Poor nations need more science

From a BBC report:

Poor nations are being sapped of the technology they need to break the poverty trap and catch up with the rest of the world, the UN has said.

Its trade and development agency Unctad used its annual report on Least Developed Countries to look at the role of science, technology and innovation.

Rather than being luxuries, they are necessities to help economies that are underdeveloped to grow, Unctad argues.

Could not agree more!
The full report is available for download free here. Have not read it yet as it is substantial...

Happiness as a national goal

A very interesting report by Richard Layard:

The first thing we know is that in the last 50 years average happiness
has not increased at all in Britain, nor in the United States, despite
massive increases in living standards.

Basically he says that once minimum needs are satisfied, happiness does not increase with wealth. Of course religion has been saying this for millenia. He also notes that:

We should also persist with income redistribution, since an extra pound or dollar gives more happiness to poor people than to the rich. That argument also implies redistribution to the Third World.

Statesmen take note...

Climate change grant

Excellent news!

From the Stabroek News:

The Government of Guyana and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) yesterday signed an agreement for a grant of US$455,000 ($93M) to assist in Guyana meeting its obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

See article.

ICANN continued - the sequel

Wednesday was a day of cruising from one session to another. However there was another good session for Caribbean fellowship people to give input on the ICANN Strategic Plan. Later I attended to ISOC (Internet Society) meeting where many chapters reported in and topical issues discussed in the limited time available.
Finally, after looking in on some other sessions there was the meeting of 'fellow fellows' for some additional briefing - this took place each day though I failed to mention it.

Thursday. Whole day in a technical session for ccTLDs (I'll explain it this time - operators of top level country domains). Real interesting presentation by Bill Woodcock (CERT) on the Estonia incident. Other stuff on DNSSEC and Anycast.
By now the frenetic merry-go-round of meetings has slowed with busy people taking off for distant lands. Looks comparatively quiet...
Final fellowship session, the obligatory photo and the parting of friends...

Friday. A look in at the ICANN Board meeting. Not sure if I would feel comfortable consulting on a stage like that with a hundred people watching... off to check out the mall and the narrow streets and alleys of old San Juan. Trying not to think too much of the long flight up to Miami and right back down to Trinidad and on to Guyana. Thank God I am not going further.

ICANN continued

More on Monday - useful workshop on protecting registrants - mainly about ensuring registrars for gTLDs (.com etc) backup their data in such a way that it can be recovered by ICANN if the registrar folds.

Tuesday. Spent the morning listening to complex but interesting issues related to IDNs - domain names expressed in non-Latin scripts (characters). Fortunately not a major issues for us in English-speaking Guyana.
Good discussions about Caribbean issues. This included particular problems and needs of small ccTLDs, malware and security, user education and the benefits of having Caribbean stakeholders being able to meet together at occassions like this. I guess bringing us together makes a critical mass of actors allowing (good) things to happen which would not happen otherwise... ICANN has gone to great lengths to make this happen and must be commended for it.