"A five-bedroom river-view house sold three years ago for $45,000. Two years ago it sold for $80,000. It sold a third time in August for $300,000. Who would have guessed it was in Baghdad? The place is a disaster, and keeps getting worse. Despite the violence, property values have increased close to 1,000% in the past three years in parts of town. Go figure."

I was struck by the above quote (and information)in a real estate newsletter I recently received.

Besides providing a fascinating peek into an Iraq dynamic I wasn't aware of, this quote brought to my mind an issue that is popping up more and more for me.

Where does one go for the real story nowadays? The world is globalizing...but the media seems incapable of providing a balanced view of 'reality'. Is it time for a brand new non-profit, non-political, non-partisan global news organization?

I just received my latest edition of the McKinsey Quarterly, a pretty interesting business journal mailed regularly to me by my former employer. I get about 6 a year, which I loyally place on a bookshelf at home for future knowledge seeking moments. But this one caught my attention: Fulfilling India's Promise.

The various articles analyze (and offer a ton of facts about) many business/economic aspects of India: the view of foreign and indian executives, the indian consumer, marketing to the masses, when to make india a manufacturing base, india's offshoring future, reforming india's financial system, securing india's energy needs, an interview with manmohan singh (the prime minister) on india's economic agenda. the recommendations in the aggregate could transform the economy i.e., the lives of the population!

The sheer power of the knowledge creation I was witnessing amazed me. Echoing Gotham's recent optimistic post, although problems do sometimes seem to abound, there are some things that are amazing about what's going on in this new, developing, evolving world of ours!