Forced to drop out of school at age 14 because his family could no longer afford tuition, William Kamkwamba of Malawi set out to study energy and build windmills on his own. “Energy poverty” limits development, economies and jobs in the world’s poorest nations, explains Sarah Childress for the Wall...
MASITALA, Malawi – On a continent woefully short of electricity, 20-year-old William Kamkwamba has a dream: to power up his country one windmill at a time.
So far, he has built three windmills in his yard...
More women pause before rushing into marriage. Historically, the institution represented women's only path for financial security, but social and economic pressures have subsided in advanced economies. Research studies along with cultural and demographic trends support decisions to delay...
Singular happiness: Single American women enjoy an evening out, while one in seven Japanese women remain single
NEW YORK: Evidence concerning the state of marriage strongly suggests that women should give serious thought before making the momentous...
India is poised to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by 2024. Poverty is linked to fertility rates, and individual and government attention to population trends contributes to sustainable development. Both China and India have reduced fertility rates and poverty since 1950, when...
Demographic rise: India’s rising population will need sustenance from expanded IT and other skilled workers; the country must contend with a preponderance of male children
NEW YORK: By 2024, India will slip past China to become the most populous...
If current demographic trends continue, the ranks of religious believers in the world could rise through 2050, reports a Pew Research Report. Islam would show the fastest rate of growth, and the unaffiliated would decline in proportion to other religious categories. Riaz Hassan, director of the...
Statistical threat: India's Muslim population is projected to increase 76 percent by 2050, adding to tensions between Hindu militant groups like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Muslims
SINGAPORE: In the next three and half decades, the demography of...
Out-of-wedlock childbirths have become more common worldwide since the 1960s, but with wide variations among and within countries. Inreasing economic independence and education combined with modern birth control methods have given women more control over family planning. In about 25 countries,...
Shifting culture: Women's increasing economic independence contributes to more children born outside of marriage, though acceptance varies widely among countries; throughout much of Latin America, out-of-wedlock births are the norm, left, but some...
Global leaders are failing youth, and 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg addressed 60 world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit about the need for urgent action on climate change, warning “we’ll be watching you.” Her assessment was concise, blunt and searing: “People are suffering. People are...
Hollywood films represent more than half, and sometimes more than two-thirds of total box-office receipts in major markets. Films that succeed in the US market also tend to succeed in foreign markets. This suggests that a convergence of popular taste may be coming about, though in many countries...
A New James Bond Movie: Die Another Day starring Pierce Brosnan
From the early years of the twentieth century, right down to the present, the United States has been the world's major commercial producer of motion pictures. According to the US...
The free-market principles that drive global trade of goods, services and ideas often run counter to notions of institutional regulation. According to David Rothkopf, author and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this void in global governance has facilitated the...
Rich and powerful: Global elite gather at the World Economic Forum's
annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort Davos
WASHINGTON, DC: Like nature, power also abhors a vacuum. On the global stage this has meant that...
