What Would You Say, If You Had A Supermodel's Platform?

Top models from around the world had an opportunity to have their say in Vogue's April, 2020 issue. Kaia Gerber from the United States, who has over five million Instagram followers, noted, "When you have a big platform, it seems irresponsible not to use it for good."

     What models have to say on every subject lacks credibility, but in some areas they are experts. Liu Wen from China observed fashion is a subject that draws people from everywhere together for a creative cultural exchange. And all people should see themselves represented, said the UK's Fran Summers, who has seen a shift from what used to be one stereotype of a beautiful woman. Ugbad Abdi, the model who first wore an Islamic hijab on the cover of Vogue, agrees.

     Although models, like professional basketball players, are taller than average women and men, there is neither one type of Brazilian beauty, says Kerolyn Soares from Sao Paulo, nor one type of black beauty, adds Anok Yai, who was born in Egypt. At age 37, Taiwan's Gia Tang also counters the idea that all models must be younger. Jill Kortleve, a Surinamese-Dutch model with tatoos, who stopped trying to exist on one banana a day, now books runway appearances in her body's normal size. Paloma Elsesser from the United States, a curvy, larger model of color, claims "a whole new guard of image-makers" exists. Latinx model, Krim Hernandez from Mexico, hopes the growing acceptance of inclusive images can lead to a broader acceptance of diversity in general.

     Models also possess credibility to speak on subjects besides fashion and how the media represents women. Growing up in a refugee camp in Kenya and later in Australia, South Sudanese-born Adut Akech advocates for the rights of displaced refugees and the needs of those who suffered losses in Australia's bushfires. Speaking with a distinctive gap in her two front teeth reminiscent of model Lauren Hutton's pioneering look, Ms. Akech simply reports she is doing and saying what she knows best. What Adesuwa Aighewi knows best are authentic products from artisans in her West African, East Asian, and Southeast Asian heritage.  She knows kitenge textiles featuring traditional African patterns are made in China. Ros Georgiou, a model born in Greece, is using her backstage access at runway shows to learn photography and to become a director. From her base in Milan, Italy, Villoria Cerelli applauds the new respect and opportunity she sees being accorded young photographers, hair stylists and makeup artists.

     For Mariam de Vinzelle from France, modeling is a diversion, a hobby. Since she is currently an engineering student, in the future she expects to speak with authority outside the fashion field. India's Pooja Mor already speaks with authority on the Buddhist and Taoist principles of the Falun Gong spiritual practice that grounds people in peace and happiness.

      During Vogue's round-the-world fashion shoot, although all models wore some form of the universal fabric, denim, no one expressed the fashion industry's concern for sustainability: landfills bulging with discarded clothing, recycling and the global water shortage. The fact is, blue jean manufacturers recognize the need to reduce the 500 to 1800 gallons of water needed to grow, dye, and process cotton for one pair of jeans and often to use additional water to prewash or stonewash denim. Even though Demna Gvasalia is the creator director of the venerable fashion house, Balenciaga, the hardships he experienced as a refugee from the Georgia that was part of the Soviet Union influence his attention to sustainability and global sociopolitics. In the March, 2020, issue of Vogue, Mr. Gvasalia discussed his use of upcycled and repurposed denim, questioned how much value to place on material items, and suggested falling in love improves productivity.

     There always is a cause waiting for young people to attract attention to a cure on platforms that reach one friend, their family, a scout leader, teacher, coach, dance class....

   

China Stretches a Napoleon-Style Belt

Emperor Xi Jinping gained open-ended power, when China's Communist Party scrapped his two, five-year term limit in February, 2018. He already had launched an ambitious One Belt, One Road (OBOR) Initiative to connect China to Europe and a Maritime Silk Road (MSR) that will join China to Africa. The Silk Road term, not coined until the 19th century by a German, is well suited to the OBOR and MSR initiatives which mimic the ancient variety of land and sea routes that carried silk and other goods, as well as ideas, between Asia, Europe, and Africa. Many have observed, however, that besides a means to facilitate trade, China's port projects could serve as a way to establish worldwide influence and naval bases for China's expanding navy.

     In pinyin, the form of Chinese characters described in Roman letters, the One Belt, One Road Initiative is called yidaiyilu. The worldwide use of English and the U.S. dollar rankles China. Beijing's Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies claims globalization is now causing many words, such as xiongmao, the pinyin word for giant panda, to be recognized outside of China.

