In the spirit of the G8 protests, an activist that my friend saw in Boston last week carried a sign that said 'Abolish Poverty.' No explanation on how to do it. Just a call to action.

That sign best describes the G8 protests that I saw in Edinburgh, UK last Saturday. Bob Geldorf expressed the event's basic premise on UK radio when he said, "We've never been wealthier, we've never been healthier," so we must be able to abolish world poverty. Although the organizers of the event had a policy agenda (drop the debt/increase foreign aid/make trade just), they emphasized that simply something must be done, because it is the humane thing to do.

Having been in the UK for the past couple of days, and not reading the American press, I don't know how it is reporting on the events leading up to the G8 meeting scheduled to start July 6 a few miles from here, but I can tell you that it's big news here.  A peaceful march of more than 250,000 followed a few days later by a rather (surprisingly to the authorities and the public) violent protest by several hundred avowed anarchists in the streets of Edinburgh -- right outside the hotel where a meeting on African development we're involved in is to convene tomorrow. 

In fact, the G8 and its attendant issues -- African development, trade, aid, and debt -- are bigger news, if you can believe it, than the question of whether two participants in a British reality TV show did or did not have sex together.  It's neck and neck, but the G8 is undoubtedly the winner.  Like I said, big news. 

Any long-term development plan of a multinational corporation is going to eventually turn to the market at the bottom of the pyramid. How long it will take for this approach to business to become popular is still to be determined, but with increasing globalization and emphasis on developing countries, investment in areas that have been ignored in the past will grow.

Companies investing in developing regions will be forced to engage in responsible behaviors, firstly because of social pressures (if mainstream news sources don't cover ethical violations, the internet is a perpetually-expanding source of news), and secondly, because they will have to in order to survive. The company of the future will not only have to engage in behaviors that are marketable to the public, but also encourage innovation and efficiency.