Handle the issue in a serious manner and don’t try to make it appear to be of minor importance. It is important, so important you have journalists hounding you. If you seem arrogant they will go for your throat.

Negative media coverage hits when you least expect it and you have to be quick, open and take responsibility. It’s actually more important how you handle the crisis than what actually happened.

Not as difficult as it seems

How should a crisis be managed? There are an abundance of strategies claiming to know how to succeed with crisis management. They all have one thing in common – sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. But the multitude of theories do give the impression it’s almost impossible to manage disaster when it hits you. And the fact that huge companies like BP fail contribute to making companies feel they are not up to the task. Of course they are.

You can’t anticipate everything that could go wrong

Things go wrong when we least expect it and to make it worse it’s usually something we wouldn’t in our wildest dreams imagine. It’s not the areas where you understand something could go wrong that turns out to be problematic but something completely unexpected. So no matter how prepared you are, you will usually be caught completely off guard when something really goes wrong.

Make a tentative plan of action

So it’s important to decide who handles what and how you will proceed when a crisis happens. Otherwise it will be total chaos with people trying to avoid dealing with it by claiming it’s not their responsibility. And several people have to be prepared to act, in case someone is off sick or on vacation. You also need to make sure the person handling the press gives a serious and honest impression.

Monitor your press coverage

It’s important to be aware of what’s written about you. Not least on social media because that’s often where a problems starts. Keep a close eye on comments being made since things can easily get out of hand if you don’t handle them swiftly.

Can you handle even a huge disaster?

You have to be prepared to do so even if it never happens. If not, you are doomed when disaster strikes.

Be available

Trying to avoid the media is tantamount to suicide. Some journalists will then try to nail you and find whatever information they can to do so. If necessary by analysing the crisis at hand in a way that makes you the culprit. If you don’t know what to say, you can always end a news conference by saying that the next one will be held, say, tomorrow afternoon at 15.00 hours.

Don’t try to hide anything

Be as open as possible to avoid speculation. Use your web site to make documents related to the issue at hand available, questions & answers and statements. Just be careful about not saying anything that could later turn out to be bending the truth. It’s better to say that you don’t know but will find out and get back to them.

Don’t simplify the problem

Handle the issue in a serious manner and don’t try to make it appear to be of minor importance. It is important, so important you have journalists hounding you. If you seem arrogant they will go for your throat. Make sure you convey the message that you completely understand and sympathize with the public outcry caused by the crisis. It’s essential to show that you genuinely care and that human beings are more important to you than money. However, don’t be as emphatic as the former Swedish prime minister by promising something that can’t be done. It would have been better that he said he would like to raise it, but didn’t know if it was possible.

Apologize

When you are at fault acknowledge it, take responsibility and apologize profoundly. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to explain why things went wrong. That usually goes down wrong and give the impression you are not sincere. And that’s fatal.

Be honest

Whatever you do, don’t lie and hope it will not be detected. Investigating journalists will find out and the repercussions against the company, and you personally, could be grim. Even white lies can be fatal. Heard about one minister that got caught with a white lie and was sacked after eight days in office.

Show the media what actions you are taking to sort out the mess and make sure it never happens again. Needless to say it has to be something that makes sense and enable them to show the public that you are taking your responsibilities seriously.

Maybe the most important thing is for the crisis to be handled by a person that gives an honest and caring impression. If not, media can easily get the impression something is wrong and start investigating. If worse comes to worse they will then dig up something else that can be editorialized into a story needing even more crisis management. Or even make it necessary for the CEO to resign.

(Photo: PhotoXpress Nathalie P)

Women contemplating what different beauty products will do for them. What woman would buy a product that she believes would make her look ugly?

What’s the main interest of a customer? Or let me re-phrase the question. What’s your main interest? You know the answer. Yourself. Sounds terrible I know, but all human beings have an interest in what happens in their lives. Be honest, so do you. That doesn’t mean that you are selfish. What would your life be like today if you hadn’t taken an interest in it? No need to say more, is there.

Your customers are also interested in what happens in their lives and how you, your products and services could have a positive impact on them and their lives. Still it is sometimes overlooked.

Marketing is about what your customer wants

If you can show your customer what you can do for them you will not have to do any selling. They will buy. In fact they want to feel they made a purchase, not that you have sold them something. In other words, let the customer feel that they had the idea.

