The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 567

“Experts of the World Health Organization and experts of maternal and infant health said that the health of mothers and infants during childbirth in Cambodia causes much concern, and this is the result mainly of the shortage of midwives.

“Dr. Cheang Konitha, an official of the World Health Organization in Cambodia, said that the health of mothers and infants is a major issue to which Cambodia should pay attention, because there are many maternal and infants' deaths every year. She said, ‘It is estimated that about 2,000 Cambodian women and infants died every year during pregnancy or during childbirth.’

“Dr. Kum Kanal [Director of National Mother and Child Health Center] said that maternal and infants’ deaths during pregnancy and until 42 days after childbirth are higher than in other countries in the region. He said, ‘The number of maternal and infants' deaths in our country is a bit better than that of Burma, and it is comparable to that of Laos; but if compared to that of Vietnam and Thailand, we are much worse.'

“He continued that there are three major reasons that makes the death rate in Cambodia so high, which include the late detection and control of illnesses, and the late referring to special care. As for other countries, their services are faster. He added that the delays are because there is a shortage of midwives, and most Cambodian citizens do not understand the importance of health centers.

“Dr. Cheang Konitha said that according to the national health statistics in 2007 in Cambodia, there were only 3,184 midwives, and this number is not enough to guarantee the safety of mothers and infants during childbirth.

“She said that there are more than 100 health centers that have no midwife at all, and 78% of women give birth to their children at home, 55% of whom give birth assisted by traditional midwives who have not obtained training in midwifery skills.

“Mr. Kum Kanal denied the numbers describing the shortage mentioned above, claiming that because of the efforts of the government, so far, among all of the more than 900 health centers in Cambodia, only 72 or 73 centers do not have a midwife. However, he admitted that Cambodia still lacks thousands of midwives, but he is not sure about the real number of the shortage.

“Officials of the Human Resource Development Department of the Ministry of Health could not be reached for comment on 28 June 2008.

“Ms. Cheang Konitha said that as a national standard, each health center needs one to two midwives. As for hospitals that have three sections, some need six to eight midwives, or seven to ten or fifteen to twenty; and areas without health centers also need midwives.

“Regarding the shortage of midwives in Cambodia, regional experts of the World Health Organization said in a workshop organized in Hanoi that the reason for the shortage of midwives in Cambodia is an economic problem.

“Mr. Kum Kanal mentioned that this is the true reason; the low salary is the major reason, and the shortage of encouragement is also a cause. Young people of the next generation in their teens are not very much interested in this skill.

“He asserted, ‘We have five midwife training schools, but there are only 200 midwives graduating from those schools each year. He went on to say that according to this number, we need up to ten more years to have enough midwives.’ Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4528, 29-30.6.2008

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Monday, 30 June 2008

Chouy Khmer, Vol.2, #125, 30.6.2008

• Co-Lawyer Say Bory Resigns from the Position of Defense Lawyer of Murderer Khiev Samphan [because he is unhappy and does not get on well with his French partner, lawyer Jacques Vergès]

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1680, 29-30.6.2008

• A Deputy Village Chief Was Tied and Dragged to Be Killed behind His House by [three] Anonymous People [Kompong Cham]
• A Journalist in Kompong Thom Was Surrounded by a Group of Illegal Wood Merchants and Was Seriously Injured
• North Korea Destroyed Nuclear Powerplant Tower

Khmer Amatak, Vol.9, #594, 30.6.2008

• There Was an Attempt to Murder Mr. Sut Dina, Activist of the Norodom Ranariddh Party and Parliamentarian from Battambang [his car was shot at after returning from an election campaign in the province]

Khmer Machas Srok, Vol.2, #188, 29.6-1.7.2008

• Police Arrested Boss of the Macao Casino in Bavet and Sent Him to Phnom Penh at Midnight [according to a worker of this casino]

Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #36, 29-30.6.2008

• National Angkor Museum [in Siem Reap] Overlooks National Writing [by not using Khmer letters besides the two sign which says “National Angkor Museum” in Khmer]

