August 17th, 2022
Via the BBC, a report that Cuba will allow foreign investment into its wholesale and retail trade to tackle its goods shortage: Cuba says it will allow foreign investors into its wholesale and retail trade for the first time in 60 years. The move is a major shift for the island nation’s Communist government, and overturns […]
Read more »Africa’s Cold Rush and the Promise of Refrigeration
August 16th, 2022
Courtesy of The New Yorker, an interesting look at the growth potential refrigeration offers for the developing work, noting that – in Rwanda – it could spark an economic transformation: At one in the morning, several hours before fishing boats launch, François Habiyambere, a wholesale fish dealer in Rubavu, in northwest Rwanda, sets out to harvest […]
Read more »August 16th, 2022
Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, a report on China BRI, and whether the Pakistan, Sri Lanka debt crises threaten Beijing’s regional influence: The drive to Pakistan’s port of Gwadar takes seven and a half hours from Karachi via the Makran coastal highway. Much of the 600-km route is deserted, with no restaurants, restrooms or even fuel stations. […]
Read more »Bangladesh and Nepal Are Not Destined to Repeat Sri Lanka’s Mistakes
August 16th, 2022
Via the Carnegie Endowment, commentary that Bangladesh and Nepal are not destined to repeat Sri Lanka’s mistakes due to their vastly different approaches to debt and China: South Asia is in trouble. The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has led to an uprising ousting the government, with crowds taking over the president’s office and residence. The country has defaulted on […]
Read more »August 15th, 2022
Via the Geopolitical Monitor, an article on India’a challenge to China’s BRI in Asia: Over the past few years, and most notably during recent border clashes in Ladakh’s Galwan valley, China-India relations have been visibly more acrimonious, confusing, and inimical in diplomatic and military domains, despite their huge mutual business interests. In 2021, trade between the […]
Read more »Ecuador’s Distant Dream of a Green Recovery
August 14th, 2022
Via Foreign Policy, an article on Ecuador’s struggle to meet its climate goals under IMF austerity: Standing halfway up a hillside in the city’s outskirts, environmental engineer Andres Viteri Leroux peered down to a horizontal dirt shelf some 100 feet below. It was early December 2021, and he was visiting Ambato’s landfill. The dirt had been […]
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