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Mideast Peace Talks, Muslim Chaplains, "Harvard Cookie Girl"

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The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority head to Washington for the historic resumption of Midddle East peace talks. Across America, Muslim chaplains are becoming more and more common on college campuses. The U.S. central bank will do whatever it can to sustain the economic recovery. And, finally, the story of an Iranian-American woman’s sweet success.

 
Mideast Peace Talks Relaunched
The United States will host Israeli-Palestinian direct negotiations on September 2 in Washington, with the intent that all final-status issues will be resolved within one year. At right, clockwise from upper left, President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Muslim Chaplains on U.S. Campuses
Since the 1999 appointment of Imam Yahya Hendi at Georgetown University as the first Muslim chaplain on an American college campus, more institutions have been looking to fill the void. Yale University’s Muslim chaplain, Omer Bajwa Bajwa says the number of Muslim Chaplains is growing to meet the needs of an expanding population of American Muslim students.

The Fed’s “Unconventional” Options
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the U.S. central bank will do everything it can to support the economic recovery and prevent the U.S. economy from spiraling into a period of deflation. In a speech at a U.S. central bankers’ gathering, Bernanke said the Federal Reserve has a limited range of “unconventional” options left to support the economy.

Harvard Cookie Girl
Bibi Kasrai, 43, grew up in Tehran, fled Iran for Russia, and studied at Harvard Business School.  This is the story of how she began teaching children about nutritious and tasty food as Harvard Cookie Girl. At right she works with daughter Ava, who at age 9 is the self-appointed mascot of Harvard Cookie Girl.

More Pakistan Aid, DRC Violence, Two Cool U.S. Programs for Youth

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Another $50 million in U.S. aid to Pakistan and a “horrific attack” in the DRC. What the U.S. is doing to preserve European heritage. Also, a report on jobless Americans becoming their own bosses. Read about young people who come to the United States for cool experiences, like IT internships and space camp .

More Aid for Pakistan
The United States is providing an additional $50 million to help Pakistan cope with monsoon flooding, says the U.S. Agency for International Development. The new funds are being diverted from a five-year, $7.5 billion development program to help Pakistan that was announced by President Obama last year.  The United States has already committed $150 million to Pakistan flood relief.

 

Clinton Condemns ‘Horrific Attack’ in DRC
Responding to reports of mass rapes of women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged that the United States will do everything it can to work with the United Nations and DRC officials to hold the perpetrators responsible and create a safe environment for all civilians living in eastern Congo. “This horrific attack is yet another example of how sexual violence undermines efforts to achieve and maintain stability in areas torn by conflict but striving for peace,” Clinton said. 

Saving Cultural Heritage in Europe
Landmarks in a dozen European nations in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Turkey and elsewhere will receive support from the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. They are among 63 projects worldwide chosen for funding in 2010.

Laid-Off Workers Try Entrepreneurship
Some of the millions of Americans who lost their jobs in the past three years have decided to go out on their own.  Last year, business start-ups in the United States reached their highest level in 14 years, and in the first half of 2010, more than one-fourth of newly unemployed workers considered starting their own businesses.

Iraqis Intern at U.S. Computer Companies
Eight young Iraqi information technology specialists spent 12 weeks this summer at leading American technology firms learning about U.S. business practices, new technologies and entrepreneurial skills. They interned at the companies through the auspices of the U.S. Embassy Baghdad IT Intern Exchange program. 

Libyans at Space Camp
This July, two dozen students from Libya attended Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  They joined other young people from around the world to participate in simulated space shuttle missions, training and lectures on space exploration.  Then in August, a group of Moroccan students had their chance at Space Camp. Last year, the experiences of 24 Libyan Space Camp participants were documented and made into the film One Small Step, One Giant Leap. The film premiered in December 2009, airing more than 20 times on local television in Libya.

Afghanistan: 'Because of Her, I Sent My Wife to School'

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America.gov asked businesswomen in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India about their accomplishments. Then we asked their male employees or business partners to describe working with a woman.

Masooma Habibi, 24, is a co-founder of Check Up Company, an electrical engineering consulting business in Afghanistan. She co-manages the business with two male executives.

