Given that Greece is teetering on the verge of economic collapse, I can hardly blame them for electing Lucas Papademos. , the only prime ministerial candidate who looked unlikely to borrow billions of dollars and then default on his loan. What the Greek people did not count on, however, is that by electing someone who looked stern and fiscally responsible, they might have accidentally elected someone who actually is stern and fiscally responsible.

My advice to the prime minister is that shortly after taking office, he should announced his plan to rein in Greece’s massive budget deficit by instituting a series of sensible and well-thought-out austerity measures, including:

• Temporarily halting construction of the Superacropolis.

• Reforming Greece’s nearly bankrupt pension system by piling everyone over the age of 61 into a large, hollow, wooden horse and presenting it as a gift to Turkey. Take that, Turkey!

• Cutting down on expensive parliamentary elections by extending the prime minister term length from 4 years to 80 years.

These proposals may prove wildly unpopular with the Greek people, most of whom support a simpler, two-step plan:

1. Pretend to pass austerity measures to trick the EU into lending them more money.

2. When it is time to pay back the loan, change the name of the country to “Breece” so the EU can’t find them.

In conclusion , I am not a fancy accountant with graphing paper …just a regular joe trying to play my part in averting another world economic crisis!!

Concerned about this, a local Woman’s Liberation Front Leader called on the CEO and asked him, “Why is it you limit your employees to married men? It must be because you consider us women are weak, dumb, or do you consider us as tantrum throwers, bossy, etc?”

“Not at all, Ma’am,” the CEO replied.

“It is because our policy is to hire staff
–> Who are used to obeying orders without questioning,
–> Who are accustomed to being bossed over,
–> Know how to keep quiet
–> Put up with anything when I yell at them
And we can find these qualities only in married men.”

A few people have asked me why?
My Answer : The same reason I go to work, to try to make a difference. If I can be of any help , I will gladly volunteer to help, if my skillset is not required ( which is more likely) ; I will offer moral support , I will offer prayers , and I will offer my voice to call for calm.
If there is any country prepared for this kind of disaster , Japan and its people are ! No disaster agency is more prepared than the Japanese one ( not even FEMA hehehehe)

Some friends have suggested that the Japanese government is not being truthful – my answer is which government ever is ! Fortunately I believe the Japanese government won’t and will not put its citizens in harm’s way.
Maximum respect to the true unsung heroes of this disaster , the first responders and nuclear engineers at the power plants, they are truly the last line of defense!

In all this , I have seen the true genius of the Japanese people , the ability to remain calm , care for one another and commitment to hard work, even in crisis! I promise I will not make any more jokes about your love for cameras !

P.S.  Check out  www.ushahidi.org ; guys at Ushaidi are doing the amazing AGAIN!

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/03/04/%D0%BD%D0%BB%D0%BE-%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B8-aliens/

My cat has no alibi for this specific times … plus she always speaks to me in what sounds like mioaw-mioaw… all the time!!!!! …. I think I have been living with an alien spy!!

We suspect a big part of the problem is located in the supply chain: by this, we mean agents. At its core, branchless banking is about having cash when and where customers want it: agents are the crucial link for cash conversion. Agents also verify client identity and protect against fraud. Agents are also literally the face of the service when clients have a problem that needs resolution.

CGAP’s Agent Management Toolkit aims to demystify the process of building a viable agent network. The toolkit is based on more than a year of research that yielded data on more than 16,000 agents with institutions in Brazil (Banco do Brasil and Banco Postal), India (EKO and FINO), and Kenya (M-PESA). CGAP conducted in-depth, in-person interviews with 466 agents, agent network managers and providers.

the toolkit is here

Onsen (HotSpring Bath) in Japan

In Flow: the psychology of optimal experience , Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , former chairman ( I am told his name has nothing to do why he is no longer chairman) of the department of Pyshology at the university of Chicago , shows that people don’t actually enjoy leisure as much as they enjoy work. A vacation is seen in the Western society as the only opportunity to act on one’s own individual’s ideas and desires, he says, but vacations simply replace one set of stresses – deadlines , difficult colleagues, malfunctioning vending machines , MDGs ,  , – with another : family , boredom , physical and mental enervation.

