http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs Fearless. Thoughtful. Witty. Canadian. And Opinionated. Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:42:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Crime is a big problem in the developing world. Take it from me: just last week I got mugged at gunpoint in Mexico City's almost comically crime-ridden district of Tepito, infamous for its huge flea market full of incredibly cheap goods of incredibly dubious provenance. (I was there to research ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/12/08/big-brother-is-watching-them/ How do you patent indigenous knowledge? Most pharmaceutical companies have stopped trying. It's easy to think of indigenous tribes as backwards and ignorant, but they know a lot of amazing things that we don't. Instead of English Lit or Poli Sci, they get fast-tracked into a far more challenging major: How ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/11/17/theres-gold-in-them-there-trees/ I am always suspicious of megaprojects, which tend to be mostly about national pride, political legacies, and trickle-down corruption. (This is true back home, too: witness Montreal's crumbling Big Owe stadium, and the useless white mastodon that is Mirabel airport.) Well, projects don't get much more mega than the Panama ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/11/06/a-man-a-plan-a-canal/ One of the problems with writing about developing-world technology is that all too often the sexy tech is useless, and the useful tech is deeply unsexy. Innovations that actually change lives in a profound and meaningful way are frequently grimy, clumsy, noisy and ugly. Like this donkey: That's not quite a ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/10/28/donkey-ninja/ How to ruin entire nations and destroy untold millions of lives, as explained to me by a slender young man with a pencil moustache, a furtive look, and a machete dangling in a braided leather scabbard on his hip, in a jungle drug laboratory — two benches covered with a ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/10/23/better-dying-through-chemistry/ Colombia is a seriously schizophrenic country. From a briefing at Doctors Without Borders to learn about narco-terrorists BOGOTA, COLOMBIA—This is a seriously schizophrenic country. On a recent morning I went from a briefing at Doctors Without Borders' local headquarters, where I learned about a skyrocketing refugee count from newly emerging groups ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/10/20/colombias-banking-revolution/ Bestselling novelist Jon Evans begins his third-world tech blog, exclusive to walrusmagazine.com COLOMBIA—Welcome to World Fast Forward's inaugural post! In honour of the event I have instructed my editor to break a bottle of champagne on the server rack. I'm sure he wouldn't dare disobey. [Ed. note: Jon's new around here.] ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/10/16/new-blog-world-fast-forward/