     Ever since Romans built the Appian Way, leaders have recognized how transportation binds an empire together. Yet, China's infrastructure projects will test the tight control Beijing now maintains over its citizens' telecommunication and face-to-face contacts with the outside world. Like the Chinese employees who built the railroad in Kenya, those building the new container terminal and nearby oil storage installation at Walvis Bay in Germany's former African territory of Namibia, are sealed off from the local community. They live in a closely monitored compound of barracks imprisoned by a wall topped by electrified barb wire.

     Stretching thousands of miles from Beijing, work on the OBOR and MSR cannot help but require ongoing contacts with local government officials, financial institutions, suppliers, laborers, religions, and academics in the countries the roads pass. Already, the China Democratic League, one of China's eight non-communist parties, submitted a proposal to the advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, suggesting cultural exchanges along the routes are as important as trade.

      Singapore-based Broadcom's failed hostile bid for the San Diego company, Qualcomm, might, however, signal China's determination to maintain control over vast areas by using high-speed optic fiber communications and Smartphone communication and data exchange. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) cited national security issues to block Broadcom from access to Qualcomm's wireless chips and 5G (fifth generation) high-speed mobile network technology and standards. In April, 2018, the U.S. Commerce Department placed a 7-year ban (now lifted) on sales of chips, all from Qualcomm, to China's ZTE, because the company violated a 2017 agreement not to send telecommunications equipment containing Qualcomm chips to Iran and North Korea. In Australia, (and later in the UK and Sweden) China's Huawei telecom companies remain banned from 5G networks.  Before its US-blocked acquisition of Qualcomm, Broadcom transferred its headquarters from Singapore to San Jose, California, and later purchased Manhattan-based CA Technologies, a chipmaker in the infrastructure software field. In July, 2018, China would block Qualcomm's acquisition of China's NXP semiconductor company.

     Noticeably missing from China's One Belt, One Road initiative was any reference to North Korea. But that was before members of the women's hockey players in North and South Korea agreed to play together in the 2018 winter Olympics; and U.S. President Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. Suddenly, on March 25, 2018, North Korea's dark green train carried Kim to China for a strategy session prior to the upcoming US-North Korean meeting, from which China was excluded. Subsequently, Beijing agreed to Liaoning province's $88 million plan to build roads on the North Korean side of the Friendship Bridge that connects the two countries at Dandong.

     Whether China's strategy in Africa is considered part of the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) or an extended One Belt-One Road-One Continent strategy, China already has shown interest in the Continent by its trade, military base in Djibouti, the dam its Export-Import Bank built in Uganda, and railroad projects in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Nigeria. Other current and proposed Chinese port, rail, and airport projects ring Africa in the following countries:

• Seychelles
• Mauritius
• Tunisia
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Rwanda
• South Sudan
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Gabon
• Cameroon
• Ghana
• Senegal

"Don't Give Up On Us...."

Skeptics scoff at the activists in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Turkey who still cling to the belief that democracy and dignity will overcome the authoritarian rule that triumphed following the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011-2013. How can today's Rohingya Muslims fleeing their burning villages in Myanmar envision democratic rule when they lack support from Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whose civilian party won a parliamentary majority in 2015, after the country's military regime released her from house arrest in 2010?

Perhaps the key to never giving up on democracy is believing it is not a sure thing, but, as the demonstrations in Iran suggested on New Year's Eve, 2017, neither is democracy's defeat a done deal.

Since 1961, Amnesty International has been keeping track of those subjected to human rights violations. If you have as few as five minutes to help alleviate suffering, go to amnestyusa.org and find out what you can do.

U.S. citizen Joshua Holt, a former Mormon missionary charged with spying, and his wife were arrested in Venezuela in June, 2016 when guns were planted in their apartment. U.S. citizen Alan Gross could tell them political conditions can change for the better. He was released in Cuba in 2014, when relations between the two countries improved. Mr. Holt and his wife were released in 2018.

St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions were martyred trying to convince North Koreans of their worth before God, but the current regime could not kill Oh Chung-Sung, the North Korean soldier who was seriously wounded when he ran to freedom across the border in November, 2017. The long tapeworms, tuberculosis, and hepatitus B his South Korean doctor found in the 24-year-old soldier tell how wounded North Korea's army already is.

