By the end of the 1920s three big U.S. companies dominated the car industry: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. All of them were based in Detroit, which soon was nicknamed Motor City. By 1950, the U.S. produced three quarters of all cars in the world. And as vehicles became ubiquitous, gasoline consumption increased, pollution ensued…and violent crimes rose. In the 1950s, violent crime increased sharply and continued doing so until the early 1990s when it reached its peak. It was not until 1996 that scientists won their cause and crime rates began to decrease the following years:...
In Nigeria, English is the official language. Thus, making it essential for education, documentation and communication in formal settings. Yet out of the 185 million people living in the country, about 70 million speak Hausa as a first language, 28 million use Yoruba as a mother language and there are 24 million Igbo native speakers. In total, there are over 520 languages spoken across Nigeria. “The bigger the diversity, the more difficult it is to reach a compromise, so the status-quo remains, the colonial language that imposes a high cost on its citizens,” said Dr. Rajesh Ramachandran...
Imagine that a baguette costs 1 USD. Three months later, you go to the same shop to buy the exact same baguette and the person at the counter asks for 1.85 USD. Suddenly, you can’t afford a baguette. Even if you could, that is the money you had budgeted for other primary needs. Far from being fiction, this happened in Haiti, where the price of grain increased up to 85 percent in 2008. The food crisis led to violent protests, as people couldn’t afford to eat, and eventually concluded with the ousting of the prime minister.
Price shocks affect food security in many poor re...