As part of an ongoing blame game between China and the US, Washington officials want reevaluation of the yuan. However, China actually could gain the most from any reevaluation. First, the yuan may not be undervalued all that much. China’s large bilateral trade surplus reflects a changing supply...
Click here for the original article on The Economist's website.
China is intent on using the 2008 Olympics to display Chinese culture along with the achievement of economic growth within a political system of communism. But activists are just as intent on exposing human-rights violations. China’s organizing effort includes not only constructing elaborate...
Click here to read the article on Spiegel Online.
In this Foreign Policy article, Moisés Naím highlights the discrepancy between the expectations of "normalcy" held by a small number of privileged citizens and the realities of the rest of the world. Despite what many in Western nations may believe, their concept of "normal" is...
You are not normal. If you are reading these pages, you probably belong to the minority of the world's population that has a steady job, adequate access to social security, and enjoys substantial political freedoms....
From the historic Spanish Flu to the recent SARS outbreak, communicable diseases have periodically challenged the world community. SARS was caused by a new strain of coronvirus that was identified and stopped. But the latest threat comes from avian influenza virus of the type that could mutate and...
Preventing the Spanish Flu nightmare: Scientists are watching for mutation of the avian influenza strain H5N1 seen in (gold), growing in a laboratory culture (green). (Photo: CDC Public Health Library)
GENEVA: When the...
Most Latino singers who succeed in the lucrative English-language pop market abandon their origins and cease to cater to the Latin marketplace. Shakira, however, recently broke the industry’s conventional wisdom by returning to the Spanish-language market after selling 13 million copies of her...
Click here for the original article on The Economist's website.
US legislators are polarized over immigration reform, but they also recognize that voters on both sides – those who welcome hardworking illegal immigrants who otherwise don’t break laws versus those who want to deport all illegals – are passionate about the issue. Voters question the ability of...
Click here to read the original article in "The Christian Science Monitor."
In an age of rapid information and globalization, developing countries need an educated workforce more than ever. However, the wealthiest nations entice the most talented workers with high wages – creating a void of intellectual capital in the most impoverished countries. As the populations of...
Click here to read the original article in "The Reporter."
The controversy over the recent Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed should be cast as an issue of free speech versus civic responsibility. The cartoons fly in the face of a Muslim prohibition against making an image of Mohammed or other prophets. They also portray religion as subject...
GENEVA: There are three things we have to bear in mind about the controversy over the cartoons published in the European media depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
First, it is against Islamic principles to...