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6384, 30.6.2008

• A Dam Was Opened [by Su Ching Company] Swirling and Sinking Thirty Big and Small Boats and [Floating] Houses [Siam Reap]
• Fauna & Flora International Helped Fight against Drug Crimes in Cambodia [by seizing thirty tonnes of Mraes Prov Phnom Oil made from a tree, which is an important substance to produce the drug Ecstasy]
• The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts Plans to Create a Training School of Movie Producing Professionals [by cooperating with Korea in order to restore the movie sector in Cambodia]

Meatophum, Vol.52, #695, 1-5.7.2008

• Cambodia Plans to Create National Job Agency

Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3499, 30.6.2008

• It Is a Major National Security Issue after Banks Were Found to Be Money Laundering Places [according to security observers]

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4528, 29-30.6.2008

• Cambodia Needs Many Midwives to Guarantee the Safety of Mothers and Infants when During Childbirth

Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, Vol.15, #3346, 29-30.6.2008

• Civil Society: Situation in the 2008 Election Campaign Is Good
• The Current of Deforestation in Siem Reap Increased Strongly, but No One Takes the Responsibility [to solve this issue]

Have a look at the last editorial - Preah Vihear still in the headlines - more informaion from Thailand and Cambodian documentation.


Back to top

We recently reported on Google being sued by Viacom and it seems that the search giant has come under attack again, but this time...

...over stolen trade secrets.

LimitNone, a small Chicago- based software company, claims Google has taken trade secrets from the company and violated consumer fraud law.

The dispute centers around a LimitNone-developed tool that allows people to move Microsoft Office calendar items and email to the Google platform. LimitNone claims it showed this tool to the Google Apps team in early 2007 and were repeatedly assured that Google would not roll out a competing product.

They allege that Google stole trade secrets from LimitNone and violated fraud law by coercing LimitNone to share confidential information. Information which Google later used to develop its competing product, Google Email Uploader.

Ray Glassman, LimitNone CEO said in a prepared statement that "Google claims its core philosophy is 'Don't be evil' but, simply put, they invited us to work with them, to trust them -- and then stole our technology,"

Google is yet to make any comment regarding this lawsuit but when they do we will certainly let you know.

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...and Raises 12.5 Millions in Venture Capital. Congratulations to the Funambol team for raising 12.5 millions of funding in a series B financing...

...led by mobile-focused venture capital firm Nexit Ventures, along with Castile Ventures (new investor) and was joined by existing investors, Walden International and HIG Ventures.

Investors are banking in a long term perspective, while Funambol is cash flow positive from the beginning of this year, so I asked my friend Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, the following question:

How is this money going to be spent?

Sometimes easy questions are a valuable tool to get interesting insights. Open source ISVs facing the turning OSS users into customers are likely to meet Lead Users - a term coined by Eric Von Hippel referring to users of a product experiencing needs actually unfulfilled and who could significantly benefit from the solution to those needs - from all over the world. If thinking global is the natural choice for open source firms, acting locally requires individualization and customizations to your customers needs, yet a local structure to effectively implement such needs.

As mentioned in my first interview to Fabrizio, Funambol addresses only the top of the pyramid (carriers, large ISP, etc), enabling also the base of the pyramid - the free Customers - to generate value for Funambol, as it is happening with AOL who just selected Funambol to help with synchronization of its own online and mobile mail.

In the meantime Funambol ignited also a partnership with SpikeSource, in order to address through SpikeSource and their partners other layers of the pyramid. Fabrizio himself commenting the partnership said:

Funambol besides fostering its community and delivering its wireless sync application for the iPhone, is creating an open source (mobile) ecosystem around its platform, as every open source firm should do.

Kudos to Fabrizio and his team!

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...Powerset Acquisition to Save the Day? Just six weeks after its coming out parade, natural language search engine Powerset is the subject...

...of two rumors about its acquisition by Microsoft.

