In many ways the story of Africa in the 21st century is one of success. Great strides have been made tackling diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. A baby born in Africa today is less likely to die young, and more likely to go to school than one born in 2000. Life expectancy at birth […]
Over the past seven years, Americans have heard an awful lot about Barack Obama and his presidency, but the actual substance of his domestic policies and their impact on the country remain poorly understood. He has engineered quite a few quiet revolutions—and some of his louder revolutions are shaking up the status quo in quiet […]
The Iraqi people have been the subject of mass executions, rape, torture and, in addition, the destruction of the country’s infrastructure. The international community has been mostly deaf to the needs of Iraqis, who have undergone difficulties much greater that during the regime of President Saddam Hussein. Read Here – Japan Times
China’s new leaders, including President Xi Jinping, haven’t embraced environmental protection by choice. They’ve been compelled by a new political reality: an informed Chinese public. Read Here – Businessweek
Contrary to what environmentalists, anti-globalisation campaigners and other economic curmudgeons like to think, the world is not going to hell in a handbasket, writes Allister Heath Read Here – The Telegraph, London
Singapore is not only a world away from the UK geographically, but as a small city state of no more than 5.5 million people and with a still relatively authoritarian approach to government, it doesn’t obviously hold many lessons for a mature, and much larger, advanced economy such as our own. Read Here – The […]
More bicycles were supposed to make Europe’s cities more livable. Instead, the popularity of two-wheeled travel is causing problems in some cities in Holland and Denmark, where traffic jams and parking shortages are common. Still, planners remain optimistic. Read Here – Der Spiegel
The region is currently paying a high social cost for the lack of attention paid to public health, and these costs will grow ever more severe in the absence of concerted action. Obesity is nearing epidemic proportions in MENA, with some of the highest rates in the world. Read Here – Al Jazeera
In the run-up to Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997, the world wondered what officials in Beijing would do with the place. Would Hong Kong’s dynamism and openness catalyze change in China, or would the Communist Party try to remake the freewheeling city-state in its image? Read Here – Bloomberg
When the Black Death exploded in Arabia in the 14th century, killing an estimated third of the population, it spread across the Islamic world via infected religious pilgrims. Today, the Middle East is threatened with a new plague, one eponymously if not ominously named the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV, or MERS for short). Read Here […]
looking beyond borders 