Full Article here: http://www.economist.com/node/16943895 (Reproduced on fair-use grounds) Fake drugs Poison pills Counterfeit drugs used to be a problem for poor countries. Now they threaten the rich world, too Sep 2nd 2010 | NEW YORK DRUG smugglers can expect harsh penalties nearly everywhere—if the drugs in question are heroin or cocaine. Those who smuggle counterfeit medicines, by contrast, have often faced lax enforcement and light punishment. Some governments deem drug-counterfeiting a trivial offence, little more than a common irritant. After all, whose spam filter does not groan with ads for suspiciously cheap “Viagra”? This could be changing, however. The pharmaceutical industry has persuaded several governments to stiffen regulations against fake drugs and to conduct more aggressive raids (see chart). Companies are also devising novel technologies to outfox the criminals. Even the Catholic church is joining the cause, issuing a stern statement in August that it is in “the best interest of all concerned that smuggling of counterfeit drugs be fought against”. The pope’s concern is justified. Counterfeit drugs can kill. Many are shoddily made, containing the wrong dose of the active ingredient. Taking them instead of the real thing can turn a treatable disease into a fatal one. It can also foster drug resistance among germs. This has been a big problem for a long time in developing countries. Studies of anti-infective treatments in Africa and South-East Asia have found that perhaps 15-30% are fakes. The UN estimates that roughly half of the anti-malarial drugs sold in Africa—worth some $438m a year—are counterfeits. Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC, cautions that any such estimates should be treated with care. The countries with the most fakes may not be cracking down, so official figures will look rosy; in contrast, countries with a smaller counterfeit trade that are vigilant may end up with more seizures. The World Health Organisation agrees, and has recently taken its estimates off its website. Even so, Mr Bate says his field work has convinced him that counterfeits kill at least 100,000 people a year, mostly in the poor world. Now it appears that fakes are taking off in the rich world too. Yes, Viagra still tops the list of knock-offs seen by Pfizer, says John Clark, the American drug firm’s global head of security; but fake versions of at least 20 of its products (including Lipitor, a blockbuster cholesterol drug) have been detected in the legitimate supply chains of at least 44 countries. Mr Clark’s intelligence comes from Pfizer’s global network of informants, consumer tip-offs and in-store inspections. He sees worrying trends. Counterfeiters used to operate chiefly in developing countries, says Mr Clark, but now his firm sees fakes coming from such rich and well-regulated places as Canada and Britain. And the crooks are growing more technologically sophisticated: some can even counterfeit the holograms on packets that are meant to reassure customers that pills are genuine. A consumer study funded by Pfizer recently found that nearly a fifth of Europeans polled in 14 countries had obtained medicines through illicit channels. That, the firm reckons, makes for a grey market in the EU of over €10 billion ($12.8 billion). Terry Hisey of Deloitte, a consultancy, thinks the global market for fakes could be worth between $75 billion and $200 billion a year. Those staggering sums, he argues, help explain the emergence of a flurry of new technologies and companies hoping to help the drugs industry “secure its global supply chain”. In July Oracle, an American software giant, unveiled Pedigree, a programme that helps drugs firms “track and trace” pills all the way from the factory to your fingers. IBM has a rival offering, as well as one using radio-frequency identification (RfID) chips, which are embedded in packaging to detect tampering and allow precise tracking. 3M, a materials company, and Abbott Laboratories, an American medical firm, are also rolling out an RfID-based product. A division of Johnson & Johnson, a drugs giant, has developed web-based software to help customs officials quickly verify whether drugs are fake or real. Poor countries find it hard to take advantage of such technologies. Sophisticated radio tags and database software are not much use in places where street hawkers peddle fakes with impunity. Still, even in such difficult circumstances, a combination of political will and business ingenuity can make a difference. Bottom-up battle A Ghanaian start-up firm, mPedigree, has come up with a clever way to use mobile phones in this fight. Participating drugs companies emboss a special code onto packages, which customers find by scratching off a coating. By sending a free text with that code, they can find out instantly if the package is genuine or a fake. Bright Simons, the firm’s boss, argues that technologies like his can be a useful bottom-up complement to top-down enforcement. [Read full story here: http://www.economist.com/node/16943895]

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"Ideas control the world. They are the single most powerful force in our universe, and yet rarely do we openly test, celebrate and develop them in a communal setting. For ideas to impact the world, develop into innovations, ripple through communities and spread between cities, we need to tell their stories and rediscover a child-like state of wonder." Opening of TEDxStellenbosch, 13.08.2010

And so, after countless hours of skyping, sponsor cajoling, speaker prepping, and logistic lesson-learning our intrepid team brought the TEDx energy to a packed auditorium of more than 500 South Africans and visitors from across the world.

It was our goal, especially after the very successful soccer World Cup, to share exciting African concepts and jumpstart the exporting of ideas rather than minerals and skilled workers. Our talks were situated at the intersection between novel ideas and "makers;" and were rooted in Africa but applicable to the world. How could we not, after the World Cup, co-opt the Vuvuzela - global symbol of passion and excitement - to champion ideas and transform a traditional musical hall into a stadium of ideas ;-)

We were fortunate to draw from a rich local talent pool of entrepreneurs, researchers, student musicians, conservationists and leaders. Talks were divided into locally relevant themes: Storytelling, Innovation, Nature, and Community (Ubuntu).

Gustav Praekelt: The CEO and founder of the Praekelt foundation fascinates you with his quest to make Africa healthier through cellular technology. 

