Start up opportunities as climate changes in Myanmar’s political landscape.
Myanmar-startups.com present the Rice Bowl Startup Awards held during the ASEAN Entrepreneurship Summit in Kuala Lumpur, November this year. It is the first ASEAN award that recognizes breakout startups that harness technology innovatively. What sets the awards apart from other accolades is that they are developmental in nature and focus on enhancing the nominees and giving them regional exposure.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is echoing Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in his push to make college tuition more affordable, saying Thursday that the U.S. should “start some governmental program.”
Trump said, “Well, the only way you can do it is you have to start some governmental program and you have governmental programs right now…We’re going to do something very big with loans because you have to get these people going. They really feel down and out.”
Warren has proposed such measures during her tenure in the Senate, calling for reforms to the way college education operates in the United States.
In June, Warren unveiled a plan that would create a new government program that would give states money so that they could keep tuition low. As Inside Higher Education notes: “Warren wants a new federal program that would provide funds to states that make some public higher education options so inexpensive that borrowing would not be required, and she wants more federal funding to come with more strings attached.”
In addition, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has proposed “free” tuition by reforming the education system, making it a central theme of his 2016 campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination.
Warren has also stated that there are too many institutions of higher learning, traditionally a conservative position. For people around the globe who are confused by the 2016 Presidential campaign in the US, I is well to look at Trump, Warren and Sanders as populists.
IS and its ilk are skilled recruiters, using the internet and informal networks. They can therefore rely on a steady flow of terrorists ready and willing to fight. Instead of going through a tightly controlled and highly competitive recruitment process, IS has a well-funded web and social media propaganda campaign disseminating videos of brutal violence and destruction to appeal to potential followers. It also distributes an English language magazine,.
Taking advantage of improvements in technology and transportation, the Islamic State (like al-Qaeda) contrasts with past terrorist groups that remained more domestic and nationalist. Today’s terrorist groups are transnational – European and North African recruits are incorporated into cells based in Europe and beyond. Unable to migrate to fight in Syria, they are being used to stage attacks in the countries in which they are based.
Driven by ideology, the conventional terrorist organisations of yesteryear mostly received their support from state sponsors. But today, most terrorist groups engage in organised criminal activities to keep their organisations thriving. IS has flexible and lucrative sources of funding. Most of this comes from illicit proceeds from occupying territory such as controlling banks, oil and gas reservoirs, extortion and theft of economic assets. IS also earns funds by donations from non-profits and foreign fighters.
By not relying on foreign funding, the group is not vulnerable to a sudden loss of support. Additionally, the group’s motives also mutate. Lucrative criminal opportunities motivate the group. They also provide a constant flow of funding for further attacks.
Occupying territory is also a something that distinguishes terrorist-hybrid organizations from terrorist groups of the past. Typically it is insurgencies that hold territories by force, whereas terrorist groups have been too weak to hold territory and must rely on a safe haven provided either passively or actively by a state sponsor.
IS holds territory roughly the size of Belgium, which it uses as a base to train its militias and conduct and plan its operations. More than 60% of its funds goes towards paying its military. By holding territory and providing services to the people who live there, it can operate more freely than groups which lack a large base for its headquarters.
Though the organization is transnational and cellular, it also has a robust organization capable of planning carefully orchestrated attacks and offering the financial and logistical support necessary to make its attacks highly deadly. The Paris attacks were too sophisticated and effective to be the work of leaderless resistance or lone-wolf terrorism. As the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said, they were very probably planned from the top in Syria, rather than by an autonomous cell based in France.
But in spite of its unusually clear hierarchical leadership structure, simply killing IS’s top leaders and destroying its resources and supply lines will still be ineffective. The only way to deal effectively with the group will require a long-term plan of eliminating the deep sources of frustration in the region, such as government corruption, mismanagement and state violence.
Security measures will be costly for western countries.
French President Francois Hollande’s increased spending to boost security in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris should be given special treatment under Europe’s budget rules, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
“We are faced with terrorist acts. France and other countries need additional means and these additional means should not be dealt with on the same footing as regular spending,” Juncker told an audience in Brussels on Wednesday.
Following the assaults in the French capital that killed at least 129 people on Nov. 13, Hollande said he is ready to breach the European Union’s budget-deficit ceiling to spend whatever is needed to ensure security. He promised more money for intelligence services, additional police officers and no cuts to the army’s personnel numbers.
The European Commission has already said that extra spending by governments to deal with the influx of refugees into the bloc may receive a reprieve under the budget rules, which include an annual deficit limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.
When nations are faced with “unusual events outside the control of the government,” then spending can be increased without drawing sanctions, the commission said on Nov. 17. While the statement referred to refugee-related spending, Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU executive would assess the impact of France’s security spending.
Luxury toilets a big item for big spenders.
Guarded by heavy metal gates, it feels like a secret base in the heart of Tokyo. Inside a typical office building in the Akihabara district is a high-tech factory that is created for use by anyone with innovative ideas.
To the uninitiated, a makerspace is a physical housing area (it could be a library or a community centre, for instance) that provides technology, manufacturing equipment and/or educational opportunities to the public.
Here the Toto electric toilet seat with water spray feature was created.
Japan has long pioneered high-tech toilets. This one allows users to check blood pressure, urine protein, weight and body fat on the control panel.
Is this an opportunity for creative entrepreneurs around the world?
The cost of shipping commodities fell to a record, amid signs that Chinese demand for iron ore and coal is slowing, hurting the industry’s biggest source of cargoes. The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping rates for everything from coal to ore to grains, fell to 504 points on Thursday, the lowest data from the London-based Baltic Exchange going back to 1985. Among the causes of shipowners’ pain is slowing economic growth in China, which is translating into weakening demand for imported iron ore that’s used to make the steel.
