Combatting rising human trafficking
Migrant smuggling is a deadly business operated by groups that seek to profit from thousands of people, without any respect for their rights and dignity. For example, the migrant flow…
Capital suggestion: Cholistan Desert
Here is a partial list of countries where their national armies play a significant role in the agriculture sector: China, Israel, India, Russia, Brazil, Egypt, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa,…
‘Hostage diplomacy’: a growing headache for the West
Sylvie Arnaud’s first feeling when she learnt her son Louis had been detained in Iran in September last year was sheer incredulity, followed by a raging sense of injustice and…
Capital suggestion: Devaluation
Here’s a partial list of countries where currency devaluation has been a catalyst for protests at various points in recent history: Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela, Iran, Nigeria, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Lebanon,…
Belgium canal city of Bruges hits ‘red line’ with tourist crowds
Inhabitants of Belgium’s cobblestone-and-canal city of Bruges are clear: summertime tourism has hit capacity. “It’s really reached a red line now,” says one, 55-year-old architect Arnout Goegebuer, as he sits…
Misguided fiscal policies
Earlier this year, bowing to the demands of the IMF, Pakistan raised its interest rates by a whopping 300 basis points to 20 per cent, the highest in Asia. This…
For migrants, the Darien Gap is hell; for adventure tourists, it’s a magnet
Deep in the Panamanian jungle, Venezuelan migrant Franca Ramirez was scrambling to reach higher ground as a rushing river broke its banks, he said, when something caught his eye: a…
The BRICS’s creeping ‘gold currency’
It’s a shame that market pundits have been busy scandalising JP Morgan’s involvement with the late, notorious sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein — especially after a US judge’s approval late last…
Debt trap—II
In Pakistan, however, industry/value addition is relegated to secondary position in reward to investment in real estate, official business sector is extractive thus the very model of Pak economy is…
China as our lender of the last resort
Administrations/researchers in the West have been accusing China of being an unforgiving lender to developing countries (defined as not open to negotiations of deferral/rescheduling, a charge made more acute after…
