In The News

Globalization of Beauty Makes Slimness Trendy

Noritmitsu Onishi October 3, 2002
When a Nigerian woman won the Miss World in 2001, she created a buzz in a nation that thought it would never win a competition based on western standards of beauty. Suddenly, Nigeria was number one and modeling agencies were looking for more 'It' girls in Africa. But many Nigerians never found the winner very beautiful. As some said, she was 'a white girl in black skin.' For...

Cows Can Fly While World's Poor Starve

Grace Sung October 3, 2002
European agricultural subsidy programs effectively give cows in the EU 1.40 euros per day to live on. Meanwhile, over 3 billion poor people around the globe struggle to survive on 1.3 euros each day. Combined with high tariffs on agricultural products to the EU, the massive subsidization of Europe’s largest farms puts farmers in developing countries at a competitive disadvantage. Despite...

Transcript of Q&A with Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General

October 3, 2002
United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, responded to a series of questions posed to him following his speech on globalization at Yale University. Mr. Annan offered his views on the current Iraq-US conflict, the global AIDS pandemic, the Kashmir conflict, the International Criminal Court. He also shared his personal thoughts on the challenges of leading the world's largest...

Stable Oil Prices Likely to Become a War Casualty, Experts Say

Neela Banerjee October 2, 2002
The current conflict between the US and Iraq, should it escalate to outright war, would have major de-stabilizing effects on the world oil market. A variety of scenarios exist, including short-term price spikes, long-term price decreases, and increases or decreases in Saudi Arabian political and economic influence. Whatever changes may ensue, one thing is clear – oil is the blood that pumps...

The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India, and China

October 1, 2002
The US National Intelligence Council says the number of people with HIV/AIDS will grow significantly by the end of the decade. The increase will be driven by the spread of the disease in five populous countries—Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India, and China—where the number of infected people will grow from around 14 to 23 million currently to an estimated 50 to 75 million by 2010. This estimate...

Every Country Has the Right to Pre-emption: Jaswant

Sridhar Krishnaswami October 1, 2002
Ever since the US elaborated on its right to mount pre-emptive strikes against a country threatening American security, analysts have wondered how the international community would respond to this claim. Jaswant Singh, India’s former Minister of External Affairs and current Finance Minister, dismissed such discussion as “academic” and asserted that "Every nation has that right. It is not the...

A Valuable Stick

October 1, 2002
Private creditors who hold the sovereign debt of nations argue that collective action clauses are the best way to deal with countries on the brink of loan default. Collective action clauses entail a majority decision among creditors that will prevent individual creditors from blocking debt restructuring. When a country faces a cash-flow problem, creditors tend to withdraw funds or block debt...