A few facts about the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Numerous individual conflicts since 1996, involving up to 7 nations and 25 armed groups. Estimates of between 3.5 and 7.8 million deaths since 1998. Hundreds of thousands of refugees. Over 200,000 UN reported rapes in the last decade. Women in the […]
For you tomato lovers out there, good luck this season. According to Dan Barber’s op-ed piece in the New York Times, tomatoes have been scarce this year, especially in the Northeast United States, and we’ve already seen price increases of 20%. So what’s the problem? Late blight—the same plant disease that caused the Irish potato […]
The UACES: Exchanging ideas on Europe blog has an excellent post by Michael Siebert of the German Embassy in London (this came to my attention through John Brown’s blog on public diplomacy – a must read for anyone interested in PD). John quotes this part of Siebert’s post: “As a member of the Political Department of […]
The Economist has been publishing a series of articles and videographics on how the world’s largest economies – including the United States, China, Germany and an analysis of Japan next week – must change to ensure future global growth. “A rebalanced global economy requires America to consume less and save more. That means the world’s […]
There is little in this world that I find more confounding than when Rupert Murdoch is portrayed as the last great hope for journalism. First of all, no single person should be allowed to own as many media as he does. There are a plethora of rationale for a statement like this, not the least […]
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy The video above from MSNBC notes the surge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and gives a quick update on the state of the war there. The U.S. Army is encouraging debate on the war in Afghanistan and in this blog post they note […]
You will notice in this diagram from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) depicting the total electricity flow in the US for 2008 that “conversion losses” account for 63% of the energy generated. Got that?! Nearly two thirds of the energy used to make electricity, 51% of that from coal, 21% from nuclear, and 17% from […]
Aye Chan Naing, Executive Director of the Democratic Voice of Burma, was in Brussels last April for the One World film festival where Danish film maker Anders Ostergaard had screened Burma VJ. I spoke to Aye afterward and was struck by his resilience and determination in the face of an oppressive military junta. “We now […]
Arrest in China Rattles Backers of Legal Rights Chinese authorities have detained Xu Zhiyong, a scholar whose work has been marked by legal rights advocacy for migrant workers, prisoners and parents of children poisoned by tainted milk. Though he was arrested on charges of tax evasion, it is widely believed Xu is the subject of […]
Green tech leaders meeting this week in Las Vegas at the National Clean Energy Summit conference sponsored by Democratic Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid used the opportunity to complain about the lack of government support. Despite recent announcements from the Obama Administration that some initiatives are moving, the money is not going out the door […]
The New York Times featured an interesting article in today’s paper spotting a trend that more college graduates and corporate professionals are flocking to China in search of greener pasteurs for their careers.
Australian mining giant Rio Tinto knows that when it does business with a sovereign government, it is dealing with an entity that writes, executes and adjudicates laws on its territory. Read about the China-Rio Tinto issue in a previous post. Every multinational knows, especially those in industries such as mining and energy that operate in funky locales, that the sovereign can […]
President Obama is in Mexico today attending what’s been called the “Three Amigos” Summit. The mainstream media is billing this summit as a chance for Obama to meet with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts to discuss trade, migration, swine flu, energy, the environment and joint efforts to counter rising drug violence. For a nice overview […]
The blogosphere is abuzz with the unsettling news that the Chinese government has arrested Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old attorney, thereby dealing another blow to the growing Chinese rule of law movement. In authoritarian countries or nations in transition, lawyers often play a key role in bringing greater democracy through the judicial protections, accountability, and transparency […]
Though you haven’t started hearing much about it yet in the MSM, there really are ‘gilmmers of hope’ on the economic horizon as President Obama’s aggressive stimulus and economic recovery agenda kicks into gear. Recent economic data is beginning to paint a bright pciture for recovery end of 09, into 2010.