SEATTLE — Sustainable agriculture in China has been developing for almost 40 years. A large country with 1.3 billion people, China feeds 22 percent of the global population with just 7 percent of the world’s arable land. In the 21st century, sustainable agriculture in China demands new technology to meet challenges in social, environmental and economic aspects. Due to the huge population, the average resource use per capita for agriculture is a fraction of the global average. Severe loss of water and land occurs in some regions, and natural disasters such as drought, flooding, hail and earthquakes used to cause major losses of…
Author: Xin Gao
SEATTLE — After democratic reforms took place in Mongolia in 1991, a slow economic transition began. Due to the scarcity of investments, the construction of infrastructure in Mongolia displayed slow progress, which caused a major bottleneck in the development of the economy. The country does not have a seaport, so its transportation industry mainly depends on rail and road transport. The aviation industry in Mongolia is relatively underdeveloped. Improvements in these areas are key to the present and future growth of infrastructure in Mongolia. Transportation The Ulaanbaatar Railway connects China, Mongolia and Russia. This major line has a total length of…
SEATTLE — As one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, France is well-known for its high living standards. However, while most French people are able to drink tap water, a total of 2.8 million people have come into contact with the tap water pollution. This anomaly in water quality in France is primarily a result of pesticides, nitrates or lead pollution. Recently, UFC-Que Choisir, the Association of French Consumers, estimated that about 95.6 percent of French people are problem-free. Tap water is subject to 50 regulatory standards to reach households and is much less expensive than its bottled counterpart.…
PYONGYANG — Although infrastructure in North Korea has steadily grown since the nation’s independence in the 1940s, most of it is still in a poor state, old-fashioned, and the pace of construction lags behind the world. Here is a more detailed yet brief review of infrastructure in North Korea. Transportation Transportation in North Korea mainly relies on the railway, which was originally built by Japan in colonial times. This mode of transportation was improved with the aid of Soviet Union in the 1960s and China in 1990s, and the 3,100-mile railway in North Korea accommodates 70 percent of passenger transport…
BRASILIA — As the largest country in Latin America, Brazil has a population of 210 million. A country of this size requires a massive amount of infrastructure across transport, water and power, public institutions and telecommunication services. Economic growth is highly dependent on investment in infrastructure anywhere in the world. However, infrastructure in Brazil has often failed to meet the needs of its citizens. In the past two decades, annual investment in infrastructure in Brazil was 2.2 percent of its GDP, compared to the global average of 3.8 percent. Construction of basic public facilities has been lagging behind, which severely…
SEATTLE — Despite room for improvement, efforts to bolster women’s empowerment in Lebanon have had a number of successes in recent years. In the capital city of Beirut, women enjoy more freedom, as it is more liberal than other parts of the country. It is common to see young women drive, drink, go to schools and work outside. Many Lebanese women hold important occupations in social domains such as tourism, education, finance and medical care. While there have been recent gains for women’s empowerment in Lebanon, women still face discrimination at many levels. Lebanese women gained the right to vote and…
Since China began the process of economic liberalization in the 1980s, education in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has made great achievements. The use of minority languages and preferential policies aids minority students at high school and college. This has increased the number of Uyghur students attending all levels of education. Starting in December 2017, with the support of central government, Xinjiang will offer 15 years of free education, and a total of 857,200 students will benefit. Before 1949, the enrollment rate of primary school children in Xinjiang was below 20 percent, and the illiteracy rate was as high as 90…
SANTO DOMINGO — The Dominican Republic is a beautiful island country in the Caribbean. It is also one of the nations with most severe domestic violence in that region. While Dominican women are considered to have equal rights as men under the law in the political, financial, cultural domains and in the family, poverty-related issues are the main factors leading to domestic violence. The fight for women’s empowerment in the Dominican Republic has been a long one. The progress of women’s empowerment in the Dominican Republic can be analyzed through representative feminist works. In the nineteenth century, feminist writer La…
MOSCOW — Throughout the history of Russia, the status of women’s rights and activities has varied a lot due to culture, religion, social and governmental impacts. The struggle for women’s empowerment in Russia remains a significant enterprise. Russian women in the eighteenth century were better off than many of their European counterparts. Many victories for the freedom, legal rights and equality of women were won in the era of feminist reform between 1850 and 1917. From the 1990s to the present day, feminism in Russia has been focused on equal rights in employment law, reducing domestic violence, political participation and democratic elections.…
Mongolia is a central Asian nation of approximately three million people. There are slightly more females than males in Mongolia, which is a demographic trend rarely seen in East Asia. Since ancient times till now, Mongolian women have had a relatively high social status. The status of women’s empowerment in Mongolia can be viewed from the following aspects. Even before Mongolia ratified various human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Mongolian women had been deeply involved in civic and public life. In 1999, the U.N. Common Country Assessment Indicator Framework ranked Mongolia…