Category Archives: Yona Fares Maro

USA: Who Owns the News Media 2012

From: Yona Maro

Who Owns the News Media is an interactive database of companies that own news properties in the United States. Use the site to compare the companies, explore each media sector or read profiles of individual companies. It provides detailed statistics on the companies that now own our nation’s news media outlets, from newspapers to local television news stations to radio to digital, and this accompanying summary highlights the major changes of the year. With daily newspapers still providing the majority of original news reporting, what will these new owners mean for the future of our daily news? What is their background? What is the breadth of their news properties and their properties in other industries?

While there were no major ownership changes in ethnic media in the past year, mainstream media organizations made further inroads in the market. Fox, ABC News and Comcast all made moves to create stations and programming geared to Hispanic Americans, bringing in new competition to Univision, the largest Spanish language network and now the fourth largest network overall.

http://stateofthemedia.org/media-ownership/

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Personal and Professional Effectiveness in a Changing world

From: Yona Maro

A talk by Eric Kimani to the CITAM Leadership Team Retreat on 18th January 2008
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My dear brothers and sisters,

Thank you for inviting me to come and speak to this distinguished leadership team on this very challenging subject. I would like to issue a disclaimer that I am not intending to provide all the answers to career and personal effectiveness but I will only give a few pointers because it is a wide subject with wide application. It can be discussed at many levels and with multiple applications. I am glad you have chosen the very instructive little book “Who Moved my Cheese” as your point of reference for your retreat. My talk will deal more with “When and what to do when the cheese moves”.

I will be speaking from the backdrop of the famous words of Charles Darwin and I quote;

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change”

I will begin with some definitions to allow us to agree on the context within which I speak.
I define effectiveness as “doing the right thing or the right job at the right time” as opposed to efficiency which has been the thrust for much of the past with calls for producing with minimum waste and minimum effort.
The dictionary defines effectiveness as “having a definite and desired effect”.

In the metaphor of the cheese story, effectiveness is about knowing when the cheese is about to move or has moved. It is about knowing and doing the right job in a changing world. How do you do it? In one company I joined as an internal auditor. I later created the position of Internal Audit and Cost Controller for myself and again later one as Financial Controller. Both positions never existed before. When I left as finance director that position was abolished! I was later to work in the position of Finance Director which was abolished with my departure. Personal and career effectiveness is about doing the right things and not about doing things efficiently which is presumed in your job. I tell people that efficiency is good- it will lead to praise and at best a bonus but only effectiveness will earn you a promotion!

Personal and career effectiveness begins with knowing your roles and finding the balance of those roles. You must begin by defining what you are about. I define my life on two levels;
1. My role as a father, husband and family member
2. My role in society as a leader, entrepreneur and business leader.
To perform these roles I need to be;
1. Physically fit
2. Spiritually fit
3. Informed.

Everyday I seek the balance of these roles. I score them daily on my daily journal and repeated failure to achieve an acceptable score on one sends signals of danger. I have found this approach extremely beneficial in fulfilling my roles. To be able to meet the competing needs I am forced to seek a balance of roles. For example I am often called to exercise with my wife or children to fulfill both my parental and marital role and keep physically fit.

Consider what you want to achieve as a mother, father, community leader or employee. Decide what steps you will take daily to fulfill these roles. Mirror yourself that you are on course and not stagnated by scoring daily or every so often. Life is a game of chess and to quote Marcus Buckingham “The key difference between checkers and chess is that in checkers the pieces all move in the same way, whereas in chess all the pieces move differently. Thus if you want to excel at the game of chess you have to learn how each piece moves and then incorporate these unique moves into your overall plan of attack”.

You must begin by defining your mission if you are going to seek personal effectiveness and career growth. The subject of developing a personal mission statement is for another day.

I will now look at a few ways in which you can seek personal and career effectiveness

1. Do not be too comfortable where you are.
In essence we are all happy when things are working out well. When our jobs look secure; our health is good; our families are doing well; our marriages are working. We indeed get to assume that life will always be like this. Many of us take our jobs for granted. We assume that they are our entitlement; we deserve them. We begin to hang the coat on the chair and take off for a while; we begin to take off unnecessary sick-off. When things suddenly change and there is retrenchment we begin to blame the company; the country the government and the leadership. We blame the system as unjust. I have a friend who lost his job as CEO over 15 years ago and he continues to tell the story to any one who cares to listen that his boss unfairly had him sacked. He never got another job. Not long ago a victim of retrenchment in a company I know did not tell his family of the retrenchment until seven months later when the money run out- He woke up every morning and pretended to his family to go to work! Like one of the characters in the cheese story, he did not want to believe that the cheese had moved.

Many of us take our spouses or our children or friends for granted. I know couples whose marriage broke because they did not take care of the “small matters” around them. Two marriages of friends I know well broke because the wife suddenly realized that the husband could not give up drugs. When I asked the wife when she knew that the husband was on drugs, she said she suspected long before they married but hoped he would give up! She refused to smell the cheese & respond accordingly then. Twenty one years into the marriage he never did and the marriage is now broken!

