To those Americans who dismiss Europe as a backward, leftist, and socialist land, I say, back off—the business leaders I met and to whom I listened at the GRI Conference would run circles around my business school professors and most managers across the pond! To those Europeans who slam America as a consumer-frenzied, overindulged society, I say, not so fast: based on the crowds I saw in the shopping areas and the lines I saw in the stores, I think both sides of the Atlantic know how to spend a buck (or Euro).

This is tonight on PBS: thanks to a GGP reader who kindly passed it on!

I saw Garbage Dreams, a documentary at Turning the Tide, a great conference put on by the Institute at Golden Gate, the think tank for the National Parks Conservancy. It is about the Zabaleen people of Cairo, they collect and recycle [...]

How We Live, the searing portrait of how some of Armenia’s poorest are living on society’s margins, is open one more evening, Sunday, April 18, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.

Sara Anjargolian’s photos portray the searing, cruel struggles that several Armenian families confront daily.  The exhibit’s curator is Narineh Mirzaeian, a Los Angeles-based designer and architect [...]

It’s been a month since our trip to Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, a trip that still has me exuding enthusiasm for that region of the country. Our second week was especially unique, as we spent it in Mangue Seco, a tiny remote peninsula a two hours’ drive and a boat ride away from Salvador. Because [...]

It’s been a couple weeks since our Carnaval experience in Salvador da Bahia, but the intensity and energy is still with us.
 
Carnaval brings just about every emotion in you.  There is the exhilaration and joy of being with an enthusiastic and ecstatic group; boredom and ennui as you wait for your bloco to begin moving; [...]

Mangue Seco is about 200 km northeast of Salvador da Bahia. We’ll be here for 6 days total. It’s wonderful–not much to do but enjoy the mangroves, palms, endless white beaches, fresh fruit, fresh fish, and the best ice cream ever. We do not want to leave. I cannot wait to write [...]

It’s Black Friday, which we celebrated 5 years ago by visiting Rio de Janeiro for a couple weeks.  Rio is one of the world’s most unique and beautiful cities for countless reasons.  Incredible beaches lace the city; good food is abundant for all budgets; and the city seems stuck in 1960, with abundant mid-century and [...]

I’ve been to most large North American cities, and I have to say Ottawa has one of the more impressive recycling programs.  The city of Ottawa is hard on its citizens:  according to its data, Ottawa residents are in the middle of the pack, behind Halifax and Edmonton but ahead of Calgary and Montreal.  Here’s [...]