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For the first time in decades Mexico has a president who travels on regular commercial flights, flying in tourist class. There is no presidential plane, no presidential mansion. He starts his day at 6 am with a crime report and a Cabinet meeting By 7 am he is at the presidential palace giving a free wheeling press conference. He has in 3 months talked to the media and the public more than was done in 6 years under the previous presidents. By noon he is on his way to catch a commercial flight to a provincial city such as Guadalajara.  There he meets local leaders, eats at a local cafeteria, and attends an open rally. He is most comfortable brushing against people, pressing the flesh, and making some comments in one liners, something he has done for twenty years since becoming the Mayor of Mexico City.  He is a bit evangelical, more like Bernie Sanders, but with the power. Mexicans listen to him attentively. Mexicans were so fed up with corruption, neglect of public opinion, and lack of rule of law, that Obrador after contesting with difficulty in previous two elections won decisively in the recent presidential election with large majorities in parliament. He has in the first 100 days moved to scrap a new $12 billion airport with costly cost overrruns using a referendum to make the decision. He has also cooperated with the Trump administration to slow the flow of migrants from central America, working with the U.S. on a $11 billion investment in Mexico and Central America to create the jobs and secure environment so that people can stay in their homes.   ...

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With slow growth in the U.S. the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell says it will take a wait and see approach to interest rates.

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This report in The Economist shows how Nairobi is coping with years of haphazard and disorganized development. As land prices jumped new investment has led to a unregulated disorganized building boom that has affected rivers and sanitation. The city's water supply and colonial era sewers are barely coping, says the Economist. To try to fix this the city has launched a demolition campaign for 4000 buildings. Meanwhile Nairobi's population has grown by 1.5 million over the 2009 figure of 3.1 million. Projects to build 200,000 low income housing is also underway. Four problems need to be tackled- a skills shortage, insufficent government investment, enforcement and rule of law, and last rent seeking typical of underdeveloped countries with corruption, complicating the tasks ahead. The biggest problem is large population growth for most African cities.

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New studies from the University of Chicago and the Chinese University of Hong Kong show China's growth rate measured by real GDP to be overstated by 2 percentage points on average every year from 2008 to 2016. As a result the size of the economy may be overstated by 16% or more than $1.5 trillion. Industrial output and investment it says have been exaggerated.

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In 2018 China, India, and America are Africa's largest trading partners. India is building 18 new embassies in African countries. Greater openness to trade and investment is leading to GDP growth in Africa, 40% higher than in 2000, which is still low by comparison with Asian countries. The Economist says African countries can benefit by drawing investment from all sides and all countries, so that Africa benefits the most. Chinese investment, and Indian investment can happen side by side with investment from America, Britain and France.

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The biggest damage doen by the Brexit drama is to Parliament itself, says this report in the Washington Post.  Britain's democracy is based on members of parliament representing their constituents. By raising above Parlament the direct democracy of a referendum, there is the risk of no-deal Brexit even with Parlament solidly opposing it, just by accident and a deadline. For the British Parliament to regain public trust then becomes a big issue.

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Some of the large donors to the Leave campaign used tax havens and shell companies says this report in the Washington Post. As a result it may never be clear where the money came from. Only the European Union can enforce the tough rules on the issue of tax havens, says the Washington Post.

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With hyperinflation of an astounding 1 million percent, the popularity of Mr. Maduro has slipped to 14%, says this report in the Washington Post. The opposition leader has about 60% popularity according to a recent Datanalysis poll. The military, says the Washington Post, is not defending Maduro, it is defending themselves. Even a amnesty law may not be sufficient. 

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Being able to set your own targets and goals is important for a startup. Doing something you love is important because you will be doing this a lot of the time. Making sure one keeps activities outside of work is important to be able to maintain balance and vitality.

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Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party leaders, says he will root out antisemitsm, bigotry and racism from the party. He made a plea for unity and said he was determined to tackle any cases of discrimination. He told a Scottish Labour conference- "The only thing that can hold us back is if we turn our fire on each other rather than on the Tory government and the wealthy establishment interests they represent." For Labour to return to poser at Westminster it had to remain united.