2. The more important your career/spouse/child/friend is to you the more you want to hold onto them.
Many people have lost the opportunity to grow their careers because they want to remain in the known territory. Someone said that you can never discover new lands until you are prepared to leave the shore. I have watched people wait for a company go down with them and then spend all their years in court corridors seeking compensation. They fail to read the signs of the times. Their fear of change often immobilizes them to taking no action. They forget that fear is an ingredient of our lives. They justify their actions with reasons that border on the ridiculous. They do not keep their antennae up to know what is happening and are caught unawares. I know one executive who lost his job and spent the next many years in court fighting that he was wrongly terminated. At the end of it all he was thoroughly “bruised” by the court battle!
Human beings have a streak to want to do the same things over and over- remaining in their known environment. We have a fear of the unknown. Someone described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Human beings are capable of remaining in denial for years. When we stay in denial our performance and capacity suffers. When we are in denial with our families, we only delay the inevitable with regard to our spouses, our children or our other relationships. Ask yourself this question; Assuming that your current fears are that;
1. You might lose your job
2. You might lose your marriage
3. My son/daughter is on drugs
4. You might be HIV positive
What will you do?
Stephen Covey says “in the space between stimulus and response lies your freedom to chose”.

You must be prepared to leave the comfort zone if you are looking for personal and career growth in a changing world. When I was nearly 40 I decided I needed to read for a degree in Law. For me to get where I am in career I figured that I needed this among other things. It was not easy- I burnt the midnight oil. The opportunity cost was high.
You must recognize fear for what it is –False Evidence Appearing Real!
Like Richard Branson of Virgin says, “If you look at all the miles between, you might not take the first step. Whatever it is you want to achieve in life, if you do not make the effort you won’t reach your goal. Take that first step. What ever your goal you will not succeed until you let go your fears”. Jesus feared so much that he perspired blood and still did it anyway!
The biblical story of digging trenches when not a cloud was in the sky is instructive!

3. It is okay to be afraid and change.
Reasonable fear acted upon is a prerequisite for success. I keep telling people that for myself, bold and fearless as I may seem to many, nothing has made me more anxious than changing career and jobs! Yet I have done it more regularly on average than many. Sometimes I have experienced great fear with regard to my family and my financial security.
Reasonable fear should propel us into action towards desirable positive change.

4. Be alert of your circumstances often to ensure that change is not shifting things around you.

Using the metaphor of the cheese- smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old. Many people lack the simple skill of knowing when circumstances change: when the job is about to disappear; the spouse is on the wrong tangent; the youngster is on the wrong path! As the saying goes, “if you fail to change change will change you.”
This skill that tells you when circumstances are changing is key to career and personal growth. Sometimes it is as simple as changes in how your immediate boss responds or treats you; changes in how your spouse dress or reacts; changes in the behavior of our young ones. This is almost what people call a gut feeling! I once worked for a company where, for ulterior reasons, my boss was not particularly impressed with how I was working and I noticed that he began communicating with me through third parties. The writing was on the wall. I choose to leave as early as I could and hence on my terms! When your teenage son or daughter begins to lock themselves in their bedroom –begin to smell change and find out what is happening! When your spouse begins to complain about things that have never bothered them in many years, begin to know that change is in the air. A friend of mine has had a marriage problem now for a couple of years. The errant spouse began telling stories of the need to be away in places they never had to go before; they started coming home late. Eventually what was an admirable marriage hit the rocks!
In one of my earlier jobs, my boss once walked into my office and asked me bluntly “now that you have trained your junior to handle what you do so well, what do you propose to do?” I answered him loudly with a resignation in due course that pleased him and that worked out extremely well for me! Learn to smell when the cheese is getting old!

5. Learn Creative imagination.
Imagine that which you would like. Every successful venture begins with a single thought. It begins with dreaming/envisioning. In the metaphor of cheese it begins with you imagining yourself enjoying new cheese even before you find it- It works like self-prophesy and will lead you to it!
I love telling the story of how years ago as I went through the agony of private study as a mature student of law. The easiest way to get me to do more jogging laps without noticing it was to keep thinking myself as a qualified lawyer. I would draw the guest list for my graduation repeatedly in my mind! In 2003 most of those on my imagined guest list attended my party on being admitted as an advocate of the high court of Kenya!

Personal and career growth calls for planning. Plan how you wish to play the game of life. I plan mine in 5 year blocks, changing and amending as necessary as I go along but I notice without fail that I have largely worked towards my plan for the last two or so decades. Plot your life on paper and say to yourself where you wish to be in 5 years and what you need to do to get there. It forestalls failure and builds your confidence. Plan to succeed. Positive thoughts elicit the energy and desire to take action. Dream and envision what you want. Last year I decided I wanted three things in the next five years. I have nearly achieved two! I turned 50 last month. I started work at 23 and therefore reckon I am half way through my life. I am changing my game plan for the second half of my life. I plan to retire from active work at 75! This is creative imagination.