China feels the need to prevent engineers building railroads in Africa from having any local contacts and to control internet access by its citizens at home. Nobel Peace Prize poet, Liu Xiaobo, and his wife had to be confined to their home to keep his pro-democracy works from inciting the public. But a year after Mr. Liu died, his widow, Liu Xia, was released and allowed to go into exile in Germany.

Hong Kong's young pro-democracy activists, who carried on knowing they faced repeated arrests after leading a 2014 protest, triumphed when an appeals court overturned their sentences in February, 2018. Despite the threat of receiving a prison term of up to three years, Hong Kong soccer fans bravely turned their backs on the playing of China's nation anthem, "March of the Volunteers," in October, 2017. Hong Kong protests that began in early June, 2019, aimed to eliminate the threat of transferring domestic criminals to the China mainland for trial. As demonstrations continued into August, both demands for democratic reforms and police intervention increased. China's slowing economy already raises Beijing's fear of an inability to control mainland dissatisfaction with a declining standard of living and seems to restrain the Xi government from further aggravating conditions by using military force against its citizens in Hong Kong. Unknown is how much broadcast and social media coverage of the Hong Kong protests reaches the restive Tibetan and Muslim populations in western China and what impact the news might be having.

In Russia, Putin's prosecutors have to rely on bogus accusations to keep the Navalny brothers, Oleg and Alexei, from running for President and using social media to mount anti-corruption proptest marches, not only in Moscow, but throughout Russia. Communist politicians lost elections in 2018, when Russia's senior citizens began protesting Putin's plan to raise the age when they could retire and claim pensions.  In TIME magazine (the May 1/May 8, 2017 issue), former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said, "I am convinced Russia can succeed only through democracy."

Classic World War II Christmas carols retain their meaning during this holiday season. We think about the spread of democracy and sing, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas...Next year all our troubles will be miles away...Some day soon we all will be together, if the fates allow."

Light Travels Faster than the Days before Christmas

I don't know if observations like this led to Einstein's quantum theory or his theory of relativity, but I do know that all the observations he made before he bothered to begin talking led to his later work.
At a presentation by James Costa, when he was discussing his new book, Darwin's Backyard; How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory, which includes DIY experiments kids could do, a member of the audience asked him if he thought experiments came before theory or vice versa. Acknowledging, it was a bit like the chicken and the egg, he said he thought observation and curiosity probably came first.

This got me thinking about what has happened in the Middle East since the Arab Spring in 2011. On the nightly news, I well remember seeing a smiling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton surrounded by smiling Egyptian faces in Tahrir Square then. Just as vividly, I remember Mrs. Clinton responding, during her presidential campaign of 2016, to a Congressional committee blaming her for U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens' death in Benghazi, Libya. Curious about what changes took place between 2011 and 2016, I looked for answers in Steven A. Cook's book, False Dawn.

Members of the administration of George W. Bush initially saw the Arab uprisings in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia as confirmation of the wisdom of 2003's invasion, Operation Iraqi Freedom. Historical observation could have predicted the Middle East had not been waiting for a foreign intervention and occupation to bring democracy to the region. Even so, once protesters overthrew the "stable" authoritarian regimes U.S. policy traditionally supported, U.S. administrations continued to believe they should be involved in the democratization of the Middle East. If for no other reason, Washington continued to provide economic, political, diplomatic, and military support to countries allied with its U.S. interests there.

The trouble with trying to bring democracy to the Middle East is, as observation shows, the region has no Magna Carta tradition nor a political-philosophical underpinning of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. What it does have is a legacy of pan-Arabism expansion, the Muslim religion, authoritarian systems supported by fear, and tribal fragmentation. Instead of democracy reaching the Middle East, maybe  observation could have told the world to expect terrorists and social media to push an Arab-Muslim agenda West?

Given the actual situation in the Middle East, how could a New Year's Resolution to use curiosity and new observations come up with ways to satisfy the peaceful desires of people, not only in the Middle East, but throughout the world? In what ways could travel, technologies, new roles of women as entrepreneurs and politicians, education, natural and man-made disasters, and medical advances foster peaceful changes?

