Medellin was once synonymous with violent crime and the homicidal rule of Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel. In 1991, the city of Medellin in Colombia had a homicide rate 381 per 100,000, making Medellin the most dangerous city in the world. The combination of rampant drug smuggling, intertwined with constant warfare between left and … Continue reading "A Tale of Two Cities: How Medellin Transformed Itself From the Crime Capital of the World Into a Model For Urban Governance"

Few nations have been hit as hard by COVID-19 as Brazil. Nearly 100,000 people have already died, with over one thousand people losing their lives everyday. While all of Brazil has been hit hard, the Amazonian region in particular has been devastated. Over 12,000 people in the northern region have died so far, 44% more … Continue reading "River of Tears: COVID-19 Devastates Communities Along Amazon River"

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, economies throughout the world have been suffering as strict lockdown policies and massive drops in aggregate demand have created the sharpest economic contraction since the great depression. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit especially hard, with imports falling by 21% and exports by 36% since the beginning of the … Continue reading "Pulling Up the Drawbridge to Trade: How COVID-19 and Rising Protectionism Are Blocking Trade From Ethiopia, Senegal and Rwanda"

In mid-June of 2020, Pakistan appeared on the verge of public health disaster, as cases and deaths from COVID-19 soared. The number of new cases of COVID-19 detected increased from 490 on May 14th, to 6825 in June 14th, and by mid-June Pakistan was recording more than a 120 deaths a day. The response of … Continue reading "Gone in a Puff of Smoke: The Sudden and Unexplainable Decline of COVID-19 in Pakistan"

In 1973, the country of Lebanon was thriving. Beirut, known as the Paris of the Middle East, was famous for its architecture and vibrant nightlife and tourists from across Europe and the Middle East flocked to Lebanon’s beaches. Lebanon acted as an essential financial intermediary between the oil reach Gulf nations, and multinational corporations in … Continue reading "Two Wolves and a Lamb Deciding What’s For Dinner: How Lebanese Bankers, Politicians and Militias Destroyed the Lebanese Economy"

On July 7th, 2020 Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Jair Bolsonaro, who had long downplayed the effects of COVID-19, and has often refused to wear masks, has led one of the most disastrous attempts in the world to combat COVID-19. Bolsonaro might want COVID-19 to magically dissapear, … Continue reading "Bolsonaro Fiddles as Brazilians Die: Bolsonaro’s Spectacular Failure to Contain COVID-19"

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Indian healthcare system has been tested as never before. Over 400,000 cases of COVID-19 have been detected by public health officials so far, and at least 4,000 people have lost their lives. India’s hospital system has been overwhelmed by COVID-19, forcing state government to turn train cars … Continue reading "The Little Engine that Couldn’t: Why COVID-19 Overwhelmed India’s Healthcare System So Fast"

In February of 2020, Iran detected its first case of COVID-19 in the city of Qom from a businessman returning from China. COVID-19 quickly accelerated into one of the worst outbreaks in the world. Iran was quickly seeing more than 3,000 cases and 150 deaths of COVID-19 a day. The first wave of COVID-19 in … Continue reading "COVID-19 Strikes Back: The Second Wave in Iran"

Since the fall of Suharto and the beginning to democratic government in 1998, Indonesia has implemented a series of reforms to build a health system that would reflect both the diversity of the 16,671 islands of the Indonesian archipelago, and the aspirations of ordinary Indonesians for access to healthcare. Under the dictatorship of Suharto, healthcare … Continue reading "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Complicated Process of Reforming Healthcare in Indonesia"

The people of Afghanistan, long suffering in the war against the Taliban, face a new foe in COVID-19. Afghanistan has recorded nearly 30,000 cases and 600 deaths from COVID-19, although given minimal levels of testing, it is likely both numbers are massive under counts. Afghanistan has only conducted 64,000 tests, on a per capita basis … Continue reading "For Sicker and Poorer: War, Poverty and Fighting COVID-19 in Afghanistan"