Microlending gives hope to the HIV positive

A microcredit program created by Thailand's 'Mr. Condom' allows the HIV positive to start businesses and earn a living.

By Robert Horn, Fortune
May 21 2007: 6:03 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- When Narisara Panya's husband died of AIDS seven years ago after returning to Thailand from a construction job abroad, it was devastating. With only a small plot of land that didn't always yield enough food for their two children, 44-year-old Narisara - who became HIV positive herself - needed an income. But because she was stigmatized in her community, even after starting antiretroviral therapy, no one would hire her. And no banks, or even loan sharks, would lend her money to start a business. "They were afraid of the illness and thought I would die before being able to pay them back," she says.

An experiment in microcredit came to her rescue. With a 24,000 baht ($685) loan from a program called Positive Partnership, Narisara was able to set up a small business selling ginseng tonic and herbal supplements in roughly 100 neighboring villages. Now she and her business partner earn 8,000 baht ($228) a month each, more than twice the average income in their village in northeastern Thailand. "My customers know I'm HIV positive," Narisara says, but they don't care. "They are surprised at how healthy I look."



Banking on third-world small businesses
Microcredit is hardly new. Several programs, including ones for the HIV positive, have been modeled after Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, founded by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. The innovation here is partnership: To get a loan, a person with HIV must find an uninfected partner. Instead of being a burden, people with HIV now bring money into the community.
Narisara found a neighbor, Pojana Soengern, whose niece had died of AIDS. "People see from our example that someone like me who does not have HIV can work with someone like Narisara who does, and I am perfectly safe," Pojana, 55, says. "This project has improved my life too."

The program is the work of Thailand's famous AIDS campaigner, Mechai Viravaidya. He earned the nickname "Mr. Condom" when, as a cabinet minister in the 1990s, he was largely responsible for Thailand's HIV-prevention program that the World Bank credits with sparing 7.7 million Thais. In recent years, Mechai says, government efforts have slackened. So in 2004, as head of the nonprofit Population Development Association, he reached out to the private sector. U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (Charts, Fortune 500) has donated $300,000 and employee expertise; it recently pledged $100,000 more. Other funders include Bangkok Bank and Novartis (Charts). "This isn't charity," Mechai says. "The program works because it uses a business approach."

Ironically, the program is gaining recognition just as a battle has erupted between Thailand and Big Pharma over the country's decision to produce generic versions of HIV drugs made by Abbott Laboratories (Charts, Fortune 500). Abbott accuses Thailand of violating its patent and refuses to introduce new medicines there. Thailand claims its actions are legal under a World Trade Organization agreement.
Pfizer, watching from the sidelines, makes few HIV drugs and doesn't market them in Thailand. Its new HIV drug approved in the U.S. in April won't be available in Thailand until 2011 because of a lengthy approval process. By then, Pfizer expects Thailand and Big Pharma will have ironed out their differences.
Meantime, the payoff for Pfizer is goodwill. "Our philosophy is to take a more holistic approach to public health," says Pfizer spokesman Anutra Sinchaipanich. "Improving the lives of people with HIV is part of that."
Breaking down the stigma of HIV has advantages for the industry. Fear of discrimination keeps people from getting tested, so they stay out of the health-care system or seek care too late. Pariah status can cause depression and nonadherence to drug regimens. Resistance builds, creating the need to develop new drugs faster.

From microcredit to microcapitalism
Although Africa remains the continent most severely affected, according to the United Nations, HIV is spreading faster in Asia, primarily China, Indonesia and Vietnam, with one million new infections every year. An effective response would cost just 4 percent of most national health budgets, says Swarup Sarkar, a UN epidemiologist. HIV is most devastating to those on the borderline of poverty. More than five million people are impoverished each year in Thailand, Cambodia, India and Vietnam alone, according to the Asian Development Bank. "HIV pushes people into destitution," Sarkar says.


Positive Partnership pulls them out, having funded more than 600 businesses so far: Kanchana Tunpu, who is almost blind, started cattle breeding in partnership with a cousin; in a nearby village, Supinya Lekyumadan turned to a lifelong friend as a business partner to buy tools and equipment to expand her stone-carving business.
With a repayment rate of 91 percent, the program is drawing attention. The U.S. Agency for International Development and the Population Council have recommended scaling up the project. The UN Development Program recently shepherded fact-finding delegations from China, India, and Cambodia with the goal of starting similar ones.
"Before we had the project, people were just afraid," says Narisara, who appears well and is healthy. Without Positive Partnership, "I would be dead. But now I want to live. Now I can stand on my own feet."

From the May 28, 2007 issue

SPAIN: Power station harnesses Sun's rays

By David Shukman
Science correspondent, BBC News, Seville

There is a scene in one of the Austin Powers films where Dr Evil unleashes a giant "tractor beam" of energy at Earth in order to extract a massive payment.
Well, the memory of it kept me chuckling as I toured the extraordinary scene of the new solar thermal power plant outside Seville in southern Spain. From a distance, as we rounded a bend and first caught sight of it, I couldn't believe the strange structure ahead of me was actually real. A concrete tower - 40 storeys high - stood bathed in intense white light, a totally bizarre image in the depths of the Andalusian countryside. The tower looked like it was being hosed with giant sprays of water or was somehow being squirted with jets of pale gas. I had trouble working it out.
In fact, as we found out when we got closer, the rays of sunlight reflected by a field of 600 huge mirrors are so intense they illuminate the water vapour and dust hanging in the air. The effect is to give the whole place a glow - even an aura - and if you're concerned about climate change that may well be deserved. It is Europe's first commercially operating power station using the Sun's energy this way and at the moment its operator, Solucar, proudly claims that it generates 11 Megawatts (MW) of electricity without emitting a single puff of greenhouse gas. This current figure is enough to power up to 6,000 homes. But ultimately, the entire plant should generate as much power as is used by the 600,000 people of Seville.
It works by focusing the reflected rays on one location, turning water into steam and then blasting it into turbines to generate power. As I climbed out of the car, I could hardly open my eyes - the scene was far too bright. Gradually, though, shielded by sunglasses, I made out the rows of mirrors (each 120 sq m in size) and the focus of their reflected beams - a collection of water pipes at the top of the tower. It was probably the heat that did it, but I found myself making the long journey up to the very top - to the heart of the solar inferno. A lift took me most of the way but cameraman Duncan Stone and I had to climb the last four storeys by ladder. We could soon feel the heat, despite thick insulation around the boiler. It was like being in a sauna and for the last stages the metal rungs of the ladders were scalding.
But our reward was the cool breeze at the top of the tower - and the staggering sight of a blaze of light heading our way from down below. So far, only one field of mirrors is working. But to one side I could see the bulldozers at work clearing a second, larger field - thousands more mirrors will be installed.
Letting off steam
I met one of the gurus of solar thermal power, Michael Geyer, an international director of the energy giant Abengoa, which owns the plant. He is ready with answers to all the tricky questions. What happens when the Sun goes down? Enough heat can be stored in the form of steam to allow generation after dark - only for an hour now but maybe longer in future. Anyway, the solar power is most needed in the heat of summer when air conditioners are working flat out.
Is it true that this power is three times more expensive than power from conventional sources? Yes, but prices will fall, as they have with wind power, as the technologies develop. Also, a more realistic comparison is with the cost of generating power from coal or gas only at times of peak demand - then this solar system seems more attractive. The vision is of the sun-blessed lands of the Mediterranean - even the Sahara desert - being carpeted with systems like this with the power cabled to the drizzlier lands of northern Europe. A dazzling idea in a dazzling location.
HOW THE SOLAR TOWER WORKS
1. The solar tower is 115m (377ft) tall and surrounded by 600 steel reflectors (heliostats). They track the sun and direct its rays to a heat exchanger (receiver) at the top of the tower
2. The receiver converts concentrated solar energy from the heliostats into steam
3. Steam is stored in tanks and used to drive turbines that, eventually, will produce enough electricity for up to 6,000 homes

