Most governments must juggle budgets and confront the fact that the world has fewer people of working age to support the swelling ranks of the elderly. Joseph Chamie, a demographer, analyzes the Potential Support Ratio, or PSR, and suggests the statistic could reveal more about the overall health...
Watch your PSR: Countries like South Korea with a low Potential Support Ratio of workers to retirees face a serious challenge, top; India’s demographic advantage from a large percentage of youth won't last long
NEW YORK: As the world population ages...
Global sporting events attract tourists, prostitution and the child sex trade. The challenges are compounded for the World cup in Brazil. Brazil has enjoyed high economic growth in the past years, but its law enforcement system and social policy are less equipped to address child prostitution. “...
Click here for the article in BBC News.
中国发展道路不明，引发众多学者有关中国崛起、和平过渡或者是崩溃的种种猜想。哈佛大学费正清中国研究中心研究员谭若思（另译罗斯•特里尔——Ross Terrill）则集中讨论了中国可能崩溃的几个领域，并美其名曰“选择性失败”。在谭若思看来，中国成败在于以下四个关键方面：（1）进一步提高人民的生活水平，（2）维持其广褒的多民族的领土完整，（3）中国共产党保持对政治权力的垄断，以及（4）中国超过美国，扩展其在亚洲以外地区的影响。而且，我们还必须考虑到以下的一些现象：首先，以廉价劳动力、出口导向和追随西方技术为特征的发展模式一旦枯竭，将引发中国长期的经济衰退；其次，自下而上的社会抗议层出不穷；第三，...
点击这里，阅读《中国改革网》上的原文。
Lawmakers in China, India, Malaysia, Russia and many other countries are cracking down on non-governmental organizations and activists that press for reforms. CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations, describes “serious threats to civic freedoms” in 96 countries, as reported by...
Read the article.
Read the 2015 State of Civil Society Report from CIVICUS.
President Bush’s long-awaited trip to Africa has come at a time when the continent is in turmoil. This is, however, the consequences of internal division that afflicts Africa and the divisive approach taken by foreign powers. Africans watched as their own leaders and the international community...
Late arrival: President Bush arrives in Tanzania, part of his long-awaited visit to shore up ties with Africa, a continent
buffeted by disease, hunger and turmoil
NEW YORK: The long-awaited Africa visit by President...
Foreign buyers “have become an overpowering force” in the city’s real-estate market, reports Andrew Rice for New York Magazine. Despite high costs, the city is a global bargain, and buyers of new construction receive huge tax breaks. Buyers scoop up properties at a wide range of prices; units are...
Click here for the article in New York Magazine.
Competitive nations recognize that education helps societies advance. China is embracing research in sensors, brain-image scanners and other high-tech equipment to study children’s learning and performance in real time. “Neuroscience – studies of brain development, structure, function and...
Shaping young minds: Students at Jinhua Xiaoshun Primary School wear headbands with sensors developed by a Massachusetts company, and a UNESCO delegation visits the State Key laboratory of Neuroscience and Cognitive Learning (Photos: Wall Street...
With the end of the Second World War and Japan’s defeat, the Soviet Union and the United States divided and occupied Korea. The Korean War soon followed, from 1950 to 1953. This year marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Korean armistice agreement, the longest ceasefire in existence...
Verdict of history: North Korean leader Kim Il-sung meets with Chairman Mao Zedong decades after the Chinese intervention in the Korean war; thousands of Chinese troops were sent to fight in Korea in 1950
SEOUL: Caught in the grips of nuclear...