6. Keep life simple.
Do not over-complicate life through detailed analysis and complicated plans. Like Tom Peters says “if there one thing that makes God laugh is to see us plan, and plan and plan”! The rules of life should be Fail; Fast; Forward. Try it and if it fails try again fast and move on! In the metaphor of your cheese story, you need to know and accept when the cheese moves and that it has moved! Do not spend time and energy mourning the fact that it has moved! A lesson from evaluating my life…everytime the cheese moves, it creates an opportunity for me to reach higher heights and achieve greater success but ONLY IF I seize the moment. The same applies for all of us.

7. Nothing changes like change!
Appreciate that change is unstoppable. Adapt to it. Imagine what happened to the gatherer when he saw his neighbor planting food crops- He must have thought they were out of their mind! Imagine what happened in the agricultural revolution- A single tractor wiped out the jobs of hundreds of people in a flash! Imagine what happened during the industrial revolution with a single conveyor doing what 100 men did previously? Do you remember containerization? What about the information revolution? Do you remember the bank queue of not long ago with many cashiers struggling to serve so few customers? And today a single ATM machine stands on every street corner without anyone manning it and 24/7 and 365 days a year! When I hear some people say computers and email are for the young I laugh at their resistance to change! Enjoy change! Be part of change- this way you will never be out of work. I have been a CEO at a tea company; a tyre company and I would not be surprised if tomorrow I am managing a hospital!

Career and personal effectiveness is about belief in yourself; it is about conquering your natural and imagined fears; it is about identifying, anticipating, monitoring and adopting to a changing world!

In my characteristic style I would like to finish with an instructive true story on change….

General Motors was for many years the market leader in automobiles out of Detroit. Their systems were all geared towards selling big cars. So they continued producing big cars to feed their established system.

They did not adapt to change and their systems, style and structure were all unsuitable for the rapidly changing world with its constantly changing needs. Today Toyota is the world’s leading automobile company. Its ability to sense the cheese moving is phenomenal!

Can you begin to anticipate what will change?

Thank you.

© Eric Kimani 2008

How Your Business Ethics Define Your Patriotism

From: Yona Maro
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By Moses Kirui

Just as love is a prerequisite to obedience, true patriotism depicts one’s love to their country. It is beyond obligation, responsibility and paying debts. Essentially, it should be a response that surpasses all the existing complaints. If this is the case with patriotism, then the cases of smuggling and evading taxes should not be part of Rwanda’s story.

When you evade taxes and smuggle, becoming a merchant of contraband, you stand such a betrayer of the ideals of development. Smuggling severely harms the economy, undermines the local industry, discourages fair competition, promotes dumping with all its dirty attendants and shrinks the volume of revenues collected by the state.

Greed for wealth, ignorance of the tenets of building an economy and the weak pillars that can educate the masses on the importance of tax compliance can be seen as forces that give an undivided impetus to the flourishing of the entrepreneurial and development cancer.

When an importer declares goods under a lower value code particularly to attract lower tax rates with intent of reducing the tax liability, you are not a patriot.

If you declare a wrong country of origin as the source of goods particularly with COMESA and non COMESA states because of the lower tariff rates for goods originating from COMESA member states, you are not a patriot.

If you declare fewer quantities on importation documents than the actual goods being imported and giving a lower value than the actual value of goods, you are robbing your country.

It is unfortunate that a similar underground economy is said to be taking roots in Rwanda. The activity undermines the social fabric of society and has devastating consequences on national economy. A small proportion of the revenue to be collected by the government is being lost, over and above the adverse impact that the smuggled items cause to the growing industry.

Recent reports from Rwanda Revenue Authority indicate that there is frequent smuggling of liquors and wines, iron sheets, rice, construction materials, consumable products such as Nido, clothes, electronics and motor vehicles where the smugglers decide to change the chassis numbers.

The RRA Revenue Protection Unit has put measures in place to curb the vice but we need to tackle the problem from within our inner selves. If all of us understood the value of paying taxes, we would not be incessantly discussing ways of curbing smuggling; we would not have been stopped by RRA officers on patrol to check if there are any smuggled goods on board.

Many people complain about the need to pay taxes, but what they don’t realise are the services they get in return for paying such taxes. Though tax can be a real burden at times, it’s imposed for a reason, which is for your benefit and the whole society.

Without Taxes! No schools, streets and roads, no libraries, police or fire departments, no sanitation sewers, storm drains, no town managers. At the state level, there would be no highways bridges, or state forests, no recreation areas, no regional water supplies, no National Guard and at the federal level, no navy army, a military of any kind, no interstate highway systems, and no national parks. Taxes are how the members of our society pay for these services we all use.

Well, the government needs a good and stable financial resource base to manage all aspects of the entire economy. The revenues from domestic taxes provide this. Without it, the services offered to all citizens could not at all be provided.

Think about this, if we only paid for the services we need then there is no way we could afford it. For instance, if you wanted to go from Kigali to Gitarama, can you afford to pay for the construction of road that connects these two places? NO. You open a tap and clean water flows out of it; if we were to put a filtration system on our own and a pipe that connects all the way to the nearby reservoir, it would cost just too much. Therefore, we pay for these services in form of taxes and use them as an entire society.

