Although many people have struggled, even sacrificed their lives for democracy, the reality has often been mixed. Issues range from things like paradoxes with democracy itself, to the challenges of keeping a population interested in participating while a poor quality free press limits the ability for people to make informed decisions. For many countries, the threat of foreign influence in domestic affairs, or the effects of corruption, voter intimidation and more subtle political manipulation can all shatter the dreams of those who have struggled for this ideal. Democracy, it seems, is under assault from many angles and many issues are being felt in even the most established of democracies. This article attempts to explore some of these issues.

Countries and regions such as the US and EU have claimed the impact of biofuels on the food crisis has been minimal and that instead demand from countries such as India and China are amongst the prime factors. However, a World Bank report finds that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% while another institute estimates an increase of around 30%. Either way, it is a lot more than US estimates of 3%.

To mark the 10 year anniversary the global issues web site was redesigned. This is actually something that I had wanted to do for a while, but the anniversary provided a good excuse to actually do it. The purpose of the redesign was two-fold: 1) I was always uncomfortable with articles being categorized under one issue. However, changing this implied a fundamental restructuring of the web site. 2) I wanted to improve the visual design of the web site, and with the structural changes to improve categorization, this made sense to do it now. Although it took a while to do, the site has now been relaunched, with just some minor tweaks left to do over the coming days. I hope you find it useful and better than before! I wrote this page to explain this a bit further if you are interested:

This web site has continued to grow. From July 2007 to end of June 2008, over 16 million pages were viewed on the site (up from about 14 million the previous year). During peak periods of the year, the site was getting, on average, some 60-70,000 page views per day. This site remains a spare time effort, and as with previous years, I am finding even less time this year to spend on the site, but I am pleasantly surprised at its continued growth. 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.

Inequality is a major cause of death, a World Health Organization report notes. A 3-year study found that even in wealthier nations, average life span can vary by some 28 years and the poorer you are the more likely you are to die younger. The majority of the world does not enjoy good health and this is largely due to bad social, political and economic policy choices. Two short video clips and additional information have been added regarding this as well as a look at how health issues are changing as the world's population becomes more and more urbanized. Finally, the issue of emphasis on drugs and commercialization of health systems over more effective preventative care is also introduced.

The latest World Bank figures for world poverty reveals a higher number of people live in poverty than previously thought. For example, the new poverty line is defined as $1.25 a day. 1.4 billion people live on or below that line. Furthermore, almost half the world—over three billion people—live on less than $2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.

The global financial crisis having started in wealthy countries is being felt around the world. Rich country governments rush to bail out failing institutions, many of which are responsible for the problems in the first place. By contrast, ordinary citizens and smaller businesses rarely get such protections. On the other hand, the nature of the crisis threatens to destabilize much of the economy so it seems that something needs to be done. Yet this situation could have long been avoided. An overview of some of the issues and implications of the global financial crisis is provided.

Obesity is a growing problem around the world. This update includes additional statistics for global obesity and overweight estimates and includes an animation of how obesity in the United States has dramatically increased between 1985 and 2007.

As countries scramble to meet and address the deepening global financial crisis, what are the impacts for developing countries, and where will reforms and fundamental rethinking be needed? This update looks at some of these issues further.

According to the OECD, inequality in industrialized nations has increased in the last two decades. The gap between rich and poor has grown in more than three-quarters of rich countries since the mid-1980s, while the last 5 years also saw growing poverty and inequality in two-thirds of OECD countries. This update includes some graphs and charts breaking this down further.

The latest data covering global arms sales shows that sale of arms in 2007 increased to almost $60 billion, 70% of which went to developing countries. Updated graphs and charts on arms sales data are provided here. The arms trade is big business. The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy, account for over 80% of the arms sold between 2000 and 2007. Some of the arms sold go to regimes where human rights violations will occur. Corruption often accompanies arms sales due to the large sums of money involved.