My Beauty Best Teacher

Barney Jopson at the FT reports on the continent's developing mortgage industry:

The African mortgage sector remains tiny. In spite of huge pent-up demand, mortgages are available only in a dozen or so countries and the barriers to making them a mass-market product are formidable – not least the murkiness of property rights across much of the continent. “Maybe the hype exceeds the reality, but banks are at least trying to roll out products,” says Rod Evison, head of the Africa department at CDC, a private equity fund-of-funds specialising in emerging markets...The market’s boundaries are being pushed by young innovators such as Equity Bank, which is using capital secured last year when Helios, the London private equity group, paid Ks11bn for 25 per cent of the group. Banque Commerciale du Rwanda, which is owned by Actis, another London-based private equity group, has just sold the country’s maiden corporate bond to fund its nascent mortgage business...

The Economist reports on a plan by Sam Jonah for private equity funding of road infrastructure:

Mr Jonah is trying to raise $250m to build long-distance roads across Africa—the lack which is one of the most obvious failures in the continent’s infrastructure. His goal is to find 50 successful African business people, each willing to invest $5m in the fund, and then to use multilateral funds to leverage the money into the billions. “People in Africa, if they come together, can make a big difference,” says Mr Jonah. “What I want to do is put my money where my mouth is.”

via iPienso

This is Africa reports:

According to research from the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, fundraising for sub-Saharan African funds grew from $800m in 2005 to $2.2bn in 2008. Perhaps more surprisingly, fundraising in the first half of 2009 held up well despite the economic downturn curtailing GDP growth across Africa to just over 1 percent. EMPEA’s figures also point to a diversification of the funding base – in 2006, only 4 percent of the limited partners surveyed by the trade association were invested in African funds, compared to 38 percent in 2009.

More here

The Ft reports:

Gulf-based private and public equity fund managers have this year shifted some of their vast wealth from Asia and the Middle East/North Africa region to the world’s poorest region: sub-Saharan Africa. These portfolio flows to a half-dozen countries have been accompanied by direct investment in property and other sectors...The Gulf push into the sub-Sahara reinforces pioneer efforts, notably by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal whose Kingdom Holdings created a $125m joint venture in 2004 with New York-based Zephyr Investment for African private equity. Its best-known success was a $20m stake in the pan-regional mobile provider Celtel, which was later acquired at a hefty premium by Kuwait owners. The prince has joined HSBC in a separate dedicated vehicle.
As petrodollars head towards these locations, western wealth advisers who have shunned them may re-examine their assumptions and consider participation a viable emerging market option.

J Mawuli Ababio of the AVCA discusses the widening range of financing tools available to businesses in an AfricaNews interview:

‘There has always been a recognition of the lack of long term funding in Africa. There is no question about that. A lot of the African private businesses have traditionally been run by short term loans from banks. Today Venture Capital and Private Equity is assuming increasing prominence as a financing tool in emerging market economies, (including those in Africa), to finance private and public sector requirements on the continent.

An FT report on African infrastructure finance states:

Passions run high over all forms of privatisation and private-sector involvement in public utilities. But many experts and officials at international institutions say there is no option between public and private sectors. Infrastructure needs, they argue, will never be met without the resources of both...It has become clear that areas such as transport will continue to depend heavily on injections of public investment and donor support, but public money will have to used in different ways to combine with commercial interests. Mobilisation of capital, including private-sector capital, is one of the “pillars” of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), the economic revival initiative launched five years ago...Africa can also bring to bear its own private savings. South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, which manages pension funds, is backing a Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund, aiming initially to raise $1bn for long-term equity investments with participation from other pension funds and the AfDB.

Thanks Pablo!!

The FT reports:

The International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank, is to co-ordinate a $1bn package of debt and equity funding designed to strengthen health across Africa by supporting the private sector.
The move follows the findings of a study commissioned from McKinsey highlighting the size and fast growth of private healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa and the potential it has to improve tackle ill-health among the poor while generating profits.