The result of not paying taxes could be penalty and prison time. There is no need for that, why can’t we be patriots enough and meet our tax obligations? So next time, when the time comes to pay taxes, do not feel too bad. It is your contribution to the services you receive in return.

Energy for a Shared Development Agenda: Global Scenarios and Governance Implications

From: Yona Maro

This report combines a global assessment of energy scenarios up to 2050, case studies of energy access and low-carbon efforts around the world, and a review of the technological shifts, investments, policies and governance structures needed to bring energy to all.

http://sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ResearchReport-EnergyForASharedDevelopmentAgenda-2012.pdf

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Adaptation to Climate Change: The Case of a Combined Cycle Power Plant

From: Yona Maro

This report aims to demonstrate how a rapid climate change impact assessment can be used to identify the possible impacts of climate change on a thermal power investment project. For this demonstration, the O MON IV Combined Cycle Power Station Project in Southern Viet Nam is used for illustrative purposes.

http://beta.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2012/climate-change-combined-cycle-power-plant.pdf

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Out of Control : Mining, Regulatory Failure, and Human Rights in India

From: Yona Maro

This 70-page report finds that deep-rooted shortcomings in the design and implementation of key policies have effectively left mine operators to supervise themselves. This has fueled pervasive lawlessness in India’s scandal-ridden mining industry and threatens serious harm to mining-affected communities. Human Rights Watch documented allegations that irresponsible mining operations have damaged the health, water, environment, and livelihoods of these communities.
Read the Press Release

ISBN: 1-56432-898-8
Get the Report
Download the full report (PDF, 569.63 KB)
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/india0612ForUpload_0.pdf

Out of Control
Summary

Key Recommendations

Methodology

I. Background: “Illegal Mining” in India
II. Goa Case Study: Regulatory Collapse and its Consequences
III. Regulatory Collapse in India’s Mining Sector
IV. Karnataka Case Study: Criminality and Mining
V. Mining and Human Rights: Government’s Duty to Regulate
VI. A Nationwide Problem
VII. Reining in the Abuse: Practical Steps Forward for India’s Government
Acknowledgments

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.

We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.

. . .

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AU Summit: Malawi Stands With Darfur Victims

From: Yona Maro

The Malawi government showed strong support for victims of international crimes by deciding not to be the host of the African Union (AU) summit if President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan is allowed to attend, African civil society organizations and international organizations with a presence in Africa said today.

The AU has insisted that al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur, be permitted to attend the summit, scheduled for July 9 to 16, 2012.

“Malawian President Joyce Banda took a strong stance in support of justice despite tough pressure from the African Union,” said Undule Mwakasungula, director ofthe Malawi Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation. “Malawi has done right by Darfur victims today.”

When Banda became president in April, she indicated that Malawi would continue to host the AU summit as planned. But she also made clear that al-Bashir would not be welcome at the summit given his pending ICC arrest warrant.

Malawi is a state party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.The Rome Statute requires member states to cooperate with the court, which includes executing arrest warrants. The ICC has no police force and thus depends on member states to enforce its orders.

According to news reports, the AU wrote the Malawi government in June that it would move the July summit if al-Bashir were not welcomed. The AU previously has issued decisions that its members should not cooperate in the arrest of al-Bashir, but these do not negate the obligations of ICC member states to arrest, the organizations said. Malawi’s previous president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, allowed al-Bashir to visit in October 2011.

“Malawi joins an increasing number of countries that have declined to welcome al-Bashir,” said Alan Wallis, international justice lawyer at the Southern Africa Litigation Centre. “More states should follow Malawi’s example.”

Some countries have allowed al-Bashir on their territory, such as Kenya, Chad, and Djibouti. Following outcries from African civil society groups, other states have cancelled visits, including Zambia, Central African Republic, Uganda, and Kenya for a return visit. In addition, countries such as South Africa and Botswana have made clear that al-Bashir is not welcome on their soil.

“Civil society groups across the African continent have repeatedly urged governments to arrest – not host – al-Bashir,” said Elise Keppler, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch. “African activists have called for their governments to stand with victims, not with suspected war criminals.”

The organizations quoted in this news release are part of an informal network of African civil society organizations and international organizations with a presence in Africa who work on the ICC and Africa. Additional organizations that are involved in this informal network that expressed support for this release are the West African Bar Association in Nigeria, the Ugandan Coalition for the International Criminal Court, the International Commission of Jurists-Kenya, the Coalition for Justice and Accountability in Sierra Leone, the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law-Sierra Leone, the International Crime in Africa Programme of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, Amnesty International, the global Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and the International Center for Transitional Justice.

Malawi civil society organizations have indicated they will also issue a statement on Malawi’s decision not to be the host for the summit. A link to their statement will be added to the webpage version of this release once it is available.

