Blah Blah Blog

(Oh Lord) Please don't let me be misunderstood.

1st June

El peso cayó y todo es culpa del Peje oigan

Circulando frenéticamente por las redes está una nota de Bloomberg cuyo encabezado dice “Cae el peso mexicano ante subida (en las encuestas) de López Obrador”.

Entre los votantes (no políticos), la nota ha servido como munición de guerra contra quienes apoyan al candidato del PRD.

“…AMLO representa una fuga de capitales inminente. Aqui una lectura interesante… suerte si van de shopping esta semana!”, amenazó sobre la liga a la nota uno de mis amigos en Facebook.

Antes de continuar, un paréntesis aclaratorio: Yo no estoy haciendo campaña ni a favor de AMLO ni de Josefina. (Al bigotón de Elba Esther ni vale la pena mencionarlo). Aclaro también que yo no voy a votar, lamentablemente, porque mi cambio de residencia ha sido muy reciente y no alcancé a cambiar mi registro. Y finalmente, yo no pienso decirle a nadie por quién votar.

Lo que sí me atrevo a decir es que no se vale sembrar miedos infundados. La nota de Bloomberg es solo eso: una nota periodística que intenta dar una explicación a una reacción de los mercados. Estas notas salen no sólo diariamente, sino muchas veces al día sobre todas las monedas que circulan en el mundo. 

A los teóricos de la conspiración les digo de una que vez que Bloomberg no es un medio comprado por el PRI como parte de un sofisticado complot para derrotar a AMLO. Bloomberg es una agencia internacional de noticias financieras cuyas fuentes principales son traders que especulan desde su pequeño escritorio en Nueva York o Londres. Su punto de vista es válido pero es sólo un punto de vista y, como la nota lo detalla, existen otros factores detrás de esta caída, como el decepcionante número de trabajos nuevos creados en Estados Unidos de cuya economía somos totalmente dependientes (gracias a Salinas de Gortari y a los 12 años del PAN. Léase caso Brasil para conocer la alternativa).

Si bien la caída del peso es mala noticia para algunos (aquellos que han ahorrado en la moneda nacional, tal vez o quienes que se van a ir “de shopping” a EU como dijo mi amigo), es también buena noticia. Un peso menos valioso es bueno para las exportaciones y estas han sido el motor económico de México en los últimos años. Sin ellas no hubiéramos podido acumular las sólidas reservas financieras que hoy tenemos.

Estas reservas son lo que nos debe preocupar a todos. Es cierto que se las debemos más que nada al PAN y este es el argumento más importante de quienes votarán por Josefina en estas elecciones.

Pero el que asegure que AMLO se las tragaría si subiese de presidente miente. La verdad es que no sabemos qué harían él y su partido con ellas porque nunca han estado en esa posición.

Lo que es irrefutable es lo que harán los gobers, tíos y padrinos de Peña Nieto si el copetudo toma la presidencia. ¿México tiene memoria? Entonces recuerden los 70 años en que el PRI se robó sistemática e impunemente las reservas financieras del país, como si fuesen sus ahorros personales. Recuerden devaluaciones del peso al final de los sexenios e inflación por encima del 100 por ciento, entre otras asquerosidades injustas en las que ya mejor no quiero pensar porque comienzo a golpear las teclas y rechinar los dientes.

No se vale sembrar miedos infundados. Si van a jugar a defender su postura política háganlo con argumentos inteligentes, no medias-verdades alarmistas.

Se vale cuestionar. Y si queremos sobrevivir el mes de locura pre-electoral que queda tenemos que hacer un esfuerzo por entender bien la información que circula.

No se vale leer encabezados y llegar a conclusiones. Se vale leer con criterio y hasta el final de la nota para formar una opinión fundamentada.

Y finalmente, no se vale votar por miedo. Se vale votar efectivamente, con un lápiz en una mano y la información en la otra. 

Ah, y no se les olvide llevarse en el bolsillo la esperanza que su voto valió la pena y sin importar lo que digan los demás, sí puede llegar un cambio.

30th April

En México no ha cambiado nada

El llanto se escucha a lo lejos. Una periodista silenciada hasta la muerte. Cientos de detenidos y desaparecidos en un acto vil de represión estudiantil. Un fin de semana de furia y tragedia. Sin duda, entre el México que nos imaginamos y el México que somos hay un abismo.

“Yo compongo mis canciones para que el pueblo las cante.

