Governance

One of the most powerful opportunities for The Hunger Project (a non-profit organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger) investors is to travel to one of The Hunger Project`s Program Countries as a member of a delegation to experience the local work first hand, be a part of strategies on the ground, and return more empowered as an activist.

My mother, who died two and a half years ago, probably would have had some sympathy for Hosni Mubarak this week, for no other reason than that she once shook his hand.

First Tunisia, then Egypt, and on to Jordan and Yemen. Ought we to have been surprised by recent events in North Africa and the Middle East? No! Despite the timing of the revolutions now under way, I don’t think that we ought to be surprised at all. Some futurists have been pointing to the fragile nature of this region for some years.

Watching the news about Egypt and the debate as to whether Twitter, Facebook, etc.. are inherently pro-democracy, I'm struck by a connection to Joseph Tainter's 1988 classic, The Collapse of Complex Societies.

The political unrest in the Middle East brings up some geeky thoughts about the techniques of strategic analysis. This is not from the “Hey, you should dig megatrends!” book of the future, but direct from the canon of heavy geopolitics and game theory. E.H. Carr‘s realism versus Walt and Mearsheimer’s Neorealism versus Alexander Wendt‘s theory of constructivism.

Over the last week, people around the world have been instantly struck by unbelievable scenes of turbulence in Egypt, as thousands have taken to the streets to protest against the current political regime. In recent days things have gotten even uglier, too: American journalists have been assaulted, Molotov cocktails have been launched, and rocks and furniture have been hurled at protesters.

Over the last few days, Egyptians have taken to the streets, demanding that Egyptian president and dictator Hosni Mubarak step down. The protests haven’t so far had a religious or anti-American bent. They’re not Islamist. They’re a wave of people – mostly young people – expressing their frustration at corruption, joblessness, economic stagnation, and above all, at the lack of political and personal freedoms that we in the West enjoy.

What`s so special about the Nordic countries? Global Challenge, an independent think tank that provides solutions to global challenges relating to the fields of economy, environment and democracy, tried to find an answer in a new report that was published this week during the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The president’s State of the Union Speech was - at long last - the one I wanted him to give. It went after the very poison that has so sickened the United States of America. His call for us to shake off the Cult of Future-Hatred, indulged in by both right and left, was about urging us to start looking forward again, instead of to some mythically better past.