Economy

Dollar's Drop a Drag for Americans Abroad

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The good fortune of the Euro — not to mention the Czech Crown — makes for dismal tidings for American expatriates and their European colleagues paid in dollars. According to The Prague Post, employees of American firms and institutions in the Czech Republic have taken the equivalent of a 15 percent salary cut as a result of the dollar’s devaluation. U.S.-based tax-exempt organizations in the Czech Republic, with their fundraising base back home, are also taking a hit. One economist told the Post that the dollar’s fall could eventually drag down foreign currencies with it, as the American market for imported consumer goods diminishes. Source:
“Free fall: Expats paid in dollars watch their salaries drop”
The Prague Post, November 28, 2007

Economy

Whither Cuba's Green Thumb?

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Floods, storms, drought and heat, plus an array of economic concerns, are taking their toll on Cuban agriculture. Inter Press Service reports that 75 percent of Cuban land used for crops and grazing has fallen into disuse, even as produce prices increase and the variety of crops available diminishes. Raul Castro, who heads the Communist government there, said earlier this year that “structural and conceptual changes will have to be introduced” to address the situation. Armando Nova, a Cuban academic in Havana, told Inter Press that increased local control over farming decisions, profitmaking, and allowing farmers to sell their crops directly at local markets, rather than mandatory sales to state agencies, are all necessary to boost cultivation and food production. Source:
“AGRICULTURE-CUBA: Waiting for Announced Reforms”
Inter Press Service, December 5, 2007

Democracy & Civics

Sex on the Beach and Birds in Hand? Kenya's Tourist Trap

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Miles of shoreline, coastal forests, mountains, plains and the continent-spanning Great Rift Valley all make Kenya a world-class tourist destination. But the complications of this burgeoning trade are abundant. Kenya’s beach towns, notorious for an illicit sex industry involving thousands of regional girls and boys, now have a new wrinkle to consider — older caucasian women seeking uncomplicated dalliances with young African men. Critics say the practice revives a colonial past of white women “serviced” by “black minions,” reports the Mail & Guardian of South Africa, and also note the health risks of casual encounters in a nation with a high incidence of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. One British woman told the newspaper that the “social arrangement” is nothing more than a role reversal on older men wining and dining younger women, though a hotel manager said the liaisons, while legal, are “unwholesome.”

Democracy & Civics

Outsourcing Motherhood

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Scores of impoverished Indian women are selling their services as childbearers to foreign couples who either cannot, or don’t want to, bear their own children, reports the Daily Mail. Using an Indian surrogate mother is less expensive and less complicated than paying a Western mother for the same services — and in some cases, the surrogate offers her own eggs as well. The number of surrogate mothers in India has nearly doubled in the past three years, while surrogacy agencies are springing up to handle the caseload. Indian doctors are helping make the arrangements, even setting up a bungalow for surrogate mothers with a cook, a cleaner and English classes, according to India’s Daily News and Analysis. They say becoming a surrogate for childless couples is a “noble deed.”

Economy

Land Struggles Sour India Economic Zones

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Controversy follows the violent deaths of 21 protesters who opposed the creation of a “special economic zone” in India’s West Bengal district, reports Agence France-Presse. Activists say the deaths highlight the dangers of land seizures to create industrial areas that largely benefit multinational corporations. Such conversions are common in nations such as China, where small fishing and farming villages are transformed into economic powerhouses. The Indian villagers, from the district of Nandigram, oppose the local Marxist government’s plans to acquire 14,500 acres for an industrial park and petrochemical hub. Nearly 150 special economic zones already exist in India, employing 41,000 people.

Economy

Iran's Other Little Problem — Inflation

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Nary a word about Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s nuclear ambitions or headline-grabbing trip to the United States appeared in a recent Agence France-Presse article. Instead, the piece focused entirely on complaints about his economic stewardship, which experts say will push inflation to more than 20 percent this year. Rising costs for food and services have hit the poor hardest, prompting a leading reformist ayatollah to claim that the problem is “making the people cry out.” Opponents blame Ahmadinejad for “frittering away” abundant oil revenue on highly visible infrastructure projects, which one conservative in Parliament said has awakened “the inflation monster.” Source:
“Ahmadinejad’s economic performance under fire again – from both sides”
Agence France-Presse, October 30, 2007

Economy

Offshoring Meets "Onshoring" in the Quest for Cheap Labor

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Some major American companies like Northrop Grumman and IBM are finding they can save money by keeping their IT and customer service operations in the U.S. rather than moving them to India — a trend some experts have dubbed “onshoring,” reports the Los Angeles Times. Increasingly, companies are setting up shop in small-town America and training the local workforce — saving money for companies operating out of Silicon Valley or Los Angeles. Even Wipro Technologies, a software maker based in India, is establishing a center in Atlanta that will employ 100 people. Customer demand is also driving the trend — IBM opened a technical support center in Twin Falls, Idaho, after complaints about the language skills of employees in India. The onshoring trend has also been driven by India’s booming economy, which is making it hard for all but the largest U.S. high-tech firms to do business there, according to the Economic Times of India.

Economy

UPDATED: Egypt Gripped by Textile Strike

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While the world focuses on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s repression of journalists and the Muslim Brotherhood party, a different sort of social unrest has boiled over at a state-owned textile mill in Mahalla el-Kubra, where tens of thousands of strikers have brought work to a costly standstill. The BBC notes that a similar strike last December at the mill led to sympathy strikes across Egypt, causing the government to “back down and meet the workers’ demands” for higher pay and better profit sharing. Now, an estimated 27,000 workers have taken over the factory in Mahalla, a town north of Cairo on the Nile Delta, claiming the government has failed to live up to its promises. According to Reuters, inflation is on the rise and wages are stagnant, shutting out laborers from the benefits of Egypt’s otherwise growing economy. The Associated Press reports that at least five strike leaders were arrested, but a pro-labor blogger, Hossam el-Hamalawy, posted a statement by the strike committee that the leaders have since been released after promising to “calm” the protests.

Democracy & Civics

Day Labor Camp Divides in Texas

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A Christian church in Houston is part of an interfaith coalition that has drawn the ire of anti-immigration activists by planning a new center for day laborers, the Houston Chronicle reports. U.S. Border Watch, a civilian group, brought 200 people to a rally opposed to the plan, saying it would undermine border security. But members of the Cypress Creek Interfaith Coalition for Economic Development, while acknowledging that most day laborers were indeed undocumented immigrants, said the site was vital because there is an “economic need” for their work. Source:
“Faith leaders plan day-labor site, despite protest”
Houston Chronicle, September 26, 2007

Democracy & Civics

Agribusiness Gets Another Record Harvest — of Subsidies

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The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the latest federal farm bill would spend $280 billion on traditional subsidies for corn, cotton and wheat, but virtually ignores burgeoning organic and alternative farming centered in Northern California. The newspaper notes that California’s Fresno County produces more food than the entire state of South Dakota, but gets a fraction of the federal money sent to the Great Plains. Organic farmers and advocates say that the subsidies reinforce destructive farming practices — including over-reliance on chemicals and lack of crop diversity — and that if California was as heavily subsidized as other states, the development of farming alternatives might never have taken root. Source:
“Federal bill helps huge farmers, not California’s innovative ones”
San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 2007