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Monday, June 9, 2008

[chottala.com] People ask the difference between a leader and a boss....

The present situation of this week in Bangladesh is like people ask the difference between a leader and a boss.The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads and the boss drives.
 
Gopal Sengupta
 
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[chottala.com] Is he black listed byt he susil supported , NRB favorite CTG


Why so silent?


What has made Dr Akbar Ali Khan, head of reform commission, silent?
   AB
   On e-mail

http://www.newagebd.com/oped.html#5
অদক্ষ তত্ববধায়কদের জন্য দেশের প্রতিদিনের ক্ষতি কত কোটি টাকা?

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[chottala.com] Budget Vabna

Budget Vabna
We have been suggesting few broad principles over the last year. And we are happy to see many of the things reflected on the broad planning. Thank you! Here are some additional points.
 
1. Increase the implementation rate. BD Govt. has for the first time in history has reduced the ADP year to year. Usually, it is set at higher point and adjusted lower at the end. The current government has also done that with the just finished year. Thanks to our laggard bureacracy, if not incompetent and unpatriotic. Now, take this challenge. For the first time in history, adjust the yearly budgetary allocation upwards - after making sure that you will be actually able to cross the line for the first  time in history. Can you do that? How? If we were you, we would make a list of bureacrats who will be under constant watch. The message should be very clear to them. Work  round the clock - forget sleep. Either achieve the goal or work so hard that you get sick and leave job for medical reasons!
 
2. Introduce incentives for foreign owned local enterprises to invest in R&D. The main target would be to give incentives for the companies to invest their money here, instead of repatriating dollars. The goal would be to netralize some of the reverse FDI. If a proper benchmark can be established, the incentives can be very generous. If one considers how much effort does it take to earn the dollars by our expatriate labours, the importance of restricting the reverse FDI should be fully appreciated. At the sametime, a careful consideration has to be made so that this effort to netralize some portion of the reverse FDI shouldn't adversely affect inward FDI.
 
3. In case of inward FDI, there should be incentives for joint venture initiatives so the industrialization can be balanced without making undue pressure on our long-term forex.
 
4. Make donations for education tax free, please. There might be some mishandling of this opportunity. However, its much better option. Lets see how much mishandle they can do... the degree of mishandling would dicate the policy correction within two three years down the road. But it should start now.
 
5. Many of the foreign owned organizations can start expanding some serive wing in Dhaka to serve their external counterparts. For example, GP call center can start providing call center support to other sister organizations that are owned by Telenor. If they do that, a balance will be achieved in FDI flow. Currently, the high volume of the FDI outflow will be compenstated by the portion of these FDI inflows by this type of service extensions. Now, if policy makers takes a heavy handed approach to this idea, that would back fire. Businesses will do everything, just you have to take them into confidence, let them have a say in the decision making process and do the changes progressively. In short, govt. can start this process by giving incentives. Even if govt. dont get any corporate tax for this branches, we would think them to be good steps since they will generate employment for the local youth and also, they will increase the inward FDI. Off course, the detail arrangement will have to be decided by the experts after reviewing more data. At this stage, this is only an idea. Any thoughts?
 
6. Allocate an amount for a facilitating body or foundation for the promotion of open source movement in the ICT sector. This initiative can be styled as a non-profit or social business type entity. The actual amount can be decided based on some percentage (0.5%) of the outward forex flow that is spent on software and service purchase.
 
7. Allocate an for a venture capital company with a very low interest rate - just for service charge. Just give away this money to some promising venture initiative who will utitilize the money as a start-up fund to support new technology based companies. According to international standards, this type of companies are usually for-profit company. The actual amount can be decided based on some percentage (0.1%) of the outward forex flow that is spent on technology based products purchase. BTW, this is not same as IT Equity and Entrepreneurship Fund which is proposed. The devil is in the details - traditional banks can't operate this fund, let alone the central bank. If that is the case, there won't be thousands of venture capital companies throughout the world.
 
