Privatization & Procurement

Some residents of Soweto, a township outside Johannesburg, have expressed anger at being sent bills by Eskom even though they either do not have electricity or their supply has long been cut off. Here's what they say. Read More

Eskom, through Eskom Enterprises, currently has a presence in almost 30 countries on the continent. Read More

South Africa's giant electric company is a major polluter and leads the way in utility privatization. It also wants us to believe that it is a leader in sustainable development. Read More

The Senate is investigating the role of private investment banks in the Enron scandal. Could public institutions, like the World Bank and the Export-Import Bank be next? Read More

For-profit school manager Edison Schools Inc. promoted itself as the savior of American public education. Now, the company is struggling for its own survival. Read More

San Diego-based Sempra Energy is dodging US environmental laws by building power plants in Mexico -- and shipping the electricity back to California. Read More

Wendy Walsh's seventh-graders at Gillespie Middle School in North Philadelphia have something in common with investors in the for-profit education company Edison Schools. Both fear that Edison, the nation's largest private operator of public schools, may be failing them. ''The children ask me what's going on,'' Walsh says, ''and I don't know what to tell them. We're all facing the great unknown.'' Read More

In less than 24 hours this past Wednesday, big advances for three major pieces of legislation indicated that Mexico -- for 20 years the ''model student'' of so-called free market policy reforms, and long noted for high levels of government secrecy and corruption -- may be charting a new, more independent course. At a moment when the Bush administration is chilling domestic dissent, restricting the free flow of information and promoting corporate deregulation, Mexico appears poised to do virtually the opposite. Read More

Only hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Republican Representative Curt Weldon went on CNN and announced that he didn't want to hear anyone talking about funding for schools or hospitals. From here on, it was all about spies, bombs and other manly things. Read More

State officials in Tamaulipas say they want U.S. companies to open workshops inside Mexican prisons to help train prisoners for factory jobs. Read More