Produce like you care

Producing like you care is creating growth while applying the principles of Sustainable Development: The resources available should be used to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future.
This approach is correlated with the level of interest we put into the environmental protection. Always having your planet at heart helps you preserve it better for the future generations.
The cycle is simple: If we use less than nature’s ability to replenish then we allow environmental renewal which ultimately gives way to sustainable development (in three main domains: environmental, economic and sociopolitical).
Now the real question is: How to? How is it possible to use our scarce resources in efficient ways or even innovate in order to avoid using these limited possessions while still producing?

On top of the different policies already available in most western countries (Carbon Dioxide emissions control, Kyoto protocol etc), there is still a large way to innovate.
Regardless of the working field, a creator should explore all of his production opportunities: Becoming key elements in a regular production process.

There is a general advantage for the society as a whole. For instance, from a strictly economic approach, air pollution is considered a negative “externality”: it harms a third party who was not involved at any point in the economic decision of a particular company. This company's production has caused external costs or “spillover costs” on others. And so over all, cost of society is defined as the sum of the economic costs for all the parties involved. The same idea is implied for the spillover benefits of other activities.

In a nutshell, these externalities –costs or benefits- should be taken into account in the production process and should be either reduced (in the spillover costs) or encouraged (in the spillover benefits).
Only then would we be producing like we care.

Marché de Noël-Strasbourg

From Novembre 29th until December 31st: The biggest Christmas market ever

Since 1570, Strasbourg hosts the annual Christmas market, the famous "Christkindelsmärik". The market is primarily devoted to crafts and Christmas decorations, it has managed to preserve the authenticity and soul of the Christmas period. A real event that gathers Christmas activities, delicious recepies, hot wine and legends that have existed over the years in this Alsace region.

The website is available for further information:
http://noel.tourisme-alsace.com/

This can be one option if I stay in France after all!

Robert de Sorbon

During dad's last visit to Paris, he was wondering what "Sorbonne" meant...I didn't know the name's origin either so I thought I'd research it. Here is what I found:

"Sorbonne" is derived from the Maison de Sorbonne, founded by Robert de Sorbon(1201-1274), a French theologian.

Born into a poor family in Sorbon, in what is now the Ardennes département, Robert de Sorbon entered the Church and was educated in Reims and Paris. He was noted for his piety and attracted the patronage of the Comte d'Artois and King Louis IX of France, known as Saint Louis. He later became the King's confessor in 1258.

Sorbon began to teach around 1253 and in 1257 established the Maison de Sorbonne, a college in Paris originally intended to teach theology to 20 poor students. It was sponsored by King Louis and received the endorsement of the Pope in 1259. It subsequently grew into a major centre of learning and became the core of what would become the University of Paris. Sorbon served as chancellor of the university from 1258 and taught and preached there until his death in 1274.

The Maison de Sorbonne was considered as one the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris. However it was suppressed during the French revolution and reopened by Napoleon in 1808 and finally closed in 1882. It was one the many colleges of the University of Paris that existed until the French revolution (1789-1815, a period of political and social upheal in the French history).

Finally, in 1970, the historic University of Paris was divided into thirteen different universities, three of these successor institutions include Sorbonne in their names: University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne (where I currently study), University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle, and University of Paris IV: Paris-Sorbonne. The thirteen universities still stand under a common rectorate with offices in the Sorbonne.

No stress

As students, we all go through a tremendously heavy phase of exams where work does not seem to end. We always feel like we've got so much to do and so little time.

Lately, I've been taking my stress management seriously. I didn't want to keep on taking 2 panadol pills before going to bed to kill the headache that's been weighing all day long! Too early to feel such overload I thought.

Since wrinkles and grey hair were not options considered...I decided to look at simple solutions. I have been experimenting for around two weeks and up to now I have found some useful advice that can help release the stress.

1- Eating healthy (Fruits and Vegetables, yes) no matter how tempted you are to just throw a pizza in the oven or make some quick creamy pasta you got to stop yourself.
Little changes in our habits can have a big impact on our mood and our physical energy in the morning. To all the students reading this post, if you don't already do that, next time you go grocery shopping get yourselves a couple of apples, some tomatos, fresh salad, and whatever other natural products you like! These will be some of your snacks and your dinners...now you can still have pasta or steaks, but make sure they are done in a better way. In other words, take a little more time to cook healthy :)

2- Working out If you are a member in a gym or you practice any kind of sports, you got to hang on to it...I work out around 3 hours/ week. Some go for more. It's all about the balance you can find (studies, gym, activities...)

