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Coming Up From The Favelas: Brazil’s Slumdog Entrepreneurs

From TechCruch via @GrameenFdn:

Coming Up From The Favelas: Brazil’s Slumdog Entrepreneurs

Rational Critique - Net Neutrality: Did the FCC actually stand up for consumers?

Net Neutrality: Did the FCC actually stand up for consumers?. Net Neutrality: Did the FCC actually stand up for consumers?Help the FCC stop powerful corporations from dictating the information we can access on the internet.

via toddcurl.typepad.com

Facebook as a single point of failure for the Web | Royal Pingdom

If Facebook has its way (and it usually does), over the coming years a ton of websites and online services will become part of the open graph that Facebook is promoting, with Facebook firmly planted in the middle. The concept is very interesting, and the potential for this web of data from a wide variety of sources is enormous. You could say that Facebook will tie all our information, and the whole web, together.

Read the rest at royal.pingdom.com (hat tip Will Reichard)

GM's phony loan repayment | Video Cafe

General Motors has been running ads on all the major networks claiming the company repaid its $6.7 billion U.S. government loan "with interest five years ahead of the original schedule." General Motors Company CEO Ed Whitacre can be seen in the ad walking through an auto plant as he touts the company's progress.

via videocafe.crooksandliars.com

Bad News for Fliers - The Daily Beast

The merger of Continental and United shows size matters. Aviation expert Clive Irving on what it means for the industry and travelers—mainly, fewer flights and fewer empty seats.

They were a part of the infant airline industry. Continental Airlines was born in 1937 out of a small operation in remote areas of the southwest; United Airlines was created in 1927 out of a mail-carrying operation with the fledgling Boeing company. Next week the two will merge and become the world’s largest airline.

Read the rest at www.thedailybeast.com

Bitter Taste in Mexican Coffee Farmers' Mouths

Bitter Taste in Mexican Coffee Farmers' MouthsBy Emilio GodoyMEXICO CITY, Apr 26, 2010 (IPS) - A Turkish proverb says "coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." But growers of the more expensive arabica coffee beans in Mexico are more concerned with a government plan to promote the cheaper robusta beans than with poetic maxims.The ministry of agriculture, livestock and fishing launched the "humid tropics" programme to boost production of the lower quality but hardier robusta coffee in nine of Mexico's 32 states. Currently, 95 percent of coffee produced in this country is the more prized but harder to grow arabica. "It will affect us, because it's going to generate a new coffee price crisis and will flood the market with a cheaper product," Cirilo Ruiz, a member of the regional coffee council of Coatepec, a town in the state of Veracruz, 400 km southeast of the capital, told IPS. The agriculture ministry will initially make three million dollars available with the aim of expanding the cultivation of robusta coffee in the nine states in question, to increase annual output from the current 150,000 sacks to 500,000 sacks by 2012. The direct beneficiaries will be big roasters like Switzerland's Nestle or the Mexican company Sabormex, because instant coffee is made with robusta beans. Eighty percent of instant coffee - which represents 57 percent of domestic consumption of coffee in this country - is sold by Nestle. Arabica, which is more highly regarded for its taste and aroma and fetches a higher price on the international market, must be grown 800 metres above sea level, while the hardier robusta can grow at lower altitudes and has more caffeine. Mexico is the third largest coffee producer in Latin America, after two world leaders: Brazil and Colombia, the first and third largest coffee producers in the world. (Vietnam is the second.) In Mexico, some 490,000 farmers grow coffee on more than 600,000 hectares, producing around 4.2 million 60-kg sacks of coffee a year. More than three million people directly depend on coffee farming for a living in this country of 107 million people. Robusta coffee is grown by about 19,000 families on 34,000 hectares of land in the southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Puebla, and in Veracruz, one of the country's main coffee-producing areas, where 90,000 farmers grow arabica beans on 136,000 hectares. Coffee prices have rallied on the international market in the last few months, which has benefited farmers, but not nearly as much as it has benefited the big roasters. One sack of washed arabica beans now brings in around 165 dollars, while a sack of robusta beans fetches 70 dollars. However, the price of robusta coffee declined 15 percent between February 2009 and February 2010, while the price of other varieties rose, according to the London-based International Coffee Organisation (ICO), which brings together governments of coffee producing and consuming nations for the development of shared global strategies. "What I have seen is that demand has remained quite stable while supply is volatile, but is not on the rise," Juan Albín, a coffee farmer in the mountains of the state of Puebla and the director of the Mexican Coffee Promotion Council, remarked to IPS. Arabica coffee producers want to avoid a repetition of the 2000-2001 crisis, when countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, bolstered by credit from the World Bank, flooded the international market with robusta coffee, driving down prices. Within the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has linked Canada, Mexico and the United States since 1994, instant coffee has been exempt from import duties since 2004, which has favoured Mexico's exports to both of its partners. "The companies are just looking for a bargain, because they're going to drive down costs and sell more instant coffee," Ruíz said. A 2006 study carried out by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for the Mexican agriculture ministry recommended that production of robusta beans not be increased beyond the current level - five percent of total coffee output. The report noted that the cost of producing robusta beans in Mexico is higher than the national average, and recommended that this country's coffee farmers focus on specialty niches like certified organic fair trade coffee. This year, the agriculture ministry will provide 42 million dollars in subsidies to coffee producers, including more than nine million dollars to farmers in Veracruz. The National Coalition of Coffee Growers Organisations (CNOC), a network of regional groups that represents tens of thousands of small farmers, complained in a document addressed to the agriculture ministry that roasters want production of the cheaper robusta beans to increase in order to gain a larger profit margin through sales of instant coffee. Mexico's coffee producer organisations are also working to design a strategy that would enable them to make headway in the highly profitable U.S. and European gourmet coffee markets. Mexico was a pioneer in the production and marketing of organic coffee, and is one of the biggest suppliers of the product in the fair trade system, which reduces the number of intermediaries and brings farmers higher prices. "Our project consists of boosting coffee cooperatives," said Albín. "We want yields to grow from today's nine quintals per hectare to 30 quintals." According to ICO figures, annual per capita coffee consumption in Mexico is 1.2 kg, below the level in Brazil (5.8 kg) and Colombia (1.8 kg), and far below the countries with the highest per capita consumption levels, like Finland (12 kg) and Norway (9.9 kg). But things have begun to change in this country, where coffee shops are the new rage. (END)Send your comments to the editor

