Stories about Economics & Business from August, 2010
Bangladesh: Recognizing The Vegetable Grower
Bangladesh Corporate Blog has this splendid idea of recognizing the farmers who grows the vegetables by including some personal stories in the vegetable packaging to give them some credit and...
Training In India: Change Needed
Supriyo Chaudhuri opines that the training business in India needs fresh outlook and a change of gears.
Guatemala: Three Indie Publishers Reviewed
Alan Mills, in his blog Revólver, reviews [es] three Guatemalan independent publishers: Editorial Catafixia [es], Vueltegato [es] and Mata-mata, Ediciones Latinoamericanas [es].
Brazil: Bolivian Immigration in Numbers
Journalist Leonardo Sakamoto questions on his blog [pt], the official statistic placing Bolivia in the fortieth position as a source of immigrants to Brazil. An activist against slave labor, Sakamoto...
China: Hidden village of Dafen produces 60% of world's oil paintings
A small artist colony of 8000 artists outside of Shenzhen, China is producing 60% of the world's oil paintings.
Barbados: Back in the Saddle
Barbados Free Press reports that ailing Prime Minister David Thompson is officially back at the helm of government: “We’ll give him a week to settle in, but then he’d better...
China: Beyond being second
Xie Guozhong from my1510 comments on China's rapid economic growth and stresses the need for economic adjustment for a healthy and sustainable economy in the long run.
Trinidad & Tobago: Music Royalties
“Fight down, fight down, and more fight down. That seems to be the life of the local artiste”: Outlish Magazine shines the spotlight on “a recent decision taken by the...
South Korea: Government Plan To Increase Cigarette Price Meets Public Backlash
South Korea’s health department announced on tripling the price of cigarettes to curb the nation’s high smoking rate, prompting a new round of cigarette price disputes online. Many Koreans agree that smoking rates should come down, but still doubt the effectiveness of the new move.
Japan: Web Startups Present at WISH 2010
The second edition of the web industry event WISH was held on August 28th, and hundreds gathered to hear a panel discussion by industry leaders and 14 presentations by startup services.
West Africa: Drug Traffickers and Politico-Military Dictators
The UN assistant representative in Africa against drug trafficking Cyriaque Sobtafo recently stated that west Africa is now the hub for cocaine trafficking. Many countries are affected and the sudden death of the son of Dadis Camara generated many speculations about the possible involvement of drug dealers in the event.
Costa Rica: University Students Protest Budget Agreements
Some University of Costa Rica students took hold of the social sciences building in protest of the budgetary agreement that was reached between the government and university officials where a 7% budget increase was agreed upon after negotiating the original 4% the government proposed.
India: Uncontrolled Alcoholic Liquor Consumption
Ram Bansal at India In Peril informs that growing number of male Indian adults (currently 50%) are taking alcoholic liquors regularly. The blogger discusses the downside of the uncontrolled alcoholic...
Kazakhstan: Does Astana Need Central Asia?
Megakhuimyak analyzes statistics and comes to a conclusion that Kazakhstan does not have strategic trade or investment interests in Central Asia, while the region itself turns out to be a...
Afghanistan: The Helmand Food Zone Fiasco
Joel Hafvenstein writes about the British “Food Zone” program, which was considered to be a better effort comparing to other counternarcotics activties in Afghanistan. But “when examined closely, there’s no...
Russia: The Mirny Diamond Mine
Siberian Light writes about the Mirny Mine, “the largest open pit diamond mine in the world, and […] the second largest excavated hole in the world.”
Russia: “Jailbird Moms”

A Good Treaty writes about two Russian “jailbird moms” – Anna Shavenkova and Yulia Kruglova: “Two court cases in recent weeks have given Russia’s bruised citizenry a few additional reminders...
Russia: Lake Baikal and James Cameron
Vadim Nikitin of FPA's Russia blog believes that Lake Baikal would be a “good fit” for James Cameron's “passionate environmental activism.”
Vietnam: Urban farmers in Hanoi
Aaron Joel Santos posts pictures of farmers in Hanoi, Vietnam. He also comments on the impact of urbanization in the capital.
Ghana: Recycled Bolga Baskets
Photos of recycled Bolga baskets from Ghana: “But this is not crappy marketing, this is just being honest. These baskets go quickly. So quickly that the photos to show from...
Japan: Eyebrows raised by China’s rise to number two
This month the Japanese government admitted that spending China has stolen its thunder becoming the second largest economy after the US. But this announcement hasn't surprised many Japanese people who had been expecting it to happen sooner or later, and has made many bloggers raise their eyebrows and say: so what?