Even if you have not been to steamy Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, Mumbai’s well-known outdoor laundry facility, there is a chance that your clothing has. Densely packed against Mumbai’s central rail system, this iconic complex is the largest of many sites that collect, hand wash, dry, and deliver much of the city’s laundry. It’s also one of many reminders that the modern economy has not transcended the realities of undercompensated manual toil.
The rip-off continues.
Government officials from an elite group of developed countries meeting in Washington, D.C. at the invitation of U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern appear to be on the brink of instigating yet another corporate handout and big bank giveaway—this time in the name of fighting climate change.
Although most of the developed world has long been unburdened with knowledge of the violence in the DRC, the slaughter is intricately linked to electronic components carried by millions of people in the United States and Europe.
Fearing the disruption of gun exports, the National Rifle Association vociferously opposed the Arms Trade Treaty that was approved on April 2 by the UN General Assembly. The joke, though, is not just on the NRA. While the treaty doesn’t do anything to affect American gun-owners, it’s so weak that it doesn’t seem to affect anybody at all.
Washington has vociferously denounced Afghan corruption as a major obstacle to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. This has been widely reported. Only one crucial element is missing from this routine censure: a credible explanation of why American nation-building failed there. No wonder. To do so, the U.S. would have to denounce itself.
Mining companies are jockeying for position to be the first to successfully vacuum up Pacific resources.
From the eight-lane Nairobi-Thika highway built by Chinese construction companies to the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants around town, the signs of China’s activity are everywhere in Kenya—right down to the friendly nihao called out by Kenyans as I walk down a Nairobi street. Elsewhere on the continent, however, the seams of this tight relationship are becoming stretched.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect on January 1, 1994, was touted as the cure for Mexico’s economic “backwardness.” Promoters argued that the trilateral trade agreement would dig Mexico out of its economic rut and modernize it along the lines of its mighty neighbor, the United States. Fat chance.
Not just relaxed regulatory protocols, but austerity itself, are bringing horsemeat to Europe’s tables.