Economics & Business Archive

Since taking office, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has articulated a new paradigm to structure Western engagement with Africa. This paradigm dispels the idea that Africa is a sick and helpless continent for the West to rescue and instead calls for robust European-African partnerships to manage Africa’s genuine challenges of violence, poverty, and corruption. True to his reputation as a man of action, Sarkozy has already transformed these ideas into practical policies, and the result has been a flurry of promising and innovative diplomatic initiatives concerning Africa over the past two months, especially vis-à-vis the ongoing tragedy in Darfur. If one […]

The Iraqi armed forces are struggling to become self-sufficient in the face of constant insurgent attacks, a dearth of experienced leaders and in a divisive political environment. Several years after the establishment of Baghdad’s new army and air force, U.S. and British forces still take the lead in most combat operations in Iraq. But in two key areas — armored trucks and counterinsurgency aircraft — the Iraqi military is actually more advanced than its American partner, reflecting key differences in the two nations’ overall military strategies. Armored Trucks In April 2006, the U.S. Department of Defense solicited bids from American […]

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, you might be forgiven for thinking you had landed in the Middle East: In addition to English and Malaysian Bahasa, arrival and departure announcements are made in high-flown Arabic, just one indication that Malaysia is fast becoming a favorite holiday destination for Arabs. From June to October, Arab tourists increasingly flee the furnace-like temperatures of the Gulf for Malaysia’s green landscape and pristine coastal waters. While many hotels all over the country — from Kota Kinabalu in Sabah to Langkawi near the Thai border — cater to Arab tourists during […]

MUZAFFARPUR, India — Looking out over gray waters that have drowned the rice paddies that are his livelihood, laborer Bhavat Nagar swore no flood he could recall came close to the size of the latest monsoon deluge that also washed away most of his village and a neighbor’s child. “This is the worst it has been,” he said, shaking his head. “We always lose a little, but now we have lost everything. I don’t know what to do.” This reaction was replayed by dozens of landless poor in northern Bihar state, the region worst-hit by this year’s South Asia floods. […]

ATHENS, Greece — When Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called for elections last month, he couldn’t imagine that the forces of nature might unite to thwart his party’s bid for a second term. Just weeks before the general elections, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 16, forest fires fueled by wind, drought and the summer heat made the hills of the Peloponnesus bald, laying bare the inefficiencies and corruption of the country’s political leadership. Greece doesn’t have a nationwide land registry nor forestry maps, pointed out foreign media, and lax development laws encourage arsonists, who started many of the fires. Firefighters struggled […]

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Uzbek migrants seeking to ply their trades in richer Central Asian neighbor Kazakhstan are in a high-stakes battle of wills with Kazakh authorities along the countries’ frontier, sparking clashes with border guards amid mounting concerns of an escalation in the political situation in this remote, oil-rich part of the world. Earlier this month, a group of some 60 Uzbek migrant laborers took a high-ranking border officer hostage after the bus carrying them into Kazakhstan was stopped. According to Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, he was released without incident — a better fate than one of his colleagues, who drowned […]

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Lust for oil can overpower a country’s democratic ideals and common sense, and the United States is not immune. Consider Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s rhetorical embrace of Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in April 2006. “You are a good friend and we welcome you,” she said. Two years earlier, the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations disclosed how Rice’s “good friend” and his family held multimillion dollar accounts, gleaned from government revenue, in Riggs Bank, which was eventually convicted of violating America’s Bank Secrecy Act. When not ripping off the state treasury, Obiang has […]

WASHINGTON — In early August, Seattle-based Boeing, the nation’s second-largest weapons manufacturer, extended invitations to several East Coast-based online journalists to ride on a lavish Boeing corporate jet to Everett, Wash., to tour the company’s 767 airplane factory. Boeing’s aim: to win some good-will from a relatively neglected slice of the media as the company vies for one of the biggest and most important military contracts in decades. In coming months, perhaps as early as December, the U.S. Air Force will decide between Boeing and a partnership of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and the European firm EADS for a $40-billion […]

BANGKOK, Thailand — While desperate people braved pro-government thugs on the streets of Rangoon to protest economically devastating fuel price rises, Burma’s chief energy planner was in Singapore spouting fantastic figures about his country’s oil and gas wealth. Burma has reserves of more than 600 million barrels of oil and almost 16 trillion cubic feet of gas, claimed U Soe Myint last week. Selling Abroad, Shortages at Home The figures, if they are to be believed, should be good news for a country of 53 million impoverished people who suffer intermittent electricity supplies, or none at all in many areas, […]