When we throw on a T-shirt, we rarely ever think about the garment itself. Who made it? Where did it come from? If ever we do think about our T-shirts, most us think about how cool we look based on what’s scribbled across it: “Chicago Bulls,” “I [Heart] NY,” or “Life Sucks” or “I Hate B*sh.” College students in the nineties gave a lot of thought to the origin of their T-shirts. Led on by the AFL-CIO, and in general, the labor movement in the U.S (which is concerned primarily about preserving U.S. jobs) students protested outside libraries, inside student unions, and wrote fiery letters to Wal-Mart and Gap...

So I tend to like most things Persian – Kiarostami, miniature paintings, khoresht, the excessive use of nuts and saffron in “polow” – and almost all of whatever I have been exposed to – of Persian architecture, arts and literature. I also love how Farsi sounds. I was chatting with a Professor of Islamic History and he pointed to me, how political Islam has had an uneasy relationship with both Iranian and Bengali society. Perhaps. I suppose the presence of long secular cultures, very productive in the arts and literature, true for both Bengal and Persia, might create problems for...

It’s a true world of “survival of the fittest” in our increasingly more capitalistic global economy. The gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” is yawning wider as economic inequality increases within countries such as the United States, China and India. To make it into the coveted winner’s circle of those who are benefiting the most from globalization, you’ve got to compete. And you’ve got to compete ferociously. And you can’t wait until adulthood to start competing. You’ve got to get on the racetrack in early childhood, if not sooner. This past weekend’s New York Times provided some excellent coverage of the...

Some years ago, the U.S. government started a hodge podge of initiatives to bring about democracy in the Muslim world. Several of these initiatives were collectively known as the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). MEPI’s objectives included reform of the education systems in Muslim countries in ways that would help produce democratic / progressive leaders and tolerant societies. But the programs have not been on a perfect track thus far. In my opinion, the original idea of investing in progressive education systems in Muslim countries is not assailable. There are indeed schools in Muslim countries that teach the opposite of tolerance and...

So I’ve been working at the coffee shop in our undergraduate library for what seems like an eternity (2.5 year and counting). While my salary hasn’t increased too much, everything else has. Drink size, food quantity, appetites, espresso shots–the list goes on… I always work on Wednesday, which is our “two dollar latte” day. Any size latte for just two dollars. Basically, hoards of customers all day long. Practically everyone orders a large (20 oz) latte with caramel, vanilla, or more commonly- both. Now it’s no absurdity that everyone gets into this whole ’super-size my drink’ mode when its free. You want...

If you ever took an economics class you probably learnt a lot about subsidies, tariffs and quotas and drew dorky supply-demand charts to show the theoretical impact of these on consumers, producers and the economy. But few of us were ever told stories about the actual effect of subsidies, tariffs and things like that, on real people. Well, now may be a good time to find out. I have been closely following the current debate in the U.S. Congress over government programs that have been assisting farmers in America for years. If you watch C-Span sometimes, then you probably have...

We’re all aware that in poor developing countries, fewer girls than boys attend school. International development “experts” have analyzed the problem to death and have produced heaps of books and reports that offer all sorts of explanations and solutions for the school-attendance gender gap. (Examples: Girls aren’t in school because the culture is patriarchal. The solution is to offer parents cash or food subsidies to keep their daughters in school.) Sometimes in life, however, problems aren’t as complex as they might seem. I’ve recently come across two pieces of evidence that suggest that part of the gender gap in school attendance is simply a matter of...

Back when I first entered graduate school, I was passionate about having some kind of career in international development, so I could help end the absolute poverty that still exists in many parts of Africa and Asia. But as I progressed through my coursework and actually interacted with students who had previously worked for the World Bank, who had volunteered in the Peace Corps, or who had other sorts of work experience with international development, I began to realize that international development was a complicated, cliquish affair. For my classes, I read endless graphically appealing reports put out by the...

We’ve all heard about the uproar that American actor Richard Gere caused last month in India when he kissed Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event. I entirely agree that the Indians who were burning Gere in effigy were overreacting and that putting out a warrant for his arrest is ridiculous. The whole incident is indicative of how India is undergoing its own sexual revolution right now, just as the United States did in the 1960s and 1970s. (Remember, there was once a time in the United States when TV shows depicted husband and wife sleeping in separate beds.) The...

Back in March, I wrote that the Web site SlideShare.net, which lets you share your PowerPoint presentations with the entire world, had launched the World’s Best Presentation Contest. Last week, the winners were announced, and it turns out that the two first-place winners (the judges’ top choice and the people’s top choice) both have India-related content. Shift Happens. Did you know that the top 28 percent of the population in India with the highest IQs is greater than the entire population of North America? This slide show presents some startling statistics about our rapidly changing world. China and India are competing more strongly than ever with the...