TEDxStellenbosch 2010 | With Africa

See more photos here and stay tuned for videos. www.tedxstellenbosch.org

Thank you | Enkosi | Dankie

 

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Reproduced under fair-use rules. For the full article, visit: http://www.tradeinvestnigeria.com/feature_articles/705327.htm Getting your head around Nigeria Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:56 By Bright B. Simons Bright B. Simons is an executive of IMANI-Ghana and inventor of the mPedigree system According to the ancient talebearers of the Yoruba, God the chainsmith himself had borne Oduduwa down to earth. Oduduwa, grand ancestor of all the Yoruba, was given power to separate the land from the sea, and his descendants became Masters of the Horse. By the might of Ogun, manifest in iron, they fashioned out an empire from the kernels of 16 kingdoms and so ruled all the caravan passes to the North. But before they could reach the golden peak of their rise, Fulani from the North came in swarms and scattered the Yoruba across the South-West of what became Nigeria. Indeed, according to the talebearers, Oyo, the glory of the Yoruba, would have disappeared from the face of the earth without remnant had a foreigner, a British adventurer, not come between Oyo and the Fulani. The sons of Oduduwa have not attained the heights of their forebears ever since. When tales such as the preceding are told, of the mythical glorious past of the ethnic communities of Nigeria, the reference is always to the present. There is something altogether mystical about the ethnocentrism of Nigeria. There is on the one hand a deep awareness of how corrosive it has and still is to the developmental aspirations of all the communities, and yet, on the other hand, a passionate rejection of any alternative vision of inter-ethnic intercourse in this vast country of 140 million. Unlike in other parts of Africa, the attitude is not one of resignation and/or frustration. It is one of fatalism - mystical fatalism. I have seen how even the most educated Ibo lad presented with the delightful opportunity of hitting it off with the finest Yoruba damsel would twist and strain and coil his desire into every shape save the one that reflects his true wish to take the leap. I had to give up trying when in order to make a point I needed to find a successful thriving business started by founders who are not all members of the same ethnic group (particularly where the 4 major ethnic groups – Hausa, Yoruba, Fulani and Ibo – are concerned). Such a phenomenon seems to be as rare as a camel in downtown Ikoyi. There is an institutionalisation of ethnic segregation at elite level in Nigeria that goes way deeper than the general characteristics of ethnicity in Africa. To the extent, indeed, that until very recently, a notion of “regional rotation” – merely a euphemism for rationing of political power amongst the four key ethnic groups– was considered sacred in the country’s political economy - automatically disqualifying thus the millions of Nigerians who are not members of any of these four rival ethnic communities. But the intriguing thing about Nigeria to an outsider like this writer, who is still exploring the nuances of this huge and complex amalgamation of a nation, is the slow realisation of there being a more complex structure to the above-mentioned fatalism, of which quasi-institutionalised ethnocentrism is merely a facet. Nigeria, its latent greatness notwithstanding, suffers from a dysfunction in its elite structure that prevents the emergence of a “manifest destiny”. Every critical thing seems postponed. Everywhere you walk you find the litter of aborted reforms. And clarity seems sorely lacking on the national agenda. [Continue here...http://www.tradeinvestnigeria.com/feature_articles/705327.htm]

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[Michelle's Fellows Friday post with some updated information!]

Read more of this interview with Michelle Borkin on the TEDBlog.

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I'll admit, I get slightly more excited about stories like this one that the average person would -- after all, I'm a product designer, and we like stuff, and the stories of stuff.

But surely anyone can see how losing ALL of an element (because it's bubbling off into space) would be a bad thing. Arguably worse than the extinction of an animal species, elements can't be brought back to life through some strange futuristic technique of genetic engineering. And, elements have properties which are often physically unique - boiling point, in the case of helium - which make them irreplaceable in modern technology.

That this is happening because of a regulatory snafu, is even more frustrating.

But the truth is, plenty of elements are peaking in production and availability. Metals like tin and indium are being consumed by newly discovered technological uses, and no unexplored reserves are known.

Will this mean that we won't have tin, indium, phosphorous, helium, or technology in the future? Absolutely not. But prices will be high, and the resulting societal infrastructure built around these materials -- everything from MRI machines, to flat screen TVs -- will be subject to intermittent failures and gaps in functionality. All that adds up to a more brittle, less comfortable future.

Peak Helium at the Independent.

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Read more on the Embrace Blog.  

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This is of interest to the Indian social entrepreneurs in the group. Good luck!

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It might seem weird that my first post on this blog is an article from the NY Times, but what Simon Romero says here is my look on this matter almost word-by-word. Is an everyday reality: a couple of days ago a foreign friend of mine and I were at an event were I illustrated to him the matter of violence in Venezuela by doing a simple exercise: picking anybody present and asking them if he/she had been a victim of crime in the last 10 years. Without a single exception, everybody had been either robbed, kidnapped, shot, stabbed or had a relative or a friend murdered.

Some 10 days ago El Nacional, [ one of Venezuela's largest newspapers ] published a story that said that almost 15.000.000 illegal guns were in the country, to which the government replied saying that it was an exaggeration. But even if the number of illegal guns were half of that we are talking of more than 7.000.000 guns in a 25.000.000 people country. Now you wonder why people is afraid of walking on the streets.

[ you can read the full story, see the photographs of Meridith Kohut and the censored front page of El Nacional here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/americas/23venez.html?_r=1&hp ]

 

Venezuela, More Deadly Than Iraq, Wonders Why

Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

By SIMON ROMERO

Published: August 22, 2010

CARACAS, Venezuela — Some here joke that they might be safer if they lived in Baghdad. The numbers bear them out.

In Iraq, a country with about the same population as Venezuela, there were 4,644 civilian deaths from violence in 2009, according to Iraq Body Count; in Venezuela that year, the number of murders climbed above 16,000.

Even Mexico’s infamous drug war has claimed fewer lives.

Venezuelans have absorbed such grim statistics for years. Those with means have hidden their homes behind walls and hired foreign security experts to advise them on how to avoid kidnappings and killings. And rich and poor alike have resigned themselves to living with a murder rate that the opposition says remains low on the list of the government’s priorities.