8. Allocate an amount for a professional services company initiative that will use money build the local capacity so that local industries can take full advantage of the increasing carbon trading regimes. Again, this professional services company will probably get better results if its incorporated as for-profit company. The actual amount can be decided based on some percentage (1%) of the estimated potential inward forex flow from the carbon trading through participation in CDM. Do not mix up this with the proposed climate change fund. That is a disaster managment approach - which is important. This particular proposal is a proactive approach, which will create job, transfer technology and invigorate overall economy.
 
9. Its time we make the salary of the elected officials much more competitive. If we want to be a giant Signapore one day, we better start that process by paying the elected officials following the same principles that Singpore follows.
 
10. Last but not the least, the govt. should set aside at least 5% of its energy subsidy allocation to invest in renewable energy research, development, commercialization and marketing for obviouis reason. These subsidies can't go on forever if we have to come out of vicious cycle of poverty as a nation. However, government just shouldn't withdraw subsidy without using their brain (just like what donors where suggesting with the jute mills). At the moment, a major thrust should be set up a three component project on solar energy. First component will be about technology transfer arrangement with some German company to build a leading edge PV cell manufacturing plant, second component should try to develop local technology and capacity to combine the cells in solar panels (neutral to any specific PV technology) and the third component should aim to develop a business model and solutions that will allow the individual level solar farms to sell their extra capacity to the national grid. The third component is now being in operation in many areas in California. Its not very complicated and a well-thought out plan could help mitigate our problems with shortage in power grid.
 
 
For proposals 6-8, the actual figures can be adjusted as suitable. However, for all the three initiative, its important that the person behind these initiatives are capable and want to serve the societies. Ideally, these initiatives can be taken with private funding. But the quality of the capital-holders in our current society is such that they would hardly understand and/or be motivated to this kind of initiatives. Hence, government should provide the initial seed funding for these considering the immense potential that these initiatives can bring for the national economy going forward. If you really consider doing these, just do not allocate funding in the budget and let them sit idle somewhere in the exchecker. You will have to identify the correct person(s) who can actually bring these into reality. Why is that? - one might ask. If you do not know the answer to this why, you should not allocate the money at the first place, since most likely that money will either be stolen or misappropriated by someone who has good connections in the bureacracy! Then how would we know where to find the right person? Well, that is the burden of good governance and the burden of being a good policy maker.
 
Aro ekta side comment ase. Meyera naki emnite kom beton pai, compared with their male counterparts with same qualification. If that is the case, income tax holiday should be lower for the females, isn't it? :) Would the policy of upping ceiling of income tax for females have any affect in equalizing the gender gap? How? A better approach could be to reward those companies whose payroll has more balanced representation of both genders. No? Any thoughts?
 
 
Another side comment. Do you know that Brazil has ministry called Ministry of Strategic Affairs? You should know and Bangladesh should consider doing the same. As far as we understand, Bangladesh has four major strategic issues that she needs to clarify to the world community. If that can be done well, our road to a modern and developed country that will be contributing to the world affairs in a responsible manner should be a matter of time. Of those four strategic matters, one relates to a mega-project (no, we are not talking about Mega sea-port. That can be another one, which would bring the number to five). Stay tuned for an upcoming article with a proposal for a nation-wide mega-project, valuation of which would be greater than this budget! Also, we intend to write separate articles on the other three major strategic issues in coming days.
 
 
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columinsts in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence. 
 
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
 
=======================================================
Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article as Creative Commons contents.

Dear readers, also, if you thought the article was important enough so it should come under attention of the head of the government please forward the message to them. Email address for the Chief Advisor: feeedback@pmo.gov.bd_ or at http://www.cao.gov.bd/feedback/comments.php . The more of you forward it to them, the less will be the need to go back to street agitation. Use ICT to practice democracy. It is already proven that this government responds to the feedback.
 
If you would like, you can recommend this to the finance adviser through this link:
 
You can also send it to NBR, among others:
 

Also send to your favourtie TV channel:
Channel i: http://www.channel-i-tv.com/contact.html
ATN Bangla: mtplive@atnbangla.tv_
NTV: info@ntvbd.com_
RTV: info@rtvbd.tv_
BTV: info@btv.gov.bd_
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[chottala.com] Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

I am nor surprised for the better treatment for Khaleda, Hasina, Arafat recommended and another medical board for Tarique likely! This military backed caretaker government with so many brilliant people appears to be failing so brilliantly.
 
