A $5 bill. Photo: bethography - melting mama (flickr)

It happened at a waterfront restaurant at a hotel in the seaside resort of Cesme, Turkey. I sat dumbstruck. My hosts, Zafer Erdogmus and his wife, Nurhan, looked at me as one might look at a two-headed beetle.

“I’m not aware that there are any states on the five-dollar bill.” I said, responding to his question.

“That!” thundered Zafer, a retired Turkish bank executive, “is what is so frustrating about Americans. You have no idea how much influence you have in other parts of the world and you have very little knowledge of even your own country.” He went on to voice a cliché I’d heard before, “What you do not realize is that America still has so much influence, that when America sneezes, the rest of the world has to reach for a handkerchief.” Zafer, who was observing Ramadan, was getting cranky, I suspected, because he had had no food or water since sunrise. Nurhan, not wanting her American guest to feel uncomfortable, had broken her fast and simply smiled at me over her tea cup. No, Zafer was quite serious.

It wasn’t the question that floored me. “How many U. S. States are on the five-dollar bill?” is something that could win a drink bet in a bar. The answer, by the way, is 27. It was the realization that everywhere I had traveled in this region that was once called Asia Minor, all eyes were on my home country. Nearly every conversation eventually turned to U.S. foreign policy or U.S. economic policy. What did I think about U.S. policy toward the situation in Georgia, U.S. policy toward the Kurdish question or the Armenian genocide question, thoughts on the pipeline so vital to U.S. strategic interests, and, of course, the upcoming U.S. Presidential election? For an international business professor who cautions students traveling abroad to keep politics and religion out of their conversations, it was disconcerting to find that these are the very topics that my Turkish hosts most wanted to talk about.

Once referred to as “the sick man of Europe,” Turkey sees itself as a regional power with widening diplomatic influence on questions of global importance. In both print and broadcast media, it was clear that the governing Justice and Development party — the AKP — had chosen to pursue a path of engagement in foreign policy and economic questions. Almost everyone I spoke to stressed the centrality of Turkey to just about everything of importance to the United States and the world: The Middle East, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea region. Professor and Doctor Taner Berksoy, Dean of Business Administration at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, put it to me this way. “Turkey’s aim today is to reintegrate with its neighbors. We are no longer an isolated Cold War outpost, but a country with global strategic value.”

As I leaned forward for another sip of the Turkish tea that accompanies every get together, Zafer offered one more suggestion. America, he said, needs to acknowledge its tremendous influence, step up to its responsibilities as a world leader, and engage thoughtfully and openly with its strategic partners.

Not much changed in South Africa after Thabo Mbeki resigned the presidency last week. But his successor did make one move that could mean the difference between life and death for thousands if not millions of Africans: he removed the country's infamous health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

International health officials regularly blasted Tshabalala-Msimang for denying that AIDS was a problem, calling anti-retroviral drugs "poisonous" and suggesting that people infected with HIV eat garlic and beetroot instead.

Partly as a result, few South Africans infected with HIV receive the most effective treatment: only 28 percent of those who qualify for anti-retrovirals are on the drug regiment.

Leadership alone can make a difference in the fight against AIDS, according to a study from the AIDS and Society Research Unit at South Africa's University of Cape Town. The study found that "when it came to implementing effective AIDS policies, good leadership could overcome resource constraints, health system weaknesses and other limitations."

We still don't know who will fill the vacated health post, but it'd be hard to find a candidate worse than the one who just departed. Let's hope the new officeholder signals a change in attitude. South Africa is emerging as an important economic leader in sub-Saharan Africa. It's high time the country led the region's fight against HIV/AIDS, too.

In Afghanistan, war and a severe winter followed by harsh drought are compounding problems of high food costs, leading to a situation in which a quarter of the Afghan population may face severe food shortages.

As winter approaches the food shortages are already affecting the country's internal security, and things are likely to get worse when snow falls next month, reports the New York Times.

Returning refugees are already converging on the cities because they cannot manage in the countryside, and they make easy recruits for the Taliban or other groups that want to create instability, said Ashmat Ghani, an opposition politician and tribal leader from Logar Province, south of Kabul, the nation’s capital.

A photo slide show from the New York Times' depicts the crisis through haunting images of Afghanistan's landscape and citizens.