Then a front-page photograph in a leading independent newspaper — and the government’s reaction — shocked the nation, and rekindled public debate over violent crime.

The photo in the paper, El Nacional, is unquestionably gory. It shows a dozen homicide victims strewn about the city’s largest morgue, just a sample of an unusually anarchic two-day stretch in this already perilous place.

While many Venezuelans saw the picture as a sober reminder of their vulnerability and a chance to effect change, the government took a different stand.

A court ordered the paper to stop publishing images of violence, as if that would quiet growing questions about why the government — despite proclaiming a revolution that heralds socialist values — has been unable to close the dangerous gap between rich and poor and make the country’s streets safer.

“Forget the hundreds of children who die from stray bullets, or the kids who go through the horror of seeing their parents or older siblings killed before their eyes,” said Teodoro Petkoff, the editor of another newspaper here, mocking the court’s decision in a front-page editorial. “Their problem is the photograph.”

Venezuela is struggling with a decade-long surge in homicides, with about 118,541 since President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a group that compiles figures based on police files. (The government has stopped publicly releasing its own detailed homicide statistics, but has not disputed the group’s numbers, and news reports citing unreleased government figures suggest human rights groups may actually beundercounting murders).

There have been 43,792 homicides in Venezuela since 2007, according to the violence observatory, compared with about 28,000 deaths from drug-related violence in Mexico since that country’s assault on cartels began in late 2006.

Caracas itself is almost unrivaled among large cities in the Americas for its homicide rate, which currently stands at around 200 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to Roberto Briceño-León, the sociologist at the Central University of Venezuela who directs the violence observatory.

That compares with recent measures of 22.7 per 100,000 people in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, and 14 per 100,000 in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. As Mr. Chávez’s government often points out, Venezuela’s crime problem did not emerge overnight, and the concern over murders preceded his rise to power.

But scholars here describe the climb in homicides in the past decade as unprecedented in Venezuelan history; the number of homicides last year was more than three times higher than when Mr. Chávez was elected in 1998.

Reasons for the surge are complex and varied, experts say. While many Latin American economies are growing fast, Venezuela’s has continued to shrink. The gap between rich and poor remains wide, despite spending on anti-poverty programs, fueling resentment. Adding to that, the nation is awash in millions of illegal firearms.

Police salaries remain low, sapping motivation. And in a country with the highest inflation rate in the hemisphere, more than 30 percent a year, some officers have turned to supplementing their incomes with crimes like kidnappings.

But some crime specialists say another factor has to be considered: Mr. Chávez’s government itself. The judicial system has grown increasingly politicized, losing independent judges and aligning itself more closely with Mr. Chávez’s political movement. Many experienced state employees have had to leave public service, or even the country.

More than 90 percent of murders go unsolved, without a single arrest, Mr. Briceño-León said. But cases against Mr. Chavez’s critics — including judges, dissident generals and media executives — are increasingly common.

Henrique Capriles, the governor of Miranda, a state encompassing parts of Caracas, told reporters last week that Mr. Chávez had worsened the homicide problem by cutting money for state and city governments led by political opponents and then removing thousands of guns from their police forces after losing regional elections.

But the government says it is trying to address the problem. It recently created a security force, the Bolivarian National Police, and a new Experimental Security University where police recruits get training from advisers from Cuba and Nicaragua, two allies that have historically maintained murder rates among Latin America’s lowest.

- - -

[ you can read the full story, see the photographs of Meridith Kohut and the censored front page of El Nacional here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/americas/23venez.html?_r=1&hp ]

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On the day my Hull exhibition was to open, a fatal car accident. The roads were closed. No one could cross the bridge to the other side of the city, and the main road in front of the venue, the ARC building, was silent. Sarah and I walked to lunch, into the stillness of an abandoned city. How strange, I thought, that as we presented an exhibition on the relationship between the people and the city, the city itself was - in reality - empty of people. The roads had, for a moment, rejected their inhabitants and refused passage.

This exhibition was for these streets of Hull. These rivers and estuaries, these mills and factories and all the people inside and outside them. All my images and captions were designed for those who would recognise the locations and names. I didn't want to have to explain it to anyone else. I wanted just enough information for the local to recognise, but the visitor to have to ask questions. The gallery opened, and I was happy to hear people identifying the streets and locations of these photographs.

Sheila, whom I have never met, offered this quote to accompany my writing and images. From the British seascape artist J.S. Lowry, they express perfectly my fascination with this city:

"It's the battle of life - the turbulence of the sea...I have been fond of the sea all my life, how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is. But I often think...what if it suddenly changed its mind and didn't turn the tide? And it came straight on? If it didn't stay and came on and on and on...That would be the end of it all."

You can see the full final selection of 15 images here.

