Mar
19
2010

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 increase awareness, guide decisions, and create impact.

I am one of those women.  I believe deeply that it is my responsibility to help the community in which I live and to advance the common good. And I am not alone.

Some who share this commitment seek community in their neighborhood, some in their town, some in their country and some in the wider world.  The commitment might derive from a different belief system than mine, but it is a shared conviction.

The “new” civic leaders come to their roles by different avenues.  Mine happens to be The Junior League of Monmouth County, which has been a continual inspiration for me for 33 years. I’ve seen my League address such important problems as elder abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, AIDS, teen pregnancy, and illiteracy.  Frequently, these were issues that were unmet or underserved in our community – lacking attention or resources.

Inspiration to aspire to civic leadership can come from many sources.  Mine was a grammar school trip to a county nursing home to sing Christmas carols and visit with the patients.  I realized that there were great needs in my community – that not only were there people suffering who had little means to care for themselves, but that I could do something to help them, if only for a day.

I spent most of my school years in all-women environments and knew the potential and power women have to make a difference.  When I was in my mid-20’s, I joined The Junior League to set down roots in the community where we had bought a new home and were expecting our second child.  My mother recommended I join this group of women to meet people and become involved in my community.  Of course, my mother was right as I came to know women whom, to this day, I highly regard. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Women and Leadership | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
Feb
22
2010

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 me was completely engaged.

As an art museum director, I reflect on how science museums, zoos and botanical gardens have been so much more effective at adapting to 21st century needs and attracting diverse audiences. Art museums in the United States have a tough challenge in this respect, as the arts are less and less a funding priority in schools. From a very early age, the message tends to be that art does not quite mesh with life as do math, language and sports. The arts are also competing these days with endlessly-increasing entertainment and social offerings. Despite and maybe even because of all this, museums are placing more efforts than ever on attracting new audiences; and methods to do so have become quite creative.

Museums today, are assuming outreach roles way beyond traditional ones. The definition of diversity has expanded beyond the “multi-culti” 1980s socio-economic and cultural model. Approaches have widened with activities that stretch across disciplines and interests: MoMa offers yoga classes in their galleries; and Queens Museumof Art has cooking workshops, for example. The Bass Museum of Art (which I manage) has a jazz series and monthly Sunday classical concerts.

In fact, museums are following what leading art fairs so effectively set into motion: embracing lifestyle and social activities to attract young professionals, socialites, and the general public to its doors with happy hours, parties, programs for seniors and wine-tasting events. Finally, museum cafes are being upgraded and museum restaurants are becoming, more and more, destinations in their own right (see January 29, 2010 New York Times article: “After the Putti, the Baby Calamari”). Read More »

By admin | Posted in Art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
Feb
16
2010

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 awe when faced with the grandeur of Nature.  The places of my adolescence strongly influenced me:  I admired small rivulets of water tripping along in myriad kaleidoscopic reflections, observed the sinuous dance of silvery algae gracefully suspended in that mysterious crystalline surface while their harmonious movement would work an almost hypnotic spell. I examined minutely the delicate buds of plants, scrutinized every detail of tiny teeming creatures and their interaction with the physical environment around them. The world behind the superficiality of reality enchants me…I am particularly attracted to everything that is beneath the surface: small fossils, twigs, stones, and above all roots…tangled, woody, branched, fibrous, tubers, sometimes aerial or creeping…I am fascinated by small anthropomorphic apparatus and their organic forms…

In each of my jewels I seek “the sense of lightness”, using particularly unusual materials, assembled and fused with an extraordinary vision, always experimenting in a new, magical, and unique idiom…

They are jewels and ornaments in a rainbow spectrum, apparently fragile or difficult to wear…but in reality as supple and lightweight as feathers. They are extensions of life…to be savoured every instant of every day, and can be touched and worn casually, but certainly without going unobserved…Glassy hearts pulsating with light like watery mirrors, from which transparent filaments and iridescent tips reach out – offshoots of light.Bracelets…rings…earrings…collars…headpieces…the entire body is willingly captured, dressed, and transformed by these organic sculpture-jewels that I define as extensions of the body Read More »

By admin | Posted in Art | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (6)
Feb
08
2010

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 long to enter a realm of such beauty and perfect proportion.  The power of beauty may derive from its ability to minister to this longing.  The beautiful object creates, in the mind of those who attend to it, the spiritual home that reality does not provide. Beauty sustains an inner life. It feeds us.