U.S. financial turmoil has been felt around the world. Photo: rednuht (flickr)

While the details of the government bail out are still to be agreed upon, what is clear is that business as usual on Wall Street has been transformed. This hasn't happened to our financial system in a long time — nearly all experts agree that change of this magnitude hasn't occurred since the Great Depression, or maybe ever.

And it's not just about the estimated $700 billion that is needed to provide some sort of stability for failing financial institutions, or the significant changes to the regulatory system that will surely result. The proposed deal also transfers an incredible amount of power to the Treasury Secretary, without the allowance of judicial review — this is unheard of in financial legislation.

This morning's report from NPR explains why it's so significant.

It’s too soon to tell exactly how the U.S. financial crisis will impact the rest of the world, but, according to a report in The New York Times, the U.S. has just lost some free-market street cred.

In extending a last-minute $85 billion lifeline to American International Group (AIG), the troubled insurer, Washington has not only turned away from decades of rhetoric about the virtues of the free market and the dangers of government intervention, but it has also probably undercut future American efforts to promote such policies abroad.”

The shock waves from the U.S.'s financial woes are already being felt around the globe, with Russia suffering from “one of the worst market falls” since 1998 and Asian stocks hitting a three-year low.

The world's poorest countries will especially feel the pain of the crisis. This week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he feared that the crisis could seriously hurt poverty-fighting efforts in developing countries. These efforts depend heavily on rich donor countries and if these countries’ capacity for funding development efforts shrinks, many will suffer. Resuming the collapsed world trade talks, Ban said, is even more important in the wake of the financial turmoil.

As of Friday, the U.S. government's nearly unprecedented bailout has stabilized the market, prompting worldwide stock rebounds, but causing skepticism that the action is only a temporary fix.

If worldwide confidence in the free market drops as The New York Times article suggests, could it hinder future world trade talks — and development efforts — to an even greater extent?

About 80,000 taxis roam the streets of Cairo. Photo: P!ndaro (Flickr)

In an attempt to clean up the streets of Cairo, new traffic laws have been put into effect earlier this year.

Egypt will no longer renew licenses of taxis older than 20 years, which, according to Reuters, "may be the majority on the clogged, polluted streets of Cairo."

Drivers of antiquated vehicles have three years to replace their vehicles.

Older model taxis are blamed for Cairo's crash-inducing summer smog and traffic congestion (because they break down so often). For a country where one out of five people live on less than $1 a day, some say such drastic changes are unrealistic.

“I don’t understand how they expect us to live,” notes Mahmoud, a Cairo-based taxi driver. “It's not like we make a ton of money to go out and buy a newer car.” Ahmed, also a cab driver, agrees: "This is oppression," he says pounding the wheel of his 1972 Fiat 124. "They will slaughter us! How will I feed my kids?"

Egypt's Minister of Finance, Youssef Boutros Ghali, agrees: "Developing greener technology in all countries is costly, we don't have the money or the resources to spend on improving the environment. We have more pressing problems."

But other Egyptians are trying to persuade their fellow citizens that stringent environmental policies are worth the price. "From a financial point of view, the cost to improve the environment is a direct cost, but the benefits are indirect," says Samir Mowafi, general manager of Egypt's Regional Center for Environment Protection. "People don't consider the environment in their future because the benefits are intangible in the long-term."

Many Egyptians are less optimistic that the rule of law will govern on the streets of Cairo:

"It won't work for sure," says Adil Abdel Rahman, 48, a driver of a Soviet-era Lada. The police, he said, would likely target only the poor for fines, allowing the rich to dodge responsibility."Everyone plays with the law here," he said.

Indeed, as The Huffington Post's Brian Pellot observes, "going green here is typically pursued if and only if such developments produce a different shade of green: financial incentives."

Photo: Peter Casier(flickr)

This summer, multiple regions of the globe have been hit by water-related disasters, ranging from bone-dry droughts to devastating floods. An international group of water experts is warning of severe social and economic consequences unless significant investments in infrastructure such as irrigation systems and dams.

Speakers at the World Water Congress in Vienna told attendees that infrastructure has to more than double from $80 billion to $180 billion to keep pace with the effects of population growth and climate changes.

According to the World Bank, the major water challenges we face include lack of access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation, water scarcity and extreme weather events resulting from climate change. It is estimated that four billion people will be affected by these challenges in the near future, especially in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East.

