by Jennie S. Bev
- USA / Indonesia -

• A man adds extra cuts to the lumps of meat ready for distribution to the less fortunate in the nearby community. 250g of red meat is a luxury for the poor in Jakarta. Photograph by Danumurthi Mahendra •

While homelessness is an ongoing and often stagnant issue in downtown San Francisco, 8,675 miles across the Pacific Ocean in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, 23 million people live packed into 290 square miles - extreme poverty is an everyday sight. Amongst Jalan Thamrin skyscrapers, slums weave through the city with their cardboard huts, stinky sewers, and annual floods. The haves and have-nots live side-by-side, oftentimes even sharing the same wall. A few of the privileged dine at five-star hotels, while those selling cigarettes and magazines on foot must live with a mere $2 USD per day, or even less.

What a contrast. What a divided world we live in.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

On 8-8-08 when the Beijing Summer Olympics begins, the world will see that the Maoist doctrine of the Cultural Revolution has been replaced by capitalism and McDonald’s – all in the name of progress. This Modern China bears a striking resemblance to the West it once condemned. But what will not be proudly displayed in shiny new shopping malls is the reality that modernization comes at the displacement of millions of people who must abandon the only way of life they know and join a new China.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

In Haiti people eat cakes baked with mud for lack of flour. In Bangladesh, Indonesia and across Africa, riots are spreading among the hungry. And in the world’s richest country, the United States, the breadlines are growing.

• Photograph by Bruce Gilbert, courtesy of The Earth Institute. •

by Imelda V. Abaño
- Philippines -

Hunger is the most crucial manifestation of poverty. In many parts of the world, the soaring prices of food, fuel and other basic goods have triggered social unrest and a growing sense of urgency.

• In Haiti, an estimated 46% of all children under five are severely or moderately stunted in growth due to malnutrition. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño. •

Witnessing the realities of the devastating consequences of poverty and rising food prices up close reminded me of my first visit to Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries.

In June, I went to Haiti with five other journalists for an experience unlike any of my previous trips abroad. The abject poverty and despair I witnessed there is far more extreme than in my own country. Never before have I seen such deprivation than that which I saw in Haiti; the human suffering is all too real and heart-rending.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, is plagued by violence, hunger, unrelenting extreme poverty, disease, high unemployment rates, low life expectancy and crumbling health and educational systems.

by Katharine Daniels & Sarah McGowan
- USA -

Sunday’s news that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn from the Zimbabwean runoff race spurred international media coverage and outrage on a crisis that has been raging for years. According to the opposition’s Movement for Democratic Change, "some 86 of its supporters have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by militias loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF party."

• An image from last year's violent police crackdown on Zimbabwean activists. Photograph courtesy of The Zimbabwean. •

WIP Contributors Constance Manika and Lelety Mabasa, along with Sharon Njobo, Grace Kwinjeh and Sandra Nyaira, have published article after article over the past year, outlining the methodical behavior of a political despot who is both cunning and ruthless, and who will stop at nothing to preserve his power.

In our second week of publication, Sharon Njobo (living in exile in Canada) wrote about women in her country taking the lead to protest against Mugabe's economic policies. In this early article we first learned of Zimbabwe's skyrocketing inflation rates (currently at 355,000 percent), and the rising price of basic foodstuffs - putting cooking oil, cornmeal, bread, and milk beyond the reach of many families in a country that was once considered the 'food basket' of Africa. The deteriorating Zimbabwean economy has now earned the country the dubious distinction of having the lowest life expectancy in the world for women. At just 34 years, a woman's life span (37 years for a man) is now half of what it was only 18 years ago.

by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA -

After hearing the family history of her adventurous great-grandmother, a free African American woman who lived in New Orleans during the Civil War, community activist Pam Dashiell knew she wanted to live in the legendary southern city.

