recent report provides a snapshot of London's off-street prostitution, claiming that more than 8,000 women are working in brothels, saunas and massage parlors across the city, as well as businesses that put up ads in newspapers and websites. A closer look at the nationalities of these women, however, finds that three quarters of them are non-British, coming mostly from eastern Europe and...

Why Does Hollywood Dominate US Cinemas?

Christina Klein August 17, 2004
As the foreign film market in the US continues to shrink, American distributors play increasingly larger roles as cultural gate-keepers. However, says Christina Klein, professor of literature and comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the newest generation in commercial Asian cinema eludes simple classification. Challenging older notions of foreign films as...