3- Meditation! If you want to learn about it, I am reading this very easy and helpful guide "Meditation: Exercices and inspirations for well-being" written by Bill Anderton. It basically gives you the tools to meditate everyday on a regular basis (morning or night, depending on which you prefer) while sitting relaxed, breathing deeply and clearing your thoughts and searching for inner silence. I believe this can surely complement the physical wellness you will be getting from good nutrition and work out.

4- It is okay not to be perfect There is no such thing as perfection anyway so allow yourself to rest whenever you can and to enjoy your friends from time to time. In real life, we will not have all the time in the world to do a specific assignment and we will all be pushed to manage all our tasks together.

So yes, I think all the balance required between the body and the mind should start early and develop with time...We have all heard of most of these benefits but today, we should seriously try them..! I'll be waiting for feedbacks :)

Save your country

Everything that happened during my one-month internship in the Grameen Bank,in Dhaka, the past July 2008 is just too big to mention in one post, that is why I had dedicated a whole blog for it. But something very stranged happened yesterday night as I was skyping with my German friend in the US, who had been an intern in Bangladesh as well. As she was doing some research on the net, she fell on a post on Globespotting, a blog created by a Business Week journalist: Steve Hamm.

I had met Steve in the Grameen Bank Head Office, and we just happened to speak about the reasons that made us travel to Bangladesh and how we were feeling about this whole experience.

He asked me where I came from and what I did in life. I told him that I was lebanese, that I had changed several countries and that my stay in Bangladesh had taught me not to take things for granted, and not to take my own country for granted. I told him I was eager to go back and to enjoy it.
As we were walking out, he shook my hand and said "Save your country". His direct and straight from the heart words, had a real impact on me. When I look back at it, I feel serene because Dhaka was truly a turning point for me.

So let me go back to Steve's blog...he posted a link on July 24th, and I just read it this morning:
http://blogs.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/globespotting/archives/2008/07/travel-blogue_d_3.html

He mentions a lebanese young woman who lived in Kuwait and Paris in his last paragraph.

Thank you Steve, so much.

The giant pool of money

What is this giant pool of money? How greedy is it? How far are investors willing to go to make the highest profits? Yes. It's all about the balance between fear and greed:

The link eveyone should check: http://thislife.org/Radio_episode.aspx?sched=1242

This is a special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. They explain it all to you, everything you need to know to get it ! What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

You can download a transcript while listening to the interview. It's an hour long. But it's worth it if you want to get this crisis problem once and for all.

The Achieving Society and Ashoka

The Achieving Society is a book written by David C. McClelland, which explored the motivational qualities of entrepreneurs. The author defines three major human motivations:

- Need for power
- Need for affiliation
- Need for achievement

He then focuses on the need of achievement which he found correlated with entrepreneurship. McClelland, a psychologist, found that indivuals with a high need for achievement tended to be less influenced than others by suggestions as to what they should do, think, or believe.

Here is a quick outline of their behaviour:

• Facts are what influence them in engaging problems


• Counsel of experts instead of friends


• Not gamblers: conservative in games of chances and daring in games of skill


• Accept challenges when there is an acceptable chance of success and when the main determinant of success is their own skill

McClelland asserted that entrepreneurs were primarily motivated by the sens of achievement rather than a desire for money. Profits give them "definite knowledge" of his or her competence. But real satisfaction came from making the world conform in a very specific way to his or her will.

Ghandi, King, Ashoka and Bhave, all had change as a global vision.

This is what made Bill Drayton, highly inspired by these figures, create The Ashoka organization, which funds projects and missions of social entrepreneurs all over the world. Its purpose is to help ordinary people with great ideas implement and grow their work in a specific domain (health, education, HIV/AIDS, abuse, handicap...)

Since its creation, 25 years ago, Ashoka has helped over 2000 social entrepreneurs operate on all levels, from latin american favellas to slums in the US, post-Soviet Union countries, Asia and Africa.

Source: "How to change the world: Social Entrepreneurs and the power of new ideas" written by David Bornstein.

Financial Crisis- Simplified

So I was aked,in my english class, among other students, to give an outline of what is going on in the current financial crisis...while being clear and methodic in the explanation. This was my final presentation:

"When you deposit money in a Bank, you might think that this amount is held in a safe there until you wish to withdraw most of it. However, the banking system does not operate this way.

Your bank virtually takes a big amount of your money which is then lended to other borrowers.