India pledges to abolish poverty

By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News

India's finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, has pledged to end poverty in India within two generations.
Mr Chidambaram told BBC World Service that if economic growth continued, India could end poverty by 2040. India would play its part in the post-Kyoto negotiations on climate change, he said, though he insisted that "we have a right to grow". Mr Chidambaram also vowed to protect poor farmers from the ravages of free trade in agriculture.
Poverty and growth
Mr Chidambaram, who became finance minister in 2004 after the Congress Party unexpectedly won the general election, has presided over an Indian economy which is currently growing at 9% per year, almost as fast as China.
He told the BBC that his task was "to ensure not only growth but that this growth is inclusive growth" which reaches India's 250m poor people. Mr Chidambaram said that "growth is the best antidote to poverty". "Growth gives incomes to people with jobs, throws up jobs for those who are not employed," he said. "Therefore growth is imperative, but it is not sufficient in a country ... where a significant number live in poverty."
The finance minister said it would take until 2040 to wipe out "abject poverty" but he was confident that if growth continued to be strong, it would happen. "We will not have the abject poverty that afflicts about 25% of India's population. People will have homes, work, food, clothing, and access to education and medical care."
Climate change
With negotiations entering a delicate phase on climate change, the position of India and China - who were not given any pollution targets in the Kyoto round of talks - is being closely watched.
Mr Chidambaram said that the West was being unfair to India by demanding sharp cuts in emissions just as India's economy was taking off. "When the developed world was growing, no one asked them: why are you consuming so much energy, why didn't you slow down?" he said. "The point is, we have the right to grow, just as much as the US and Europe had a right to grow in the 19th and 20th centuries." But he said that India was willing "to take our share of responsibility, provided we have access to clean technologies and clean development mechanisms."
Trade
The finance minister said that India's openness to the forces of globalisation had helped stimulate growth, but that there were winners and losers. "The positive aspects of globalisation will be greater capital flows, more trade, more jobs in the services sector, more exports," he said.
India's IT services sector has become a global leader in outsourcing, and earns $25bn a year which boosts India's foreign exchange reserves. The finance minister said it was a myth that India's advantage was its cheap labour. "The point is, India's labour is skilled, and today we are a major hub of manufacturing," he said. "We even export Mercedes Benz cars made in India back to Germany."
But Mr Chidambaram accepted that there were also potential losers, especially in the agricultural sector, which still employs the majority of the workforce. "The negative aspects which we are guarding against are the impact on agriculture," he said. "Agriculture in India today is a livelihood issue, which is why, when we go to the WTO, we do not look at agriculture simply as a trading issue, we have to protect the livelihood of millions of people," he added.
And the finance minister said India would stand firm. "If the developed countries continue to subsidise agriculture and then seek access to India's market, it will of course immiserise our farming population, and we will never let that happen." His remarks on this score will not be seen as helpful for the resumption of world trade talks, which have been stalled since the summer over the issue of agricultural subsidies.
Infrastructure woes
Some economists worry that India will not be able to sustain its high rate of economic growth unless it can dramatically improve its ageing infrastructure. But Mr Chidambaram said that foreign investment could help overcome the infrastructure gap, provided that India "continues to observe fiscal prudence... ensures that there is an enabling environment for investors, both foreign and domestic... and ensure that these investments are made widely and managed wisely."
And the markets seem to agree with him. India's international credit rating was recently upgraded by credit agencies, and foreign investment has been surging into the country - although India is still a long way behind China on that score.
Mr Chidambaram was interviewed by Mike Williams for "The Interview", broadcast on BBC World Service on 3/4 February.

In Loving Memory of Lester Harold Young, 1921-2004

Male Breast Cancer
Breast cancer in men is a rare disease. Less than 1% of all breast cancers occur in men. In 2005, when 211,400 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States, 1,690 men were diagnosed with the disease.

You may be thinking: Men don't have breasts, so how can they get breast cancer? The truth is that boys and girls, men and women all have breast tissue. The various hormones in girls and women's bodies stimulate the breast tissue to grow into full breasts. Boys' and men's bodies normally don't make much of the breast-stimulating hormones. As a result, their breast tissue usually stays flat and small. Still, you may have seen boys and men with medium-sized or big breasts. Usually these breasts are just mounds of fat. But sometimes men can develop real breast gland tissue because they take certain medicines or have abnormal hormone levels.

Because breast cancer in men is rare, few cases are available to study. Most studies of men with breast cancer are very small. But when a number of these small studies are grouped together, we can learn more from them.

I miss my Dad every moment of every day.

The Dinka of Southern Sudan

Dusty sums

Now that 21 years of war in South Sudan is over, the government is starting to provide social services, such as education.
This school, the first of its kind in its region, is a private school and now has more than 100 pupils. But getting basic supplies in a region with very few roads is a huge challenge.

The children practise their maths in the dirt because they do not yet have access to paper and pencils.



Traditional banks

For countless generations, cattle have played a central role in the life of many African peoples, such as the Dinka of South Sudan, Micah Albert writes.
In the absence of banks, cattle are used as a store of wealth.

Some Dinkas will be rich in cattle terms - with hundreds of animals - and yet they will go hungry and wear rags.

Cattle camps are where Dinka culture is passed down to the next generation.

Green Children

Milla Sunde and Tom Bevan established The Green Children Foundation to support microcredit, education and healthcare. Last year, The Green Children shot a music video in Bangladesh to celebrate the work of Professor Muhammad Yunus, the father of microcredit and founder of The Grameen Bank.


The Norwegian 'Hear Me Now' campaign has been a great success, raising $314,000 so far.

Healthcare.
The Green Children have committed to support the building of a new hospital in Bangladesh. This hospital will perform thousands of cataracts operations for people who would otherwise go blind from a very preventable disease. Dr. Yunus initiated this program with Grameen to save the sight of many of his countrymen and women.
Click here to find out more.

Microcredit and Education.
We firmly believe that given a chance, people have the ability to lift themselves out of poverty. We have seen that as people prosper, family sizes are reduced, children are educated, and greater care is taken for the environment.

Microcredit has been incredibly successful, but more people need access to it. Only 10% of the world's demand is currently met. We plan to do our part to extend the reach of micro-finance so that the many who need it are not left with empty hands.