• Community activist Pam Dashiell doesn't flinch in the face of New Orleans' challenges. Photograph courtesy of Kimberly Chase. •

Three generations later, Dashiell brought her family history full circle. Since moving from Massachusetts, she has come to call New Orleans home, and is now a well-known organizer; Dashiell's work in the Holy Cross neighborhood in the city's Lower Ninth Ward took on added urgency after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Trying to bring the area back to life, she now helps evacuated families decide whether they can make the move back to their city and rebuild their homes.

by S. Jean
- Gaza City -

Boom! I can feel a rumble under my feet and hear the windows clatter lightly in our two-bedroom apartment. My husband and I live on the third floor of an apartment building in Rimal, regarded as a safe neighborhood in Gaza City. The Gaza Strip is tiny, only 140 square miles, and we can easily hear explosions, even those a couple towns away.

• This building is part of a government complex that the Israeli Air Force bombed using an F-16. Ten children from nearby homes were wounded in this attack, launched in the middle of the night in the Tel Al Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City. •

You name it… it's all a normal part of our lives here in Gaza. And little stops us, and everyone else, from going about our day-to-day activities. After all, it's only 7:30 in the morning and we are getting ready to go to work. We don't even check the TV for news about the blast.

by Ellen Bravo
- USA -

The best researchers in the United States gathered recently to solve a long-standing puzzle: why women in the richest country in the world earn so little money. Using sophisticated multiple regression analyses and other scientific tools, the researchers finally came up with the answer.

• As the wage gap fails to improve, women continue to work in the low paying jobs that men don't want. Photograph by Belinda Hankins Miller. •

The Big Boys, those who control power and wealth, will tell you that women’s pay in the U.S. is doing just fine. The gap is narrowing, they proclaim! It’s practically disappeared for young women starting out! Women are faring better than men during this economic downturn! And to the extent that a wage gap exists at all, it’s because of choices women make (trading income for flexibility, opting out of high-paying, high-pressure jobs) or deficiencies they possess (lack of negotiating skills).

Neat little trick, putting it back on women. Problem is, none of it works.

Take the narrowing of the wage gap. Today women overall in the U.S. earn 77 cents for every dollar men make; African-American women earn 72 cents, Latinas 60 cents. That is better than the 59 cents ratio of the late sixties. But half the narrowing of the gap comes from loss of pay for men, particularly men of color. This is hardly what women had in mind by equality. What’s more, the gap is greatest for women with the most education working the longest hours. And the mommy wage gap – the difference between what mothers earn and the pay of everyone else – continues to increase.

by Jozefina Cutura
- USA -

With Hillary Clinton’s recent campaign for the presidency in the United States at its end and women leaders taking charge in countries from Chile to Liberia, women’s advances in politics are making headlines. But in countries around the world, especially those recovering from conflict like Bosnia and Herzegovina, women are making strides in the business arena too.

• Women entrepreneurs in Bosnia are helping rebuild the country's economy. Photograph courtesy of MI BOSPO. •

“In Skelani I saw a kiosk that was in a fairly good shape, so I decided to invest in opening it,” she says in an interview. Skelani is in a remote region of Bosnia that is poorly accessible by roads and has seen a large number of people emigrate elsewhere since the war. Despite the town’s remoteness and its shrinking population, Ružica remained undeterred. Initially, as people continued to move away, her profits were low. But she persevered and today Ružica’s convenience store has an excellent reputation in the community, steadily attracting customers from across the region. She employs four female workers and has created a stable source of income for her family.

by Genie Z. Laborde
- USA -

It's hot because most people don’t know about it yet and it's cool because it makes money. Crowdsourcing is a way for companies to enlist the help of their own Internet clients to produce their products. Utilizing the "wisdom of the crowd" to its advantage, crowdsourcing attracts customers, content and "clicks" or traffic to a website or online company. The amateur producers in the “crowd” wish to see their creations and this turns them into customers or producers of "clicks," both of which are valuable roles on the Internet.

by Lelety Mabasa
- Zimbabwe -

Always faithful in shocking the world, Zimbabwe has scored yet another first, and as usual, for all the wrong reasons.

• Basket case: A fruit seller in Harare hunts for change. •

"The latest innovation seeks to bring convenience to our farmers who, starting this year's marketing season, are receiving competitive prices for their produce," said acting RBZ Governor Charity Dhliwayo last week.

The RBZ also launched a new Z$500 million bank note for the general public.

