In The News

Latin America Turns Left

Richard Lapper July 28, 2002
As privatization, currency devaluation, and tight fiscal spending fail to solve Latin America’s economic woes, analysts see a leftward shift in the region’s politics. Leaders of well-known protests have cashed in their publicity for new political capital, as witnessed in recent elections. And long dead populist movements have been resurrected by the current frustration with free-market economics...

Net Users Try to Elude the Google Grasp

Jennifer Lee July 25, 2002
The stories about two people ‘meeting’ over the internet (and later falling in love) are countless and even old. Scandals and tragedies over personal information being disclosed without one’s approval, however, are beginning to alarm people. Search engines like Google and Altavista, portals through which over 3 billion pages can be accessed, yield thousands of results upon typing in a person’s...

To Fuel the Mideast’s Grills, Somalia Smolders

Marc Lacey July 25, 2002
When a bag of charcoal fetches US$10 in the Middle East, and a full ship’s worth is valued at US$1 million, there is no wonder that charcoal is called Somalia’s “black gold.” But what might be good for individual citizens living in a war-torn county is hardly good for the country and its environment. The U.N. estimates that forestation in Somalia has shrunk from 14% of the land to 4% in a decade...

25 Million Around the World Learning to Say Ni Hao

July 24, 2002
In the last century, only English, French and Spanish could claim the title of an international language. But thanks to Beijing’s new policy of increased communication and cooperation with the international community, the study of Mandarin is growing rapidly at colleges and universities worldwide. Though regional dialects persist throughout China, Beijing's insistence that Mandarin become...

Gephardt Is Preparing a Measure to Legalize Illegal Immigrants

Carl Hulse July 23, 2002
The United States is home to millions of illegal immigrants, many of them from Mexico, who have become a major chunk of the American labor force. Before September 11, President Bush talked with Mexican President Vicente Fox about the possibility of granting amnesty to some of those immigrants, but heightened concerns about national security have left that plan hanging. Democrats in the House of...

In New York Tickets, Ghana Sees Orderly City

Robert F. Worth July 22, 2002
In downtown Accra, the capital of Ghana, workers are employed by Data Management Internationale to punch in information from tickets served by New York City police officers. These data entry jobs, which have a constant flow of applicants though available positions are unpublicized, pay three times the Ghanaian minimum wage and more than twice the average per capita income. Data Management is a...

Mate-in-Vietnam Marriages

Chong Chee Kin July 21, 2002
The increasing interconnectedness of different societies and ease of travel has produced many interesting opportunities for the innovative entrepreneur. This article describes the dealings of a company that, for a hefty sum, will bring Singaporean men to Vietnam for a week-long trip in which they can select, meet and marry a young Vietnamese woman. – YaleGlobal