My Note: Here is another example of people in action. This time it includes music.

http://www.thegreenchildren.org

India's rise as a manufacturing giant

By Alam Srinivas
Business editor, Outlook magazine

India Inc is on a roll after a series of recent global mega-mergers and hostile takeovers in the recent past.
Earlier this week, KM Birla's Hindalco acquired the world's largest producer of rolled aluminium products, Novelis, for $6bn. Before that, LN Mittal - who is based in London but holds an Indian passport - took over the world's largest steel-maker, Arcelor, and Ratan Tata gobbled up another steel manufacturer, Corus, to become the fifth largest producer.
The deals herald the emergence on the world stage of global Indian entrepreneurs in manufacturing, and indicate that India is becoming an international hub for metals, petro-products and auto components.
Global leaders
The rise of the manufacturing giants follows that of services firms, like TCS, Wipro and Infosys, who have all left their mark globally. Now ambitious Indian conglomerates are thinking of either crashing into the Fortune 500 list, or vastly improving their existing position.
The country's second largest private firm, the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries, aims to be among the top 10 in the list. With Novelis in the bag, Kumar Birla's Hindalco Industries is sure to enter the list, three years ahead of its target year. Others like Videocon, Moser Baer and Bharat Forge have emerged as global leaders in their respective sectors.
A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report last May argued that "a revolution in global business is under way", and the axis of corporate power was shifting towards the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. It identified 100 new global challengers from these nations, which included 21 Indian firms, including Bharat Forge, Hindalco, Videocon and Tata Steel.


Last year, a McKinsey study found the dynamics in emerging markets like India "actually provide an invaluable springboard" for their companies to go global. A 2006 study by Mape, an investment bank, concluded "the Indian Multinational Company (MNC) has finally come of age" and "Indian buyers have become a force to reckon with in many industries such as pharma, auto components and oil and gas".
Factors such as liberal policies, access to cash, and the rise of entrepreneurial ambitions are responsible for the emergence of global Indian groups. At a public meeting a few weeks ago, India's Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, commented that Tata Steel's multi-billion dollar interest in Corus reflected the rising aggression among Indian promoters.
Ratan Tata, who was present, countered that this would not have been possible five years ago because of restrictive policies. Even as Indians shop abroad, foreigners are eyeing investment potential in India.


Operational incentives
But unlike the 1990s, when global MNCs wished to tap only the burgeoning base of Indian middle-class consumers, they are now planning to take advantage of low costs and widely available natural resources to make India their exports hub.
In steel, Arcelor-Mittal and South Korea's Posco wish to set up a plant producing 10 million tonnes of steel every year in the east of India - for both domestic sales and exports. A similar trend can be witnessed in other sectors like auto components.
As India plans to build dozens of special economic zones, with a slew of financial and operational incentives, it will attract more foreign investors. A recent DSP Merrill Lynch study pointed out that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to India this fiscal year (2006-07) are likely to overtake Foreign Institutional Investors' investments (FII) on Indian bourses.
Between April and November 2006, India's FDI inflows stood at $7.3bn, a 117% rise over the same period in the previous year. With foreign money pouring in, Indian firms have no option but to become bigger, better and bolder.
Buy the world
They have to go global and capture new geographical markets. If the proposed Mittal or Posco plant had come up in India prior to the Tata-Corus deal, Tata Steel would have become a puny player even in the domestic market.

Now, with an additional annual production capacity of 19 million tonnes, Tata Steel can effectively compete with either of them, both globally and domestically. Other Indian groups like Birla and Dhoot (of Videocon) have realised they have to initiate similar acquisition moves in a bid to survive - and thrive.
Grant Thornton has estimated that while Indian outbound deals, or global mergers and acquisitions, were valued at $4.3bn in 2005, they crossed the $15bn mark in 2006. In the first month of this year, the two combined deals (Tata-Corus and Birla-Novelis) have been valued at over $18bn.
Indians, it seems, are taking over - or buying out - the world.

Amputee Cup

The first All-African Amputee Football Tournament is taking place in Sierra Leone.
Many players lost their limbs as a result of atrocities during wars, gun-shot wounds or land-mines. Sierra Leone are the experienced favourites, but Ghana and Liberia have been training hard and could cause an upset. The winners go throught to the world cup, later this year.
Coach


Coach Kemoh Sheriff lived with amputee footballers in a displaced persons' camp after the war.
"One day I went to the beach and saw them training without a coach. They all know me and asked me to train them." Having picked up some coaching tips from trips to England, he drills them mercilessly at practice sessions. Rumours that the Nigerian team have received some tips from Nigerian stars have made him work them harder. "We need victory. I know we will win."


Dream
Jim Frere has a dream to fill the national stadium with football fans for the final on Valentine's Day. An ex-UK police officer. He helped secure Fifa funding for the event. "The dream is now a reality. Look at what it means to people here: all they need is a pair of sticks and a ball. They have fitness, strength and skill: these are athletes. It stops them being second-class citizens."

California's model rehab centre

BBC News, California


It has been called the most successful rehabilitation programme in the world.
The Delancey Street Foundation in San Francisco puts hardened criminals - including thieves and murderers - in charge of their own recovery and it doesn't take a penny in grant money from the United States government.
Instead the residents support themselves - and each other - by running a string of businesses including a gourmet restaurant. It is a 500-strong family, and - much like a normal family - the punishment for those who step out of line is washing the dishes.

Nestling in the shadow of San Francisco's Bay Bridge the Delancey Street Foundation looks more like an upscale Mediterranean resort than a commune for ex-cons. Inside the place is immaculate.
The first stop on our tour: a gourmet waterfront restaurant run by the residents and open to the public for lunch and dinner.
The place serves around 500 people a day, most of whom have no idea the man or woman serving them is a former car thief or a cat burglar.

It takes four years to graduate from the Delancey Street foundation

Living together
As we moved on to tour the coffee shop, car service and bookstore James told me residents live and work together, pool their income and take responsibility for each other's welfare.
Funding for Delancey Street comes from profits generated by the businesses and donations. There is no cost to the residents, the community or the government.
In the canteen and the common room gang members rubbed shoulders with hit men, Mafiosi chewed the cud with con men, and white-collar criminals shot the breeze with white supremacists.
There was no hint of tension; the residents all seemed far too busy for that, either acquiring an education or learning new job skills.
Then it was back to the restaurant for high tea with Mimi Silbert (criminal psychologist), the founder of Delancey Street, and the only person in the place who is not a former criminal.
Glowing with pride
She founded Delancey Street in 1971 with four residents and $1000 (£507) loan and has since turned a decrepit warehouse into a lavish residential and retail centre, a place which has seen more than 14,000 multiple offenders transformed into law-abiding citizens.

Mimi Silbert founded Delancey Street in 1971

Mimi says Delancey Street does not accept former sex offenders or psychiatric patients, simply because they require special care. With such care she believed the concept could work for them too.

My Note: This is an edited version of a report on BBC. This is an excellent project and I encourage you to use this as a tool to change the thinking on rehabilitation. It needs to be a lot less punitive.

Hope and reconciliation in liberia

Since the end of Liberia’s 14-year civil war, some 100,000 ex-fighters have been demobilised. Here, Emmanuel Toe (r) and Srafa Dugba (l), both 26, explain how they have ended up working together as apprentice car mechanics.
Emmanuel was forced to fight with the pro-government Wild Geese militia, while Srafa was captured by and fought for the Lurd rebels.

Emmanuel: Even though we fought on opposite sides, I took him to be my brother when I met him. Now we joke and eat together.