Mamphela Ramphele comments (listen):

"Average annual GNP growth in African countries has climbed to over five percent," she said, "and in countries like Mozambique, Benin, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa, the economies [are getting stronger and stronger]. Last year's acquisition of the South African Bank ABSA by Barclay's PLC was one of the largest acquisitions in the world. Major private equity companies like Blackstone and KKR [are looking] for deals on the continent, and the recently completed RFP process for the development of the Cape Town waterfront saw major [investors] from all over the world bidding to participate. Overall, the rewards remain high and the balance of risks has improved in Africa."

via Knowledge@Wharton

Commenting on the directed emergence of Japan's Zaibatsu, Emmanuel Chukwura Achife argues for the creation of Transcorp rivals:

The present Transcorp demands competitors to help them gather the best brains lying around the country. Imagine where we have six “Transcorp”” or by whatever name, we would have six companies competing to build the best refineries, competing to build the best rail lines, competing to build the best housing estates, competing to build the best cars, competing to build the best power plant competing to build the best ships, trains, planes, petrochemical, and so forth. And when they venture outside the country, they will be collaborating and communicating to be the best Nigeria can be.

Non-directed evolution of corporate entities via angel investment, venture capital,IPO's and private equity would be a more sustainable organic approach. Governments have generally not achieved much success in creating nimble winners.

Roben Farzad writes in Businessweek:

In many ways, Africa's economic situation seems hopeless. While $625 billion in foreign aid has poured in since 1960, there has been no rise in the region's per capita gross domestic product, notes William R. Easterly, economics professor at New York University. What's more, from 1976 to 2000, Africa's share of global trade dropped to 1%, from an already negligible 3%. The U.N.'s scale of human development, which considers health, education, and economic well-being, ranks 34 African nations among the world's 40 lowest. Thus far, foreign aid hasn't made a dent.
Greed, however, might. Thanks to the global commodities boom of the past few years, sub-Saharan Africa's economies, after decades of stagnation, are expanding by an average of 6% annually—twice the U.S. pace. And like bees to honey, investors are swarming into the region in search of the enormous returns that ultra-early-stage investments can bring. Blue Financial, for example, has already netted its early private equity backers a ninefold gain thanks to the 385% rise in its stock since its October, 2006, initial public offering in Johannesburg. Emerging Capital Partners has bought all or part of 42 African companies this decade and cashed out of 18, with gains on their investments averaging 300%. "The money we can make is matchless," says Emerging Capital Partners CEO Thomas R. Gibian, a former Goldman Sachs (GS) banker.

Ryan Petersen writes:

Outside of the exceptional opportunities for investors in the country’s capital markets — which did little to soothe my fears as a traveler — I’d heard few reassuring stories about Lagos. Meanwhile, my imagination went to work on the news reports, rumors and exaggerated tourist tales I had heard, conjuring up images of an urban center descended into anarchy...In fact, throughout our week in the city, we were struck by how poorly we’d misimagined the place. At no point did we feel threatened in any way. Rather, we were welcomed warmly by everyone we met, from security guards and restaurant workers to private equity investors and government officials.In the end, it was this inviting stance toward foreigners that made our project such a success.

It has been a struggle for me to write about the financial reform bill, and I haven't commented before on it yet. But yesterday I came across an excellent article in the Washington Independent called A Guide to the Tangled Financial Reform Bill which breaks down each important provision of the proposed financial reform bill and attempts to give a balanced analysis of it. I urge you all to read this article before making any further thoughts or opinions on the bill- whether you are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, it is important to look at the world around you with good information and analysis, which this article provides.

Here are the best pieces (edited and shortened by me) of the article A Guide to the Tangled Financial Reform Bill:

Audit the Fed. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is more than double its size before the financial crisis — swollen with $1.1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities purchased from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plus toxic assets from failed companies like Bear Sterns — and a bipartisan group of senators want to force a thorough independent audit of the Fed’s books. A strong provision did not make it into the final Senate legislation.