I find that plants have an inherent beauty that is reflected in their aromatic component.   Natural aromas are richer and more nuanced precisely because they are real and simply too inviting for me to resist. I loved the complicated histories of natural essences, and their complex characters—at once delicate and harsh, fresh and decaying,—which made the perfumer’s palette so intense. I literally had to get my hands on them. The sweet, the foul, the spicy, and the fresh – I found them all alluring.  I loved the way they smelled and the way they looked, some like liquid rubies or emeralds in the light, some thick and pasty, other light and thin.

The names themselves seduced me –ambergris and costus, ylang ylang concrete.  Choya loban, orange flower, boronia, civet, tonka bean, champaca. Even those I recognized—jasmine, sandalwood, frankincense, myrrh, bitter orange, vetiver—conjured up ancient civilizations and exotic customs, long journeys and sensual torpor. The endless variations on each theme fanned my obsession. Once I discovered rose absolute, I had to try not only the Bulgarian version but the Russian, Moroccan, Turkish, Indian, and Egyptian as well.

Until the 1880s, all perfumes and fragrances were created from plant—and some animal–materials. The displacement of natural essences by synthetic materials in commercially produced fragrances began at the turn of the last century.  Unlike the natural essences, synthetic fragrances were cheap, colorless, stable, and consistent, and these qualities – and their “modernn ess” made them irresistible to industry. Eventually synthetics were used almost exclusively, and the demand for the naturals dwindled. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Art | Tagged , | Comments (1)
Jan
28
2010

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% increase from the total reported in 2008. What is more fearful though is that now there are no limits – it does not make a difference if it is a banker like the case of German Garcia Velutini who was kidnapped last February, or children like the case of a little 10 year old girl and a 7 year old boy who were kidnapped in Maracay in November; all are still with their captors.

Caracas is also the third most violent city in the world, after Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and New Orleans in the United States. The rate of homicides in 2008 was 52 persons for every 100 and of these 13 were gunned down. For 2009 the statistics indicate the rate of homicides increased to 56 persons for every 100 inhabitants, and more than 14 persons were murdered.

Such interpersonal violence is a public health issue at a macro level due to social inequality, fewer employment opportunities, loss of values such as religion and intolerance to diversity.  At a micro level, a high increase in the number of firearms, alcohol and drug consumption and a continuous angry invitation to violence by the president each time he does his 5 to 6 hour weekly television updates.  Social abuse and violence has been taught and rehearsed repeatedly week after week for the last 11 years.

Indeed in 2009, 57 uniformed men were assassinated, 27 of whom were part of the Metropolitan Police. This reveals a high level of corruption and consequent distrust by the population. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Country Update | Tagged , , | Comments (1)
Jan
18
2010

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 in 2010.  The top new areas are Europe, which is starting to embrace outsourcing in a bigger way, Middle East, Latin America (for near-shoring operations mainly) and Asia-Pacific.  Japan is still a tough nut to crack due to immense cultural differences.

Another area being looked at much more closely is the domestic Indian market.  Continuing to grow at 7-8% annually, it is one of the most optimistic business climates in the world according to a Grant Thorton survey, along with Chile, Vietnam, Australia and Brazil.  The domestic India market itself is maturing with businesses turning more professional and seeking out IT and BPO services.  The price points are also improving to make it worthwhile for export oriented companies to look inward.

Voice-based services will continue to see a decline in growth as a lot of that business is moving to the Philippines and other locations.  Non-voice business and the more complex BPO services (loosely called Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO – e.g., market research), are expected to see a break-out year in 2010.  This is because, not only have they matured to be able to provide more business value, instead of simply executing transactions, but the demand for these services will also increase as the global economy gets back on its feet this year. Read More »
By admin | Posted in Forecasting | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
Jan
11
2010

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 their 2008 highs, the system set up by Vladimir Putin survived. It did not come crashing down as some had predicted. Unrest was contained and companies teetering on the verge of bankruptcy got bailouts that prevented their Russian owners (or the state) from losing control to Western banks.

