Tag Archives: War

Remembering What’s Important

Posted on by

Statues of weary U.S. soldiers of the Vietnam War watch the tourists reading the names of the fallen from that conflict inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

Statues of weary U.S. soldiers of the Vietnam War watch the tourists reading the names of the fallen from that conflict inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

The National Mall is a place of remembrance – a fact that is impressed upon me every morning as I walk to my office. My daily walk takes me past the National World War II Memorial, the World War I Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln National Memorial, and, of course, the Washington Monument, which dominates the skyline. They all remind me that so many people lived and died to preserve liberty.

That most of the memorials are to those who died in wars leads to the question, “Is war inevitable?” Some scholars say no, and that the spread of democracy has actually reduced the number of wars. What’s important to remember is that even though millions have died in the cause of liberty, today millions can live in liberty. Better global communications, increased educational opportunities, and increased emphasis on human rights, understanding and cooperation are among the modern tools that can preserve peace and freedom.

Telecom Business Makes Money, Brings Peace

Posted on by

Nasra Malin is one of many entrepreneurs who recently attended the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington. She is co-founder and chief financial officer of NationLink Telecom, a phone company in Somalia.

Jennifer Bunting-Graden works as an associate attorney with a multinational law firm in Atlanta. She was born in Sierra Leone, where she is trying to set up a joint venture.

Nasra Malin

Nasra Malin

Nasra Malin:
I was one of six entrepreneurs who, in 1997, founded NationLink Telecom in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia… and the center of violence in our country. We were not sure if we would survive, first because there were three established telecom companies and, second, because the security challenge was tremendous.

But we invested in the business hoping to make profits and bring stability to our country.

NationLink has become a major telecom operator in Somalia, offering wireless and fixed-line services to 300,000 customers. It employs 1,500 people. With two other companies, we formed Global Internet Company, to provide Internet access.

Still, the fast-growing telecom industry in Somalia is fiercely competitive — competitors are hostile at times. Also, in a country with no strong central authority, we must protect our business. We have more than 600 security people, which is not the ideal solution. We know that someone somewhere will try to extort money if we need work done. We usually pay, because if we fight them, someone may get killed and, at the end of the day, the work may still not be done.

As the only woman among company executives, I face unique challenges. (In Somalia, women are rarely in business circles; you hardly see them at the executive level.) I was prepared though, because, when young, I worked at my family’s businesses and learned to think independently. At NationLink, I have tried to achieve the same or better results than my male co-workers. I led a middle-management team with little difficulty. This helped me to bring more educated women into the company.

I and other successful women want to be role models. We hope girls and young women in schools and universities, seeing us succeed, dare to search for new opportunities and feel empowered to seize them.

Jennifer Bunting-Graden

Jennifer Bunting-Graden

Jennifer Bunting-Graden:
Ms. Malin and other founders of NationLink Telecom have it exactly right that entrepreneurship, investment and job opportunities within a community can serve as a catalyst for peace and development. NationLink is an example of the new breed of homegrown entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries, which not only seek profits, but also embrace the responsibility for driving the development of their respective economies. Although NationLink has a profit-making purpose, its business by its nature helps facilitate peace by creating jobs, providing access to information and improving the quality of life. And just by being there in the middle of a chaotic environment in which the company operates may provide some measure of stability.

But dealing with challenges of security and poor infrastructure in countries affected by conflicts is no small feat, and adds to business ventures the dimension unknown to entrepreneurs in our country. As Ms. Malin indicates, basic institutions and processes vital to the success of any business such as the rule of law are less often the norm in countries that lack stability.

Ms. Malin’s personal story of success in a male-dominated environment and the positive impact her career has had on other women in her country illustrate another value of homegrown entrepreneurship. Women generally form the backbone of society in developing countries, and it follows that developing countries will be successful when local women are given the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Education Makes Peace More Likely

Posted on by

Andeisha Farid is is one of many entrepreneurs in Washington recently for the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. She is founder of Afghan Child Education and Care Organization, a nonprofit based in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Alyse Nelson is president and chief executive of Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nongovernmental organization that trains emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe.

