All Recent FutureChallenges Posts

(Fotos familiares del autor de este texto. Puede hacer click en cada una para verlas en tamaño grande). Abstract: Many Colombians, motivated by different reasons, have migrated to the United States in recent years. In my family’s case, the decision to migrate led to a long separation, and an emotional […]

With an unemployment rate of around 5%, low inflation, low debt, low interest rates and a ‘AAA’ credit rating, the Australian economy has been the envy of many other developed nations since the global financial crisis (GFC) struck in late 2008.

10-year old Dayana went out onto a balcony which suddenly collapsed. Her blood splattered all over the yard of the “Youth” tuberculosis sanatorium in Simeyz (on Ukraine’s Сrimean peninsula). After five hours of struggle, the doctors declared her dead. Sounds like a cut from a horror movie, doesn’t it? But […]

When I was in high school, a family member was admitted to St. Elizabeth Hospital (SEHOS) in Curaçao. I’d been there before but this time while visiting I realized just how neglected the place was. Then one day, a nurse told me that the hospital had run out of oxygen, […]

There is a striking contrast between the breadth and scope of austerity measures in Europe and citizens’ perceptions of them. I recently moderated a debate organized by the Bertelsmann Foundation on what Europe can learn from Latin America in terms of managing a debt crisis. The audience was composed mostly […]

Despite a recent rise in its foreign reserves, Egypt is clearly suffering from an economic crisis as evidenced in its spiralling budget deficit that has now  reached around 12% of GDP. As political instability continues, the crisis persists while the government seeks to stem it by taking loans from various […]