The End

This blog was concluded some three years ago. Thank goodness its vision for a fairer, better, and more harmonized world is coming to be true. There is some more struggle to go, but we'll figure it out.

I never announced here that this blog has concluded. Well, it has. I might soon delete it. Until then, the visitors may want to know that I now reside at my website, ramlaakhtar.com.

Thank you, and good bye.

The Future of Business: A New Intent

An event by Pakistan's first futurist consultancy NEXT> in association with transformation consultancy Schuitema.


Future of Business Event - by NEXT - Oct 28/08 - Karachi

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Government Business development public

P.S. The NEXT> blog is getting a major update with more content and news. This is a test post.

E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com

The GreenHouse Project, South Africa: a Holistic Intervention

In the inner-city of Johannesburg, The GreenHouse Project is turning one urban park into a seedbed for sustainable communities. The program takes a holistic approach to the city's challenges, integrating green building and design, efficient and renewable energy, recycling, organic farming and nutrition.

Via: The Global Oneness Project

E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com

Jareeda: Pakistan's Sustainability Magazine

Jareeda first fell in my hands when, having finished my work for the day during an internship at IUCN, I decided to shuffle through the stuff on the office bookshelves.

I promptly took copies of several issues home - where I keep them close to my heart six years later. Because this magazine is so informative, so sincere, and yet so amazingly unknown. And because it features some of the rare-to-find research on Pakistan's environmental and sustainability issues.

At least back then, the thin magazine was being published in English and Urdu - and was available free. It has topical issues - the current one on the website is all about the wonderful Juniper tree.

Previous issues have explored mountains, water systems, national parks, and other matters of ecological concern.

I'll tell you what's beautiful about Jareeda:

• The content is accessible to the general population: it's in Urdu (haven't checked if the English version is still printed), the language is jargon-free and easy, the writing isn't out to impress but to communicate.

• There is plenty of coverage on medicinal herbs and other plants. With a global shift towards a lifestyle of health & sustainability, medicinal plants have made a comeback into the mainstream after a long, long winter of the synthetic era.
  It's a significant trend for its possible impact on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industries of the world.
  
• It's free. Or was, last I checked.
  
• Jareeda's topics are contemporary - e.g. the Kashmir Earthquake '05 was promptly covered in the Fall 2005 quarterly issue. In Summer '07, eco-tourism gets a feature. This means the editors and reporters are well-grounded, doing continuous research, and really care. From an editorial point-of-view, this shows respect for the readers - which translates into a healthy, thought-provoking effect on the readers' end.
  
• On the whole, each quarterly explores a subject from a 360 view. Remember STEEPLE (Society, Technology, Environment, Economics, Politics, Law, Ethics) analysis? Analyzing an environment from all these angles, especially to create a map for the future? I have taken a step to integrate external and internal analyses in the People-Centered Model of Business (PC-MoB). PC-MoB* goes beyond STEEPLE to include people's belief systems as the starting point of their roles & actions. Jareeda understands the subtlety. It's beyond the separation of the science of the environment and the people - a frustrating gap - and embraces the philosophy of social ecology. The content is well-rooted in the Pakistani culture, tradition, and thought - it often cites an article or two relating the people's belief system with ecological education - such as here.
  
• There are plenty of photos!
  

Please get a subscription today (contact IUCN Pak); get one for your school/ university/ office library and for your hairdresser's shop - and pass Jareeda 's environmental consciousness on!

* Download PC-MoB (PDF; 540 K)

E-mail: nextbyramla/AT/g mail/DOT/com

How Stuff Consumes the Planet - Cheaply

This is the 'golden' segment of the eye-opening, mind-expanding presentation Story of Stuff by one curious Annie Leonard. She wanted to understand the truth behind the materials economy. So she searched, and here is her knowledge, simplified.

Story of Stuff is to production/ consumption line (not cycle) what An Inconvenient Truth is to climate.

WATCH this video, SHARE it, and ACT UPON the message. Yes, I've shouted. From the NEXT> roof top.

Thank you!

Via: Truemors

E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com