Gopal Sengupta
Canada
 
 

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[chottala.com] BUDGET 2008-2009

The national budget for the next fiscal year has just been announced. What are people thinking about it? What will it bring for us as a nation? Let's speak out our thoughts.
 
Thanks to all.
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[chottala.com] John McCain looks to Bobby Jindal as his vice-presidential running mate

 
Republican Govornor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana with wife Supriya. (Louisiana Gannett News Photo/Shane Bevel)
 
John McCain looks to Bobby Jindal as his vice-presidential running mate
By Tim Shipman and Philip Sherwell in New York
Last Updated: 10:08PM BST 07/06/2008

John McCain is putting out feelers to a conservative version of Barack Obama, his White House rival, as a possible vice-presidential running mate.

Daunted by the historic appeal of the first black candidate to be nominated for the White House by a major party, Mr McCain has spoken effusively of Oxford-educated Bobby Jindal, 36, the Indian-American governor of Louisiana – and last week described him as a potential future president.

"I believe Governor Jindal is the next generation of leadership, not just for the Republican Party but for America," Mr McCain said on Wednesday, a night after Mr Jindal had introduced him to cheering supporters at a rally in New Orleans.

In a year when the parlous state of both the economy and President Bush's approval ratings give the Democrats an apparent advantage, many Republican strategists believe that selecting a vice-president from outside the traditional Republican gene pool of white men in late middle age can level the playing field.

Many believe Mr Jindal fits the bill since he would help neutralise the age issue, a potential problem for 71-year-old Mr McCain. His ethnic heritage, as the child of Punjabi Indian immigrants, may help to nullify the historic novelty of the African-American Mr Obama.

A Hindu who converted to Catholicism, Mr Jindal was one of three potential running mates, along with defeated candidate Mitt Romney and Florida governor Charlie Crist, invited to Mr McCain's retreat in Sedona, Arizona, for the Memorial Day weekend last month.

In just six months in charge in Louisiana, he has already made his mark, passing a rigorous ethics Bill in a state previously riddled with old-style political corruption.

Jim Nuzzo, a former White House adviser to the first President Bush, said: "Bobby Jindal is the future of the Republican Party. He's transformed Louisiana politics single-handed. He's a superstar. I can't see McCain choosing another dull white middle-aged man.

"The only problem is that Jindal may not be ready yet. Picking him would remove McCain's best argument against Obama, that he is too inexperienced."

Mr Nuzzo believes Mr McCain may also be tempted to pick a woman, in part to try to win over disgruntled supporters of Hillary Clinton who are queasy about Mr Obama.

The former Hewlett Packard boss, Carly Fiorina, is already part of his campaign and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, is also regarded as an attractive and competent figure.

Mr McCain is launching a concerted effort to woo Clinton backers, particularly women who claim she was the victim of Democratic and media sexism.

On Friday his campaign team unveiled "Citizens for McCain", a new group targeting independent and Democratic voters.

It is headed by Senator Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee now backing Mr McCain. In an accompanying email, he wrote: "The phones at the campaign HQ have been ringing with disaffected Democrats calling to say they believe Sen McCain has the experience, judgment and bipartisanship to lead our country."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/johnmccain/2091400/Us-Elections-John-McCain-looks-to-Bobby-Jindal-as-running-mate.html

John McCain praises Bobby Jindal; does that carry special meaning? Los Angeles Times
McCain holds town hall meeting in Baton Rouge WBXH
Jindal VP talk continues FOXNews
KSLA-TV - 2TheAdvocate
all 154 news articles »

Image:Bobby&Supriya.jpg

[Jindal was born in Baton Rouge Louisiana to recently arrived Punjabi Indian immigrants Amar and Raj Jindal, who were attending graduate schools. His father left India and his ancestral family village of Khanpura in 1970. His mother, Raj Jindal, is an information technology director for the Louisiana Department of Labor]

See More at:

http://www.bobbyjindal.com/

 

What Does Jindal Say About Veep Rumors?

