by Wenonah Hauter
- USA -

Jan. 1, 2009 - Wenonah's article marks the beginning of our month-long focus on water issues. We're proud to bring this pioneering voice to our readers. - Ed.

Think of the last time you turned on a tap while washing dishes, brushing your teeth or grabbing a glass of water. If you’re like most people, it probably doesn’t stand out as a momentous experience. That’s because most of us don’t give much thought to this resource that we tend to take for granted. But our water service is becoming less reliable as the infrastructure that delivers it to us falls apart and private companies threaten to take it over for their own financial gain.

by Jasmin So-Armada
- Canada -

Walk into a convenience store, coffee shop or supermarket in Calgary and chances are you’ll be waited on by a temporary foreign worker (TFW). Though they come from many countries, they share one story: relocation for the chance to earn decent wages, and in some cases, the hope to reside permanently in Canada. “There is a wide variety of TFWs that come to Alberta - from skilled laborers like welders and carpenters, to pipe fitters to semi skilled trades like cleaners. These are men and women from all parts of the globe,” says Avnish Mehta, Program Coordinator of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society’s (CCIS) Temporary Foreign Worker Integration Advisory Office.

by Blaire Dessent
- France -

For the 2008 Dak’Art Biennial, an international art exhibition held in Dakar, Senegal, a group of artists and thinkers associated with the Action Lab project of the Brooklyn-based freeDimensional (fD), collaborated on the production and distribution of Gorée Gazette. A one-time, free newspaper, the Gazette includes personal narratives, drawings and statistics related to the crisis of economic migration - specifically ocean crossings from Africa to Europe and the United States.

by Priti Sehgal
- India -

The United States was once a dreamland for many of us Indians. The US label – whether American-brand apparel, a pleasure trip to the US, a higher education degree from anywhere in America, a short training program, a job or the ultimate dream of a family member settling down there – used to be enough to elevate one's social status in India. Given the current financial crunch in the US, the American dream is dying for many Indians.

by Suad Hamada
- Bahrain -

“Arab and Gulf Banks will be completely safe from the global financial crisis.” That is what many Arab officials are announcing these days, but ordinary people are not reassured and fail to understand how the Arab World, with its average economies, can possibly be insulated from such catastrophe. They expect that the global financial crisis will eventually add new worries to their daily hardships.

Thirty-five year old Bahraini Ali Hassan doesn’t know much about economics but he understands that the world’s financial markets are not stable and is concerned that the instability will affect him and his family. “I don’t have a large savings but the idea of the banks losing their financial credibility or going bankrupt makes me insecure.”

by Pilirani Semu-Banda
- Malawi -

Twenty-seven year-old Lima Wochi from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, looks dejected. She ventured into prostitution at the tender age of 12. She says she is tired of sex work and is looking for a way out of it.

Prostitution is deemed unacceptable in Malawi but the sex trade continues to thrive. Large numbers of women, especially young ones, are seen loitering around street corners, near hotels, bars and other entertainment places.

by Genie Z. Laborde
- USA -

Most people do not see themselves as financial experts. However the strong emotional response we’ve seen lately shows that many people feel the government’s bailout bill reflects the machinations of a Congress that is more focused on propping up big business than securing the financial well-being of U.S. citizens and world markets.

Having experienced a downturn in my business after 9-11, I felt some concern about how the bailout and the predictions of further economic chaos would affect my debt and my income. I was more than a little curious about how others in business around me were dealing with this situation so I began asking questions. First, I asked people who know money and investments, then I asked my friends, and then, their friends.

I asked: “What do you think about the financial fiasco?” Sometimes, I re-phrased it as: “How do you feel about the financial fiasco?” Or “Does the financial crisis affect you?”

by Julie Chowdhury
- Sweden -

Every morning when you wake up and perform what you may perceive as insignificant chores, you might not realize that for 2.6 billion people around the world, your morning shower or just one flush of the toilet is the essence of luxury. The United Nations has declared that every human being is entitled to 20 liters of safe water every day. In Europe, we have the privilege of using 200 liters per day, while in the US, the average person uses up to 400. The average person in the developing world tries to manage on less than 10 liters of contaminated water to do all their daily chores.

by Mridu Khullar
- India -

According to the National Coalition of Health Care in America, in 2007, total national health expenditures were expected to rise 6.9 percent—twice the rate of inflation. Healthcare spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense. And although 47 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on healthcare than other industrialized nations.

It is no wonder then that scores of American citizens are heading off to foreign shores for their healthcare needs.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

Hillary Clinton’s speech has been highlighted, delivered and duly dissected. Bill’s, too. But, as focus shifts to Obama, the elephant in the hall that will linger past the DNC convention for the nearly 9 million engaged Hillary voters that aren’t yet throwing their vote to Obama is the question: why didn’t he choose her as his running mate? The Democratic Party would be naïve to suggest these people just ‘get over it,’ Hillary’s verbal push and roll call acclamation not withstanding.

Hate her or love her. It’s still a valid question given the 18 million votes and major swing states she captured, particularly for the women who did and do identify with her, and for the men who advocate equality. And it’s a question that Obama needs to at least acknowledge, if not address.

by Dr. Rita Thapa
- Nepal -

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, wedged between China and India. With a total surface area of 147 square kilometers, the country is home to some 27 million Nepalis from more than a hundred diverse caste and ethnic identities. 86% of the Nepali people live in rural areas, with poor transport and communication facilities, and few health services. Public-private partnerships, which have steadily gained ground in Nepal, have highlighted one of the most important but neglected public health needs: safe pregnancy and childbirth.

The country has come a long way since 1951, when it launched its first modernization drive. It has since transformed from a socially orthodox Hindu kingdom to a secular federal democratic republic, with women comprising 33% of its national assembly. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which waged a decade-long insurgency in 1996, recently won elections, and a mandate to govern the country.

Having been a girl in pre-1951 Nepal, and having not been allowed to obtain formal schooling till I was 10 years old, I find these changes a bit dizzying, but recognize the huge gains for a country held back by centuries of feudalism, poverty, illiteracy, and discrimination, as well as a decade-long guerrilla war.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

In the not so distant past, the idea of reducing, reusing, and recycling seemed idealistic, even if it just meant putting a glass bottle in a recycling container instead of the trash. But a wave of environmentalism has swept the United States, and now recycling a soda can is practically a given. To truly be “green” you must buy the latest environmentally friendly technology, watch green television channels, drive a hybrid, and live in a multimillion dollar home constructed exclusively with green products. If this lifestyle is going to save us, it’s sadly out of reach for most people.

by Kulsoom Nizamuddin
- Indian-administered Kashmir -

- In a continuing cycle of conflict, fresh violence broke out this week in Kashmir, heightening tensions and confining everyone to their homes as a blanket curfew was put into effect in Srinagar. - Ed.

• A shikarawalla waits for customers on Dal Lake. Photograph by Ajay Tallman. •

Rafeeq is not the only one whose business has been hit badly due to tourism decline. Once a hot destination for tourists, Kashmir’s tourism industry has suffered a major set back since the outset of violence and armed struggle against Indian occupation in 1989.

by Zubeida Mustafa
- Pakistan -

Pakistan has been hit by severe food price inflation – the worst in its 61-year history. The prices of many basic food items have more than doubled in the last year and poor families are now spending two thirds to three quarters of their monthly income on their meals alone.

• As food prices rise in Pakistan, some are turning to home gardens to put food on the table. Photograph courtesy of OPP-RTI. •

Although Pakistan’s economy has been in crisis for some time now, the real crunch has come with the rise in food and oil prices. Traditionally, the food intake of most people has been inadequate in the country and as a result malnutrition is rampant. According to Human Development in South Asia 2007, a report by the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Center, 23 per cent of Pakistan’s people were undernourished in 2003 while 19 per cent of the country’s children were stunted, underweight or in severe health crisis in 2005. Doctors believe that in the last couple of years malnutrition has increased.

by Imelda V. Abaño
- The Philippines -

For decades, the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia, has provided skilled medical professionals primarily to wealthy places such as the United States, Europe and the Middle East. But as more and more health workers leave the country for greener pastures abroad, public health experts say the country's health care system is on the brink of collapse.

Long hours, backbreaking schedules, poor conditions and little pay pushed 37-year-old Mary Ann Visaya to leave her job at a public hospital in an impoverished town in Cagayan Valley for higher salary abroad. For the past four years, Visaya has been working as a staff nurse, administering to roughly 30 or 40 patients a day. She has seen poor people lined up at the hospital and heard patients complain of the long wait to get treatment. But like many of her colleagues, she jumps at the opportunity to leave the country and work abroad.

