Coffee with the FT: His Highness the Aga Khan

By Rachel Morarjee

In a deeply undignified start to my interview with one of the world’s most famous spiritual leaders, I am pressing my face against the glass of the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington, gesticulating wildly as I try to catch the eye of the dark-suited security man. It seems to me he is, perhaps reasonably, deliberately ignoring the madwoman outside.

As I’ve already tried pushing the locked door, I eventually stand on the street corner and rummage inelegantly in my bag to find my phone. After a long wait, I manage to get hold of a friend who works for His Highness the Aga Khan, who lets me in.

My requests for a lunch or breakfast meeting had been deflected by the Aga Khan’s aides, who gave me the unusual excuse that the leader of 20m Ismaili Muslims guards his privacy so zealously that he would be reluctant to reveal what he eats at mealtimes. So we settle on a coffee.

Tall, in a grey suit and a burgundy tie, the Aga Khan, 71, would blend seamlessly into a crowd of London commuters. He welcomes me with a smile and says, acknowledging our tricky discussions about this interview: “Not breakfast, not lunch, not dinner, but coffee. What would you like to drink?”

The room is impersonal but, as I sit down on a plush chair, I look out and see a lush flower-filled internal roof garden, a courtyard where water flows into a fountain.

I met the Aga Khan twice during my three-year stint as a reporter for the FT in Afghanistan so I am used to the atmosphere of stiff formality that surrounds him. After 51 years, he is presumably used to it too. In July 1957, at the age of 20, he took over from his grandfather as leader of the Ismailis, who are followers of the Shia Muslim tradition.

A woman brings the Aga Khan a white coffee while I opt for a cup without milk or sugar, which I try to balance on the arm of the chair and drink. I am dismayed to see no sign of anything edible.

The Aga Khan’s thoroughbred passion
As the most successful racehorse owner-breeder in France, the Aga Khan has won just about everything, several times over, writes Rachel Pagones. And while racing is a fast and furious sport – the verdict delivered in around two and a half minutes for races such as the Epsom Derby – breeding the horses for these contests can be an agonisingly slow process. Patience is the Aga Khan’s hallmark.

He inherited the business from his father, Prince Aly, and grandfather, the Aga Khan III, who bought his first thoroughbreds in Deauville in 1921 and went on to win the Epsom Derby five times. For his part, Prince Aly became the first owner in Britain to win £100,000 in a season in 1959, the year before he was killed in a car accident outside Paris.

The present Aga Khan’s “families” of broodmares often produce a top-class winner after three or four generations on the backburner. He is the least commercial of the large, independently wealthy owner-breeders, including Sheikh Mohammed, ruler of Dubai, Prince Khalid Abdullah of the Saudi royal family, and John Magnier of Coolmore Stud in Ireland, all of whom promote many of their own stallions for use by other breeders. He has only four stallions on his six properties in France and Ireland.

Money also helps. The Aga Khan’s operation breeds from its own stock, but makes a big purchase when a rare opportunity arises. The most recent was in 2005 when the Aga Khan bought the late Jean-Luc Lagardère’s bloodstock holdings, including two studs and close to 200 horses, for an industry estimate of between €40m and €50m.

The Aga Khan has had four winners of both the Epsom and Irish Derby, including Shergar, the most famous horse in Britain during his lifetime – he won the Epsom Derby by a record ten lengths in 1981 – but this achievement has been largely replaced in the public mind by the memory of the horse’s bizarre kidnapping in 1983, a year after he was retired to stud in Ireland with a valuation of £10m. The most thorough reports conclude it was an IRA plot, and the horse was killed not long afterwards, probably because the kidnappers had trouble handling him.

The Aga Khan’s current star is an unbeaten filly named Zarkava. The favourite for next weekend’s Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, she descends from Petite Etoile, a grey filly who starred on British tracks just before and after Prince Aly’s death. Petite Etoile’s great-great-grandmother was Mumtaz Mahal, one of the first and most important horses purchased by the Aga Khan III for 9,100 guineas in 1922.

I feel slightly on show now, as there are a lot of people crowded into the room with us. There is a Paris-based PR man, an older Ismaili man and, most disconcertingly of all, a young woman with a notepad, poised to write down everything I say.

The Aga Khan wears a suit even when he’s travelling and working in Islamic countries. It’s not a look that we are used to seeing on Muslim spiritual leaders, so I decide to start by asking whether his clothing attracts criticism in the Muslim world. The woman with the notepad starts scribbling furiously. Uh-oh, I think, and I get the question thrown back to me: “You have lived in a Muslim country. Are you aware of any requirement for an Imam to wear a particular type of clothing? There are traditions but are you aware of any theological requirement?”

