Son of Peasant - Believe in God, Work Hard!

11 Rivers Forced Underground Sunswick Creek , New York City Photograph by   Steve Duncan This story is part of   a special National Geographic News series   on global water issues. Rivers   are the lifeblood of many plant, animal, and human communities. Yet many of the world's rivers have been dammed, degraded, polluted, and overdrawn at alarming rates. Some of the world's great rivers, from the Colorado to the Indus ,   don't always reach their ends   because people have diverted so much water for agriculture, industry, and municipal uses. Other rivers have been completely covered over by development, as people attempted to "tame" nature by ending flooding and maximizing usable land area. But what happens to once-thriving freshwater ecosystems when the rivers they depend on are entombed in sewer pipes beneath layers of concrete and soil? Few species can make the transition to subterranean living. Ironically, it was often rive...

Great Man - Che Guevara!

AT THE height of the Dutch golden age, merchants exported their goods and their families to colonies on four continents. Four centuries later their descendants are less impressed by such adventuring. A new law proposed by the Dutch government aims not only to limit dual nationality among immigrants (in 2011 around 20,000 people gained Dutch nationality through naturalization) but also to make it easier for the authorities to strip members of the 850,000-plus Dutch diaspora of their nationality, should they secure a second citizenship abroad. Guus Bosman, a Dutchman living in Washington, DC, calls the proposal “mean-spirited”. Eelco Keij, a Dutch citizen in New York and one of the loudest critics of his government’s proposals, thinks that these days dual nationality is no more than “a harmless side-effect of globalisation”. Government and politics By seeking to toughen its nationality laws, the Netherlands is bucking a global trend. Other governments have increasin...

Top of Form Bottom of Form 10 Most Expensive Places to Visit Singapore jumped from No. 24 to No. 10. (Courtesy of the Singapore Tourism Board)   Thanks to the struggling economy, the word "vacation" has become taboo -- so taboo that a substitute word, "staycation," was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2009. Although the web is bursting with deals and advice on vacationing on a dime , let's be honest: There are some cities that are, in one word, expensive. To separate the reputed budget-busters from the truly expensive cities, UBS Wealth Management Research, a Swiss-based global financial services company, conducts a regular Prices and Earnings report, the most recent of which was published in August 2011. The study, which covers 73 of the world's major cities, analyzes economic factors such as currency strength , plus the price levels of travel basics like hotels, food and transportation. The good news is that vacationing here in the U....