Y el día que el pueblo me falle, ese día voy a llorar”.

2nd April

Los gringos aseguran que Peña Nieto es un corrupto inútil

Del cable de Wikileaks que los gringos escribieron sobre Peña Nieto en el 2009, vale la pena destacar:

1. Pena Nieto is not known for transparency when it comes to his friends and allies — he helped shield former PRI Mexico State Governor Arturo Montiel Rojas from prosecution for corruption charges early on in his  tenure. The Mexico State PRI has a reputation for taking advantage of gaps in transparency to build campaign war chests, and given the amount of money flowing through the state and Pena Nieto’s status as a presidential front-runner, it seems unlikely that his administration would not look to exploit such opportunities.

2. The PRI bills Pena Nieto as representing a younger, fresher, and more modern party adapted to the new political realities of a democratic Mexico; he is often referred to as the “next President of Mexico.”  Nevertheless, the governor hardly appears to be cut from a new cloth.

3. Even the governor’s hand-picked officials have a difficult time explaining how he represents a more progressive PRI.  The International Affairs officers railed against entrenched unions and monopolies, but in the next breath suggested that this “system” of political and economic interests would coalesce around Pena Nieto and bring him to the presidency.  When asked how, then, the governor would be able to break the very forces that backed him, the officials offered vague murmurs that only from within the system can you change it — the PRI created the system, and thus only the PRI can manage or break it.

Ante una masiva campaña presidencial, yo propongo una masiva campaña en su contra.

1st April
19th March
17th March

Where the fault lies, the ground will quiver

The headline on a story this week got me laughing out loud. It read: “Costa Rica’s rivers are dumpsters and sewers and it’s our fault”. Stating the obvious had never been so funny.

Such frankness in news stories is rare. In a less comical event this week, our destructive assimilation of guilt and responsibility was exposed. The world famous radio show This American Life retracted it’s most popular show ever after a fact-checking process proved parts of it had been fabricated.

Mike Daisey, a writer and monologist, went on the air on the Public Radio International show and presented his piece “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” as an entirely factual work of investigative reporting. Among many other things, he claimed to have met with underage workers at Foxconn (the manufacturing company that makes Apple products in China), a man who had been fired after his hand got cut off while working there and with members of an illegal worker’s union that discussed the harsh, unfair conditions of the factories there, among other people. He described with heartbreaking detail the conditions of their work. He said he had witnessed all of it.

After journalists who actually live in China heard the story, they had doubts and began a meticulous fact-checking process that proved most of the story, at least the most emotional bits of it, to be false. Mike Daisey then went on the air, tried to defend his lies and then apologized for fabricating parts of it.

But Daisey tried to justify his actions and his argument is worth studying. He said he wanted to write a story that would make an impact in people’s minds and change their perception. He wanted to use the tools of theatre and literature to make people care.

It is undeniable: a good story is a powerful tool and it does make people care… at least for a few hours. Even as this show became the most downloaded one in the history of TAL, people lined up (750 in New York alone) outside Apple stores, and waited anxiously to buy the new iPad a few days ago.

What stories really do is make people feel like they care, but to act on these feelings is a completely different matter. Stories are not enough and I think our recurrence to stories as the only way to make sense of a complex, integrated world are hurting our chances of ending injustice and creating positive social change. And also, we are not suspicious enough of stories.

Most importantly, any story that makes us realize we are a part of the problem is bound to be ignored, and this has to do with the way we assimilate guilt, fault and responsibility.

In the last part of TAL’s retraction show, the host Ira Glass brought in New York Times’ reporter Charles Duhigg. In January, he and correspondent David Barboza wrote a front page investigative series about Foxconn and Apple. He went on the air to set the facts straight. 

He laid out the horrible things that we know for a fact happened in Foxconn. He talked about people working two continuous 12-hour shifts; people being asked to stand or sit in backless chairs; people being asked to work in plants that are still under construction and people living in dorms provided by companies like Foxconn with harsh living conditions. He mentioned a few scandals like two explosions inside factories where iPads were being produced that killed four people and injured 77.

