To understand how far ordinary Chinese have been priced out of their country's property market, you need to look not upwards at the Beijing's shimmering high-rise skyline, but down, far below the bustling streets where nearly 20m people live and work.
There, in the city's vast network of unused air defence bunkers, as many as a million people live in small, windowless rooms that rent for £30 to £50 a month, which is as much as many of the city's army of migrant labourers can afford.
The Unreasonable Institute Empowers the Public to Choose the Next Wave of High-Impact Social Entrepreneurs
Global donations will determine which entrepreneurs gain admission to esteemed mentorship program
BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Starting Jan. 20, 45 social entrepreneurs will showcase their ventures in an online platform called the Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace (http://marketplace.unreasonableinstitute.org/). For 50 days, people from around the world are invited to vote with their wallets on the most viable ventures. The first 25 of the 45 finalists to raise $8,000 in the Marketplace will earn access to the highly acclaimed six-week mentorship program at the Unreasonable Institute. At the Institute, these social entrepreneurs undergo rigorous training sessions, including personal and entrepreneurial skill development, intensive workshops and hands-on guidance from leading thought leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors.
The 45 finalists were selected from more than 300 applicants in 60 countries. Each applicant had to present a financially self-sustaining venture that has the ability to scale to serve the needs of at least 1 million people and demonstrates customer validation through sales or pilots. The finalists this year include a Chinese engineer with a prototype for waterless composting toilets; a 2010 CNN Hero from Kenya who has distributed over 10,000 solar lanterns; and an American inventor with a water purification system that can roll up to the size of a ruler.
This conference will be one of the big International meetings exclusively dedicated to Recycling and Reuse of Materials and their Products. The conference will be extremely useful in the sense that it will be attended by hundreds of Chemists, Physicists, Technologists and Engineers, making it a truly interdisciplinary conference. The goal of the conference emphasizes interdisciplinary research on processing, morphology, structure, properties and applications of recycling and reuse of materials and their products and their applications in automotive, civil, chemical, aerospace, computer and marine engineering.
This symposium will bring together a panel of highly-accomplished experts in the field of Recycling and Reuse of Materials and their Products. Talks will encompass basic studies and applications and will address topics of novel issues. During the three-day conference, we will listen to recognized authorities in the field as they discuss recent advances, difficulties, and breakthroughs in the field of recycling and reuse of materials and their products. The conference will feature keynote addresses, a number of plenary sessions, invited talks and contributed lectures focusing on specific tenets of recycling and reuse of materials and their products additionally, there will be several poster sessions, and four best poster presentations will be selected for the award. The conference is to be held on 5th, 6th and 7th, August 2011. Continue reading “Event: 5-7 Aug 2011, Kottayam, Kerala, India; Conf on Recycling & Reuse of Materials (Polymers, Wood, Leather, Glass, Metals, Ceramics, Semi Conductors, Water etc) and their products”
www.goodjobsfirst.org
Good Jobs First is a national policy resource center for grassroots groups and public officials, promoting corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families. We provide timely, accurate information on best practices in state and local job subsidies, and on the many ties between smart growth and good jobs. Good Jobs First works with a very broad spectrum of organizations, providing research, training, communications and consulting assistance.
The Institute’s mission is to provide innovative strategies, working models and timely information to support environmentally sound and equitable community development. To this end, ILSR works with citizens, activists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to design systems, policies and enterprises that meet local or regional needs; to maximize human, material, natural and financial resources; and to ensure that the benefits of these systems and resources accrue to all local citizens.
Since 1974, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance has been working to enable communities with tools to increase economic effectiveness, reduce wastes, decrease environmental impacts and provide for local ownership of the infrastructure and resources essential for community well-being.
Herewith are the first two parts of Jeff St Claire's important multipart series on the systemic corruption and corporatization of the environmental movement.
A Concise History of the Rise and Fall of the Enviro Establishment
New Year's Edition
December 31, 2010 – January 2, 2011
EXTRACT: Watt, Gorsuch, Levelle and Crowell were magnificent villains for fundraising: direct mail revenues of the top environmental groups exploded tenfold from 1979 to 1981. Green became the color of money, and the rag-tag band of hardcore activists who populated the Hill in the 1970s gave way to a cadre of Ivy League-educated lobbyists, lawyers, policy wonks, research scientists and telemarketers. Executives enjoyed perks and salaries that rivaled those of corporate CEOs.
A Concise History of the Rise and Fall of the Enviro Establishment
By the end of Reagan’s second term, the big environmental organizations were well-pickled in the political brine of Washington, with freshness and passion drained out.
. . . . . .
EXTRACT: Under instructions from Bush, Lujan ordered the Bureau of Land Management to fast track the purchase of the Goldstrike Mine by Barrick Resources, a Toronto-based company controlled by financier Peter Munk. The way thus lubricated, Barrick acquired the 1,800 acre gold mine near Elko, Nevada, for the princely sum of $9,500. By the time the mine is shuttered, the Goldstrike will yield an estimated $10 billion in gold. In 1995, in consideration for his favors, George Bush was invited to join Barrick’s board of advisers.
Phi Beta Iota: The work of Jeffrey St. Claire and CounterPunch are representative of public intelligence in the public interest–the work suffers from being isolated and lacking holistic integrity–there is no means for the public to “connect the dots” or evaluate each predatory move in situ and in context. That is the emergent challenge and opportunity of the 21st Century.