VentureBeat kicks things off, by telling us the deal has been done, and the purchase price $100 million.

"Microsoft, the software giant flush with billions of dollars in its warchest, has agreed to buy Silicon Valley semantic search engine Powerset, weve learned."

"The purchase price is rumored to be slightly more than $100 million. An announcement is expected next month."

As if annoyed that VentureBeat might have gotten the scoop, TechCrunch reports the deal is not actually final.

"Our sources have been saying this deal is highly likely since May, but hasnt actually been signed yet and could still be disrupted by the ongoing Microsoft-Yahoo negotiations."

Keep in mind that neither VB or TC have any official confirmation or announcement.

But, lets assume for a moment that Microsoft has indeed bought Powerset for $100M. That means that despite all of the huffing and puffing by Powerset execs, $100M is all it takes to sell out? Didnt they just predict 2008 is the year that semantic and linguistic technologies cross over into widespread consumer use?

$100M is probably the amount of interest Microsofts warchest earns in a day, so its not a big acquisition for the company. What the price tag does tell us is that perhaps my previous concerns are valid:


Of course, weve not event looked at whether or not Microsoft would even know what to do with Powerset. From my experience, Microsoft doesnt lack in the technology department, it lacks in the branding and execution department. Powerset doesnt change that.

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The world's wealthiest and most iconic tech geek will devote his years to a massive philanthropic effort aimed at eradicating childhood diseases.

---

If you're going to think about the Internet and finance this week, it's hard to imagine not mentioning Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates heading for the exit. The rapid evolution of the World Wide Web, first ignored by Gates and company, led to Microsoft being outpaced by Google in what turned out to be the dual prize: dominance in search share and contextual advertising.

Catching up, or even just keeping pace, will be Steve Ballmer's problem at Microsoft now, not Gates. He'll have his hands full, and it isn't much of a stretch to think that Ballmer could follow his old friend Gates off the Redmond campus, should shareholders decide a change is needed.

All through the years, even up to today, Gates looked like the guy who would be the first one to pick up all the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition books and show up on your doorstep after a marathon session working on DOS.

On his way to DOS, and then Windows, Microsoft became the biggest technology company in the world. One can summarize Gates' fortune by noting his admission that the IRS maintains a separate computer system just to calculate what he gets to contribute to the national treasury.

We'd be remiss if we didn't recount the feisty, hyper-competitive side of Microsoft's exiting leader. Microsoft has been a vicious competitor in technology, to the point where, to this day, Microsoft toils under the auspices of antitrust regulators at home and abroad, all eager to hit the company with massive penalties should it go back to its bare-knuckle days.

Gates occupied the center of much of those operations. An episode of The Simpsons cheekily mocked the Microsoft chief's tougher side, as goons working for Gates wreck Homer's Internet business. "Oh, I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks!" Gates (actually Hank Azaria) cackled amidst the destruction.

He did get rich, and now Gates is giving it away. Someday, Gates's bridge partner Warren Buffett will leave billions to the Gates Foundation, with Bill and wife Melinda charged with using it to improve the world.

Gates may be leaving the office, but he's heading to work nonetheless.

The economy is sour. I have to pay a much higher price for my house mortgage. There are dozens of good reasons bankers can convince me to access a bank, but I am not quite sure what else bank can offer me, “more than worrying' especially in the economic downturn.

See what the bankers say:

Safety

We don't usually like to keep large sums of money on us or hidden away somewhere for fear of theft or loss. It is safer to deposit money into an institution such as a bank that will keep it secure as well as giving other benefits in return.

Facilities

All the services offered by banks are attempts to make the process of handling money easier in one way or another. Access to facilities like automatic payments, a cheque book, and long and short term loans, all enable the individual to manage money better. Convenience is the big draw-card and, in order to attract and satisfy their customers, banks are continually providing new services. For instance, one of these services is the provision of loans to students in order to finance their period of study.

By assisting students in this way, the banks hope to retain them as customers when they start putting their qualifications to work and earning money!

