"If you're going to have goals and dreams, they might as well be big."

It's dubbed the "Style Road Trip." In late May, some two dozen Afghani businesswomen arrived in New York to participate in an intensive three-week program designed to promote and develop entrepreneurship among Afghanistan's women. For most of them, the program, sponsored by the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace), was their first trip outside their war-torn nation.

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A 100 proven CRM ideas, Part 2. Good schtuff. Can't find Part 1. Now only if the Agency got wind of this.

Mall of the Emirates will have over 425 stores, 65 restaurants, a 14-screen cinema, and the Middle East’s first indoor ski resort, called Ski Dubai. A 384 suite Kempinski Hotel, with 16 chalets overlooking the ski slope is being built alongside the shopping centre. Its backers claim it will be one of the world’s largest retail and leisure complexes.

Saatchi & Saatchi has been appointed to work on the mall’s creative. Four ad agencies were short listed after an initial eight were invited to take part in the pitch.

“There is such a fantastic story for advertising to tell with Mall of the Emirates, and we are doing it in a simple, emotional and compelling way,” said Rob Mitchell, managing director at Saatchi & Saatchi in Dubai.

Fantastic story my ass. It's just another damn mall in a damn city where the damn inhabitants have too much money and not enough brains. Read the rest here...

German Rock finds it's own voice. Finally. More German music actually IN German. Yes, I know I don't speak German (drunken slurry claims of "mine liebchen! mine!" to certain long haired professors of illustration do not count).

Private equity pours into India. Big money to be made. Or is there? Is it just like Dubai? Waiting to collapse? Will it all come tumbling down? Prolly not. The markets are more stable. The people however are not.

Iraq war takes military spending over the trillion dollar mark. Gee, wonder where they're getting all this money from, Bob? Did you know we had WMDs? I didn't. And all these people living here for so damn long sure as hell didn't. The world has too many Bushes.

More later.