In The News

Pew Survey Says America Most Religious of Wealthy Nations

December 23, 2002
The latest poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that Americans place a higher degree of personal importance on religion than residents of other wealthy countries. The survey of 44 countries, part of The Pew Global Attitudes Project, also found that residents of Asia, Latin America, and Africa tend to place a great deal of importance on religion in their own lives. – YaleGlobal

No Sugar Coating, Just Tea Please

Amira El-Noshokaty December 18, 2002
Modern 'Western' medicine – consisting now of pharmaceutical drugs manufactured in factories – has spread around the world as the norm for medical treatment. Despite its popularity, though, traditional medicine forms, such as acupuncture and herbal treatments, are also reaching out from their original bases to benefit people around the globe. The International Seminar on the...

Malaysia Outlaws 'Insulting' Brad Pitt Ads

Claire Cozens December 17, 2002
While beauty standards across the globe may be converging to a blonde, blue-eyed ideal, one Asian government is saying 'Not on our turf!' The globalization of the media has allowed some American and European celebrities to enjoy international face recognition, and big-name celebrities can make big money pushing products in Asia that would never get approval from their agents and image...

Patent Your Heritage

Tina Rosenberg December 15, 2002
Online libraries in the making will soon document and patent the traditional and biological heritage that is being exploited by pharmaceutical companies in the industrialized world. India is leading the crusade against the misappropriation of their medicinal patrimony by shielding it instead of trying to take it back from foreigners who patented it. This online library will provide a translation...

'A Global Image on the Way Down'

Robert A. Levine December 13, 2002
Assessing the significance of the Pew Research Center survey of attitudes towards America, Robert Levine breaks the story into four questions: "Why don't they like us? Should we care? What can we do about it? What should we do about it?" Each of these questions needs to be carefully considered by all Americans, especially those in charge, he writes, but answers are not easy. On...

China Has World's Tightest Internet Censorship, Study Finds

Joseph Kahn December 4, 2002
"Defying predictions that the Internet was inherently too diverse and malleable for state control, China has denied a vast majority of its 46 million Internet users access to information that it feels could weaken its authoritarian power." That's the conclusion of a new survey of internet use in China done by a team of researchers at Harvard University. The six-month study found...

Pew Survey Finds America’s Global Stature Diminished

December 4, 2002
The globalization of media and the information technology revolution have made American actions visible to the entire world. In a wide-sweeping survey of 38,000 people in 44 countries – a feat accomplished in large part thanks to globalization – the Pew Foundation finds a gloomy image of the US overseas. From the state of American democracy to America's unilateralist stance in the...