Wael Ghonim

Not many people would have heard this name until about a fortnight ago and today he is known as the man who started the revolution - a responsible revolution, which forced Hosni Mubarak to step down in Egypt. This is perhaps the new form of revolution started by eppies (as i had written in my 22nd March 2009blog).

What is really impressive about this movement is that the history was being written, lead,chronicled(all simultaneously- we don't have to wait to read the next big book, its all there online) by unknown young men and women on the internet tweeting, blogging and posting on Facebook and countless Egyptian sites.

Oh! by the way Wael Ghonim is a Google marketing executive who started this movement on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ElShaheeed) in Arabic (thanks to Google you can read the English translation in about 2 seconds).

Chinese are pretty smart they anticipated this kind of movement hence the tough controls on internet democracy.

I feel sad only that although i saw it coming (third country in my chronicles of the world where i was hoping change will happen was Egypt) i slept off.

Those who haven't please see the revolutionary internet video interview of Ghonim

Iceland

Iceland is an island country located on the North Atlantic Ocean. A virtual no man’s land, the country is geologically a young island, formed some 20 million years ago. The earliest settlers are said to be Irish Monks who settled in 8th Century and moved out later when Norse came in. The only way this can be established is through the writings of Ari Þorgilsson (1067-1148 A.D.) Iceland's medieval chronicler. He authored Íslendingabók, which gives the detailed account of the first settlers of the country.

The first settler is believed to be Ingolfur Arnarson a Norwegian chieftain, who moved with his family in the 874 and set up his farm in Reykjavik, the present capital. They were followed by viking settlers from Scandinavia and Norse colonies in Ireland and Scotland.

So much for Settlements, ill scratch tommorow on the Government formation and early trade and the period from 900 to 1800's.

The Route Map

Finally, here comes the route map for our net travelogue, albeit a bit late. The travelogue will take a quick look at the geography, geo political history, resources, demography, economy and art& culture. I will also try to present my outlook on these countries.
we will cover 15 countries starting with Iceland moving into Spain, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, SriLanka, Madagascar (that's for my kids) South Africa, Brazil and Canada.

World view - on the net ofcourse

Am reading Jim Rogers, Adventure Capitalist. One of the interesting things am noticing is the subtle way he has profiled the economy, opportunities and the country specific issues. This was written in 2003 and his earlier work "investment biker" written during 90's. Jim rogers is a god for some of the country specific calls that he took (like he bet on china and moved out of US and set base in Asia), which really paid off.

I thought we will do a rather less adventurous but more arduous "Net adventure" of following those very countries he visited and relook at them as of today.Two decades have passed since Investment Biker came out and that is time enough to figure out whether the promises have been delivered or has remain hollow.

we sill start with Iceland tomorrow.

Long hair, LSD, psychedelic rock, sexual liberation, anti-establishment are some of the symbols which i used to identify with the hippie culture until i read the experience of Fritjof Capra. His take is that it was a major youth movement which challenged conventional wisdom, held non-violent protests against political policies and promoted a new wave of art, culture, thinking - majorly influenced by eastern philosophy. Across university campuses, coffees shops the youth of the world in the 1960's started of the hippie revolution.

If it was in the US that 1960 movement started, in 1900's Germany saw a similar youth movement. Will the eastern philosophy inspire the Indian subcontinent also?

I think the next couple of years will see another possible hippie movement, probably e-hippies (eppies)who will create a new sound of music, art, politics and thinking and the it will move away from the coffees shops to Internet and blogs.

I can see the signals - as i am blogging i see my twin boys taking off their shirt and jumping around our apartment to the tune of Rahman's Masakali, deliriously happy and i realise they could be the one of the eppies.

Its all the same in India and USA

The Markopolos testimony in the Madoff case has turned out to be scandalous, with Markopolos slamming the SEC for absolute incompetence and lack of will in investigating the high profile scamster.

The youtube video is quite a watch. Dont miss it.

Mercury, Saturn & Mis-statemement

Folks, i have not been able to blog as frequently in the last week , i guess because Mercury on my sign was retrograde and Saturn was on top of my business. I am feeling it all easing up a bit. Coming back to business, two things encouraged me to blog about the most famous discussion on accounts - mis-statements. Earlier this week i had a chat with the CEO of a wellness company and while discussing accounts he admitted that he knew, as a business head of "India's largest Retail Company", that the Inventory was always overstated by the bean counters to get the profit numbers right. The other one that got my mercury back in line was the PURPORTED (i doubt its authenticity - world has become an unreliable place!) research report by First Global which is attributed to - Le Grand Fromage, where he writes as to "why are we so surpirsed about Satyam". Read this link, pretty interesting. (http://toostep.com/insight/a-new-perspective-to-satyam-fiasco#corporate-governance)

Ok, i am not surpirsed because i always felt that the Reliance, ICICI and half of those "best presented accounts" were all form without substance, for the simple reason that this quarter to quarter growth are all just good reporting, its near to impossible. Please forgive the negativity it is all due to the transit of saturn :)