What country’s legislature made the greatest stride in attacking climate change last year? Perhaps Australia, where bills to put the Clean Energy Act of 2011 – with its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for 80 percent by 2015 – into practice were introduced. Or maybe Japan, which introduced a carbon tax in October, even as it struggles with ways reduce in climate-friendly nuclear infrastructure. Possibly even China, which despite its addiction to coal, is chugging along on its latest five-year plan with legislation for a national climate change law. Let’s try ... Read More
Can a Test Tell If You’re a Good Entrepreneur?
December 5, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Bankers around the world know there are profits to be reaped by making loans to promising small businesses that fall just short of traditional definitions of “creditworthy.” Ever since Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank pioneered "microfinance" by making tiny loans to single mothers in Bangladesh, development policymakers also have believed that getting credit to small businesses—those too large for Grameen-style microloans but still lacking collateral or credit history—is not only possible, but the key to helping a nation’s economic growth. So how to figure out ... Read More
Who is Bombing Mexico’s Nanotech Labs?
August 30, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
As if drug-war wracked Mexico didn't already have enough problems: Nature reports that its nanotechnology research laboratories have been hit with a wave of letter bombs that have injured several people. "An eco-anarchist group calling itself Individuals Tending Towards Savagery" has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, writes Leigh Philips. Personally, I suspect this 'group' is a lone nutcase; the tactic, the obscure and narrow range of targets, and the loquacious anti-technology screeds that accompany the bombings all echo the modus operandi of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber ... Read More
Mexico Now Has Universal Health Care
August 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
As the contenders and seconds in the United States’ presidential duel continue slapping each others’ cheeks with allegations about who loves Medicare more, Mexico has quietly (at least in decibels heard north of the border) achieved universal health coverage for all of its citizens. That Mexico could join Canada, Britain, or Israel, among others, in providing for all of its citizens may seem especially remarkable given the country’s frequent one-dimensional depiction as a dystopian narco-state. And of course, coverage isn’t equivalent to care. Mexico’s health system isn’t ... Read More
Quake Rescues Reserve, Shakes Baja Fishing Town
February 1, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
The villages of the Colorado River delta in Mexico normally would be bubbling with excitement now about the coming high tides that produce a bounty of fish each spring. This is when a sea-going species, the gulf corvina, gathers in the upper Gulf of California off the mouth of the Colorado River, then rushes like clockwork during the high tides of March and April to spawn in the safer fresh water up the channel. At a place called El Zanjon, an indigenous tribe, the Cucapá, and poor delta residents have long netted the corvina spawn. On isolated salt flats along the river channel, ... Read More
Why Mexican Immigrants Can’t Get Ahead
December 22, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
An annual Christmas pilgrimage used to see perhaps millions of Mexican immigrants, documented or not, return to Mexico from the U.S. for the holidays. But that flow has slowed as the U.S. militarizes its southern border and violence back home reduces the motherland's charms. But the economic charms of working in the U.S. are paling, too. Among the so-called 99 percent of people in the United States who have not shared in the rising prosperity of recent decades, Mexican immigrants have fared worse than most. While the real wages of other groups have remained fairly stagnant since 1970, ... Read More
Viewing Illegal Immigration Through Desert Debris
November 1, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
We don’t see or hear the border patrol agents until they’re almost on top of us. There are two of them, both white; one older and wiry, the other young and beefy. They are dressed in olive drab uniforms. The wiry one gives our little group of four the once-over. “We thought we might get some action today,” he says, “but you guys look all right.” He sounds just a touch disappointed. “What are you all up to?” the beefy one asks. “We’re out for a hike,” says Jason De León. De León, 34, is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and the ... Read More
Report: U.S.-Mexico Border More Secure Than Ever
August 16, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The common political debate over how the United States needs to "secure its borders" — particularly ahead of any negotiation over immigration reform — implies, of course, that the country's borders aren't all that secure. Increasingly desperate state laws attempting to curb illegal immigration reinforce the notion, as have highly publicized individual incidents, both real and imagined. In addition, as drug violence has escalated along the Mexican side of the border, it's easy to see why concerned U.S. residents would make the cognitive step from the reality of rising violence in Mexico ... Read More
On Immigration Polls, a Lot of People Lie
June 5, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
A Gallup survey taken last year found 45 percent believe immigration in the United States should be decreased, compared to 17 percent saying it should be increased and 34 percent saying it should be kept at present levels. But should such figures be taken at face value? University of California, Berkeley, sociologist Alexander Janus argues not. Using a polling technique designed to uncover hidden bias, he concluded about 61 percent of Americans support a cutoff of immigration. Janus, who published his findings in the journal Social Science Quarterly, argues that "social desirability pressures" ... Read More
Mexico Celebration: Cutting Through the Doom and Gloom
September 17, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
On the night of Mexico's bicentennial celebration, an old man was strumming his acoustic guitar. He was on a dark avenue surrounded by the din of crowds, festive cries and police sirens. His guitar had no amplification, and the bowl at his feet only had a few coins, but he was playing so intently that I stopped to listen. I had to get really close to hear the melody, but it was worth it. Like a rowdy family gathering that goes quiet because Grandpa starts to tell a story, the din around me faded. The crowds kept moving and nobody stopped to listen, and I don't blame them. There were so many ... Read More
