Room 30, Parliament Buildings

Room 30, Parliament Buildings

The Committee for the Economy held an event at Parliament Buildings today to mark the success of the 'Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink' initiative. In the month dedicated to 'Legacy and Learning', the Committee welcomed many award-winning local producers who showcased their skills and demonstrated how the campaign will help create a sustainable legacy for the local tourism and hospitality sectors.

In this Oracle Groundbreakers Podcast Extra guest host Alexa Weber Morales interviews Oracle Database master product manager Maria Colgan about new product features that allow developers, data scientists, and non-traditional database users to help themselves.

See the complete show notes.

Jim Grisanzio talks with Sandesh Rao about Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the latest technologies from Oracle in the AIOps space, how Sandesh manages teams, how he deals with change, and how industry trends are changing everything.

• Sandesh Rao, Oracle VP, AIOps

Podcast Host: Jim Grisanzio, Oracle Developer Relations
https://twitter.com/jimgris
https://developer.oracle.com/team/ 

TBILISI, 2 July 2016 – Nearly 300 parliamentarians from 54 OSCE countries have begun debates on political and security affairs, economic and environmental issues and human rights and humanitarian concerns at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 25th Annual Session in Tbilisi.

The OSCE PA’s three general committees began working on resolutions Saturday dealing with topics including transnational terrorism, the crisis in and around Ukraine, protracted conflicts in Georgia, corruption, energy, climate change, migration and the rights of refugees.

Introducing the resolution to the Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Rapporteur Margareta Cederfelt (MP, Sweden) noted the importance of rebuilding trust and promoting stability in the OSCE region. “Since so many of our common challenges require real multilateral engagement, we as parliamentarians should work together in overcoming these challenges and work towards our mutual security,” she said.

Chaired by U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, the committee debated a number of issues related to the security situation in the OSCE area, with a particular focus on the threat of terrorism and resolving the Ukraine conflict through full implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

In the OSCE PA’s Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment, chaired by Nilza Sena (MP, Portugal), Rapporteur Marietta Tidei (MP, Italy) highlighted the necessity of addressing climate change and other challenges in the economic and environmental dimension. She noted that 2016 marks not only the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 25th anniversary, but also 25 years since the international community began addressing one of the most challenging environmental concerns of our time.

“In 1991, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee held its first meeting to tackle what was already seen at that time as a serious challenge to humanity, the threat of climate change,” Tidei noted. She welcomed the adoption last year of the Paris Climate Agreement and urged its swift implementation by OSCE countries. Other issues touched on by the rapporteur and in the debate included food security, economic inequality and corruption.

The OSCE PA’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions opened debate on Rapporteur Gordana Comic (MP, Portugal)’s report and draft resolution, introduced by Committee Chair Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal). The resolution urges a revitalization of the OSCE’s commitment to the human dimension of security at a time when a “crisis of leadership and ideas” is coinciding with a humanitarian emergency related to Europe’s refugee and migrant crisis.

Chaired by Ivana Dobesova (MP, Czech Republic), the committee debated issues including fundamental freedoms in Crimea and humanitarian concerns related to the migration crisis, including the special vulnerabilities of women and girls.

Santos noted that the report and draft resolution do not present a “magic solution” to the challenges of human rights in the OSCE area, but provides a basis for further co-operation. ‘“Together, we can achieve more, and one day we will achieve the solutions,” she said.

Committee meetings continue on 3 July with a number of amendments to consider. After the amendment process and their adoption by the committees, resolutions will be voted on by the full Assembly during the final day of the Annual Session on 5 July, for inclusion in the OSCE PA’s Tbilisi Declaration.

The committee meetings today follow a number of opening speeches Friday, including by Georgian Speaker of Parliament David Usupashvili, President Giorgi Margvelashvili, and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, as well as OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) and the OSCE’s Chairperson-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Also on Friday, President Kanerva and Foreign Minister Steinmeier met for a bilateral meeting that focused on conflict resolution efforts in Ukraine. They discussed the crisis in and around Ukraine in detail, including the current Russian position on its level of engagement and prospects for implementing the Minsk Agreements.