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Reproduced on fair use grounds. Access original here: http://www.imd.ch/news/discuss-and-debate/#/great-debate/how-do-we-best-addre... View 1: BY REFORMING THE GLOBAL ORDER By IMD Professor Jean-Pierre Lehmann The world economy is experiencing its most profound transformation since the industrial revolution 200 years ago. Though the world economy also witnessed spectacular growth, global economic governance is in a paltry state. The WTO Doha Round will reach its tenth anniversary next year without approaching conclusion. Global imbalances are tearing away at the fabric of international economic relations. The climate change agenda is a dog’s breakfast. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that should be met by 2015 will not be. It is not that governments renege on their commitments; the rhetoric is all there, it’s just the reality that is missing! We could be heading for global economic anarchy. So what is to be done? A major problem today is that while many critical issues facing the planet – poverty, pandemics, environment, trade and capital flows, energy and natural resources – are global, sovereignty remains national. This inherent tension, it is argued by some, means that we have to look for alternatives to states as dominant actors and in particular at cross-national entities, eg non-governmental-organizations (NGOs) and multinational companies (MNCs). Clearly business and civil society have become more involved in the global public policy process and need to become even more involved. They bring a perspective that governments lack. Nevertheless, there is nothing at present that can replace the states, hence governments must remain the key interlocutors and decision makers in global economic public policy. Governments have the obligation – whether they actually assume it is another matter – to promote/protect the interests of all of their citizens. We cannot do away with government; though we definitely need better governments. The question is which governments? The trends in the current global economy appear irreversible. The rising economies, especially in Asia, will continue to rise as the established economies – the first industrial revolution economies – will continue to decline. The hub and spoke world economy, whereby the hub was the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and the spokes the rest of the world, is emphatically over. A lot of the economic action is taking place between companies of the global south. It is also increasingly the economies of the global south that are advocating open global market policies as the economies of the north resort to protectionism. The south is becoming more global than the north! The G7/8 is clearly an offensive anomaly. The G20 is a step in the right direction, but it is also a messy compromise whereby the G8 members remain and new members are brought in as a concession. It is also messy because (a) 20 are too many, while (b) in reality once all the hangers-on are counted, the G20 is more like the G30. To be effective, the global south must be given more prominence and responsibility, and the global governance group must be more compact. Membership should definitely include from the current G20: Brazil, India, China, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, South Africa, US, Japan and EU (ie with the EU having only one seat, instead of the half-dozen or so it has at present). Russia may be considered once it has acceded to membership of the WTO. Australia, Canada, Argentina and Mexico would have to be dropped. Saudi Arabia is not really a market economy, though it has acceded to the WTO and should probably be retained in light of its importance in respect to oil. In addition, from among their membership, one state should be elected to represent the least developed countries probably on an annual rotating basis. Thus we would have a more compact G12, which in turn would be representative of the forces transforming the world economy. This new G12 should be given a mandate for five years to manage the adjustments necessary reflecting the transformation and to ensure global economic peace and prosperity, both of which depend on a well functioning rules-based multilateral global economic system. (They should also renounce the collective photo-op!) Jean-Pierre Lehmann is Professor of International Political Economy at IMD, the leading global business school based in Switzerland, and the Director of the Evian Group at IMD. He teaches on the Leading the Global Enterprise program, among others. View 2: BY MOBILIZING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS By Bright B. Simons It didn’t require a group of powerful post-Westphalian states to meet in Florence in order to chart the course of the Enlightenment. As Kant, in his customary wisdom, perceived, diverse ideational forces collided to overthrow a decaying order that had been based on inflexible power.  In doing so, shafts of light were diffused into the dark recesses of the human imagination. These forces were neither state nor inter-state based. They emanated from social movements and cognitive networks that knew no bounds and respected no political frontiers. Today, we survey a world that is fatigued. The old ideas tire us. The grand alliances of the old fail to hold. We have, as Seth Godin has saliently remarked, dissolved back into tribes. Therein lies the explanation for the continuous fracturing of the global system along so many vital planes. The so-called Doha Development Agenda, intended to harness trade for sustainable development across the planet, is slowly wilting. Much hyped efforts to “redesign” the global financial architecture, particularly as anchored to the Financial Stability Forum process, have quietly disintegrated. One needs not mention Copenhagen or the latest fiasco at the World Whaling Commission, much less the atrophy in the Bretton Woods system and UN Security Council reform agenda, all examples of disintegration. The structured instruments of treaties and conventions and grand pacts have taken us as far as they can go. They now appear more fitted to stifle the free flow of people, goods and ideas rather than liberate them. Without an unleashing of the forces of liberty and freedom, economic progress and, for that matter, sustainable development cannot be achieved.  Any further force-feeding of our hopes through such channels shall only lead to diminishing returns, a steady erosion of the gains we have made over the past three centuries. Except for those with a vested interest in these moribund international decision-making mechanisms, most people around the world have moved on. It would be in the interest of the institutions that define the passing world to take heed. In a world of Skype and Paypal, or better still their successors, the current configurations of the Bank for International Settlements and the International Telecommunications Union, for instance, seem to any objective onlooker more of a bulwark against inevitable revolution or dissolution than a chessboard for possibility. The same can be said for a great many of the international institutions supposedly mandated with the economic well-being of our planet. The waves of technological change sweeping the globe and the related compacting of inter-people relations suggests a diffusion of moral autonomies and political legitimacies. While new cognitive networks and social movements rise to fill the spaces vacated by crumbling institutions, vested interests persist in their attempts to contain the emerging shape of world affairs, leading to “leakage.” These “leakages” have been nicknamed “global economic imbalances.” Rising economic poles in the global south and solvency crises in the north are confused by some to mean a mere re-ordering of the world around the existing axis, and thus a cue for structural rearrangement of the same assembly.  The truth is that the pieces have melted, and there is no telling what the mold will cast. Just as in the days of the early enlightenment, there are no workable blueprints for a step-by-step reformulation of civilisation. Rather the “imperatives of change” swirl irresistibly around the rigid structures we erected yesteryear and sooner or later they shall yield. The fusion of genetic engineering and cybernetics; the exploration of marine resources well beyond maritime borders; virtual worlds; statelessness (not merely for tax evasion); electronic money; near-space travel; and the new demands of global supply chains, shall channel the thrust of “effective decision-making” in the global system through a multiplicity of loose networks, with the political counterbalance provided by dynamic social movements. New leadership shall emerge alright, but clearly not in the forms to which we have been accustomed. Bright B. Simons is Director of Development Research at IMANIGhana and the inventor of the mPedigree system.

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There is ONE more spot left for the First Annual TED Fellows THINK WEIRD GO BIG workshop!

