Word: westernness
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...villain in the world's financial markets, sovereign wealth funds would have pushed sub-prime mortgages close in recent months. Huge, government-controlled investment pools from Abu Dhabi to China have helped to rescue Wall Street banks left short by the credit crisis - and still managed to leave Western governments feeling spooked. Their worry: the funds - swollen with foreign-currency reserves or billions in profits from oil and gas - might be hiding dark political motives behind fuzzy financial aims...
...Western multinationals have been trying for years, with mixed success, to stamp out such scenes. In the 1990s, a series of scandals showed the damage that could be wrought if a brand was linked to shoddy labor practices overseas. For example, in 1996, it was alleged that a Wal-Mart clothes label endorsed by American TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford had been produced using child labor in Honduran sweatshops. Gifford sobbed on air, saying she hadn't been aware of conditions at the factory. For corporations and consumers alike, it brought home the realization that globalized production comes...
...their overseas factories. Gap, the U.S.-based retailing giant, now has a staff of about 90 overseeing working conditions in factories that supply its clothes, and last year it conducted 4,927 inspections in 1,879 factories worldwide. Such initiatives are part of a much broader effort by Western firms to embrace the tenets of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Annual reports today glow with descriptions of companies' attempts to be green, fair and transparent - partly because it's good p.r. and offers protection against reputational risk, partly because executives know it's the right thing to do. But even with...
...uncertainty is widely shared. The Nu - its name means "angry" - flows through one of China?s most remote corners, down from the Tibetan highlands through western Yunnan province, a few miles from Burma. It is one of China's last two rivers to not be blocked by dams - the other is Tibet's Yaluzangbu - and environmentalists want to keep it that way. But China is hungry for energy, and with the country choking on its addiction to highly polluting coal, Beijing has mandated that more power should come from renewable sources. The fast-flowing Nu offers vast potential for hydropower...
...since the quake, in which nearly 100,000 were killed and millions left homeless, global attention-and sympathy-has shifted decisively away from Tibet to China. Indeed, some observers say support in Western capitals for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has lessened noticeably since the quake. They fear the shift is an opportunity for China to harden its position, setting off a new round of tension and violence...