"Most of the time your heart breaks seeing poor people lined up to seek treatment. But I have learned to persevere [through] more hours of work especially during critical staff shortage," Visaya explains. "But I also have to think of the welfare of my parents because with my present salary of $170, it is not enough to sustain our expenses.”

by Halimah Abdallah Kisule
- Uganda -

Ms Akullo Flavia, a retail shop owner in a Kampala suburb, stands puzzled in the local market not knowing what to buy for supper. Her initial plan to buy fresh fish is ruined - there is no fish for sale at the stalls. A local hajati, or fish dealer, is disappointed too. She explains that the moon’s recent brightness is helping the big fish to see the net and escape. The little fish that get trapped in the nets are all sold on the beaches at much higher prices to the waiting refrigerator trucks of fish processing companies who export to countries like China and several parts of Europe. Officials from the fisheries department say that even these companies are facing a deficit and only exporting a third of their capacity due to declining fish populations in the lakes and rivers.

by Remi Adeoye
- Nigeria -

There is stiff opposition to the proposed Niger Delta Summit slated to be held in Abuja, Nigeria. The Delta’s most prominent militant group, known as The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), called it a “circus,” and "a face saving measure” by the slow-moving Yar'Adua administration to show that it has a plan to solve the area’s problems. The line of battle has been drawn between the federal government and the militants, with tensions increasing after the deployment of more soldiers and two naval warships to the oil-rich Delta, which militants described as a “callous, wicked attempt to wipe the Ijaw nation from the face of the earth.”

• The environmental devastation from installations like this one in Ikot Ada Udo has left nearly everyone living off the land without a livelihood. Photograph by Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR. •

To the indigenous Egi women of Ijaw, it is crucial that more come out of the Abuja summit than political posturing. As the women say, “We are farmers, fisherwomen and hunters. With all the flaming and pumping oil into our swamp areas, the oil companies have denied us every living thing. Today, we have no hope, while they are making billions of naira with our gifts from God. They don’t care or hear our cry; they only throw tear gas on us, beat us, and drive us out of our land.”

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

Paying upwards of $10 USD to see a movie about economics, particularly in these increasingly desperate financial times, hardly seems like a prudent decision – much less a pleasurable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. But if you’re willing to shell out the cash to see the new documentary I.O.U.S.A., which opens in theatres this August, you may be surprised at just how enjoyable and educational a film about America’s economy can be.

The federal debt seems too incredible a sum to even fully grasp; an easier way to understand such an enormous figure is that if the debt was equally divided among the country’s population, each American would owe over $30,000.

If you have no idea or don’t even care that this debt exists, I.O.U.S.A. makes you want to learn. The film’s complex premise and daunting numbers are made more accessible by the use of colorful graphs and illustrations. Creadon effectively contrasts what average people think (or think they know) against experts’ analysis, which keeps the film from being too weighed down by statistics and theories. The film’s tone can be summed up by student activist Mike Tully who yells at passersby in one scene: “Would you like to go on a date with me? No! Would you like to learn about the debt? Yes!”

by Jennie S. Bev
- USA / Indonesia -

I live in Northern California, considered one of the wealthiest regions in the United States, where the global intellectual hub of Silicon Valley neighbors the panoramic San Francisco Bay area and where luminaries like Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the “Google Guys”), writer Amy Tan, and comedian Robin Williams call home. Here, millionaires oftentimes still go to work and live in cramped houses due to skyrocketing housing prices. A decent dim sum meal costs at least $20 USD per person and a modest one-bedroom apartment rental costs about $1,500 USD per month. A dollar can probably buy you one can of soda in a deli, but not in a movie theater, where it might be four times as much.

• A man adds extra cuts to the lumps of meat ready for distribution to the less fortunate in the nearby community. 250g of red meat is a luxury for the poor in Jakarta. Photograph by Danumurthi Mahendra •

What a contrast. What a divided world we live in.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

On 8-8-08 when the Beijing Summer Olympics begins, the world will see that the Maoist doctrine of the Cultural Revolution has been replaced by capitalism and McDonald’s – all in the name of progress. This Modern China bears a striking resemblance to the West it once condemned. But what will not be proudly displayed in shiny new shopping malls is the reality that modernization comes at the displacement of millions of people who must abandon the only way of life they know and join a new China.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

In Haiti people eat cakes baked with mud for lack of flour. In Bangladesh, Indonesia and across Africa, riots are spreading among the hungry. And in the world’s richest country, the United States, the breadlines are growing.