Source : http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/08/au-summit-malawi-stands-darfur-victims

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Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions 2012

From: Yona Maro

This annual publication presents Deloitte’s view of key developments over the next 12-18 months that are likely to have significant medium-to long-term impacts for companies in technology, media & telecommunications (TMT) and other industries. The aim with Predictions is to catalyze discussions around significant developments that may require companies or governments to respond.

http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Peru/Local%20Assets/Documents/pe_TMT_Predict_2012.pdf

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World: Sustainable Mining: Unearthing human rights challenges and opportunities

From: Yona Maro

Without adherence to human rights standards, mining can cause loss of land and livelihoods, degradation of land and waterways, and increased violence and conflict. The most marginalised members of communities – such as women, children and Indigenous Peoples – tend to both be excluded from the economic benefits of mining, and tend to bear the brunt of any negative social and environmental impacts.

Australian mining companies operating overseas face significant challenges in relation to human rights, especially those that operate in conflict and post – conflict zones, and where governance is weak. With so many Australian companies operating in the countries of Africa, and throughout the Asia-pacific region, a rights-based approach to managing business decisions and practice is necessary.

Putting human rights information in the public domain sends a very strong signal to all company staff that human rights is an issue of fundamental concern to the company. In doing so it can drive increased employee engagement on the issue and assist in delivering on human rights priorities. Despite the high cost of assurance, some participants explained that their Boards demanded this as it provides the best guarantee that sustainability reports are based on fact.

Sustainability reports without independent assurance were also noted as lacking credibility with investors. Increasingly businesses are demanding assurance from other businesses in their supply chains.

More http://www.mwanabidii.com/forumdisplay.php?56-Mining

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Global Environment Outlook 5

From: Yona Maro

As a significant contribution to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) builds on previous reports, continuing to provide analyses of the state, trends and outlook for, and responses to, environmental change, including extreme events from storm, flood and drought, to the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

It also adds new dimensions through its assessment of progress towards meeting internationally agreed goals, such as the development of programmes for mitigating the effects of extreme water-related events, and identifying gaps in their achievement (Chapters 2–6), on analysing promising response options that have emerged in the regions (Chapters 9–15), and presenting potential responses for the international community (Chapters 16–17).

http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/geo5/GEO5_report_full_en.pdf

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Militarization of Poverty in Africa

1 Reply

From: Yona Maro

African nations stretching from Guinea-Bissau to Somalia are subject to war, coups, and large-scale demonstrations. These nations face similar economic situations, with failing agricultural markets and booming mining industries. In the 1990s, the IMF and the WTO imposed liberal reforms that battered Africa’s agricultural sector. Meanwhile, after the markets were opened, global elites invested their surplus wealth into African mining commodities, which displaced populations, damaged the environment, and funded militant groups. In response to rising violence in Africa, the US invested more in AFRICOM and justified militarization of the continent at home by invoking outrageous fears of fundamental Islam.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/153-expansion-a-intervention/51672-the-militarization-of-poverty-in-africa.html

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Global State of Human Rights Report 2012

From: Yona Maro

The Amnesty International Report 2012 documents the state of human rights during 2011. In five regional overviews and a country-by-country survey of 155 individual countries and territories, the report shows how the demand for human rights continued to resound in every corner of the globe.
http://files.amnesty.org/air12/air_2012_full_en.pdf

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Gold Mining in Africa: Maximizing Economic Returns for Countries

From: Yona Maro

This paper investigates the maximization of economic returns from mining for African countries. We focus on gold mining, a significant sector in at least 34 African countries. Our point of departure in the paper is the well-documented reality that a large number of resource-rich African countries have benefited little from their resource endowments. This group includes many gold-producing countries. Part of the reason for this state of affairs is the fact that countries have received smaller shares of the rents generated from the sector. Furthermore, those shares have not always been efficiently utilized. We carry out some analysis to provide evidence showing that royalty rates (a major source of revenues from the gold mining sector) in the region can be increased to enable countries to better profit from the sector while allowing firms to realize reasonable returns on their investments. The paper also provides some policy recommendations to not only increase regional countries’ share of the resource rent from mining but also to ensure that the revenues received are better allocated.

http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/WPS%20No%20147%20Gold%20Mining%20in%20Africa%20Maximizing%20Economic%20Returns%20for%20Countries%20120329.pdf
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World: My Speech to the Finance Graduates

From: Yona Maro

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By Robert J. Shiller, 30 May 2012

NEW HAVEN – At this time of year, at graduation ceremonies in America and elsewhere, those about to leave university often hear some final words of advice before receiving their diplomas. To those interested in pursuing careers in finance – or related careers in insurance, accounting, auditing, law, or corporate management – I submit the following address:

Best of luck to you as you leave the academy for your chosen professions in finance. Over the course of your careers, Wall Street and its kindred institutions will need you. Your training in financial theory, economics, mathematics, and statistics will serve you well. But your lessons in history, philosophy, and literature will be just as important, because it is vital not only that you have the right tools, but also that you never lose sight of the purposes and overriding social goals of finance.

Unless you have been studying at the bottom of the ocean, you know that the financial sector has come under severe criticism – much of it justified – for thrusting the world economy into its worst crisis since the Great Depression. And you need only check in with some of your classmates who have populated the Occupy movements around the world to sense the widespread resentment of financiers and the top 1% of income earners to whom they largely cater (and often belong).