Louisiana's Republican Governor, Bobby Jindal yesterday rejected the rumors about his veep intention, stating that he has never spoken to Sen. John McCain about the Republican vice presidential nomination. He reiterated his intention to remain the governor of Louisiana.

Jindal said yesterday afternoon, "We've never talked about it. We've had several conversations, not only when he's been here, by phone as well. We've always talked about Louisiana's needs, we've talked about national issues, but we've always been talking about how Louisiana is recovering."

However, speaking to reporters in Baton Rouge, Jindal refused to completely rule out accepting an offer to be McCain's running mate. He said, "I think it would be extremely presumptuous for me to turn down something that has not been offered to me. But I've been public in every conversation I've ever had with anybody, I've made it very clear I've got the job that I want."

According to rumors, Jindal, along with Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, were invited to McCain's home in Sedona, Ariz., this weekend.

But, Jindal said that the visit was meant for other reason; it was a chance to talk to politicians and business leaders about Louisiana. He explained, "It's a great opportunity for us to get the message out that Louisiana is open for business, we're rebuilding. We want the business community to come invest in Louisiana."

But the Louisiana Democratic Party disagrees with the intention of Jindal's trip. In a news release, Chris Wittington, chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said, "Bobby Jindal has always put his political career ahead of the people of Louisiana and his meeting with John McCain this weekend only drives the point home. Now, not six months into his term, his eye is on the prize of the Vice Presidency with little focus on what is going on here in Louisiana."

36-year-old, Jindal is the youngest serving governor in the United States. He insisted that his trip to Arizona will benefit his state. He said, "I think it'd be a good thing for the governor to have a good relationship with the next president of the United States; Senator McCain could be our next president."

  


Wall Street Journal
John McCain looks to Bobby Jindal as his vice-presidential running ...
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Jun 7, 2008
... York John McCain is putting out feelers to a conservative version of Barack Obama, his White House rival, as a possible vice-presidential running mate. ...
Our Views: We welcome John McCain 2TheAdvocate
all 46 news articles »

NECN
Political spotlight turns to VP choices
North Florida NewsDaily, FL - 5 hours ago
Crist, along with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, visited with McCain at his Arizona home recently ...
Exclusive: Election 2008 – Getting Down to Business Family Security Matters
all 320 news articles »

 

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[chottala.com] MIT Commencement address by Muhammad Yunus : "Each of you has the power to change the world"

MIT Commencement address by Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus
Photo / Donna Coveney
Muhammad Yunus

"Each of you has the power to change the world"

Muhammad Yunus,
June 6, 2008

Below is the prepared text of the Commencement address by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, for MIT's 142nd Commencement held June 6, 2008.

Good Morning:

It as a very special privilege for me to speak at the commencement ceremony of this prestigious institution.

What a wonderful feeling to be here today. To be with all of you, some of the brightest minds in the world, right at a moment when you decide the path you will embark on in life. You represent the future of the world. The choices that you will make for yourself will decide the fate of mankind. This is how it has always been. Sometimes we are aware of it, most of the time we are not. I hope you'll remain aware of it and make an effort to be remembered not simply as a creative generation but as a socially-conscious creative generation. Try it.

I had no idea whether my life would someday be relevant to anyone else's. But in the mid-seventies, out of frustration with the terrible economic situation in Bangladesh I decided to see if I could make myself useful to one poor person a day in the village next door to the university campus where I was teaching. I found myself in an unfamiliar situation. Out of necessity I had to find a way out. Since I did not have a road-map, I had to fall back on my basic instinct to do that. At any moment I could have withdrawn myself from my unknown path, but I did not. I stubbornly went on to find my own way. Luckily, at the end, I found it. That was microcredit and Grameen Bank.

