In The News

Making Profits Cannot Be an End in Itself

Lim Boon Heng February 27, 2004
In this Straits Times article, Singapore's union chief Lim Boon Heng reflects on the current crisis in the global corporate sector, and ponders about an alternative to the prevalent model of cut-throat capitalism. Instead of attacking the basic tenet of capitalism - profit making - he acknowledges that profit is important to society because “Without businesses, there will be no commerce,...

If We Go, Let's Stay Until Job Is Done

Joseph L. Galloway February 25, 2004
With US nation-building efforts underway in Afghanistan and Iraq, can Washington afford to sink money, time, and human resources into yet another foreign country? For the sake of over 7 million Haitians, says this Miami Herald commentary, once the political will is mustered, the answer should be 'Yes'. Despite having attempted three times in the 20th century to build a stable Haiti,...

The Knowledge Economy

Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed February 25, 2004
How do poor countries advance social scientific research agendas to better their societies? Are their agendas set by their own self-determined needs or by the interests of outsiders? Since the end of the Cold War, says political scientist Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed El-Sayed, researchers dependent on foreign aid have less and less control over how the funds are used. In Egypt, funding from foreign...

A Global Generation Gap

February 24, 2004
According to the latest Pew survey on global attitudes, generational differences fuel much of the current social and political tension over globalization, nationalism, and immigration. Though strong majorities worldwide view increased global interconnectedness in a positive light, the concept is far more popular among young people in most regions. This greater reluctance among the world’s older...

A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All

February 24, 2004
A new report issued by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization acknowledges that globalization's "potential for good is immense," but points to record unemployment levels as a sign that globalization has not met the majority of men and women's "simple and legitimate aspirations for decent jobs and a better future for their children." The...

Programming Jobs are Heading Overseas by the Thousands

Stephen Baker February 23, 2004
Future computer programmers in the US and India are approaching vastly different thresholds. As US software programmers' career prospects are dwindling, Indian tech graduates see futures "brimming with optimism." In the past three years, the number of jobs offshored from the US has nearly tripled, and economists predict that one in ten tech jobs in the US eventually will move to...

Meet the Zippies

Thomas L. Friedman February 22, 2004
Wearing clothes other than the traditional Indian outfits, India's youth of today have become the first generation in the country to welcome global trade and the western jobs that come with it "with a zip in the stride." In this column in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman shows us the "zippies" phenomenon in India's many big cities like Bangalore. With 54% of the...