August 3, 2010
As green-collar jobs boom, Canada is mired in the tar sands
Canada and Abu Dhabi share one big trait: an economy addicted to oil. But while Canada doubles down on the tar sands, the emirate quietly plans a renewable energy hub in a gleaming zero-emissions city in the desert. Can either of these bets pay off? Artist's rendering of a Masdar public square. Click to enlarge. Looking out over the site of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, it takes some imagination to... [More >>]
July 30, 2010
Fiction: He Wishes This Were Something Else by Eva Moran
Carson couldn’t stand being at parties with Nikki. Nikki flirted. But Carson stuck through it. When Carson was a kid, his brother and he played Alice in Wonderland. One of them had to wear their sister’s communion dress and tap shoes to play Alice the whole way through. Carson hated being Alice. Not because of the itchy ruffle dress or the tight patent leather squeaky shoes but because of... [More >>]
July 29, 2010
Postcard from Rio de Janeiro: Carnaval behind bars
The winner of the "Miss Talavera Bruce" women's prison pageant. Rio de Janeiro has a murder rate as high as a war zone—millions of impoverished people here resort to crime for survival. A kid from the favelas of Rio has limited career options: kidnapper, cocaine trafficker, gang leader, robber, or hit man. For many, prison is safer than the streets, and comes with more reliable food... [More >>]
June 9, 2010
16 African states marking 50 years of independence in 2010
Colonies freed in 1960’s “Year of Africa” ended up on very different paths This year marks the 50th anniversary of the “Year of Africa,” when 16 African countries successfully achieved independence from their European colonizers. Since then, the graduates of the 1960 decolonization movement have gone on to do some great—and some not-so-great—things. Below we highlight five... [More >>]
May 25, 2010
Bike share programs may finally be picking up speed in Canada
A Bixi bicycle stand in Montreal. Creative Commons photo by Flickr user pdbreen. When Toronto launched Canada’s first bike share program in 2001, many saw it as a miracle project. Mirroring the popular-abroad systems of Paris and Vienna, the system allowed cyclists to grab their bikes at one hub, cruise the streets, and then drop the bike off at a rack nearest their destination—all for a daily... [More >>]
May 17, 2010
Borneo experiment shows how saving the apes could save ourselves
A reforestation scheme in Borneo could radically reshape wildlife protection, land conservation, and indigenous stewardship—simultaneously. Sugar palms are one of the crops that make up the plantation. Photo by Shawn Thompson. Halfway around the world, on the eastern side of the island of Borneo, near the oil city of Balikpapan, a new tropical rainforest is being created out of what was once a... [More >>]
May 3, 2010
Postcard from Washington, D.C.: Talking to the Tea Party
“I’m Canadian.” This became my opening for every interview at the tax day Tea Party rally at the Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. It seemed like the best way to distance myself from the camera crews and journalists who were swarming the interesting or outrageous among the two-to-three thousand ralliers. “I’m Canadian and I just want to know what’s happening today,”... [More >>]
April 12, 2010
Postcard from El Salvador: Death at an election
A vandalized ARENA billboard in San Salvador. Photo by Luis Galdamez. On the night of March 15, 2009, I was surrounded by thousands of celebrating Salvadorans. The first left-wing president, Mauricio Funes of the FMLN, a left-wing political party, had just been elected and San Salvador was erupting into a sea of red. I had come to El Salvador to work as one of 5,000 election observers. The vote over,... [More >>]
April 7, 2010
Postcard from Honduras: Birth of the coup
Honduran citizens cast their votes in defiance of a military coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and cancelled planned elections. Photo by Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters. Sunday morning was dark and my alarm didn’t go off, so I slept in. I was awakened late in the morning to a fellow gringo, my friend Luke, shouting through my window. “Ashley!” he yelled, “wake up, did you hear what happened?”... [More >>]
March 29, 2010
Innovative Ethiopian food-aid scheme starving for funds
When Ethiopia asked the world for food aid last October, former subsistence farmer Terefi Tekale was not among the 6.2 million people desperate for help. Though his family’s long-held plot in Ethiopia’s Konso region has done poorly in recent years—the soil is sterile, his corn stunted and his hillside eroded—an ambitious new development plan means Tekale is not without hope, or without food. Managing... [More >>]
