Author Archives: admin

Where are our “new” civic leaders?

They are everywhere. They are regular women who do not wait for a government program, crisis or news-breaking story to highlight issues in their communities. (And they are, statistics tell us, more often women than men.) They see a need, and they have the courage and conviction to act. Their hands-on experience gives them the credibility to […]

The Art of Managing Museums

Last year, I visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York and as I was listening to the explanation of the big bang, I realized the person speaking to me on my headphones was Whoopi Goldberg. The science was pure and factual, and yet, the delivery was so friendly and so magical, that even a lay-person like […]

The Art of Jewelry and Theater

I am Gualti, a young artist originally from Padua. I moved to Venice in September of 1998 to inaugurate my atelier-galleria following a long, tortuous, and sensitive evolution. I am self-taught, a “material experimenter”, an inventor of decorative forms for the body, who abandoned myself to the creativity that passionately consumes my entire existence. Since childhood, my extreme sensitivity has left me in […]

The Art of Natural Perfumery

Mandy Aftel is an authority on natural essences and custom perfumes and can be found at (www.aftelier.com). I create perfume–and people wear it–because beauty and art are a vacation from reality. Beauty brings about a morally valuable state in the mind of the beholder.  A well-proportioned and beautiful perfume can make those who smell it […]

Venezuela: a territory of fear and beauty

“When you leave your house in the morning, you do not know if you will return alive in the evening”.  Either in rich suburbs or in poverty-sticken areas, this is a sentence which expresses the fear of the citizens in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. In 2009 there were 795 kidnappings in Venezuela, a 48% […]

India Outsourcing Biz to Grow 15+% in 2010

2009 was a mixed year for the Business Process Outsourcing/ITeS industry in India.  The industry still gets the majority of business from the US and so is tied closely to the US economy.  However, many companies, large and small, have made efforts to diversify into other geographies and the effect of that will be seen […]

Can Russia fix itself by 2012?

In 2010, Russia is picking up the pieces after the train wrecks that derailed its express return to great power status—the near-collapse of its stock market, the aftereffects of the Georgia war, and the global financial crisis. The good news—for the Kremlin—is that despite major falls in the prices for energy and raw materials from […]

Exciting Times for Information in 2010

Nancy McKinstry, CEO of professional publisher Wolters Kluwer, forecasts industry trends The information industry is a microcosm for trends in the world at large. It’s become an incredibly technology-driven field. With the economy still a difficult factor in 2010, innovation will be the key word this year. After 25 years in the information industry, I’ve […]

How to Start Giving: Go Local

Community activist Hayley Teague shares how she was inspired to help her community, and the dramatic life changes she made to make a difference in her local area. The town where I live Mitcham, South London, has a bad reputation. We’ve had shootings, stabbings as well as high unemployment and low educational attainment.  No one […]

Skills sharing for charity

Negative sentiment about the economy is reverberating through charitable giving, with a chilling effect on fundraising. But, the good news is that volunteerism is on the rise. Many organizations value your time as much as your money. Philanthropist Connie Duckworth shares examples of how to share skills to promote a cause. Six years ago, I […]