When it comes to trading money for influence, China tops the list. People in the world’s biggest economy give bribery an average rating of 5.5 on the scale. China was followed by Jordanians (5.0) and Russians (4.5). Read Here – Quartz
As African nations recalculate gross domestic product to include previously unaccounted-for economic activity, it is evident that the size of the continent’s economy is much larger than what has been largely believed. Read Here – Businessweek
Leaders of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — all emerging market nations — launch a $100 billion development bank and a currency reserve pool in their first concrete step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system. The bank, aimed at funding infrastructure projects in developing nations will be based in Shanghai and […]
The coming months will see no end of obituaries written for the emerging world, and of the perils they face. There is nothing new about these prognostications, and they all miss the glaring realities of democratic transformation and its sometimes tumultuous consequences. They miss as well the degree to which hundreds of millions have seen […]
Silvio Berlusconi is out and Angela Merkel was reelected. Nelson Mandela and Hugo Chavez passed away. Fidel Castro didn’t. People took to the streets in Kiev and Bangkok, Cairo and Khartoum. The president of Syria ignored Barack Obama’s red line and used chemical weapons, while Iran was willing to engage in negotiations with the United […]
This isn’t the first time U.S. and Cuban leaders have shaken hands, but that hasn’t stopped people from getting worked up. Read Here – The Atlantic
South Africa is hardly an unqualified success story. The unemployment rate hovers just under 30 percent, and nearly a quarter of South Africans live at or near the poverty line. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
Mandela epitomised those instincts we most associate with childhood: trust, goodness, optimism; an ability to vanquish the night’s demons with the knowledge that the sun will rise in the morning. Read Here – Mail & Guardian
The realignment that is taking place is as much attitudinal as structural. By sheer dint of size and scope, if countries no longer look to the United States for leadership there will be global ramifications. In a world with multiple centers of influence, from China to Latin America to India and sub-Saharan Africa, new actors […]
The World Bank’s survey of Women, Business and the Law reports that almost 90 percent of the world’s countries still have at least one legal difference restricting women’s opportunities in 2014. Read Here – Businessweek
looking beyond borders 