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Sweden places in the top three countries in the Women in Work Index for 2019 of the 33 member OECD. The other two are New Zealand and Iceland. As a country emphasizing gender equality Sweden has taken this approach through policies and legislation.  Feminist government, feminist international policy, are terms frequently used. Focus is on policy that provides equal rights, participation in decision making, and equitable allocation of resources. Swedes get 480 days of parental leave to share, of which 390 are at 80%, till a child turns 8. In government funded schools when it comes to gender roles preschool teachers and principals are allowed to act as social engineers so girls are not restricted to traditional roles only. Swedish colleges and universities are free and women earn two thirds of the degrees. A gender neutral word "hen" was adopted in Swedish popular culture. Legislation makes violence against women by partners punishable for each offense, and explicit consent is required in sexual relations.  Women and men share equally in leadership of government agencies but women still fall behind in private industry positions. Salaries are 88% to 92% of men's salaries. Women have 161 of 349 seats in parliament after 2018 election.   ...

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Ivan Rogers, Britain's former ambassador to the European Union says ideas about liberation are fantasies, just fantasies. There would be endless negotiation on every issue. After 2 years of negotiations most of the tough questions about Britain's future trading relations with the European Union remain unanswered.

Some just want to get on with the job, including Mrs. May. But the tough questions are not going away as a cross party group in parliament seeks to take control of the process and call for an extension under Article 50 for the March 29 deadline. In addition to the intra party divisions and lack of cooperation from the Labor party, there are doubts in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland about future relations.

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A strong advocate of women's rights and gender equality, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau now faces questions from women who say feminist leadership cannot stoop down to backroom politics but must remain principled leadership. This follows Trudeau's non-apology for putting a female minister in his cabinet in a difficult situation including demotion to a lower position.

The minister was not willing to negotiate a settlement on corruption charges against a Quebec based company, but says she was was pressured to do so. 

Trudeau benefitted from his strategy winning the 2015 election with a large vote from women. With an election 7 months away the support from women is now eroding. One comment was referred to him as some feminist prime minister, with too much mansplaining. 

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The shift in Facebook to privacy emphasizing apps and away from public posting of status updates and photos. Snapchat was a pioneer in the field of private messaging. Data shows social media is in big trouble with the young who no longer favor public posting of photos and status updates. The privacy shift from Facebook comes not as a value shift but a shift with the data about user trends. Swisher suggests that a lot of damage was done as Facebook was incapable of handling the business it was in including threats from fake news in news feeds, making this a much needed shift, which Swisher says Snapchat and the public originally initiated not Facebook. Facebook merely followed the data about users.

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Americans are increasingly using messaging apps to post status and photos. In the last quarter of 2018 the users posting status and comments dropped by 10% to 23%, for photos posted it dropped by 10% to 28%. This shift means people are posting less on news feeds and more on privately encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, and WeChat in China. WeChat also does payments and e-commerce. Facebook is making the change as it shifts away from news feeds that have faced a credibility gap.

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A large blackout leaves Venezuela's capital Caracas and parts of the country in complete darkness. The blackout was the result of problems at the El Guri hydroelectric dam in eastern Venezuela. Venezuela's power grid has deteriorated rapidly from lack of investment, corruption leading to siphoning off of funds for investment in new turbines and technology, and mismanagement with the power company run by people with little experience in power generation. Initially Electricidad de Caracas was  bought by AES Corporation in the U.S. in 2000, then nationalized by president Hugo Chavez in 2007. The lack of investment is also a result of policies that subsidize power making it practically free, just as in the case of gasoline. 70% of Venezuela's electricity comes from El Guri hydroelectric dam. Hyper inflation estimated at an astounding 1 million percent is ruining Venezuela's economy leading to 3 million refugees into neighboring Colombia and other countries. ...