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11 Aug 09
Urban Nomads - LSE Public Lectures and Events - LSE
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Media treatment of China's migration tends to homogenize their experiences; by contrast Urban Nomads attempts to look at the issue on a micro, human scale.
06 Jul 09
Africa alone could feed the world - environment - 27 June 2009 - New Scientist
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DOOM-MONGERS have got it wrong - there is enough space in the world to produce the extra food needed to feed a growing population. And contrary to expectation, most of it can be grown in Africa, say two international reports published this week.
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"Some 1.6 billion hectares could be added to the current 1.4 billion hectares of crop land [in the world], and over half of the additionally available land is found in Africa and Latin America," concludes the report, compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
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18 Jun 09
The Green Dam Phenomenon - WSJ.com
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The Chinese government may be backing down from its plan to install new "filtering" software, Green Dam, on all Chinese computers.
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More and more governments -- including democracies like Britain, Australia and Germany -- are trying to control public behavior online, especially by exerting pressure on Internet service providers. Green Dam has only exposed the next frontier in these efforts: the personal computer.
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11 May 09
Peer-to-peer lending in China | Chinese borrowing | The Economist
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Consider Qifang, for example, a website that provides student loans by connecting borrowers and lenders. Such “peer to peer” (P2P) lending was pioneered in other markets, notably Britain and America, though its growth has been hampered by higher-than-expected default rates (blamed on the financial crisis) and regulatory uncertainty.
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Qifang takes this formula and adds a couple of twists. It is focused on student loans, for which there is particular demand in China, where the authorities are keen to encourage people to go to universities and colleges. In China such loans are usually provided by community group-lending schemes, so Qifang is, in a sense, merely an online version of an existing practice. As with other P2P lending sites, borrowers are required to provide personal information about themselves to reassure lenders. In Qifang’s case, borrowers also provide family details, which increases the social pressure not to default, since that would cause the family to lose face. Money is paid directly to educational establishments, further reducing risk for lenders.
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