EDITORIAL:

The key to an invisible future

IAN BEALES
Cheap energy comes at a price. The Aztecs calculated that it needed the ritual sacrifice of 20,000 humans a year to persuade the Sun God, bringer of heat and light, to travel across the sky. Blind faith dictated they pay the going rate. Cost-benefit analysis may have moved on since...
GLOBAL INSIGHT: CRIME SANS FRONTIèRES

Crushing crime cartels

YURY FEDOTOV
Yury Fedotov, executive director of UNODC, tells Global what the UN and its partners are...

Combatting crime on an international scale

MICHAEL O’CONNELL
Interpol is working to keep future generations safe with its cross-border initiatives to prevent and...

‘To say that Borderpol was “greatly influenced by Interpol” would be an exaggeration’

THOMAS TASS
As the organisation at the forefront of international efforts to thwart terrorist movement, Borderpol brings...

Operation Lionfish results in 142 arrests

Targeting the maritime trafficking of drugs and illicit firearms by organised crime groups across Central...
GLOBAL INSIGHT: FUTURE ENERGY

Building a sustainable world

HAROLD HYUNSUK OH
Access to energy is a basic human requirement, says Harold Hyunsuk Oh. The World Energy...

Earthquakes vs C02: the future of fracking

ANDREW MOURANT
France has banned fracking outright, while the USA is forging ahead with shale gas extraction,...

Fukushima: the real fallout

HAYDN THORNE
In earthquake-prone Japan, it was always a possibility that a quake would have knock-on effects...
SPOTLIGHT: KENYA

‘My task is to build on the successes of my father’

UHURU KENYATTA
As the son of Kenya’s founding father, President Uhuru Kenyatta has a lot to live...

President’s trial looms over Kenya

ANVER VERSI
Kenyan politics is in limbo while the President and Vice-President stand trial in The Hague,...

Worst terrorist attack in a decade

LIAM WOODCOCK
The Kenyan government has come under scrutiny following the country’s most deadly terrorist attack in...

Tea or coffee? Staple crops endure

ANVER VERSI
A property boom has seen house prices in Nairobi and Mombasa among the fastest-rising in...

Kenya: contrasting cultures – Masai to Maulidi

ANVER VERSI
Kenyan culture is a fascinating melting pot, taking in everything from camel derbies in its...
GLOBAL ARENA: TALKING POINTS

Interview: Sheikh Hasina

RITA PAYNE AND EKATERINA BYSTROVA
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has survived several assassination attempts, one of which saw most...

Credit limit: banks are turning their backs on money transfer outfits

LESLEY CURWEN
Money laundering regulations are causing banks to close their doors to companies that provide money...

The best of intentions

HUMPHREY HAWKSLEY
When governments launch heavy-handed assaults against their own people, Western countries have to decide if,...

Rabindranath Tagore: a celebration

MOHAMED MIJARUL QUAYES
The multitalented Bengali Rabindranath Tagore – poet, novelist, playwright, composer and painter – became the...

Bangladesh’s living standards undergo a quiet revolution

NEIL FORD
When Bangladesh finds itself in the international headlines, it’s rarely because there is good news....

The Mary Rose: A Tudor tale

ROSAMUND WEST
Raised from its watery grave by archaeologists 30 years ago, Henry VIII’s vice-flagship the Mary...

The man behind the Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel was born in Sweden in 1833. An interest in explosives led to Nobel...

Books – recent titles reviewed

India-Pakistan cricket isn’t war by other means – it’s much more important  The Great Tamasha:...
IN FOCUS: JAMAICA

Interview: Portia Simpson-Miller, Prime Minister of Jamaica

Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller speaks exclusively to Global on reducing the national debt, catering...

Jamaica: old ghosts haunt modern times

RICHARD SEYMOUR
Jamaican politics is dominated by the Jamaica Labour Party and Portia Simpson-Miller’s People’s National Party....