Now, in hindsight, I can joke about it. When people ask me, "How did you figure out all the rules and procedures that is now known as Grameen system ?" My answer is : "That was very simple and easy. Whenever I needed a rule or a procedure in our work, I just looked at the conventional banks to see what they do in a similar situation. Once I learned what they did, I just did the opposite. That's how I got our rules. Conventional banks go to the rich, we go to the poor; their rule is -- "the more you have, the more you get." So our rule became -- "the less you have higher attention you get. If you have nothing, you get the highest priority." They ask for collateral, we abandoned it, as if we had never heard of it. They need lawyers in their business, we don't. No lawyer is involved in any of our loan transactions. They are owned by the rich, ours is owned by the poorest, the poorest women to boot. I can go on adding more to this list to show how Grameen does things quite the opposite way.

Was it really a systematic policy æ to do it the opposite way ? No, it wasn't. But that's how it turned out ultimately, because our objective was different. I had not even noticed it until a senior banker admonished me by saying : Dr. Yunus, you are trying to put the banking system upside down." I quickly agreed with him. I said : "Yes, because the banking system is standing on its head."

I could not miss seeing the ruthlessness of moneylenders in the village. First I lent the money to replace the loan-sharks. Then I went to the local bank to request them to lend money to the poor. They refused.

After months of deadlock I persuaded them by offering myself as a guarantor. This is how microcredit was born in 1976. Today Grameen Bank lends money to 7.5 million borrowers, 97 per cent women. They own the bank. The bank has lent out over $ 7.0 billion in Bangladesh over the years. Globally 130 million poor families receive microcredit. Even then banks have not changed much. They do not mind writing off a trillion dollars in a sub-prime crisis, but they still stay away from lending US $ 100 to a poor woman despite the fact such loans have near 100 per cent repayment record globally.

While focusing on microcredit we saw the need for other types of interventions to help the rural population, in general, and the poor, in particular. We tried our interventions in the health sector, information technology, renewable energy and on several other fronts.

Since we worked with poor women, health issue quickly drew our attention. We introduced health insurance. We succeeded in developing an effective healthcare program based on health insurance, but have not been able to expand this program because of non-availability of doctors. Doctors are reluctant to stay in the villages. (It has become such a big bottleneck that we have now decided to set up a medical college to produce doctors.) Under the program a villager pays about US $ 2.00 a year as health insurance premium, to get health coverage for the entire family. Financially it is sustainable.

I became a strong believer in the power of information technology to change the lives of the poor people. This encouraged me to create a cell-phone company called Grameen Phone. We brought phones to the villages of Bangladesh and gave loans to the poor women to buy themselves cell-phones to sell their service and make money. It became an instant success.

Seventy percent of the population of Bangladesh do not have access to electricity. We wanted to address this issue by introducing solar home system in the villages. We created a separate company called Grameen Shakti, or Grameen Energy. It became a very successful company in popularising solar home system, bio-gas, and environment-friendly cooking stoves. It has already reached 155,000 homes with solar home systems, and aims to reach one million homes by 2012. As we started creating a series of companies around renewable energy, information technology, textile, agriculture, livestock, education, health, finance etc, I was wondering why conventional businesses do not see business the way we see it. They have different goals than ours. We design our businesses one way, they design theirs in another way.

Conventional businesses are based on the theoretical framework provided by the designers of capitalist economic system. In this framework 'business' has to be a profit-maximizing entity. The more aggressively a business pursues it, the better the system functions æ we are told. The bigger the profit, the more successful the business is; the more happy investors are. In my work it never occurred to me that I should maximize profit. All my struggle was to take each of my enterprises to a level where it could at least be self-sustaining. I defined the mission of my businesses in a different way than that of the traditional businesses.

As I was doing it, obviously I was violating the basic tenet of capitalist system æ profit maximization. Since I was engaged in finding my own solution to reach the mission of my business, I was not looking at any existing road maps. My only concern was to see if my path was taking me where I wanted to go. When it worked I felt very happy. I know maximization of profit makes people happy. I don't maximize profit, but my businesses are a great source of my happiness. If you had done what I have done you would be very happy too! I am convinced that profit maximization is not the only source of happiness in business. 'Business' has been interpreted too narrowly in the existing framework of capitalism. This interpretation is based on the assumption that a human being is a single dimensional being. His business-related happiness is related to the size of the profit he makes. He is presented as a robot-like money-making machine.