What baffled most people, however, was that bearers can use Agro Cheques to purchase goods in supermarkets, just like we do with ordinary notes.

"Either the people at the central bank are now confused or they were too embarrassed to say we are launching such high denominated notes for the public," speculates Noleen Moyo, an employee with a Zimbabwean bank. "To them, that would mean admitting failure in running the economy."

by Carrie R. Sparrevohn
- USA -

In 2005 I traveled to Uganda, East Africa, for the first time. I met Margaret Nangobi on that trip, in Mwanyangiri, a tiny village about an hour’s drive from the capitol. What transpired between us broke my privileged self in pieces and I became the receiver one hundred fold of what I was to give.

• Margaret and her granddaughter Loi with their kitchen and home in the background. •

For every mother that dies in the US of pregnancy, Uganda loses 50. Around the world, each minute, we lose one mother as a direct result of her pregnancy. Improving women’s access to experienced care providers, antibiotics and medication to prevent or stop hemorrhaging would prevent over half of these deaths.

As I prepared to spend November 2005 in Uganda, a wonderful friend and mentor, Jan McNabb, began to tell her friends what I was planning to do. People began handing her money for the needy in Uganda. As a result, the Sally Clinic Project of With Woman was born.

by Marianne Taflinger
- USA -

In Sweden, a doctor delivers Sari, and her family celebrates what will be the beginning of a long life, probably 83 years or more. She’ll attend at least 17 years of school and if she chooses to have children, they’ll be born when she wants them to be born, thanks to convenient and cheap contraceptives. If she has a baby, she’ll take off 15 weeks of work and still earn 80% of her salary. Sari is virtually guaranteed to make it to age 5 without any health complications and enroll in secondary school. Swedish society provides great health care and education that eases both mothers’ and girls’ lives.

By contrast, Adame will live a far more perilous life. Having been born in Niger, she has a high probability of dying before age 5. Like two thirds of all children born in Niger, no “skilled birth attendant” was present at her delivery. It’s likely that Adame will attend only 3 grades in school, and that she will die by age 45, living a life half as long than if she had been born in Sweden. Adame’s mother is practically guaranteed to lose at least one child and has a nine out of ten probability that she will lose 2 children in her lifetime. Due to the lack of contraception, Adame will likely have more siblings than her family can afford. And there’s a strong chance that Adame will suffer from malnutrition and lack a sufficient supply of water.

by Sarah Wyatt
- USA -

Years of hardship and backbreaking labor in the riot-stricken slums of Kibera in south Kenya have worn 18 year old Eshe Koome to the bone. A single mother of two, she walked out on her abusive husband and survived for two years as a daily wage laborer, loading vegetables and other goods for sale.

• Eshe is now able to earn a living wage at Kazuri. Photograph by Sarah Wyatt. •

Eshe's story captures in a nutshell how a group of formerly indigent, urban women operates a business for themselves. The Kazuri Bead Factory, located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, is unique in that it is Kenya’s first visitors’ attraction of its kind, created for and by women. Founded by Lady Susan Wood in 1975, the company is known for its beautiful, hand-painted beads made from the authentic clay from the Mt. Kenya area. Kazuri (Swahili for “small and beautiful”), also produces a number of other goods popular with tourists including pottery, hand-beaded sandals and purses. The beads are often featured on three-dimensional art cards and can also be found in shadowboxes.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

How sad. Exxon Mobil, the universe’s largest publicly traded company, which also happens to be enjoying some of its biggest profits ever thanks to the almost doubled price of oil during the past year, didn’t quite live up to Wall Street expectations this week. In fact, its stock fell nearly 4% the day it announced its first quarter of 2008 earnings.

Unfortunately, this does not make the pain at the pump pulsing through the nation any more bearable. Apparently, Exxon could have made more profit, had it not chosen to hold back further gas price hikes. Instead, earnings in its refining business (which converts crude oil to gallons of useable gas) weren’t as strong as it had wanted. Yes, that’s right – Exxon would have made even more money had they passed more pain onto the public. They were just being “nice.” Right.

by Megan Tady
- USA –

For Maureen Mullaney, helping her kids with their homework takes more than just proofreading their papers. Fed up with a painfully slow dial-up Internet connection at home, Mullaney often drives her children into town, where they sit outside the library to pick up a wireless Internet signal on their laptops in order to do research.