Ali [last name witheld] is an employee of Habibi’s. He holds a technical job at Check Up Co.

Masooma Habibi

Masooma Habibi, left

Masooma Habibi:
The most important accomplishment for me was starting a new kind of business, one in which women had not participated in much before. I have hired 22 people. That means 22 families are better off. I have had a role in my society. I did something for my own life and also took a step to reconstruct my country.

My staff is important to me. They are the rock of my company. I manage people of different ages, different levels of education and from different cultures.

When I employed some technical people, at first, they didn’t want to accept me as a boss who would ask about their reports and remind them of their responsibilities. They thought, “She is not a good woman; she is a woman who wants to do men’s jobs and is very crazy.”

I searched for a solution. I asked them about their families and understood that their women and girls are not allowed to work outside the home. I knew I had to change their ideas in two ways – first, change their ideas about my ability to be a boss and second, change their ideas about their women and girls.

I started to use a lot of the work of these technical people, to ask them about projects, to seek their input in managing our company and many other things. I worked with them. If I controlled them, I controlled them like a friend. I tried to make a very good working environment. After some days, I saw their respect — for each other and for me — increasing. They saw me as a boss who really wants to help them. They were employees who came to me to get their pay, but soon they told me that they could wait if I couldn’t pay their salaries on time. I couldn’t believe that!

But I still had the second set of ideas to change. I told my male employees that it would be better for them to send their women to get an education, because their wives can manage and raise their children better with an education. Their daughters could be leaders in businesses, in hospitals, in schools … changing the future of their country and that of their families. Fortunately, most of them accepted my ideas about their families.

mystery-manAli [last name withheld]:
One of my friends told me about a job as technical person. I was very happy to find out about the job. But when I saw Ms. Habibi, who came to speak to me about the job and to interview me, I laughed in my mind, saying to myself, “She is my boss? She controls this company?” In my mind, she was a stupid woman. I wasn’t really thinking.

The company accepted me. I told myself, “Hey, Ali, you are free. No one will control you.” So I started to work, but I didn’t want to give Ms. Habibi reports or to participate in monthly meetings. I thought, “These are just stupid works that she wants me to do.”

But after a few months, she changed all of my bad habits — in my work and also in my private life. She works hard and always encourages other people to work hard to do all things the best way, encourages them to change their ideas and to make a new life for themselves. That is not easy in Afghanistan.

Ms. Habibi has always looked at me as someone very important for the company and has asked me about my ideas regarding the work even though I was just a technical person who didn’t have a high position. I understood that while I don’t have high education, I am a person who is responsible.

She surprised me and I surprised others. She was the reason I sent my wife, who has five children, to get primary education. I am proud of my wife and myself because we are thinking about our children, and our children are future of this county.

Learn about women’s contributions to economies in South Asia.
Learn about how microfinance gives women opportunities.

Obama Announces Supreme Court Nominee

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President Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan Monday to fill the upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“[Kagan] is an acclaimed legal scholar with a rich understanding of constitutional law,” Obama said. “She is a former White House aide with a lifelong commitment to public service and a firm grasp of the nexus and boundaries between our three branches of government.”

Obama said Kagan was the first woman to serve as Dean of Harvard Law School and the first woman to serve as solicitor general – the country’s chief lawyer representing citizens before the Supreme Court.

Kagan is the nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1975. (He was nominated by President Gerald Ford.) Stevens announced he is retiring after 35 years at age 89.

The U.S. Supreme Court has nine life-long positions assigned to interpret the law and evaluate the constitutionality of legislation. It is a branch of government equal in power to the presidency and Congress.

Congress will have to approve the president’s nomination in the coming weeks before Kagan is sworn into the office.

Is Customer Service Passe?

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As I watched 14 hard-working businesspeople win seed money to start or expand their businesses in Africa, I was excited for them. I was also afraid for them. Excited, because they had made it through a judging process that started with some 750 competitors. Afraid, because now that they have capital, they really have to do it! They have to hire, plan years out, deal with red tape, and find customers.

One book I just read might help them on thinking about the customers’ place in their overall plans.