Note: The dates have changed to 17-19 September, 2010.

Join this interdisciplinary group of TED Fellows in an inspirational setting for a unique opportunity to collectively nudge each other to turn Crazy Visions into Big Realities:

David Gurman (San Francisco, CA)  http://www.davidgurman.com/

Dominic Murin (Seattle, WA)  http://www.dmuren.com/home.htm

Kate Nichols (San Francisco, CA) http://www.katenicholsstudio.com/about.php

Colleen Flanigan (Portland, OR)  http://colleenflanigan.com/ 

Sean Gourley (San Francisco, CA) http://younoodle.com/

 Jessica Green (Eugene, OR) http://biology.uoregon.edu/people/green/index.html

Eric Berlow (Yosemite National Park and Berkeley, CA) http://www.ericlberlow.net/

This 3 day workshop will take place 17-19 September, 2010 at the Swall Institute, a sustainably designed idea incubator created by Eric Berlow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.  The Swall Institute is 15 minutes from the Mammoth Lakes Airport (MMH) which has daily flights to/from Los Angeles (LAX). If you can get to San Francisco (SFO) – we will drive from there and can give you a ride.

The only costs to you are:  getting there and pitching in for food.

There is one spot left!

To participate in this exciting and unique opportunity,

please contact Eric Berlow or Jessica Green by 27 August, 2010

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Water and sanitation are among the most crucial issues facing India today, Sunita Nadhamuni notes in her interview with TED. But while these problems are daunting, Sunita says India’s many innovations in managing water can teach the rest of the world a thing or two.

Tell us about your water and sanitation organization. What makes it unique?

Arghyam is an Indian charitable institution working on water. It was set up by leading philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, and we began working on water and sanitation issues in 2005. The vision is safe, sustainable water for all. And our goal as a charitable institution is to support initiatives across India that help people get access to water for basic daily needs in a sustainable manner.

So, what’s different about the things we do? First of all, we’re probably the only Indian foundation that exclusively focuses on water and sanitation. The second thing is we do a really wide range of activities. On one side we are a grant-making organization: we give grants to a bunch of NGOs, we support about 80 projects across the country. But we also do our own R&D work. We set up actual research initiatives that we drive ourselves, we conduct surveys and we take up innovative projects in the urban space. So we do a lot of things apart from being a grant-making organization.

And because we’re young and flexible and independent, we have the ability to absorb risk and therefore take up more innovative work in this space. The other thing that’s kind of unique is a bunch of us in the organization come from very different backgrounds. We have people from the IT/tech sector, people from the NGO development space, people from the government sector and people with civil engineering backgrounds, so we have quite a diverse group right there at work. I think all these different perspectives add to our ability to look at problems in a fresh, innovative way.

Tell us about some of Arghyam’s projects.

Arghyam conducted “A Survey on Household Water and Sanitation” (ASHWAS) across 17,200 households in all the districts of rural Karnataka in 2008 and 2009. It is probably the largest ever such a survey done on water and sanitation in India. People from village level institutions and local citizen groups conducted the survey, and we made sure there were 1 or 2 women — at least 50% representation — in each survey team to discuss gender sensitive issues with women. To catch people’s interest, there were activities such as testing water quality and village group walks and mapping of sources and open defecation areas.

Some results were contrary to both existing data and to people’s perception. Water quality was a bigger problem than had been thought, for example, access to water was high, and people’s access to their local government was good.

One of our rural partners are organizing women groups to revive chaals or traditional earthen storage containers for water in Uttarakhand. Another group in Kerala is working to recharge open wells.

How do you decide which projects are most important for you to support?

There are a bunch of principles that are the foundation of most of the things we take up. One is community participation and community empowerment. Another is decentralization — devolving power, functions and funds all to the lowest level of government. Because we believe that in a democracy that’s what should happen, that’s where the service delivery will be most effective.

Read more of this interview with Sunita Nadhamuni on the TEDBlog.

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[Full story on these sites, and others:  http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/20/medicine-real-new-africans-sending-text-messages/# www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38785374 abcnews.go.com/Technology/wirestory?id=11444306&page=2] Africans text message to check if drugs are real Published: Friday, 20 Aug 2010 | 10:20 AM ET Text Size Digg Buzz Facebook http://www.cnbc.com/id/38785375" title="Add to Twitter" target="_blank">Twitter More Share LONDON - For Africans wondering whether the malaria drugs they've bought are real, there may soon be a quick way of finding out: sending a text message. Across the continent, more than 30 percent of malaria medicines are estimated to be fake, and many look identical to the real thing. A new project called mPedigree lets consumers send in a code via text message that lets them check if their drugs are genuine. It was recently adopted in Nigeria, with plans for wider use elsewhere in Africa. Last month, the Nigerian government decided to introduce the technology for all medicines in the future, not just anti-malarials. Ghanaian entrepreneur Bright Simons developed the mPedigree system; its technology and security infrastructure is now being provided by Hewlett Packard. The system assigns a unique code to genuine malaria medicines, printed on the back of medicine blister pack under a sheet that is scratched off like a lottery ticket. Customers send a text message to a central hotline with the code and instantly get an "OK" response telling them if the drug is registered and thus real. It also sends them additional information like the drug's manufacturer and expiration date. If the drug isn't registered and potentially fake, people receive a text message that says "No. Please recheck code." The system is free for consumers and is paid for by pharmaceutical companies and governments. Health officials say the innovative system could help Africa curb the tide of fake drugs and potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. Experts think about 700,000 people die from malaria or tuberculosis every year after taking counterfeit drugs, with some containing little more than sawdust, baby powder and water. In addition, fake medicines speed up drug resistance. If a drug contains some but not enough of the active ingredient, it won't kill the disease's virus or bacteria, but gives it a chance to mutate into a deadlier form instead. Knowing the drugs are real may also persuade more Africans to take them in the first place, saving even more lives. "With (this system), people can be far more confident about the medicines they're taking," said Julian Harris, a research fellow at International Policy Network, a London-based think tank. "Right now, the option for many people is taking medicine from a broken blister packet," said Harris, who is not connected to the project. Rich countries have long employed expensive methods, like tracking systems or sophisticated equipment, to verify whether drugs are authentic. In Europe, the United States and elsewhere, authorities often use mobile labs and hand-held spectrometers to test if drugs have the right active ingredients in the right amounts. Without such sophisticated devices, Simons' text messaging system gives ordinary Africans a way to check what they're buying. Previous studies from agencies including the World Health Organization have shown about 30 to 60 percent of medicines in Africa are counterfeit or substandard. Fake drugs can infiltrate shipments even when it's the United Nations or the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that is the sender. Last year, malaria medicines dispatched to Ghana by the Global Fund mysteriously went missing. Once the drugs arrived in the country, they were replaced by counterfeits, leading Ghanaian authorities to investigate allegations a cartel was replacing real drugs with fake ones. Last month, the Nigerian government decided the text messaging system should be used on all medicines as soon as possible. "Consumers can now take the war (against counterfeit drugs) into their own hands," said Dr. Paul B. Orhii, director-general of Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. Orhii said the government is negotiating with telecoms companies to lower the price of sending text messages to encourage more companies to adopt the system. Beyond Nigeria, other countries including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, have all expressed interest in signing up for the technology. So far, small trials of the text messaging system have been conducted in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria. The Nigerian government recently ran its own test of the system on diabetes medicines used by more than 20,000 people..... [For full story: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/08/20/technology-af-med-drugs-testing-by-...]