These recurring events (that are difficult to fit together like one single story) are not news anymore. We’ve been reading sporadic reports like these for the last few years, since Apple developed their Code of Conduct for suppliers in 2005. What we never get to read about is something he said at the end of the show:

It’s not my job to tell you whether you should feel bad or not… But let me pose the argument that people have posed to me about why you should feel bad, and you can make of it what you will. And that argument is: there were times in this nation when we had harsh working conditions as part of our economic development.  We decided as a nation that that was unacceptable. We passed laws in order to prevent those harsh working conditions from ever being inflicted on American workers again. And what has happened today is that rather than exporting that standard of life, which is within our capacity to do, we have exported harsh working conditions to another nation.

So should you feel bad that someone is working 12 to 24 hours a day in order to produce the iPhone that you’re carrying in your pocket?… I don’t know, that’s for you to judge, but I think the the way to pose that question is… do you feel comfortable knowing that iPhones and iPads and, and other products could be manufactured in less harsh conditions, but that these harsh conditions are perpetrated because of an economy that you are supporting with your dollars?

You’re not only the direct beneficiary; you are actually one of the reasons why it exists. If you made different choices, if you demanded different conditions, if you demanded that other people enjoy the same work protections that you yourself enjoy, then, then those conditions would be different overseas.

At this point, Mike Daisey’s lies seem almost irrelevant to me. As I type this from my MacBook and constantly checking my iPhone for text messages, I can’t help feeling like shit. I wonder, how many activists out there have been willing to give up these things? How many of us have demanded Apple make better deals with their suppliers so that they are not forced to impose inhuman living and working conditions?

It’s shitty. It’s partly my fault (and your fault) that these horrible things happen in the other side of the world, and no amount of storytelling will change that.

16th March

A perfect game

So,

Obama is losing ground to the republicans. Latest polls show people in the U.S. would vote republican against Obama in the elections since the price of gasoline went up.

Why did it go up? Because the price of oil went up, because of tension with Iran.

So,

what does Obama do?

He uses David Cameron’s visit to the U.S. and discusses with him exploration of untapped oil reserves. After the meeting is over, the Obama administration tips off a Reuters journalist about the meeting. Reuters prints the story.

The result? The price of oil drops sharply. Which will in turn make gas prices go down. This should level the playing field between Obama and the Republicans for a while.

Obama wins and delivers a perfect game of politics.

Meanwhile, in Maryland, hours after Cameron left the White House: “Lately, we’ve heard a lot of professional politicians talking down these new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power and solar power. They make jokes about biofuels and electric cars. They were against raising fuel standards because apparently they like gas guzzling cars better. We’re trying to move towards the future, and they want to keep us stuck in the past.”, said Obama.

Good night.

8th March

El mercado de la mujer

En el día internacional de la mujer hablemos del hombre. 

En la cultura mexicana, la emancipación del hombre tradicionalmente llega cuando éste elige a una mujer para ser su esposa. Una vez pasada la boda, éste ya no necesitará de las otras mujeres que le han servido toda su vida, fuera su mamá o una empleada doméstica. Su nueva compañera y, a veces, su nueva empleada doméstica, le asistirán. (Esto, dicho sea de paso, me hace cuestionar la percibida “emancipación” del hombre.)

Lo mismo se puede decir del resto de América Latina y hasta de Italia en donde las normas sociales, enraizadas en la religión católica, son prácticamente la mismas.

El matrimonio se rige también por las reglas de mercado y afectan en tan importante “emancipación” del hombre. Existe cierta demanda de hombres buscando esposa y cierta oferta de mujeres. Ya que todavía en el año 2012 el hombre gana más que la mujer, es él quien elige. Como en cualquier otro mercado, esto genera competencia entre la oferta. Hay las que invierten en su cuerpo y su belleza física para ser más atractivas, con una rutina de gimnasio o con cirugías cosméticas. Hay también las que le apuestan a la buena comida y la casa, ofreciendo una habilidad para cocinar inigualable y el sólido compromiso de no dedicarse a nada más que el cuidado de su futuro hogar sin dejar que nada, ni una carrera profesional, la distraiga.

Están también las mujeres que ofrecen una vida sexual plena a cambio del matrimonio y las que invierten en educación superior para tener una ventaja competitiva. Éstos dos tipos de mujeres son las menos exitosas en el mercado del matrimonio latinoamericano. Es fácil encontrar sexo en otro lado y una mujer educada tiende a desarrollar un criterio propio, y eso no es lo que quiere el hombre.

