We are so close to having a truly globally connected humanity and globally connected economy. New mobile stats from Africa:

Africa is now the world’s second largest mobile market by connections after Asia, and the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Africa achieved this milestone as mobile penetration reached 649 million connections in Q4 2011 (having first exceeded 50 per cent mobile penetration in 2010). Over the past five years, the number of subscribers across Africa has grown by almost 20 per cent each year and will reach more than 735 million by the end of 2012. 

Ninety-six per cent of subscriptions are pre-paid with voice services currently dominating, although uptake of data services is increasing steadily. There are currently six live HSPA+ networks across Africa, with a seventh deployment planned in the near future. By 2015, next-generation LTE networks are predicted to reach 500,000 connections in Kenya, 1.1 million connections in Nigeria and 2.5 million connections in South Africa.

The mobile ecosystem in Africa currently generates approximately US$56 billion or 3.5 per cent of total GDP, with mobile operators alone contributing US$49 billion. In recent studies by the World Bank and others, it was shown that there is a direct relationship between mobile penetration and GDP. In developing countries, for every 10 per cent increase in mobile penetration there is a 0.81 per cent point increase in a country’s GDP. The mobile industry contributes US$15 billion in government revenues and is a significant contributor to employment in Africa. In 2010 alone, approximately 5.4 million people were employed directly and indirectly in the mobile ecosystem.

However, the Observatory reveals that huge untapped potential remains. 36 per cent of Africans within the 25 largest African mobile markets currently have no access to mobile services. Projections indicate that reaching 100 per cent mobile penetration could add over $35 billion in aggregate GDP – an increase of 2 per cent – but only if governments and operators work together to bring mobile communication to the entire African population.

Smartphones and the mobile web are fundamentally altering commerce, competition, pricing, branding and marketing. They are simultaneously connecting the world, creating a vastly larger (global) marketplace -- and inciting brutal planet-wide competition.

You cannot outwork a billion desperate, hungry people who have been exposed to a better life.

You cannot out-compete on price.

We can not buy anything from anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

How do you build a sustainable business in such conditions? How, when as in the West your basic needs are met, do you get yourself out of bed in the morning to do business battle with the world? And your neighbor?

Values.

Values equal profits. And that is the title and the theme behind a new section of the Smartphone Wars.

Values are what get you out of bed, what makes you compete, what leads you to put in extra-long hours -- and love it. Values are where your passions may be found. Embrace your values. Make them *core* to your business.

Values-based businesses will be one of the primary differences between commerce in the 20th century and commerce in the 21st century. 

I am excited to begin promoting -- and fostering -- this subject.

Foxconn, the electronics maker everyone buys from but loves to hate, can't seem to escape the prying eyes of a concerned nor a falsely outraged press. Worse for them, Chinese labor in the big port cities has gotten too expensive. So, while fish don't fry in the kitchen, beans don't burn on the grill, Foxconn is packing their bags and moving deeper into the Chinese mainland. From Financial Times:

Foxconn Technology will transform its south China manufacturing hub into an engineering base and move 200,000 jobs to cheaper inland provinces in a further sign that the region’s days as a low-end production centre are numbered.

The world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer employs 1m people in China. About half its workforce is based at two huge factory complexes in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

Smartphones, the mobile web, social media; latter day technologies and innovations that are bringing billions of people into the global market.

Which means, your business, whatever it is, is exposed to billions of persons. Among them, the 0.0001% who absolutely agree with your values and your product and your ethics and the reason for your business and the way you do business and your commitment to the community.

Which is all you need. That 0.0001%. To be successful; earning a living at what you love doing, and for the right reasons. 

Today's New York Times looks at a rising trend among young farmers in America, and reveals how quickly knowledge can be lost -- when not available digitally:

Mr. Jones, 30, and his wife, Alicia, 27, are among an emerging group of people in their 20s and 30s who have chosen farming as a career. Many shun industrial, mechanized farming and list punk rock, Karl Marx and the food journalist Michael Pollan as their influences. The Joneses say they and their peers are succeeding because of Oregon’s farmer-foodie culture, which demands grass-fed and pasture-raised meats.

“People want to connect more than they can at their grocery store,” Ms. Jones said. “We had a couple who came down from Portland and asked if they could collect their own eggs. We said, ‘O.K., sure.’ They want to trust their producer, because there’s so little trust in food these days.”

Garry Stephenson, coordinator of the Small Farms Program at Oregon State University, said he had not seen so much interest among young people in decades. “It’s kind of exciting,” Mr. Stephenson said. “They’re young, they’re energetic and idealist, and they’re willing to make the sacrifices.”

But finding mentors has been difficult. There is a knowledge gap that has been referred to as “the lost generation” — people their parents’ age may farm but do not know how to grow food. The grandparent generation is no longer around to teach them.

So Ms. White and Mr. Broadie turned to YouTube for farming tips. They scoured the antiques section of Craigslist for small-scale farming equipment.

British youth at the tail end of the new reality. When the economy isn't growing, and the existing pie has been promised to programs for the old, youth get screwed.

This nice girl from down South needs to learn how to hold her smartphone. But she films with heart.

Awesome photographs of abandoned homes in Detroit. One of America's largest -- and still most economically important -- cities. In the words of Detroit's Bob Segar "beautiful loser...cause it's easier and faster when you fall...No you just can't have it all."

http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2009/07/feral-houses.html