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38882. Coins of the Realm
- Author:
- Shailendra Bhandare
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- OXFORD, England—We live in a globalized world where financial developments in one region can have an impact on a vastly different and geographically disparate location. The forces joining them are those of money, wealth, and finance, which are deeply interlinked, or so we tend to think. But the world around us has always been globalized, albeit to different degrees and involving different shades of financial undercurrents. An interesting prism to see this continual globalization is through the role itinerant and global currencies and monetary unions have played.
- Political Geography:
- England
38883. Sugar Daddies of Global Finance
- Author:
- Stanley Pignal
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- LONDON—One of the cornerstones of Marxist-Leninist thinking is that the state should control the "commanding heights" of an economy—industry, agriculture, infrastructure, and, perhaps above all, money and banking. That vision has largely perished, with one gaping exception. Government remains omnipotent in the financial system, not only on Wall Street or Threadneedle Street, but far beyond. Across the world, the state weighs in on all sides of the ledger, insuring both a bank's assets (mortgages and loans) and its liabilities (deposits). State intervention in banking ranges from muscular day-to-day regulation through to crisis-time bailouts, and is an entirely accepted feature of the financial system. Financiers complain about excessive red tape, because that is what all businessmen do. But absent the state's involvement in their sector, it is a safe guess far fewer would still be gainfully employed following the carnage of 2008. Those who survived would likely find their ensuing careers to be nasty, brutish, short, and entirely devoid of outsized bonuses.
- Political Geography:
- London
38884. Argentina: Driven Black
- Author:
- Meredith Hoffman
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- BUENOS AIRES—When the peso hit rock bottom in January, Ande Wanderer rang up her money dealer—a former official in Argentina's nation-al government. She'd sold off her stocks, cashed in her American savings, and wired him the money. Now she rushed to his office, a ninth floor room in downtown Buenos Aires. The official ex-change rate was 8 pesos to the dollar. But her dealer gave her 11—the black market rate at the time—and kept a small fee for himself. That meant she got some 40 percent more pesos for her U.S. money.
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Argentina
38885. God and State in Egypt
- Author:
- Michael Wahid Hanna
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- CAIRO—During a private conversation following Egypt's bitterly contested and closely fought presidential election of 2012, a Western diplomat marveled, naively, at the multitudes of veiled women who had come out to support the old regime's candidate, the avowedly anti-Islamist figure of Ahmed Shafik. It was during this campaign that strongly held anti-Islamist themes were aired widely and used to mount a campaign against the potent, often bigoted, Muslim Brotherhood. Many of these same views were advanced in support of the military's removal of the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, victorious candidate for the presidency and, with his electoral victory, successor to President Hosni Mubarak.
- Political Geography:
- Egypt
38886. A Box of Ideas
- Author:
- Rosalie Hughes
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- CANKUZO PROVINCE, Burundi —Last November, Sedar Zamukulu Watula and 30 other Congolese refugees waited, perched on a circle of wobbly wooden benches in Kavumu Refugee Camp in western Burundi. Watula, 27, sweat in the heat, unusual for the rainy season. He was used to waiting —for food, for soap, for peace in his hometown of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). But this time the wait was different. He'd come to hear a mzungu (white person) talk about a new project that was about to arrive in the camp- the Ideas Box.
- Political Geography:
- Paris
38887. Child Care in Crisis
- Author:
- Sabrina Natasha Premji
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- NAIROBI, Kenya —In the winding alleyways of Mlolongo, one of Kenya's densest slums, heavy rainfalls from the previous night carpet the road with mud and animal waste, making both nearly impossible to avoid. Visitors approach and remove their shoes at the door to Mama Agnes' home, a mud shack, then step into a room where the air is pungent with the smell of urine and feces. In the darkness, one misstep and a visitor stumbles upon an infant, who seems unshaken by the accidental nudge. A few steps further lie two dozen more infants, none older than 18 months —some sitting on a broken couch, many lying on the concrete ground. Though all awake, their perfect little bodies remain still, only their bellies ri sing with each breath. In an eight-foot square space, there are at least 25 babies, and the only sound —silence.
