http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress The world is not just about you and me Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:28:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have spent 3 and half years in Afghanistan since 2002 and have been the program manager in charge of about 200 million in various infrastructure projects, the last year with the Counter Insurgency program. It is all largely a waste. We are not bringing about peace, we are not ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=41 Let me see if I have this straight. Masood Qaim who recently wrote in the Guardian (I’ve Changed my Mind about the West published 30 Dec 2009) about the failure of the west to take its reconstruction activities in Afghanistan seriously, who grew up the son of a ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=40 Capitalism as we know it is perhaps at a crossroad. It may have reached a position in the way we live our lives that only social disorder will resolve some of the difficulties we are now facing unless new options are created to alter the way our communities ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=39 In terms of finance and financial instruments, venture capital is the provision of funding that enables pilot industries to get started and the investors take a calculated risk on its success or failure eventually withdrawing their funds and profit within a specified timeframe. Social venture capital (SVC) should have a similar ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=38 There is considerable angst amongst international circles regarding the corruption of the recent Presidential elections and the lack of capacity that is available within the Afghan government.  But what is it that they are wanting? Presumably they want to see good government however what they have is an administration ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=36 Of recent times, I have decided to scale back my thankless pursuit of money and opt to establish a more balanced set of objectives before me for the future. Now if you read my posts you will have established I am generally a liberal sort of person. For the past ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=35 In this months Quadrant, an Australian  journal that tends to push a conservative line on most things has published an article that includes comments by a number of scientists and commentators on what they see as the fallacy of the climatic change occurring due to mans presence on earth.  Maybe ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=33 I was reading an article this morning in the British Guardian Online. It was about an isolated tribe of Jarawa natives who were starting to come out of the jungle in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the first time and how they are beginning to interface with the tourists ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=32 I am engaged in a discussion on  whether aid agencies should be regulated. I am not necessarily in favor since I don't really see that as the problem. This is in part what I have added to the discussion. What is more at stake is the way we do business. Takes ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=31 On the basis that there are some six billion people in the world, I am convinced that a fair number of them are what we would call "good people" who would make interesting reading if only someone bothered to take the time to ask them their story and write about ... http://www.steve-hutcheson.com/wordpress/?p=25