Entrepreneurial

An entrepreneur starts and/or manages any enterprise, usually business, and it involves risk.

According to an NYT article from a couple years ago,

"The small business is the idealized social form of our time. Our culture hero is not the artist or reformer, not the saint or scientist, but the entrepreneur. (Think of Steve Jobs, our new deity.) Autonomy, adventure, imagination: entrepreneurship comprehends all this and more for us. The characteristic art form of our age may be the business plan."

It is suggested that the hero of the millennial generation is the entrepreneur.  Surprisingly,  entrepreneurism and marketing were the top college majors of 2013.

"The entrepreneurial spirit of the millennial generation celebrates values Christianity holds dear:  risk taking (leaps of faith), creativity (Imago Dei), and impacting the world for greater good (kingdom advancing)."

"You are me"

"Cru is a caring community passionate about connecting people to Jesus Christ."  

Since 1979 Cru has been showing "The Jesus Film", bringing projectors and whatever  else it takes into villages and communities all over the world.  Faith has taken root in 200 million lives as a result.

If you are one of those viewers of the film who have a life-altering experience with God, it can  become just a distant memory for you if you have no further help. But the video below demonstrates something new and wonderful that is helping.

If you are Christian, be inspired:

India MYGOV

On Saturday, new Prime Minister Modi of India "launched an interactive online platform that allows people to share ideas and suggestions and participate in the country's governance."  They can also volunteer to work on projects, hopefully including solutions for a cleaner nation (see post of July 18).

The PM took office two months ago after running on  a perception that he would be a reformer, and he has the usual short time period of new political leaders to win support by keeping those promises.

Previously he led the state of Gujarat into an economic boom, and there's a lot of hope that he can do that on a national scale.  Foreign investment has poured in.   

Walmart "last month announced plans to open 50 new wholesale stores there as well as grow its e-commerce operations."

Kids run BK

"Burger King is Run by Children," that's what Bloomberg Businessweek titled their article about BK's  latest CEO who is 33 years old.  They say that the average age of an incoming CEO is 53.

His back story?  Went to Cornell University, spent ten years on Wall Street; he's ambitious and a hard worker. New CEO Daniel Schwartz has relatively young company among BK execs:

The chief financial officer is 28, the head of investor relations is 29, and the old guy at 36 is president of North American operations.

Africans' stories #2

Herman Chinery-Hesse has a story to tell.  He expected to start a manufacturing business back home in Ghana after school in Texas, but lacked the funds for it.  So he started a software business on his computer, sitting in his bedroom, and it grew.

He's had to deal with what he considers unfair foreign competition:  a European company wanted a contract that would have gone to his company, "Soft Tribe."  They asked for help from their home government - which "bribed" Ghana with aid to hire the European company to do the job.

He says, "That's not assistance.  That's thuggery."  Ghana's government decided that free money is hard to turn down, so "Soft Tribe" lost the bid, lost the contract, and had to lay off employees.

Africans' stories

Magatte Wade of Senegal wants the image of African people to change - not only in the view of the people of donating countries, but also in the minds of Africans.  Her goal is to see Africans respected all over the world in her lifetime.

She urges people from her "beloved continent" to take inspiration from world-class achievers in Africa.

She's a "serial entrepreneur," but knows that most people just want jobs   . . which come when [the]  "few of us who are entrepreneurs start these organizations, these companies, that in return create the jobs that the majority of us want so badly.”

“ We all have the same job: create something with whatever is it that you have. The goal is not to sit there and be a recipient of betterness and not having done anything for it… I think as a human being, we all have it in us: the need to contribute.”

Africa's story

For many years people of the West have felt sorry for the people of Africa.  Sad stories abound of poverty, violence, brutality, oppression, war, corruption, starvation, genocide, tyranny - and this is after the West ended its reprehensible slave trade.  There are plenty of good reasons to feel sorry for Africans.

Churches and the Peace Corps sent volunteers and missionaries who founded schools and hospitals.  And . . billions and billions of dollars of aid has been given to African governments - to help people, of course.  But does it?

An industry has grown up around these government and private donations, the "development" industry. It no doubt started with good intentions and has been life-saving in crisis.  But there are very serious objections to aid, coming now from the people of African countries.  Author and economist Dambisa Moyo is just one of the critics.

If prosperous countries really want to help - and I believe they do - the question must be asked:  what is best for Africa?  We'll let some Africans tell their stories, explain their own vision or passion.

Or else (cont'd)

"Imagine if a fundamentalist Christian sect captured the French city of Lyon and began a systematic purge of Muslims. Their mosques were destroyed, their crescents defaced, the Koran burned and then all Muslims forced to flee or face execution. 

"Such an event would be unthinkable today, and if it did occur Pope Francis and all other Christian leaders would denounce it and support efforts by governments to stop it.

"Yet that is essentially what is happening in reverse now in Mosul..."

(from Wall Street Journal online)

"Perhaps historians will come to terms with the irony: Christianity in Iraq survived 400 years of Ottoman rule by Muslim Turks and 30 years’ Baathist Party dictatorship, only to be crushed in just over a decade after U.S. liberation of Iraq.

