New events

North Africa

Egypt: Hundreds of Coptic Christians flee north Sinai region after spate of attacks
… Egyptian President offers assistance for fleeing Christians
Libya: Amid the chaos, human traffickers have free reign
Morocco: Poised to be China’s gateway to Africa, actively courting investment and ties
… hope Chinese and Russian visitors will boost tourism fortunes

West Africa

Benin: founder of Very Holy Church of Jesus Christ of Baname calls herself God
… a fascinating article about a cult.
Ivory Coast: dropping cocoa demand devastating cocoa farmers
Mali: Jihadist groups to merge. Tuareg rebels join government in battle against extremists.
Nigeria: ‘Who’s running Nigeria?’ The President’s out sick while the problems pile up
… Economy shrinking, inflation doubling, Boko Haram down but not out, spectre of famine
… The collapse of global oil prices has seriously undermined the economy
… Reports of military massacring villages with suspected Boko Haram militants

East Africa/Horn:

Djibouti: The Chinese Naval Base: a ‘support facility’ or something more?
… the New York Times took a look
Ethiopia: Militants apprehended trying to attack the GERD dam
… under construction, set to be the largest hydropower dam in Africa
… Eritrea & Ethiopia have tense relations: 90s border war, anti-govt protest accusations
… Ethiopia alleges militants are Eritrean; Ethiopia also tense with Egypt over dam
… and, ban on Eritrean refugees working in Eth. hurting effort to reduce illegal migration
… 5,000 Eritrean refugees flee to Ethiopia each month; 155,000 live there already
… Ethiopia has over a million refugees in total, 2nd largest refugee population in Africa
Somalia: President declares disaster for drought-stricken country, 6.2 million at risk
… Pastoralists lost 65% of animals. Photos.
… Al Shabab: ‘its most successful run of attacks in years against the Somali government.’
S Sudan: Opinion: South Sudan’s famine is China’s chance to lead
… China has 40% stake in largest oil fields, dozens of companies, 1000s of migrant workers
… Famine-hit South ‘eat weeds and water lilies to survive’
… As South Sudan refugee flood continues, so do tales of abuse.

Central Asia

Will Central Asia fight over water resources?

West Asia/Gulf

Azerbaijan: Possibility of renewed conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Iraq: ‘Bombs fall on Mosul like rain’: IS using drones to drop bombs, grenades
… on civilian and military targets alike. Attacks more devastating for psychological value.
… Al-Baghdadi ack. IS defeat in Iraq, calls supporters to flee or make suicide attacks
Qatar: pop. up 40% since emirate was chosen to host 2022 World Cup, to 2.67 million
… 2.1 million migrant laborers, many from Nepal, Bangladesh, India
Saudi Arabia: still bears brunt of oil cuts as OPEC output drops.
… foreign remittances from Saudi down 6.7%.
Turkey: Conflict between Turkey and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces likely

South Asia

Afghanistan: Danger on the Durand Line: tensions rise with Pakistan
… ‘killing spreed has dangerous implications… conflict a very real possibility’
Bangladesh: weakens long-standing law against underage marriage
… ‘ has one of the world’s highest rates’, but gradually dropping.
… in 2017, 52% of girls married before age 18, 18% before 15.
India: Scholarship scams in Bihar force students out of college.
… Phase 5 of Uttar Pradesh elections begins: ‘crucial game winner,’ ‘>57% of voting held’
… how caste affects the vote in UP.
… China warns allowing Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal will cause ‘serious damage’ to ties
Nepal: Seeks up to $1 billion in foreign investment to help recover from 2015 earthquake
Pakistan: Thousands of hardliners rally to celebrate executed blasphemy murderer
… assassinated a popular governor over his call to reform blasphemy laws
… and, govt considers normalizing status of its lawless tribal regions
… in part to crack down on terror attacks; plan must be approved by Parliament

East Asia

China: Building an empire along the new Silk Road: all about the railway service
… officially atheist, but makes an exception for two religions.
… we’re angry: bans Chinese tourists going to South Korea in response to THAAD
Mongolia: Severe winter killing off livestock: thousands affected
… ‘dzud’ severe weather phenomenon now happening every 4 years

Southeast Asia

Indonesia: Saudi Arabia redefining Islam for the world’s largest Muslim nation
… ‘historic visit is the culmination of a long campaign for influence’
… economic deals largely a bust, but religiously huge.
Malaysia: We’re angry: no visa-free entry for North Koreans starting 6 March.
… and recommending Malaysians not travel to North Korea, either, out of fear of reprisals.

New Data

Climate: hot in Australia, projected hot in India.
Famine spreading across Africa: ‘a worsening humanitarian crisis, no signs of slowing’
Infographic: mortality in major famines: a world perspective on food shortages
… declaration of famine in S Sudan comes after centuries of food crises.

