Teaching Afghan women about running a business. A good idea.

Big City Smarts for Afghani Women: "Afghani business owner Rangina, 29, who is among a group of women entrepreneurs from the country on a tour of U.S. fashion companies, muses, 'It's tough to do business when there's the possibility of dying every time you step out.' (BusinessWeek Online was asked, because of security considerations in Afghanistan, to use only the women's first names.)

The news casts a pall on the group of 12 Afghani women, who are spending the day visiting a variety of businesses, including trendy discounter Target (TGT), yarn manufacturer Lion Brand, chic Soho boutique Calypso, and high-end retailer Jeffrey.

TARGET AUDIENCE. The tour is part of a three-week intensive workshop organized by the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace), a New York-based nonprofit that won a seed grant from the U.S. State Dept. to bring talented Afghani women entrepreneurs in the apparel, accessories, and home-décor businesses to New York's fashion center to address their most critical needs -- training and access to the global marketplace."

This is really fun. Click your cursor to the top left and start typing in names. A dynamic graph pops up with the history of the names. From: The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager

My son has made All-Conference Honorable Mention for baseball this year. Very cool. Link

Another round of good news by Arthur Chrenkoff. One interesting point is this:

After the initial rush, which saw millions of Afghan refugees coming back home from Iran and Pakistan, the trickle continues. More than 50,000 Afghan refugees have returned home from Pakistan since the resumption of a U.N.-assisted repatriation program in March; 400,000 are expected to do so by the end of the year. Meanwhile, "in a bid to entice Afghan refugees in Pakistan back home, Kabul has announced it is building homes in six or seven Afghan provinces for about 48 thousand families in 2005."

If things where not significantly better, would all of these people continue to come back?