Benefits

Money can be made to grow! Provided you have a credit balance your money will be earning interest in the bank.

And Then, There Was the Girl With Two First- Names:

Chanel Iman, Spotlighted

 

         Her skin, soft and delicate, the color of grandma's pumpkin. Her nose and mouth , are that of an ethnic beauty. Long hair dark as night, trails down her back as she prances down the runway.

           In way she's a mere two years old. This 19 year old exotic bombshell, Chanel Iman, pranced her extravagantly luxurious lower limbs in the Fall 2006 Fashion Week, down the runways of Dolce & Gabbana, Issey Miyake, Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Dsquared, Hermès, Michael Kors, Oscar de la Renta--just to name a few. Born to a half-Korean mother, and an African American father, Chanel Iman, is a bit of old news to the Rag Trade Industry--as we felt it only necessary to spotlight her, as she exemplifies everything that is fierce.

    This Culver city, diva has been already compared to the African-American  heavyweights of the industry-Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell and Beverly Johnson are fairy-godmothers to this young coquette

       With both of her size 9 stillettos placed firmly on the grounds of the industries' most elite designers, this runway cougar, has a lot of integrity and greatness in her near future.

Fortis Bank predicts US Financial market meltdown within weeks... Fortis is a large bank and insurer in the Netherlands and Belgium. It took over ABN Amro last year, together with RBS and another bank. Last Thursday, its share lost 17% because Fortis attracted foreign capital.American 'meltdown' reason for money injection Fortis. 28th of June, 9:10 BRUSSELS/AMSTERDAM - Fortis expects a complete collapse of the US financial markets within a few days to weeks. That explains, according to Fortis, the series of interventions of last Thursday to retrieve € 8 billion. "We have been saved just in time. The situation in the US is much worse than we thought", says Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens. Fortis expects bankruptcies amongst 6000 American banks which have a small coverage currently. But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US" This fits in the picture, with the other press releases last week, like the short advise of Goldman Sachs and some other of the same messages last week. [...] Original press release: VOTRON BLIJFT AAN NA GOLF VAN KRITIEK Amerikaanse ’meltdown’ reden geldinjectie Fortis 28 Jun 08, 09:10 door onze correspondent BRUSSEL/AMSTERDAM (DFT) - Fortis rekent binnen enkele dagen tot weken op het volledig instorten van de Amerikaanse financiële markten. Dat verklaart volgens de bankverzekeraar de serie ingrepen van donderdag om zich met €8 miljard te versterken. „We zijn op het nippertje gereed. Het gaat in de Verenigde Staten veel slechter dan gedacht”, zegt Fortis-chairman Maurice Lippens, die volhoudt dat topman Votron aanblijft. Fortis verwacht faillissementen onder 6000 Amerikaanse banken die nu weinig dekking hebben. „Maar ook Citigroup, General Motors, er begint een complete meltdown in de VS.” http://www.dft.nl/bedrijven/fortis/4...ie_Fortis.html . All the above from: https://www.kitcomm.com/showthread.php?t=19066 . Who is Fortis? : Looking at the individual score by countries, we rank amongst the top 5 of Best Private Banks in: the Netherlands (2nd), the Channel Islands (3rd) and Belgium (4th). The following from Fortune/CNN: Fortis Rank: 18 (2005 rank: 30) Employees: 54,245 Website: http://www.fortis.com $ millions Revenues 112,351.4 Profits 4,896.3 Assets 859,900.0 In size it is just behind Citigroup Industry: Banks: Commercial and Savings Rank Company 500 rank Revenues ($ millions) 1 Citigroup 14 131,045 2 Fortis 18 112,351 -------------------------------------------------------- Banks that have failed so far: General Implodes Carnation Banc Freemont General Bear Stearns Northern Rock PLC Coast Bank FDIC Failed Banks First Integrity Bank ANB Financial Hume Bank of Hume, Mo. Douglas National Bank Miami Valley Bank NetBank Metropolitan Savings Bank All from: http://bankimplode.com/ H/T www.whatreallyhappened.com

While Idea has been spicing up the Mobile market in India, and while the spice in the Indian Consumers food is missing courtesy increased commodity prices, the Reserve bank of India has hit out further by increasing the repo rates (the rate at which the RBI lends out money to the other banks) and the Cash Reserve ratio (CRR, the minimum amount of cash stocks the banks must maintain). The logic RBI gives is that it is going to tame the liquidity in the market by squeezing the excess cash floating in the market.

