It never rains but it pours. Every day this summer we are bombarded by bad news -- raging forest fires, the continuing Ukraine war, random shootings in different cities, a mutating omicron, monkeypox and rising debt distress all over. The good news for some is that the United States dollar is stronger than ever. Or is that bad news for others? In the Bali G-20 Financial Ministers and Central Bank meeting held last week, there was concern that currency volatility could trigger more instability

Income and wealth inequality is unjust, and yet the world continues to tolerate rising injustices, the most recent being inequalities in vaccine distribution. French political economist Thomas Piketty and his colleagues at the World Inequality Lab have just published the World Inequality Report 2022, a real goldmine in data and insights on global inequalities. I found at least three nuggets inside that are blindingly obvious. First, inequality is primarily a political issue. We can all do so

Why is Marxism thriving in China and not in Marx’s place of birth? Why is Buddhism more practiced in East Asia than in India? Why has Islam more followers outside Saudi Arabia? Ideas and religion spread through globalization, but it was really their localization that created more believers and followers. What succeeded was not globalization, but glocalization, the internalization of universal ideas and beliefs by the many, and not just the few. Few Westerners see the irony of a suppose

As rich countries get their vaccination numbers up while poorer countries are still struggling, there is some hope that we are getting to grips with the pandemic. On the climate change front, there have been some remarkable achievements in the last two months. First, US President Biden’s Climate Summit in April got 40 top leaders to commit toward working together on climate change. Even though several countries did not commit to anything new, just getting the US back to the Paris Agreemen

In April, Japan made a significant policy shift on accepting foreign workers, including those who will perform simple labour.A decrease in the working-age population caused this change.However, it is unclear whether or not Japan will be able to secure enough foreign workers to sustain the Japanese economy in the future.The focus of debate over foreign workers is shifting from “Should Japan accept foreign workers?” to “Can Japan be the country of their choice?” in the glob

When they hurled insults at each other such as “little rocket man” and “dotard,” and traded threats of nuclear annihilation, few could imagine that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump would develop such a lasting bromance in so little time. Like any other close relationship, there must have been some sort of chemistry between the 36-year old North Korean leader and the septuagenarian US president. Think not only about their age g  ap and geo

Scientists expect warming temperatures will lead to worse dengue outbreaks in places the disease already lurks, and outbreaks in brand new places.Record-breaking dengue outbreaks around the region have scientists and medical professionals questioning just how much climate change is to blame for the spike in cases. Experts in Bangladesh cite rising temperatures, between 27 and 32 degrees celsius—prime breeding conditions for Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits dengue—as a compe

Around the world, mosquitoes are winning their war of attrition. With the help from a tiny bacterium, scientists are fighting back.The battle between humans and mosquitoes has been raging for centuries. For as long as humans have existed, mosquitos have been there, right alongside us, making us sick. Dengue alone causes 390 million infections a year, and as much as 40 percent of the world’s population lives in a place where dengue is a risk. As our world’s climate changes, even more

2019 is one of the worst years for dengue outbreaks. Scientists and officials looking for new ways to use data to predict the deadly disease. In the Philippines more than 622 people—most of whom are children under five years old—have died from dengue so far this year. The country is seeing more than 5,100 new cases each week. In at least one province, tents are serving as makeshift treatment centers to deal with the crush of patients. The Philippines declared the outbreak a National

ASEAN has a lot of work to do for the sake of its own relevancy as Myanmar and Bangladesh make another attempt to repatriate thousands of Muslim Rohingyas to strife-torn Rakhine state while the situation on the ground remains unsafe.The authority in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw announced last week that Myanmar would accept 3,450 refugees from the list of 22,000 provided by Bangladesh earlier this month, as the first batch of people to resettle in Myanmar.It is not known publicly how the lis

Press freedom was a fundamental pillar of modern civilization. Nearly all countries, save the communist bloc and dictatorial regimes, ensured special protection for the media in their constitutions.Jailing a newsperson was quite rare and closing down a media outlet was even more so.Sadly, not so anymore.In the age of populism, ultranationalism, rising authoritarianism, post-truth and the emergence of leaders who can commit no-wrong, there is a new incarnation of press freedom.It is “praise

July 14 is celebrated in France as Bastille Day, on which day 230 years ago, French peasants stormed the Bastille prison in Paris and sparked off the French Revolution. Thus began the populist movement that overturned the Ancien Regime (old order) of absolute monarchy and replaced it with the popular creed of liberty, equality and fraternity. There is a popular story that when Henry Kissinger asked the late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972 what was his view of the French Revolution, he said it

Singapore is well known for its Third to First World economic transformation, its efficient, effective Government, as well as for being a very fine, clean and green city.The annual Shangri-La Dialogue, when defence chiefs from many countries gather on the island to thrash out the geopolitical issues of the day, is also well established.Now, thanks to Singapore's President Halimah Yacob, the Republic might also come to be recognised for its painstaking efforts over the years to foster a society w

The old order is broken. No less than Russian President Putin has declared the neoliberal order “obsolete.” We now have to think the unthinkable -- every dream has turned into a nightmare -- the land of the free no longer seems to welcome anyone, while the freest economy in the world is under siege by massive protests.What is the New Order? How do we deal with the myriad problems of inequality, climate change, technological disruption to jobs, de-globalization and fragmentation of so