Fur no longer symbolizes glamour or high fashion, but cruelty and ignorance. Still, more than 100 million wolves, minks, foxes and other wild animals are killed for their skins each year – with more than 80 percent confined to cages on factory farms. The industry touts animal welfare guidelines,...
Sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, the originator of the modern world-system theory, published volume four of his opus, which examines the development of centrist liberalism during the 19th century and its inevitable imbalances. Centrist liberalism, encompassing enlightened conservatives and...
Fork in the road: In May 1968, student workers revolt in Paris (top); in 2011, Occupy Wall Street protesters call for a better world
NEW HAVEN: The world is currently undergoing an upheaval with a very uncertain future. To understand the origins of...
NATO members gathered to celebrate the alliance’s 70th anniversary in London, but relations seemed rough. NATO, a legacy of the Cold War, originally focused on confronting the Soviet Union and communism. However, with the collapse of the common enemy, NATO member states increasingly disagree about...
So far, President Barack Obama is signaling that he’ll focus most attention on improving the economy during his last four years in office. That’s in line with priorities listed in a Pew Research Center survey: More than 80 percent list the economy as a “top priority”; more than 70 percent list jobs...
Obama’s world: Demand for immigration reform is pressed in Washington (top); brutalized Syrian civilians left to their own devices
WASHINGTON: A second term for any American president allows the incumbent to press reset buttons on foreign and...
Filipino workers can be found all over the globe. By some estimates, about 25 percent of the Philippines’ workforce can be found overseas, and wages returned home accounted for 12 percent of the GNP in 2005. Those wages are spent on new homes, education, and consumer goods. Yet some analysts warn...
When it comes to exploiting the globalizing market for labor, few countries can beat the Philippines. Its millions of overseas workers have found jobs in almost every region of the world, and the money they send home...
Prices for wheat, soybeans, corn and other food staples continue to climb as more counties increase purchases from the US. Rising prices combined with high unemployment rates and governments long run by family dynasties have spurred protests in Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan and elsewhere....
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The US dollar holds value for more countries than any other world currency and comprises about two thirds of world’s official foreign-exchange holdings. This dependence allows the US to run large trade deficits in purchasing a cornucopia of goods – from Porsches to t-shirts – by distributing paper...
Dollar lust: East Asian countries' export-driven growth gives American consumers a bonanza, but high dollar saps manufacturing export
WASHINGTON: With US Federal Reserve chairman warning about inflation, the US dollar is in the news these days,...
Both China and Vietnam have filed appeals with the United Nations over territorial claims to the Paracel Islands after China placed huge drilling rig in the area. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea gives countries exclusive economic use 200 miles offshore and the Chinese rig is 120 nautical...
UNITED NATIONS (TRNS) – China and Vietnam took their escalating territorial dispute in the South China Sea to the U.N. last week, as both countries filed appeals to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over China’s move to place an oil rig near the Paracel...
