30 November 2011
China: You Can't Go Home Again
In China, well-connected businessmen (including senior executives of state-owned enterprises) use the criminal justice system to sideline rivals and to punish potential customers for signing contracts with rival firms. Chinese-born scientists and entrepreneurs who return to China to take advantage of business opportunities seem particularly prone to arrest, imprisonment, torture and even execution:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/world/returning-to-china-engineer-finds-jail-and-then-limbo.html?scp=1&sq=china%20prison%20&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/world/returning-to-china-engineer-finds-jail-and-then-limbo.html?scp=1&sq=china%20prison%20&st=cse
British Public Sector Workers Strike as Living Standards Fall in UK
Hundreds of thousands of British public sector workers went on strike today to protest the Coalition Government's austerity measures as well as proposed cuts to their pensions. The one-day walkout was the most sizable job action in Britain in a generation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/world/europe/great-britain-strike-austerity-measures.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=world
Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a London research institute, predicted that real (adjusted for inflation) household incomes in the UK will fall by 7.4% between 2009 and 2012 -- the worst decline since the 1970s. At the present rate of decline (which reflects high British inflation rates and stagnant incomes, as well as austerity measures), British families with children will have lower real incomes in 2016 than they did 14 years earlier:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/30/austerity-biggest-fall-family-income
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/world/europe/great-britain-strike-austerity-measures.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=world
Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a London research institute, predicted that real (adjusted for inflation) household incomes in the UK will fall by 7.4% between 2009 and 2012 -- the worst decline since the 1970s. At the present rate of decline (which reflects high British inflation rates and stagnant incomes, as well as austerity measures), British families with children will have lower real incomes in 2016 than they did 14 years earlier:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/30/austerity-biggest-fall-family-income
14 November 2011
Voters in Big British Cities to Vote on Local Government Reform Measures
Most British cities do not have elected mayors; the position is typically an honorary one rotated among elected city councilors. The British Government, however, would like to strengthen local government; one way to do that is to establish separately-elected mayors in British cities and invest them with a substantial amount of executive authority. Next year, voters in 11 British cities will consider local government reform proposals that would create elected mayors; it is unclear whether they will support the measures:
http://www.economist.com/node/21538144
http://www.economist.com/node/21538144
Nigeria's Jonathan Gets Mixed Review
An article in this week's issue of The Economist assesses Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's progress in curbing corruption, expanding and diversifying the economy, and improving internal security:
http://www.economist.com/node/21538207
http://www.economist.com/node/21538207
12 November 2011
Don't Seat These Two at the Same Table at Your Wedding
The conflict between Iran's Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is now out in the open:
http://www.economist.com/node/21536660
The suggestion in the article that Iran's Leader might actually seek to abolish the office of President of Iran is a bit fanciful. Under the 1979 Iranian Constitution, the Leader already has the unconditional authority to fire the president.
http://www.economist.com/node/21536660
The suggestion in the article that Iran's Leader might actually seek to abolish the office of President of Iran is a bit fanciful. Under the 1979 Iranian Constitution, the Leader already has the unconditional authority to fire the president.
A Failure of Internet Activism in China
Several years ago, Chen Guangcheng, a blind Chinese human rights activist, ran afoul of local authorities in Shandong province. He served four years in prison; since then, he has been under house arrest. Recently, an internet campaign began, encouraging Chen's supporters to visit him. But people who have attempted to see Chen (including a Xinhua reporter) have been beaten by hired toughs:
http://www.economist.com/node/21536639
http://www.economist.com/node/21536639
07 November 2011
The Social Effects of Economic Inequality
In a fascinating talk delivered at a July 2011 TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference, Richard G. Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, examines comparative public health and safety data from the world's wealthiest countries. He concludes that countries with higher levels of economic equality enjoy better health, suffer from less violence and fewer social problems, and enjoy higher levels of social mobility than less egalitarian countries. More surprisingly, he finds that wealthy people in relatively egalitarian countries are healthier than wealthy people in relatively inegalitarian countries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7LzE3u7Bw&
I am indebted to AHS senior Claire Ciraolo for calling this video to my attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7LzE3u7Bw&
I am indebted to AHS senior Claire Ciraolo for calling this video to my attention.