Technology Heals and Transports

If you think about it, the first uses for new products are not always the ones that become most useful. Satellites led to the GPS; nuclear bombs led to nuclear materials for treating cancer. Almonds and crickets are now made into flour. So, who knows what AI, 3D printing, drones, robots, and sensors will be best known for in the future.

The Trendwatching site introduced me to the way a Pepsi ad used phones to help sets of three people get together during Ramadan in Egypt. Three people had to hold their phones next to each other side by side to view a full Pepsi ad that told them to put away their phones and pay attention to each other. That's the way to overcome the loneliness that undermines health.

Virtual reality glasses provided health and welfare benefits in Brazil's nursing homes. Intel partnered with "Reasons to Believe" to give VR glasses to seniors who always longed to travel to the countries of their ancestors. With the glasses, they could experience these trips. Working with Burson-Marsteller, Intel's public relations agency, a project called "Technology and Life" also will show VR's importance in treating autism and patients with visual and motor disabilities.

You can start listing other VR uses, some already being tried, to show customers in one country items they could buy in another, to help a shut-in or hospitalized child go to the zoo or a ball game, to show a friend a 3-D version of your African safari.... Look through a travel magazine and you'll see Alaska, Iceland, Ireland, Paris, Rome, Prague, Rio, Cape Town, and so many other places you'd love to visit with the help of VR glasses or a VR headset..

Better Cows for Africa

A recent trip to Australia sparked Bill Gates' interest in improving milk production in Africa. He writes about his discoveries, problems, and what might be done at team@gatesnotes.com.

It is staggering to find cows on US dairy farms produce nearly 30 liters of milk every day compared to the 1.69 liters produced by an average Ethiopian cow.  While sending Wisconsin cows to Ethiopia would expose them to tropical heat and disease, using artificial insemination to crossbreed an Ethiopian cow with bull semen from a genetic line that produces lots of milk could increase milk output. In the heat of Africa, the required task of keeping frozen semen frozen is not easy, however.

To read more about worldwide milk consumption and production, see the earlier post, "Dairy Cows on the Moove." The magazine,  Hoard's Dairyman (hoards.com), published by Hoard's dairy farm in Wisconsin, USA, has been an authority on the dairy industry since 1885. National and international subscribers can choose to receive print or digital copies.

  Qatar is showing how, out of necessity and under the right conditions, Holstein dairy cows can be moved successfully from Wisconsin to another country to provide milk and breed. After being accused of financing Muslim extremists, Iran, and the Muslim Brotherhood; and being told to stop broadcasts from its al-Jazeera news network; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emerates, Bahrain, and Egypt imposed sanctions on June 5, 2017 that amounted to a blockade of Qatar's imports. Using riches from its natural gas exports, the Irish CEO of Qatar's Baladna farm complex began airlifting 300 cows to a warehouse in the desert north of Doha. Another 14,000 are expected by next year.

Throughout the world, food shortages and poor nutrition are causing countries to search for other new agricultural solutions. Some of these methods are mentioned in the earlier post, "Exotic Farming."

Do World Religions Employ the Antitrust Wink?

It would be a rare religious leader who at one time or another failed to express a desire to make the world a better place. As a Benedictine wrote, "That which each of us does to proclaim God's love makes a wonderful difference in our world."

     Are statements like this said with the winks John Brooks describes in a chapter on antitrust price fixing in his book Business Adventures? He tells how executives of competing companies would wink to cancel the following advice: Avoid any agreements, expressed or implied, that could be viewed as violating the 1890 Sherman Act and the 1914 Clayton Act that make setting noncompetitive price levels illegal.

     When Pope Francis could not visit the pyramids last April, because Muslim extremists vow to attack Egypt's Christians, it does seem some who claim to lead the world's religions give their followers confusing signals. And again and again from the hatred turned against Judaism in the Holocaust to the 24 Coptic Christians killed while riding a bus to a monastery south of Cairo and the two men killed when they tried to defend Muslim girls in Portland, Oregon, last month, religious followers get the winked messages.

     But can't signals, such as peace symbols, also be forged to unite members of all religions?

   

Mixed Messages from Saudi Arabia

I like watching CNBC, because a station that follows the stock market has to keep up, not only with economics, but also with political and social trends. Following the U.S. presidential election, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman and controlling shareholder of Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company and one of the largest foreign investors in the US, told CNBC host, Jim Cramer, "We look at you (your country) as being the vanguard and being the leaders of the world."