While some of this criticism may be over-stated or misplaced, it nonetheless underscores the need to reform financial institutions and practices. Finance has long been central to thriving market democracies, which is why its current problems need to be addressed. With your improved sense of our interconnectedness and diverse needs, you can do that. Indeed, it is the real professional challenge ahead of you, and you should embrace it as an opportunity.

Young finance professionals need to familiarize themselves with the history of banking, and recognize that it is at its best when it serves ever-broadening spheres of society. Here, the savings-bank movement in the United Kingdom and Europe in the nineteenth century, and the microfinance movement pioneered by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in the twentieth century, comes to mind. Today, the best way forward is to update financial and communications technology to offer a full array of enlightened banking services to the lower middle class and the poor.

Graduates going into mortgage banking are faced with a different, but equally vital, challenge: to design new, more flexible loans that will better help homeowners to weather the kind of economic turbulence that has buried millions of people today in debt.

Young investment bankers, for their part, have a great opportunity to devise more participatory forms of venture capital – embodied in the new crowd-funding Web sites – to spur the growth of innovative new small businesses. Meanwhile, opportunities will abound for rookie insurance professionals to devise new ways to hedge risks that real people worry about, and that really matter – those involving their jobs, livelihoods, and home values.

Beyond investment banks and brokerage houses, modern finance has a public and governmental dimension, which clearly needs reinventing in the wake of the recent financial crisis. Setting the rules of the game for a robust, socially useful financial sector has never been more important. Recent graduates are needed in legislative and administrative agencies to analyze the legal infrastructure of finance, and regulate it so that it produces the greatest results for society.

A new generation of political leaders needs to understand the importance of financial literacy and find ways to supply citizens with the legal and financial advice that they need. Meanwhile, economic policymakers face the great challenge of designing new financial institutions, such as pension systems and public entitlements based on the solid grounding of intergenerational risk-sharing.

Those of you deciding to pursue careers as economists and finance scholars need to develop a better understanding of asset bubbles – and better ways to communicate this understanding to the finance profession and to the public. As much as Wall Street had a hand in the current crisis, it began as a broadly held belief that housing prices could not fall – a belief that fueled a full-blown social contagion. Learning how to spot such bubbles and deal with them before they infect entire economies will be a major challenge for the next generation of finance scholars.

Equipped with sophisticated financial ideas ranging from the capital asset pricing model to intricate options-pricing formulas, you are certainly and justifiably interested in building materially rewarding careers. There is no shame in this, and your financial success will reflect to a large degree your effectiveness in producing strong results for the firms that employ you. But, however imperceptibly, the rewards for success on Wall Street, and in finance more generally, are changing, just as the definition of finance must change if is to reclaim its stature in society and the trust of citizens and leaders.

Finance, at its best, does not merely manage risk, but also acts as the steward of society’s assets and an advocate of its deepest goals. Beyond compensation, the next generation of finance professionals will be paid its truest rewards in the satisfaction that comes with the gains made in democratizing finance – extending its benefits into corners of society where they are most needed. This is a new challenge for a new generation, and will require all of the imagination and skill that you can bring to bear.

Good luck in reinventing finance. The world needs you to succeed.

Chinese Capabilities for Computer Network Operations and Cyber Espionage

From: Yona Maro

The PLA’s sustained modernization effort over the past two decades has driven remarkable transformation within the force and put the creation of modern command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) infrastructure at the heart of the PLA’s strategic guidelines for long term development. This priority on C4ISR systems modernization, has in turn been a catalyst for the development of an integrated information warfare (IW) capability capable of defending military and civilian networks while seizing control of an adversary’s information systems during a conflict.

The effects of preemptive penetrations may not be readily observable or detected until after combat has begun or after Chinese computer network attack (CNA) teams have executed their tools against targeted networks. Even if circumstantial evidence points to China as the culprit, no policy currently exists to easily determine appropriate response options to a large scale attack on U.S. military or civilian networks in which definitive attribution is lacking. Beijing, understanding this, may seek to exploit this gray area in U.S. policymaking and legal frameworks to create delays in U.S. command decision making.

Earlier in the past decade, the PLA adopted a multi-layered approach to offensive information warfare that it calls Integrated Network Electronic Warfare or INEW strategy. Now, the PLA is moving toward information confrontation as a broader conceptualization that seeks to unite the various components of IW under a single warfare commander. The need to coordinate offensive and defensive missions more closely and ensure these missions are mutually supporting is driven by the recognition that IW must be closely integrated with PLA campaign objectives.

http://www.uscc.gov/RFP/2012/USCC%20Report_Chinese_CapabilitiesforComputer_NetworkOperationsandCyberEspionage.pdf

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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

Why We Need Laws to Protect What’s Left of Our Forests

From: Yona Maro
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

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By Tom Picken
International efforts to protect forests and the people that live in them have failed so badly that just 20 per cent of forest remains untouched by commercial activity. It is really, really crucial that we find a global system that looks after what remains of the world’s lungs.

The question of how best to do this lies at the heart of a recent public debate between Global Witness and WWF over the credibility of the latter’s flagship timber sustainability scheme, the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN).