End too big to fail by capping bank size. Dodd’s bill as currently written gives the Federal Reserve and other regulators the ability to seize and break up financial firms it deems systemically important and systemically dangerous. But that is meant only as a “last resort,” and members of both parties consider the language too wan. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) last week introduced the Safe Banking Act, which they plan to offer as an amendment to the Dodd bill. It mandates hard leverage and size caps on banks and other financial firms; limits commercial banks’ assets to 2 percent of GDP and non-banks’ assets to 3 percent; and imposes a 16-to-1 leverage cap, among other provisions.

Reinstitute Glass-Steagall provisions. Another popular way to effectively limit bank size is to return to the Depression-era Glass-Steagall rules. The Glass-Steagall Act, mostly repealed in 1999, prevented banks from having both commercial and investment banking arms — as, for instance, J.P. Morgan Chase does today. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plan to introduce an amendment reintroducing the rule and thus requiring big, diversified banks to split themselves up. Shelby, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) also support the measure.

An effectively similar, if functionally different, way of breaking up banks or limiting their size is by instituting the Volcker Rule — which bars banks from speculating with their own money by “prop trading” or investing in hedge funds. The current Dodd bill promises to institute something like the Volcker Rule, creating a commission to look at how to institute it down the road. But Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) have ready a measure introducing a more-stringent version immediately.

Fix the ratings agencies. The Dodd bill does little to fix the credit ratings agencies, whose profligate stamping of AAA ratings on collapsing subprime mortgage-backed securities helped to stoke the crisis. (The companies have a conflict of interest at the core of their business, in that they are paid by the companies whose securities they rate.) The Dodd bill creates a new office at the Securities and Exchange Commission to look closely at credit ratings agencies — but does little more to further reform them. Numerous Democratic senators have cited the issue as a major weakness in the bill, and Senate staffers say it is unlikely to go unchanged. Sanders has said he will introduce new language to strengthen oversight over and regulation of the agencies.

Guarantee no taxpayer money will go to bank bailouts. Republicans have derided the Dodd bill’s resolution authority fund — wherein the government will tax $50 billion from the banks, creating a pool of cash to be used by the Federal Reserve to shut down failing firms — as creating “permanent bailouts.” GOP politicians including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have cited it as a major point of contention. But Senate staffers say that rather than killing the resolution-authority fund, Republicans want language explicitly guaranteeing taxpayers will not be on the hook for future bailouts.

Keep the Fed the regulator of little banks. Under the Dodd bill, the Federal Reserve would have oversight only of banks with more than $50 billion in assets. But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) oppose this measure and want the Fed to have oversight of small banks as well — ensuring that the Fed does not become overly concerned with the business of big banks and ensuring that it keeps an eye on the small financial companies that can be the bellwether of bad economic times. Hutchison has said she plans to “certainly have an amendment that assures that state banks and community banks will be able to have access to be members of the Federal Reserve.”

Make the Consumer Financial Protection Agency truly independent. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) has promised to introduce amendment moving the Consumer Financial Protection Agency outside of the Fed.

Improve hedge fund reporting. Reed also plans to introduce an amendment closing a loophole in the Dodd bill that might let some private equity firms, venture capital firms, and hedge funds avoid registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This is a reminder that whatever the original bill that the Democrats brought to the floor, what matters is the bill that is passed at the end (and I don't mean by 'the end' when it passes the House and Senate and is signed by the President- now that Democrats run things in DC, that outdated model of passing legislation isn't followed and instead they deem things passed and then our dear leader runs things, and that is what I men by 'the end').

There will be a rally against Government Motors on Monday, January 11th, to make a peaceful yet clear statement against Government takeover of America. Sorry about the late notice on this, but if you live in the Detroit area and would like to make your views known about all of the endless and unaccountable government bailouts, you have a chance to by showing up on Monday and peacefully protesting.

