Monthly Archives: August 2008

A week for review

Posted on August 22, 2008 by

I will be out for a week and not blogging. The last time I took a few days off, traffic to my blog increased. I’m not sure that’s a good sign, but who knows? The good news is that this … Continue reading →

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The need for maternal care in the developing world

Posted on August 21, 2008 by

On a recent trip I took to India and Pakistan for Acumen Fund, I had the chance to visit LifeSpring Hospitals, which provides high-quality, low-cost maternal care. I wrote a blog post about this titled “Can a Hospital be a … Continue reading →

Posted in Pro-poor enterprise | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Even Fiji Water can be green?

Posted on August 21, 2008 by

On my commute to work, while I was digging up information for my previous post on the oil we’re burning to make bottled water, I saw this ad for Fiji water, the #2 selling premium water in the U.S. Fiji … Continue reading →

Posted in environment, Habits, marketing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Forget the Olympics: another barometer of China’s rise

Posted on August 20, 2008 by

I just came across this great post in Chris Blattman’s blog. Chris and I overlapped in graduate school, and he’s now a rogue Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale. Apparently, across certain parts of Africa, the ubiquitous greeting of … Continue reading →

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Would you like some petroleum with that Evian?

Posted on August 19, 2008 by

I’ve been running around with a factoid in my head, wondering if it’s true before I start repeating it. The factoid is that it takes a third of a bottle of petroleum to make and deliver a bottle of water. … Continue reading →

Posted in Bottled Water, communications, marketing, Word of mouth | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

1298 Ambulance in India

Posted on August 15, 2008 by

[Editor's note: this post was originally published on the Acumen Fund blog] I recently received Dial 1298 for Ambulance’s first newsletter. 1298 is an ambulance service in Mumbai. In 2007, Acumen Fund invested a $1.5 million for an equity stake … Continue reading →

Posted in Acumen Fund, India, Pro-poor enterprise | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Explaining complexity with a good analogy

Posted on August 14, 2008 by

I would bet that most people not in finance (or with formal financial training) have glossed over countless news articles that explain the current credit crisis without understanding much of anything. If so, this one’s for you. I got a … Continue reading →

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Technorati post – for the spiders

Posted on August 13, 2008 by

The things you get to learn when trying something new…. Apparently registering with Technorati is a good way to increase blog visibility and traffic. So this post is for the spiders (web crawlers that will find my blog). And, coincidentally, … Continue reading →

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Stolen babies in Guatemala

Posted on August 13, 2008 by

I heard this story on the BBC World Service this morning. It’s about Ana Escobar, a mother whose daughter Esther Sulamita was stolen from her last year, when she was only six months old. Ana was locked up by armed … Continue reading →

Posted in Guatemala | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Donations that make a difference

Posted on August 12, 2008 by

Imagine this: you’re walking down the street and stumble across an envelope with a cashier’s check for $25 that can only be endorsed by a charitable organization (I don’t know if such a check exists, but bear with me). To … Continue reading →

Posted in non-profits, philanthropy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment