LATELY, a stream of rosy media
accounts has been telling the
world to look to China as a
model of gender equality in the
workplace. 'China Dominates
List of Female Billionaires' and 'Women
in China: the Sky's the Limit' are some
recent examples from the international
press. But the cascade of optimistic portraits
detracts from what is really happening
to women in China's fast-growing
urban work force. They are losing
ground fast....
I'VE been travelling to Yemen,
Syria and Turkey to film a documentary
on how environmental
stresses contributed to the Arab
awakening. As I looked back on
the trip, it occurred to me that three of
our main characters - the leaders of
the two Yemeni villages that have been
fighting over a single water well and
the leader of the Free Syrian Army in
Raqqa province, whose cotton farm
was wiped out by drought - have 36
children among them: 10, 10 and 16.
It is why you can't come away from a
journey like this without wondering not
just who will rule in these countries but
how will anyone rule in these ...