• Photograph by Bruce Gilbert, courtesy of The Earth Institute. •

by Imelda V. Abaño
- Philippines -

Hunger is the most crucial manifestation of poverty. In many parts of the world, the soaring prices of food, fuel and other basic goods have triggered social unrest and a growing sense of urgency.

• In Haiti, an estimated 46% of all children under five are severely or moderately stunted in growth due to malnutrition. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño. •

Witnessing the realities of the devastating consequences of poverty and rising food prices up close reminded me of my first visit to Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries.

In June, I went to Haiti with five other journalists for an experience unlike any of my previous trips abroad. The abject poverty and despair I witnessed there is far more extreme than in my own country. Never before have I seen such deprivation than that which I saw in Haiti; the human suffering is all too real and heart-rending.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, is plagued by violence, hunger, unrelenting extreme poverty, disease, high unemployment rates, low life expectancy and crumbling health and educational systems.

by Katharine Daniels & Sarah McGowan
- USA -

Sunday’s news that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn from the Zimbabwean runoff race spurred international media coverage and outrage on a crisis that has been raging for years. According to the opposition’s Movement for Democratic Change, "some 86 of its supporters have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by militias loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF party."

• An image from last year's violent police crackdown on Zimbabwean activists. Photograph courtesy of The Zimbabwean. •

WIP Contributors Constance Manika and Lelety Mabasa, along with Sharon Njobo, Grace Kwinjeh and Sandra Nyaira, have published article after article over the past year, outlining the methodical behavior of a political despot who is both cunning and ruthless, and who will stop at nothing to preserve his power.

In our second week of publication, Sharon Njobo (living in exile in Canada) wrote about women in her country taking the lead to protest against Mugabe's economic policies. In this early article we first learned of Zimbabwe's skyrocketing inflation rates (currently at 355,000 percent), and the rising price of basic foodstuffs - putting cooking oil, cornmeal, bread, and milk beyond the reach of many families in a country that was once considered the 'food basket' of Africa. The deteriorating Zimbabwean economy has now earned the country the dubious distinction of having the lowest life expectancy in the world for women. At just 34 years, a woman's life span (37 years for a man) is now half of what it was only 18 years ago.

by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA -

After hearing the family history of her adventurous great-grandmother, a free African American woman who lived in New Orleans during the Civil War, community activist Pam Dashiell knew she wanted to live in the legendary southern city.

• Community activist Pam Dashiell doesn't flinch in the face of New Orleans' challenges. Photograph courtesy of Kimberly Chase. •

Three generations later, Dashiell brought her family history full circle. Since moving from Massachusetts, she has come to call New Orleans home, and is now a well-known organizer; Dashiell's work in the Holy Cross neighborhood in the city's Lower Ninth Ward took on added urgency after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Trying to bring the area back to life, she now helps evacuated families decide whether they can make the move back to their city and rebuild their homes.

by S. Jean
- Gaza City -

Boom! I can feel a rumble under my feet and hear the windows clatter lightly in our two-bedroom apartment. My husband and I live on the third floor of an apartment building in Rimal, regarded as a safe neighborhood in Gaza City. The Gaza Strip is tiny, only 140 square miles, and we can easily hear explosions, even those a couple towns away.

• This building is part of a government complex that the Israeli Air Force bombed using an F-16. Ten children from nearby homes were wounded in this attack, launched in the middle of the night in the Tel Al Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City. •

You name it… it's all a normal part of our lives here in Gaza. And little stops us, and everyone else, from going about our day-to-day activities. After all, it's only 7:30 in the morning and we are getting ready to go to work. We don't even check the TV for news about the blast.

by Ellen Bravo
- USA -

The best researchers in the United States gathered recently to solve a long-standing puzzle: why women in the richest country in the world earn so little money. Using sophisticated multiple regression analyses and other scientific tools, the researchers finally came up with the answer.

• As the wage gap fails to improve, women continue to work in the low paying jobs that men don't want. Photograph by Belinda Hankins Miller. •

The Big Boys, those who control power and wealth, will tell you that women’s pay in the U.S. is doing just fine. The gap is narrowing, they proclaim! It’s practically disappeared for young women starting out! Women are faring better than men during this economic downturn! And to the extent that a wage gap exists at all, it’s because of choices women make (trading income for flexibility, opting out of high-paying, high-pressure jobs) or deficiencies they possess (lack of negotiating skills).