Andeisha Farid

Andeisha Farid

Andeisha Farid:
The war is all I have known: I was born in war, and I have lived my entire life in war. I want it to stop. Through education – at a fraction of the cost of war and rebuilding – we can eradicate the soil that feeds hatred and oppression in Afghanistan.

As a child in a refugee camp in Pakistan, I was inspired by fellow Afghans who believed in education as the path to peace, democracy and well-being of our devastated country. Soon I was teaching and caring for other refugee children in a place I would call (for lack of better words) an orphanage. It was more than that – a family, home, and meeting place where Hezara learned to love Pashtun, and Tajik learned to love Nuristani. Most children were orphans or lived in such such devastating conditions that we could call them orphans.

Since those days, I founded a formal organization in Afghanistan called Afghan Child Education and Care Organization. The organization has added other orphanages and requires each under its umbrella to harbor children from all corners of the country. Children’s families, or surviving custodial guardians, have to accept our basic mission of equality, tolerance, and a liberal arts education. Because ideology has brought misery to Afghanistan, we ban promotion of religious or political dogmas.

When I moved to Kabul with my family and we opened three orphanages in the city, we were noticed by international media. This led to support for the organization and recognition for myself. Coupled with forces for positive change within Afghanistan, international support has made it possible to bring the total number of orphanages to 10, including two in Pakistan.

But with 1.3 million orphans in the country, there remain tremendous needs and challenges. Most of our children are connected to their native villages, where people hope they will return one day as a midwife, engineer or teacher, and where we hope they will bring the values they live by. If other educators stick to these values, we can reach the point at which no violence or suppression will overpower the force of freedom.

Alyse Nelson

Alyse Nelson

Alyse Nelson:
Andeisha’s devotion to her cause really strikes you when you meet her in person. She tells you about life as a child in the refugee camps of Iran and Pakistan, where all she had to hold on to was a dream about one day returning home to Afghanistan. When she finally did return, the place from her dreams was nowhere to be found. For example, girls were restricted from going to school and were often abused or trafficked.

But conditions that would leave others to despair led Andeisha to a simple and powerful vision — education would transform Afghanistan.

Vital Voices recently recognized Andeisha for her commitment to build a more prosperous and tolerant Afghanistan by investing in the education of her country’s orphans. At a time when the challenges are perhaps greater than ever before, she has grown more determined to create a space for freedom and development, where girls and boys of every ethnic group learn tolerance and respect.

Andeisha knows that education has the power to release a child from oppression and inspire progress within entire communities. Like any force for change, education expands its reach when it’s shared. When we invest in the promise of one child, that child learns his or her worth and wants to give another the same chance to develop.

The Fifth "C"

Posted on by

[image src="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/3234/week_4/052909-061207018096-300.jpg" caption="A woman tries on a diamond ring." align="right"]
When my husband and I looked at diamond engagement rings 15 years ago, jewelers told us to keep in mind the four “Cs” – cut, color, clarity and carat weight – when choosing stones. At that time, no one mentioned a fifth “C” – conflict. If someone had, I wouldn’t be wondering now if our jewelry purchase helped fund human rights abuses or a coup effort somewhere in the world.

Conflict diamonds, also known as blood diamonds, come from areas controlled by rebel movements or their allies and are used to finance military actions against legitimate governments. According to analysts, money from the sale of blood diamonds helped fuel Sierra Leone’s civil war, which killed or maimed thousands. Physically, there is no difference between a conflict diamond and a regular one; the issue is the diamond’s provenance.

In 2000, several countries meeting in Kimberley, South Africa, proposed a certification process to monitor and control the trade in rough diamonds. The Kimberley Process, formally launched in 2002, seeks to stop the flow of conflict diamonds to international markets while simultaneously protecting the legitimate diamond industry. Through the Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2003 (PDF, 44 KB), the United States now prohibits the U.S. import or export of rough diamonds that have not been certified as “clean” through the Kimberley Process.

Although the Kimberley Process came into being too late to help my husband and me 15 years ago, I think it is now a useful tool to help protect people from unwittingly contributing to war and violence. But when will there be a similar certification process for other gemstones? And what about protections for gold and silver?