California, the ninth-largest economy in the world, is a profoundly troubled state. It remains badly broken in many fundamental ways even as the national economy slowly but steadily emerges from the Great Recession and as cash from November’s voter-approved tax…
When we North Americans think of the differences between the fabulously wealthy Arab sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf and ourselves, we think mostly in political terms. We think of their attitude towards women and how it compares to prevailing views…
“We need you to call Israel.” A few weeks ago, a friend who works in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) called me up and spoke those very words. It was 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning in Toronto, where I…
Upon returning from a United Nations-sponsored conclave in 1954, philanthropist Preston Hotchkis warned Americans to “[g]et acquainted with the United Nations, because what it does can touch your pocketbook.” Hotchkis would not be surprised at how just many times his…
The United Nations has gone through some tough times of late. The body faces a public relation disaster over a tell-all book by three U.N. employees. It charges that peacekeeping operations are chock full of waste and abuse. Allegations of…
As I listen to the debate over outsourcing, I’m reminded of the song “Everything Old Is New Again.” Some pundits discuss outsourcing — that is, shifts in jobs and investments between national jurisdictions — as a new phenomenon. But if…
It’s not easy to explain the anti-globalization movement’s attraction or its successes. Much of the writing on the movement’s growth, ideology, and influence veers into impenetrable thickets of post-modern theory (e.g., Naomi Klein’s indigestible No Logo), so non-stoned readers often…
“Who are those guys?” That’s the question that keeps popping up in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The pair of outlaws find themselves pursued by a posse of lawmen. Try as they might, Butch and the Kid cannot throw…