But we all know that real-life human beings are multi-dimensional beings æ not uni-dimensional like the theory assumes. For a real-life human being money-making is a means, not an end. But for the businessman in the existing theory money-making is both a means and also an end.

This narrow interpretation has done us great damage. All business people around the world have been imitating this one-dimensional theoretical businessman as precisely as they can to make sure they get the most from the capitalist system. If you are a businessman you have to wear profit-maximizing glasses all the time. As a result, only thing you see in the world are the profit enhancing opportunities. Important problems that we face in the world cannot be addressed because profit-maximizing eyes cannot see them.

We can easily reformulate the concept of a businessman to bring him closer to a real human being. In order to take into account the multi-dimensionality of real human being we may assume that there are two distinct sources of happiness in the business world æ 1) maximizing profit, and 2) achieving some pre-defined social objective. Since there are clear conflicts between the two objectives, the business world will have to be made up of two different kinds of businesses --1) profit-maximizing business, and 2) social business. Specific type of happiness will come from the specific type of business.

Then an investor will have two choices æ he can invest in one or in both. My guess is most people will invest in both in various proportions. This means people will use two sets of eye-glassesæ profit-maximizing glasses, and social business glasses. This will bring a big change in the world. Profit maximizing businessmen will be amazed to see how different the world looks once they take off the profit-maximizing glasses and wear the social business glasses. By looking at the world from two different perspectives business decision-makers will be able to decide better, act better, and these decisions and actions will lead to a dramatically better world.

While I was wondering whether the idea of social business would make any sense to the corporate world I had an opportunity to talk to the chairman of Danone Group Mr. Franck Riboud about this subject. It made perfect sense to him right away. Together we created Grameen Danone company as a social business in Bangladesh. This company produces yogurt fortified with micro-nutrients which are missing in the mal-nourished children of Bangladesh. Because it is a social business, Grameen and Danone, will never take any dividend out of the company beyond recouping the initial investment. Bottom line for the company is to see how many children overcome their nutrition deficiency each year.

Next initiative came from Credit Agricole of France. We created Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation to provide financial support to microfinance organizations and social businesses.

We created a small water company to provide good quality drinking water in a cluster of villages of Bangladesh. This is a joint venture with Veolia, a leading water company in the world. Bangladesh has terrible drinking water problem. In a large part of Bangladesh tubewell water is highly arsenic contaminated, surface water is polluted. This social business water company will be a prototype for supplying safe drinking water in a sustainable and affordable way to people who are faced with water crisis. Once it is perfected, it can be replicated in other villages, within Bangladesh and outside.

We have already established an eye-care hospital specializing in cataract operation, with a capacity to undertake 10,000 operations per year. This is a joint venture social business with the Green Children Foundation created by two singers in their early twenties, Tom and Milla, from England and Norway.

We have signed a joint-venture agreement with Intel Corporation, to create a social business company called Grameen-Intel to bring information technology-based services to the poor in healthcare, marketing, education and remittances.

We also signed a social business joint venture agreement with Saudi German Hospital Group to set up a series of hospitals in Bangladesh.

Many more companies from around the world are showing interest in such social business joint ventures. A leading shoe company wants to create a social business to make sure that nobody goes without shoes. One leading pharmaceutical company wishes to set up a joint venture social business company to produce nutritional supplements appropriate for Bangladeshi pregnant mothers and young women, at the cheapest possible price.

We are also in discussion to launch a social business company to produce chemically treated mosquito-nets to protect people in Bangladesh and Africa from malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

Your generation can bring a breakthrough in changing the course of the world. You can be the socially-conscious creative generation that the world is waiting for. You can bring your creativity to design brilliant social businesses to overcome poverty, disease, environmental degradation, food crisis, depletion of non-renewable resources, etc. Each one of you is capable of changing the world. To make a start all that each one of you has to do is to design a business plan for a social business. Each prototype of a social business can be a cute little business. But if it works out, the whole world can be changed by replicating it in thousands of locations.

Prototype development is the key. In designing a prototype all we need is a socially-oriented creative mind. That could be each one of you. No matter what you do in your life, make it a point to design or be involved with at least one social business to address one problem that depresses you the most. If you have the design and the money, go ahead and put it into action. If you have the design but no money, contact your dean -- he will find the money. I never heard that MIT has problem in finding money when it has a hot idea in its hand. MIT can even create a social business development fund in anticipation of your requests.