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Upwards of 20 million people are suffering from the massive flooding in Pakistan, according to the United Nations — more than the number affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. Following record-breaking monsoon rains, at least 1,600 people have been killed, an estimated 72,400 homes have been destroyed, and crops from some 1.6 million acres of land have been ruined.

The international community’s tepid response to Pakistan’s worst natural disaster in history has not quelled efforts by Pakistani citizens — including several TED Fellows — to help people affected by the flooding. Faisal Chohan has built pakreport.org as a platform for reporting and mapping incidents, directing relief to areas that need it most. Other Fellows are also using their specific expertise to provide support to suffering people.

With over 20 million people affected by the floods, Faisal’s pakreport.org is expected to be the biggest usage yet of the crowdsourcing tool Ushahidi. The platform collects eyewitness accounts of flood-related incidents via SMS, email and the web. It then verifies them for accuracy and plots the data points on a map, providing up-to-date information to aid workers — an invaluable service when conventional media outlets and communication lines are down.To contribute to accurate mapping of the crisis, people can text their eyewitness accounts of the flood to 3441 with the location of the incident. The message should begin “FL,” followed by a space and then the observation.

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Full Text: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10928808 [Partially Reproduced on Fair Use Grounds] Business books: Wise advice or a load of waffle? By James Melik Reporter, Business Daily, BBC World Service Walk into any book store and the self-help titles adorning the shelves offer you hope, solace, inspiration, faith in your own powers and a promise of a bright new life. These are not religious works, but business books which seduce you into thinking that you too can become a top-flight entrepreneur. Some people consider them a valuable aid in running a business, while others look upon them as nothing more than an ego-trip for the authors. Bestselling titles of the past include How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, In Search of Excellence, Who Moved My Cheese and Good to Great. They might change the way in which business is discussed, but probably do little to influence the way business is done. Serious or amusing? “The more pretentious business books are, the funnier they are” Peter York, Management consultant The idea of business books was conceived in North America, where, it seems, there is still a big appetite for them. At Posman Books, inside New York's Grand Central Station, a prominent seller throughout the summer has been Donald Trump's Think Like A Champion, which has topped the New York Times bestseller list. Bookseller Greg Logan says: "Lots of people are looking for a leg-up and there are a lot of authors who help those people focus on that." He says there is always a new idea and always a new book for it. British management consultant and marketing guru Peter York does not share his enthusiastic view. "I started collecting business books nearly 30 years ago because I thought they were weird and funny," he says. He believes there is a breed of business book which is tremendously American and evangelical, which does not exist in the UK. "They agonise about business-related issues in a way that has no place in British life and their language is so hilarious," he says. "They are not supposed to be funny, but the more pretentious business books are, the funnier they are," he says. “it is better to look to the evangelical churches and their cash profits, rather than reading business books” Bright Simons Ghanaian journalist As an example, he cites Glow, written by an English academic, which he initially thought was a spoof. "The book maintains that if you are a bit lively in a business sense, other people will respond to your liveliness and glow," he explains. "It made me think of spontaneous combustion, where people burst into flames and all you find is a pile of ash - because they have been glowing so much." Unsuitable markets Peter York also maintains that around the world, there are lots of books with Western ideas which are not to anyone's great advantage. "You are deluding people if you tell them to follow a 10-point plan when they don't even have schools or universities," he says. Ghanaian journalist Bright Simons points out that very few successful African entrepreneurs have gone to business school and it is difficult to find people who fit into the mode of business methodology handed down from the West. "It is better to look to the evangelical churches and their cash profits rather than reading business books," he says. "Best of all, they write books that change lives and bring hope in the face of despair and penetrate every strata of society - your rendez-vous with divine success," he says. "Transform your life in three miraculous steps and knock out poverty with a packet of redemption," he muses. Published in 1936, Dale Carnegie's book has sold more than 15 million copies He says business books are widely available and can be seen sticking out of fake-leather briefcases. But, according to Bright Simons, the glossy covers, loud print and empty jargon offer little more than a contributory factor to massive deforestation. Successful spin-off Huge numbers of business books end up in discount book stores, whereas the best ones can endure for decades. One of the most influential books has been How to Win Friends and Influence People, written by Dale Carnegie in 1937. It consists of home-spun advice about building confidence and communicating better. The financier Warren Buffett, no less, has often cited it as an inspiration. Dale Carnegie had been running self-improvement courses for 25 years before writing his book - and those courses are still going strong in 75 countries. "The key to the success of the book and the training is that it is based on human nature, which is the same all over the world," says Peter Handal, chief executive of Dale Carnegie & Associates. "In this day and age, people are more comfortable looking at a computer screen and they are losing the ability to communicate face-to-face." The course has to be adapted for different countries and environments because of cultural and social differences. [.....For full article, please visit the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10928808]