Since December of 2008, the private company General Motors has so far taken $52.9 billion in taxpayer dollars. The intended purpose of this funding was “to prevent a significant disruption of the American automotive industry,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). GM used this money to go bankrupt and shed billions in debt- by that, I mean that banks and investors were forced to take a bath and thousands of people were laid off and hundreds of dealers were forced out of business. This unprecedented distribution of wealth also has resulted in the government owning 61% of GM equity and the labor unions owning a good chunk more.

Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat leaders (possible even President Obama) are coming to Detroit to check on their investment on Monday, and this is a chance for us to tell them what we think of the US government nationalizing private businesses.

The rally is Monday, January 11, 2010, from 9:30am - 12:00pm, at the Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. Meet in the lobby of the Marriott at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and look for the Michigan Tea Party Banner. Someone will be there to greet you. From there we will head over to Cobo hall for a Tea Party Rally. You can park in one of the many lots downtown or at the Cobo Hall lot which is close to the Renaissance Center. Dress warm!

Prerna Mankad writes in Foreign Policy:

SWFs are obligated to make the best investments for the citizens of their home countries. They are not in the business of aid or charity work; nor should they be... If African governments are not even willing to invest in their own continent, why should others do so?...there are good reasons why many private companies are unwilling to invest and set up operations in Africa. Why else would Zoellick and others be pushing SWFs to fill the equity void in the first place? Corruption, lack of security, and failure to protect property rights are just a few of the reasons countries in Africa have failed to create a positive investment climate. If SWFs step in with billions of dollars, they may well undermine efforts to promote good governance. In the long run, it is those efforts -- not easy cash from Abu Dhabi or Beijing -- that will attract private investment and generate sustainable economic development. So, although an extra $30 billion for Africa should be welcomed, SWFs may not be the best way to deliver it.

Actis on Infrastructure:

There is increased interest in African infrastructure opportunities from a host of investors experienced in, and new to, African countries. Development finance institutions (DFIs) continue to play a lead role in advising and financing challenging projects. African and international banks are broadening their debt offerings to include equity for infrastructure projects, contractors are prepared to commit more equity and State-sponsored entities from countries that include Russia and China are taking on significant infrastructure projects...Infrastructure assets have long lives, and it is impossible to forecast every turn in the fortunes of a country or a sector over a 20- or 30-year period. Time will tell whether the private-sector transactions currently being structured and negotiated are pricing the risk correctly, but the indications are that Africa's risk continues to be over-rated and experienced investors are able to lock in superior, risk-adjusted returns...[continue reading]

via Engineering News

Solyndra’s chief executive warned the Energy Department on Oct. 25, 2010, that he intended to announce worker layoffs Oct. 28. Solyndra was bleeding cash and quickly going bankrupt, and the only thing that would possibly save the company, bring confidence to investors, and help protect taxpayers heavy investment in the company would be quick action in trimming its workforce and shutting down factories. It was an economic decision that needed to be made.

But Democratic President Barack Obama disregarded all of those things and made a political decision and urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections. He didn't want citizens to pick up on the fact that he used his clean energy initiatives to steer valuable taxpayer money to benefit his friends and donors, all under the oversight and supervision and approval of a Democratic Congress that was about to suffer historic losses to to their historic bad governance of the nation's finances.

President Obama made a political decision to bring pressure to bear on private companies to hide their financial position and continue to go further into debt until there was no hope left but bankruptcy and ruin. In many ways, Solyndra is a metaphor for his plan for America- cover up the true reality of the destruction that his policies are doing to our nation and put off crucial economic decisions in a desperate attempt to hold tight to political power.

From the Washington Post article "Solyndra: Energy Dept. pushed firm to keep layoffs quiet until after midterms":

The Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show.

Solyndra, the now-shuttered California company, had been a poster child of President Obama’s initiative to invest in clean energies and received the administration’s first energy loan of $535 million. But a year ago, in October 2010, the solar panel manufacturer was quickly running out of money and had warned the Energy Department it would need emergency cash to avoid having to shut down.

