Futurist Thomas Frey: For most of us, the language we speak is like the air we breathe. But what happens when we wake up and find that our air is going extinct?
Continue reading… “Creating a Global Language Archive”
The rising consumer markets in Africa
Young, urban African consumer generation on the rise.
There is tremendous potential in Africa and most investors and businesses know this by now. Africa is the world’s second fastest growing region, second to Asia. And it may come as a surprise to most that Africa’s single-largest business opportunity is the rising consumer market.
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Aakash 2 – The $20 tablet that could transform computing as we know it
Suneet Tuli with the Aakash 2 tablet.
The 44-year-old CEO of UK/Canadian/Indian startup Datawind, Suneet Tuli, is having a taxing day. He says he is “underwater” as he struggles to find a cell signal outside a restaurant in Mumbai. On Sunday Nov. 11, the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, will unveil the seven-inch Aakash 2 tablet computer Tuli’s company is selling to the government for distribution to 100,000 university students and professors. (If things go well, the government plans to order as many as 5.86 million.) In the meantime, Tuli is deluged with calls from reporters, and every day his company receives thousands of new orders for the commercial version of the Aakash 2. Already, he’s facing a backlog of four million unfulfilled pre-orders.
Continue reading… “Aakash 2 – The $20 tablet that could transform computing as we know it”
Skilled professionals leaving China in record numbers
Lee Yangang and his wife, Wang Lu, emigrated to Sydney, Australia, from Beijing.
Chen Kuo, at 30 years old, had what many Chinese dream of: her own apartment and a well-paying job at a multinational corporation. But Ms. Chen, in mid-October, boarded a midnight flight for Australia to begin a new life with no sure prospects.
Continue reading… “Skilled professionals leaving China in record numbers”
Are we on the verge of a Holy War?
The latest bombing in Nigeria shows how Christians are increasingly suffering for their faith.
Can you imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.
Top 15 country brands of the future
A lot of time is spent looking at country rankings–everything from the best places in the world to be a woman to the worst countries for food security. These realities on the ground all feed into overall perception–or branding–of countries. If perception is favorable, that can translate into investments as well as commercial and economic development. And that, if done right, can lead to better lives for all citizens.
Continue reading… “Top 15 country brands of the future”
More than 1 billion smartphones in use worldwide
One in seven of the world’s population owns a smartphone.
Worldwide, the number of smartphones in use has passed the 1 billion mark for the first time, according to analyst firm Strategy Analytics, which estimates the landmark was surpassed during the third quarter of 2012.
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Cardboard bicycle can change transportation habits around the world
Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni holds his cardboard bicycle
Izhar Gafni, an Israeli inventor, says that a bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change transportation habits from the world’s most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa.
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How organized crime is destroying the rainforests
Organized crime is behind the trade in illegal timber in the rainforests.
The illegal logging industry has become very attractive to criminal organizations over the past ten years. Up to 90 per cent of tropical deforestation can be attributed to organized crime, which controls up to 30 per cent of the global timber trade, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Program.
Continue reading… “How organized crime is destroying the rainforests”
Middle Eastern women at the center of a startup ecosystem
The new Middle East
There are remarkable and little-reported-on tech startup communities in the Middle East – from Cairo to Amman to Beirut to Dubai – and no one is rocking this scene more than the women entrepreneurs.
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Coolant smugglers reap large profits
The Marcone company of St. Louis was implicated in a coolant smuggling scheme.
A trusted senior vice president of a century-old company from America’s heartland had been caught on a wiretap buying half a million dollars in smuggled merchandise, much of it from China. And now the chief executive of the company was on the witness stand trying to explain how the senior vice president did it.
Continue reading… “Coolant smugglers reap large profits”
Information war is the ‘new cold war’
An information war has erupted around the world.
Around the world an information war has erupted. The lines for battle have been drawn between governments that regard the free flow of information, and the ability to access it, as a matter of fundamental human rights, and those that regard official control of information as a fundamental sovereign prerogative. The contest is being waged institutionally in organizations like the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and daily in countries like Syria.
Continue reading… “Information war is the ‘new cold war’”
