My ancestral fraud

Heh, found this exceedingly funny, got an email on facebook. Check this out.

 

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Mohamed sent you a message.

Mohamed Fahab

September 10, 2010 at 9:50pm

Subject: Dear Bhaskar Dasgupta,

Dear Bhaskar Dasgupta,
I am Barrister Mohamed Fahab, personal attorney to Late Mr J.C.Dasgupta,a national of your country, Who died and left some huge amount of money with a bank here in Lome West Africa, valued at US$8.5 million dollars. I have contacted you to assist. Please Reply To My Private Email Ad...(mr_mohamedfahab00@hotmail.com) Or call me +228 9177735
Your Full nam.....................................
Your private number...........................
Your private email..............................
Regard
Mohamed Fahab,

Some references on population and fertility growth

An email which i sent around.

Population forecasting (and all the attendant and associated aspects) is a strange research area, and almost impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy. The variables are just too many to  cater for, leave alone trying to establish the degree of correlation or causality between them. But economic conditions do have a bearing on population, so do cultural aspects. Here are some more examples:

1. Russia
http://www.williams.edu/Economics/brainerd/papers/fertility_rf.pdf

2. more links on fertility decline

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&rlz=1B3MOZA_en-GBGB353GB354&q=reasons%20for%20fertility%20decline&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=ws

3. Belligerence produces more fertility for example in Israel and Palestine

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2000.00441.x/abstract

4. Iran is an example of where population shifts have happened quite often.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_planning_in_Iran

5. Here is another view on Egypt's fertility situation.

http://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2006-011.pdf

6. And , here's an interesting research article on India, albeit a bit old. I quote:
http://www-histecon.kings.cam.ac.uk/docs/female.pdf

There has been a significant decline in fertility in many parts of India since the early 1980s.
This paper reexamines the determinants of fertility levels and fertility decline, using panel data
on Indian districts for 1981 and 1991. We find that women's education is the most important
factor explaining fertility differences across the country and over time. Low levels of child
mortality and son preference also contribute to lower fertility. By contrast, general indicators
of modernization and development such as urbanization, poverty reduction and male literacy
bear no significant association with fertility.

Also look at this chapter for a good overview of the theories behind fertility, population in India.

http://www.corecentre.co.in/Database/Docs/DocFiles/fertility_decline.pdf

The UN Population Division does some excellent work in this area.

http://www.un.org/esa/population/

Finally, the question of food availability is yet another major issue in its own right. Intensive farming is a must and food / dietary changes which accompany economic growth has also important implications on this issue. Incidentally, I was trying to find a good stock opportunity to invest in global food producing firms given this change and missed out on that. But that's an argument for another day.

Charity Photographic competitions and other news on the charitable front

I am conscious that i haven't posted here for some time, it has been manically busy at work and then I left for holiday so wanted to drop a line on what I have been up to in the past month or so.

1. The IT4CH charity is now moving from up north down to London, it just makes it easier for our CEO and our team to do this from London.
2. We are also negotiating with several local authorities to lease their buildings for us to keep our spare equipment in, this promises to be of much use.
3. I put in some funding proposals for carbon change improvement products back in the firm, but dont think they got selected. Shame, next time I will do better :). Am trying to see if we can get some of this stuff formally pushed and funded in a separate matter
4. SIFE is powering up for this academic year, as usual, I will be at LSE but have also offered to help Essex out. As I mentioned before, i am considering doing something with them on the academic and research front and I thought it might be able to kill 2 birds with one stone.
5. The discussions with Manchester Business School proceed sporadically, I am specially happy about an internship/graduate recruitment proposal, lets see, early days yet.
6. And finally, am thinking about submitting my photo essay on the Whittington Hospital in North London to this photo competition. I realise what we do with the kids is not so visually attractive, perhaps Disha would have been better but its way out in India and dont know when I will be there next. I quote from the site:

PhotoPhilanthrophy believes in the power of photography to inspire hope and understanding and to connect people around the world. All subjects photographed should be treated with respect, compassion and dignity. PhotoPhilanthropy reserves the the right to reject any submission based on quality, content or theme. All submissions will be reviewed by the PhotoPhilanthropy team for accuracy of information. Written essays may be edited for clarity.

Submitted photos must depict the work of a charitable organization (designated by 501c3 in the US, or international equivalent) and be presented as a photo essay. All photographs in the essay must have been taken within the last 3 years. Photographers may enter two essays in the same year. An essay entered in a previous year of the competition may not be re-entered.

For all submissions, collaboration with the charitable organization will be verified.  For this reason it is mandatory to submit a contact name and email of the person you worked with at the organization.

Upon completion of review, accepted photo essays will be posted on the PhotoPhilanthropy website.

What do you think? do you think I have a shot at it with the photographs from the hospital? I realise the differences between the visual impact of a hospital in north London versus say a charity in a hauntingly beautiful but bloody poor place in say Nepal or hot/dry/dusty Sudan, but what the heck, all part of the learning, eh?