Photo Credit: 3pom (flickr)

Technological advances have significantly impacted India's recent growth. But one technology may be causing more harm than good.

India is experiencing an alarming rise in sex-selective abortions. As the middle class has grown, more pregnant women are able to afford ultrasounds. One result is that many couples are choosing to abort female fetuses. Traditionally, boys are preferred over girls — they carry on the family name, can more easily find paid work, and don’t require expensive dowries. Even though India is becoming increasingly modernized, these traditional values remain intact.

The numbers tell the story: In 1981, India had 962 girls for every 1,000 boys. In the 2001 census, the ratio was 927 to 1,000. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently called the problem a "national shame."

Indian society is starting to experience the repercussions. With fewer available women to marry, some Indian men are resorting to buying their brides from poor communities outside their own, the BBC reports.

Photo: World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)

Today China announced several plans to help fulfill its promise to make the Beijing Olympics a "green" event. Plans include halting construction projects, banning the use of 3.3 million vehicles, shutting down inefficient coal boilers, and cutting emissions from the heaviest polluting industries in the months leading up to the Games.

Although a well-intentioned effort, many are concerned this won't make a difference a mere four months before the Games. With China's levels of ozone and particulate matter five times higher than World Health Organization safety standards, some athletes are worried about permanently damaging their respiratory systems. The world recordholder in the marathon, Haile Gebrselassie, announced he won't run this year out of concern for his health.

The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, however, is not concerned. It counted 67 “blue sky days” in Beijing from January through March — the highest count in nearly a decade. China isn't clear on what this means, but as Tim Johnson, the Beijing bureau chief for McClatchey Newspapers, says “When Chinese officials talk about 'blue sky' days, they don’t mean days when the sky is really blue. They mean days when sunshine can penetrate the haze and create a shadow. The sky is still an icky gray."

China may be making a considerable effort to improve air quality during the Summer Games, but their efforts might be better spent on longer-term solutions. Many former Olympic cities used the Games as an opportunity to fix longstanding problems. But in China's case, it looks as if those 3.3 million cars will go right back on the roads.

Photo: marirs (flickr)

The potato has been making headlines recently, and the gist of all the stories is that we are not to be taking this celebrated spud for granted.

In Peru, where the potato originated, cultural identity is interwoven with this root vegetable. "Potato is not just food. Potato is also spirituality; it's culture," one Peruvian told National Public Radio. "There are songs, dances, ceremonies. So this is a potato land … a culture of potato."

The potato may be in for some rough times ahead, though, as climate change and unpredictable weather create conditions that may allow for diseases and growing problems never before seen in this region.

The Economist links the potato to the growth of free trade in 19th century Britain. Even today, it claims in a recent exposé, "potatoes are now an icon of globalisation."

Declaring 2008 the "International Year of the Potato", the United Nations is working hard to remind us all about this tuber’s higher merits. UN experts emphasize the potato’s value as a prospective solution to poverty, hunger and economic security issues.

All that potential, in just one little vegetable? We would never have guessed....

The BBC is featuring a diary written by a woman living and working in Zimbabwe in which she describes the challenges of living a normal day-to-day life in the face of economic crisis and rampant inflation.

A father and son in Bhutan. Photo: Michael Foley Photography (Flickr)

Wedged between India and China, the tiny country of Bhutan is going through some big changes. These changes began in the early 1970s, when Bhutan’s fourth king slowly started to open up the country to the modern world after centuries of isolation. This modernization and opening of Bhutan is still very much a work in progress; citizens only gained access to television in 1999, and many live hours from the nearest road.

What is especially unique about development in Bhutan, however, is how it is being measured. Instead of focusing on gross domestic product, Bhutan’s monarchy has pursued development in terms of the four pillars of “Gross National Happiness” – equitable and sustainable development, cultural preservation, environmental conservation, and good governance. In many ways, this emphasis on gross national happiness has been a great success. Since 1982, Bhutan’s literacy rate has jumped from 10 percent to 60 percent, its average life expectancy has increased from 43 to 66 years, and its infant mortality rate has dropped from 163 deaths per thousand to 40.

What remains to be seen, however, is how Bhutan's current transition to democracy will affect the country's development. While voter turnout in the March 24 parliamentary election was over 80 percent, there appeared to be few differences between the two main political parties, both of which pledged to continue to carry out the king's concept of gross national happiness.

This week a correspondent from the Economist has an online diary about his experience in Kenya. This is a compelling, tangible way to gain insight on the political turmoil and how it is affecting the people of Kenya.

Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: twocentsworth (flickr)

China has entered the business of producing and selling burqas-- and Afghani women are responding to the "modern" designs. With the resurgence of the Taliban and violence, many women are choosing (or being forced to) cover up. The result is that China's new industry is driving out the traditional Afghani burqa industry.