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The smell of East Hull was once tanneries, grain, chocolate. The smell of west hull was fish and oil. When the wind would change directions, they would look over to the other side of the river and complain about 'yon side.'

Sarah and I went looking for what was left of East Hull's milling industry. But The British Extraction Co. is empty. A shell of a monument to an impossible staircase. No one would climb it, except kids and adventurers after the mill was closed down. They had to remove the bottom steps to stop anyone else from climbing because they thought it was too dangerous. Behind it, the chimney of an abandoned paint factory. This is the spire to the cathedral of the Extraction Co.

The only grain mill left in Hull looks like a yellow-topped box of cereal. Its name reminds me of a fictional corporation from a cheap conspiracy movie, one in which the unscrupulous grain company begins working on indigenous land and exploiting its workers. Using natives as slaves and devastating the ecology.

The man at the reception tells us we can't take pictures in there without permission from the boss. And the boss is away at the moment. Even when he returns, we're told, the last thing he'll want to do is deal with us. He'll have other things on his mind. It's clear the mill is having some kind of serious trouble, but I can't get exact details. There is another man behind the reception, wearing a white all-in-one suite, the kind you see forensic police wearing when they survey a crime scene. He barely talks, and then only with a certain bitterness and resignation. It's clear he doesn't want to help. The two want o get rid of us, so they shown us samples of what the mill produces, in small clinical jars kept behind the reception, labeled clearly with each grain type and size. They specialise in grits.

After talking to the man behind the reception for around 10 minutes, the man in the forensic suit seems to suddenly give in. Maybe he got bored of sitting there and avoiding questions. He mentions the old Rank Hovis mill, once a landmark in Hull. "I have a few old photographs I could show you," he says, and leads Sarah and I into the factory.

In his office, he keeps an archive of the old mill, the mill where he worked for 30 years and was General Manager before it shut down. "A graduate could have made Manager in five years, but it took me 30 years," he says. He shows us pictures of the equipment, proudly explaining that the entire mill was run by only one engine. I call it a motor at one point, but he quickly corrects me "It was an engine, not a motor." He shows us newspaper clippings about the mill, some going back to just after the Second World War. He even has the original architectural plans from when the mill was renovated. He carefully holds a photograph by its edges, so as not to get his fingerprints on the image. It's a photograph of his father, graduating from a City & Guilds course as a miller. His grandfather, too, was a miller. He has taken on the responsibility of the keeper, the last source of these images, stories and memories. On our way out, he tells us his name is Robin - he had been named after the Kingston Rovers Rugby team mascot, a Robin red breast.

When I hear the name J. Arthur Rank, I think of films. He began as a miller, but that was never important to me. What mattered to me was the logo of a strong man swinging a giant mallet, and the tone that resonated when he hit an enormous golden gong. That logo was the opening of so many films I watched as a child, when I became fascinated by cinema and the symbols it could sustain. Those are my own memories of the Rank name.

Hull, you surprise me. I am embarrassed to say what I expected you to be like, but you are not like that. You welcomed me, you spoke to me when I was too shy and introduced yourself. You opened up to me, and told me stories of your life within minutes of meeting me. You took me at face value, and only once asked me where I was from. You said I was funny, because I would rather take pictures in the war zones of Southern Lebanon than photograph a wedding. Yes, once you asked me "Are you Sheikh Mohammed?" and laughed, but I didn't mind because you made fun of yourself with the same relentlessness. And when I thought I was finished, that I had taken my last photograph but still could not solve your mystery, I found the Blue Lagoon.

I ask Jason about the sea, and he reveals to me a fact that puts everything into place. Suddenly Hull's true character, and her relationship to her people, is clear to me. "I don't know why," he says, "but Hull is a Mecca for scuba diving. More scuba divers are trained in this city than in any other in the UK."

It is irrefutable proof that something is still drawing the people of Hull to the water.  

(The exhibition opens August 20th, 6pm, at the ARC Building in Hull)

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ABOVE: Igor Obeso's Aquatica, previously exposition from GKo Gallery

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Technology Pioneers 2011: Empowering People and Transforming Society

The Technology Pioneer class of 2011 is giving consumers and businesses more control over their impact on the environment in other ways.

Read the full article here: http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Technology%20Pioneers/TechnologyPioneers/index.htm#

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We're happy to announce that we've appointed Alexis Ohanian as YC's Ambassador to the East. He's going to be based in New York, and he'll be talking to potential YC applicants and representing us at events all along the Atlantic Corridor.

We've known Alexis since before Y Combinator even existed. In fact he was part of the reason we started it. He and Steve Huffman came up on the train from UVA to hear the talk at Harvard that led to Y Combinator. I had coffee with them afterward and found myself thinking "These guys could actually pull it off."

Their startup, Reddit, was in the first YC batch in the summer of 2005, and was acquired by Conde Nast in 2007. It's still one of the best known of the companies we've funded. Since leaving Conde Nast in 2009, Alexis has focused on his social enterprise, Breadpig, which has generated over $150,000 for charities.

