MOSCOW — The Russian recession, which began in mid-2014, is among the leading causes of poverty in the Russian Federation. Lower oil prices, sanctions by the United States and the European Union for Russian actions in the Ukraine, and Russian counter-sanctions in response, have also added to an economy already slowed by the global economic crisis. Due to the recession, the poverty rate hit a nine-year high. In 2016, 19.2 million Russians (about 13.4 percent of the population), lived under the poverty line, representing a substantial increase over the 16.1 million people living in poverty at the start of the…
Author: Laurie Gold
PARIS — France may be one of the most popular countries to visit as a tourist, but not everyone in France lives a picture-postcard life. Nearly nine million people in France, 14.1 percent of the population, live below the poverty line. Almost one in five people, 17.7 percent, live at risk of poverty in France. While there are many well-reported causes of poverty in France, here are some of the less well-known facts. France’s unemployment rate has hovered close to 10 percent for the past five years. By comparison, the unemployment rate in the United Kingdom is 4.5 percent, which…
MYANMAR — Where does one begin when asking how to help people in Myanmar? With the announcement in 2011 that its military junta would relinquish power, the release from detention of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and her party’s huge electoral landslide in 2015, casual observers assumed freedom returned to Myanmar, also known as Burma. Not quite. The junta that staged a coup d’état in 1962 continues to control much of the government and its spending. Additionally, the fierce, religion-based nationalism they stoked for years continues. Myanmar’s generals effectively stripped citizenship from hundreds of thousands of people in…
PYONGYANG — News that North Korea had successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4th is one of several worrisome items to enter the news cycle in recent weeks. Another is the release of an American college student from North Korea after 17 months in detention. Otto Warmbler entered the country with the intention of staying five days. After he returned home in a coma and died within days, the lack of human rights within North Korea became even more glaringly apparent. Human Rights Watch, an NGO that conducts research and advocacy on human rights, calls North Korea, “one…
ROME — Italy, which boasts rich culture, art, history and architecture, food and wine, the Alps, Venice, Tuscany, Milan, Rome and the Vatican, ranks fifth in the world in tourism. With so much going for it, including an ideal location on the Mediterranean Sea, why is the Italian poverty rate so high? By the end of 2016, Italy was the central entry point for refugees in Europe. More than 175,000 registered as asylum seekers, which overwhelmed the 3,000 asylum centers. The refugees are not helping Italy’s economy, but neither are they responsible for the economic decline and corresponding rise in the…