But is it what we really require? The RBI seems to have a notion that the current crisis is demand pull inflation where too much money chases too few goods. Rather the case right now is that of Cost-Pull inflation wherein the companies have to increase cost of commodities as a result of increased input costs like hike in oil prices, raw materials, basic metals and increased tax rates and import duties. This is very similar to what we have been observing off-late where the prices of inputs which go into manufacturing of these commodities have grown over the time. While the appreciating rupee saved us from the wrath last year, this fiscal the rupee has depreciated as well.

The policy of the RBI is going to lead to stagflation (high unemployment and economic slowdown).

1.   The current food crisis led to government completely banning export of major food commodities and completely decreasing the tariffs on imports. This would surely hurt the revenues of the govt. and also the overall economic growth to some extent.

2.   Moreover the RBI on increasing the rates has resulted in greater difficulty for the corporate sector to get loans from the govt. in terms of debts, moreover the markets are difficult to get the cash flowing to these corporations due to the increased alienation of the market by the investors due to inflation (as seen by the continued downward trend of the markets). This will only lead to companies shunning economic expansion and further slowing down the economic growth of the country.

3.   The increased interest rates are going to hit the general public by and large. Due to increase in the repo rates by the central bank (RBI), the banks are going to increase the primary lending rates which will be generally ranging from loans for homes, automobiles and even study loans. The consumers taking loans at this time should take a loan on floating rates so that when this inflation is finally tame and the rates are finally decreased they still don't keep paying the same as they will be now. Moreover consumers already facing the music due to increased rates and EMI's should try to increase the duration of payment in years to bring down the EMI.

4.   The biggest sector that is going to be hit by this interest rates hike is the Real Estate sector which is so susceptible to the market interest rates. As the customers are going to stay away from taking loans and buying the property the sector will generally slowdown. Moreover the big corporations are just going to wait before rolling out any expansion plans, so cutting down on infrastructure and further slowing down this sector. However because this is going to drive property prices slightly lower in most markets, it is not going to be a particularly bad idea to buy properties right now, probably on floating rates.

5.   Another sector which is particularly going to suffer is Automobile sector. Already the input costs like steel have gone up, the oil prices have gone up keeping consumers away from the roads and now the increased rates will surely slow down the sales, and most of the CEO's won't be able to achieve their targets.

6.   However as the lending rates will go up, so will the rates at which banks borrow from individuals and companies. So the particular debt-free cash rich companies are going to gain. Moreover this is generally going to make the market less attractive. Moreover as Markets are meant to give you better returns than the banks especially in terms of maintain the purchasing power of your money over the years. Moreover more and more people are leaving the markets; FII's as well who are anticipating a general economic slowdown. However this should be seen as the best time to jump-in the stock market.

7.   Moreover the cap on FDI will generally keep away the investors from investing in the country due to a nominal appreciation only, so the cap must be increased. We observed that FDI cap in Real Estate in India has gone up leading to a lot of infrastructral investment and economic activity.

8.   At the same time the depreciation of the rupee has to be controlled in the wake of increased international oil process. This will further help in taming the inflation. Some export oriented sectors will be affected but then the present situation demands a more balanced approach.

As the lending rates increase and the liquidity crunch prevails, will generally tend to economic slowdown. However the RBI and the govt. must try to find out better ways to balance the rising inflation and economic growth of the country.

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• Wimbledon · MLB · NBA Draft · Golf · NASCAR · Euro 2008