In August 2015, the Shanghai Stock Exchange experienced its worst crash in almost a decade. Trillions were eviscerated, which caused a massive drop in value for some of the richest investors and companies in China and sent shock waves around the world. In the final weeks of December 2015, the United States Federal Reserve (the […]
President Xi Jinping of China made an historic announcement to introduce a cap-and-trade system at the United Nations General Assembly meeting this week. Cap-and-trade, an idea that President Obama failed to implement in the United States, is a market-based system designed to curb carbon emissions and fight climate change. It provides carbon-emitting corporations a number […]
The New Silk Road is China’s latest and most ambitious attempt to foster economic relations: two proposed trade routes, one sea-based and one land-based, that seek to integrate Central and South Asian economies with China and Europe. The Maritime Silk Road makes stops in South Asia before it circles over to Nairobi and then, throughout Europe. […]
What: The Chinese Photobook When: Through April 2, 2015 Where: Aperture Foundation (547 W. 27th St., fourth floor) Admission: FREE Whether on a Facebook profile or in a family photo album, we use photographs to tell the stories of our lives. In a similar way, photographs also tell the grand narratives of peoples and nations, […]
What: Witness at a Crossroads: Photographer Marc Riboud in Asia When: Through March 23rd, 2015 Where: The Rubin Museum of Art (W17th St.) Admission: Students: $10 General Admission: $15 FREE on Friday evenings from 6 p.m.–10 p.m. After climbing three flights up the Rubin Museum’s central spiral staircase and passing two floors of Himalayan scroll paintings […]
One of China’s largest cities, Shanghai, reached record levels of air pollution last week. By December 6, the city was shrouded in thick layers of smog, which were high in pollutants and low in visibility. The opaque air obscured the city skyline, and citizens wore face masks for protection. The city’s air pollution index ranged […]
International development aid for underdeveloped countries has traditionally been looked upon as a form of charity by Western nations, including the United States. The idea of giving to poor African or Latin American countries is one that resonates in the minds of most Americans. The results of aid, however, have been terrible. Development aid has […]
Perhaps rapid development of Asian countries and the simultaneous downturn in Europe and the United States overshadows growth rates in Africa, which are projected to be the fastest growing over the next decade. However, growth has spread throughout Africa, and while poverty and corruption are still rampant, millions of people are doing better economically speaking […]
Reports that North Korea has been conducting successful nuclear tests have recently rattled the Western world. Of course, this is an international security issue, and one that the United States should remain on alert. However, North Korea’s nuclear capability is simply a deterrent, used to ensure the Kim regime of its survival in a world, […]
Few would have guessed that, after the global community’s most successful intervention in Libya of this century, chaos would have resulted in Mali. The toppling of Gadhafi in Libya created an intense exodus of violent and armed gangs from a country that, at one time, they could run freely. Some are part of organized militias […]