Srafa: After the war in 2003, I wanted to learn a trade. Twenty-four of us were sent to this Monrovia garage by the YMCA a year ago, as part of the disarmament programme.
We used to get $30 a month but that has stopped. We were also supposed to get tools but they never arrived. Most of the others have left but I really want to learn something useful.

Sometimes my boss or one of our customers gives me a few dollars but I don’t get a salary. One day I’d like my own business.

Emmanuel: Some of my former comrades lost their arms or legs in the war.
Others are deaf or blind from using heavy weapons.


They are the ones who beg for money on the streets of Monrovia.

Others did not want to go back to school or learn a trade but quite a few are like me. Some are learning to be tailors or electricians or they are selling goods in the market. Some are even in school, doing exams.

Emmanuel: This is our last chance for peace from the UN.
If I saw my ex-commander now I would speak to him. He is living in exile, but this is no longer the time for grudges.

Srafa: I have seen my former commander. After the initial beatings, I was not treated badly, so I’m not angry. He was very pleased to see that I was making something of my life.

In the end, our future is in our own hands – and that of all Liberians.


Photos and interviews by Joseph Winter

Reversal of fortunes

Tata Chairman Ratan Tata
Wed 31 Jan 2007

Indian steel giant wins battle for Corus
THE battle for steel firm Corus has been won by Indian company Tata Steel.

Tata, one of India's oldest companies, has bought out the Anglo-Dutch firm in a deal worth £6.7 billion following a bitter bidding war with Brazilian rival CSN.

The deal will create the world's fifth largest steel group, capable of producing about 24 million tonnes of steel a year.

Mumbai-based Tata offered 608 pence a share for Corus, valuing the company at around £5.57bn, although a spokesman for Tata said the total deal was worth £6.7bn.

The two-way battle for what was once British Steel began in October when Tata tabled a £4.1bn bid. In December, the Corus board recommended Tata's revised £4.7bn offer. But, just hours later the board confirmed it had approved a 515p a share, or £4.9bn, offer from CSN.

Both firms have had their takeover offers approved by the European Commission on the grounds that a tie-up between Corus and either company would not hamper competition in the European Economic Area.

JJ Irani, a director on the board of Tata Steel, said the acquisition of Corus will help improve Tata's negotiating power in the global steel market. He added: "From a small player, we will now become a big player."

Corus employs 47,300 people worldwide, including 24,000 in the UK at plants at Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Rotherham.



Profile of Tata Steel
Established in 1907, Tata Steel is Asia's first and India's largest private sector steel company. Tata Steel is among the lowest cost producers of steel in the world and one of the few select steel companies in the world that is EVA+ (Economic Value Added).

Its captive raw material resources and the state-of-the-art 5 MTPA (million tonne per annum) plant at Jamshedpur, in Jharkhand State, India give it a competitive edge. Determined to be a major global steel player, Tata Steel has recently included in its fold NatSteel, Asia (2 MTPA) and Millennium Steel (1.7 MTPA) creating a manufacturing network in eight markets in South East Asia and Pacific rim countries. Soon the Jamshedpur plant will expand its capacity from 5 MTPA to 7 MTPA by 2008. The Company plans to enhance its capacity, manifold through organic growth and investments. The Company's wire manufacturing unit in Sri Lanka is known as Lanka Special Steel, while the joint venture in Thailand for limestone mining is known as Sila Eastern.

Tata Steel's products are targeted at the quality conscious auto sector and the burgeoning construction industry. With wire manufacturing facilities in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, the Company plans to emerge as a major global player in the wire business.

My Note: I guess it is true. The sun has set on the British Empire. While there have been many signs, the purchase of Corus (formerly British Steel), must be the final nail. The West has long pushed for India to open up and success has now resulted in some interesting developments. It also signifies the rise of the indutrial power of countries long cast as primitive. India and Brazil (the sleeping giant) and leading the way for other democratic countires (China is not a democracy). There are others including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Venezuala, Argentina and Mexico that have the potential to follow. I am hopeful that the visionary leadership necessary for true development will continue to develop.

Africa's Inland Deltas

Inner Niger Delta

For four months each year during the rainy season, floodwaters spill over the banks of the Niger and Bani Rivers and the Inner Niger Delta swells to an area of about 20,000 km2. The swamps, lakes, and channels of the delta provide vital habitat for migratory Palearctic birds and West African manatees. The delta is also an essential resource for Malians, supporting livelihoods in fishing, farming, and pastoralism in an otherwise arid country. These floodplains support the highest livestock density in Africa, and are increasingly threatened by a variety of anthropogenic pressures and unsustainable uses.



The Inner Niger Delta is located in central Mali in the semi-arid Sahelian zone, just south of the Sahara Desert. The huge dunes of the Erg Ouagadou funnel the waters of the inner delta north and east through Mali. A diverse mix of channels, swamps, and lakes, the delta expands to cover 20,000 km2 during the rainy season and contracts to 3,900 km2 during the dry season (Welcomme 1986). The delta extends for 425 km with an average width of 87 km, tapering into a braided river near Timbouctou where the Niger River curves to the east. The floodplain is remarkably level, dropping only 8 m over its course (Hughes and Hughes 1992). Delta topography is a complex mix of submerged lower areas and higher, unflooded areas known as tougérés. The floodplain consists of a vast network of river channels with leveés separated by low, clay-based floodplains. As waters flow through the delta, they pass over Pleistocene and recent alluvium overlying Paleozoic sandstone (Hughes and Hughes 1992).

The floodwaters of the delta come primarily from the Niger River, its main tributary the Bani River, and smaller streams that flow down from the Dogonland Plateau. The Niger River is the longest river in West Africa and the third longest in Africa. Originating in the Fouta Djalon highlands of Guinea, the river extends for 4,100 km before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean on the Nigerian Coast. The Bani River is 1,100 km in length with sources in Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Dogonland streams provide an insignificant contribution to the delta but do fill the southwestern lakes (Hughes and Hughes 1992). Dry, landlocked Mali is completely dependent on these rivers for its water resources (FAO 1997).


The Okavango Delta (or Okavango Swamp), in Botswana, is the world's largest inland delta.

“ "Where all this water goes is a mystery", Aurel Schultz, 1897 ”

The area was once part of Lake Makgadikgadi, an ancient lake that dried up some 10,000 years ago. Today, the Okavango River has no outlet to the sea. Instead, it empties onto the sands of the Kalahari Desert, irrigating 15,000 km² of the desert. Each year some 11 cubic kilometres of water reach the delta. Some of this water reaches further south to create Lake Ngami.

The water entering the delta is unusually pure, due to the lack of agriculture and industry along the Okavango River. It passes through the sand aquifers of the numerous delta islands and evaporates/transpirates by leaving enormous quantities of salt behind. This precipitation processes are so strong that the vegetation disappears in the center of the islands and thick salt crusts are formed.

The waters of the Okavango Delta are subject to seasonal flooding, which begins about mid-summer in the north and six months later in the south (May/June). The water from the delta is evaporated relatively rapidly by the high temperatures, resulting in a cycle of cresting and dropping water in the south. Islands can disappear completely during the peak flood, then reappear at the end of the season.


Elephants in the Okavango Delta seen from the dubious safety of a makoro (small boat).

