South Africans, Africans across the continent and diaspora, and Africa-lovers are rightfully proud of the first World Cup on African soil. With billions invested in infrastructure and a drastic increase in international airtime, South Africa is presenting a refurbished image as it affirms its presence on the world stage. However, strikes this week have […]
The targeted building and Hosam Smadi First off, apologies for the sparse posting recently. Before I post about some recent big events I’d like to shed some light on a lesser known plot that was set to occur in my hometown of Dallas, Texas in September of last year. On September 24, 2009, a 19-year-old […]
Great presentation by Eli Pariser at PDF 2010 on the Filter Bubble. What’s the filter bubble? Well, you’re living in it. In the Internet Age, we’re used to seeing many, many results for any search. “Why Am I Lonely?”: 150,000 hits. “Why Am I Happy?”: 141,000 hits. (Not as bad as I expected.) A huge, colossal amount of information. […]
As noted in an earlier post, inflation is a sensitive issue in India. In addition to worrying about over-heating, today a preoccupation in many Emerging Market Economies (e.g. China and Brazil), Indian politicians are concerned that when food prices rise, millions may starve. JPMorgan below analyzes the latest inflation report, including double-digit price hikes in the food category. Moreover, with only modest capital expansion going on […]
A small collection of human rights story from the FPB network and beyond: And the clashes continue… For those of you living under a rock (or just caught up in World Cup fever), Kyrgyzstan is currently in the midst of some of the worst ethnic violence seen there in years. As ethnic Uzbeks flee from […]
The 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report was released today by the Department of State. This years TIP Report includes, for the first time ever, a ranking of the United States, which is based on the same standards to which we hold other countries. “The 10th annual Trafficking in Persons Report outlines the continuing challenges across […]
With the beginning of the 2010 World Cup last Thursday in Johannesburg, a large amount of attention has been focused on the quadrennial tournament, which is being hosted on the African continent for the first time since the tournament’s founding in 1930. However, there have been some other stories relating to Africa and U.S. foreign […]
We are six months out from Copenhagen and further talks in Bonn, where the UNFCCC is headquartered, have just concluded. The release from the UNFCCC says the recent talks made “progress on fleshing out specifics” for a global climate change regime. There were 5,500 participants, including government delegates from over 180 countries, and reps from […]
In an earlier post, I discussed a theory I developed that democratic countries with divided, often coalition, governments generally produce weaker public finances than countries where two dominant parties alternate in power. India is the posterchild for the former, with government debt at about 80% of GDP, very high for an emerging market economy. In order to […]
Things are very bad in Kyrgyzstan right now. The Central Asian republic recently underwent a dramatic political upheaval that resulted in the replacement of a sitting government for the second time in five years, and it is now experiencing violent ethnic riots targeting Kyrgyzstan’s Uzbek population. The riots have spiraled out of control to the […]
The power of the pen is most obvious when dictatorships try to silence writers and journalists. Ms. Jila Baniyaghoob, a 39 year-old Iranian journalist, is a sad case of this. On June 9 she was sentenced to one year in jail and banned from writing for 30 years by the Iranian government. Baniyaghoob’s sentence came […]
A few months back, I noted the shocking statistics on tuberculosis, highlighting that one-third of the world’s population are infected and 1.7 million people die from the disease each year. This month’s tuberculosis (TB) conference, held in Durban, South Africa, highlighted the need for integration of TB and HIV care. I met Prof Harry Hausler, the chair […]
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