via www.ipsnews.net

beyond profit » a new social enterprise magazine

beyond profit – a new social enterprise magazineOur mission is to bring you the most interesting and unique stories, people and ideas from the social enterprise sector. Learn about the individuals who are working to change the world through social entrepreneurship and find out how they are doing it. Subscribe today!

via beyondprofit.com

Register - Fair Trade Futures Conference

All are Invited to Join Us for This Amazing Celebration! Registration includesParticipation in seminars, discussions, workshops, and other eventsOpportunities to network with, receive feedback from, and voice your opinions to leaders across the Fair Trade CommunityMost meals during the conferenceFair Trade Gift BagListing in the Conference DirectoryMore!Click on the Appropriate Link Below to Register Online Sign Up before March 31, 2010 and Save!Students ~ $125/ person ($75 / person before March 31)Trading Members of the Fair Trade Federation and/or World Fair Trade Organization ~ $200 / person ($100 / person before March 31)Partners of Leadership Group Organizations (example: Green America members, FTRN Friends, Fair Trade Federation Associates, CRS Ambassadors, etc) ~ $300 / person ($200/ person before March 31)Others ~ $350 / person ($250 / person before March 31) Unsure which category is right for you? Contact us at (202) 636-3547 or conference@fairtradefederation.org Trading organizations can apply now to join the Fair Trade FederationMore InformationScholarship Opportunities for North American Students and Producers Around the WorldMarch 15th: 1st Round of Scholarship Applications for Producers and Students DueJuly 31st: 2nd Round of Scholarship Applications for Producers and Students DueContact us for Information about Discounts for Groups of Five or More

via fairtradeconference.ning.com

An Energy-Sipping Cellular Network To Be Deployed in Africa : Planet Green

Over 80% of Africans live without access to the electricity grid. However, over 1/3 of the population owns a cell phone and that portion is rapidly growing. Developing nations are leapfrogging from no phone to cell phones - skipping the expensive and unnecessary infrastructure of land lines - and the use of mobile phone technology for everything from agriculture to banking services to health care is helping to improve the quality of life of people living in these areas. However, it still takes a cell phone base station to connect the mobile devices, and those take power. Luckily, there's one new model that takes minimal power, and it's coming to Africa.

via planetgreen.discovery.com

The Next Billion – The Rise of Social Network Sites in Developing Countries

Social network websites are becoming a global phenomenon. Millions now go online to engage in social networks. According to Wikipedia, there are some 1.5 billion members worldwide. Where is this growth taking place? What does this mean for web2fordev? And what role do mobile phones play?

via www.web2fordev.net