" On Friday, Christians remaining in Mosul—where Christianity was planted by the apostle Thomas himself in the first century—were ordered out within 24 hours by the Islamic State."

(from World Magazine online)

Or else

The terrorist group ISIS, whom John Kerry called more extreme than Al Qaeda, took over Mosul in Iraq last month.  It had been the location of many Christian Iraqis.

Now called just IS for Islamic State, they have taken action against remaining Christians.  Their formal statement was broadcast from mosques and mailed out:

"We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract – involving payment of Jizya [special tax imposed on non-Muslims]; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword."

So Christians can choose between converting to Islam, paying a special tax, or . . the sword?  What does that mean?  Looks like most are not sticking around to find out.

"Prior to 2003, the number of Christians in Mosul reached nearly 60,000. That number was nearly cut in half by the first half of 2014 but the numbers have plummeted in recent weeks. Last month, the number of Christians was estimated to have dropped to just 3,000."

Cleaner India

India's new prime minister, Narenda Modi, has a vision for a cleaner country.  He'd like to make it trash-free as well as free of corruption, and he talks about it.  It's kind of overwhelming but it gives people hope that things can change.

"Four years ago, a senior government minister, Jairam Ramesh, shocked many when he said that Indian cities were the world’s dirtiest and that “if there is a Nobel Prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt.”

PM Modi is not alone in his goal. "“There is an unspeakable amount of filth around us. We must shake up our numbness to it,” said Robinder Sachdev, who leads a campaign called Come, Clean India."

"“Some momentum is building up among the educated middle classes in the big cities. They are becoming aware that their global aspiration is not consistent with their tolerance of filth.”

Plastic roads

India has a garbage problem.  Up to 40% of the waste is not collected.  Plastic waste of 15,000 tons is discarded every day.

Would you describe the plastic as a "gift from the gods?"  That's how an Indian chemistry prof describes it - because he came up with a way to use it in asphalt.  Over 3,000 miles of "plastic roads have been laid . . ."

So the method is proven.  But that's not all there is to it.  "In a country where throwing garbage onto the roads and littering in public areas are acceptable behaviors, it's going to require a social transformation . . Culture is now the most important part."

Marriage is like

"Marriage is like a van full of sick people" - "Marriage is like the Ghostbusters" - and "Marriage is like water running through your hand(s)."

This article, on what marriage is and what it is not, comes from the blog of psychologist Kelly Flanagan.  Some quotes from it:

"Marriage is not an experience—it is the thing that carries us through every experience, like a minivan transporting us home, bearing all the conflict and grief and sorrow and pain of life."

"When we arrange our lives around comfort, we experience only a fraction of life, and then we wonder why we feel bored and unchallenged and why our stories feel meaningless . . We find our purpose and our direction in relation to [discomfort], by approaching it and figuring out how we want to redeem it."

In marriage, you partner with your spouse to create goodness and beauty out of the stuff of your life.

Lab-created DNA

Scripps Institute in California announced (May 2014) "the creation of the first-ever organism to utilize “alien” DNA."  That is, DNA that is not entirely natural but rather was partly created in the lab.

Since humans can create DNA and maybe life in the lab, does this mean that God is unnecessary to explain the first life on earth?

No, says biochemist Dr. Fazale Rana.  "This recent, brilliant work by the Scripps Institute team provides empirical support for a creation model. It demonstrates that turning “inanimate” matter into living systems and radically transforming living systems require intelligent agency."

So we could say that . . the fact that intelligent scientists can design DNA in the lab only shows that it takes intelligence to design DNA!  It sure doesn't happen by accident.

Composted straw

That "straw bale garden" idea is working.  I did try it, as planned, and it is producing good results.  The poor quality of soil in my back yard is no longer an issue because the plants are grown in composted straw, an excellent growing medium according to the author of the book.

This picture will show how fertile composted straw can be:

This is one little hill of zucchini growing in the straw bale you see peeking out from under the plant.  We'll soon have salad zucchini for lunch.  If you're a gardener, check out that link above.

Exporting urbanism

Buildings, roads, power plants, and more infrastructure are going up in the African continent, built by the Chinese.

China is the Africa's biggest trading partner and often makes deals that include building projects (Nigerian railway).  Go to the article "How Chinese Urbanism is Transforming African Cities" to see apartment buildings that "fail to relate to the local context,"  in Nairobi, Kenya.

But the building projects are needed in Africa, and China sees them as an important investment in the pursuit of their own interests.  There's just a concern on the part of some people that China may develop too much influence there.  A Nigerian prince, for example, sees China becoming dominant and has told the U.S. president that America should be more involved.

And the most bizarre Chinese export to Africa may be the empty city in Angola.

China's migrants

As new urbanites pour into cities, health care, congestion, pollution, slums all mean potential trouble to city dwellers. So the government is trying to get it "right" as these cities grow up like mushrooms. 