Neat little trick, putting it back on women. Problem is, none of it works.

Take the narrowing of the wage gap. Today women overall in the U.S. earn 77 cents for every dollar men make; African-American women earn 72 cents, Latinas 60 cents. That is better than the 59 cents ratio of the late sixties. But half the narrowing of the gap comes from loss of pay for men, particularly men of color. This is hardly what women had in mind by equality. What’s more, the gap is greatest for women with the most education working the longest hours. And the mommy wage gap – the difference between what mothers earn and the pay of everyone else – continues to increase.

by Jozefina Cutura
- USA -

With Hillary Clinton’s recent campaign for the presidency in the United States at its end and women leaders taking charge in countries from Chile to Liberia, women’s advances in politics are making headlines. But in countries around the world, especially those recovering from conflict like Bosnia and Herzegovina, women are making strides in the business arena too.

• Women entrepreneurs in Bosnia are helping rebuild the country's economy. Photograph courtesy of MI BOSPO. •

“In Skelani I saw a kiosk that was in a fairly good shape, so I decided to invest in opening it,” she says in an interview. Skelani is in a remote region of Bosnia that is poorly accessible by roads and has seen a large number of people emigrate elsewhere since the war. Despite the town’s remoteness and its shrinking population, Ružica remained undeterred. Initially, as people continued to move away, her profits were low. But she persevered and today Ružica’s convenience store has an excellent reputation in the community, steadily attracting customers from across the region. She employs four female workers and has created a stable source of income for her family.

by Genie Z. Laborde
- USA -

It's hot because most people don’t know about it yet and it's cool because it makes money. Crowdsourcing is a way for companies to enlist the help of their own Internet clients to produce their products. Utilizing the "wisdom of the crowd" to its advantage, crowdsourcing attracts customers, content and "clicks" or traffic to a website or online company. The amateur producers in the “crowd” wish to see their creations and this turns them into customers or producers of "clicks," both of which are valuable roles on the Internet.

by Lelety Mabasa
- Zimbabwe -

Always faithful in shocking the world, Zimbabwe has scored yet another first, and as usual, for all the wrong reasons.

• Basket case: A fruit seller in Harare hunts for change. •

"The latest innovation seeks to bring convenience to our farmers who, starting this year's marketing season, are receiving competitive prices for their produce," said acting RBZ Governor Charity Dhliwayo last week.

The RBZ also launched a new Z$500 million bank note for the general public.

What baffled most people, however, was that bearers can use Agro Cheques to purchase goods in supermarkets, just like we do with ordinary notes.

"Either the people at the central bank are now confused or they were too embarrassed to say we are launching such high denominated notes for the public," speculates Noleen Moyo, an employee with a Zimbabwean bank. "To them, that would mean admitting failure in running the economy."

by Carrie R. Sparrevohn
- USA -

In 2005 I traveled to Uganda, East Africa, for the first time. I met Margaret Nangobi on that trip, in Mwanyangiri, a tiny village about an hour’s drive from the capitol. What transpired between us broke my privileged self in pieces and I became the receiver one hundred fold of what I was to give.

• Margaret and her granddaughter Loi with their kitchen and home in the background. •

For every mother that dies in the US of pregnancy, Uganda loses 50. Around the world, each minute, we lose one mother as a direct result of her pregnancy. Improving women’s access to experienced care providers, antibiotics and medication to prevent or stop hemorrhaging would prevent over half of these deaths.

As I prepared to spend November 2005 in Uganda, a wonderful friend and mentor, Jan McNabb, began to tell her friends what I was planning to do. People began handing her money for the needy in Uganda. As a result, the Sally Clinic Project of With Woman was born.

by Marianne Taflinger
- USA -

In Sweden, a doctor delivers Sari, and her family celebrates what will be the beginning of a long life, probably 83 years or more. She’ll attend at least 17 years of school and if she chooses to have children, they’ll be born when she wants them to be born, thanks to convenient and cheap contraceptives. If she has a baby, she’ll take off 15 weeks of work and still earn 80% of her salary. Sari is virtually guaranteed to make it to age 5 without any health complications and enroll in secondary school. Swedish society provides great health care and education that eases both mothers’ and girls’ lives.

