Saturday, November 22, 2008

What Drives You ?

Ryan Allis gives his take on what drives him.

The role of the mobile phone in ending poverty

Iqbal Quadir is an advocate of business as a humanitarian tool. With GrameenPhone, he brought the first commercial telecom services to poor areas of Bangladesh. His latest project will help rural entrepreneurs build power plants.

As a kid in rural Bangladesh in 1971, Iqbal Quadir had to walk half a day to another village to find the doctor -- who was not there. Twenty years later he felt the same frustration while working at a New York bank, using diskettes to share information during a computer network breakdown. His epiphany: In both cases, "connectivity is productivity." Had he been able to call the doctor, it would have saved him hours of walking for nothing.

Partnering with microcredit pioneer GrameenBank, in 1997 Quadir established GrameenPhone, a wireless operator now offering phone services to 80 million rural Bangladeshi. It's become the model for a bottom-up, tech-empowered approach to development. "Phones have a triple impact," Quadir says. "They provide business opportunities; connect the village to the world; and generate over time a culture of entrepreneurship, which is crucial for any economic development."
"GrameenPhone has increased the country’s GDP by a far greater amount than repeated infusions of foreign aid. "
The New Nation

What leads to success ?

Hans Rosling and Global Trends ( The seemingly impossible is possible)

Hans Rosling (b.1948 in Uppsala, Sweden) is Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet and Director of Gapminder Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden. From 1967 to 1974 he studied statistics and medicine at Uppsala University, and in 1972 he studied public health at St John's Medical College, Bangalore. He became a licenced physician in 1976 and from 1979 to 1981 he served as District Medical Officer in Nacala in northern Mozambique.

On 21 August 1981, he discovered an outbreak of a formerly unknown paralytic disease and the investigations that followed earned him a Ph.D. degree at Uppsala University in 1986. He spent two decades studying outbreaks of this disease in remote rural areas across Africa and supervised more than 10 PhD students. His research group named the new disease konzo, the local designation by the first affected population. Outbreaks occur among hunger stricken rural populations in Africa where a diet dominated by insufficiently processed cassava results in simultaneous malnutrition and high dietary cyanide intake [1].

His research has also focused on other links between economic development, agriculture, poverty and health in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He has been health adviser to WHO, UNICEF and several aid agencies. In 1993 he co-founded Médecins sans frontières in Sweden and he is since 2005 member of the International Group of the Swedish Academy of Science. At Karolinska Institutet he was head of the Division of International Health (IHCAR) from 2001 to 2007. As chairman (1998-2004) of Karolinska International Research and Training Committee he started health research collaborations with universities in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. He started new courses on Global Health, co-authors a textbook on Global Health and promotes a fact based world view.

He co-founded the Gapminder Foundation together with his son Ola Rosling and daughter-in-law Anna Rosling Rönnlund. Gapminder developed the Trendalyzer software that converts international statistics into moving, interactive and enjoyable graphics. The aim is to promote a fact based world view through increased use and understanding of freely accessible public statistics. His lectures using Gapminder graphics to visualise world development have won awards by being humorous yet deadly serious'. The interactive animations are freely available from the Foundation's website. In March 2007 Google acquired the Trendalyzer software with the intention to scale it up and make it freely available for public statistics.





Thursday, November 20, 2008

Integrative Medicine

Andrew Weil

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/podcasts/artpod-9-weil-vid

Friday, November 14, 2008

Effective Presentations

Dynamic Architecture

Wisdom Book



Open your heart to what the world can show you.

Charter for Compassion

Compassion




Author and scholar, Karen Armstrong talks about the three Abrahamic faiths of Islam , judaism and Christianity and the important role of compassion in these religions.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Rudrapur School

The Story behind Parliament House in BD

Louis Kahn, the architect behind the Parliament Building in Dhaka, his story is explored by his son.

Rickshaw Advertising

Faisal Farooqi of Mouthshut.com , pioneer of rickshaw advertising , talks about his company.

Young Entrepreneurs

Gurbkash Chahal founder of Blue Lithium and author of 'The Dream' talks about his entrepreneurial journey.

How to Think like Leonardo Da Vinci

An inspiring talk on creativity by Michael J Gelb.

Six Senses




Reminds me of my trip to the Maldives. I love the sea when it is turquoise as it was when I first saw the sea in Patayya, Thailand and also the beach opposite Umm Sequiem Park in Dubai last month.

The Power of a Story

How Shell uses a story to deliver its message.