The new e-mails about the layoff announcement were released Tuesday morning as part of a House Energy and Commerce committee memo, provided in advance of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s scheduled testimony before the investigative committee Thursday.

Solyndra’s chief executive warned the Energy Department on Oct. 25, 2010, that he intended to announce worker layoffs Oct. 28. He said he was spurred by numerous calls from reporters and potential investors about rumors the firm was in financial trouble and was planning to lay off workers and close one of its two plants.

But in an Oct. 30, 2010, e-mail, advisers to Solyndra’s primary investor, Argonaut Equity, explain that the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to put off the layoff announcement until Nov. 3. The midterm elections were held Nov. 2, and led to Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives....

I've written about Solyndra or related topics before- check out my posts Data Reveals that SunPower Employees Donated to Democrats, then Got Massive Loans or Executives as Investors-in-Chiefs: A Bad Idea?

For more information, check out Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies.

 Excellence in education includes global collaboration. No doubt about it, students are the greatest textbooks written for each other. 


This fall is the 5 year anniversary of our Flat Classroom projects. Amazingly, in that time, more students and educators have collaborated together through this program than live in my tiny hometown of Camilla, Georgia! 


Global collaboration is never about one person or one organization but has become a movement in many places and through many websites. It is our goal with the Flat Classroom projects to be the best and helping students and educators understand the power of true asynchronous collaboration with as much synchronous as we can get in. The concept of merging classrooms in excellence, collaborative learning experiences is our aim and we believe most of our classrooms are achieving that.


So, you are excited about the possibilities and want to join in? Here are some ways. 


Teachers in the classroom:
See application information in press release by scrolling down.

• High School - Flat Classroom project and/or NetGen Ed to teach your students about the emerging trends in technology with experiential knowledge as well as authentic research and video creation. Read more.
  
• Middle/ early high school - Digiteen project for experiential digital citizenship research (run through our nonprofit) Read more.
  
• Elementary - A week in the life elementary project. Read more.
  
• Flat Classroom Certified Teacher Program. We will run 3 of these in the 2011-2012 school year using our new book, Flattening Classrooms, Expanding Minds. Designed as a rigorous challenge, based process, you will emerge with a project designed with a group of your classmates.  Read more.
  
• Submit your collaborative writing story. If you are using collaborative writing in the classroom, share your story. My second book is on collaborative writing and it will be published with Eye on Education. We've set up a website so you can share your story for review to include in the book. Anything I write will never just be my story but yours too! Please share!

 Anyone

• International book club starting February 1st using our new book on the pedagogy of global collaboration in the classroom. Ben and Neil at @engaginged are going to help us run this book club. Sign up now.
  
• Run a book club with your own group and let us know so we can plan to interact with you, if possible.
  
• Flat Classroom mini-conference at ASB Unplugged in Mumbai, India in February 2012. Bring students or join us for the workshop. Julie, Vicki, and Kim Cofino will be leading workshops for students and teachers at this event.
  
• Sign up to review our book. While we only have a few copies available, we are taking applications for: a) bloggers/ influencers who would like an advance copy of the book to review and b) people who make purchasing decisions and would like an advance copy for potential integration into courses or pd. 
  
• Support us. We have a non-profit that runs our Digiteen project and provides scholarships to students to our Flat Classroom workshops. Feel free to support our organization if it fits with your personal mission.
  
• Read the book. Sign up to get a notice when the book comes out. If you just want to know when the book hits the shelves, mailboxes, and ebook readers, you can fill out the form on our book homepage to have this come to you.
  