On holidays , just examine the daily routine 6am : wake up after a shaky sleep, have alfresco coffee. 10am : wake up again. Noon : wake up again , have alfresco lunch 3pm : wake up again indulge in 3 or 4 or 5 cocktails
By the end of the vacation even the prospect of making the bed seems a task akin to decoding the human genome.

With my almost-concluded-vacation, I could have dealt the physical enervation if it hadn’t been matched with mental enervation. As the days progressed I have found myself becoming increasingly stupid. There were so many intellectual low points that it’s hard to know where to begin , but I will present them in reverse order of severity : entire afternoon devoted to laboring over the question “ Is Australia an island or a continent ?” ( Is it just a really big island? That’s really really really far away? ) 2ndly I spent 4 hours wondering if person with no eyebrows can act surprised?

At this point , on realizing how stupid I had become , I had a self-intervention and I decided to do something useful and exercise my brain . For obviously reasons , I got my Rosetta stone and embarked of unit 4 of speak and read essential Russian 1. As I was listening to the Russian speaker trying to check if the guest had a diner reservation , I hit my lowest intellectual Low!! ….I had eureka moment ! I discovered that if you take all the vowels out of any English sentence , its impossible to pronounce it without sounding Russian , and in that discerning moment  I found the trick of working on my Russian pronunciations !

“Gd Vnng . D y hv rsrvtn?”

“Ys”

“Ndr wht nm?”

“L krngt”

“H Ys , Hr t s. 8’ clck. Yr tbl s vr hr.”

I have come to accept that I am weirdo , or may be its because I can’t ski , skate , swim,or  sail……, and don’t need a tan or maybe I am just from the workaholic  stock that doesn’t take hols., but for me vacations, snow and sand are to an active brain what Barack Obama and Nick Clegg are to election pledges!

One of the few times I was NOT belly up

For those who want to ski ,I have a few basic truths about skiing that I feel its in my place to educate the masses :

1)Ski boots are unnatural and hurt like hell!

2) Although the “snowplough” is the accepted way to coming to a stop , grabbing other skiers , and screaming ” I am new to this !!” , or just or just hurtling into the many trees they stupidly refuse to fell, works in there own way.

3)Once you fall over in Skis – as you do, a lot – its impossible to get up , and you will flail about like an upturned beetle as expert toddlers circle you and retreat doing back-flips

4)You will wonder to yourself , several times , : Why ???? Why when I could be home doing something agreeably middle-aged, like pottering around in flip flops , watching a movie with the central heating ON?

5) Your lumbar region will demand to know whatever it did to you , and may even call you “B***ch!” under its breath.

I don’t scare easily but now I understand why humorist Erma Bombeck once said of skiing ” I don’t participate in any sport with ambulances at the bottom of the hill!!”, I would only ask “Why only at the bottom ? who said you will reach the bottom?”

Anyway I am not one to give up easily or just stupid enough not heed respected comedians on skiing ! So I saddle and we start the long ride to the top of the hill. Getting onto the lift in itself is an art that requires a whole week of practice , but I digress.

We get to the top of the hill and I see a few Japanese ladies also learning to ski or was it snowboard .., also anxiously holding on to the hand rails , as I side step around one , I catch her eye, and her look says , “I KNOW , WHY?? I wish I was home composing a haiku! ” I give a empathetic look back , one that says ” I know where you are coming from love, I too wish I was at home composing a haiku and its not even part of my culture!! Have you ever thought of pottering around the house in flip flops , watching a movie with the central heating ON?It has its own poetry, you know? ” But then we emerge on the slope and its breathtaking, the air is cold but pure , the sight I behold is magnificent . And the snow forms in soft , glossy peaks, like meringue before you bake it.

I start with two skis…and that, my friends, is a different kettle of fish altogether. Everything you have learned about putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward counts for diddly-squat. put one foot infront of the other while on skis and you will shoot off , and then fall and flail. Anya shows me how to get up. You have to sort of haul yourself up into a squat and heave yourself up from there , all the time avoiding not slide down the steep hill the call beginners course! I try even though my knees make alarming crunching sounds like celery being snapped. ( This is audible despite all the clothing ) , I can’t do it. I can’t do it because aside from knees , I don’t seem to have any strength in the lower body. Or Upper body.

