Archive for May, 2006
What’s Wrong with an Unpaid Internship?
Good question. I spent the better part of the last year answering that question. My IOMBA program required an internship with the UN. Yet, a novice to this field after 6 years of paid work experience, I was surprised to discover that the UN does not pay interns. Nor, for that matter do most NGOs [...]
A Week of Philanthropy
Time for some reflection. The past two weeks were spent organizing and attending a conference on philanthropy. Bringing together a select crowd, we discussed NGOs, family foundations, world disasters, and development.
I am now full of statistics. About US$270 billion donated in philanthropic funds in 2005 to charitable causes in the USA - 75% from individuals. [...]
The Power of the NGO
Back in university, I had heated debates with my colleages from the US and Europe, on labor and environmental standards. As I’ve said before, I am vehemently against them. For me, they constitute at best protectionism by other means. At worst, for some it is neo-colonialism by means of the NGO.
I do not, necessarily subscribe [...]
India: Ready for Business
Yesterday I attended a luncheon meeting and speech by Azim Premji, head of Wipro. A man known worldwide, and in India, as one of the leaders of India’s new IT age, his words were a necessary reminder of what is right - and wrong - with India. People look at India and despair. Others’s see [...]
Reservations (Affirmative Action) in India’s Private Sector
The caste system is well known. Less well known is the positive discrimination, in favor of the less privileged sections of society. By establishing quotas, India’s reservation system goes far beyond the American Affirmative Action. In the public sector between 50-75% of all jobs are reserved for various castes.
By some miracle, some parts of the [...]