- Political Geography:
- Kenya and Nairobi
38888. Unveiling Koovagam
- Author:
- Jeff Roy
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- KOOVAGAM, India —In the middle of India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu is the hamlet of Koovagam —a spit of dry dust surrounded by two empty rice fields and crisscrossing dirt pathways that converge like veins into the heart of town. At the center is a temple —a modest structure adorned with statues of gods and goddesses, where incense sticks burn. Surrounding the temple are market stalls that, on a normal day, offer displays of spices, flour, and seasonal fruits and vegetables for the town's handful of residents. But, on the full moon of the Chithirai month of the Tamil calendar, generally late April or early May, flamboyant arrays of offerings, religious figurines, and refreshments fill the stalls for tens of thousands of townsmen, women, children, and Aravanis, or transgender pilgrims.
- Political Geography:
- India
38889. Walking the Wall
- Author:
- Paul Sullivan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- TOKYO—The concrete and steel tsunami wall at a nuclear plant south of Tokyo is nearly 50 feet high and stretches a mile long. It is only one of a host of other earthquake and tsunami refits—waterproofing some of the most vital areas of the plant, backing up cooling systems, and improving venting for the facility in the event of hydrogen build up. On March 11, 2011, known as 3/11 in Japan, in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daichi, thousands died in the earthquake and resulting tsunamis; countless others lost their lands and livelihoods. There were a number of casualties from stress, dislocation, and more, especially among the elderly. And worse yet, future health fallouts are still to be seen. It was unquestionably a social and cultural calamity for a country that has had so many in its past, yet always seems to recover and come back stronger than ever.
- Political Geography:
- Japan and Tokyo
38890. Just Communicating
- Author:
- David A. Andelman
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- PARIS—In March 1975, in what would turn out to be the final month of the war in Cambodia, I thought it might be a nice touch to place a call to my bride of six months and wish her a happy birthday. My interpreter/fixer/photographer, Dith Pranh, advised me to book the call a week or so in advance, which I did at the PTT (Post Telegraph)—the only locale where an international call had even a prayer of going through. At the appointed time, I appeared there and, after a wait of only several hours, the operator announced that my party was on the line in New York, and I could pick up "the apparatus" in Cabin #1. I lifted the phone and there, 7,000 miles away, was a very faint voice of Susan making its way through a cloud of electronic noise, crackles, and pops. We shouted at each other for a minute or so, before we finally gave up on any meaningful communication.
- Political Geography:
- New York, Paris, and Cambodia
38891. Connectivity: Intellectual Lubricant
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- Connectivity is the intellectual lubricant of our time. And today, more than at any other point in human history, we are all connected—with each other, with our leaders and followers, with our friends, relatives, and even strangers—for better or, all too often, for worse. Connectivity has sparked revolutions, cured disease and famine, and led to more advances in a shorter period of time than any previous point in history. Of course, today's social media frenzy is not the first such effort. Connectivity and its media enablers began with Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone, or even earlier with Samuel Morse and his telegraph, followed by Guglielmo Marconi and his radio. But each incremental advance, down to today's revolutionary connectivity is all part of a fundamental urge of the human species—to communicate, to connect. That's what we set out to explore in the Fall issue of World Policy Journal.
38892. The Big Question: Have social media and/or smartphones disrupted life in your part of the world?
- Author:
- Pavin Chachavalpongpun, Sebastián Valenzuela, Valgeir Valdimarsson, Nwachukwu Egbunike, Matthew Fraser, Araba Sey, Tohir Pallaev, Erkan Saka, and Igor Lyubashenko
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- Social media and smartphones, the latter carrying this newest of mankind's means of communication and activism, have in many cases served as agents of change for both good and ill. We asked our panel of global experts how these new networks and those who use them may have disrupted daily life in their respective parts of the world.
