Boomers have a drug problem, but not the kind you might think
Feb 25, 2020 13:16 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Baby boomers thats anyone born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1964 are 20% of the population, more than 70 million Americans. Decades ago, many in that generation experimented with drugs that were both recreational and...
The US birth rate keeps declining: 4 questions answered
Feb 25, 2020 13:10 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Over the last few decades, birth rates have decreased across the globe. The United States is no exception. Aside from a few years in the mid-2000s, the number of births in the United States have been falling for the...
How to turn the tide against South Africa's crime wave
Feb 25, 2020 13:08 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
In February last year South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that his government would pursue five fundamental goals over the next decade. One of these was particularly bold, namely that violent crime would...
Feb 25, 2020 13:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Over the decades that Ive worked in universities, Ive watched academic letters of reference become increasingly inflated. And letter inflation goes beyond the academy; friends who hire in business say they, too, have...
South Africa's spaza shops: how regulatory avoidance harms informal workers
Feb 25, 2020 12:52 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Small informal retailers are ubiquitous feature of any developing country urban landscape. Known as spaza shops in South Africa, they are an important, even vital, component in the townships. Numbering over 100,000 across...
Coronavirus: The latest disease to spur mistrust, fear and racism
Feb 13, 2020 00:08 am UTC| Insights & Views Life Health
With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China, stories of courage and strength have captured our collective attention as the disease spreads. We have also seen large-scale efforts in China to...

Why we aren't closing the gap: a failure to account for 'cultural counterfactuals'
Feb 13, 2020 00:07 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
Australias 12th Closing the Gap report, published yesterday, shows by most socio-economic measures Indigenous Australians continue to lag behind the rest of the population. Only two of seven targets early education and...