What’s New August 2009

This page lists changes to this site for August 2009.

See below for other updates and to get notified of changes to the site.

Through corporate crime, tax havens, transfer pricing and many other tactics — both legal and illegal — wealthy individuals and multinational companies prevent billions of dollars from being taxed. The much-needed money could help developing (and developed) countries provide important social services for their populations. Instead, the lack of such funds contributes to corruption making the problem harder to resolve. In light of the current global financial crisis, the issue of tax havens have come to the fore and even rich countries (who in the past were reluctant to do anything about it) are now contemplating measures to address some of the problems. But it seems like strong words in public are not necessarily translating into actual meaningful deeds. This update includes further information and videos on this theme.

The conservation organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), notes that rhino poaching worldwide is poised to hit a 15-year-high driven by Asian demand for horns. The update to this page describes this further. In addition, a video on mountain-gorillas was also added.

A number of global forums have taken place to address various aspects of the global financial crisis, from immediate measures to discussion on long-term reforms and changes. However, it appears that rich nations are blocking meaningful reform and resisting calls from developing countries for fundamental changes that would democratize the international order and give more voice to developing countries to have a say in their own economic affairs. This update includes a description of this in further detail as well as some additional information and video on tax haven related concerns.

Despite finding less and less time to work on this site, it has continued to grow. In the past year (from August 2008 to end of July 2009) the site received just over 18 million page views. This is up from just under 17 million page views for the previous year. It is hard to compare figures exactly as the past year included a substantial overhaul of the way the web site is constructed, which happens to under count the number of visitors (though not by too much). Visits also fluctuate during the year and time of week, but peak periods were seeing some 55-65,000 page views a day. I continue to be pleasantly surprised at its repeated growth despite finding less and less spare time in recent years to keep it going. As the web site begins its 12th year, it remains a spare time effort, maintained on my own. That may change in the future, who knows! Thank you so much for your continued support and please do tell your friends and colleagues about the global issues web site if you find it useful.

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