Scenes from the recession - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Scenes from the recession - The Big Picture - Boston.com

A photodocumentary showing images of the recession in the United States and Asia.

The informal economy

If I talk about "informal economy" most of you might think I am talking of activities such as drug trade, prostitution, etc. However, the term refers to all economic activities that are not supervised or overseen by the government, and this applies from the overstock Gap or Polo sales in Sarojini Nagar (a huge market in Delhi) to your 10-year old kid's weekend lemonade stand by a bike trail. The informal economy has its advantages, such as no taxes by governmental institutions or lack of regulations, and disadvantages like "protection" from thugs, police or security contractors (which can easily be higher than taxes) or health hazards.

More on the informal economy in the video below, via Marketwatch. By the way, De Soto's Mystery of Capital in your project 2 reading suggestion list deals with this matter extensively. This could be interesting material for a final project as well:

Water in the free market

This might go into the debate of whether the free market ensures usability and access of life-sustaining resources like water:

QUILLAGUA, Chile — During the past four decades here in Quillagua, a town in the record books as the driest place on earth, residents have sometimes seen glimpses of raindrops above the foothills in the distance. They never reach the ground, evaporating like a mirage while still in the air...

More in The New York Times...

Class dismissed in Swat Valley

Recently Pakistani authorities recognized Taliban control of the Swat Valley, a region near Afghanistan. One of the very first measures of the Taliban last year, besides executing political rivals, was to blow up schools for girls.

This moving short documentary profiles an 11-year-old Pakistani girl on the last day before the Taliban close down her school. Via New York Times Video.

An economic iron curtain?

The global economic crisis has had a major impact in other regions of the world beyond the U.S. Iceland, UK, Germany, China and Japan have been all over the news recently. Eastern Europe, however, is struggling even more after numerous investors from Western Europe, India, and East Asia have pulled out their investments in industry and real estate. New York's World Focus has more on this:

The hazards of unclean water

These news are not "fresh," and I already posted on the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, but since this is an issue that came out in the classroom recently, I thought it worth posting about it again.

Via BBC News Online: if you want to learn about the hazards of unclean water, you need not look further than Zimbabwe or Bangladesh.

Fareed Zakaria and the "post-american" world

Dual Injustice

A few weeks ago I told you about the disappearance and rape of young working class women in Ciudad Juárez and in other Northern Mexican towns. Via witness.org, here's a short documentary (15 min.) on the abduction of Ms. Neyra Cervantes and the forced confession and imprisonment of her cousin David Meza. While the documentary is too focused to give you the big picture of the phenomenon and its relationship to the exchanges between Mexico and the US, it does give you a notion on the real impact that this situation on human beings like you and me.

An electric car grid in Israel

You may remember from our first classes that I told you about a Palo Alto, CA based company that is in the business of creating a network of power cell stations for electric cars. The company has landed contracts in Denmark, Israel, and, more recently, Hawaii. It might start running some programs in a few Northern California cities as well.

See the following report from World Focus on the advantages and drawbacks of such a concept:

What the World Eats

Picturesque photo essay from Time, a summary of Menzel and D'Aluisio's Hungry Planet.

Complete photo essay here.

Could solar power energize Europe?

It has long been posited that the Sahara desert is a large repository of solar power that could bring cheap and clean energy to all of West Africa. Some claim that it could even provide for Europe, which at this point remains highly hypothetical. Conducting all that energy towards the north remains the larger structural problem. There are, however, some engineers and venture capital firms looking into it right now. German news channel Deutsche Welle has this interesting documentary on alternative energies projects in Africa (in English, 26 min.).

Bangkok is sinking?

You may have heard of "sinking cities" --urban areas built on clay or swampy ground that is giving way to the weight of the buildings above. The cases that come to mind are Venice and Mexico City. Some scientists claim that a combination of soft soil with changes in the sea levels could turn this into more of a problem for some large coastal cities. Global Post reports on Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

Bangkok is sinking | GlobalPost

Alternatives to female genital mutilation

It's not just production processes, brands, entertainment, or violence that have become globalized. Harmful traditional practices that were once localized continue to be practiced in clandestinity in areas where they are forbidden. Such is the case of female genital mutilation, which has been performed on around 130 million women worldwide. Case in point, Catalonia, a territory in NE Spain, home to one of the largest Gambian communities in Europe. 3,600 women are presumed to have been victims either in underground ceremonies or in the course of "vacations" back home.

Public Health scientist Adriana Kaplan of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has been working with Gambian communities towards the establishment of alternative, non-harmful initiation ceremonies for girls. There's been a significant breakthrough now that the Gambian government has accepted to take on Kaplan's project into a National Program.

More information on the science news page Eurekalert.

A $10 laptop?

Following the cue of MIT's $100 "One Laptop Per Child" project, here comes the 500 rupee ($10) laptop. The Times of India reports here.

2008 in photos

2008 photo collection from the German weekly Spiegel.

For Peruvians, Baskets for the U.S. Market Bring a New Way of Life

Reports Roxana Popescu for The New York Times:

...The circuitous route these baskets have taken from the jungle to American store shelves started with a bird watcher’s passion for natural habitats, passed through a regional government whose policies have become increasingly more conservationist, and, supporters say, should end with better lives for the weavers and their communities...

Click here for full article:

Health care in Singapore

World Focus is showing this week a series of reports on how health care is managed in other nations.

Did you know that the US spends 17% of its GDP on health care while Singapore, a country with a higher life expectancy, spends only 4%? Here's a glimpse to the pros and cons of their health care system:

Oprah in the Middle East

Crisis in Zimbabwe - Cholera epidemic

Via World Focus:

Women in Jordan head to work as economy sours

From worldfocus.org:

In the conservative Muslim region of southern Jordan, more and more women are leaving the home for the first time and going to work — largely out of economic necessity. The number of women in the workforce has more than doubled over the past five years.

Worldfocus correspondent Kristen Gillespie reports from Jordan.

Read her blog post about her experience: Divorce outcasts women from Jordan’s social structure.

Hello, world

Hello, world