Elizabeth Warren proposes a women’s economic agenda.
“Achieving pay equality for women isn’t enough,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, D.-Mass., said. “We have to make sure that all workers – men and women – are earning enough to live on.”
A recent Economic Policy Institute study shows that the gender pay gap has closed some 40 percent. It’s not because women are earning more. It’s because men are earning less.
Wages for all workers have been suppressed, because of national policies consciously adopted to guarantee that most of the wealth being created through increased productivity goes to those who are already the richest, most powerful people in America.
It hasn’t always been this way. For decades following the end of World War II, Gould said, pay for the vast majority of American workers went up as productivity rose.
Then economic policies turned against workers. Productivity grew 72.2 percent between 1973 and 2014, but hourly pay for the typical worker rose just 0.20 percent annually. From 2000 to 2014, the gap between productivity and pay grew faster and wider. Productivity rose 21.6 percent but pay increased only 1.8 percent for the typical worker.
If the fruits of higher productivity had been shared with those who had produced the wealth instead of being lapped up by the top one or two percent, Gould said, no one with a full time job would be living in poverty today. Overall, wages would be up 70 percent.
However, because of current economic policies some 35 million working Americans are living in poverty. Many are working two or three jobs.
In presenting the Women’s Economic Agenda, Senator Warren pointed out that more than half of low wage workers are women and that some 14 million children are being brought up in poverty.
“This is an economic issue,” Warren said, “but it is also an issue of American values. No one who works full time should be living in poverty.”
Schedules That Work bill
Warren discussed her Schedules That Work bill. If passed (which is unlikely in today’s Republican-controlled congress) it would prevent employers from calling workers in at the last minute. It would also stop managements from calling workers in, deciding they aren’t needed and sending them home without pay.
“Women especially need some control over their work schedules,” Warren said, “because a large number have sole responsibility for children. How can you plan for childcare if you don’t know what your schedule will be day to day?”
“Congressional representatives such as myself,” DeLauro said, “can take off as many days as we want to. Yet, one quarter of all workers have been fired or threatened with being fired for taking just one day off to take care of their kids.”
Women’s Economic Agenda
EPI’s economic agenda for women addresses the issues Sen. Warren and Rep. DeLauro discussed. It calls for equal pay that’s also a living wage. It stresses the importance of fair scheduling and paid family and medical leave.
“Women in unions are more likely to be paid higher wages and have access to needed benefits and protections. When unions are strong, those benefits and protections spread to nonunion workers as well.”
The agenda also calls for raising the minimum wage for all workers and eliminating the subminimum wage; the nation must protect and strengthen Social Security and pensions.
The agenda ends by calling for national monetary policies that “prioritize wage growth and very low unemployment.”
Drug trafficking to Europe often passes through West Africa and Mali and proceeds provide part of the financing of terrorist organizations. Home-grown terrorist MUJAO, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), and Ansar Eddine in Mali. Terrorism in West Africa
Background of terrorist activity in Mali:
Between 2000 and 2013, the number of migrants across the world increased by a third, reaching 232 million.
More and more of them are highly skilled. According to the OECD, India has the highest number of educated migrants, followed by the Philippines and China. Statista was asked by i100 to visualise the OECD’s data and you can read the entire feature here.
This chart shows the origin countries of highly educated migrants to OECD nations.
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The Federal Reserve is on the verge of relinquishing the tools it used to rescue American International Group Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. That probably won’t appease lawmakers who’ve said they’re still concerned the central bank might abuse its powers as the lender of last resort.
After the Fed released an initial proposal almost two years ago, a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren complained that it didn’t go far enough and left regulators too much wiggle room to orchestrate a backdoor bailout that violates the intent of Congress. Yellen, testifying before a House panel this month, rejected the idea that the Fed should relinquish its role as potential savior in a crisis.
Warren and other lawmakers argue the expectation that the Fed will rescue failing banks, incentivizes reckless behavior on Wall Street. Lawmakers also are trying to shrink the number of banks that receive heightened supervision from the Fed and are threatening to boost Congress’ authority over the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which oversees giant U.S. lenders such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.
Before Dodd-Frank, the central bank had the authority “in unusual and exigent circumstances” to lend to virtually any company or person, thanks to section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. In March 2008, the Fed, then led by Ben S. Bernanke, used that power to extend credit to Bear Stearns through JPMorgan, which acquired the failing securities firm. Six months later the Fed began a bailout program to keep insurer AIG afloat.
Now the Fed is prohibited from rescuing individual firms, but Dodd-Frank permits the central bank to provide “broad-based” liquidity to the financial system if it gets the approval of the Treasury secretary. Though Dodd-Frank laid out the basic emergency lending restrictions, the Fed has to write the policies and procedures.
The lawmakers urged the Fed to revise its proposal to establish both clear time limits for how long banks could receive emergency lending and procedures for the orderly unwinding of such programs. They asked Yellen to improve how the Fed defines terms such as insolvent and broad-based. To prevent the so-called moral hazard associated with the Fed’s lending authority, the group requested that any emergency loans be made at unfavorable, or penalty, interest rates.
Yellen has indicated that she might partly, but not entirely, appease the politicians. The Fed expects to release the final rule by the end of November and will address “concerns about the definition of broad-based eligibility, insolvent borrowers, and penalty rates,” she told the House panel. She didn’t discuss the lawmakers’ other requests. Yellen also must contend with Republican efforts led by Shelby to limit the Fed’s authority. Legislation he drafted that would reduce Fed oversight of regional banks, including eliminating stress tests for many of them, was added to a spending bill that Congress must pass next month to avert a federal government shutdown.
