01 Poverty – Page 33 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/01/24

45 Social Entrepreneurs Showcase at “Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace”

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Education, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 11 Society, 12 Water, Academia, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Gift Intelligence, microfinancing, Technologies

Explore the projects

http://marketplace.unreasonableinstitute.org

January 20, 2011

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.

Continue reading “45 Social Entrepreneurs Showcase at “Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace””

2011/01/212011/01/22

Transnational Crime: Camorra & New Twin Towers

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Education, 06 Family, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, 9/11 research, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Research resources, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

There is obviously a lot of news about the recent FBI mafia bust. The NY Daily News has mentioned Massive FBI Mafia bust: Organized crime still has firm grip on unions, even at Ground Zero (1/21/11)

Related: Investigative journalist Roberto Saviano's book Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System (about the pervasive crime syndicate Camorra) was made into a movie. NPR reviewed the movie and repeated what was mentioned at the movie's end “Their members have killed more than 4,000 people in 30 years. They are also shareholders in the reconstruction of the Twin Towers.”
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|Related:
+ European webzine cafebabel.com interviewed Roberto Saviano (Claims Comorra most associated with Spain; cocaine is Europe's “white oil”)
+ Documentario BBC “The Italian Patient” Parte 1 (Roberto Saviano appears/interview at 3:45 while in hiding)
+ Roberto Saviano interview (his security situation, the need to change economic system, the political system needs the mafia, alliances between legal and criminal entrepreneurs, compromised ‘free press,' and “before the bullets there is slander”)
+ Curse Of The Camorra (YouTube, Journeyman Pictures, 22min video)
+ Roberto Saviano interview on BBC2's The Culture Show (Obituary: “YOU CAN'T IGNORE THIS”)
+ Al Jazeera report on Roberto Saviano and the Camorra
+ Mafia Take Down – USA (at 15:35, mention of NYC construction mob influence; Sammy Gravano confessing to killing 19 people yet getting only 5 years in prison & later witness protection in Arizona)
+ The Victorious Mafia (Journeyman Pictures, 1998, 23min doc, lacks translation)
+ Scampia Camorra Napoli Ground Zero (YouTube clips of arrests, murders, etc with music)
+ Transnational crime category at PhiBetaIota

2011/01/212011/01/21

2011 Food Crisis, Urban Gardening, Social Systems

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 06 Family, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, 12 Water, Earth Intelligence

Dear friends,

Food is basic.

Lester Brown — founder of both the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute, author of over 50 books on environmental issues, recipient of 26 honorary degrees and a MacArthur Fellowship, and (according to the Washington Post) “one of the world's most influential thinkers” — has just published a cogent article on the rapidly emerging global food crisis in Foreign Policy magazine. He clearly outlines the problem and where attention and resources must be put to ameliorate it.

I knew such a crisis was emerging. I hadn't realized it was emerging so rapidly.

I offer Brown's article here with no further commentary beyond this: His essay — like most other insightful, data-filled articles of its type — omits the key fact that the political and economic systems that generate such situations are not built to respond to them in a truly life-affirming way. “Issues” and “crises” are symptoms of those dysfunctional systems. If social critics and activists spent half the attention and resources on actually transforming those systems that we expend on “issues” and “crises”, we would soon see those “issues” and “crises” being replaced by “solutions” and “creative initiatives”. This is a supreme example of the kind of thing that a wiser democracy — if we had one — would start to address immediately, if it hadn't already done so decades ago.

While many of us work to transform our political and economic systems, we need also to consider what to do in the meantime as these issues and crises continue to grow. So I also offer below two delightful articles on something that we can all do to ameliorate the impact of the food crisis on our own lives and communities. The articles describe not only the functionality of urban gardening but also its enjoyment — and its spread in the face of rising food prices. Significantly, such gardening is a key element in one of the more co-intelligent initiatives I've seen in recent years, the Transition Towns movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns.

Food for thought… and action… and bellies.

Coheartedly,
Tom

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http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/10/the_great_food_crisis_of_2011

The Great Food Crisis Of 2011
By Lester Brown

Continue reading “2011 Food Crisis, Urban Gardening, Social Systems”

2011/01/132011/01/13

Journal: Microcosm of US Failure in Afghan Development

01 Poverty, 02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Cultural Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Government, Methods & Process, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

More wasted money…..

Program to modernize Afghan justice system yields little so far

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

McClatchy's November investigation of contracting in Afghanistan

Military bans two U.S. firms from Afghan contracting

Contractor Louis Berger settles in Afghan overbilling probe

Follow Afghanistan developments at McClatchy's Checkpoint Kabul

Graphic: Whole of Government Intelligence

Journal: Whole of Government Competence & Contractors

Review: Losing the Golden Hour–An Insider’s View of Iraq’s Reconstruction

Worth a Look: The Golden Hour and Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power

2011/01/122011/01/13

Poor in the USA: 50 Million & Rising + RECAP

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist

Misery With Plenty of Company

By BOB HERBERT

Published: January 7, 2011

Consider the extremes. President Obama is redesigning his administration to make it even friendlier toward big business and the megabanks, which is to say the rich, who flourish no matter what is going on with the economy in this country. (They flourish even when they’re hard at work destroying the economy.) Meanwhile, we hear not a word — not so much as a peep — about the poor, whose ranks are spreading like a wildfire in a drought.

The politicians and the media behave as if the poor don’t exist. But with jobs still absurdly scarce and the bottom falling out of the middle class, the poor are becoming an ever more significant and increasingly desperate segment of the population.

How do you imagine a family of four would live if its annual income was $11,000 or less?

Continue reading “Poor in the USA: 50 Million & Rising + RECAP”

2011/01/122011/01/12

Gerald Celente: Forecasting Revolution in 2011

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, Augmented Reality, Collective Intelligence, Computer/online security, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cyberscams, malware, spam, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Technologies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

When reform becomes impossible, revolution becomes inevitable.

Phi Beta Iota: This guy is amazing. Visit his website.

Gerald Celente: Forecasted Panic in Dec 2007; EIN PDB forecasted crash in Oct 2007

2011/01/102011/01/10

US$2 Trillion debt crisis threatens 100 US cities

01 Poverty, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Government, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Phi Beta Iota: The existence of double sets of books is now coming to light. As best we can tell from various public discussions, the operating budgets are deliberately in the red and used to borrow money, at the same time that out-sourced services and “asset rents” are in the black. We honestly do not know what the true situation is, but we do know that the amount of falsehood and fraud in the “system” is deep.

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Overdrawn American cities could face financial collapse in 2011, defaulting on hundreds of billions of dollars of borrowings and derailing the US economic recovery. Nor are European cities safe – Florence, Barcelona, Madrid, Venice: all are in trouble

Elena Moya, guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 December 2010

More than 100 American cities could go bust next year as the debt crisis that has taken down banks and countries threatens next to spark a municipal meltdown, a leading analyst has warned.

Continue reading “US$2 Trillion debt crisis threatens 100 US cities”