Of course, key to making all this work is to smoothly handle all the new "migrants" who have lost their homes, way of life, networks of friends and family.  The Economist has something very surprising to say about this:

" It is far harder for a member of this group [migrants] to gain official recognition as a city-dweller in his own country, with all the welfare benefits and access to public services that status confers, than to gain citizenship in America or Europe if he were to migrate there. The harsh treatment of China’s internal migrants is creating huge social divisions that could erupt in serious unrest."

Cost of urbanizing

Twelve months ago on this blog (June 24-27, 2013) the topic was China's urbanization goal:  to move 250 million people off rural land into cities, going from 53.7% to 60% of their population by 2020.

They have a more complete plan now, and they've figured out how much it's going to cost.  Using land sales or debt to finance the massive plan, the price tag will amount to about 42 trillion yuan or $6.8 trillion dollars.

The rate of urbanization has slowed and is having a braking effect on economic expansion.  Growing the economy was the central motivation for uprooting hundreds of millions of people.

“I can’t think of any country except North Korea that basically tells people where they can live,” said Yukon Huang, a former World Bank country head for China. 

Moral benefits

Arthur said something unique about free enterprise (yesterday's post), that you never hear in media:

"There's another side to free enterprise that's actually more important [than making money].  Free enterprise matters not just because of its unparalleled material benefits, but because of its unparalleled moral benefits."

"Only a system of free enterprise lets us decide what makes us happy and then go do it!"

"Happiness is not about materialism . . it's about defining our lives and our goals and achieving happiness on our own terms.  That's the promise of free enterprise."

I've seen the term "freedom economics" used in place of "free enterprise."  I like that because it highlights the freedom Arthur is talking about to place our effort where we want to.  It also highlights the freedom of a consumer or customer to freely choose whether to purchase our product or purchase somebody else's.

Pursue happiness

You've probably heard that lottery winners surprisingly become less happy after winning lots of money.  Why is that?

Arthur Brooks, formerly an economics professor at Syracuse (NY) University, has written about happiness and economics and has an answer.  I was in the audience at a talk he did a few years ago on a university campus and found him smart, authentic, articulate, and well able to defend his research.

His answer to that opening question is related to another statistic that may be surprising:  entrepreneurs are happier with their jobs than most people are.  Watch his four minutes:

Father of America

This is the day to celebrate America's founding in 1776 and - for me - to be thankful for George Washington who was called, in his own time and to this day, the "Father of his Country."

Back in February/March of this year, I read Washington:  A Life, by Ron Chernow.  It was a bit daunting to start a biography of over 800 pages; but, as it turned out, I could hardly put it down.

Since he kept just about every paper of his life - letters, purchases, diaries, plans, documents - not to mention the thousands of first-person memories of people who knew him, there is an immense body of data for historians to investigate.  You could say that his life was - cliche alert - an open book.

While not a perfect man, his life won the hearts of Americans who watched him because he put the interests of America before his own.  Read the book.

Save the earth

(cont'd)

From wildly differing backgrounds & worldviews come people who passionately support the mission to restore land and climate in a natural, amazingly effective way:  people such as new-age health guru Deepak Chopra and "eco-radical/conservative environmentalist" Dan Dagget.

Watch this video from the Savory Institute website:

"The grasslands can be saved.
Grasslands depend on biological decay to survive.
With a wholistic approach, the natural cycle can take place.
The grasslands can be healed, people can thrive, and the earth can be restored!"

Benefits

So, to summarize:  this planned grazing approach takes land that has almost stopped producing life, places large herds of animals on it, manages animal grazing in a way that mimics nature - and in a just a few years the land supports grass, shrubs, and animals . . and pulls large amounts of carbon out of the air and into the soil.

photo:  ted.com

Sounds like a miracle!  The land comes back to life, and it sustains human life by producing food both plant and animal.  Now we go beyond environmental achievement to social benefits.

Desert-ified land in Africa results in millions of people requiring aid.  When they can support themselves on renewed land, their society becomes more stable and there is hope that their culture will survive.  Prospering, self-supporting people are less vulnerable to violence and suppression.

Scientist Allan Savory (Monday's post) thinks that global efforts  should be re-directed from a focus on replacing fossil fuel (a long, long, disruptive, expensive project) to a focus on reversing the ruin of productive global land.  I wish him success.

Greening method

A little investigation has turned up an impressive record for this scientist (yesterday's post):  he says he has been applying his method, using animals to turn desert into green land, for forty years on five continents without a single failure.  A stunning claim, potentially world-changing.

How it is done:  "[H]erds of well-managed grazing animals, nibbling on native grasses and roaming from spot to spot to elude predators and seek fresh pasture—managed in a way that mimics their behavior in the wild—will restore the land's natural dynamics."  Savory Institute's explanatory graphic is here.

photo:  savoryinstitute.com

"[Cattle] could help prevent and even reverse land degradation and the desertification of grasslands, combating in the process both human poverty and the disappearance of wildlife."

See the TED Talk in yesterday's post for pictures.

If these successes can be turned into massive reclamation of land, there are more benefits to come.