The once-thriving practice of outsourcing manufacturing may be thwarted by rising energy costs.

According to the Wall Street Journal, many U.S. manufacturers have halted plans to build factories overseas because the costs to transport goods back home have risen. Some, such as the heater manufacturer DESA LLC, are even considering moving production back to the U.S. "My cost of getting a shipping container here from China just keeps going up — and I don't see any end in sight," said DESA retail heating division president Claude Hayes. The company now considers itself lucky to have kept its old U.S. factories.

The return of DESA's heaters to the U.S. coincides with a new report by CIBC World Markets called "Will Soaring Transport Costs Reverse Globalization?" The report argues that high energy costs could potentially reverse the outsourcing that has occurred in some areas of manufacturing. Foreign trade cannot expect the same opportunities to develop markets in India as there were 30 years ago because of today's high energy costs. This situation could give countries closer to the U.S. like Mexico a little more appeal in the future than current economic giants such as China.

But do not expect outsourcing — the major transformer of world economies in the last 30 years — to go silently into the night. As Andrew Leonard points out in his article "Who Needs Tariffs When You Have Expensive Oil?" high energy prices do not affect all aspects of global trade, including the areas of telecommunications and computers. For example, the software industry in India will continue to thrive because it thrives on cheap Internet and not natural resources. So while some manufacturing may feel the pressure of high oil prices, American companies will continue to outsource in other ways.

Energy costs won't likely come down anytime soon. Could American manufacturing make a comeback?

Photo: Mark oh! (flickr)

We buy cheap bootleg DVDs and fake Coach purses from random street vendors with little hesitation. But what about buying your daily medication from them, too?

This is a common practice in the developing world. In Zimbabwe, for example, street vendors offer the poverty-stricken populace medicine for a price five to eight times less than a legitimate pharmacy.

The trouble with these cheap meds is that they're often not the real thing. One study cited by the World Health Organization says the counterfeit medication industry could reach $75 billion by 2010. Although the industry's reach is worldwide, it's more prevalent in developing countries. The WHO says "many countries in Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America have areas where more that 30% of the medicines on sale can be counterfeit."

Though buying counterfeit medications can save a lot of money, it is also very risky. In 1995, 89 Haitian children died from taking counterfeit cough syrup that contained the active ingredient in antifreeze instead of the real medication. Governments in the developing world often lack the resources to track and prosecute these illegal manufacturers and sellers. The Internet is only making the fight harder.

Major pharmaceutical companies are protecting their products from counterfeiters using different methods. Today, companies like GlaxoSmithKline use holographic labels or stickers to make their product more distinguishable from fakes. Recently, counterfeit drugmakers have, however, been able to convincingly duplicate many of these stickers and packaging. For example, one study revealed that about half of Southeast Asia's supply of the anti-malarial drug Artesunate was counterfeit despite holographic packaging.

The easiest and fastest way to decrease the market for these fake drugs is for consumers to increase their own awareness. Many news organizations have begun to help. In this video, Al-Jazeera reports on counterfeit drugs in Mauritania.

Sparks fly from a grinding machine while youngsters sort discarded computer parts to prep for recycling. Photo: Greenpeace India (flickr)

Don’t know what to do with your old analog TV?

The Basel Action Network (BAN), a global environmental justice organization, cautions you to think twice before recycling it.

"Most people are not aware that 50-80 percent of so-called recyclers will export your old computer to countries like China where it will be managed in horrific nightmarish conditions, that are highly polluting and damaging to human health," says BAN's Jim Puckett.

E-waste refers to broken or unwanted electronics that contain high levels of hazardous materials such as lead and mercury. According to the UN Environment Programme, “some 20 to 50 million metric tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year … [and] developing countries are expected to triple their output of e-waste by 2010.”

For countries such as China and India, the low costs of processing e-waste, combined with weak health and environmental regulations, has led to a stream of material from industrialized countries. As the world's e-waste piles up, poorer countries increasingly face a dangerous tradeoff: serious health risks for a rise in incomes.

Besides toxic substances, e-waste also contains valuable metals such as gold and silver. Recovery of these precious materials is dangerous work. Unprotected workers, some of them children, pry these appliances apart to get to the metals. Sometimes, the plastic casings must be burnt away or treated with acid baths, releasing toxic fumes into the air.

These chemical by-products poison the water supply and disrupt endocrine and immune function in humans. “The air near some electronics salvage operations that remain open contains the highest amounts of dioxin measured anywhere in the world," reports National Geographic.

Accountability and enforcement remain weak despite efforts to stop illegal e-waste flows, such as the Basel Convention, an international treaty that the U.S. has yet to ratify. There's also the fact that some communities rely on the e-waste industry economically, including Guiyu, China (150,000 workers) and New Dehli (25,000).

"China, like India and many other countries, is really hungry for resources, so they let e-waste into their country to support their production chain," says Ruediger Kuehr, executive director of Solving the E-Waste Problem to The Star. "They have many people making their living off of e-waste, so they cannot easily say, 'Let's stop all of these imports.' "

So what can you do with that old TV? Thanks to BAN, there remains a socially conscious solution. The next time you want to recycle your old electronics, refer to their list of responsible e-cyclers.