Without sustained investment in water infrastructure like irrigation systems and dams, the results could be dire, especially for developing countries. This summer’s news headlines are further evidence. Haiti and other Caribbean countries are reeling from four back-to-back hurricanes, the flooding in Bihar, India is the worst in 50 years, and countries from Australia to Ethiopia are experiencing record droughts.

With the effects of water challenges accelerating so rapidly, it remains to be seen whether world leaders will have the foresight to effectively address these problems preventatively, or be stuck playing catch up — with deadly results.

Mary O'Grady and OpinionJournal.com discuss the historical impact of trade barriers on Latin America and if the expansion of free trade will continue in Latin America under Barack Obama or John McCain.

Watch the video from The Wall Street Journal.

Photo: Esparta (flickr)

Mexican President Felipe Calderon's war on drugs targets the drug cartels that constitute a large portion of Mexico’s economy. Drug trafficking is an estimated US$50 billion a year business there. In fact, one study reported that the loss of the drug business would shrink Mexico's economy by 63 percent.

These statistics seem to beg the question: Can Mexico eliminate its drug trade without inflicting too much damage on its own economy?

The drug war's economic impact isn't necessarily positive, either. The Mexican government estimates that the jump in violence resulting from its crackdown on drugs has taken a percentage point off the country's economic growth. Costs for Mexican businesses, who need increased security, have increased by 5 to 10 percent.

But the cost in human lives is readily apparent. Earlier this year, for example, two children and a police officer's wife were murdered as Tijuana schools and neighborhoods were evacuated in the search of a drug-cartel official. The murders came in retaliation for the arrest of other cartel members days before. In August, gunmen killed 13 people — including a baby — when they opened fire in a dance hall. And kidnappings are now commonplace.

Mexico's drug war has resulted in over 4,000 drug-related deaths since 2006, including Mexico City’s federal police chief and 400 other police officers.

Last weekend tens of thousands of Mexicans gathered to protest the bloodshed. But despite the violence, residents of Badiraguato, considered the heart of the drug trade, told Newsweek they don't want trafficking to end.

"The drug traffickers do good things here. They employ people. There's no corn, no beans here — the people here are all about drugs," said 22-year-old José de Jesús Landell García, who co-owns a shoe shop with his father. He added that most of his friends took up employment with the drug cartels "because it was the only thing they could do."

Calderon's government faces a nasty predicament. How does Mexico dismantle a system so firmly entrenched in the state and the economy? For starters, at least, it will require steps to increase Mexicans' faith in their government — particularly in its ability to offer them good-paying jobs in licit trades.

Over a million people live in Kibera. Photo: Chrissy Olson (flickr)

Trash dumps are being turned into organic gardens in a notorious Nairobi slum.

Youth in Kandimiru, a village within Kibera — known as Africa's biggest urban slum — are growing and selling produce on the former rubbish heaps, potentially easing the food crisis acutely felt by Africa's poor.

The science-fiction site I09 features photos of the transformation, calling it "the future of urban agriculture." It could also be the future of Kibera’s youth: "Most of the members were criminals who have chosen to reform," Mohammed Abdullahi, an official with the Kibera Youth Initiative for Community Development, tells IRIN news.

There are other indicators of change in the Kenyan slum, where vigilante groups rather than police patrol the streets. The Associated Press reports that some residents of Kibera "have helped construct a network of public latrines that recycle human waste into gas for cooking and light" and others, with the help of a Swiss aid organization, "use sunlight to purify drinking water, dramatically slashing cases of waterborne disease."

The most futuristic advance that could arise in Kibera involves using the methane gas from toilets to power people's homes. According to the AP, "Residents pay three cents to use one of eight drop toilets installed around a buried tank. The waste goes into an airtight 'biodigester,' where methane gas filters into an upper tank. The gas can be used to light stoves, turn on lamps, or heat water, although it is not yet pumped to individual homes."

Now that would make news on I09.

Produce at a farmers market in Sao Paulo. Photo: Luiz Castro (flickr)

Typically, when global food prices soar, farmers gain and consumers lose. Two South American countries are taking very different approaches to the recent food price hikes. Brazil is pushing its farmers to win more, while South American neighbor Argentina is trying to soften the financial blow to its consumers.

