Guangdong, he says, could learn from Chongqing's efforts to absorb migrants from the countryside into city life.

ECONOMIST: Governing China

It is an important hereditary custom drawn from the rice culture that pervaded daily life in the countryside.

UNESCO: Culture

And my organization, Root Capital, is financing two fair trade certified, organic cocoa enterprises, Kpeya Agricultural Enterprise and Balmed Holdings, both of which are breathing new life into the shattered countryside of Sierra Leone.

FORBES: How a Hershey Bar might prove mightier than a gun

The first part of the answer is easy: until life improves in the Mexican countryside, there will always be migrants ready to undertake a perilous journey north.

ECONOMIST: The miserable state of California's farm workers

The book takes you on a journey with Hetty from her life with a foster family in the countryside and back to the Foundling Hospital where she was left as a baby, in search of her real mother.

BBC: Last Updated: Thursday October 08 2009 15:19 GMT

Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life.

WSJ: And the Fair Land