38893. Joining Zone 9
- Author:
- Rebecca Mackinnon
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- "We want more openness, more transparency," Ethiopian writer Endalkchew Chala observes. "People deserve choice; people deserve access to the world's knowledge." For expressing views like these online, his friends were scheduled to go on trial for terrorism in early August—though the trial has since been adjourned to October 15. Perhaps because the absurd charges against them were getting more international attention than expected.
- Political Geography:
- Ethiopia
38894. Anatomy: Disruptions in Cyberland
- Author:
- Aliza Goldberg and Cleo Abramian
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- In order to combat governments' efforts to isolate their people from the outside world, individuals in countries across the globe have developed alternative social media for their fellow citizens. World Policy Journal has identified six alternative social media sites that are engaging locals on a daily basis.
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran, Vietnam, and Cuba
38895. Going Global
- Author:
- Jason Q. Ng
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- Chinese Internet company Baidu recently debuted Busca, a Portuguese version of its search engine localized for Brazilian users. Though, as China's state news agency Xinhua pointed out, this was not Baidu's first foray into overseas markets, it was the first time China's top leader was personally on hand to support the launch. As Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff jointly pressed a button initiating the service, it appeared China had taken another step in leveraging its fast-growing technology companies to enhance its global soft power—something Xi's predecessor, Hu Jintao, had declared a key national objective.
- Political Geography:
- China and Brazil
38896. Canada's Bad Dream
- Author:
- Andrew Clement
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- TORONTO—Edward Snowden's June 2013 leak has shone unprecedented light on the dark underside of Internet connectivity. So far, however, Canada has remained a victim largely hidden in the shadows.
- Political Geography:
- Canada
38897. You Can't Stop The Signal
- Author:
- Mahmoud Salem
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- CAIRO, Egypt—As a child of the 1980s, I grew up watching science fiction television shows and movies—all set in the "not-so-distant future." Holographic communication, teleportation, and flying cars were central tenets of that universe. And while I marveled at the prospect of these technologies, I was most fascinated by the "magical technological device"—that could be used to complete any task, from basic communication to dissemination of news to national security. Though I later learned that this device was nothing more than a plot twist used to advance these stories, I gained something quite special from this twist—a belief in the promise of the future.
- Political Geography:
- Egypt
38898. Mali's Nomads: Bulwarks Against Jihad
- Author:
- Nicholas Jubber
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- TIMBUKTU, Mali—"We are the only ones who didn't leave." Sandy Ag Mostapha is standing beside his cattle, a black turban binding his head and a loose shirt draped over dusty trousers. We are in Tayshak, a Tuareg encampment in the desert about six miles north of Timbuktu, where a few tents, made from goat skins, are pitched between feathery acacias. Before the crisis of 2012, some 60 families lived here, but that number has been reduced to just 15.
38899. Germany in a Changing World
- Author:
- Armin Staigis
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- BERLIN —At the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, the President of Germany, Joachim Gauck asked the following key questions: "Has Germany already adequately recognized the new threats and the changing structure of the international order? "Has Germany shown enough initiative to ensure the future viability of the networks of norms, friends, and alliances, which after all brought us peace in freedom and democracy in prosperity?" A moment later he took it upon himself to provide the answers: "Germany should make a more substantial contribution, and it should make it earlier and more decisively if it is to be a good partner."
- Political Geography:
- Germany
38900. Colombia's Conflict Lessons
- Author:
- Jake Rollow
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- EASTERN ANTIOQUIA, Colombia—In late 2001, Sandra Mira was kidnapped while riding a bus with her six-year-old daughter through rural Colombia. Paramilitaries in camouflage uniforms stopped the bus and forced both to disembark. They tied up Sandra, then returned her daughter to the bus. When the girl arrived in San Carlos, the town where the family lived, she asked someone to call her grandmother, Pastora Mira.
- Political Geography:
- Colombia