Ilwad (Elle) Elman runs the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center in Mogadishu with her mom, Fartun. Her father was an ardent peace activist in the 1990s, spreading the mantra “Put down the gun, pick up the pen” around Somalia, but was assassinated in 1996.
I checked, after dsquared questioned on twitter whether tomorrow's TED speakers event in Mogadishu might in fact be a hoax. It’s listed on the main TED site and so is apparently a thing that exists, despite a slightly parodic emphasis on the Camel and Camel products business. The theme is ‘rebirth’, but the proceedings end with enough time for the participants to get to a place of safety before dark.
I feel a bit guilty about taking the piss . If you’ve hung on in Mogadishu trying to do something constructive – or even just placed a bet on the place when the odds were looking pretty bad – maybe you’re due a bit of hoo-ha and backslapping. I just wish the folks involved would tell us how they actually did it rather than get involved in something that looks, in context, a bit like gourmet survivalism.
yes it was all the "camel milk" stuff that made me think someone was taking the piss but apparently no, it's a thing. I don't begrudge them their conference but I wish it wasn't taking place under the umbrella of TED which seems to me to be a really yucky institition.
Posted by: dsquared | May 17, 2012 at 07:21 AM
dsquared: because of the Silicon Valley techno-utopian bullshit, or something else?
Posted by: Jakob | May 17, 2012 at 09:19 AM
I was wondering what the complaint about TED was, and had put it down to Bud Light contrarianism, but this appears to be a valid complaint.
Posted by: Alex | May 17, 2012 at 01:43 PM
Basically a luxury goods retailer that encourages other people to build its brand for free. In general I think trade shows are a hinky industry and TED seems to me to combine the worst of trade shows and Veblen goods.
I like quite a lot of the actual lectures - the "putting interesting talks on Youtube" bit is fine by me. The "charging thousands of dollars to an audience pseudoselected for its exclusivity" bit is the yucky one. Which is why I wasn't surprised about the thing Alex links to above - they were never any more likely to allow anything bad about the 1% than Courvoisier are to sponsor a campaign on North Korea.
Posted by: dsquared | May 17, 2012 at 05:58 PM
Yabbutt, you have to admire them for commodifying and monetising the salon so neatly.
Posted by: Chris Williams | May 17, 2012 at 06:52 PM