Global Issues
News headlines for “Free Trade and Globalization”, page 300
Music: Nigeria’s New Cultural Export
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 (IPS) - It is a cold evening in Antwerp, Belgium's second-largest city, famous for diamonds, beer, art and high-end fashion. Inside a small restaurant, a mix of the latest American pop and rap—clearly enjoyed by diners—is playing on a radio. Nigerians Olalekan Adetiran and Adaobi Okereke, enjoying a kebab dinner, are startled when the radio begins playing the unmistakable "Ma Lo"—a catchy, midtempo and bass-laden song by popular Nigerian artistes Tiwa Savage and Wizkid.
Demonizing State-Owned Enterprises
- Inter Press Service
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 (IPS) - To make the case for privatization from the 1980s, their real problems were often caricatured and exaggerated.Historically, the private sector has been unable or unwilling to affordably provide needed services. Hence, meeting such needs could not be left to the market or private interests. Thus, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) emerged, often under colonial rule, due to such ‘market failure' as the private sector could not meet the needs of colonial capitalist expansion.
Which Way Now for Zimbabwe as Constitutional Court Receives Petition Against Election Results?
- Inter Press Service
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 13 (IPS) - Many in Zimbabwe are questioning whether the country can break with its horrid past or embrace a new future after a watershed election that saw Emmerson Mnangagwa win the presidential race by a narrow margin and the opposition lodge a formal petition challenging the results in the Constitutional Court.
2017 Global Findex: Behind the Numbers on Bangladesh
- Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON DC, Aug 10 (IPS) - Joep Roest is Senior Financial Sector Specialist, Inclusive Markets, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).
On the face of it, the 2017 Global Findex shows that Bangladesh has made great strides toward financial inclusion since the previous Findex was released in 2014.
Sousa, a Solar Power Capital in an Increasingly Arid Brazil
- Inter Press Service
SOUSA, Brazil, Aug 09 (IPS) - Sousa, a municipality of 70,000 people in the west of Paraíba, the state in Brazil most threatened by desertification, has become the country's capital of solar energy, with a Catholic church, various businesses, households and even a cemetery generating solar power.
Why We Need Decentralized Renewable Energy to Power the World
- Inter Press Service
AMSTERDAM, Aug 07 (IPS) - Eco Matser is Hivos global Climate Change / Energy and Development CoordinatorAs the energy sector is transforming, there is a growing consensus that sustainable energy is a catalyst for achieving most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): it is crucial for better health, education, jobs, food production and conservation, as well as water use and quality.
Winds of Change on Kenya’s Northern Borders
- Inter Press Service
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 06 (IPS) - Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
Previously characterised by belligerence, based on competition for resources, the border regions of Eastern Africa can sense the blissful wind of peace approaching.
As It Recovers, Argentina's Beef Production Faces Environmental Impact Questions
- Inter Press Service
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 06 (IPS) - Beef is one of the symbols historically identified with Argentina. After lean years, production and exports are growing, as is the debate on the environmental impact of cattle, which is on the radar of environmentalists and actors in the agricultural value chain.
Going Cashless, Led by Sweden
- Inter Press Service
STOCKHOLM, Aug 03 (IPS) - Stefan Ingves is the governor of Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, described as the world's oldest central bank.
Sweden is rapidly moving away from cash. Demand for cash has dropped by more than 50 percent over the past decade as a growing number of people rely on debit cards or a mobile phone application, Swish, which enables real-time payments between individuals.
The Sun Powers a Women's Bakery in Brazil's Semi-arid Northeast
- Inter Press Service
POMBAL, Brazil, Aug 02 (IPS) - "The sun which used to torment us now blesses us," said one of the 19 women who run the Community Bakery of Varzea Comprida dos Oliveiras, a settlement in the rural area of Pombal, a municipality of the state of Paraiba, in Brazil's semi-arid Northeast.
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