There has always been global interest in the development process undergone by developing countries to achieve higher growth rates. This focus is primarily on outcomes and tends to ignore the actual repercussions of certain development activities on societies and local economies. It is not uncommon that developing countries experiencing rapid […]

“I come to work and there are two fags there and my boss is kinda a fag too… So I feel discriminated against. Why do I need it? And if a factory manager with painted lips comes … well I’m sorry. I can just imagine how disgusting and humiliating that […]

Even when I was growing up in Kathmandu during the past two decades, there were obvious signs that the city was increasingly connecting up to a globalized world. International brandnames, for instance, were slowly making their appearance in Kathmandu’s street retail outlets. You used to go to the big bazaars, […]

Poverty in Pakistan can be noted as endemic — spreading across the country at an alarming rate. In a population of 180 million, Pakistani people living below the poverty line account for 21% of the entire population according to the World Development Indicators (WDI) 2013 report by the World Bank. In circumstances […]

In my second year at university, I volunteered to help at the 2010 Special Olympic Games in Warsaw (Poland), the largest sporting competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities. Unfortunately, the Special Olympics are held in the  shadow of the more famous Paralympic Games which come immediately after the Olympics. Nevertheless […]