Author Archive

Global scrutiny of the substandard working conditions of textile workers in Bangladesh’s garment factories intensified significantly following the collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory, which is now considered to be one of the world’s worst industrial accidents. Much discussion has centred upon the industry’s exploitative practices that particularly impact […]

Economic-based water management strategies are assuming an increasingly important role in managing Australia’s water scarcity problems. Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent, with at least 70% of its land area classified as arid or semi-arid. However, this country is not only confronted with limited water resources, but must also […]

In 2011, a Thomson Reuters Foundation global poll revealed that India is the fourth most dangerous place in the world for women. Although India is emerging from the ‘third world’ and gradually becoming a more liberal society, India’s economic progress has made little room for the improvement in the status […]

China’s incoming leader Xi Jinping has a hefty task ahead of him. He is faced with a Party structure that is increasingly viewed as top-down, and where the leaders of the Party are perceived by a growing middle-class as distant from the people. And he is tasked with reversing this […]

Our world is more democratic than ever. Proving the post-Cold War mass democratization to be a historical rather than circumstantial development, the proliferation of democratic regimes has continued to the present day. Look at the Arab Spring, Egypt, and the unrest that continues to unnerve non-democratic regimes in countries such […]