Keep that in mind when you produce you promotional material. Focusing on the customer is, and always has been, the key to successful marketing. It does not matter what you need or want to tell them since the customers priority is what they, not you, need or want. Usually there is no need to tell them bluntly what you can do, there are more subtle ways to get the message across. Ideally they will get the impression that you are sympathetic with their ideas and desires and care about them. It’s not for nothing cosmetics companies sign up beautiful celebrities to promote their products.

Customers want you to care about them

They don’t care that you are very proud about your new office or that you have launched an exciting new product. However, if you invite them to a party at the new office or give them a sample of the new product, they will be interested. Even better if you can show them how your new product will make them more attractive to the opposite sex.

Customers don’t care if your company has had the most successful year ever, unless it has a positive impact on them. You get the drift. Your customers thinks about themselves when they read your advertisement. No need to tell them all the positive aspects of your company, just focus on what impact you can have on their lives and they will be interested. Make them feel happy doing what you would like them to do i.e. lead instead of command.

If they don’t see the positive impact you can have on them and their lives, you are on the wrong track . It’s time to adjust your promotional material to make them see the advantages and purchase. Needless to say, their purchase will be a one off if your products/services don’t have the impact on them that they would like. Or to re-phrase it, if you didn’t like the article written about you, would you be happy with the newspaper that published it?

Environmentally responsible fashions can become cultural ambassadors that change global value sets and lead to other economic changes that also foster greater respect for the environment.

It enables them to use their creative talents and cultural heritages to create jobs and sell products that are environmentally responsible. And even better, results can come swiftly thanks to the internet. Their ideas, designs, and products can be displayed online and sold rapidly around the world.

Experts at UNCTAD’s “Best of Nature” conference believe fashion, cosmetics and perfume can lead to significant increase of employment in developing countries. We are mainly talking about small businesses which there, as well as in the rest of the world, is an important component of progress. With the right marketing such creative work can be not only profitable but promote different cultures and biodiversity as well.

Biodiversity is a source of creativity and new products for the perfume industry. It is vital for supply chains to be transparent so that natural ingredients are responsibly harvested to make sure that the supply of valuable plants is not exhausted, Michel Mane, President of Mane USA said. He added that “by establishing techniques for the growth of perfume ingredients in developing countries we are able to ensure the ecological viability of our ingredients. By using both cutting-edge, environmentally benign agricultural practices and providing local employment we are able to ensure the ecological viability of our ingredients”.

More than 40% of Unilever’s turnover is now in developing countries, said Giulia DiTommaso, Unilever’s Director of External Affairs for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. They are one of the largest buyers in the world of ingredients such as palm oil and have noticed increased consumer interest in environmentally friendly products. Unilever is hence focusing on sustainable use of water, soils and, not to forget, respect for biodiversity.

A vital issue is how environmentally responsible products can be certified and traced. We want to be sure of what we are buying. According to Sean Ansett, Managing Partner of At Stake Advisors, “customers will want to be able to trace their purchases “from farm to fork and from mine to mobile phone”. Current technology is showing that such traceability is now possible, if difficult”.

“There are “tool sets” to allow corporations to improve the transparency of their supply chains. Doing so generates brand trust and loyalty, especially as customers increasingly demand that products be environmentally responsible”, Tim Wilson of Historic Features said. They supply such tools to customers like Wal-Mart.

Definitions of “natural” and “organic” still have not been set by for instance the European Union, but are under development and definitions hence still vary from country to country.

Organic African fashion popular in the West

African fashion is increasingly popular in the developed world and is creating thousands of jobs in Africa. There is for instance a fashion school in Niger that’s helping 150 African designers develop their talents.

What Africa needs is the capacity to mass produce fashion, says Anggy Haif, a Cameroonian fashion designer. The continent lacks the infrastructure and industry needed for widespread production of natural-fibre clothes. But there is a huge market for that kind of clothes and many jobs depend on developing such facilities.

So now that concern over the environment is mounting, and words such as “green” and “sustainable” and “responsible” are heard widely, environmentally responsible fashion and beauty products have the opportunity to shift from niche products to being much more widely used. Environmentally responsible fashions can become cultural ambassadors that change global value sets and lead to other economic changes that also foster greater respect for the environment.

Wouldn’t it hence be an idea for aid and donor organisations to devote more time and money to assisting developing countries with getting the infrastructure and know-how needed to develop more such companies? To do so would lead to sustainable development that would enable the nations to gradually work and trade themselves to a better standard of living. As opposed to most aid it would not just have a temporary effect but would assist the developing world long term starting now.

photo: Ethan Allen Flickr

Will G20 leaders from developing countries manage to make their colleagues from the West realize that in order for the world economy to work properly, there need to be advantages for the poor as well?

