· December, 2006

Stories about Economics & Business from December, 2006

Russia, Belarus: “Gazilla”

  30 December 2006

There's a distinct sense of deja vu this New Year's Eve: Gazprom, Russia's largest (and state-controlled) company and the world's biggest extractor of natural gas, is in the spotlight again, both locally (due to an ambitious and controversial construction project in St. Petersburg) and internationally (due to a dispute over...

Trinidad & Tobago: Smeltdown

  30 December 2006

The Trinidad and Tobago government's decision to re-locate a controversial aluminium smelter project prompts Jeremy Taylor to raise numerous questions about some key development decisions taken by the current administration: “Would we really need a rapid-rail system costing TT$15 billion if a bit more common sense was applied to the...

Haiti: Competition for AA on Miami-Port-au-Prince

  29 December 2006

Jojo of Collectif Haiti de Provence is happy (Fr) that Spirit Airlines is offering a Miami-Port-au-Prince flight in addition to American Airlines’ but cautions: “Spirit Airlines is welcome so long as it doesn't align itself to the detriment of the public with American Airlines’ practices. $370 for a 2 hour...

The Balkans: Main 2006 Stories

  29 December 2006

Ed of Balkan Baby lists the most important regional stories of 2006: “Slovenia moves towards Eurozone,” “Croatia and Serbia Disappoint at World Cup,” “Croatia Stop-Start its way towards EU,” etc.

Dominica: Respect the Caribbean consumer

  29 December 2006

Kenny Green of Dominica berates multinational companies for failing to create advertising and marketing campaigns that specifically target the Caribbean consumer, reserving some praise for Irish telecoms services provider Digicel: “I would love to see some multinational, be it LG or Pepsi or Starbucks or someone credible actually show Digicel...

Iran:Meeting with Hanieh

  28 December 2006

Mohammad Ali Abtahi,former Vice President and reformist politician,writes in his blog that he and some other political personalities had been invited to Embassy of Palestine in Tehran when Mr.Hanieh,Palestinian Prime Minister,was there. Abtahi says Hanieh praised financial help coming from Iran and Qatar but it seems Bahrain did not help...

Africa: “local” is the keyword

  28 December 2006

“Why not build the next eBay in Africa, then be “partnered” with for $40 million? Why not build the next PayPal, Google, YouTube or MySpace, when the success of such a venture is sure to realize millions of dollars?,” asks White African.

Latin America: “The year that was supposed to be awful”

  28 December 2006

Ricardo Carreón (who is also trying to organize a Latin America Blogroll) begins the first post of an ambitious series: “This post starts a series of articles of Latin America during 2006. The year that was supposed to be many things, most of them negative, but ended up being a...

Iran:Remember Bam

  28 December 2006

Several bloggers remember in their blogs about Bam earthquake,three years after disaster. Shamgahan has published a couple of photos of earthquake . The blogger asks what has been done for Bam population with all the foreign help that government received.The blogger adds, 72 hours after earthquake, government got 8 million...

Serbia, USA: What Serbs Think About America

  28 December 2006

In his blog post called “America is shaking”, Neven Andjelic shares his opinion on the United States (SRP): This big country is shaking. A number of events have caused the current condition. None of them has anything to do with my arrival to Berkley four months ago when I first...

Senegal: lessons from the Mourides

  27 December 2006

“All these factors have helped make the Mourides one of the more successful African communities, at home and abroad. Wherever they are, they club together to acquire a mosque and community centre. Their networks help migrants leave Senegal, find work and procure documents. Far from being helpless victims of fate,...

Jamaica: What the country needs

  27 December 2006

Francis Wade grapples with his desire, as a returnee to Jamaica, to find solutions to some of the problems plaguing his homeland: “Certainly, I am sure, a part of the answer has to with where we draw our spiritual wisdom, and how we Jamaicans do not sufficiently engage in our...

Lebanon: Foreign Intervention and Economics

  26 December 2006

The Lebanese bloggers are united this week in wishing their readers all the best during Christmas, Al Adha and the New Year. Some of these bloggers have taken up the issue of foreign intervention in the region as a subject of reflection while others highlight the sad state of economy...

Jamaica: Entrepreneurship and governance

  26 December 2006

Jamaican blogger Francis Wade is concerned that “our leaders of government who have never run companies do not understand the nature of business, and when they start to support the individual’s “right to a job” they do not understand what they are saying.”

Ukraine, Poland: Traffic Jam

  25 December 2006

Abdymok writes about a neglected story of “a 20 kilometer-long line of cars, buses, and trucks trying to make it back to ukraine before the new year . . . polish border guards with machine guns. eye witnesses say little kids are sick and dying. they say the crossing zone...