At TED2008 in March of this year, TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong was granted a wish to change the world. This is what she asked for:

"I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect."

Since then support for idea has built among numerous religious groups, spiritual leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, and Britain's first female Rabbi Julia Neuberger have joined a special Council to oversee the Charter, and Kluster, a collaborative decision making platform, has built a groundbreaking site that will allow anyone to contribute to the Charter.

We urge you to take a moment to watch a short video that went live on the web today. Beautifully filmed and edited by Jesse Dylan and his team at Form TV, it might just be the most inspiring thing you see this week.

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I’ve been racking my brain for the last few weeks over what to write about. The interesting thing is that it’s not lack of choice that’s been the trouble…it’s too much of it! From the excitement caused by US underdog Barack Obama’s win and the promise of a brighter political future… to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer causing a buzz with his first-ever “holographic” interviews in the newsroom, there’s been plenty going on to keep techies and armchair futurists abuzz. And while CNN’s holograms weren’t really holograms when you cut to the chase…one development is very real…the advancing global recession that we’re slowly coming to grips with.



Hospitality media has been filled with reports about dropping profits margins, especially in hard hit areas and suggestions to hoteliers on how to best tackle the market situation, i.e. tough it out, work smart and dust off your selling shoes. What surprises me, though, is that while the hotel industry continues its distribution war with online 3rd parties with super-deep advertising pockets, it still continues to ignore its most lucrative booking distribution channel…its guests! [Read More!]

Take a video tour of the Kingdom of Bahrain with this 5min collage of footage from this modern country set in the Gulf!



The Kingdom of Bahrain—a name that translates as "Two Seas"—is actually an archipelago of 33 low-lying islands located in the heart of the Gulf. Situated along traditional Arabian and international trade routes between Asia and the West, the Kingdom has served as an important port and center of business for thousands of years. Today, the capital city of Manama is a vibrant cosmopolitan center offering an open society and an educated workforce enhanced by modern cultural am enities like museums, shopping, restaurants and fine hotels.
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