G20 has come a long way – the new kid on the block in 2004 is now the leader of the pack. It started as an alliance to bring democracy to world trade at the WTO talks in Cancun and has become the main permanent body in the world responsible for economic co-operation, meeting annually at the leaders level

Hopefully G20 will not forget the importance of world trade. Will G20 again, manage to have an impact on world trade? The WTO trade talks in Cancun, as you may remember, collapsed as a result of G20 demanding fairer trade. If so, what strategies will be deployed to negotiate a trade deal that benefits not only multinationals in the North but also the poor in the South? How will G20 make the world focus on making international trade rules fairer? What steps will be taken to decrease rich countries protectionist policies?

G20 is now the key player on the global scene which, at least in theory, enables it to provide the conditions for developing countries to embark on peace, prosperity and pluralism. We have come a long way from G8 to G20 and it will go further. The developing world, representing four-fifth of humanity, is now much better represented on the global scene.

Poverty does not cause terrorism – but it causes frustration and resentment that help foster the kind of atmosphere in which extremist groups can thrive. A much better, and cheaper, way of defeating extremists than war on terrorism would be to give developing countries the possibility to trade out of poverty.

Trade has been shown to be the indispensable means for poverty reduction and growth. There also seems to be a close correlation between a country engaging in open trade and ultimately embracing democracy. With 40 percent of humanity living on less than $2 a day and approximately a billion living under military style dictatorships often engaged in civil war and genocide, we should care a lot. The most striking example of the benefits of a trade oriented economy versus a closed, self-sufficient one is the two Koreas. At the end of the Korean war in 1952 they were both extremely poor. And how North and South Korea have developed since then under their different systems is well known.

What will G20 do to craft a fairer world trade order? Most Westerners would like a fair global economic system. If, for instance, the issue of access to life-saving Aids drugs were put to a vote, the overwhelming majority would not support the position of Western pharmaceutical companies. The power of special interests is high – but will it still be if trade moves up the political agenda in G20? And once that has happened, will people in the West agree to anything that asks the poorest people in the world – the billions living on less than $2 a day – to pay the price? Will G20 leaders from developing countries manage to make their colleagues from the West realize that in order for the world economy to work properly, there need to be advantages for the poor as well? That’s the big question isn’t it ,and my hope is that they will succeed so that we can finally unlock the benefits of the world economy for all.

(Photo:www.flickr.com/photos/londonsummit/href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonsummit)

Saudi Arabian businesswoman Lubna Olayan (in the middle) debating at The World Economic Forum in Davos this year.

Several Saudi women are executives at Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Company. The Prince has long been a champion of Saudi Arabian women and even has a female Saudi pilot.

Lubna Olayan and the Saudi Arabian women who work for Prince Alwaleed are just a few examples of capable and successful women in the Kingdom. There are more of them but they usually keep a low profile.

Saudi women sitting on $11,9 billion

Now it has also been revealed that a large portion of the Kingdom’s wealth is in the hands of its women who are believed to be sitting on cash totaling $11.9 billion. They are in other words controlling a substantial portion of the country’s wealth.

Women constitute almost 45 percent of the population and have a literacy rate of 79 percent. But only 65 percent of them are employed, despite the fact that 78.3 percent of unemployed women are university graduates.

Women in Saudi Arabia hence account for a substantial pool of human and financial capital with the power and ability to bring about significant social and economic change. It is hence beneficial to the kingdom to give them the same opportunities their sisters enjoy in other Arab nations, which is currently taking place.

King Abdullah championing women’s rights

“This comes at a time when we are witnessing a rapid and increased investment in our country’s human resources and economic development,” says Princess Adelah bint Abdullah, King Abdullah’s daughter. “Fundamental to this is regulations that encourage greater involvement of women in our work force. The impact of this support can be seen through the growth, productivity and innovation of Saudi Arabia’s women-owned businesses.

The princess explains that Saudi law already permits women to run a business without the guardianship of a man, but added, “Often this law is not enforced. Some people in the government prevent its implementation. They either do know about it or are opposed to it.

On the mixing of men and women, Princess Adelah added: “I do not see why men and women should not maintain respectful relations in the workplace, as they do in hospitals or during pilgrimage to Mecca. It will come gradually, once people become accustomed to it and laws against harassment are passed.”