“How silly is it that in this day and age, you have to get in your car in the middle of winter, drive to the center of town, sit in your car with it running, while your child can research the traditional clothing of Chile?” asks Mullaney, who lives in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

Mullaney says her children’s ability to do research for school reports is “ridiculously hampered” by their dial-up connection, particularly when they need to include images with their assignments. “You can’t see [the images] quickly,” Mullaney says. “You click on one and then you wait. And oh, that’s the wrong one.”

The process can be so frustrating, that sometimes Mullaney and her kids give up. “I just say, ‘Forget it, I’ll look it up for you when I get to work,’” she says. “So then I end up doing their research? What’s that all about?”

by Katie Thompson
- USA -

Elections invite a whirlwind of campaign promises: some that are feasible, some that are not, and some that will be forgotten on Inauguration Day. One of the most prominent issues for the Democratic candidates has been healthcare reform, a campaign promise the American people definitely won’t let the new president forget. In the United States, the National Coalition on Health Care says 47 million people are without health care coverage. In addition, according to Consumer Reports, 43% of Americans who have health insurance coverage say their coverage is inadequate to deal with an expensive medical emergency. Clearly, healthcare is an issue that requires a solution. The real question is whether a national healthcare plan is a feasible solution. I would argue that it is not.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

Former CIA director Jim Woolsey eagerly leans across the table in the swanky restaurant of the Carlton-Ritz Hotel in Washington, D.C. The seriousness of the matter he’s discussing is reflected in his sharp, almost transparent blue eyes.

”The United States’ dependence on oil makes us very vulnerable from a security and environmental perspective. Why buy oil from Islamic theocracies, which sponsor terrorism against us? We are fighting a war against terror, but are paying for both sides. How smart is that?” asks the sprightly 66-year-old Woolsey.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

The Starbucks, sidewalk and subway comments continue to flow abundant as New Yorkers processed the country’s latest made-for-TV sex scandal. The reality that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Time Magazine’s former Crusader of the Year, the man now dubbed “George Fox” and “Client #9,” had repeatedly gotten too hot and heavy with various high-class call-girls broke in salacious bits. This is the stuff that causes political dreams in America to dissolve even faster than the seismic destruction unleashed by the subprime mortgage crisis and the economic recession that has followed it.

by Natasha Dokovska
- Macedonia -

“I have seven children, I don't work, neither does my wife. For many years I thought about selling my kidney so I could give my children a better life, but just recently I found someone to buy it,” says 40 year old Ekrem. He explains that it was not a difficult choice because the 1,000 Euro ($1,465 USD) he got as compensation for the lost kidney will enable him to mend some holes in his home, pay electricity bills, and get enough firewood to last for the rest of the winter.

“Fortunately this was not a cold winter so we managed to keep warm with what we've got, otherwise we would have frozen to death,” says Ekrem.

Ekrem is one of the many Macedonian citizens who see selling their organs as a chance to save themselves from poverty. He does not consider the consequences. According to a Macedonian organization that works with people with kidney diseases, for Ekrem and about a hundred other Roma citizens in the country, it is the only way to offer a modest life for their children.

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

Feb. 5th - Today marks Fat Tuesday in New Orleans and the most celebrated day of Mardi Gras festivities. As thousands of visitors flock to the city to celebrate, thousands more have yet to return home. - Ed.

• Despite demonstrations and resistance, the demolition of New Orleans' public housing continues. Photograph by
Mavis Yorks. •

Her home survived Hurricane Katrina, but it will crumble under the city’s plan to demolish low-income housing in the name of “redevelopment.”

To the 33 year-old single mother of three, the officials pushing to raze St. Bernard are carrying out disaster by design. “How could they just get away with it?” she asks.

The pending demolition of the St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, and Lafitte projects has confirmed the fears of the city’s poorest, blackest, and hardest hit communities: that New Orleans’ “recovery” in the wake of the storm is built on the city’s old demons of racial and class strife.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

Earlier this week, speaking for Washingtonia and unburdened by high expectations, President Bush said “all of us were sent to Washington to carry out the people’s business.”

