Sir David Attenborough: The Truth About Climate Change

Stewart And Colby Rally Bring Memories of December 2008

Thousands show up at The Mall on a nippy Saturday to attend the Stewart/Colbert rally to mark an eventful weekend, with Marine Marathon looming large the next day, in the DC Metro area.  Colorful banners like "Legalize Pot," "Sanity not Tea" and dashing Halloween costumes adored neighborhoods from Chinatown to Georgetown to Foggy Bottom.  Fun-filled energy, excitement, and exuberance consumed the nation's Capital.  Suddenly, it seemed like late December 2008 when a similar excitement and energy of change reverberated through the city. 

Marine Corps Marathon and Halloween helped conjure up the energy and excitement.  I just wish they never go away.

To read more on the rally, please click on the link below:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/10/30/restore.sanity.rally.people/

Link source: CNN

The Wrath Of A Tsunami In Indonesia

The world cheered for the Chilean miners. But now it consumes in grief over the tragedy of a tsunami in Indonesia. Life's ups and downs continue.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39890501/displaymode/1247?beginSlide=1

Source: MSNBC

Is The World Really Flat?: my own argument

The arguments against the flat world do not diminish the impact of the flat world metaphor on societies.  In fact these arguments reinforce the idea.  Friedman is absolutely on target when he says that today’s globalization is all “about the emergence of completely new social, political, and business models."  These new social orders and how to tackle them are evident in Ghemawat’s 2007 book, Redefining Global Strategy.  The complex transnational economic, social, and political structures must be examined on the basis of value-added components to become globally competitive.  These components include, “adding volume, decreasing costs, differentiating, improving industry attractiveness, normalizing risks, and generating and deploying knowledge."

Ghemawat further mentions four strategies to deal with the uncertainties in today’s increasingly globalized environment.  He calls them “AAA strategies,” which include adaptation, aggregation, and arbitrage.  These strategies, Ghemawat argues, would provide a tactical platform for dealing with the differences between the countries.

In The Flat World, Friedman highlights the evolution of globalization.  Today, he argues, globalization 3.0, the emphasis on individuals, defines the “power of individuals to collaborate and compete globally."  This phenomenon is not only enabling individuals to connect with each other globally, but it is also “empowering” them.  Despande in his 2005 lecture, argues for the empowerment of individuals.  According to him, as a result of increasing knowledge- and information-sharing among individuals, individuals are becoming the constant target of business organizations.  The organizations are putting customer first, ahead of the shareholders, to achieve their business goals. 

Austere economic factors like demand and supply, cost and benefit, transaction cost must be weighed in to determine run businesses.  Leamer’s 2006 argument against the flat world stems from the accountability of these factors.  Friedman, on the other hand, focuses on various human factors such as strong leaders and educators and other intangible factors like adaptation and understanding to explain the flat world metaphor.

Is The World Really Flat?

The metaphor of Tom Friedman’s flat world signals the integration of resources, organizations, and people across the world.  But the idea generated many debates among the social scientists.  Edward Leamer, a noted economist, is very critical of this metaphor.  As an economist, he argues against it with austere economic theories like transaction cost and efficiency.  Freidman flat world emphasizes the narrowing of the gap between the markets across world.  But Leamer in his 2006 article argues against it by emphasizing the lack of evidence of cost efficiency and lack of proper meaning of the word “flat” in economic term. 

To read Leamer’s article, please click on the link below:

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mchinn/Leamer_FlatWorld_060221.pdf

Source: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mchinn/Leamer_FlatWorld_060221.pdf

Technology As We See IT

This week's IT news are on the following two areas.

Southeast Asia – Bangladesh
http://www.economist.com/node/16909923?story_id=16909923
http://www.economist.com/node/4465936
http://www.elore.fi/arkisto/1_10/ajankoht_stark_1_10.pdf
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0712-rhett_butler.html

Middle East
http://polisci.lsa.umich.edu/documents/tesslerCPArticle.pdf
http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/Soumitra.cfm
http://www.ge.com/innovation/middle_east/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/themes/science/index.html

Government, Innovation, and Technology

"For many policy makers, the role of government in promoting innovation is principally to provide ample funds for R&D while supplying the private sector with the right incentives to innovate. While these are important policies in their own right, driving innovation through the procurement process often constitutes low-hanging fruit. All governments purchase goods and services; making innovation an explicit goal in public procurement not only helps improve public services but also spurs innovation in the broader economy and the jobs that this creates" (ITIF, 2010).

http://www.itif.org/files/2010-buying-innovation-analysis.pdf

Source: ITIF

Healthcare Overhaul In Indonesia: a paradigm shift in government accountability

This article describes a bold healthcare plan adopted by the government in Indonesia.  Many Asian and sub-Saharan African countries face dire need in healthcare.  Corruption and lack of funding have remained deterring factors to improve public services like healthcare.  But this is about to change in Indonesia.  Its government has adopted visionary and pragmatic policies to improve healthcare by decentralizing the system, which will allow local governments to monitor and control healthcare issues without bureaucratic red tapes.  Further, government is promoting technological innovation and social involvement to provide better healthcare. 


To read more, follow the link below:
http://graphics.eiu.com/upload/GE_Indonesia_main_Sep21_WEB_FINAL.pdf

Mobile Phone And Healthcare: a technological progress in Bangladesh

The article describes a new initiative of using mobile phones to leverage healthcare for the remote villagers in Bangladesh.  Generally, medical doctors are reluctant to go and practice medicine in remote villages because of lack of government subsidies and economic incentives.  With Grameen’s new mobile health plan, this problem can be resolved by gathering data and transmitting them over to a pool of doctors at a central location.

To read more, follow the link below:
http://www.muhammadyunus.org/Yunus-Centre-Highlights/telemedicine-tackling-rural-doctor-shortage-in-bangladesh/