This short clip by BAN is part of "The Digital Dump," a investigative documentary shot in Lagos, Nigeria.

Photo: voxphoto (flickr)

In a span of just ten days, 7,400 Cubans signed new mobile phone contracts. On April 14, President Raul Castro lifted a ban restricting ordinary citizens from purchasing personal cell phones. The number of contracts is impressive, the BBC reports, considering that a cell phone in Cuba costs six times the average monthly salary.

Under Raul's brother Fidel, only government officials and people working for foreign firms were allowed to own cell phones. In addition to lifting the ban on personal cell phones, Raul Castro has lifted restrictions on DVDs, car rentals and other goods.

What more changes in Raul Castro's Cuba lie ahead?

A World Economic Forum report found Arab states made the greatest improvements in technology readiness last year — an important precursor to business development. The annual Global Information Technology Report compares 127 nations to determine which countries are "best positioned to compete in the information-intensive twenty-first century economy."

Photo Credit: Ells Culver/Mercy Corps

China today is making up for its technological deficits by undergoing an industrial revolution the size of which has never been seen. While it is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, there is still an important human perspective to what is taking place. The New York Times recently created a slideshow of images its reporters and photographers have collected from around China, documenting the lives of individuals participating in its rapid industrial expansion.

The BBC takes a look at the contrast between India's high rate of economic growth and the widespread poverty that continues to plague the country. Though India has become a major global player in information technology, some are worried this high-tech development will only lead to "silicon bubbles" that do little to improve conditions for the Indian poor. Anand Mahindra, managing director of one of India's largest conglomerates, disagrees:

"The IT sector was a kicker to growth," he says. "Its impact was psychological. It signalled to the world that India was much more than its old historical stereotypes. It suddenly in an exaggerated manner, if you ask me, made the world think that every Indian was smart and could fix their computers. But that helped entrepreneurs in India from all industry segments, because it gave them a more receptive environment in which to do business."

Photo: Richard Jacquot/Mercy Corps

Want to know a surprising statistic? Approximately 3 billion people (about half the world's population) own cell phones. Even more surprising? More than half of those subscribers live in poor countries. The Economist offers a look at the role technology plays in the lives of those living poverty and the future of the internet in the developing world. However, the question remains: will this trend in cellular telephones be mimicked in the internet industry?

The article concludes that the internet isn't likely to hold the same hope as the cell phone industry for providing a global connection to the world's poor. This is due to both high costs and the unlikelihood that private enterprise will undertake the task. I might argue that this article underestimates the speed of technological innovation. It may just be a matter of time for an internet infrastructure based on optical-fibre lines to develop in such places as Central Africa. Who would have guessed the current reach of cell phones fifty years ago?

In last week's print edition of The Economist, it is suggested that lavatories must come before laptops in the leapfrogging of technologies. The article suggests that most new technologies need to follow a traditional path when diffusing into emerging markets. Basic infrastructure is still a primary concern in these countries and the introduction of high-tech products does not directly address the core issues. "Most of the time, to go high-tech, you need to have gone medium-tech first." Cell phones may prove to be the exception of a rapid technological advance in the developing world.

The World Bank has just published a statistical report on worldwide computer access and ownership, wondering, among other things, just how well developing countries are utilizing technological innovations. It found that

With [technology], labour and capital can be used and combined far more effectively. So it is good news that the bank finds that the use of modern technology in emerging economies is coming on in leaps and bounds.

Today's Christian Science Monitor takes a look at the important role statistics play in prosecuting human rights abuses.

The ambitious project to create a $100 laptop for the developing world is finding itself in the headlines once again. Mary Lou Jepsen, a top executive of the One Laptop per Child program is leaving the non-profit to start her own for-profit company to market the technology she developed for OLPC. Jepsen believes that by working with greater volume, she believes she can have a greater impact.

Since founder Nicholas Negroponte announced his intention to create $100 laptop in 2005, the project has not quite met it's lofty goals. Despite pilot projects in a few countries, many foreign governments aren't buying. Critics are also questioning whether the laptop is living up to its educational expectations.

"We don't have any reports that this play and enjoyment is transferring into real learned knowledge and real growth and development of the child," Wayan Vota, editor of OLPCNews.com said. "And that's really the key metric Negroponte needs to show to have OLPC grow and take off with the developing world."

Photo: Tahir Hashmi (flickr)

The world’s cheapest car has just been rolled onto the showroom floor in India. Known informally as the People's Car, Indian automaker Tata Motors stated that its goal was to give access to people who otherwise could only afford to drive scooters by selling a car that cost only $2,500, reports Nation Public Radio.

"I observed families riding on two-wheelers — the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family," Company Chairman, Ratan N. Tata said.”

The car is said to meet all safety and environmental requirements for India, with reasonably low emissions and a solid gas mileage of 50mpg. However, an October report by The New York Times cites worries about the safety and environmental implications of a car with no airbags that will be accessible to millions of first-time drivers. Pollution and traffic are already big issues in the country, where “nearly 60 percent of India’s cities have pollution levels that are considered critical.”
Is it possible to create an ultra-cheap green car, one that will meet the strictest fuel emission standards with the potential to actually reduce pollution levels?