Last July, a Global Witness investigation raised important concerns that the GFTN was not delivering on its promise to protect people and the environment, because of a combination of weak membership standards, lax monitoring of members and poor transparency. Some of the worst examples showed a UK timber merchant dealing in illegal timber, a Malaysia logging company clearing orang-utan habitat inside WWF’s own “Heart of Borneo” project, and a Swiss-German timber trader whose Congolese subsidiary had links to human rights abuses – all carried out while members of the WWF scheme. WWF initially denied these claims but has now largely accepted them.

These were damning findings which got a lot of attention, and WWF hastened an independent review which has just been made public. It accepts Global Witness claims, acknowledges room for improvement on some of the worst excesses and promises to do a better job of monitoring companies on its books.

These are all positive and welcome steps, which will make a difference in the particular instances cited. But they don’t address – and WWF has consistently brushed over – the fundamental question we are posing, about whether the approach they are endorsing will actually do the job of saving forests.

Our main criticism is not that WWF has got too close to companies and failed to hold them to account, although that is true. It is that even if these companieswere playing by the scheme’s rules, the system it endorses is fundamentally wrong.

The logic WWF works on is that responsible logging will keep some form of forest standing. But a weighty body of evidence now shows this approach actually makes deforestation in these and surrounding areas more likely over time.

The damage done by incentivising loggers to go deeper into primary forest is hard to overstate. That’s why we say operations have to be restricted to areas already subjected to logging, and kept sustainable.

To make this happen, the solutions need to be legally binding, and tackle the perverse incentives to continue logging in new forest frontiers. This is where Global Witness is operating – in tropical forested countries with fragile governments, widespread corruption and rampant illegal logging – working with local civil society to tighten the processes and laws governing forests and monitor the implementation of those laws.

Given the global nature of the industry, we need solutions at this level too, and we have seen some progress. New legislation in Europe banning the import of illegal timber is a welcome complement to tough US laws. But other major markets need to also follow suit including Japan, India and China. And as these laws get implemented, they too need strengthening to not just reject blatant illegal timber, but also make genuine sustainability a condition of entry. This would help purge timber from industrial operations in intact forests from our supply chains.

There are also easier wins in the offing. Take for example the recent legislation in the United States which prohibits any US tax dollars supporting industrial logging in primary tropical forests. Similar legislation in other major countries would send a strong signal to timber markets and other schemes that such operations are no longer acceptable.

The big engine driving deforestation is ultimately consumption. Demand for food, fuel and fibre needs to be contained and made more equitable. Policy makers must face up to this.

But our aim in investigating GFTN was to show that the model at the supply end is broken – the status quo is destroying our forests at breakneck speed, and weak voluntary schemes rubberstamp it. So we need to go back to basics and come up with credible alternatives, armed with legal sanctions, before it’s too late. WWF is one of the most iconic names in environmentalism – it must play a key part in driving forward any solution. We hope they and others will engage with us to seek real long term solutions.

Where do good ideas come from?

From: Yona Maro

One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on-in exhilarating style-one of our key questions: Where do good ideas come from?

With Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson pairs the insight of his bestselling Everything Bad Is Good for You and the dazzling erudition of The Ghost Map and The Invention of Air to address an urgent and universal question: What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NugRZGDbPFU

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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

United Nations E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People

From: Yona Maro

The United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 finds that many have put in place e-government initiatives and information and communication technologies applications for the people to further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable development. Among the e-government leaders, innovative technology solutions have gained special recognition as the means to revitalize lagging economic and social sectors.

The overall conclusion that emerges from the 2012 Survey in today’s recessionary world climate is that while it is important to continue with service delivery, governments must increasingly begin to rethink in terms of e government – and e-governance – placing greater emphasis on institutional linkages between and among the tiered government structures in a bid to create synergy for inclusive sustainable development. An important aspect of this approach is to widen the scope of e-government for a transformative role of the government towards cohesive, coordinated, and integrated processes and institutions through which such sustainable development takes place.

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan048065.pdf

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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

Africa – Dark Continent No More

From: Yona Maro

AFRICA is a continent on the rebound. Poverty is still evident, some parts are still at war, diseases remain a challenge but the world must not be fooled. The continent is a giant that is awakening.

In fact, this has been happening over the past few years but many, even the Africans themselves, have hardly been noticing.

But now things are moving at such a pace the continent is now difficult to ignore, or the world can do so at its own peril.

The World Economic Forum on Africa, a meeting of minds in government, business, civil society, the academia, media and the arts held its 22nd summit in Ethiopia last week where Africa’s transformation was under the spotlight.

More than 700 delegates from 76 countries attended the summit hosted by Ethiopia, itself a country considered the third fastest growing in the world, at an average 8,1 percent Gross Domestic Product growth.

The various statistics released during the Forum from all perspectives showed that the continent is experiencing real transformation with its 2 percent share of global foreign direct investment set to grow phenomenally over the next few years now that the world’s attention has shifted to this continent.

The famous Asian Tigers are fast being tamed by the aggressive “Lions of Africa” as the continent shrugs off the demeaning tag of poverty, darkness, war and disease that it has been known for, for a long time. The picture of wars, hunger and dirt is fast being replaced by that of sunshine, improved infrastructure, wealth and a better quality of life.