Hablemos entonces de la mujer. Aquellas menores de 40 años se habrán dado cuenta que hoy en día se espera más de ellas que solamente encontrar marido. La mujer se ha integrado ya por completo al mercado laboral (en la economía formal, porque históricamente la mujer ha administrado las economías informales del mundo) y el movimiento de la liberación femenina en los 60s en los países desarrollados dejó un legado de opciones, independencia y aspiraciones profesionales.

Lo que el movimiento no dejó fue un desapego de las tareas del hogar que, sobre todo en América Latina, siguen siendo adjudicadas exclusivamente a la mujer. Por lo tanto la mujer de hoy lo tiene que hacer todo: perseguir una carrera (o un empleo pagado) y estar tan a cargo del hogar como lo estuvieron sus madres. La sociedad, favoreciendo al hombre, critica a la mujer que “descuida” el hogar por su carrera y viceversa, critica a la que decidió dedicarse “solamente” al hogar.

En este sentido, la “liberación” de la mujer le vino muy bien al hombre, quien ahora cuenta con un segundo ingreso para su hogar sin alterar sus responsabilidades. Mientras tanto, la mujer se encarga de todo, su empleo, su casa y los hijos (y hasta se espera que se mantenga bella y delgada).

En el día internacional de la mujer, del internet saltan miles de historias de éxito de mujeres líderes que han alcanzado importantes puestos. Mucho hay que aprender de ellas, pero hoy la pregunta que las mujeres nos debemos hacer es ¿quiénes de ellas luchan para balancear las tareas del hogar entre mujer y hombre? o ¿acaso están haciendo lo contrario, reforzando las ataduras sociales que hoy lastiman a la mujer? Por mi parte yo encuentro a muchas mujeres pintadas como modelos a seguir que no lo debían ser.

Hoy 8 de marzo también estaremos expuestas a mil y un notas sobre el maltrato por parte del hombre y el feminicidio, un fenómeno de países como México. Pero la pregunta que queda es: Tú, mujer latinoamericana, al conformarte con las injustas reglas sociales ¿estarás propiciando las condiciones para este tipo de crimen?

En el mercado de la mujer, estamos tan concentradas en competir por el mejor postor que nos olvidamos de ser solidarias y, a veces, nos hacemos daño.

5th February

Sin tiempo libre

(publicado en El Norte 4/2/12)

Acostumbrados a un buen nivel de vida y al alto consumo, millones de familias en Inglaterra y Estados Unidos hoy se enfrentan a una nueva realidad. El desempleo y la desigualdad se esparcieron como un cáncer tras la crisis financiera y hoy parecen imposibles de aniquilar.

El 8.3 por ciento tanto de la población en Inglaterra como de Estados Unidos no tiene empleo. A ellos no les queda otra alternativa más que adaptarse. Ante menos trabajo, menor gasto.

Y por ende, más tiempo libre.

Un grupo de prestigiosos economistas en ambos lados del Atlántico ha unido fuerzas y planteado una solución controversial al problema del desempleo y la desigualdad. La clave está en el potencial del tiempo libre.

El inglés Lord Robert Skidelsky, economista y biógrafo del influyente teórico John Maynard Keynes, y la estadounidense Juliet Schor, autora del libro “The Overworked American” (“El Estadounidense que Trabaja de Más”), presentaron ante la London School of Economics (LSE) una propuesta para acortar la semana laboral de 40 horas a 21.

Al darle más tiempo libre (y no remunerado) a quienes tienen un empleo de tiempo completo, se incrementan las horas de trabajo disponibles a aquellos en el sector informal o a quienes trabajan por honorarios.

Además, aporta al bienestar de la población, ya que ésta puede dedicar más tiempo al ejercicio físico, a cocinar en casa y a la convivencia familiar, entre otras actividades.

Su tesis se apoya en estudios que aseguran que la gente está dispuesta a renunciar a parte sus ingresos si se les ofrece a cambio más tiempo libre. Esto, aclaran, en una economía como la inglesa o la estadounidense.

Pero la pregunta de cuánto trabajo es suficiente es una que vale la pena que se hagan los mexicanos, me dijo Schor.

Y es que los mexicanos trabajamos más tiempo que cualquier otro país de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE). Al día, los mexicanos dedicamos 10 horas al trabajo remunerado, mientras el promedio es de ocho. Al trabajo no remunerado, como el cuidado de la casa, le dedicamos cuatro.