     Prince Alwaleed reminded me of the time I began teaching a section on Medieval Italy by asking students to list what they knew about Italy. Roman Empire, pizza, pasta, and home of the Pope helped initiate a discussion of how fragmented the country was before unification in 1870. Now, I asked myself, "What do I know about Saudi Arabia?" Lots of oil, little water, home of 9/11 terrorists, Muslim, women not allowed to drive, considers Iran an enemy. I need to know more.

     The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not formed until 1932. In the 1950s, the US participated in the country's oil boom through Aramco, the Arabian American Oil Company.  US heavy machinery companies also participated in the oil-financed construction boom that transformed a desert into a wealthy country with ports, roads, schools, hospitals, and power plants.

     Despite these close US-Saudi connections, some Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia, as well as those from the enemy Shi'ite branch of Muslims in Persian Iran, harbored hatred of the US for its support of Israel against the Palestinians and resented the US presence in Saudi Arabia. At present, Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen fire long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia.

     Although Osama bin Laden's family came from poor South Yemen, his father won favor with Saudi's king and gained lucrative construction contracts. Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia and spent most of his early life there in Jeddah. Due to the Muslim terrorist activities he inspired from his later headquarters in Sudan, including a suspected attempt on the life of Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, Saudi King Fahd was pressured to revoke bin Laden's citizenship and passport in March, 1994. He left Sudan for Afghanistan in May, 1996.

     Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US were Saudi nationals. Senior Saudi officials denied any role in the attacks and the 9/11 commission found no evidence linking the Saudi government with funding for the operation. Nonetheless, in September 2016, the US Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that gives the families of terrorist victims the right to sue governments suspected of playing a role in a terrorist attack on US soil. Congress overrode President Obama's veto of the bill and JASTA became a law which potentially undermines the close US-Saudi relationship and counter terrorism cooperation between the two countries.

     In Saudi Arabia, cuts in salaries and subsidies due to falling oil prices are understandably unpopular with the Saudi public. Saudi's Vision 2030 economic program is designed to reduce the country's dependence on oil revenues. On CNBC, Prince Alwaleed told Cramer that he is a member of a group looking into energy alternatives to oil.

     Besides the importance of oil in Saudi Arabia's future economy, succession to the Saudi throne also bears watching. Currently, King Salman of the House of Saud supports both Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, his 57-year-old nephew and minister of interior who is next in the line of succession, and his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 31-year-old contender who could leapfrog past his cousin. Speculation heightened when Crown Prince Muqrin bin Aldulaziz resigned his position in April, 2015, to make room for the Deputy Crown Prince.

International Flight Fatalities

When Egyptian Air Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo went down in the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, 2016, efforts to find the lost passengers and plane required a coordinated international search reminiscent of the continuing search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the Indian Ocean.

     What comparisons could a student make? The main countries studying Flight MS804's crash are Egypt, Greece, France, England, and the United States. The search for Flight 370 has involved up to 26 countries.

     Using an Atlas of the Bible and a World Atlas, I see this might be a good season to look for debris in the Mediterranean. According to the missionary travels of St. Paul, the safe sailing season, when the Mediterranean is free of storms, is from May 27 to September 14. The sea was rough during the first few days of the search, but the black box voice and flight data recorder finally was recovered on June 16. Thus far, although the recorder revealed smoke detectors went off in a toilet and under the cockpit just before the crash, whether fire was caused by a mechanical problem or a bomb is not known.

     The World Atlas showed the water where Flight MS804 went down is roughly 5,000 to 10,000 feet deep. It was dark when Flight 840 disappeared off radar around 2:30 am, and no eye witnesses in the normally busy eastern Mediterranean immediately came forward with information. Neither have any terrorists groups taken credit for downing the plane. The lack of a sighting may indicate navigation instruments were compromised by a smoldering fire rather than by the flash of a bomb.

     In the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where Flight 370 disappeared, the water is 20,000 or more feet deep. Currents off Australia move in a counterclockwise motion toward Africa, while the Mediterranean's currents flow south and easterly. Very little debris from Flight 370 has been found off east Africa's coast. and all searches for the missing plane were discontinued January 17, 2017. Flight MS804 was located in the Mediterranean east of the crash site and north of Alexandria, but no agreement about the cause of the crash has been reached.