Jamaica farewell

NEIL FORD
Closely tied to the economic health of its main trading partners, Jamaica struggles to control...

Island in the sun

JULIET HIGHET
With its deep lagoons, warm climate and richly perfumed tropical plants, Jamaica’s history has, since...

Drugs fuel island’s dark side

JADE FELL
In 2009 – with an average of 63 murders per 100,000 people – Jamaica had...
IN FOCUS: LESOTHO

Interview: Tom Thabane, Prime Minister of Lesotho

TOM THABANE
Improving health care, modernising the country’s infrastructure and attracting foreign investment are major priorities for...

Lesotho’s economy: Diamonds are forever

KATIE SILVESTER
Despite having mines that have yielded some of the largest diamonds in the world, the...

The well-spring of learning

EKATERINA BYSTROVA
Basotho art, music and literature are being rediscovered and nurtured as Morija Museum’s plans to...

Lesotho: the mountain kingdom

JADE FELL
Following a turbulent history of physical conflicts and military coups, last year’s elections were among...
COMMONWEALTH NETWORK: CHOGM13

‘Every human community in the world has an equal right to a place in the sun’

KAMALESH SHARMA
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma discusses his hopes for the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting...

Western businesses wake up to investment opportunities

ANDREW MOURANT
A British university has chosen CHOGM host Sri Lanka to open its first overseas campus,...

Welcoming the tourists back

ANDREW MOURANT
Last year a million holidaymakers visited Sri Lanka, which is being rediscovered as an attractive...

Tea, tuk-tuks and Trivanka

JULIET HIGHET
Modern-day Sri Lanka reflects the country’s rich history – a fusion of ancient Buddhist sites,...
COMMONWEALTH NETWORK: COMMONWEALTH IN ACTION

From the Commonwealth Secretary-General

KAMALESH SHARMA
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings are booster stations on the journey of the Commonwealth. Our...

Third World debt – one world solution?

STUART MOLE
Spiralling debts in developing countries came to a head in the 1980s, after two oil...

We must recommit ourselves to young people

KATHERINE ELLIS
The theme for International Youth Day this year highlights an important and growing issue, on...

‘To boldly go’: a letter to the lost girls

KATHERINE MCINDOE
Extract from the essay of Senior Prize Winner of the Commonwealth Essay Competition 2013, Katherine...

Europe and the Commonwealth: how can Britain make the most of both worlds?

STUART CONNICK
When Britain began its first attempts to join the European Community in 1961, a major...

Capturing creativity

VERITY SHARP
The Commonwealth Essay Competition remains an important outlet as it celebrates a record year As...

Emma Donoghue interview: Room with a view

KATIE SILVESTER
Commonwealth fiction award winner Emma Donoghue steps off her treadmill desk to tell Global about...

Ministerial brief

EKATERINA BYSTROVA
Hugo Swire, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Minister, tells Global why membership of the Commonwealth is...

Key events and meetings

PETRA COOKE
Commonwealth facilitates Sri Lanka human rights training Staff from the Human Rights Commission of Sri...

The Commonwealth Association

The collective knowledge of former staff members of prominent Commonwealth organisations has been pooled by...

Human rights report dismissed by Sri Lankan government

The Sri Lankan government has rejected a UN Human Rights report, which cites “continuing reports...

Gambia exit ‘a disappointment’

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has expressed his regret at The Gambia’s October withdrawal from the...

Educating for success

Farmers in remote parts of the Commonwealth have been learning about modern farming techniques through...

Dangerous liaisons

It began so well. First there was Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, suddenly thawing the...

CA works with Zimbabwean people

The Commonwealth Association (CA) has been very active in Commonwealth priority areas. It has, for...

Book Prize makes way for Short Story competition

The Commonwealth Book Prize has been discontinued by the Commonwealth Writers project, in an attempt...

Supersized version of Aboriginal painter’s work appears on Paris rooftop

Seeing a piece of her art reproduced on a giant scale on the roof of...
Amnesty International