When more and more large and profitable companies get away with dreadful customer service, it might seem silly to argue that attention to customers offers a competitive edge for small businesses.

But Barry Moltz and Mary Grinstead argue just that in their book “BAM! Bust A Myth: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World.” They provide compelling evidence that good customer service adds value, helps the smallest firms differentiate themselves from the crowd, boosts chances of survival for new startups, and gives them a solid footing from which to earn later profits.

Challenges abound. The authors point to the obvious one – when companies start and have a limited customer base, it is easy to satisfy customers; the hard work comes when the company’s customer base grows. Changing business environments also present a challenge to customer-service. For example, the spread of self-service and the ascent of social media means call for rethinking what a customer really considers good service. Probably the toughest challenge, the authors say, arises from the culture of disregard for customer satisfaction at many companies and from myths that linger and affect other companies.

Moltz and Grinstead bust many cliches, such as “the customer is always right” or “good customer service means the same thing to everyone,” and provide good advice, based on the experience of successful firms. They tell you how to derive real value from empowering customers. But their book rejects the accepted “wisdom” that customer service is all about listening to buyers. It is two-way dialogue, they say.

Fleet Management for Transportation Efficiency, Safety in Ethiopia

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[guest name="Zelalem Dagne" biography="Zelalem Dagne has lived in the United States for 29 years. He has worked as a senior process engineer for advanced manufacturing systems in the plastic industry and provided consulting services to corporations including Comsat and Qualcomm on the deployment of mobile and wireless technologies."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

With the newly developed highway infrastructure and high accident rates, road transportation is a major challenge in Ethiopia. I believe our company – Global Telecommunications PLC – can help improve the efficiency and safety of road transportation by deploying a fleet management system based on the global positioning system (GPS) and related technologies.

The fleet management system implementation will have a positive impact on business and commerce by helping to move agricultural and industrial products to the intended destinations on more reliable schedules and at lower costs. Our two-year old firm will help freight companies manage their operations, and this, in turn, will help their clients improve management of their supply chains. The monitoring and tracking of the fleets across the country will allow their owners and operators to monitor fuel expenses and other costs, more accurately plan fleets’ operations, maximize the use of those fleets while keeping the vehicles safe and reliable, and extend the life of the vehicles.

When we began, we saw inadequate telecom infrastructure as a main obstacle. But the speed at which the country is catching up in this regard has surprised us. In the last six months, a third generation wireless system, which covers 85 percent of the country, was rolled out. To provide 100-percent coverage within Ethiopia as well as globally, we partnered with a Canadian satellite company to get a backup for our operations where the network of the terrestrial general packet radio service (GPRS), a mobile data service, is unavailable.

Initially, after a series of presentations, only few potential clients expressed any interest. But since we opened the office in Addis Ababa and started a pilot project with up to 30 vehicles the interest has grown significantly. My sister Elizabeth Dagne, who is my Ethiopian partner and has experience in the transportation sector, helped recruit potential clients too.

We also see potential markets in the tourism, rental car, and the oil and mineral exploration sectors. For example, a personal tracker service can help rental car companies establish the location of the victims of car crashes and alert emergency services. We are launching the promotion of the personal tracker in late March with free trials.

As a result of our win in the African Diaspora Marketplace competition, we have received inquiries from other contestants about possible partnerships in the countries they start their ventures. Given that our system was developed to work globally, the potential of such ventures is huge. Our plan is to use grant money to finance the launch of new services and buy additional equipment.

Goat Ranch in Ghana Aims to Start an Industry

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[guest name="Henry Adobor" biography="Henry Adobor teaches corporate strategy, ethics and leadership at the School of Business, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Connecticut. His background is in retail and human resource management. His business interests in Ghana include a small IT center in Accra and a large-scale aquaculture project. He lives in Cheshire, Connecticut."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Henry Adobor

Henry Adobor

You may not believe it, but goat farming is my passion. It connects me to my childhood during which my mother kept a few goats (as do most people throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.)