Check out the Wall Street Journal article and video about China's growing presence in the burqa industry from this week's Post Global.

Bernd Debusmann published an article today examining the extreme lack of foreign language and international training among Americans.

Debusmann points out that this isn't a new trend, and despite the surge of American citizens enrolling in Arabic language classes post 9/11, about half the number of American college students enroll in foreign language classes today as compared to 1965.

The book was entitled "The Tongue-Tied American: Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis" and its author found that a deficit of language skills threatened U.S. business and national security. That was in 1980. The words "globalization" and "jihad" had not yet become household terms.

Fast forward to the present and the latest report on foreign languages and international education by the research council of the National Academies: "A pervasive lack of knowledge about foreign cultures and foreign languages threatens the security of the United States as well as its ability to compete in the foreign market place."

So has nothing changed since the late Paul Simon, then a congressman, later a senator, warned about the consequences of a tongue-tied America? Judging from a wealth of statistics, there has been much effort but little progress.

When we hear about the Middle East in the news we mostly hear about oil and conflict, but this article brings to light a new trend when it comes to the Arab world-philanthropy. However, the BBC reports that the Middle East needs to overcome several obstacles before becoming truly philanthropic, including the laws governing charities and nonprofits and American Policy.

Last month, while much of the globe watched the oft-hyped World Economic Forum, a first-of-its-kind summit of Arab philanthropists was held in this Persian Gulf city. Middle East royalty and Egyptian businessmen mixed with Lebanese activists and other humanitarian do-gooders to find ways to aid their troubled region. And they carried a pointed message to the Bush administration: Stop making the war on terror a war on Arab goodwill.

According to the Christian Science Monitor's January 30 article, Namibia's rug-weaving industry can provide us with a lesson on globalization.

Today's Christian Science Monitor takes a look at the important role statistics play in prosecuting human rights abuses.

Photo: Danny McL (flickr)

It is shocking to read and hear about elections dissolving into civil crisis as we are seeing in Kenya right now. However, as a Kenyan friend of mine is warning, we should be reluctant to take media portrayal of an event as absolute truth:

“When it comes to international media I am nothing short of disgusted. The international community has a very bad (not to mention ignorant) view of Africa. So when something happens to slightly re-affirm that view they have a field day with it. I am not in any way trying to downplay what is happening in Kenya but you all have to understand that there are those of us who voted for the current president and are happy with the outcome. However, a happy Kenyan is not deemed 'newsworthy' as compared to a disgruntled rioter. That is the sadistic nature of journalism.

Before I watched the international coverage on the Kenya, I used to feed on everything the news said. At least now I know to take everything with a pinch of salt...Kenya has 42 tribes, that's why I don't see the Rwanda scenario playing out. However, the biggest tribe (the Kikuyu) are scattered everywhere in Kenya. There's even a joke that they are found everywhere in the world. The opposition has decided to eliminate Kikuyus in the opposition strongholds..thus the killing. Only because the president is Kikuyu. Apart from those places in Western Kenya, the rest of us are fine...it's very unfortunate and maybe the Kofi Annan team will realize that this has shifted from a political crisis to a humanitarian crisis.”

It is hard to understand the political situation going on in countries far away from us, ruled in a way unknown to us. Judi, my friend, makes a provocative argument about the desire to sensationalize stories rather than give bare-bones facts of the matter in cases like these, and it is difficult to know where to go to learn exactly what is taking place without hyperbole.

Most Americans were shocked at the violence following Kenya's December 2007 elections. Many think of Kenya as the one stable country in the horn of Africa-- a tourist destination for safaris, not bloodshed. The Council on Foreign Relations published a great report Friday, outlining the economic and political factors which have played a role in the continuing violence.

The report outlines how ultimately economic and ethnic factors are inherently linked. While Kenya has not traditionally been a country with strong ethnic divisions (citing a poll in which 70% of the population would rather be identified as Kenyan rather than according to tribal affiliations), wealth is unevenly divided among various ethnic groups. For example, "the head of the Nairobi Stock exchange, the Central Bank of Kenya, and Kenya Electric Generating Company, the region’s largest power generator, are all Kikuyu (Bloomberg)." I might add, so is the current President Mwai Kibaki.

Kenyans see democracy and economic growth as inextricably linked. Their main aspiration for democracy, according to Afrobarometer, is that it will create more equitable distribution of economic opportunity. For Kenya’s economy to take off, it must distribute power among ethnic groups. “Kenya could be a shining example,” says Barkan. “But it could unravel further politically and the economy could become moribund.” Juma believes for regional imbalances to be addressed, the country needs to upgrade its infrastructure. He suggests that a large-scale government employment scheme, structured like the New Deal in the 1930s United States, could employ youth to do this.

This inequality (which is compared to levels in Liberia and the DRC), coupled with corruption and strong man political practices has resulted in the violence that has claimed an estimated 800 lives.