Diamond Production and the ipod Generation

A story about diamond production from the Wall Street Journal.

Pirates versus Weapons Dealers

The Somali pirates that captured the freighter Faina didn't know the ship was full of tanks. They also were unaware that by hijacking the vessel, they had ruined an international weapons deal that may have been illegally sending arms to Sudan.

Read more here.

Clips shown in lecture on illicit drugs

Drug flow to the UK

Market price of heroin

Bolivia clip

Laos clip

Meth clip

Trade in Human Fat

Gangs killed victims to extract their fat and sell it as anti-wrinkle treatment.

Some interesting representations of the world

Strange Maps web site

Africa's first narco-state

From the Los Angeles Times:
Guinea-Bissau: Cocaine's Traffick Hub

And from the Guardian (UK newspaper):
How a tiny West African country became the world's first narco-state

The video clips we saw in class, plus more.

Africa's Children: The Struggles of Youth

Evidence that social norms can change in interesting ways.

Women are lobbying to legalize polygamy in Siberia. There is also a link in the article to a longer story about this which you should look at.

The Economy and the State; The case of Gabon

Underneath Palatial Skin, Corruption Rules Gabon. States can foster economic growth without bringing about poverty reduction. This New York Times story illustrates one example of how this can happen.

Inequality in South Africa

South Africa's Poor Renew a Tradition of Protest. This is an interesting story about how inequality among neighbors has fuled protests in South Africa.

Consumption and the Environment

See the Story of Stuff for an interesting analysis of the environmental impacts of consumption.

Interesting Representations of the World

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest (i.e., cartograms). There are now nearly 700 maps.

Shifting Global and Economic Power

Interesting story from the New York Times on the role of Asia (particularly China) in pulling the global economy out of the current recession. See Asia's Recovery Highlights China's Ascendance