By contrast, Adame will live a far more perilous life. Having been born in Niger, she has a high probability of dying before age 5. Like two thirds of all children born in Niger, no “skilled birth attendant” was present at her delivery. It’s likely that Adame will attend only 3 grades in school, and that she will die by age 45, living a life half as long than if she had been born in Sweden. Adame’s mother is practically guaranteed to lose at least one child and has a nine out of ten probability that she will lose 2 children in her lifetime. Due to the lack of contraception, Adame will likely have more siblings than her family can afford. And there’s a strong chance that Adame will suffer from malnutrition and lack a sufficient supply of water.

by Sarah Wyatt
- USA -

Years of hardship and backbreaking labor in the riot-stricken slums of Kibera in south Kenya have worn 18 year old Eshe Koome to the bone. A single mother of two, she walked out on her abusive husband and survived for two years as a daily wage laborer, loading vegetables and other goods for sale.

• Eshe is now able to earn a living wage at Kazuri. Photograph by Sarah Wyatt. •

Eshe's story captures in a nutshell how a group of formerly indigent, urban women operates a business for themselves. The Kazuri Bead Factory, located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, is unique in that it is Kenya’s first visitors’ attraction of its kind, created for and by women. Founded by Lady Susan Wood in 1975, the company is known for its beautiful, hand-painted beads made from the authentic clay from the Mt. Kenya area. Kazuri (Swahili for “small and beautiful”), also produces a number of other goods popular with tourists including pottery, hand-beaded sandals and purses. The beads are often featured on three-dimensional art cards and can also be found in shadowboxes.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

How sad. Exxon Mobil, the universe’s largest publicly traded company, which also happens to be enjoying some of its biggest profits ever thanks to the almost doubled price of oil during the past year, didn’t quite live up to Wall Street expectations this week. In fact, its stock fell nearly 4% the day it announced its first quarter of 2008 earnings.

Unfortunately, this does not make the pain at the pump pulsing through the nation any more bearable. Apparently, Exxon could have made more profit, had it not chosen to hold back further gas price hikes. Instead, earnings in its refining business (which converts crude oil to gallons of useable gas) weren’t as strong as it had wanted. Yes, that’s right – Exxon would have made even more money had they passed more pain onto the public. They were just being “nice.” Right.

by Megan Tady
- USA –

For Maureen Mullaney, helping her kids with their homework takes more than just proofreading their papers. Fed up with a painfully slow dial-up Internet connection at home, Mullaney often drives her children into town, where they sit outside the library to pick up a wireless Internet signal on their laptops in order to do research.

“How silly is it that in this day and age, you have to get in your car in the middle of winter, drive to the center of town, sit in your car with it running, while your child can research the traditional clothing of Chile?” asks Mullaney, who lives in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

Mullaney says her children’s ability to do research for school reports is “ridiculously hampered” by their dial-up connection, particularly when they need to include images with their assignments. “You can’t see [the images] quickly,” Mullaney says. “You click on one and then you wait. And oh, that’s the wrong one.”

The process can be so frustrating, that sometimes Mullaney and her kids give up. “I just say, ‘Forget it, I’ll look it up for you when I get to work,’” she says. “So then I end up doing their research? What’s that all about?”

by Katie Thompson
- USA -

Elections invite a whirlwind of campaign promises: some that are feasible, some that are not, and some that will be forgotten on Inauguration Day. One of the most prominent issues for the Democratic candidates has been healthcare reform, a campaign promise the American people definitely won’t let the new president forget. In the United States, the National Coalition on Health Care says 47 million people are without health care coverage. In addition, according to Consumer Reports, 43% of Americans who have health insurance coverage say their coverage is inadequate to deal with an expensive medical emergency. Clearly, healthcare is an issue that requires a solution. The real question is whether a national healthcare plan is a feasible solution. I would argue that it is not.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

Former CIA director Jim Woolsey eagerly leans across the table in the swanky restaurant of the Carlton-Ritz Hotel in Washington, D.C. The seriousness of the matter he’s discussing is reflected in his sharp, almost transparent blue eyes.