Female entrepreneurs on the rise

Women in Sweden are still not being paid as much as a man carrying out the same job ,despite the fact that women have been allowed to vote since 1919. So things are moving faster for Saudi women. Considering that I’m the only Western woman ever who have held a senior management position in a 100% Saudi owned company in Riyadh, I feel a bit like “a Mrs Pankhurst of Saudi Arabia”. Would be delighted to go back to the Kingdom and help female Saudi entrepreneurs build up successful companies.

Know a lot of capable Saudi women, not least my friend Lubna Hussain that had her own talk show on Saudi Television already in 2008. Should be noted here that in the US Barbara Walters wasn’t allowed to be more than a co-host of a TV show until the 1980s.

Positive changes are coming for Saudi women and it will not take as long as it did in the West. There are plenty of capable women in the Kingdom and they will make a positive contribution to the development and diversification of Saudi Arabia. Not only will they work very well, channeling their huge funds into enterprises and investment activities will earn profitable returns as well as boost money supply.

King Abdullah wants to expand women’s role as active members of society and workforce. So let’s see how long it takes for Saudi women as a whole to personify the King’s vision of capable women bringing honor to the family? How long do you believe it will take? Will we see more women, like Lubna Olayan, leading Saudi businesses say, ten years from now? Or do you believe it will take longer?

(photo: World Economic Forum – Flickr)

Richard Branson personally advertisng his companies

Richard, as you know, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. His Virgin Group today consist of 200 companies with 50,000 employees in more than 30 countries. Their combined revenue in 2008 was around 17 billion dollars. Not bad for a man who started out selling Six Pistols records at car boot sales in the 70s.

Richard’s advice to future entrepreneurs is, point one excluded, different from the usual advice about how to succeed as in building up a company:

1) Take calculated risks.”You have to really believe in what you are doing because if you start a project believing that it may fail, nine times out of ten it will”. “Cautious people don’t live life to the full”, Richard says and adds that he always tries to figure out what could go wrong and try to balance that out.

2) Challenge the big players “Make jokes at the big established companies expense and use humour and sex in your marketing. Launch yourself as a Robin Hood in ways that make the big players look silly”. How many of you would actually dare to do so? It’s not enough that the idea appeals to you, would you actually have the guts to go ahead with what he advices?

3) Failure doesn’t exist Act swiftly when something goes wrong. “Our capacity to promptly adapt to changes have enabled us to overcome most mistakes”, Richard says. “You have to quickly take responsibility for a venture that’s not working, change direction or wind it up”.

4) Be casual and easy going. Have fun and make sure your colleagues have as much fun as you do. Develop equanimity.

5) Don’t regret – move on. “People spend to much time thinking about what mistakes they have made instead of using their time and energy to start new projects. Failures are useful tools that enable success”.

6) Don’t employ yes sayers. “Find people who dare to stick out and have a mind of their own. They are much more value for money”.

7) Be a live advertisement for your company. Be a bit of a clown, have fun or you will not succeed. That’s the advise Richard Branson was given when he started Virgin Airlines with no money to spend on marketing. Someone added that he should make sure his name was on the front page of newspapers and not in the adverts.

Psychologists claim Richard Branson has the F factor – fame, fortune and fun. Many people want to identify with him, not least since he’s regarded as down to earth, honest and simple.

He is a person who does things his own way and not how “they teach you at Harvard business school”. Richard Branson is actually a high school drop out. His way of doing things goes against all the advice about how to become an entrepreneur you can find. So who’s right and who’s wrong? None of the people advising you how to succeed as an entrepreneur are as successful as Richard Branson is. Need I say more?

Have you got what it takes to go your own way as an entrepreneur, build up your company and succeed? Or do you know anyone who has? How many CEOs do you know that employ people they cannot control that have a mind of their own? Could you turn yourself into a live advertisement? What new and interesting fields have you found where you could become a new Richard Branson? Or maybe you have a better concept for succeeding than he has? Are you, after reading Richard Branson’s advice, ready to trade places with him? Or will you opt for a less challenging way of succeeding?

(Photo: Ourmedia)

If necessary, could the Saudis, again, in the interest of the world succeed in making Teheran opt for peace?

He said there was no evidence that the death toll at New York’s World Trade Center, destroyed in the attacks, was as high as reported. “They created and prepared public opinion so that everyone considered an attack on Afghanistan and Iraq as (their) right,” he said in a televised speech.

No “Zionists” were killed in the World Trade Center, according to him, because “one day earlier they were told not go to their workplace.” That there is a published list of Sept. 11 dead from more than 90 countries available online, was conveniently ignored.