For schedules, resolutions, live streaming during the event, daily news updates, press releases and other information, please visit www.oscepa.org. Selected photos are being posted on the PA’s Flickr page atwww.flickr.com/oscepa and on the Georgian Parliament’s Flickr page athttps://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparliament. Both the PA and the Georgian Parliament are tweeting using the hashtag #OSCEPATbilisi.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is comprised of 323 parliamentarians from 57 countries spanning Europe, Central Asia and North America. The Assembly provides a forum for parliamentary diplomacy, monitors elections, and strengthens international co-operation to uphold commitments on political, security, economic, environmental and human rights issues.

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Good governance in the OSCE area – reinforcing security and stability through co-operation - is the theme of the 2016 OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum. Good governance remains high on the agenda. During the three-days meeting participants will discuss various issues related to good governance, as well as environmental governance as a basis for business climate and sustainable economic development. The Forum Meeting will consider the role of the private sector in fighting corruption and money laundering, evaluate aspects of trade facilitation, as well as migration governance for economic growth, stability and security.

The Concluding Meeting of the Forum will take place on 14-16 September 2016 in Prague and will focus on various aspects of good governance:

• Good governance and its impact on business climate and sustainable economic development
• The role of the private sector in fighting corruption, money-laundering and financing of terrorism for strengthening stability and security
• Trade facilitation measures and good governance in supply chains
• Good environmental governance and its impact on economic development, stability and security
• Good migration governance and labour market integration

The Meeting will also review the implementation of OSCE commitments relevant to the theme of the 24th Economic and Environmental Forum.

​The Economic and Environmental Forum is the main meeting within the Second Dimension of the OSCE. Its objectives are to identify needs and priorities, to raise awareness, to share best practices and to stimulate deeper political dialogue and the will of the 57 OSCE participating States in dealing with economic, environmental and security related challenges. It also provides a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue with representatives of International Organizations, the business and academic communities, and civil society.

The 2016 Concluding Meeting builds upon the results stemmed from the two Preparatory Meetings held in Vienna on 25-26 January, and in Berlin on 19-20 May 2016. This year it will examine the level of implementation of OSCE commitments while deepening OSCE’s engagement in the aforementioned areas.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan, in close co-operation with the Armenian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MLSA), organized a roundtable discussion on the economic integration of migrants in Armenia on 3 June 2016.

The event brought together around thirty representatives from state institutions, including the MLSA, State Migration Service of Armenia’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Diaspora, the Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Culture, as well as international organizations and civil society dealing with migration issues.

The increased number of migrants entering Armenia both to seek asylum and to find employment heightens the importance of sound migrant integration policies and legislation. Armenia is among the countries in Europe with the highest per capita ratio of refugees/asylum seekers from Syria, according to government figures. Identifying ways to meet the integration needs of migrants while giving value to their contribution can represent an opportunity to strengthen the existing economic integration mechanisms for the benefit of the entire Armenian economy and society.

“The discussion has provided national agencies with the opportunity to raise their issues of concern regarding the economic integration of migrants, outline their priorities and activities and explore areas of possible co-operation. The results of this event will also contribute to the revision of the policy concept for immigrant integration prepared by the state migration service, which has been submitted to other state bodies for consideration,” said David Gullette, the Democratization Programme Officer at the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

In addition to presenting their activities and discussing ways to improve their co-ordination, the participants underlined the importance of learning from more experienced countries. One of the key recommendations of the roundtable discussion was to approach the international community for support to organize a regional event for exchanging views on best practices in the area of the economic integration of migrants.

The discussion was organized upon the request of the State Employment Service of the Armenian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. 

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Posted by Apple Product Security via Fulldisclosure on Oct 28

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I am a huge baseball fan, so World Series time is one of my favorite times of the year, especially when my Yankees are playing. (Yes—I’m a Yankees fan. Winners can handle the hate.) I went to my first game at Shea Stadium to see the Yankees play the Senators and played stickball in Lefferts Park imagining I would pitch for the Yankees someday.