I can tell you very emphatically that in terms of human capability there is no difference between a poor person and a very privileged person. All human beings are packed with unlimited potential. Poor people are no exception to this rule. But the world around them never gave them the opportunity to know that each of them is carrying a wonderful gift in them. The gift remains unknown and unwrapped. Our challenge is to help the poor unwrap their gift.

Poverty is not created by the poor. It is created by the system. Poverty is an artificial imposition on people. Once you fall outside the system, it works against you. It makes it very difficult to return to the system.

How do we change this? Where do we begin ?

Three basic interventions will make a big difference in the existing system : a) broadening the concept of business by including "social business" into the framework of market place, b) creating inclusive financial and healthcare services which can reach out to every person on the planet, c) designing appropriate information technology devices, and services for the bottom-most people and making them easily available to them.

Your generation has the opportunity to make a break with the past and create a beautiful new world. We see the ever-growing problems created by the individual-centered aggressively accumulative economy. If we let it proceed without serious modifications, we may soon reach the point of no return. Among other things, this type of economy has placed our planet under serious threat through climatic distortions. Single-minded pursuit of profit has made us forget that this planet is our home; that we are supposed to make it safe and beautiful, not make it more unliveable everyday by promoting a life-style which ignores all warnings of safety.

At this point let me give you the good news. No matter how daunting the problems look, don't get brow beaten by their size. Big problems are most often just an aggregation of tiny problems. Get to the smallest component of the problem. Then it becomes an innocent bite-size problem, and you can have all the fun dealing with it. You'll be thrilled to see in how many ways you can crack it. You can tame it or make it disappear by various social and economic actions, including social business. Pick out the action which looks most efficient in the given circumstances. Tackling big problems does not always have to be through giant actions, or global initiatives or big businesses. It can start as a tiny little action. If you shape it the right way, it can grow into a global action in no time. Even the biggest problem can be cracked by a small well-designed intervention. That's where you and your creativity come in. These interventions can be so small that each one of you can crack these problems right from your garage. If you have a friend or two to work with you, it is all the more better. It can be fun too.

You are born in the age of ideas. Ideas are something an MIT graduate, I am sure, will not run out of. The question I am raising now -- what use you want to make of them ? Make money by selling or using your ideas ? Or change the world with your ideas? Or do both ? It is upto you to decide.

There are two clear tasks in front of you -- 1) to end poverty in the world once for all, and 2) to set the world in the right path to undo all the damage we have done to the environment by our ignorance and selfishness. Time is right. Your initiatives can produce big results, even lead you to achieving these goals. Then yours will be the most successful generation in human history. You will take your grand-children to the poverty museums with tremendous pride that your generation had finally made it happen.

Congratulations, for being part of a generation which has exciting possibilities, and advance congratulations to you all for your future successes in creating a new world where everyone on this planet can stand tall as a human being.

Thank you.
[Listen to the Audio]
 
President Susan Hockfield

MIT President Susan Hockfield

[Susan Hockfield biography :

http://web.mit.edu/hockfield/biography.html

]

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[chottala.com] MIT Commencement 2008 : image gallery profiling Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus

 
 
 

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http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/yunus-0606.html

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus gives the MIT Commencement address on Killian Court Friday morning. Photo / Donna Coveney

 
 
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus shares a laugh with President Emeritus Charles Vest as they proceed to Killian Court for MIT's Commencement. Photo / Donna Coveney

 

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MIT President Susan Hockfield waves to graduates as the procession heads down Massachusetts Avenue to Killian Court for Commencement. She is accompanied by MIT Corporation Chairman Dana Mead, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, President Emeritus Charles M. Vest, and President Emeritus Paul E. Gray. Photo / Donna Coveney

 

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Muhammad Yunus with MIT President Susan Hockfield. Photo / Sarah Putnam

 

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[chottala.com] The soldier who fell from grace by Ayesha Siddiqa

The soldier who fell from grace

Ayesha Siddiqa

Posted online: Monday, June 09, 2008 at 0039 hrs 


 These days, it's tough being Pakistan's President Musharraf. The one time emperor-like ruler of Pakistan no longer wears any uniform of respectability, yet he has to perform the difficult task of remaining on the throne without any clothes on. His own military seems to be turning against him since he is largely seen as an American stooge rather than a man serving the army's interests.