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is encouraging local farmers to produce more for the global market by increasing government farm credits, a type of indirect subsidy. His administration has also reduced interest rates for farmers to finance new farm machinery and equipment.

Meanwhile, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is increasing export taxes to provide incentives to local farmers to sell their products at home rather than abroad.

At a time when food prices are soaring, should farmers have to share their windfall with the rest of the country? And do governments have the right to manipulate food exports to stabilize prices at home?

The Economist argues that although an export tax on food provides short-term relief for consumers, it will also lower domestic incomes. And it's especially dangerous in Argentina, the magazine says. "Few countries have been as badly governed as Argentina," and "over the past 70 years it has often been the farmers and their exports that have rescued the economy only to see populist governments in Buenos Aires plunder the Pampas to placate their urban voters."

Photo: deCadmus (flickr)

In most progressive political circles, Wal-Mart is more reviled than revered. So it can come as a shock to hear the massive American retailer has teamed up with Global Envision's parent, Mercy Corps — a humanitarian agency known for its leanness and innovative approaches to poverty — on a project that benefits small indigenous farmers in impoverished Guatemala.

Wal-Mart reputation is far from spotless. It is sued between two and five times every weekday in federal court, according to a group that tracks Wal-Mart litigation and supports lawyers for plaintiffs fighting the retail giant. It's also been cited for child-labor law violations in three states, accused of aggressively fighting employee efforts to unionize, and criticized for squeezing suppliers and threatening the health of local retail.

Among the questions the partnership raises: Is Mercy Corps being used as public relations window dressing? How do Wal-Mart's business motives align with Mercy Corps' charitable ones? And most importantly, would training farmers to be Wal-Mart suppliers eventually lead to their exploitation?

The deal between Mercy Corps and Wal-Mart also involves the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is keen to see humanitarian groups team up with U.S. corporate interests to put a dent in developing-world poverty. The so-called "Inclusive Market Alliance" is backed by financial commitments of $1.1 million from USAID, $600,000 from Wal-Mart, and $500,000 from Mercy Corps.

Here's why the agreement made sense from Mercy Corps' perspective. Rural Guatemala remains stubbornly poor. In 2000, 75 percent of Guatemala's 6.4 million poor resided in rural areas. Until now, the agency's programs in Guatemala have focused on helping indigenous groups to gain ownership of land, and to farm that land productively.

Most small Guatemalan farmers sell to market middlemen, who have earned the pejorative nickname "coyotes" — they're the ones who profit from the transactions, rather than the farmers. Farmers could earn a higher return selling high-value products to large-scale buyers, i.e. supermarkets.

Wal-Mart controls a large share of Guatemala's supermarket industry. They have an interest in finding good, reliable suppliers, and in cutting out those same coyotes that are despised by farmers. They're willing to invest money in training and equipping farmers with the knowledge and tools they need to grow quality produce that supermarket shoppers want to buy.

As part of the program, farmers participate in trainings on processing and post-harvest techniques to meet national and international agricultural standards, and critical pricing and negotiation skills.

"Due to a great variety of buyers," explains Douglas Ovalle, who manages the project for Mercy Corps, "there is no danger of Wal-Mart owning the market 100 percent. What this project helps to do is expand options for the farmers."

And those expanded options, he says, will lead to greater income for small-farm families — many of whom lack even electricity and running water.

To many Americans, Wal-Mart is a wanna-be monopolist. To Mercy Corps and the struggling Guatemalan farmers it's trying to help, Ovalle says, Wal-Mart is "just another buyer."

Photo: knottleslie(flickr)

Afghanistan’s economy is getting a boost from a very unlikely source — Reality TV. In a new show called “Fikr wa Talash," or “Dream and Achieve,” Afghan entrepreneurs propose new business ideas to a panel of local business leaders, who award winners with up to $20,000. According to the International Herald Tribune, the show is wildly popular, and its creators hope that its success will help foster entrepreneurial growth all over Afghanistan.

Not only could the show popularize entrepreneurial spirit in one of the world's poorest countries, but it also shows promise for promoting gender equality. Two of the top five finalists in “Fikr wa Talash” are women entrepreneurs — a new concept in a country that only permitted women to work seven years ago.

It will be interesting to see if the viewing power of Reality TV, a traditionally tawdry genre in the U.S., can be successfully harnessed for social and economic benefit elsewhere.