Look Beyond Africa's Current Woes

Falling commodity prices and a terrorist attack in Tunisia haven't prevented the private equity Abraaj Group's institutional investors, pension funds, and development finance institutions from making a total $1.37 billion investment, mainly in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Arif Naqvi, Abraaj's founder, sees middle class consumption doubling in the region between 2014 and 2024. Consequently, what the fund looks for is well-managed, mid-market businesses where the fund can influence strategy and growth in fields that benefit from the growing middle class. These fields include: healthcare, education, consumer goods and services, business services, materials, and logistics.

Remember when Lucy in the "Peanuts" cartoon said what she wanted as a gift was real estate. Grandparents might look beyond the latest toys and video games advertised on TV and give their grandchildren a stake in a fund with emerging market investments. It won't be a favorite gift now, but when the high costs of college and grad school come around, kids (and their parents) will be very grateful.

Why Do They Hate Us?

Let's begin by recognizing that Indonesia, a country where 86% of its estimated 252,812,245 population is Muslim, is a democracy with a traditional commitment to religious diversity. Despite opposition from extremists, Time magazine (April 27/May 4, 2015) noted that Indonesia's President Joko Widodo appointed a Christian woman as a district chief in Jakarta. In other words, hate for the West is not an emotion shared by all Muslims.

     Zak Ebrahim, whose father murdered a militant Jewish Defense League rabbi and helped plan the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, observed in his book, The Terrorist's Son, "murderous hatred has to be taught...forcibly implanted. It's not a naturally occurring phenomenon." It is, therefore, not to justify or condemn the feelings of Muslims who hate the West but to lay out the reasons Ebrahim's father, El-Sayyid Nosair, and those in Lawrence Wright's book, The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, give to explain why they hate the West.

     Wright reminds us that Muslims went in two different directions after the death of Mohammed. The vast majority of Mohammed's followers are Sunnis who believe caliphs, Islamic clerics, should be elected. In contrast Shia Muslims, such as the Iranian Muslims who are Persians rather than Arabs, expected a hereditary caliphate, rule of Islamic clerics, to begin with Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Within the Sunni majority, a fundamentalist subset of Salafists believe the only valid Islamic practices are the "early Muslim" (Salaf) ways followed during the time of Mohammed (See a description in the earlier blog post, "This We Believe."). In Egypt, Hasan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brothers in 1928 in order to form an Islamic state where the government, a Sharia legal code based on 500 immutable verses from the Quran, and lives would be centered on God. The Muslim Brotherhood came to be seen as a social service agency that provided jobs, schools, and hospitals and as an organization willing to achieve an Islamic state through the political process and compromise. Within the Brotherhood, a "secret apparatus," or army, also was formed to achieve this aim by violent means. The Ayatollah Ruhollan Khomeini, who formed a rigid theocratic state in the wealthy, modern country of Iran in 1979, sanctions this kind of terror and the use of the sword by warriors in a jihad, holy war, against infidels. Iran became a model for those who would impose religious dictatorships by force.

     To devout Muslims, infidels are those who practice a full array of godless, immoral behavior: homosexuality, adultery, divorce, the sexual freedom of women who flirt and wear enticing colors, close male and female dancing, jazz that arouses primitive instincts, drinking liquor and drunkenness, racism, violent sports, individualism, and materialism. Muslims believe Islam will triumph over both capitalists and communists, because modernity in the West, rather than focusing all aspects of life on God, has separated the secular and sacred, mind and spirit, state and religion, and science and theology.

     However, Muslim aspirations for forming an Islamic theocracy in Egypt were crushed by the secular regime of Gamal Abdul Nasser; Israel's swift victory in the 1967 Six Day War; and Anwar al-Sadat's secular democratic state, his ban on religious student organizations and traditional Islamic garb worn by university women, and Egypt's peace agreement with Israel. When a military plot to kill Sadat was successful in 1981, thousands were imprisoned in a 12th century dungeon where they were severely tortured. Among the prisoners was Ayman al-Zawahiri, a member of an underground cell that kept alive the idea of a jihad movement that would establish an Islamic state. When Zawahiri, who was a doctor, first went to Pakistan in 1980 to care for Afghan refugees who fled across the border following the Soviet invasion, he noted the training received by the Afghan freedom fighters or holy warriors, the "mujahideen," and how the area could serve as a base for recruiting an army of jihadists to take over Egypt and ultimately the West, considered to be the enabling force behind the Egyptian regime and state of Israel. Zawahiri's organization, which was strapped for money, would join forces with Osama bin Laden in the well financed al-Qaeda organization.