Pervez Musharraf, the president, could have survived had the political parties only confronted him. The country's history bears witness to the fact that no military dictator ever left the throne unless pushed out by his own service. General Ayub Khan was shown the door by General Yahya Khan, who, in turn, was forced out by the army's senior command. Similarly, General Zia-ul-Haq might not have left his position had his own men not disposed of him.

This is not to underestimate the work of the political parties, but the fact is that dictators have never left until an equally strong force — which in Pakistan's case happens to be the military — coerced them. In Musharraf's case, a combination of factors, such as the mild struggle of the political parties, influence of external actors such as the United States, the lawyer's movement, which was a creation of his own folly, and Benazir Bhutto's tragic death proved to be the deadly potion which forced him to take his uniform off. Ideally speaking, he could still continue in power because Washington continues to support the former general. A large part of the American policy-making circle believes that Musharraf alone can protect US strategic interests in Pakistan. After all, the former army chief has done quite a lot in terms of controlling nuclear proliferation, keeping the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Dr A.Q. Khan, under lock and key and catching al-Qaeda militants. It had become quite convenient for the US administration to operate in Pakistan through Musharraf.

However, his keen assistance to Washington appears to be his undoing, especially within his army that seems extremely uncomfortable with his policies. The bulk of the junior and junior-to-middle ranking officers do not believe that they are fighting their own war in the tribal areas. The disenfranchisement within the defence forces ties the hands of the senior generals who benefit from their alignment with the US, but cannot totally support the former chief's policies due to internal organisational pressures. It is not just for nothing that we can see interesting things happening in Pakistan, such as the exhibition of private videos on state television meant to embarrass Musharraf or the confessions of former Lt Gen Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani or Dr A.Q. Khan. Kiyani's confession on television regarding the Kargil operation still does not mean that the military is likely to conduct an audit of the operation or that it carries the whole truth. But what it means is that some segments of the military are willing to publicly embarrass Musharraf with the intent of convincing him to leave.

There are two possible sources for this campaign. First, the current army chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani, feels helpless due to appointments Musharraf made prior to his retirement in November last year. The fact that Musharraf loyalists occupy most senior positions makes it difficult for the current army chief to force the president to resign as had happened in President Ghulam Ishaq Khan's case during the '90s. He is forced to act like a toothless General Yahya. So, the natural course is to use secret and coercive methods to nudge the top man out. Second, certain elements in the army want Musharraf out and have done all of what is mentioned above. In addition, these elements are doing policy reversal such as unleashing the militants to reverse Musharraf's earlier policies. This group of individuals might be operating without necessarily being authorised from the top, which is a much more dangerous proposition since it means that the military is badly fractured. One hopes that this is not the case.

However, the conclusion is more important — that it is time for Musharraf to leave. The choice is between the devil and the deep blue sea. He could opt to fight it out. In that case, he might face impeachment, which is being suggested by a lot of people. The alternative is to seek a safe exit by resigning and leaving the country, which he might have to do once he leaves the presidency. There are enough unhappy people who might come gunning for him. In both cases, the chairman of the upper house of parliament, the Senate, would become the president until a new one is elected.

Not to mention the third option of continuing in power only with American help. But this is likely to make his position even more unenviable. Musharraf might have a better option of saving his own life if he left peacefully.

The author is an independent security analyst of Pakistan and is currently teaching at the University of Philadelphia. She is the first civilian to be the director of the Naval Research Institute of Pakistan. Views expressed are her personal.

ayesha.sidiqqa@gmail.com

Note:

Dr Ayesha Siddiqa's Monday Col disappeared from the Daily Times of Lahore, whose editor Nazam Shetty -once imprisoned by Nawaz Shariff for being allegedly pro-Indian.

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