Además, según la organización, la brecha de ganancias entre los empleados aumentó en los últimos 25 años y está relacionada con una mayor diferencia entre las horas trabajadas por los peor y los mejor pagados: la cantidad de horas anuales de los trabajadores con menores ganancias disminuyó, mientras que las horas de los trabajadores con ganancias superiores aumentaron.

Los países que dedican más horas de trabajo remunerado al día son los países con mayor desigualdad, dijo Schor. Esto lo explica, en parte, una cultura laboral que no valora el tiempo libre y premia a quienes siempre están dispuestos a trabajar largos horarios sin exigir pago por tiempo extra.

Queda claro que, mientras en países desarrollados se discute cortar la jornada laboral para balancear la economía, en México trabajamos hasta el cansancio y conservamos los niveles de desigualdad más altos de América Latina (a la vez la región más desigual del mundo, según la ONU).

En el corazón de esta discusión está una pregunta que todas las sociedades se deben hacer ahora, cuando el futuro de la economía mundial es incierto, señaló Skidelsky: ¿para qué se trabaja?

El académico está próximo a lanzar un libro titulado “How Much is Enough? Economics and the Good Life” (“¿Qué Tanto es Demasiado? Economía y la Buena Vida”), aprovechando el momento en que muchos en países ricos se ven forzados a recortar sus gastos personales y la gente busca redefinir su concepto de “la buena vida”.

El dinero, dijo el autor, ha perdido su función como medio para alcanzar una buena vida y se ha convertido en el fin.

En México, los peor pagados trabajan para sobrevivir, sin poder aspirar a una buena vida. Los mejor pagados, en cambio, han ido gradualmente sacrificando el tiempo libre necesario para disfrutar y aprovechar las riquezas que acumulan.

Una vida para comprar cosas que no tenemos tiempo de disfrutar, pero que sin duda subrayan nuestra penosa desigualdad… me pregunto si ésta es “la buena vida” a la que aspiramos los mexicanos.

La autora es máster en Periodismo de Negocios y Finanzas por City University London.

26th January

Airport Spirituality

The snowstorm of 2010 ruined my Christmas that year. Living in Berlin at the time, I was meant to fly to Houston through London to spend the holidays with my family but that quickly changed, as airports in the UK shut down. The airline sent me through Munich instead but a delay made me miss my connection and I ended up spending Christmas Eve with strangers who ere also stranded in a Holiday Inn near the airport, eating frozen spaghetti bolognese.

In my attempt to make my connecting flight in Munich, I ran past a hidden little room in Terminal 2 that advertised five different religious symbols all together. Needless to say, it caught my attention back then, but I was running to catch my flight and stopping was not a possibility. So today, over a year ago and in my last day in Munich, I came back to check it out. And what I found was, well, glorious.

The trunk of a tree stands in the middle of a modern, minimalist room lit from the ground. It is cold and the opposite of cozy. The pale wood has been scratched and scribbled with overlapping messages of god. People have turned it into a graffiti message board to manifest and defend their beliefs. (Photos in the next post)

A few highlights include, the classics:

“Allah is the only God”

“Jesus Christ is the truth, the life, the way and resurrection!”

The cute:

“Islam!”, in bubble letters.

“Allah is the Best”

The ambiguous with some truthiness to it: “There is NO Gods but God”

The hip: “Too blessed to be stressed”“May the force be with you, always”

The strange: “Jesus heart D.I.S.C.O TEXAS”

And my favorite: “Eat, Pray, Love”

Airports can bring out the coldest side of people. Passengers are usually stressed, in a hurry, tired, sleepy. Time waiting for a plane is time wasted and it’s annoying. Not everybody can afford a plane ticket, but the selected few who are in the airport could. That makes us feel like the selected few for a few hours.

This tiny meditation room in the airport is interesting and it brings out the lame condition of religion today. Sitting there you understand that manifesting your religious belief and defending your God from the rest is more important than respecting private property  (in this case a piece of a tree that is not yours to scratch or write on). It’s more important than the teachings of your own god. 

The glorious irony is that the room is a space for religions to share, with only a tree as a symbol so that no one religion is more visible. But people couldn’t handle it. If a meditation room was being made, they made sure it’s for their God, and therefore wrote his/her name as big and bold as they could.

And finally, it shows that the lines between tradition, old wisdom, dogma, religion, spirituality and belief have been blurred out. These words might as well just mean the same thing.

I didn’t contribute to the graffiti because I’m too big a snob to do it. But if I had, I would’ve gone for: “The only way is Essex”.