• President Bush delivers the State of the Union address flanked by Vice President Cheney (left) and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Photo by Eric Draper, courtesy of The White House. •

Because if it’s the majority of the population, and it’s life not war, we’re not even close to having it carried out.

He acknowledged, “at kitchen tables across our country, there is a concern about our economic future.”

The question remains – our? Who do you mean by ‘our’, Mr. Bush?

Because for three-quarters of the population’s kitchen table concerns are over gas costs, health insurance, debt payments, tuition, and home values. For nearly 24% of the population, depending on what race you are, the issue of paying for one’s next meal and balancing child-care with multiple jobs is center stage.

by Neeta Lal
- India -

With a booming economy, an exponentially growing Information Technology (IT) sector and surging economic prosperity amongst its 300 million-plus middle class, India seems poised for superpower status.

• Women in India are increasingly marginalized despite the country's economic growth. Photograph by Sarah McGowan. •

Of 128 countries evaluated by the WEF, India ranks way down at 114th, followed, among others, by Yemen, Chad, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Botswana are all positioned better than India. In terms of economic participation and opportunity, India, with its surging economy, has done even worse than last year – it is now ranked at the 122nd position. Meanwhile, its overall rank has slipped from 102nd to 114th this year. In other words, Indian women are even more marginalized than they were a year ago!

It’s interesting to analyze the WEF report: while India scores an overall 59.4 percent on gender equality, it only manages an abysmal 39.8 percent on economic participation and opportunity. In terms of wage equality, India ranks 59th, with 67 percent gender equality; shockingly, given India’s high tech boom, for professional and technical workers, it comes in at 97th (down in the 27th percentile). While India has a 36 percent female participation in the overall labor force, for professional and technical workers the figure is an abysmal 21 percent!

by Katharine Daniels
Founder & Executive Editor, The WIP
- USA -

On Tuesday Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Salinas, California. Otherwise known as ‘the lettuce capital of the world’ or John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Salinas just happens to be the farm town I call home.

Nearly 3,000 of Senator Clinton’s supporters showed up at the Hartnell College gymnasium to hear her speak. She was greeted in true Salinas Valley fashion, with mariachis and shouts for Viva la Causa (“Long Live Our Cause"). Clinton’s campaign stop was pulled together in just twenty-four hours following an official endorsement by the United Farm Workers of America, the union co-founded by Dolores Huerta and César Chávez that today represents more than 27,000 farm workers.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

As the middle and poorer classes get crushed under a mounting pile of debt, and living costs grow faster than wages, we’re becoming a country of two classes: the top 1% and everyone else. Similarly, we are two economies. The national one is comprised of items like GDP (Gross Domestic Product), corporate profits, stock market performance and CNBC. Then, there’s the other one in which most people live: stretching to afford health care, a mortgage, commuting costs, education, kids, parents, and the credit cards that act as temporary pain killers.

The rhetoric surrounding George W. Bush’s economic stimulus package, as boastfully “bi-partisan” as it is (we are, after all, in an election year), indicates a complete lack of comprehension of the difference between this ‘national’ economy and the ‘people’s’ economy, and the extent of the gap between the two.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

How does a society best deal with its immigrant minorities? This is a question which has become increasingly urgent as more people than ever leave their home countries due to conflict, climate change and globalization. But as they aspire for a brighter future in new lands, these “new” citizens risk being discriminated against, marginalized and even isolated.

The French riots in 2005 and late last year served as a brutal wake-up call and reminder about what can happen if a society lets its immigrant communities drift in the periphery without integration. But while some countries have tried to deal with racism and ethnic discrimination such as Britain, which suffered race riots in the 1980s, some of the initiatives did not always have the intended effect – as in the case of multiculturalism.

Speaking at his offices in the majestic Littauer building at Harvard University, Amartya Sen, Indian economist, philosopher and winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics tackles the topic in a rare interview.

by Michelle Chen
- USA -

Angela Greene has a tough job: she and her workcrew scale the rooftops of Richmond, California to run wires, lay racks, and bend metal piping. Yet in the end, when she unfurls a gleaming solar panel over her community, it feels easy to save the planet.

