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Author: Elmira Bayrasli
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Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
On poverty alleviation: stop the entrepreneurial madness
David Henderson, a social enterpreneur, posted this great blog “No Not All Poor People are Entrepreneurs” on socialentrepreneurship.change.org today. In it he points to something I’ve always believed was a problem in poverty alleviation efforts: the Western propensity to “romanticize the poor as entrepreneurs.” “The unifying trait of the poor is not entrepreneurial spirit. It [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged David Henderson, entrepreneur, poverty, social entrepreneurship 2 Comments
Entrepreneurial Lessons from an Egyptian (who inspired Bob Dylan)
Since I was in Cairo this past week, the only thing that caught my eye was Egyptian entertainer Umm Kulthum. Umm is hailed as the Arab World’s – not just Egypt’s – greatest singer. She sells nearly a million records every year. On the first Thursday of every month, Radio Cairo plays her songs. Not [...]
Have no fear, social entrepreneurs are here
I normally shake my head when I read David Brooks. Sometimes I even take a dig at him. But I have to admit that I found myself agreeing with his column yesterday, “The Lean Years,” in which he gives it up for social entrepreneurs, especially during these tough economic times. ”It’s pretty easy,” he writes, [...]
It’s the investors, stupid
Entrepreneurship is hot in the Middle East. And that was long before President Obama announced last June in Cairo that he would host a summit on entrepreneurship, which will take place April 26-27, 2010 in Washington DC. Arabs are abuzz about getting their ideas for new businesses off the ground. Habib Haddad, founder of Yamli [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Egypt, entrepreneur, Habib Haddad, investor, Jordan, journalism, Maktoob, media, Middle East, President Obama Summit on Entrepreneurship, venture capital, Yalla Start Up, Yamli Leave a comment
Where entrepreneurship is the dream and the NBA is just the stepping-stone
I have no interest in basketball. But when I heard that fellow Brooklynite and former New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury landed in China this week to play for the Shanxi Dragons, I fiendishly tore through the sports pages to find out why. Leaving the NBA for a foreign league is, I’m told, a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged basketball, China, entrepreneur, Le Bron James, NBA, Shanxi Dragons, Stephon Marbury Leave a comment
How to make Haiti a partner
“We will be here today, tomorrow, and for the time ahead,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her four-hour visit last week to Haiti. We should be in Haiti in the time ahead, but not as patrons. America needs to be Haiti’s partner. But how do we get there? Tyler Cowen has a great [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged economic growth, foreign aid, Haiti, haiti earthquake, international aid, journalism, microfinance, microlending Leave a comment
The Haiti Earthquake: Aid & voodoo, but no answers
The Haiti earthquake “is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story,” writes David Brooks in “The Underlying Tragedy,” in yesterday’s New York Times. Here’s why I agree with him, and still think he’s so wrong. 1. Aid: “We don’t know how,” Brooks says “to use aid to reduce poverty.” I agree. Despite [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged China, culture, David Brooks, development, economic growth, foreign aid, Haiti, haiti earthquake, international aid, Paul Kagame, Rwanda 4 Comments
Good Muslims, Minus Women
Osama bin-Laden, al-Qaeda, 9/11, Iraq, the Taliban, Afghanistan, and Ft. Hood or what some would describe as terrorism and murder have become the symbols of Islam in the West. They have shaped, sadly, what Americans know about Muslims. And that has led to our increasingly irrational and overemotional, “you are the enemy” policies toward the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Erdogan, Forces of Fortune, Islam, Middle East, Turkey, women 1 Comment
A Savings Revolution Sparked (Already…)
It is time for the global microsavings movement Nick Kristof. In this column Kristof talks about “one of the ugly secretes of global poverty” which “is that a good deal of suffering is caused not only by low incomes but also by bad spending decisions.” That’s because most people in the developing world don’t have [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged agriculture, banks, entrepreneur, Kristof, microsavings, New York Times, Nicaragua, poverty 1 Comment
There’s no such thing as a “Muslim” entrepreneur