We've always loved Alexis, and we're delighted to have him back.

Anyone on the East Coast thinking of applying to YC should feel free to ask him any questions they have about YC or the application process (alexis@ycombinator.com).

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Image copyright aiguesdebarcelona.es

"Africa's collective economy grew very little during the last two decades of the 20th century. But sometime in the late 1990s, the continent behgan to stir. GDP growth picked up and then bounded ahead, rising faster and faster through 2008. Today, while Asia's tiger economies continue to expand rapidly, we foresee the potential rise of economic lions in Africa's future." Click here to read McKinsey's full report.

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The TEDxStellenbosch planning committee has asked Dot Dot Dot Ex Why Zed Design (...XYZ Design) to contribute to TEDxStellenbosch 2010 in a design thinking space. Our Design with Africa initiative, a movement to provide a focused product development model for the African continent, champions the TEDxStellenbosch aim of linking innovation to Africa.

TEDxStellenbosch 2010, where x = independently organized TED event, is bringing together the brightest thinkers and doers of the Southern African hemisphere. 550 entrepreneurs, architects, scholars, business leaders and designers are gathering to share innovations and experiences that are changing the face of the African continent. The conference, '...with Africa', will champion four themes that are at the forefront of the debate surrounding growth and development on the continent: storytelling, innovation, community, and nature.

Our 12 speakers are some of the most successful innovators in their field. You will be intrigued by the interface between technology and medicine, you will surprised by new sustainability initiatives in Africa. You will be fascinated by a shark warrior, and you will be inspired by a young philanthropist.

Date: 13 August 2010
Time: 16h00 to 22h00
Location: Endler Hall, Stellenbosch University
Cost: Free

Click here for more info!

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The Snapper concept was submitted to the Paraffin Safety Association of Southern Africa by Ryan Fowler, a designer at ...XYZ. The concept was in response to their competition which called for a solution to prevent paraffin poisoning, due to users commonly storing paraffin in beverage bottles such as Coca-Cola bottles, and unsuspecting children mistakenly drink the toxic liquid. It is important to note that many of the problems surrounding domestic paraffin-use in South Africa can be attributed to socio-economic constraints, specifically poverty and the generally unfavourable conditions under which paraffin users often live necessitate makeshift storage solutions. The ideal solution is arguably a system one, whereby the paraffin industry and supply chain should be regulated with appropriate awareness campaigns, however system restructuring can take many years to attain decent levels of safety. For this reason the Snapper does not seek to restrict the use of beverage bottles for the storage of paraffin. Instead the design recognises the strengths of the current system and attempts to use it as a vehicle for reducing incidences of paraffin ingestion. Click HERE to view the full competition entry.

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Bruce Nussbaum’s article on humanitarian design provides some interesting perspectives on participatory design and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). For example, he questions if “designers are collaborating with the right partners, learning from the best local people, and being as sensitive as they might to the colonial legacies of the countries they want to do good in” and continues to ask if “Indian, Brazilian and African designers have important design lessons to teach Western designers?”. Click HERE to read the complete article.

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...XYZ has established a design partnership with Lebone, a social enterprise working in off-grid energy and lighting technology, to fabricate and - Design with Africa - a new type of energy source. The founders labour to create global awareness for "Dirt Power" and end the energy and lighting crisis in Africa. The first prototype to emerge from the design partnership, a more robust microbial fuel cell, provide direct current power for standard high efficiency LEDs and equipment like cell phone chargers. MFCs offer an exciting new option for sustainable, cheap, environmentally friendly, and locally targeted power solutions. Although still under development, prototypes have been successfully concluded in Namibian field trials, and applications for the technology are currently being developed. Read HERE about the innovation story, recently shared at a World Science Festival's panel: Modern Macguyvers: Innovation for a Developing World.

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"This Friday, when the 2010 FIFA World Cup begins in Johannesburg, South Africa, Adidas’s controversial new game ball, the Jabulani, will finally get its official world premiere. Days later, with far less fanfare but with far more potential for global change, the latest model of another game-changing sphere will make its South African debut: a plug-in soccer ball that captures energy during play and stores the juice for later use as a..." Click HERE to read more...

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"This prestigious status is designated biennially by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) to cities that are dedicated to using design for social, cultural and economic development. This title will give Cape Town a chance to showcase its achievements and aspirations through a year-long programme of design-led events and activities as World Design Capital designees Seoul and Helsinki will do in this year and in 2012 respectively". For more information click HERE.

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International participatory design in Africa? Click HERE for the one-hundred and seventy page ICSID report on sustainable rural transport, that highlights design methodologies, research instruments, and a variety of conceptual designs that were work-shopped with the local communities.

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Let's celebrate the founding of the African Union, the coming Soccer World Cup, and Africa's steady rise. This day is an annual commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Click HERE to find out more on the OAU.

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"Why Design Now? is the fourth installation in the National Design Triennial exhibition series launched by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in 2000. The Triennial provides a sample of contemporary innovation, looking at what progressive designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and citizens are doing in diverse fields and at different scales around the world. Included are practical solutions already in use as well as experimental ideas designed to inspire further research. A few projects will provoke controversy, answering some questions while raising others. Each one—from a soil-powered table lamp to a post-petroleum urban utopia—celebrates the transformative power of design". Click HERE to visit the exhibitions website.

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"The Cape Town Design Network 2010 launched on 24 March 2010. The first meeting was held in the new exhibition space of the Spier Contemporary 2010 at the City Hall. The Cape Town Design Network 2010 is an informal network enabling designers across different disciplines to interact and share ideas. Each session will see a different Cape Town-based designer/design team chatting about their design philosophy and practice. Occasional panel discussions of various aspects of the design industry can also be expected".

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