In The News

Brazil's Prized Exports Rely on Slaves and Scorched Land

Larry Rohter March 25, 2002
Slavery lurks in remote parts of the Brazilian Amazon as laborers are duped into working contracts that exploit them mercilessly. The prime exports of this resource-rich region – exotic woods and beef – have raised many controversies at both national and international levels. Human rights violations and environmental degradation – both difficult to monitor – often go unpunished or are even...

More Aid, More Need: Pledges Still Falling Short

Tim Weiner March 24, 2002
The US is not living up to its aid responsibilities despite growing concerns about global poverty after September 11, says this article in The New York Times. Though President Bush has drawn an explicit link between poverty and terrorism, and is substantially increasing aid to poor countries as a result, US aid remains restricted to specific counties and is still far less than aid from its...

Leaner Factories, Fewer Workers Bring More Labor Unrest to China

Erik Eckholm March 19, 2002
China’s shift away from economic isolation has begun to take its toll on communist workers. Accustomed to government promises of job security, newly unemployed workers at state-owned factories are voicing their concerns through strikes and large-scale protests. Employees at the Daqing Oil Company were told months ago that the collapse of the oil industry would likely force massive layoffs....

A Different Take on Human Origins

John Noble Wilford March 7, 2002
Dr. Alan R. Templeton, a population biologist at Washington University in St. Louis, believes that he has discovered primitive Homo sapiens’ initial migration out of Africa to be more than half a million years ago. Previously, the popular “Out of Africa” theory of modern human origin set the initial migration at only 100,000 years ago. Many scientists argue that these new findings will make the...

Bush Weighs Raising Steel Tariffs but Exempting Most Poor Nations

David E. Sanger March 4, 2002
The American steel industry, once booming, is now on the verge of failure. Unions and major steel companies are calling on President Bush to save steel jobs by imposing high tariffs on all steel imports. Bush faces a sticky political situation. Tariffs – which contradict the free trade principles that Bush advocates – would likely alienate international allies in Europe and Asia that Bush...

The Satellite Subversives

Michael Lewis February 24, 2002
Iranians may watch now TV station that bypasses government-controlled media regulations. Farsi-speakers living outside Iran, especially those living in the US and Western Europe, could not tune in to a Farsi-only channel until the Iranian-American Zia Atabay established one in 2000. The voices of artists and intellectuals living in exile are now heard all over the world, especially in Iran. The...

Arise, Ye Prisoners of Starvation

Bill Keller February 23, 2002
In the uncertain days of communism's collapse, Russian farmers were unmotivated and struggling. When McDonald's decided to take a chance on them, enlisting Russians to provide beef, milk, and pickles for the new restaurants, the farmers were astonished. In the last decade, though, McDonald's has thrived in Russia, offering novelty, dependable jobs, and a clean place to eat for a...