• Read stories of global collaboration. Our Flat Classroom certified teachers and project organizers have a lively tumblr blog sharing stories and things to do with global collaboration. You'll want to follow it. http://flatclassroom.tumblr.com/
  
• Join the conversations. We have a Facebook page for announcements and an intimate Facebook group where we plan and talk. Our Flatclassrooms Ning is also a core component of our certified teacher program and the online sharing hub for our new book. Our #flatclass hashtag is also a place where we will share conversation about the pedagogy of global collaboration in the classroom and content around the book. We are also on Twitter at @flatclassroom @digiteen @netgened

<hr>
Current Press Releases for our Projects
Flat Classroom Project Applications Now Open
Applications are invited now for a selection of internationally recognised and award winning global projects run by Flat Classroom® to start in September 2011. Co-founders Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay are excited to be offering these opportunities for classrooms globally to connect, co-create and learn together in a carefully designed and supported digital environment.

The Digiteen™ Project explores digital citizenship through interaction and provides an opportunity for students to not only talk about digital citizenship, but experience via online connection, collaboration, shared research and presentation. It also has an action project component where a classroom designs an action to be carried out in their own school community and then shared back to the global partnership.

The Flat Classroom® Project is designed to develop cultural understanding, skills with Web 2.0 and other software, experience in global collaboration and online learning, awareness of what it means to live and work in a flat world, while researching and discussing the ideas developed in Friedman's book.

The ‘A Week in the Life...’ Project aims to join Elementary School classrooms globally with a view to exploring what life is like in each area/country through discussion, sharing and collecting multimedia to create final products together. The curriculum focus is Interdisciplinary, how we live, how we communicate, cultural understanding and awareness.

Entry to a each project is via application and subscription. In order to help meet the subscription price, teachers can apply for a limited number of sweat equity positions as ‘lead teachers’.

All details for each of these outstanding projects can be found linked from the Flat Classroom® website. We welcome inquiries to fcp@flatclassroom.org


<hr>
Flat Classroom Certified Teacher
read the Full details at http://tinyurl.com/flatclassteachercert

Aims of the course 
The Flat Classroom® Certified Teacher course aims to train educators to be able to manage a global collaborative project built upon best practices of student collaboration and co-creation as modeled in the Flat Classroom projects including: Flat Classroom, Eracism, NetGenEd, Digiteen™, and ‘ A Week in the Life...’ projects. It also aims to provide an opportunity for those interested in managing a Flat Classroom Project in the future as part of the lead teacher program beginning in March 2011 to develop skills and experience with all facets of the project.
 
Certified Flat Classroom® teachers will become leaders in global collaboration within their schools and internationally and will be sought as partners by those planning global collaboration because of their proven competencies in the technology, technopersonal skills, and best practices of effective global collaborative projects. Those who earn this designation will have proven their competency through this rigorous course.

Structure
The course will run for approximately three months. Participants will be involved with one or more of the Flat Classroom projects and also complete the “Flat Classroom Fifteen” challenges as will be in the upcoming book (January 2012 launch, Pearson Education) on global collaboration from Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, ‘Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds’. Participants will have exclusive access to private content from the authors and co-creators of the project as part of this program.

FC Certified Teacher 11-2, the following timeline is applicable:

• Application Deadline: September 15
• Online Teacher Information meeting before September 15
• There are Twelve Weeks to this course, September 19-December 9
• There are NINE Modules to complete
• Each module has Flat Classroom® Challenges and Personal Journal work to complete
• There will be an online meeting for each module held in Elluminate
• Participants will get time beyond the 12 weeks to complete all process journal and unit work
• Graduation: January 2012

In addition:

• FCCT 11-3 November 2011 - March 2012
• FCCT 12-1 March - June 2012

Application Process
Educators and education leaders are invited to apply for a course according to the deadlines and starting dates as listed above.

Application Form: http://tinyurl.com/flatclassteachercertapply

Inquiries: fcp@flatclassroom.org
Related Blog Posts

• Flat Classroom Projects applications now open for elementary, middle school, and high school projects (flatclassrooms.ning.com)
• Announcing 3 Flat Classroom Certified Teacher (FCCT) courses in 2011-2012.(flatclassrooms.ning.com)