In The News

Some Lost Jobs Never Leave Home

Jessica M. Vaughan May 2, 2004
With global trade expanding to all sectors, the US is now witnessing not just its goods being produced abroad, but increasingly, services as well. Many American companies, seeing the advantages of hiring foreign workers, have moved a step further – instead of moving service centers abroad, many companies are now importing foreign professionals into the US to do the job. This kind of outsourcing...

Is a Do-Gooder Company a Good Thing?

Amy Harmon May 2, 2004
Is Google, the ubiquitous search-engine website, a completely neutral resource for users worldwide? The corporate motto of the company is “don’t do evil,” but as reporter Amy Harmon of the New York Times writes, Google is so influential that questions of morality are difficult to address. Rankings in search results, for example, can make or break small businesses selling through the internet....

HIV Case Airs Secrets of Porn Industry

Alan Clendenning April 29, 2004
Boasting uninhibited women, lush tropical backdrops, and cheap production costs, Brazil has become a prime destination for adult film outsourcing. But Brazil also has the second highest incidence of HIV and AIDS in the western hemisphere. Last month, the porn industry's increasingly global risks surfaced when an American porn actor contracted HIV after shooting unprotected sex scenes with...

Silicon Valley Dons a Brave Face, Despite Worries

S.L. Bachman April 28, 2004
During the 1990s, Silicon Valley reigned supreme as the heart of technological innovation and the birthplace of the information technology revolution. Today, says globalization scholar S.L. Bachman, the tech hub is scrambling to mobilize regional resources to compete in the international technology market it helped to create. Economically, the San Francisco Bay region is recovering from the...

Canadians Allow Islamic Courts to Decide Disputes

DeNeen L. Brown April 28, 2004
In Ontario, Canada, Muslims can now choose to decide civil disputes under sharia, a form of Islamic law. Practitioners may agree to arbitration in tribunals separate from the Canadian judicial system, run by imams and Muslim elders. The power of these courts would be limited, and the Canadian government reserves the right to overturn decisions. The idea for establishing sharia in Canada came from...

Losing Our Edge?

Thomas L. Friedman April 22, 2004
After talking to high-tech entrepreneurs in California's Silicon Valley, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman felt "a real undertow of concern that America is losing its competitive edge vis-à-vis China, India, Japan and other Asian tigers, and that the Bush team is deaf, dumb and blind to this situation." Executives "complained bitterly" that the...

Native Son: Samuel Huntington Defends the Homeland

Alan Wolfe April 21, 2004
According to reviewer Alan Wolfe, Samuel Huntington’s distinguishing characteristic in previous books has been detached pragmatism. However, in Huntington's latest book, Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity, he delves into the issue of immigration to America with unprecedented ardor and nostalgic sentiment. It is this “moralistic passion” that clouds his powers of...