The Okavango Delta has been under the political control of the Batawana (a Tswana sub-tribe) for several hundred years. Most Batawana, however, have traditionally lived on the edges of the Delta. Small numbers of people from other ethnic groups such as Ovaherero and Ovambanderu now live in parts of the Okavango Delta, but since the majority of the members of those groups live elsewhere and the habitation is recent they are not considered as part of the Okavango Delta peoples. There are also several Bushmen groups represented by a handful of people. These groups were decimated by diseases of contact in the middle part of the 20th century, and most of the remaining members have intermarried with the ||anikwhe.



My Note: I am totally amazed by the reality of an inland delta. In school, I was taught that all rivers flowed to the sea. I only recently learned about rivers that flow into desert areas with life giving waters. Please take the time to find Mali and Botwswana on the map of Africa.

Thailand allows copycat AIDS, heart disease drugs

An HIV positive mother with her uninfected daughter

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:26 AM ET
By Pongpiphat Banchanont (Reuters)

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's army-appointed government confirmed on Monday it approved a cheap, copycat version of a blockbuster heart disease drug, the first time a developing country has torn up the international patent for such a treatment.
In addition to the "compulsory license" of Plavix, made by U.S. and European pharmaceutical giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, Bangkok approved a generic version of Abbott Laboratories' Kaletra, an HIV/AIDS treatment. The move, which Thai health officials said would save the country as much as 800 million baht ($24 million) a year, drew flak from the drug industry but praise from AIDS activists.

"We have to do this because we don't have enough money to buy safe and necessary drugs for the people under the government's universal health scheme," Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla told reporters on Monday, confirming newspaper reports that circulated last week.

"The laws have been signed and became effective on Friday," said Mongkol, who incensed drugs companies in November by introducing Thailand's first such license for Merck's Efavirenz anti-retroviral AIDS treatment. Under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, a government is allowed to declare a "national emergency" and license the production or sale of a patented drug without the permission of the foreign patent owner.

Paul Cawthorne, local head of Doctors Without Borders, backed Mongkol's stance, saying the government was spending 11,580 baht ($347) per patient per month for Kaletra and could cut that bill by two thirds if it switched to a generic make. "That's a perfectly legal method for them to ensure access to essential drugs for Thai people," he said.

My Note: Copyright laws play an important role in protecting intellectual property rights and drive private industry to innovate and produce important products for the market. The challenges for most poorer countires is that the price for the item is controlled by external interests and put the interests of there countries at risk. If the issue is weapons technology I could not care in the least but when it come to health and survival issues, I can truly sympathize with the actions of the Thai govenment. HIV/AIDS is a world crisis and it is in the national interest of these countries to provide for their people. I want the drug companies to make a profit for the investestment of time and capitol to produce the drugs but they hold life at ransom creating outrageous profits. Brazil has also been bold in dealing with the drug companies and has been successful in getting reduced prices. I'm optimistic that bold actions such as taken by countires including Thailand, Brazil, and India will bring much needed medications for many ills with in the reach of the poorest and improve world health.

Ghana United

By Kwaku Sakyi-Addo
Free online content from BBC Focus on Africa magazine

As Ghana celebrates 50 years of independence, its secondary boarding schools are the single most cited reason for the country's escape from the ethnic tensions which have brought many African countries to bloody ruin. The system puts children from the country's 70-odd ethnic groups into one pot and stirs them up to melt.

This system became particularly entrenched when Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, introduced a policy of mass education and established dozens more secondary boarding schools throughout the country.

Meanwhile, Nana Oye Lithur, a human rights lawyer, points out that one of the reasons there has not been a major ethnic-based conflict is because of "deliberate constitutional engineering". For example, a political party will not be registered unless all 230 constituencies are represented among its founders, and it must maintain offices in at least two-thirds of all constituencies at all times. It is also illegal to establish a party on ethnic or religious grounds, which, Mr Lithur says, ensures that "every political party is national in character in order to safeguard national integration".

Additionally, all public appointments are required by law to have ethnic and regional balance. That makes it difficult for a president to load public institutions with cousins and nephews from his village. These requirements for nationwide legitimacy have generally been part of Ghana's constitutions ever since the mid-1950s.

In the post-jubilee years, Ghanaians must find creative ways to assuage Mahama's fears, build on their exemplary multi-ethnic harmony, and ensure that children leaving their villages on their maiden long journey do not carry ethno-centric garbage in their baggage.

My Note: The above is edited from the full article found in BBC Focus on Africa. You are encouraged to read entire article.

Burka anyone?

By Harry Young

Recently, an article written by Dinesh D’Souza was published on line in the Christian Science Monitor (Commentary > Opinion from the January 25, 2007 edition). The title of the article, “War on terror's other front: cleaning up US pop culture”, claimed that the problem the US is having with the Muslim world is based on “distorted projections of US policy and culture across the globe”.

His solution to counteracting the “distorted projections” is as follows:

“In the United Nations, for example, America should work with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others to block the efforts of leftist groups around the world who promote radical feminism, homosexuality, prostitution, and pornography as "rights" under international law. Instead, the US should align itself with social decency and traditional family values.”

This approach, he suggested, would assure the Muslim world that we on their side and not a threat to them in any way. With respect, his position is froth with “distorted projections’ itself and in no way represents reality.

First, the US foreign policy does not promote a “liberal agenda” by any means. On the contrary, the policy is decisively conservative on any number of issues including drugs, prostitution, homosexuality, abortion, condom use, and pornography. For example, in the fight against HIV/AIDS, funding for prevention efforts is tied an abstinence only messages and rejection of condom use. This lead to Brazil (an overwhelmingly Catholic nation) stating publicly that if funding was constricted it would not accept any.

On those social issues raised, domestically the US is far more conservative then Europe generally. In Holland, marijuana use is legal. In ultra Catholic Spain, same sex unions are recognized. Prostitution is legal in Germany (among others). One issue we are more “liberal” with is the availability of fire arms with the irony being that crimes involving fire arms are pervasive in US, but rare in Europe. If these were truly the issues causing the friction, then Europe would be the “Great Satan”. The difference between Europe and the US is that they do not lead invasions of other nations (sure Prime Minister Tony Blair joined President Bush in this Iraq quagmire and look what that has done for his career, reputation and legacy) under false pretencies. Mr. D’Souza stated,

“A major reason why some Muslims focus their anger on the United States is because it is American culture – not Swedish culture or French culture – that is finding its way into every nook and cranny of Islamic society”.

Maybe that is true because they refrain from disrespecting the leadership, people, culture of others and not invading countries under false pretenses. When was the last time you heard a Sweedish or French leader call another leader "evil"?

Mr. D’Souza referred to “traditional family’ values as if this is a constant or unchanging concept. I challenge him to provide a clear and relevant definition of what this means. Old Testament family values included men having multiple wives. Up until the 1950’s, teen girls (and I mean 13, 14, 15 year olds) routinely married in the US. Today, more than half of US households are lead by women ALONE. Should we marginalize them because they are not married?