The continent is not yet there but there is light at the not too far end of the tunnel.

The body language, the tone of presentations and discussions at the forum told a story of a continent that has suddenly found itself and is raring go.

It certainly was about time that we changed the world’s view on Africa. Often times the minute you say you are from Africa, one suddenly begins to talk about civil strife, diseases and poverty levels instead of engaging on more progressive issues such as ICT development.

But such speakers as Africa Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other prominent speakers stressed that that phase was fast disappearing and a new Africa was about to change the global complexion.

These were no mere sentiments or wishful thinking. Mr Kaberuka said the past decade had been the most progressive for Africa in the last 50 years.

The continent is faring well and is one of the fastest growing regions despite the economic crisis in the West.

In fact, Africa is expected to maintain an average 5 percent growth rate over the next decade.

Sustainable growth would have to be inclusive, with various programmes and projects targeted at the youth, women and micro and small businesses. The need to generate employment for the millions that are jobless cannot be overemphasised.

Of course, challenges such as low intra-Africa trade, corruption, poor infrastructure, political instability in some instances and other impediments to growth would have to be addressed in the process.

As I listened through and participated in some of the discussions at the World Economic Forum, my country Zimbabwe kept coming to my mind.

This country should not be left out of the renaissance and should make the most of the mileage gained by the continent.

The resurgence on the continent resonates well with what has been happening in Zimbabwe on the economic front. This country is the fastest growing in the region and its inflation is the lowest. This, coming from a hyperinflation state only three years ago, is something that has begun to catch the eye of investors and development partners.

Zimbabwe’s economy, although coming from a very low base, has been on the mend.

We were discussing with colleagues over lunch yesterday, the 2007-2008 era when carrying a loaf of bread home would make news and when a petrol attendant in South Africa would easily recognise a Zimbabwean because they always said “pane petrol here?” (is there petrol here?) when to the South Africans it was obvious that a fuel station would naturally have petrol and diesel.

But that phase belongs to history and Zimbabwe will need to consolidate its gains and move the economy further up the ranks.

However, challenges such as perception on indigenisation, poor electricity supply, political disharmony in some instances and poor infrastructure presently threaten the gains that have been made to date.

The economy is expected to grow by 9,4 percent but already some schools of thought argue that the figure will need to be revised downwards.

The country has begun to interest investors with planeloads of businesspeople coming from South Africa, Asia and some parts of Europe but it is the policies we implement here that will determine whether the inquiries will amount to much.

Electricity is a key production component but the challenges at Zesa are compromising Zimbabwe’s competitiveness in terms of trade and investment.

What does it take for Zesa to operate effectively? When will the electricity challenges end? Why have they persisted for this long?

Furthermore, the liquidity challenges have constricted economic activity and the challenges in this respect seem to be worsening.

What strategies do we presently have in place to tame the situation? When should we anticipate a softening of the tight liquidity crunch?

Is there a roundtable where Government, business, labour, civil society and the academia are bringing their minds together to resolve the problems confronting the economy?

Are such platforms as the Tripartite Negotiating Forum and the National Economic Consultative Forum actively engaged in finding solutions?

Is the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries holding emergency meetings to proffer solutions from a business perspective or do we wait for their next annual conference to deliberate on issues?

What is the Business Council of Zimbabwe presently seized with?

To what extend has the one-stop investment authority eliminated the cumbersome process of starting business in Zimbabwe?

Has the country been visible enough to the outside world?

These are some of the questions that need answers as Zimbabwe anticipates an improved economy where business thrive, jobs become available and where the ordinary person can afford a decent meal, healthcare and other facilities to do with their welfare.

At the World Economic Forum Zimbabwe was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, Finance Minister Tendai Biti, Investment Promotion and Economic Planning Minister Tapiwa Mashakada and his permanent secretary Dr Desire Sibanda, among others.

From the business sector, I noticed Kingdom Financial Holdings founder and director Nigel Chanakira, among others.

In my interactions with them, they were upbeat about the country and felt progress would be made once a few issues as stated above were settled.

Professor Mutambara said Zimbabwe had a good story to sell and him and his team were at the Forum to keep a present on the global stage and to benefit from the ideas and thoughts exchanged at such platforms as the WEF meetings.

Let’s see what the next half of the year has in store for this country.

We will collectively have a say in this country’s future.

In God I Trust

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php#

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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

UN: Commission on Science and Technology for Development, fifteenth session

From: Yona Maro
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

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Palais des Nations, Geneva

The Commission will review progress made in the implementation of and follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outcomes at the regional and international levels, including on improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

The Commission will address the following priority themes:

Innovation, research, technology transfer for mutual advantage, entrepreneurship and collaborative development in the information society.

Open access, virtual science libraries, geospatial analysis and other complementary information and communications technology and science, technology, engineering and mathematics assets.

In addition, the national science, technology and innovation policy reviews of El Salvador and Peru will be officially presented.

http://www.unctad.org/en/Pages/CalendarMeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=47