I am taught the “snowplough”. which involves pointing the forward tips of your skis together. I am rather good at this! I am also taught turning maneuvers , because you can’t just bomb straight down a slope. I am miraculously good at this too!!

By afternoon of the 2nd day I am zigzagging down the beginners slope , sometimes reaching speeds of 0.000000004mph!!!!! .. Have found a winter sport at last???

The session was moderated by Nicholas D. Kristof, Columnist, The New York Times, USA. Leaders participated in the event included Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO, Telenor Group, Norway, Geoff Davis, CEO, White Hat Ventures, USA; Young Global Leader, Anne Hastings, Managing Director, Fonkoze, Haiti; Social Entrepreneur, Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO, Mercy Corps, USA, Rachel Kyte, Vice-President, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Washington DC; Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals, Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citi, USA, abd John Rwangombwa, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning of Rwanda.

According to the discussions of the meet, around three billion people of the world’s population lacked access to basic financial services, so extending banking facility to these individuals had the potential to transform economies and improve livelihoods. Also one of the most promising means to do so required expansion of mobile banking services that could become tools for saving money, transferring funds and accessing credit.

The meet also suggested that savings and remittances were important for underserved populations and accessing savings accounts increased the ability of the world’s poor in building houses, paying for education and engaging in basic commerce. Similarly improving remittance processing could also help in promoting financial inclusion.

However, expansion of the services was not without risks as the recent controversy surrounding excessive microfinance lending in India demonstrated. Regulation could play a role in improving oversight and verifying financial information. According to the discussions, in the absence of regulation, the responsibility fell on the microfinance and financial services industry to self-regulate. If these providers could effectively generate their own guidelines, they would be more likely to avoid stringent rules imposed from the outside.

Furthermore, the meet also highlighted the fact that one of the biggest challenges of improving financial inclusion was achieving economies of scale. Focusing on SMEs could also greatly increase financial inclusion, but until today microfinance services had not focused on this goal.

Key Highlights of the Discussion :

1. Mobile banking offers one of the most promising options for providing financial services to the world’s unbanked population.
2. Saving money and processing remittances are among the biggest needs for financial services with underserved populations.
3. Stringent regulation is likely to deter the banks and telecommunication businesses from promoting financial inclusion at a time when their participation is greatly needed.
4. Nonetheless, government engagement and oversight can help improve protection for both lenders and creditors.
5. Achieving economies of scale is one of the biggest challenges related to financial inclusion, and in the future, greater attention should be paid to extending credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
6. Financial inclusion requires not just access to banking services, but a broader, ecosystem-wide set of changes that often requires cultural shifts.

MicrofinanceFocus

BIOMETRICS

Many of these new identity protection safeguards use biometric technology. This form of identity protection is the most favored by consumers, with almost two-thirds of cardholders preferring biometric identity confirmation to other forms of identity confirmation such as pin numbers and signatures. This is typically completed through the use of a fingerprint reader. New credit cards being debuted currently may require that your fingerprint be read at the checkout, or alternatively, that your credit card have a scanning device imbedded in it so that it could not be used unless your fingerprint was scanned first.

PHOTOS

The inclusion of photos on credit cards is another popular option and is preferred by 20 percent of consumers. Photos may be printed directly onto the credit card or pop up on the register display when you scan your card (as a safety measure against photo fraud). With more than 10 million identities stolen each year in the U.S., employing photo measures is the easiest and most cost effective form of identity protection available right now.

DYNAMIC NUMBERS

In the near future, many cards will protect your identity by eschewing static numbers. You would have a keypad on your credit card, and the card would not have any numbers printed on it. Instead, you would enter your PIN code onto the keypad prior to making a purchase in order to activate the card. A unique number would be generated each time you did so; it would be a single-use number that appears only in the register computer. While there is the obvious problem that the strip could become demagentized, or you may not be somewhere where coverage is available to allow the unique number to be sent to the card, this way, if your card was lost, the thief could not use it or gain any information from it without your pin code.

Credit Loan: New Credit Cards Use Technology Safeguards to Protect Your Identity

www.creditloan.com/