What you should also keep in mind is that a bank has two main financial incomes:

- Your own deposits

- And the money it borrows from other investment banks

So if you ever want to borrow some money, in order for your bank to give it to you:

It must have the necessary capital (money); otherwise, it borrows the money from another investment bank

To sum it up, your debt is usually a consequence of your bank’s own debt

Now let us imagine a situation where most of the money is being injected into the economy without a reliable regulation. This means that all of the financial institutions have disbursed gigantic amounts of loans without even having enough fresh capital for any risk recovery. This is what happened to the investment banks Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch who had all announced their bankruptcies. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the only giants left standing. The media even reports that Morgan Stanley is actually fighting for survival and might consider a bail-out or a merger.

So what is really happening today?

What can usually happen on a micro level in a specific bank is actually happening today on a macro level on the stock market. Banks are contracting loan portfolios but there are no buyers for these loans anymore.

This failure in the banking system is the heritage of the mortgage lending crisis that has happened a couple of months ago on the American housing market. Loans were disbursed to people who in most cases failed to pay them back because of the increase in the interest rates and because of their rare assets (or sometimes, their lack of assets which are: Regular incomes, deposits in banks, valuable possessions etc)

In such a situation, banks can do two things:

- either raise some fresh capital

- or reduce their loan disbursments (stop giving loans for a while)

The second option is great if we are considering one bank. However, this is not what happened: The US financial institutions have all been sharply reducing their loan portfolios including loans to businesses and individuals. And as they all cut back on lending at the same time, the consequences on the economy as a whole have been drastic: a reduction in investment and spending, hence, a recession.

In such a systematic crisis, it is a raise of fresh capital that is needed which is why the Federal Reserve has injected billions of dollars into the stock market.

What are the consequences of this US financial crisis on the other economies?

As we all know, the US is very integrated in the financial market. Therefore, all of the developed economies have already launched major ways to overcome a potential recession. Most of the authorities are looking for means to comply with regulation without lowering the lending: Injecting billions of euros into the European stock market is one measure. Lowering the interest rate is another.

As for the growing economies (China mainly), the impact is relatively minor up to now but some spillovers can occur later on for such countries exporting to the US where the purchasing power and the investment are in trouble.

This expected recession is compared to that of the 1970's;
A recession is a contraction phase of the business cycle, defined broadly as: a significant decline in economic activity spread accross the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in the real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales."

Now, isn't it ironic that for the upcoming months, Africa will probably have the lightest decline in GDP? ... However, this continent might still strongly be affected by 3 factors:
- the reduction of its remittances (money sent home from expats)
- the exports and imports level (if the world demand of goods is lowered then the exporting countries will produce less and have less money to import later on)
- the private investment (discouragment of foreign firms to invest in other activities in other continents)

One student said something that really had an impact on us during his presentation about the lessons we could learn from this crisis: "The problem faced can also be the consequence of each of us thinking that our single decision or objection to something would never have a real impact on the system as a whole" He said that sentence while criticizing the bankers that were operating on the lowest level, and their chiefs who thought that they couldn't question the system: Why were they giving NINA loans? No Income No Asset loans??
He was a philosophy student. A good point was set out.

Lebanese in Sorbonne

There is an Association, RELP, Rassemblement des Etudiants Libanais a Paris -Sorbonne-...which I am in charge of this year after it's creator, Halim Madi moved to Dauphine.

The Association's purpose is to promote the lebanese culture and strenghten the Franco-Lebanese relationship within the framework of College studies.

First step in the journey: Projection of a lebanese movie Zozo ... We got the approval for the 8th of December.

what's the next step? I am hoping we can get a politician or a journalist to lecture interested students about the middle-east current evolution and the part we can each play in it, as future leaders :) along with gatherings, dinners, and maybe some photography competitions about Lebanon.
Any suggestions?

There's always a light

Start to think about the World around you..How do you like your life so far? How can you stay focused on everything going on in it? How do the complications make you feel? Can you look back on the past couple of months without any regret?

Well this is it. Today is your start. All fresh to shake up your thoughts and do what you always wanted to do. And by that, I don't mean just going out and discovering your environment exclusively...you got to learn to see through it, see something new. Read, Discuss, Learn and become. Intellect is the key to our self control..We have to stay focused on our inner peace without ever losing ourselves in the process.

This blog is a place where I'll share with you my thoughts, the things I want to do, the places I plan to visit, the books I am reading...everything.