The bad news: the rainy-day stabilization fund is set to run out of money by the end of the year, and the fund supporting an ambitious array of national projects will see the till run dry by 2012. So Russia is running against the clock. It needs to rebuild its budget reserves to pay salaries and pensions so that much of the middle class which depends on the state for its employment stays supportive of the regime. It must get its new ambitious energy projects into place—especially the Nordstream and South Stream pipelines that promise a direct avenue to Russia’s most important European customers—before alternatives that would erode Russia’s advantages can be solidified (e.g. a Nabucco pipeline that takes in energy from Central Asia and Iraqi Kurdistan). It must work to solidify its growing sphere of influence in the Eurasian space before Europe recovers from its expansion fatigue and resumes the eastward march of the Euro-Atlantic world. Most importantly, it must keep maintain the “Putin bargain” in place: giving the Kremlin effective control over the political process in return for prosperity and opportunity. With a weak banking sector and major infrastructure challenges posing two key threats to that bargain, and without record-high energy prices bringing in “excess” income—this will be a hard challenge to meet. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Forecasting | Tagged , , | Comments (2)
Jan
06
2010

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 witnessed many dynamic changes in this field. What has been clear for the past several years, of course, is that the way people access and consume information has changed. This is particularly true in the professional markets we work in such as law, tax and accounting, health, risk, and compliance. We see “intelligent solutions” as the next cutting edge of information technology. These are information tools that not only provide information in the most appropriate media and at the point-of-use, but anticipate other needs based on the user’s context.

Context aware computing is one area that we expect to see expanding in 2010, and something that we are focusing on in our products. Typically software acts based on direct inputs and is unaware of most context. But today we are beginning to see solutions that are more aware of the context within which people are operating. A common example is the cell phone that senses when lights dim in a movie theater and automatically shuts off the ringer. We will see this kind of intelligent technology entering the professional world as well.

Another key shift is that we are orienting our products toward an open architecture model, where we play a “hub” role, coordinating activities across an extended enterprise that enables various people to communicate with one another in a workflow that spans multiple entities. This means shifting our product development from closed vertical applications to applications that provide a proprietary core but also augment their functionality through connectivity with third party products. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Forecasting | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
Dec
29
2009

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 deliberately comes to Mitcham; they pass through, and even when they pass through they complain about it!   I often hear people say, “Mitcham, it’s not what it used to be, it’s going to the dogs.”  Most people believe that to do well for themselves they need to move out as quickly as possible.  Not me. I choose to live here and my response to those who complain about Mitcham (especially to those who live here) is, “well what are you doing about it?  Be part of the solution NOT the problem.”

About 8 years ago, when I working in information technology, I visited a Christian friend of mine who was working in an AIDS orphanage in South Africa. I met the children, heard their stories and came back changed.  So much so that when on the receiving end of abuse about a printer that didn’t work, I recall thinking, “I don’t care about your stupid printer, there’s kids dying in Africa!” There were kids dying in the UK too; feelings of hopelessness among our youth was rising along with youth crime. During an IT  job at a youth court, I felt called to work with this group of young people. I gave up my well paid IT career to become a student and obtained a youth work and ministry degree (around the same time, I became a devout Christian). I then began to work with young offenders.  The need is great, in 2007 a Unicef report ranked the UK as one of the worst in industrialised countries to bring up children[i]. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Giving | Comments (2)
Dec
11
2009

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 founded ARZU STUDIO HOPE, a non-profit social business enterprise creating artisan-based employment that empowers women.   Today, we help over 600 Afghan women weavers and their families break the cycle of poverty by sourcing and selling the rugs they weave.  Of ARZU’s total expended resources, 93% directly supports our mission to create economic sustainability and provide access to education, healthcare, improved living conditions and community development in rural Afghanistan.

Donors typically want to fund projects, not overhead.  Yet, every organization, no matter the size, needs an array of basic infrastructure, such as legal, accounting, IT, printing, office, furniture–the list can seem endless. Creatively reaching out to professionals for pro bono or reduced rates on their goods and services allows us to stretch cash contributions and grants.  People can underestimate the powerful impact of bringing their skills, rather than their checkbooks, to the table.  At ARZU, engineers consult on solutions from solar power to low-tech plumbing.  Artists create and gift us modern rug patterns, while graphic designers develop our branding and marketing materials. We’ve learned about lean manufacturing from factory owners and soil enrichment from gardening enthusiasts.   This level of expertise far outstrips our ability to pay.  To us, it is truly better than cashing a check.

Connie K. Duckworth serves pro bono as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arzu, Inc; and is an active member of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, a bi-partisan public/private partnership established by Presidents Bush and Karzai in 2002. She is a retired Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, where she was named the first woman sales and trading partner in the firm’s history during her 20 year career. Her book, a primer on how to start a business entitled, The Old Girls Network: Insider Advice for Women Building Businesses in a Man’s World (Basic Books 2003), was published in September 2003.

By admin | Posted in Giving | Comments (0)