”The United States’ dependence on oil makes us very vulnerable from a security and environmental perspective. Why buy oil from Islamic theocracies, which sponsor terrorism against us? We are fighting a war against terror, but are paying for both sides. How smart is that?” asks the sprightly 66-year-old Woolsey.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

The Starbucks, sidewalk and subway comments continue to flow abundant as New Yorkers processed the country’s latest made-for-TV sex scandal. The reality that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Time Magazine’s former Crusader of the Year, the man now dubbed “George Fox” and “Client #9,” had repeatedly gotten too hot and heavy with various high-class call-girls broke in salacious bits. This is the stuff that causes political dreams in America to dissolve even faster than the seismic destruction unleashed by the subprime mortgage crisis and the economic recession that has followed it.

by Natasha Dokovska
- Macedonia -

“I have seven children, I don't work, neither does my wife. For many years I thought about selling my kidney so I could give my children a better life, but just recently I found someone to buy it,” says 40 year old Ekrem. He explains that it was not a difficult choice because the 1,000 Euro ($1,465 USD) he got as compensation for the lost kidney will enable him to mend some holes in his home, pay electricity bills, and get enough firewood to last for the rest of the winter.

“Fortunately this was not a cold winter so we managed to keep warm with what we've got, otherwise we would have frozen to death,” says Ekrem.

Ekrem is one of the many Macedonian citizens who see selling their organs as a chance to save themselves from poverty. He does not consider the consequences. According to a Macedonian organization that works with people with kidney diseases, for Ekrem and about a hundred other Roma citizens in the country, it is the only way to offer a modest life for their children.

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

Feb. 5th - Today marks Fat Tuesday in New Orleans and the most celebrated day of Mardi Gras festivities. As thousands of visitors flock to the city to celebrate, thousands more have yet to return home. - Ed.

• Despite demonstrations and resistance, the demolition of New Orleans' public housing continues. Photograph by
Mavis Yorks. •

Her home survived Hurricane Katrina, but it will crumble under the city’s plan to demolish low-income housing in the name of “redevelopment.”

To the 33 year-old single mother of three, the officials pushing to raze St. Bernard are carrying out disaster by design. “How could they just get away with it?” she asks.

The pending demolition of the St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, and Lafitte projects has confirmed the fears of the city’s poorest, blackest, and hardest hit communities: that New Orleans’ “recovery” in the wake of the storm is built on the city’s old demons of racial and class strife.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

Earlier this week, speaking for Washingtonia and unburdened by high expectations, President Bush said “all of us were sent to Washington to carry out the people’s business.”

• President Bush delivers the State of the Union address flanked by Vice President Cheney (left) and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Photo by Eric Draper, courtesy of The White House. •

Because if it’s the majority of the population, and it’s life not war, we’re not even close to having it carried out.

He acknowledged, “at kitchen tables across our country, there is a concern about our economic future.”

The question remains – our? Who do you mean by ‘our’, Mr. Bush?

Because for three-quarters of the population’s kitchen table concerns are over gas costs, health insurance, debt payments, tuition, and home values. For nearly 24% of the population, depending on what race you are, the issue of paying for one’s next meal and balancing child-care with multiple jobs is center stage.

by Neeta Lal
- India -

With a booming economy, an exponentially growing Information Technology (IT) sector and surging economic prosperity amongst its 300 million-plus middle class, India seems poised for superpower status.

• Women in India are increasingly marginalized despite the country's economic growth. Photograph by Sarah McGowan. •

Of 128 countries evaluated by the WEF, India ranks way down at 114th, followed, among others, by Yemen, Chad, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Botswana are all positioned better than India. In terms of economic participation and opportunity, India, with its surging economy, has done even worse than last year – it is now ranked at the 122nd position. Meanwhile, its overall rank has slipped from 102nd to 114th this year. In other words, Indian women are even more marginalized than they were a year ago!

It’s interesting to analyze the WEF report: while India scores an overall 59.4 percent on gender equality, it only manages an abysmal 39.8 percent on economic participation and opportunity. In terms of wage equality, India ranks 59th, with 67 percent gender equality; shockingly, given India’s high tech boom, for professional and technical workers, it comes in at 97th (down in the 27th percentile). While India has a 36 percent female participation in the overall labor force, for professional and technical workers the figure is an abysmal 21 percent!

by Katharine Daniels
Founder & Executive Editor, The WIP
- USA -

On Tuesday Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Salinas, California. Otherwise known as ‘the lettuce capital of the world’ or John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Salinas just happens to be the farm town I call home.

Nearly 3,000 of Senator Clinton’s supporters showed up at the Hartnell College gymnasium to hear her speak. She was greeted in true Salinas Valley fashion, with mariachis and shouts for Viva la Causa (“Long Live Our Cause"). Clinton’s campaign stop was pulled together in just twenty-four hours following an official endorsement by the United Farm Workers of America, the union co-founded by Dolores Huerta and César Chávez that today represents more than 27,000 farm workers.