The strength of the US is that we are constantly evaluating and redefining our rights and responsibilities. This internal dialogue has many economic, social and cultural benefits and keeps the nation dynamic. This what is admired and should be exported. It lead, for example, to the expansion of voting rights to all white men (not just the landed white male gentry as it was in 1776), then all white women (universal adult suffrage, though restricted to whites only), and then to all people of color (part of the civil rights movement). It has promoted workers rights, minority rights, women rights, animal rights, and redefined the responsibilities of government (at all levels), individuals, cooperation, centers of education, the military, civic organizations, to name a few. Mr. D’Sousa reference to what is “traditional” is a mirage wrapped in a façade. His position (and it had its advocates then) applied in 1776 would have stifled all the advances outlined herein. Just imagine, no Oprah!

I suggest Mr. D’Souza try life in a burka.

Relaxed future

Belize
Belize boasts many attractions for adventurous Americans. It's less than two hours from Miami, has wonderful archeological sites, marvelous forests with spectacular biological diversity and white coral sand beaches. It's also the only primarily English speaking country in Central America.

Belize is culturally diverse, with a native population of Mayan Indians, Creole (African and European), Mestizo (native American and European), Garifuna (African and Caribbean Indian), as well as a substantial population of Mennonite farmers from the Netherlands and Germany. There are also Middle Easterners and South and East Asians.




The biggest draw here is the diving; Belize has the second largest coral reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. There are numerous islands with well equipped dive resorts such as Ambergris Cay with access to the reef and three coral atolls - Glover's Reef, Turneffe Island, and Lighthouse Reef - that also offer gin-clear water, healthy coral formations and a riot of colorful fish to ogle.

Shaping the future

Young Global Leaders

The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a newly formed, unique, multi-stakeholder community of the world’s most extraordinary leaders who are 40 years old or younger and who are ready to dedicate a part of their time and energy to jointly work towards a better future.

Each year we identify 200-300 exceptional individuals, drawn from every region in the world and from a myriad of disciplines and sectors. Together, they form a powerful international community which can dramatically impact the global future.

www.younggloballeaders.org

Respect for knowledge

The walk to find knowledge
By Peter Day
BBC News, India
Although India is experiencing huge economic growth, it is also a place where 700 million people still live in the countryside, a world away from the nation's newly acquired shiny image.
But among this vast rural population lies a wealth of wisdom and expertise that has a value all of its own.
I have just been on a pilgrimage, on foot, across a bit of rural India. Not to get to a shrine, a saint or a temple.
The point of the walk was the villages we encountered on the way, and the traditional skills and knowledge locked up in them.
This is not the first time I have talked about a remarkable professor called Anil Gupta, who teaches at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedebad. It is, by the way, the hardest management school to get into in the whole world.
He is the moving spirit behind something called the Honeybee Network, a now vast repository of often clever rural inventions and village wisdom about plants and animals in danger of being forgotten in the new brand name-driven India. Honeybee celebrates this lore and tries to get financial backing for the best ideas.
And for the past eight years, Professor Gupta has taken to the dusty roads of rural India on what is called, in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, a Shodhyatra... a walk to find knowledge.
The fanfare of India
Twice a year, in searing summer heat or chilly winter, Professor Gupta and 60 or 70 of the inspired, the curious, and veteran rural innovators traipse out to remote places. The walks last about a week, as the pilgrims journey from village to village along rutted ox cart tracks and noisy main roads, honked at by endless motor horns - the fanfare of India.
Being part of the Shodhyatra is an extraordinary experience, a confusion of travelling circus, revivalist meeting and Gandhi brought back to life. At walking pace in a country that lives outdoors, things happen. People who know inventors dash up to the pilgrims. The walkers themselves dive off the path into a field to clip off a twig of an unfamiliar shrub.
Warm welcome
In the middle of the crowd moves Professor Gupta - tall, bearded, dressed in white - has an engaging smile and a compelling interest in everything.
We stop to admire the individual patterns the women create on the walls of the shelters they build to protect the precious store of handmade cow dung patties used for fuel. A few miles further and there is another huddle as the professor launches into an off-the-cuff inquiry into the positive uses of the word "crack", inspired by the parched earth before us.
A farmer diverts the walkers to examine his new discovery, a rogue mustard plant that produces all its seed at once, not frond by frond.
In every village, we are greeted and garlanded, and then there is a meeting under the spreading neem tree in the schoolyard for two or three hours, in which rural knowledge is praised, inventors speak and local heroes are acclaimed.
Then centenarians are rewarded with pashmina scarves to celebrate the wisdom locked up in old age, children are exhorted to listen to their grandparents (and inspired to write down inventions they would like to see), and village drunks pledge to give up drink. One man smashed his full bottle of Mr India spirits in front of the whole gathering.
Thriving communities
Walking with Professor Gupta is rather like being back in the New Testament - first-century disciples on the move with a great guru. Drums greet the Shodhyatra as it enters the village. We eat together from great vats of delicious food whipped up by a family of cooks travelling behind us in a truck.
We all sleep on chilly schoolroom floors or in barns. Sanitation is primitive or non-existent, but no more primitive than the villagers experience every day of their lives.
Most of these knowledge walks are far from cities, although this one was, at times, only 20 miles from the capital, Delhi. Even so, it was bandit country. In one village there had been dozens of vendetta murders - a place the local police stayed away from.
Indian soul
To get to the start, I drove out of Delhi on the first Indian highway built by the British. Along it, there is now a remarkable explosion of new real estate: multi-storey apartment blocks with alluring names, great shopping malls and new hospitals for medical tourists from abroad.
The new India. The gap between the towering developments of this new industrial zone and the villages only a walk away, is of centuries, not miles.
Like Gandhi before him, Professor Gupta thinks that the Indian soul resides in the wisdom of the poor, and he is seeking to make it flame up with new purpose. Much of the new India regards this with sympathetic scorn, the past dragging on the country's global future. The professor is frightened that in the rush to modernise, the wisdom of the poor will be wiped out and lost... and not just in India.
In an extraordinary move this spring, Professor Gupta will be coming to Britain to do the same thing here. He will walk from Liverpool to Manchester - a Lancashire Shodhyatra.
From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 20 January, 2007 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

Class in success

Congratulations go out to the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears for winning their conference championships in route to Super Bowl XLI in Miami on February 4th, 2007. The match up between Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy will make NFL history since it will be the first time a African American Head Coach will win a Super Bowl.

My Note: In the NLF world of overpaid, narcistic, and crass sportmanship (using the term loosely), it is refreashing to witness the success of the these two men. Hopefully, their players and others will take note that good guys do win.

Movement of vision

A friend of mine in DC turned me on to Technology Entertainment Design (TED). It is one of the most exciting projects I have come across and you are strongly encouraged to visit the website.

TED was born in 1984 out of the observation by Richard Saul Wurman of a powerful convergence between Technology, Entertainment and Design. The first TED included the public unveiling of the Macintosh computer and the Sony compact disc, while mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines with his newly discovered fractals and AI guru Marvin Minsky outlined his powerful new model of the mind. Several influential members of the burgeoning 'digerati' community were also there, including Nicholas Negroponte and Stewart Brand.

But despite the stellar line-up, the event lost money, and it was six years before Wurman and his partner Harry Marks tried again. This time the numbers worked. TED has been held regularly in Monterey, California, ever since, attracting a growing and influential audience from many different disciplines united by their curiosity, open-mindedness, a desire to think outside the box... and by the sense of community arising from their shared discovery of an exciting secret. (TED has never had an advertising budget or a PR campaign.)