26th January
26th January
25th January

Facebook Adds Over $15 billion to European Economy, says COO

My last contribution to the dld blog:

Facebook added 15.3 billion dollars in value to the European economy last year, mostly by driving 32 billion dollars in revenue, said the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg.

This, she said, according to a report released today by accounting firm Deloitte and Touche at the DLD Conference in Munich.

Sandberg appeared as the closing act of the DLD12, and had attracted one of the biggest crowds of the conference. 

“Just as we saw in the United States, the internet, social media and Facebook are driving economic growth [in Europe]”, she said during her keynote speech.

This is a notion that has been shared by many of the other speakers throughout the past few days, but still Facebook remains an industry frontrunner.

Facebook alone, she said, added 230,000 jobs in Europe in 2011 through its enabling of businesses and new networks.

In the app economy, one of the fastest growing online industries of all, the strongest European player is Germany, she added.

Although the numbers are indeed positive, she also issued a warning to her many listeners.

“We need to recognize that this growth is not going to fuel itself, we need to make sure that we’re investing in technology, and in education”, said Sandberg.

This puts an end to the perception that social media is “trivial and silly”, she said, as developing countries increasingly find in the internet opportunities for economic growth that can create more jobs and enable small businesses.

A clear message and one that the attendees will surely carry with them as the keynote, and by that also the DLD12 itself, came to an end. 

25th January

Take Less Vitamins and Eat More Whole Fruit - Doctor’s Orders

dld:

Is it possible to end illness? In a provocative and passionate discussion, cancer doctor and researcher David Agus argued that it is, and the way to do it is not by taking your vitamins.

There is no evidence that proves taking vitamins improves our health and yet we keep taking them, said Agus, who heads the Westside Cancer Center and the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine at the University of Southern California.

In his new book “The End of Illness”, presented at DLD by tech entrepreneur Joe Schoendorf, Agus offers the results of one study, which showed that regular intake of Vitamin D supplements have a potentially negative effect on prostate cancer, defying popular belief.

And there are more unlikely actions that one can take and can lead to a lower risk of cancer.

“Every disease is part environment and part genetics, and you can control the environment”, said Agus.

Reducing inflammation is key, he said. This involves everything from walking more during the day, as much as one can, and wearing sensible shoes that offer support for your feet and your joints.

Other important changes the doctor encouraged attendees to make is to reduce our risk of cancer are reducing the “juicing” of fruits and vegetables and switching to eating the piece whole and as fresh as possible.

And finally, having a regular eating schedule to avoid putting your body through the stress of hunger, is key to reducing illness.

The medical community also has their part to do, said Agus, and it goes beyond research. He said:

“We need a data standard that can allow merging databases and have better, more comprehensive information, to be able to learn from the data. We haven’t gotten that much better at this over the last decades. “

25th January

Social Entrepreneurs Face Tough Challenges in the Digital World

dld:

For digital ventures whose mission does not include profit, the challenges to thrive range from the hurdles of regulation to the scale of their impact, a panel of social entrepreneurs in the digital world agreed.

Led by The Economist’s Matthew Bishop, the discussion at DLD highlighted the need for better and more extense infrastructure available to social entrepreneurs, who face tight budgets and resources.

“There is no functioning infrastructure that supports entrepreneurs out there”, said Konstanze Frischen, founding member of the German chapter of Ashoka, an international organization that identifies and supports leaders working for positive change.

Digital technology gets outdated very fast and social entrepreneurs who don’t work for a profit would benefit greatly from a consortium of companies who could provide their technical expertise for free, she said.

Another barrier in many countries is regulation, as more and more social enterprises have naturally morphed into a hybrid, part for-profit and part not-for-profit while most governments today demand that you register the company as either, or, said Rodrigo Baggio, creator of the Center for Digital Inclusion in Latin America. His enterprise trains and educates people of all ages in the poorest areas in eight countries and gives them the skills to identify problems faced in their communities and solve them.

Also part of the discussion panel were Frank Rosenberger, Chief Marketing Executive and Member of Managing Board of Vodafone Germany who spoke about the company’s not-for-profit project M-Pesa; Casey Fenton, the original founder of CouchSurfing, a website that connects three and a half million people who look to travel and meet like-minded people; and Naif Al-Mutawa, founder of The 99,  an animation project that looks to create new superhero figures to function as role models from children all around the world.