What I am trying to do with Aceritas Ghana Ltd. – the company I have started – is turning the passion into a commercial enterprise. The company will own and manage Green Acres Goat Ranch. Beginning with 100 goats, this commercial goat farm will use improved breed stock imported from South Africa and modern husbandry methods to produce the animals for meat and breeding. This will be a huge improvement over traditional small-scale livestock farming, which is inefficient and unsustainable in the long run.

But my goal is far from pushing small farmers out of competition. With a small laboratory and education center, the ranch also will work as a platform for sharing knowledge with local farmers to help them upgrade breeding and farming methods and grow. Aceritas is forming an alliance with a local university to promote research on goats, particularly on the new breed. My hope is that this project becomes the nucleus of an emerging industry. I plan to entice others to form a Commercial Goat Breeders Association to lay industry’s foundation.

The Accra Plains where goats soon will roam.

The Accra Plains where goats will roam soon.

My partner in Ghana -Stephen Adrah who owns several companies and farms – will manage Aceritas operations.

Because the market for goat meat is huge in Ghana, the initial focus is on selling the animals to large buyers, brokers and individuals directly from the ranch. Breed stock will be sold to farmers. Thinking ahead, Aceritas also will prepare for farming milk goats and selling goat milk in the future.

The ADM grant has come handy. It will help to defray the cost of importing the breed stock (that is substantial because the animals will be air-freighted, no first class please!) and building housing for goats.

In Ethiopia Efficient Orchards to Grow on Superior Plant Tissue

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[guest name="Michael Asamere" biography="Michael Asamere, who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, has a background in information technology. He resides in Seattle where he works for Fidelity National Information Services."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Hunger and malnutrition are not foreign to Ethiopians. I see improvements in local farming as the best way to address these problems. My father-in-law – an Ethiopian American who teaches agriculture at Fort Valley State University in Georgia – suggested that one could contribute to these improvements in a major way by propagating quality tissue cultures selected from local edible plant stock, particularly fruit stock. With that goal in our minds, the company we jointly started – TAF Plc. – will build and operate a commercial-scale plant in Addis Ababa, which will grow and multiply select plant cells, tissues and organs in a laboratory-type environment for sale to farmers. (Later, we plan to open satellite offices in Oromia, Amhara and other regions.) A lab building already has been constructed and a small greenhouse will be ready soon. The $100,000 grant will be used to buy laboratory equipment.

So far farmers have had to rely on the government to provide them with seeds and other planting materials. But those supplies are insufficient, costly and often not of the best quality. As a result, some large farmers idle chunks of their farm lands. With foreign investors buying or leasing land for large-scale farming, demand for quality planting materials will grow tremendously.

When the company was launched three years ago, it had to gain trust of the farmers as it had no name recognition to rely on. Through the word of mouth – with support of a network of relatives and family friends – TAF has established an initial customer base. Now potential customers come to our local partner – well-connected businessman Tsega Asamere – asking him when we will open.

Our main goal is to help farmers increase crop, produce technological spill-over effect in the agriculture sector and make profits in the process. The venture also will create close to 100 jobs. In the future, TAF also wants to make a concrete contribution to sustainable economic development by producing materials for reforestation of deforested areas.

We are excited about this venture and the prospect of helping the agricultural sector in Ethiopia that represents a significant portion of the economy.

Better Palm Oil to Improve Diet in Sierra Leone

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[guest name="Joe-Lahai Sormana" biography="Joe-Lahai Sormana worked for two multinational chemical companies as a senior engineer and scientist. He has a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He lives in Pennsylvania."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Joe-Lahai Sormana

Joe-Lahai Sormana

In Sierra Leone, crude palm oil is an essential ingredient in traditional dishes. Between 30,000 and 40,000 metric tons of palm oil per year is consumed in the country. Over 95 percent is derived from palm fruit through traditional methods that are labor intensive and inefficient.

That wasn’t always the case. But during the civil war, all palm-oil processing mills were either destroyed or became inoperable and, to the best of our knowledge, none of them have been re-established or re-started.

I have established a company called Palm Fruit Processing Company Limited with the primary goal of producing palm oil in a modern mill. My local partner, Aloysius A. Beah, is negotiating contracts with palm plantations to provide us with a steady supply of palm fruit. In the future, we plan to develop our own plantation.

