Year: 2007

Tunisia: 747 Thousand Rich & 376 Thousand Poor?!

According to the numbers released by Tunisia’s National Statistics Institute, Tunisia has 747 thousand rich people and only 376 thousand poor; which puts poverty at only 3.8% in Tunisia, the middle class at 80% and the percentage of the rich at 6.2%; which sounds great, but a bit unrealistic too.

Taking a closer look at the numbers behind the numbers as they were released in a recent Tunisian economic review, we find the following:

Rich people in Tunisia are defined as people who spend 4000 TND (US$ 3,120) or more per year, that’s around 11 TND (US$ 8.58) per day.

On the other hand, poor people are defined as people who spend around 400 TND (US$ 312) or less per year, so around 1 dinar a day (US$ 0.86).

It’s obvious these numbers are a bit unrealistic, especially with the soaring prices of everything from food to the different essential commodities to fuel …etc.

In reality, people living on only 4000 dinars per year are mostly in the lower end of the middle class, barely making ends meet and most probably living in debt.
Personally, I spend a few times more than that per year, and I’m nowhere near rich, in fact I consider myself to be somewhere in the middle middle class.

As for the poor; The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$ 1 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day; so that would put Tunisians living on around 1 Dinar per day mostly in the extreme poverty category with the best cases “moderately” poor, whatever that’s supposed to mean. That doesn’t mean that people living on a bit more than a dollar or two shouldn’t be considered poor as well; slightly less poor but not that much better off.

I don’t want to sound negative here, and I’m really not, in fact I think that if a person visited Tunisia a number of times over the past years, it would be clearly obvious to them that the middle class is steadily growing, poverty is decreasing, people are spending more, and that the economy is doing better and is more vibrant than ever before.

I just think that the definitions of rich and poor in Tunisia in this study are a bit unrealistic, and that the percentages don’t perfectly represent the truth on the ground. The percentage of rich people is less than 6.2%, and the percentage of the poor is a bit more, with the majority really in the middle class; and after all I think that’s normal; the bigger the middle class is and the smaller poverty and wealth rates are, the healthier the society and more balanced it is as a whole.

[Source: African Manager (FR)]
[Via: Bilel (FR)]

Happy First Birthday Adam

Exactly one year ago, on a hot Tunisian summer day like this one, August 28th, I witnessed the amazing miracle of life when our beautiful baby boy “Adam” was born into this world.

It was an overwhelming breath-taking moment for me, one that I will never forget for as long as I live, the rush of mixed feelings that went through me at the moment of my child’s birth is something I simply can’t put into words, and the changes inside of me that resulted from those few seconds are ones that will be with me for eternity.

I became a father, my life changed forever, the center of the universe shifted in a split second, and it all started to rotate around this little baby boy; I promised myself I’d do everything to be the best father in the world to this child.

Now a year has passed, a great magnificent beautiful year, a year spent watching our baby grow into a smart, naughty, little handsome boy; who can with a simple smile or laugh turn my whole life upside down, wipe away any sort of stress or unease the world throws at me; and who can fill my heart with happiness and joy at the smallest little action or achievement he does.

I can’t even begin to describe the feelings and love I have for this child, I could easily claim that I worship him and I wouldn’t be overstating things.

Happy Birthday Adam… Congratulations on your first birthday, I can’t wait for the days, months and years ahead of us and all the fun and happiness that await us in them.

I can’t but thank Eman, my beautiful beloved wife, who is also a great and amazing mother, for every single little thing and for being all that she is. My life has been blessed since you walked into it my dearest.

Finally, here’s a photo of the birthday boy with some of his gifts:

Adam - First Birthday

We didn’t plan anything big for his birthday really, just the usual small stuff; but his grandparents obviously had different plans, and it turned out they invited all my aunts, uncles and cousins and turned it into a party at their place.

Muslim Music Concert To Raise Funds For Darfur

Muslim charities and aid organizations putting together a Live8-like music concert in London to help raise funds and awareness for the Darfur crisis.

A Muslim Live8 is to be staged at Wembley to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Darfur…

The charities Islamic Relief and Muslim Aid, which are organising the event, want the concert to raise funds and awareness about the genocide in the region, where combatants and victims are all Muslim.

Speaking at a press conference at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Jehangir Malik of Islamic Relief said: “We are going for our own equivalent of Live8. We are going for a concert at the end of Ramadan to celebrate Eid. It will be people trying to raise funds and raise the profile.”