Ahmadinejad accused the US government of exercising more media censorship than anywhere in the world. And, again, talked about the Holocaust never happening. Obviously having a go at Israel again.

The Iranian president leaves a lot to be desired but no matter how much we disapprove of him he is not an idiot. If he was, he wouldn’t have succeeded to get elected the first time (unlike the last election which was obviously rigged). He knows what he is doing and he has the Mullahs approval. Considering that Iranian elections are rigged they don’t need to show Iranians that he is capable of standing up to the West. They already know that.

What does the Iranian regime gain from sable rattling?

Begs the question of why they keep on provoking Israel and the US with his statements? Maybe the timing is not a coincidence since only 50,000 US soldiers will soon be left in Iraq? The current Israeli government is also more likely to be provoked to strike Iran than the previous one. Maybe he and the Mullahs would like that to happen to give them an excuse to strike back? Or worse, start a war with Iraq that could lead to an all out war in the Middle East? The Mullahs would love to control Makkah and Medina and Iran has caused trouble there in the past which the Saudis luckily managed to handle.

Tehran says it is refining uranium only for electricity and medical treatments. But it’s not out of the question that they already have been supplied with enough uranium for a few missiles from North Korea or Pakistan? Whatever their reason they are hiding something when it comes to their nuclear capacity.

Iran has already caused enough problems in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Afghanistan. That the current regime would like to be more prominent in the Middle East is no secret. So is Ahmadinejad, just like he accused the US of doing, trumping up an excuse to invade Iraq or attack Israel? After all the best thing an unpopular regime can do is unite the people behind an outside enemy.

Doubt that Teheran would attack Iraq unless the US were involved in a strike against them. But then again Israel would be using US equipment and that might be enough of a provocation?Do believe that it’s questionable if the Iranian regime would dare to attack Israel or Iraq without having an excuse to do so. So hopefully no strike on Iran will take place?

Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states have for years been worried about Iran’s behavior because a strike against Iranian nuclear sites would spread radiation across the whole region. Or worse lead to an all out war in the Gulf between Shias and Sunnis. Don’t need to tell you what that would do not only to the region but the world economy.

So maybe it’s time for the Saudis to, again, make Teheran opt for peace? King Abdullah sent Prince Bandar to Teheran in 2006. The result was that Teheran ordered Hezbollah to stop fighting Israel in Lebanon, which effectively ended that war. Considering King Abdullah’s effort recently regarding Lebanon, maybe it’s no coincidence that the Hezbollah isn’t yet playing an active part in the border incidents?

When it comes to Iran the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel and, most likely, the majority of the Iranian population are on the same side. Actually most of the citizens of the world is. If we all need to unite against Ahmadinejad and the Mullhas probably depends on how badly the Mullas and Ahmadinejad need to unite the Iranians against an outside enemy. Hopefully it will not come to that, but if it does it wouldn’t be the first time the West has been wrong about Iranian intentions.

(photo: The White House – Flickr)

When democracies loose economic power democracy itself is weakened. Already now China has the third largest economy in the world and within 5-7 years it will be the main producer of goods globally.

Hu Jintao may be shorter but China has the upper hand

The US on the other hand, has a huge budget deficit and is already borrowing heavily, not least from China. So no wonder China is already starting to show its power.

At the Copenhagen climate summit Obama and many other leading heads of state took part. China however, sent an insignificant deputy foreign minister with no ability to take decisions without confirmation from Beijing. The Chinese government also protest against US actions with a new vigour and confidence.

China continues to produce and Westerners keep on consuming on borrowed money, not least from China, which is an equation that doesn’t add up. Soviet communism declined because the economy didn’t add up but that’s not the case with China whose economy is capitalistic while the government keeps a firm grip on power and its people.

According to the OECD, Western countries’ debts in 2008 were equivalent of to 100% of their GDP. China on the other hand has a deficit equivalent of 21 percent of GDP. So not only is the Chinese economy performing very well, they are also partly bankrolling the West. And money talks.

Unless the democratic part of the world, like the Chinese, start saving and stop consuming on borrowed credit, democracy as a whole will loose out. The US and Europe are the worlds largest democracies and China is the world’s biggest dictatorship. It does matter who has the best performing economy in the world. To ignore that would be a fatal mistake. But for some reason it seems the West can not be bothered to make an effort to stop power slipping away. That the center of the world is moving I have known for a long time, but what surprises me is that the West doesn’t seem to do anything to stop it from happening, or at least delay it. Where’s the fighting spirit?

photo: FlickrPhotosAccount

The day I stop learning I'm dead.

