Word: importance
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...Bottom of the Food Chain Of course, higher global prices hurt the poor most, and the impact is particularly heavy in countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, which are dependent on imported rice to feed their large populations. A November cyclone in Bangladesh ravaged the fall crop, destroying some 800,000 metric tons of rice and forcing the country to import an extra 2.4 million metric tons from India simply to stave off famine. In Vietnam, bad weather and pest outbreaks hurt harvests. In the Philippines, where some 68 million people live on less than...
...even if Asia manages to keep its own rice bowl full, high prices and shortages may still filter down to the world's poorest countries. To put the problem in perspective, the Philippines, which faces the most acute rice shortage in Asia, imports just 15% of its rice; many countries in sub-Saharan Africa import up to 40%. Tight world supplies create a zero-sum calculus: Vietnamese rice going to the Philippines is rice that is unavailable for Africa - or for the NGOs that feed the world's most vulnerable populations. "A lot of people don't realize that Africa...
...often used at election time, but in Bhutan you can sense it at every political meeting and on every door-knocking drive. In the run-up to the country's first-ever general election on March 24, voters and politicians had to figure out how democracy works and, more important, how to import the concept without hurting their traditions. A few weeks ago, in Khuruthang, a town in the verdant Punakha Valley, workers from the People's Democratic Party--the older (at just over a year) of Bhutan's two main parties--pitched a tent in the courtyard...
...kind of appreciation the yen is experiencing now isn't necessarily a bad thing, says Takashi Omori, chief economist for Japan at UBS. He points to the fact that about 80% of Japanese imports are contracted on foreign currency and this would allow for savings on import costs with an appreciating yen and make up for some losses expected in export sales. He says that some Japanese firms have accumulated profits in the past years and can now be expected to live off of this while the yen stabilizes. If you take into account exchange rate and inflation, the current...
...perennial” one. “For some it’s political, for some it’s social, and for some it’s both. That balance changes all the time.”Despite the rise of gay marriage as an issue of national import, political activism hasn’t been high on the BGLTSA agenda in the past few years. It was for this reason that Brooks and several other politically-minded—and disgruntled—members of the community decided to form The Coalition last year. While The Coalition struggles...