Tag Archives: mobile-phones

Hope for a Global Climate Treaty / Core Issues in the Middle East / A Muslim Basketball League in the USA

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After the COP-16 climate summit, there is renewed hope for a global climate treaty. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Middle East peace process should focus on core issues. Chinese and U.S. defense officials talk. At a conference in Algeria, North African business is on the agenda, while talks in New Zealand center on economic cooperation. It’s called mHealth and it’s improving health care for remote populations. U.S. officials mark Human Rights Day. We’ve got a two part series on an Iranian American activist. And finally, there’s a basketball league in California with a Mecca division and a Medina division.

Hope for Global Climate Treaty
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Because of agreements reached at the U.N.-led COP-16 climate summit in Cancún, Mexico, the world may finally be on its way toward a legally binding treaty that includes all major greenhouse gas emitters and compensates nations most vulnerable to climate change. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls the outcome a “significant step forward.” At right, environmental activists call attention to rising sea levels outside the conference.

Clinton: Focus on Core Issues in ME Process
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The United States believes it is time for the Middle East peace process to focus on the core issues of the conflict: borders and security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says. “It is no secret that the parties have a long way to go and that they have not yet made the difficult decisions that peace requires,” Clinton, right, says.

U.S., Chinese Military Talks
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U.S. and Chinese defense officials recently discussed how to develop more sustained and durable military-to-military relations, Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy says. “I won’t say that we agreed on every issue. Where we did differ, we had a very candid and frank and productive exchange of views,” she says.

A International Business Conference in Algiers
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At the U.S.-Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference held in Algeria, North African and American business leaders discussed the potential, and the challenge, of launching businesses in countries from Libya to Mauritania. Inspired by President Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo and last April’s Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, the conference provided workshops and networking opportunities for North African entrepreneurs.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks
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Negotiations aimed at updating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement made steady progress across a range of issues during just-concluded talks in New Zealand, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Take Two Aspirin and Text Me in the Morning
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Mobile phone health information, or mHealth, is improving health in populations that are difficult for doctors to reach. Even the most basic mobile phone can make medical information more accessible to doctors and patients alike.

A Day to Remember Human Rights
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U.S. officials from the president on down marked International Human Rights Day on December 10, which commemorates the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

An Iranian American Activist
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Melody Moezzi is an Iranian American who became a lawyer, then a writer, a speaker and a political volunteer. She embraced Islam, then wrote and spoke against stereotypes of Muslims in America. When she learned she had bipolar disorder, she began writing for fellow patients and works to clear up misconceptions about them. Read our two part series on Moezzi and her activism.

A Muslim American Basketball League
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Orange County’s Muslim Basketball League, started in 2004 with eight teams, now includes 33 teams, split into the Mecca division and the Medina division. The league grew out of a desire for young Muslim men to socialize while doing something they love. At left, the Mecca division team Intifada after winning a championship.

U.S. Support for Liu / The Côte d’Ivoire Vote / Seeds of Peace

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Days before he is to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the United States is supporting jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. The U.S. calls for a smooth transition of power after elections in Côte d’Ivoire. In the past couple of weeks, the U.S. has participated in five European summits. Mobile phones are giving people access to financial systems in Africa for the first time. An American educator will be speaking about higher education in Africa. And, an unlikely friendship grows from Seeds of Peace.

U.S. Backs Jailed Nobel Winner
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Barry White, the U.S. ambassador to Norway, will attend the December 10 Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in a show of support for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. The U.S. House of Representatives has also passed a resolution honoring the Peace Prize winner for promoting democratic reform in China and calling for his immediate release from prison. At right, a banner picturing Liu is installed at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo.

The Côte d’Ivoire Vote
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The U.S. urges President Laurent Gbagbo to hand over power and authority to Alassane Ouattara, who won the second round of Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election. If that does not happen, the U.S. will take further steps such as travel bans or sanctions directed against President Gbagbo, his family and associates, says U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson.

For U.S., Five European Summits
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The United States participated in five summits over the past couple of weeks, engaging with nations from Europe, Central Asia and North America. These summits presented “an unprecedented opportunity for engagement with our partners in Europe and Eurasia,” says Philip Gordon, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

Mobilizing African Banking
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In African countries such as Tanzania and Malawi, mobile telephones are taking a first step into the formal financial system. Almost 1 million active customers in Tanzania use mobile-phone payments to transfer funds to relatives, buy supplies, pay doctors and save money for future emergencies.

A Moroccan Higher Ed Conference
Barbara Brittingham, president of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges’ Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, will be a featured speaker alongside leading Moroccan and international experts and officials at the Moroccan Fulbright Alumni Association’s annual conference.

Seeds of Peace Take Root
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Seeds of Peace is an organization that brings teens from conflict areas around the world to a summer camp in Maine, U.S.A., where they foster trust, understanding and communication. For Joseph Katona, left, a Jewish kid from Los Angeles, and Omar Dreidi, a Palestinian kid from Ramallah, it meant a lasting friendship.

A New Fund for Women / Clinton’s East Asia Trip / Cows to Kazakhstan

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announces a new $44 million fund devoted to women’s empowerment and preps for her upcoming trip to Asia. The world’s major economies come to an agreement on currency. Among mobile phone users, there is a major gender gap. Learn about the craft of Lowcountry basket-weaving. And, finally, find out why the U.S. is shipping cows to Kazakhstan.