Longer reads

Ian Johnson: Focusing on religious oppression in China misses the big picture
… reports feel more critical ‘than the religious world I’ve experienced’
Freedom House: The Battle for China’s Spirit, PDF: 40pp.
Neroznikova, Ekaterina. ‘Convert and Love: Russia’s Muslim Wives.’
… ‘despite their most faithful efforts, many of them don’t live happily ever after.’
EU Parliament calls to end visa-free travel for US citizens
… in retaliation for US continuing to exclude five EU countries from no-visa regime

Personal Lifehacking, Tactics, Skills, Rules

90-day sprints: how to break down big picture goals into steps you can take this quarter.
… why 90-days, pick 3 goals, determine success measure (OKR), identify steps/delegate.

Leadership, Pioneer Mission Startups, Strategy

‘Every successful leader I’ve encountered has a community of support…’
… mentors, strategic advisers, advocates who are personally invested in their growth
… ‘Board of Directors is for company governance. Personal Board is to support you.’
… key read on diff between sponsors, coaches, mentors, and how to find/approach/engage
… and, Jerry Colonna: the ‘CEO Whisperer’: on power of a coach
… he’s New Age/Buddhist-y, but the point is coaches can have a powerful impact on leaders
… and thereby on movements…
‘A better alternative to Minimum Viable Product development’
… reframe as a set of hypotheses to be tested to arrive at ideal product state
… think of ‘product’ as ‘discipleship-offer’ or ‘discipleship delivery mechanism’ or similar
How one company manages a team across 9 time zones.
These business schools produce the most billion-dollar startup founders.
… the article doesn’t go into the details of ‘why,’ but ‘why’ Qs are worth asking:
… what it means to be a ‘unicorn breeder,’ differences in schools, what lessons to apply?
Investing in the ‘adjacent possible’: how to identify opportunities
… lots of parallels here for pioneer mission. What is ‘next door’ and ‘recently possible’?
A16z: All about network effects, 85-slide PPT
… movements run on network effects, so very important.
12 things about product-market fit: Ever wonder why you’ve done all the DMM stuff…
… & still no church growth? Could be, haven’t found “product/market fit” yet.
108 of the biggest, costliest startup failures of all time
… there are lessons here for mission startups, too.

UPG Profiles, Travelogues, Stories

Chad: Wodaabe: the men competing for love in the deserts.
China: the empty ‘zombie cities’ of China’s stillborn rustbelt
… largest migration: 80 million migrants came to manufacturing jobs in PRD
… boom towns built in the Pearl River Delta area, that were never occupied.
Bangalore: City of Burning Lakes: illegal dumping of waste, mixed with untreated sewage
Mumbai: ranked 21st, ahead of Toronto and Washington DC in City Wealth Index
Mauritania: ‘It must be love’: wife-beating source of pride for some in Mauritania
Morocco: 36 hours in Fez
Book Review: The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History
Turkmenistan: Burning craters and empty cities.
… Darvaza Crater, natural gas field burning since 1971. 6th most oppressive regime.

Futuristics/Technology

#Security: Telegram Cracked: friend noted secure messager Telegram had been cracked
… led me to a Google search which seems to confirm, at least with a lot of smoke:
… Potential Russia crack, Potential Russia crack analysis #2, Iran hack, Iran hack 2
… enough to make me decide not to use it, ever. I recommend Signal.
#AI: How to cut through the AI hype.
… why it’s not going away, and how to evaluate AI companies, what’s coming
… and, Google is building an AI to help moderate comments, detecting toxicity
… but, it’s early-stage and clearly not ready for prime-time just yet
#AutoDrive: a driverless truck startup putting human drivers to work.
… human truck drivers can take control and drive remotely at any time.
… ‘each driver will be able to monitor and occasionally control 10 to 30 trucks at a time.’
#Blockchain: A brief history of blockchain’s innovations, and why important and impactful
… and, for the first time bitcoin is more valuable than gold.
… Word is, due to demand in China. and, China is developing its own cryptocurrency.
#Cloud: How a typo took down Amazon S3, the backbone of the Internet
#Crime: proliferation of point-and-click tools for ransomware
… ‘make it stupid simple for anyone to begin extorting others for money.’
… probably already impacting some mission agencies. Make people aware of the dangers…
#Drones: SciFi Short Film Project: How delivery drones will destroy us all
… what might happen if/when a company with drones becomes corrupt
#Drones: first anti-drone gun on its way to fight terrorism in the Middle East.
… blasts drones with EM interference, blocks GPS, forces drone to land.
#Finance: Facebook takes money transfer business global, enables international transfers
#Shopping: Amazon Go: a grocery store: enter w/your cell phone, shop, walk out, autopay.
… no checkouts, etc. The store uses tech to know what you have picked up.
#Space: SpaceX planning to send two paying tourists around the moon in 2018.
#Storage: new 2TB thumbdrive, list price $2,273.
#VR Media: Virtual reality brings reality of sex trade to viewers.

Quotable

This is God’s universe, and God does things His way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe. ~Vernon McGee

People who can focus get things done. People who can prioritize get the right things done. ~John Maeda

Just because someone isn’t recruitable now, doesn’t mean they won’t be in the next 3, 6, 60, or 100 months. ~Jason Lemkin

God created the world out of nothing, and so long as we are nothing, he can make something out of us. ~Martin Luther

“Kill whatever it is in your heart that makes you think you are at the center of the universe.” ~Conrad Mbewe

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