After being laid off from her former job at a printing business, Greene went through a vocational training program and then joined Solar Richmond, an organization that is bringing sustainable energy along with new jobs to the heavily black and Latino port city.

by Sandra Miniutti
- USA -

I quickly outgrew my position at the museum and I jumped at the opportunity to work at the newly launched Charity Navigator. Think of it as consumer reports for donors. A non-profit itself, Charity Navigator’s mission is to help donors make informed giving decisions by rating the financial health of thousands of the best-known charities.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

On October 23rd, I sent my young sister Farai off to the Republic of South Africa (RSA) to seek employment. In 2005 she graduated from the University of Zimbabwe with a BSc Honors in Information Technology, and yet she never managed to find any paid employment in this field (save for a one-year unpaid industrial internship she completed as part of her four-year training).

• As capable professionals leave Zimbabwe in search of a livable wage, industry and the economy continue to crumble. Photograph by Gary Bembridge. •

But of course the policies of our despotic leader, Robert Mugabe, meant there would be a different future in store for her. With unemployment levels at a staggering 80 percent (although the government continues to insist preposterously that unemployment is at 9 percent) my sister's future was doomed even before she got her degree.

by Michelle Chen
USA

"Rich men dam the water
Flooding the hill rice field, causing problems for Mother
Rich men dam the river
Flooding the roof and making Mother homeless"

• The lives of the Karen are threatened by Burma's dam projects. Photograph by Pithawat Vachiramon. •

For thousands of years, the Salween has flowed freely through China, Burma and Thailand, nourishing lush ecosystems and indigenous communities throughout its 2,800-kilometer course. But the military junta, which has ruled Burma since it seized power in August of 1988, has caught up to the possibilities of international “development” by deciding to harness the latent energy of the Salween. The dictatorship known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is now driving four massive multibillion-dollar dam projects that would exploit the river for the first time with the intent of producing hydroelectric power. Human-rights groups say that the multiple emerging Salween dam projects will ignite the latest spark in the Burmese people’s long-smoldering struggle against this government.

by Cecelia Fuentes
USA

One day in July, after picking up the New York Times, an article, “A Voice of Developing Nations Asks the West for Compromise on Trade” attracted my attention. My eye was caught less by the title of the article, a subject in which I am very much interested, but more by the photo accompanying the piece. Looking out from the page was the face of Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry for India, a man the reporter was calling “the unofficial voice of the deadlocked World Trade Organization (WTO) talks,” adding that he had also been called “stubborn and irresponsible.”

• A demonstrator at the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong.
Photograph by Fuzheado. •

The article said that Mr. Nath and Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim, had walked out of the latest round of WTO trade talks in a show of unity. A deadlock had occurred when the United States refused to consider a meaningful reduction of US agricultural subsidies.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

Most of us here in Zimbabwe thought he was joking when we first heard President Robert Mugabe tell the public that his government was going to "pounce on greedy businesspeople" because they were increasing the prices of goods by the day to deliberately fuel inflation.

• Mugabe's inflation control scheme has left Zimbabwe's shelves empty as retailers can't afford to restock
their plundered goods.
Photograph by Anthony Easton. •

On that day in June, Mugabe was speaking on national television at a state function. We all knew his anger and fury had been caused by the then US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell.

In an interview with Britain's Guardian Newspaper, Dell had predicted that Zimbabwe's inflation would reach 1.5 million percent by the end of 2007 and that Mugabe's government was "likely to inflict regime change against itself through mismanaging the economy."

Dell also predicted that hunger would lead the people of Zimbabwe to forcibly remove Mugabe from power. He was quoted as saying:

"Things have reached a critical point. I believe the excitement will come in a matter of months, if not weeks. The Mugabe government is reaching end game, it is running out of options. By carrying out disastrous economic policies, the Mugabe government is committing regime change upon itself."

by Lelety Mabasa
Zimbabwe

Vongai stumbles into the house and fumbles as she pulls her room key from her bra. After she struggles with the lock for several minutes, the door finally creaks open. She slips into the room, trying to get accustomed to the darkness. She doesn’t bother with the switch - no need to.