A $44 Million Fund for Women
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the Obama administration will commit nearly $44 million to fund women’s empowerment initiatives around the world in order to advance U.N. Security Council goals of integrating women into international peace and security efforts. Speaking at the Security Council, Clinton, right, said that the largest portion of the U.S. funding – $17 million – will support civil society groups in Afghanistan that focus on women, who she said are “rightly worried that in the very legitimate search for peace their rights will be sacrificed.”


Clinton to Travel to East Asia
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans extensive talks with leaders and senior officials from at least eight East Asian and Pacific nations during a 13-day trip to the region to show U.S. engagement on a range of issues. She will also address the East Asia Summit in Hanoi.

An Agreement on Currency
Only two weeks after failing to resolve differences at a meeting in Washington, financial officials of the world’s major economies agreed to avoid conflicting currency interventions and, in principle, to reduce trade imbalances.

A Mobile Gender Gap
A gender gap is preventing approximately 300 million women from taking advantage of the potential of mobile phones to improve conditions for the world’s poor.

Lowcountry Baskets on Display
The weaving of coiled baskets is a craft that was brought from West and Central Africa to the American Colonies more than 300 years ago and is still passed from generation to generation among the Gullah/Geechee people of South Carolina and Georgia.

Cows for Kazakhstan
Under an agreement between a U.S. company and the Kazakh government, the first shipments of pregnant heifers have begun making the trip from Fargo, North Dakota, to Astana, Kazakhstan. The goal is to upgrade Kazakhstan’s beef breeding stock and reinvigorate its agricultural industry by shipping cattle. In Kazakhstan, a once-strong cattle industry that sent much of its beef to Russia went into decline after the fall of the Soviet Union. A dozen flights between North Dakota and Kazakhstan are scheduled by early December, each shipping nearly 170 heifers. At left, a heifer is packed for shipping.

Talking Turkey, by Phone

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Fatih Isbecer is one of many entrepreneurs coming to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship from countries with sizeable Muslim populations, April 26-27. Isbecer is founder and chief executive of Pozitron, a wireless communications company, based in Turkey.

Elmira Bayrasli is director of partnerships, policy and outreach at Endeavor Global, a nonprofit that identifies and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

Fatih Isbecer

Fatih Isbecer

Fatih Isbecer:
When I was at a high school in Daytona Beach, Florida, as an exchange student from Istanbul, I was filled with an entrepreneurial spirit and loaded with different tech ideas. The year was 1993, and the U.S.A. was experiencing a technology revolution. I felt that this change would eventually affect Turkey. A few years later, back in Turkey, with some classmates from Istanbul Technical University, I started a small business that focused on Web projects. It was a kind of techies’ playground from which I “graduated” to a more serious – but not less fun – business.

In 2000, I started Pozitron, an R&D-based firm that develops enterprise, networking and security software applications for other companies. It took me a while to bring together the executive team — experienced senior managers are in short supply in Turkey. Once I did have executives in place, I was able to focus on the mobile telecom industry and do what I do best, which is come up with innovative solutions. One of Pozitron’s first hits was a mobile-phone application for the country’s only official sports betting game – Iddaa. Since developing that, we’ve broken into international markets with mobile-phone banking applications developed for Turkey’s largest private bank – Türkiye İş Bankası. The applications allow users to transfer money, trade stocks, pay bills and check balances from anywhere in the world.

In 2007, I was selected a high-impact entrepreneur by Endeavor, a non-profit that identifies and supports influential entrepreneurs. A year later, Pozitron won the Global Business Plan Contest organized by the Harvard Business School for a plan that focused on an integrated, mobile-banking product. It was launching this application in the same month a large U.S.-based multi-national bank released its own version that gave me a huge satisfaction.

As more people are starting businesses or doing trade, mobile telephone communication has even a more significant role to play in helping them overcome obstacles and grow their enterprises. Brand new applications and services are emerging, including Pozitron’s mobile airline ticketing and check in. My ambition is to participate in shaping the future of this industry and, together with my Turkish friends and rivals, dispel the myth that the high-tech sector in Turkey doesn’t exist.

Elmira Bayrasli

Elmira Bayrasli

Elmira Bayrasli:
As the daughter of Turkish immigrants, I spent much of my childhood visiting Turkey. It was a place I didn’t want to go. There were many reasons for that, including rolling blackouts and no television. The most important was no telephones.

The telephone was important to me. That’s how I kept in touch with my mother and my father, who wasn’t able to stay with me for the duration of our summer-long trips. “I’ve got to go back to work,” he’d tell my teary five-year old self. “But I’ll call you, okay?”

Except he couldn’t call us. My grandmother, like most Turks, didn’t have a phone – not because she couldn’t afford one, but because Turkey’s infrastructure didn’t allow for it. Phone calls could only be made at the post office. Even then there was no guarantee of securing a working line. Thankfully that is no longer Turkey’s situation.

Today, Turks are creating technologies that have attracted world attention. Pozitron is one of those companies. And Fatih Isbecer is one of those entrepreneurs helping redefine entrepreneurship in Turkey.

With a highly educated work force and globally oriented citizenship, Turkey is home to promising young talent, a strategic geography and tremendous resources. Fatih Isbecer recognized it and started his own high-tech company. It worked not only to create jobs, but to inspire other Turks to see themselves as innovators. Turkey used to turn to the West for the latest technologies. Today Turkey is at the cutting edge, pioneering new solutions not only for Turks, but for the world as well.