Meanwhile the roster of speakers broadened to include scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, environmentalists and many others. Those who have spoken at TED include Bill Gates, Frank Gehry, Jane Goodall, Billy Graham, Herbie Hancock, Murray Gell-Mann, Larry Ellison. Yet often the real stars have been the unexpected: Li Lu, a key organizer of the Tiananmen Square student protest, Aimee Mullins, a Paralympics competitor who tried out a new pair of artificial legs on-stage, or Nathan Myrrhvold speaking not about Microsoft platforms, but about dinosaur sex.

For many of the audience TED had become one of their intellectual and emotional highlights of the year. That was certainly true for media entrepreneur Chris Anderson who met with Wurman in February 2000 to discuss the conference's future. Wurman, at age 65, was ready to pass on the reins, and agreed to sell. The agreement provided for a transition period during which Wurman would continue to run the conference through TED 12 in February 2002.

TED is therefore now owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private non-profit foundation funded by Anderson in 1996. He will be personally managing the conference, and has pledged to stand by the principles that have made TED great: the same inspired format, the same breadth of content, the same commitment to seek out the most interesting people on earth and let them communicate what they are passionate about, untainted by corporate influence.

The story continues...

www.ted.com

The time is now to negotiate the future

Responding to China's antisatellite test
The US should carefully weigh its options, taking a mix of military and diplomatic steps.
By Bruce W. MacDonald and Charles D. Ferguson
WASHINGTON - China's provocative test of an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon last week shines a spotlight on the long- overlooked national security issue of space weapons. Given the substantial US dependence on civilian and military satellites, the successful test's implications are troubling for US security – and relations with China. Before taking any hasty action, it would be prudent for the United States to think hard about how to react to this worrisome Chinese move.
For years, Beijing has called for banning space weapons, but the test flies in the face of this rhetoric. Washington and other governments are right to decry the test. However, it may reflect the logic the US used in the early 1980s when it deployed medium-range missiles in Europe to encourage the Soviet Union to negotiate limits on these weapons.
Ironically, had the US conducted this test, it would have been entirely consistent with its newly revised policy that places greater emphasis on offensive space capabilities. For several years, the Bush administration has signaled its interest in attaining antisatellite capabilities and has openly rejected any interest in legal agreements that could restrict countries from acquiring these capabilities. While China, Russia, and the US have demonstrated these capabilities, any country with a ballistic missile program could develop an antisatellite weapon.
"There is no arms race in space and we see no signs of one emerging," said Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph last month. That remark is now probably moot, but America should pause before reacting with a demonstration of its own. Negotiating restrictions on space weapons may be a better path forward.
China's test wasn't exactly a surprise. In Beijing last November, Chinese security experts told one of us that China was worried about US space policy and Washington's apparent unwillingness to consider mutual restrictions on offensive space weapons. They warned that China would respond with countermeasures if the US continued to refuse negotiations on these weapons. At the very least, the US should consider a global ban on precisely the kind of weapon that China has demonstrated. Apart from this technology's military significance, weapons like these produce huge amounts of orbital debris that can damage all satellites and remain in orbit for many years – a dangerous legacy for all spacefaring nations.
The US could maintain many offensive options for space, if desirable, and still seek to ban weapons that create debris, just as the US and former Soviet Union agreed to ban atmospheric nuclear tests for environmental reasons in 1963 while still maintaining their ability to test nuclear weapons. The US response to China should take a mix of military and diplomatic steps:
• Make it clear to China that its ASAT test has damaged US-China relations and that more tests will have important economic and other consequences.
• Accelerate programs to protect its satellites against ASAT weapons of all kinds, including lasers.
• Perform a thorough assessment of possible threats to its space assets, and the best options, military and diplomatic, for countering them.
• Reexamine its unwillingness to discuss limits on space weaponry. Washington loses nothing by talking, and it hardly serves its interests for a technologically advancing China to attain an antisatellite arsenal.
• Recognize that a space-arms competition could have unwanted consequences.
America stands at a critical space-weapons threshold. Whatever steps it takes, it should carefully weigh its options, mindful that once the US and China cross this space Rubicon, they may never be able to cross back.

Bruce W. MacDonald was assistant director for national security in the Science Adviser's office in the Clinton White House. Charles D. Ferguson is a fellow for science and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations.

My note: It is ironic that the US is so concerned with this technological development by China when the US had this capability twenty (20) years ago. Why do we think we should have a monopoly on anything? I'm against the weaponization of space by ANY country. It is like nuclear weapons. How do we justify prohibiting any other country from having them when we do and are willing to allow our current allies to have them (including Isreal. It is plain hypocracy in both cases. My hope is based on the fact that we are able to negotiate treaties to limit or ban many dangers during forty years of the cold war. If we can survive Bush who has snubbed and disregarded almost every treaty, we may get a president who is willing to truly lead us to peace. In a dangerous world, a policy of perpetual war for perpetual peace (Bush doctrine) will lead us down the path of distruction. I believe that citizens (in every country) have the right to select their leaders and hold them accountable. Let's make a pledge to ourselves to do just that as the 2008 elections speed into our now.

Nation of Hope

Mother of a nation: Liberia's president
By Ruthie Ackerman | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

MONROVIA, LIBERIA – At the First United Methodist Church in downtown Monrovia, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf sits in the front row for the Sunday morning service, wearing a golden robe and headdress befitting a queen.
Hours later, she wears white sneakers and a baseball cap as she dribbles a soccer ball across a soccer stadium, showing off some of the moves she learned as an 8-year-old girl on an all-boy soccer team.


'ARE YOU IN SCHOOL?' Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf talks to a group of children outside a church in Monrovia, Liberia, to see if they're going to school. In 2005, she became the first woman elected to lead an African nation.

With so many challenges in Liberia - an 85 percent unemployment rate, a 70 percent illiteracy rate, and a lack of running water, electricity, and sewage systems - it is difficult to know where Johnson-Sirleaf should begin. In her inaugural address on Jan. 16, 2006, she said her plan was to achieve quick and visible progress. Now, after almost one year in office, she says that slowly but surely she is seeing change come to this West African country of 3 million.

"I still wish we could accelerate the pace, but it's happening," Johnson-Sirleaf said in a recent interview at her house in Monrovia. "Changing to the art of positivism, getting [Liberians] to think that: 'Yes, after all, we can do it, the country belongs to us, and each and every one of us can do our part; we can play our role.' That's what we're working on."

But Johnson-Sirleaf's election in the first place is a sign of changing attitudes. Clearly, without the votes of men as well as women, Johnson-Sirleaf would not be president today.

Yet, how can she realistically restore her nation with an $80 million annual budget and a $3.7 billion debt?

Answer: Slowly.

At the end of her first year in office, she says she is surprised by the enthusiasm of the children. "Everywhere I stop the children are smiling and I say 'Hey, that's it, that was the No. 1.' "

My Note: Due to the length of this article, the above is an edited version. The complete article is informative and encouraging. It demonstates what real leadership can do for a desperate people after 14 years of civil war. It is a testament to the resiliance of African peoples. I recommend highly that you access the complete article on the Christian Science Monitor web page from the link here.

World Future

For the first time in human history, more people will live in urban rather than rural areas. Note that the mega cities will be all over the world and the largest growth between 2005 and 2015 is taking place in the following cities:
Mumbai, India
Delhi, India
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Jakarta, Indonecia
Lagos, Nigeria
Karachi, Patistan
What do you think the effect of this change?