• Photograph by Paul Thomas •

Vongai wakes up with a start, a flicker of light enters her room through the window. She can hear her landlord exchanging morning greetings with the neighbors. It must be around 7am but she doesn’t know for sure because her landlord's radio, which serves as her clock, is off. She smiles wryly when she realizes that she’s been asleep for the past 12 hours. ZESA did not wake her up because for the fourth day in a row, ZESA has neglected her community. Nobody knows when the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority will finally turn the electricity back on!

by Halimah Abdallah Kisule
Uganda

• In Uganda, the widespread burning of counterfeit CDs has robbed musicians of their due. Photograph by Indi Samarajiva. •

As a result, individuals and organizations regularly infringed on the rights of artists, oftentimes pirating, duplicating and playing their music with impunity for economic gain. And the impunity continues to this day, one year after the Copy Right and Neighboring Rights Act 2006 was introduced into law.

Artists and other writers have long campaigned for a law that protects their work. Thanks to parliament and the cabinet, who presented the bill, they now have their wish.

by Pilirani Semu-Banda
Malawi

• A tea estate in Malawi.
Photograph by Steve Evans. •

But both the tobacco and tea industries in Malawi thrive on the cheap labor of children ages five to seventeen.

by Natasha Dokovska
Macedonia

• Fashion boutique in Thessaloniki, Greece. Photograph by Etienne Cazin •

by Esther Nakkazi
Uganda

Coffee exporters in developing countries are bracing themselves for higher unit export prices.

• Coffee picker in Vietnam. Photograph by Everjean. •

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

The Dallas Convention Center was rocking last July. Some 42,000 Mary Kay consultants, many clad in red blazers, milled about, in attendance for the three-week national annual gathering known as Seminar.

• Mary Kay's Seminar Stage. Photograph by Elizabeth Hesse. •

"Feel the power of pink," the amplified music mandated as pyrotechnics illuminated the arena. The estrogen-infused crowd erupted as Newbury, their coiffed rock star and symbol of the Mary Kay dream, took the stage. Nearing her retirement, her 85,000 consultants had collected more than $11 million in commissions during her career. The company reported Newbury's retirement package guarantees her $8.5 million over the next 15 years.

by Juliette Terzieff
USA

• Waitress in Southern California.
Photograph by Derek E. Baird •

by Glory Mushinge
Zambia

International Labor Day was celebrated on May 1st throughout the world again this year, but in Zambia it was simply another painful experience for workers. In a nation of over 11 million people, only 400,000 have formal full-time employment; most work in unsafe conditions, earning only meager salaries. Others, in part-time or temporary employment, work in far worse conditions. Their employers, most of them new foreign investors highly touted by the government, abuse these workers in multiple ways, and consistently subject them to dangerous working environments.

What the workers get in return is pay that is a pittance instead of real wages. But many of these workers have poor or few skills leaving them with no alternatives to these jobs. Other citizens, the victims of the country's high unemployment rate (50%), were nothing but spectators at the Labor Day celebrations. Zambia’s unemployment has pushed many families (86%) far below the poverty line. According to the World Bank, the average annual salary in Zambia was $500 (usd) in 2006. In 2003, 63.1% of the population was living on less than $1 per day.

By Lelety Mabasa
Zimbabwe

Mariah turns on her back. She winces from pain as she stretches her arms. She sleeps on the ground, and her thin blankets hardly protect her from the rough surface. From her room, she calls out to her neighbour in the other room, telling her to bathe the kids as she will not be bathing early today. She is normally the first to use the bathroom, but she will be the last today - she is not going to work because nurses are on strike.

As she continues with her “sleep,” Mariah reflects back on her college days, when she and her friends could not wait to graduate. They dreamt of “making names for themselves out there. ” They fantasized about owning houses in the country's posh surburbs, being the first to have the latest model cars, having happy marriages and a modest family with three children who would all go to the best schools the country has to offer. These naively hopeful students also planned on buying nice houses for their parents.

That was four years ago.