I came up as a fan towards the tail end of the first generation of integrated baseball. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the late forties. By the 1950s, the Negro League, which had until that point been the main place for Black men to play professional baseball, was essentially defunct.

This year was the 100^th anniversary of the Negro League. It began in 1924 and grew in popularity from there. Despite the talent of the players in those teams, the all-white Major League did everything they could to keep Black men out of baseball. They resisted it for years until Jackie Robinson came along.

Why? Racism, sure. But also, because they were afraid.

They were afraid of putting Black men and white men on the same playing field—literally. They were worried—in some cases, rightfully so—that Black men would outperform white men at the game. Instead of opening the ballparks to everyone, creating a true meritocracy and better baseball for all, they artificially kept a part of the population out of the game.

The problem with limiting inclusion

I see a similar trend playing out in our economy now: We are artificially keeping a whole class of people out, limiting the true potential of what we can achieve.

Almost 400 laws have been introduced in the past few years to stop or restrict the use of social impact considerations in private sector decision-making. These include laws that would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to support the most marginalized among us to start and grow businesses. This push has been exemplified by the legal effort to stop a privately funded program from the Fearless Fund, which aimed to help Black women founders and their companies. The Fearless Fund recently settled to avoid creating a legal precedent against these kinds of programs in the future.

I will not put on my attorney hat and get into the merits of these laws or lawsuits. That’s for another time. But clearly, a group of people felt threatened by the support of Black women entrepreneurs, enough to spend time and resources to take legal action.

They are doing this, even though Black women, women of color, and people of color in general, have the most barriers to success as entrepreneurs and small business owners. Black and Latiné business owners are usually constrained by undercapitalization and often lack access to traditional advisor and investor networks. As a result, people of color are less likely to be approved for small business loans, and when they are approved, receive lower amounts at higher interest rates compared to their white counterparts.

Investment returns are the same, yet . . .

The picture on the equity side of the equation is not any brighter. While white men receive at least 77% of the venture capital funding, Black men receive less than 1% of it. However, data have also shown that investment firms managed by people of color perform no different from firms managed by white people, for most asset classes.

For four major asset classes—mutual funds, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity—with a combined $69.1 trillion in assets globally, less than 1.3% are managed by people of color and white women. And of this asset bucket, only 1% percent are managed by Black people. This results in a lack of diversity in which founders are funded with venture capital and private equity. Like segregated baseball, it also begs the question about what innovation, creativity, and productivity are all of us missing out on because of this pattern of exclusion.

Legal advocates and their supporters are doing everything they can to stop anyone trying to upset this norm, just like they kept baseball segregated for as long as they could. Beyond a single case, they have effectively cowed potential investors from expanding economic opportunity for fear of becoming a target of groundless litigation. While Major League Baseball colluded to exclude Black men from competing with white men, white MLB players were also barred from competing in the Negro Leagues and feared reprisals.

Now, similar forces seek to bar Black women’s access to competition with white men by threatening reprisals to private investors and philanthropists. So far, their strategy seems to be successful. Unlike Dodgers owner Branch Rickey who invested in Jackie Robinson to win and ultimately improve baseball, white investors seem to be standing back, avoiding being called out as champions for economic equity and inclusion. (Their support for Robinson is probably the only reason I wasn’t too brokenhearted when the Dodgers beat my Yankees for the series title.) Perhaps investors do not want to find out if Black women entrepreneurs are actually better than the average white male entrepreneur.

We can all win in an inclusive economy

Our nation does not need to impede everyone capable and courageous enough to start a business, keeping up yesterday’s systemic barriers to economic opportunity. Such barriers need to be broken so we can all enjoy the fruits of an economy that recognizes talent and drive.

In the same way, we celebrate Jackie Robinson today and MLB has adjusted its records to include men like my grandfather, New York Cuban all-star pitcher Patricio Scantlebury, we will celebrate those with the courage to demand and strive for excellence and inclusion. They may not win before courts skilled in today’s ahistorical sophistry, but they will win in the court of public opinion. Our history will remember them and those who invested in them as champions for the equitable and inclusive economy we all deserve.

Joe Scantlebury, JD, is CEO of Living Cities.

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