Working for Peace

Move to boost Uganda peace talks
By Sarah Grainger
BBC News, Kampala

The newly appointed United Nations envoy for Uganda makes his first visit hoping to bring fresh impetus to the government's peace talks with rebels.
Ex-Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano was appointed last month to help resolve the 20-year conflict.


Joaquim Chissano is visiting Uganda to help bolster peace talks

Talks between the government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels began in July 2006, but progress has been slow.

He is due to meet President Museveni on Friday before travelling to southern Sudan for the resumption of the talks.

There he is expected to meet the LRA delegation.

The negotiations, mediated by the southern Sudan government, were suspended over the Christmas and New Year season and are due to resume in Juba on Monday.

Last month, President Museveni held his first direct talks with a member of the LRA when he spoke by satellite phone with the second in command, Vincent Otti.

War crimes

A cessation of hostilities agreement, signed by both sides, was also extended in December for a second time, until 28 February.


The LRA rebels have until then to assemble at two designated points in southern Sudan.

But these seemingly positive steps do not alter the fact that after almost six months, the delegates at the peace talks have still only reached item number two.

And one serious sticking point has yet to be discussed - the issue of reconciliation and accountability.

LRA leader Joseph Kony and three of his top commanders are wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court and have indicated that no deal can be signed while warrants for their arrest remain in place.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6251687.stm

Published: 2007/01/11 13:28:22 GMT

My Note: It is truly great to see an African statesman taking part in solving a problem in Africa. These are the efforts that we should be support both diplomatically and financially. Africa is only a lost cause if we let it be and sit back. There is so many more positive things happening that we don't know about and so much that need out support.

Innovative approach to microloans

KIVA

Kiva is the first microlending Web site designed to provide individuals with the ability to connect with and make personal loans to small businesses in developing countries. Founded in 2004 by Matthew and Jessica Flannery, Kiva's goal is to reduce poverty in developing countries by giving entrepreneurs the ability to build their businesses through flexible loans with six-to 12-month terms. Kiva allows individuals to act as a "micro VC" by loaning directly to entrepreneurs with feasible business plans. Kiva is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. For more information about Kiva, please visit www.kiva.org.


"I want to thank my donors who made it possible for me to see great success in my business"
- Elizabeth Omalla
Fish Monger, Uganda


My Note: This is a site worth visiting. If you decide to particpate, please read all conditions very carefully and invest responsibly.

Welcome

As we look at the world today, we seek new ways to understand and define the future. Is it realism, idealism, materialism, consumerism, or some other "ism"? While I do not have a pat answer, I suggest that the fundamental "ism" need is OPTIMISM. This point was driven home to me when I listened to the 2006 Noble Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus. He stated that if you accept that proverty will always exist then it will as the structures/systems we create will ensure it. If we start with the premise that proverty need not exist then, and only then, will we create the environment to eliminate it.


Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus

With this in mind, the goal of The Avnon World Series is to bring together reports of happenings in the world that illustrate and inspire a brighter future. The Series has been alive for one week and as I search for inspiring people, projects, actions, and pictures, I am confident that we all have the skill, knoweldge and courage to make a difference. While I hope you will enjoy these offerings and encourage you to respond with thoughts, suggestions and comments, it would be even more rewarding if you are moved to action in your own way.

Peace

Visions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My Note: Much has been said and written about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during and since his murder (yes, I mean murder. Assacination sounds almost too weak). It is hard to imagine what the world would be had he not only lived but lived the life he did with the support of so many others in the struggle for justice and peace. The focus of much of what is said today is only on his civil rights work and very little on his absolute opposition to the Vietnam War and his vision for peace. This is especially pertinent as we face perpetual war (for perpetual peace, they say) in Iraq. With blood on those in the rafters, let the base take strength in his example of the fight for peace. This is the question I ask myself: Are we better than war? Dr. King, Ghandi and my others prove that we can be if we are truly commited to peace. From that I find the strength to be optimistic.

I chose the article below because the expectations of these children who came long after him Dr. King reflect a broad and true vision of what he means. We can learn much from their words and maybe find a role in fulfilling the dream of justice and peace.

What if Martin were alive today.....

Three years ago a group of second grade students created a timeline of the events in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Three years and 300,000 visitors later they revisited their work. These students, now 5th graders, spend some time laughing and reminiscing before the conversation turned serious. What would have happened if Dr. King had not been assassinated? What would he be doing today? Here are a few excerpts from that conversation. 1/19/02

If Dr. King were still alive he would be a minister trying to stop violence, maybe he would be on a talk show trying to help children get along and work together. Also he would try to stop all these bad gangs and all these bad killings. by Paul

If he was still alive he would probably be president and everyone would like him and vote for him. by Joey

I think he would be involved in politics today and be a very famous person. He would also still be involved in civil rights. by David B.

I think that if Martin Luther King, Jr. was not assassinated he would be very famous and live in a world of peace, happiness, and he would see the day when races get along with each other. by Jamie

I think Martin Luther King would be a famous person and would be on the Today Show with Al Roker. Maybe he would have his own shoes like Michael Jordan and Coby Bryant. He might have his own talk show like Regis Philbin. by Christian

In my opinion, I think that if Martin Luther King wasn't assassinated he would live to see how all people of all different colors live together without segregation or hatred. And maybe the people who tried to kill him would learn to like him. by Natasha

If Martin Luther King, Jr. was alive today he would be very involved in politics. He would also be very involved in the attacks of 9/11/01. He would be working to donate money to the charities. by Vincent

I think that Martin Luther King would be the first African American President of the United States of America. He would be a leader in in other things like women's rights and he would be successful. by Abigail

I think that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have eliminated segregation completely and dome something to make whites respect blacks. For instance, maybe he or another black started a successful business that many whites worked at and were paid a good wage. That would have made blacks more respected. Also, maybe he would have run for President and won! As President I think he would have made all rights equal for everyone, including women. by Elizabeth




I think that if Martin Luther King was still alive he might be an ambassador and represent us from another country. by Chaithanya

He would still be making new famous speeches about freedom for blacks and whites. My thought is that it was a good idea for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to earn the rights so blacks and whites can play together because I have good friends that are black. by Stacey

He would not have rested until every child would be playing nicely together, until every grownup understood how tough life is for African Americans. He would still be making speeches while hundreds of people listened. He would make appearances on talk shows and make speeches on national TV. by Arielle

If Dr. King were still alive he would probably still be a minister. He would help kids out that have problems. He might own a company. by Cory

If Dr. Martin Luther King were still alive he would probably be a minister. He might read to kids without parents. Maybe he would run for the senate. by Matthew

If Dr. King was not assassinated, I think he would have made a speech to thank the people of America for fulfilling his dream of freedom in America. He will be 73 now. He would still be a minister in his church and talk about his dream. He would still be very famous. If he never lived, I think the world would not be complete. He might have made a speech about 9/11. He might even be working to end terrorism. by Alice

I think if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was still alive he would be a great man. He would be helping in the fight against terrorism. I also believe he would have more children to help continue his dream for peace. Dr. King was a great man! by Silena

Pocantico Hills School | Martin Luther King Jr. | Black History Month

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