Palm Fruit Processing company’s logo

Palm Fruit Processing company’s logo

Our oil will carry health benefits as it is cleaner and has a lower level of saturated fat. But the company will be selling it at a discount relative to local prices. We will be able to afford it because of greater efficiency of our processing mill, which will allow us to produce significantly more palm oil from the same quantity of palm fruit than traditional producers will ever do. Our company’s pricing strategy and product quality will give us a competitive advantage from the start.

The company will create jobs, thereby contributing to the economic development of the country and to improvements in the standard of living in the local community.

A win in the competition validates our business model and value-proposition. Grant funding will be used to purchase equipment and develop the necessary infrastructure to house it. We already have selected sites, bought land and obtained the design of the mill.

Learning Medicine by Videoconference in Nigeria

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[guest name="Fiemu Nwariaku, Barry Moltz and Rob Sprang" biography="Entrepreneur Fiemu Nwariaku is from Nigeria and lives in Dallas. He is a surgeon and associate professor at Southwestern Medical School. Barry Moltz is a small-business expert and teacher and the author of three books on entrepreneurship. Expert Rob Sprang is director for Kentucky TeleCare and project co-manager for Kentucky TeleHealth Network at University of Kentucky."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

FIEMU NWARIAKU, entrepreneur:

Fiemu Nwaariaku

Fiemu Nwaariaku

There is a major deficit of skilled doctors and nurses in developing countries, where medical skills often lag behind developed-country standards. Producing new doctors takes too long, and upgrading their skills is expensive because they frequently have to be sent overseas for training.

Trigen Healthcare proposes to close the skills gap by training medical workers more efficiently using sophisticated high-definition videoconferencing technology. This technology will allow us to deliver lectures and skills training to more medical workers at a much lower cost. We will connect Nigerian doctors and nurses with medical experts at major U.S. and European medical centers, who will provide training. Participants in Nigeria will interact with overseas trainers in real time. Our local partner in Nigeria – Galaxy Backbone Plc – offers broadband Internet connectivity necessary for the videoconferencing technology to function efficiently.

In July 2009, we successfully transmitted a live surgical procedure from Texas to Abuja, Nigeria, during a training session for doctors. This trial run proved that our technology works. Our goal is to provide value for our customers while enhancing human development in sub-Saharan Africa.

BARRY MOLTZ, business expert:

Can medical skills be learned through videoconferencing? I suspect that some can and that more of the skills need to be learned in person through demonstration and participation. The entrepreneur needs to find out which skills can be learned through videoconferencing and which skills doctors want to learn this way. He should teach a narrow range of skills first to ensure the technology and the medical material are successfully learned.

ROB SPRANG, business expert:

Learning surgical techniques by videoconference

Learning surgical techniques by videoconference

The Kentucky TeleCare Network does a great deal of medical and other healthcare professional education via videoconference technology. It is my understanding that the proposal will be to use the technology to train healthcare workers to deliver a higher level of healthcare services than they are currently capable.

There is no reason that you cannot train healthcare workers via videoconference technology, but you must be sure that the competencies can be taught and measured using the technology. There are some clinical techniques that probably don’t lend themselves to videoconference teaching, but if the curriculum is appropriately structured, content is properly delivered and outcomes and competencies are carefully determined and measured, then this idea should be fine.

I would suggest that in order to test the strategies, you may wish to pilot test some of the training with a control group that receives the testing in a traditional face-to-face format and the experimental group that is simply in another room, but connected via videoconference technology. This may require that the content and teaching methodologies be modified to distance learning so that the objectives may be met. Simply broadcasting the same lecture that is done face-to-face may not be effective.

Our 3rd year medical students who travel to rural communities for clinical rotations utilize the technology to connect for their weekly Problem Based Learning, Journal Club, lectures and other teaching, so there is certainly a precedent for this kind of activity.

Beginning in 2010, the Rural Leadership Track will select 10 students who have performed their first two years of medical school at the University of Kentucky (UK) to be placed in a rural community hospital where they will receive their final two years of medical school education. They will participate in many lectures and educational programs with their classmates at UK via videoconference technology.