     The divide between supporters of secular governments and Islamic theocracies shows itself in a variety of countries. In Bangladesh, the secular Shahbag movement squares off against Ansar al-Islam Bangladesh, a group with ties to al-Qaeda in India. Al-Qaeda is taking credit for the May 12, 2015 murder of Ananta Bijoy Dash, who wrote for the Free Mind website that promotes secularism in Bangladesh.. Earlier, other Bangladesh bloggers, Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rhaman, and Ahmed Rajib Haider also had been killed by young Islamic activists. Dash had told friends that he did not expect anyone to kill him in his home in Sylhet.

     It should be noted that religion is not the only cause for the rise of what has become known as Islamic fundamentalism. Racism, and in some cases colonialism, has had an impact on non-whites.
In Egypt, for example, the poverty, disease, and illiteracy of the local population stood in stark contrast to the sporting clubs, hotels, bars, casinos, movie theatres, restaurants, and department stores that catered to the English upper classes and troops who began coming to Egypt when it became a British Protectorate in 1882. In fact, British troops continued to maintain a base in the Suez Canal Zone throughout half of the 20th century.

Never Too Young to Invest in the Future

Small and large scale investments offer money-making opportunities throughout the world. Check out $25 gift-giving ideas for kiva and other organizations at the blog post, "Gifts for Happy Holidays."

     A Special Report in the Financial Times (October 6, 2014) is cause to consider major money-making opportunities in Africa. Javier Blas wrote that high commodity prices, cheap Chinese loans, and improved governance have led to Africa's currently healthy growth. (Go to the later blog post, "Chocolate's Sweet Deals," to see how cocoa growers and investors can cooperate to benefit from the growing demand for chocolate in emerging markets.)

     The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association estimates there is now $25 billion worth of private investment in Africa. It is in basic household goods, power, telecom transmission and pipeline projects, not just commodities, oil, diamonds, gold, and other minerals. When the US Carlyle Group launched its maiden African fund with a $500 million target, it closed at $700 million. It's first African investment, $150 million in Nigeria's Diamond Bank, was followed by an investment in a tire and parts retailer in Johannesburg, South Africa. Runa Alam, chief executive of London-based Development Partners International (DPI), a private equity fund that invests in African businesses, observed that top business schools are producing investors with skill sets that include global and local networks that can sniff out investment worthy companies in Africa, not only in China and Latin America.

     Indeed, private investment continues to find opportunities in Africa. In February, 2015, Actis Capital (a London-based private equity firm that concentrates its investments in emerging markets) and Mainstream Renewable Power (a Dublin-based clean energy developer) teamed up to invest $1.9 billion in a new Lekela Power venture that will operate solar and wind power projects in South Africa, Ghana, and Egypt.

     That is not to say Africa is problem free. Economic conditions have not improved across the board. Potential unemployment hovers over large chunks of the new middle class. The young population of one billion, on its way to four billion by 2100, is disillusioned and under-educated. (See the later blog post, "Recess Differs Around the World," to get a glimpse of Africa's under funded schools.) Compared to Asia, Africa's young people are unqualified for manufacturing jobs. (The earlier blog post, "Discover Africa," however, tells how young Africans take advantage of entering and winning contests and are starting their own businesses.)

     The Ebola crisis showed that disease can still devastate some parts of Africa; the abduction of over 200 teenage girls in Nigeria shows how religious and ethnic divisions persist; and corruption and greed continue to infest government and motivate leaders, except in Nigeria (See the later blog post, "Nigeria's New Beginning."), to cling to their positions after their constitutional terms of office end. With mobile phones and social media, however, young people have the means to voice their demands and frustrations and to receive solicitations from Islamic extremists. Nonetheless, young voters can be a powerful bloc capable of making their call for change heard. In the end, Africa is an investment opportunity that should not be overlooked.