The gig will be headlined by British singer-songwriter Sami Yusuf, who has sold more than 2m albums. Yusuf sings nasheeds, an Islamic style often performed a cappella.

[Source: The Guardian]

[Via: KABOBfest]

The Art Of The Start (Guy Kawasaki)

Today I finished reading “The Art Of The Start” by Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple Computer and current Venture Capitalist.

This is the second book I’ve read by Guy, the first being “Rules For Revolutionaries“.

This book, as its name suggests, is about the art of starting a business and how each and every task at hand should be handled from; from identifying your customer base and writing a business plan to raising capital and bootstrapping to recruiting, establishing partnerships and building brand identity.

I think the book is very useful for someone starting a business, giving them all the points they have to focus on and consider to get their startup off the ground and running; and so for people in that position, I recommend this book.

At different points, it does feel like the book is more targeted at technology startups seeking venture capital; but if a person focuses more on the lessons and less on the specific details, the book is a very good and useful startup resource and guide that should help in any business from any domain of activity.

If you’re interested, you can buy the book here: The Art Of The Start.

Another book I recommend in this category is “Common Sense Business” by Steve Gottry.

Tips For Keeping The Peace

I just came across a really good list of 10 tips to keep the peace in your everyday life relationships with people, put together by Tom Roderick, Executive Director of Educators for Social Responsibility Metro.

The list goes as follows:

1. Slow down the action
2. Listen well
3. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt
4. Acknowledge the other person’s feelings
5. Be strong without being mean
6. Try to see a conflict as a problem to be solved
7. Set your sights on a “win-win” solution
8. If you don’t seem to be getting anywhere in solving a conflict, ask for help
9. Remember that conflict, handled well, can lead to personal growth and better relationships
10. The true heroes and heroes of today’s world are not the Rambos

Check out the full article: Tips For Keeping The Peace

[Via: LifeHack]

Brainstorming Doesn’t Work?!

So, you know all that brainstorming we’ve all been doing to come up with “good” ideas? It turns out we could’ve come up with more and better ideas if we did it alone individually rather than in groups…

Brainstorming [is] used in nearly all of the world’s largeset companies, nonprofits, and government organizations. And the reasons seem obvious… “The average person can think of twice as many ideas when working with a group than when working alone.”… But is it true?

In 1958… psychologists let groups of four people brainstorm about the practical benefits or difficulties that would arise if everyone had an extra thumb on each hand after next year. These people were called “real groups” since they actually brainstormed together. Next, the researchers let “virtual groups” of four people generate ideas around the “thumb problem”, but they had to brainstorm individually, in separate rooms. The researchers combined the answers they received from each [virtual group] individual and eliminated redundancies… They then compared the performance between real groups and virtual groups…

To their surprise, the researchers found that virtual groups, where people brainstormed individually, generated nearly twice as many ideas as the real groups.

The result, it turned out, is not an anomaly. In a [1987 study, researchers] concluded that brainstorming groups have never outperformed virtual groups. Of the 25 reported experiments by psychologists all over the world, real groups have never once been shown to be more productive than virtual groups. In fact, real groups that engage in brainstorming consistently generate about half the number of ideas they would have produced if the group’s individuals had [worked] alone.

In addition, in the studies where the quality of ideas was measured, researchers found that the total number of good ideas was much higher in virtual groups than in real groups.

[Source: The Medici Effect, Frans Johansson]

[Via: Pmarca]

Google Earth Looks Towards The Sky

Sky in Google EarthGoogle has gone ahead and launched Sky in Google Earth, a new functionality that will be adding space imagery to Google Earth’s extensive maps and imagery of planet Earth.

Google’s announcement says that with this functionality “You can now explore the universe from the comfort of your chair. Zoom in to distant galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away, explore the constellations, see the planets in motion, witness a supernova explosion; it’s like having a giant, virtual telescope at your command — your own personal planetarium!”

According to TechCrunch, the space imagery used in this new functionality includes over one million photographs from various sources, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology and the Hubble Telescope.

This isn’t actually the first time Google looks to space, it already previously launched Google Moon, including Nasa imagery of the moon, and Google Mars with scientific maps of the red planet.

You have to download the latest version Google Earth to use this new functionality. I’m doing it right now.