Nobody does, even Einstein said he is not an expert on anything, merely curious. Did you for instance know that sweating leaves produce electricity? Neither did I until I came across that revelation.

Everybody has problems, the richest man in the world as well as the poorest. It’s just a question of what problems. The important thing though is what we learn from them. The easiest is to blame everybody else but that approach will just assure that the same problem happens over and over again. The smart, and interesting, way is to take responsibility for what happened, learn and move on.

In Saudi Arabia you learn a lot. KSA is, in my opinion, the most interesting country in the world because almost every day something happens that you have never experienced before. Life in the kingdom hence enriches you enormously, provided of course, that you are not stuck in your ways or intolerant. We are all different, and that’s what makes life beautiful. How boring it would be if we were all alike.

If you have a curious mind and constantly learn you can succeed with anything. Don’t know how many times I have been asked to do something I have never done before in different parts of the world. So I just found out, learnt and did it.

Sometimes I think people are afraid of learning and developing. It’s not only laziness but also easier to take the option of doing nothing since, they could, after all, fail. And society sometimes reward people for towing the line as opposed to learning and developing. It’s not unusual that even top positions are filled with executives who will just preserve the status quo. That’s all very well, but how will companies develop with that kind of mind-set? Sure control is important but surely not at the expense of the company learning, developing and improving results? And how can they do that unless they start looking at new and different options? Besides I don’t understand the contradiction since I have always followed company policy and at the same time learnt, developed and improved results.

For me acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences and understanding is vital. To be broad-minded and curious is probably one of the key, if not the key, aspect of life. And how would that be possible without constantly learning? I know more today than I did yesterday and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I really enjoy living and am not afraid of dying but anything in between I’m simply not interested in. And isn’t that how we end up leading our lives if we stop learning with all that entails? Or maybe Oscar Wilde had a point when he said: “Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching”? Joke aside, at least that’s how we sometimes felt when we were at school.

(Photo: PhotoXpress giuseppe porzani)

Anybody following international news have heard about alleged Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan from Hillary Clinton and other US officials.

Last week Hillary Clinton actually said there must be someone in the Pakistani government that knows Osama bin Laden’s wheeabouts. Can you get more blunt than that?

So what was the point of making the trove of 90,000 classified military documents public? The only reason they got so much attention was by only released them to The New York Times, Guardian and Der Spiegel. They were no scope and I don’t understand why they caused so much consternation? The only difference they make is that now some Afghans lives are in danger.

WIkiLeaks goal in disclosing secret documents is to reveal “unethical behavior” by governments and corporations. Catch is since it was founded in 2006 it has only been able to disclose secrets from Western countries.

But what about secrets from inside the ISI or Pakistani government? If the 90,000 documents were from inside the ISI they would have been truly sensational. Or if WikiLeaks published classified information from say, the Iranian, North Korean, Russian or Chinese government.

But chances of that ever happen are next to none. Who inside such regimes would dare to take the risk? Pity since that kind of information would make WikiLeaks a worth while organisation. As it is they provide one sided information from the West without being able to deliver information that would really make a difference.

What does WikiLeaks want to accomplish?

Part of me likes what they are doing, but since they will only be able to reveal secrets from the West I don’t think they have a mission to fulfil. At least not if they continue leaking “scoops” that are common knowledge.

WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are a bit of a question mark. He says he’s a journalist but according to the New York Times he is not. They call him an activist but to what end isn’t clear. If it is his desire to promote peace I don’t think he has accomplished anything so far.

So what did he accomplish by bringing his organization into the debate on Afghanistan? WikiLeaks had to close some time ago due to lack of funding so presumably the aim was to get sponsors? Or just become famous? Some people go to extremes for fame and glory.

The pr coup he achieved was brilliant. He is now a household name and so is Wikileaks. Just a pity that by showing little regard for the hard moral choices and dearth of good policy options facing decision-makers, he is as reckless and destructive as soldier or soldiers who leaked the documents in the first place.

All WikiLeaks has achieved so far is, putting Afghans who provided leaks to the US in danger as well as – again – show us that technology has diminished our control over what the world knows. So now WikiLeaks needs to step up to the plate and deliver scoops of classified information from inside totalitarian states. That would justify their existence. If not, what can such an organisations accomplish?

(Photo: US Department of State – Flickr)