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4361. Map Room: Borders on Top of the World

Author:
Mark Terry and Adam Scholl
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
PRINCE OF WALES STRAIT, Northwest Territories—A century ago, traversing the Northwest Passage was a grueling effort that often took years. Explorers frequently perished as their boats sunk or got trapped in the abundant pack ice. Today, these waters are mostly ice-free during the summer, and ships can sail through with ease.
Political Geography:
India, France, Italy, Island, and Greenland

4362. Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Author:
Carol Bellamy
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
President Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet with his call for "a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity." It's a bold move for a mainstream politician. Across the world, and particularly in rich countries that are bobbing in the wake of the global financial crisis, politicians are running scared on immigration. Catcalls about immigrants sound especially tuneless here in the United States, where some 40 percent have at least one ancestor who arrived at Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. Indeed, the wealth of this country has been built by risk-takers who had the courage to launch themselves into the unknown.
Topic:
Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States, America, Germany, and Island

4363. Anatomy: World's Most Isolated Countries

Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
World Policy Journal ranks the top 10 most isolated countries based on a weighted series of criteria including number of countries directly connected by plane, the percentage of individuals on the Internet, the number of foreign visitors, the percentage of the total population that are immigrants, and imports per capita in dollars.
Political Geography:
North Korea, Somalia, Myanmar, and Tamil Nadu

4364. Making a State a State

Author:
Courtney Brooks
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
SUKHUMI, Abkhazia—Angie loves traveling, dancing, and peach juice. She doesn't like boundaries. That's because this young human rights worker is from Abkhazia, a self-declared independent territory claimed by Georgia. The 26-yearold, who works for the organization World Without Violence, survived a war, and it has left her with some strong opinions. "I have this habit not to trust Georgians, except those I know long and well," she says. "There isn't a family in Abkhazia which doesn't have a victim from those days. This is terrible, and it's really hard to forget."
Political Geography:
Britain, Russia, United States, France, and Spain

4365. Moving On: Iberia's New Muslims

Author:
Marvin Howe
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
LISBON—Mamadu Indjai has given up on Europe and is heading home to the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau. The 55-year-old West African has spent the past 19 years in Portugal. Yet all he has to show for his labors are the house he was building for his family back in his ancestral village of Caio. "I haven't got the strength to struggle anymore," Indjai sighs.
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and Portugal

4366. Linking People, Crossing Borders: A Conversation with Mo Ibrahim

Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Born in northern Sudan at the end of World War II, educated in England with a Ph.D. in engineering and mobile communications, Mo Ibrahim returned to Africa in 1998, bringing cellular technology with him. At the time of his arrival, there were barely three million landline telephones on the entire continent—the bulk of them in North Africa and the nation of South Africa. Most of sub-Saharan Africa was all but inaccessible to terrestrial telephone lines. The Democratic Republic of Congo had only 3,000 phones to serve its population of about 55 million. Seeing demand for mobile phones and with little competition from landlines, Mo Ibrahim created Celtel, beginning in Kenya, branching quickly into Uganda and Tanzania. The company allowed millions of mobile subscribers to roam freely across borders, recharging with local cards as they went. Quickly, Celtel expanded across Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia, and finally his native Sudan—a vast pan-African territory almost devoid of telecommunications boundaries. By the time he sold Celtel five years ago, he had linked 24 million people—a number that was growing exponentially.
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Sudan, South Africa, North Africa, and England

4367. Hunger: The Price of Rebellion

Author:
Veejay Villafranca
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
MINDANAO, Philippines—The Badjao people have inhabited this island since at least the 16th century. Traveling in their handbuilt boats, they scattered as far as Malaysia and northern Borneo. They remain the largest Muslim group in the largely Catholic nation of the Philippines. For 10 years, I have covered brutal conflicts on this beautiful island, and since I began photographing here, I have hoped that one day Mindanao will once again live up to its name, the Promised Land.
Political Geography:
Malaysia and Island

4368. Notes from the Underground: The Rise of Nouri al-Maliki and the New Islamists

Author:
Ned Parker and Raheem Salman
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
BAGHDAD—It was December 2010, and Nouri Kamal al-Maliki sat in a faux palace, erected by Saddam Hussein, on the Feast of Sacrifice, one of the most sacred days in the Muslim Calendar. The politician, who had just secured his second term as prime minister of Iraq after an eightmonth stalemate, sat in a gilded, thronelike chair, surrounded by members of his Shiite religious Dawa Party. Former enemies walked into the hall to congratulate him, and Maliki rose to embrace them. To his left was a founder of his party, the oldest surviving Dawa member, who had been tortured under Hussein and was now spending his golden years in quiet retirement near the Shiite shrine of Imam Khadim in western Baghdad. There were others like him, who basked in the pageantry like a balm for the jail, death, and humiliating exile they endured. Their grip on power, a feverish dream during decades abroad putting out tracts and plotting, now seemed permanent.
Political Geography:
America

4369. Dave Eggers' Roundtable: Arabia Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Author:
David Eggers, Mamdouh al-Harthy, Hasan Hatrash, and Haifaa al-Mansour
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Last year, the San Francisco-based author Dave Eggers published his book, A Hologram for the King, a vision of Saudi Arabia where the Western world of holograms and the Internet comes up against the hard realities of today's Saudi Arabia. Eggers, whose novel was nominated for a National Book Award, spent weeks in the Kingdom researching, meeting an extraordinary Saudi film - maker whose first feature, Wadjda, premiered at the Venice Film Festival to considerable acclaim, and two Saudis who inspired key characters. World Policy Journal assembled Haifaa al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia's first female film director; Mamdouh al-Harthy, a brilliant journalist and documentary producer, cast in Hologram as a driver who leads the narrator into the depths of the Saudi mind and spirit; and Hasan Hatrash, journalist, filmmaker, and musician, with a similar role in the novel, who in real life produced the Portfolio in the Winter 2012- 2013 issue of World Policy Journal. Eggers served as the moderator for this 90-minute roundtable discussion on art, freedom, and politics in Saudi Arabia and the post-Arab Spring Middle East.
Political Geography:
Arabia and Saudi Arabia

4370. The Euro Crisis: Mission Accomplished?

Author:
Zsolt Darvas
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
BRUSSELS—High unemployment, bleak economic outlook, high public and private debts, dysfunctional banks, weak competitiveness, and an unfavorable external environment are just a few of the challenges facing southern members of the euro zone. Despite these hurdles, the ever-optimistic European Council and other leaders said in January that the euro crisis had bottomed out. Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, proclaimed, "The worst is behind us, in particular the existential threat to the euro." Then there was Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), who declared that "the darkest clouds over the euro area [have] subsided."
Political Geography:
Europe, Portugal, and Ireland