Innovation Challenge Grant Announcement

I got news of a new innovation challenge grant from our friend Andreas Widmer at the Seven Fund. Seven is partnering with the Fisherman Foundation and Hapinoy Stores to promote innovative ways to use enterprise as a solution to poverty. Continue Reading...

What Difference Does This Election Make for Religious Hiring Rights?

Stanley Carlson-Thies, president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, writes in the Nov. 4 IRFA Newsletter: The races haven’t all even been decided yet, and, given the big changes, it will take considerable time for new directions to be settled, so it is far too soon to try to guess how the November 2nd voting will affect national policy. Continue Reading...

‘Springfield’s Only Choice’

President Obama, Vice President Biden to Announce $8 Billion for High-Speed Rail Projects Across the Country DOT Awards $2.4 Billion to Continue Developing 21st Century High-speed Passenger Rail Corridors “You’ll be given cushy jobs!” Continue Reading...

Make Work Your Favorite

Very often it is difficult to see in any concrete way how our work really means anything at all. The drudgery of the daily routine can be numbing, sometimes literally depending on your working conditions. Continue Reading...

The Subversion of Charity and Christian Identity

There were a few stories from the Grand Rapids Press over the weekend that form data points pointing toward some depressing trends: a decline in charitable giving (especially to churches), supplanting of private charity by government welfare, and the attempt to suppress explicit Christian identity. Continue Reading...

Cape Town 2010, China, and Cybersecurity

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, also known as Cape Town 2010, was reportedly the target of an cyber attack. The official statement from the congress says, “The sophisticated computer network developed for sharing Congress content with the world was compromised for the first two days of the Congress.” Continue Reading...

Culture and Poverty

Here is an interesting article by Patricia Cohen in the New York Times about the role of culture in poverty: ‘Culture of Poverty’ Makes a Comeback While it is obvious to most observers that culture plays an important role in shaping norms and habits, and thus would have impact on poverty–discussions of culture have not been within the domain of polite conversation for the last several decades within many academic circles. Continue Reading...

The Real Population Problem–Not Enough Babies

Take at look at Jonathan Last’s very good piece in the Weekly Standard about the real population problem that is confronting the world–people aren’t having enough babies. In America’s One Child Policy, Last explains how fertility throughout the entire world is declining and what the impact will be on society and the economy. Continue Reading...

Faith and Prosperity

Here is a link to a good summary of McKinsey’s report on business and Africa that can be found at Acton’s good friend Andreas Widmer’s blog Faith and Prosperity. Andreas is a former Swiss Guard turned high-tech entrepreneur who is now focusing on promoting enterprise solutions to poverty throughout the developing world. Continue Reading...

Marketplace Revolution

Last week several colleagues and I had the opportunity to attend Partners Worldwide conference: Marketplace Revolution: Fighting Global Poverty through Business. Acton was delighted to be one of the sponsors of the event The conference had 400 people from all over the world and promoted enterprise solutions to poverty. Continue Reading...