I ask again, and this time the Aga Khan replies, “I have never sensed that as a problem. Imams in sub-saharan Africa dress differently than Imams in the Middle East, who dress differently from Imams in central Asia.” He adds that for ceremonial occasions, he wears a traditional robe and Astrakhan hat – a look favoured by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

This question of clothing goes to the heart of the paradox of the Aga Khan. While he’s a spiritual leader to millions of Muslims, he is best-known in the west as the highest-profile racehorse owner in France, where he lives.

The other unusual thing about this spiritual leader is how staggeringly rich he is. The Aga Khan’s personal wealth is estimated at $1bn but the Ismaili community is tight-lipped about how much of the Aga Khan’s money is his own and how much is ring-fenced for religious and development work.

I ask him how he reconciles such great wealth with having so many impoverished followers in many parts of the developing world. “Well, I think first of all you have to reposition the statement about having great wealth. I would say, frankly, that’s nonsense,” he says, smiling emphatically.

What is in no doubt is that the Aga Khan comes from a privileged background. He was born Karim al-Hussayni in Geneva in 1936 and was known as Prince Karim. After school in Switzerland, he went to the US and graduated from Harvard in 1959 with a BA honours degree in Islamic history.

His parents divorced in 1949 and his father later married Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth. The couple were a favourite of the gossip columns, although the marriage did not survive long. The unwelcome spotlight at that time might be part of why the Aga Khan now guards his privacy so carefully.

The Aga Khan title was granted to the family by the Shah of Persia in the 1830s after he had married his daughter to the Aga Khan’s great-great-grandfather. The man sitting opposite me is only the fourth to hold the title. As I sip my rapidly cooling coffee, I settle back and hear how the myth of fabulous family wealth was created when the third Aga Khan, grandfather of Aga Khan IV, was given his weight in gold during his golden jubilee celebrations in 1936.

Although Aga Khan III was only 5ft 5in, he tipped the scales at 220lb and the donations added up to $125,000 – a vast fortune in 1936. The ceremony of sitting on the scales with the gold made a great impression on the British public at the time. “In the west, this was seen as some sort of fantastic ceremonial, and this was because India at the time was ceremonial.” The current Aga Khan did not have to endure anything like this during his own golden jubilee celebrations during 2007 and 2008, not least because the 1930s gold made a solid bedrock for investments.

Ismailis have also traditionally paid a tithe to their Imams. The Aga Khan tells me that money raised by Ismaili followers does not end up in his pocket. “There is a great difference between wealth which comes from the faith and is used for the faith and personal wealth used for the individual. The Imam has responsibility for significant resources but they in no way cover the needs we have, and never will,” he says.

The Aga Khan inherited shares in corporations, banks, trusts and oil from his grandfather in 1957 and, over the past five decades, he has built a vast business development network by investing in poor and conflict-torn parts of the globe. He is the key shareholder in many of the projects but his profits are reinvested in the businesses, which are often run by members of the Ismaili community.

He began with newspaper investments in east Africa in the 1960s and now runs investment ventures tightly linked to development work that funds schools, hospitals and architectural projects.

In Afghanistan, I saw how the success of the Aga Khan’s projects stood in contrast to the bumbling efforts of many western governments. He owns stakes in the country’s largest telephone network, and a five-star hotel but has also renovated ancient mosques, gardens and citadels as well as running educational and agricultural projects.

The Aga Khan says he sees his role as a venture capitalist who specialises in difficult environments, laying the foundations of projects to entice other investors. The Geneva-based Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (Akfed) runs more than 90 for-profit businesses and employs 36,000 people.

“There is no point going into economies that are wealthy and have their own resources, so we go into the really poor ones. If you try to put social development ahead of economic support, it doesn’t work. You have to do both together.

“A community whose economics don’t change is not one that can support community structures, education, healthcare, it doesn’t have the wherewithal,” he says.

The Aga Khan uses a lot of the same jargon used by development workers, mentioning “human resources” and “capacity building”. I am familiar with this way of talking from my time in Kabul but have always felt it a shame that it means that speakers often convey nothing of the real excitement involved in seeing a project take off and become an independent success.

His profits are reinvested in the Akfed businesses and the rest is paid in dividends to the other joint venture partners. These include private equity firm Blackstone, which has co-invested in a hydroelectric damn in Uganda, and Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera, which holds a stake in Afghanistan’s largest telephone network,

Roshan has gone from strength to strength, its mobile business bolstered by the fact that it is impossible to lay landlines in a country so laced with landmines. But his five-star Serena Hotel in Kabul has attracted criticism for its opulence in a city where most people don’t have electricity and running water.

“The nature of what we do is high-risk,” the Aga Khan says, with characteristic understatement. I ask whether he thinks this long-term view is key to his success and he says that many projects can take 25 years to come to fruition. He cites a hospital in Pakistan that now produces world class doctors a quarter of a century after it opened. It would be hard to find western donors who would remain with a project for that long.

During his 51 years as Imam, he has watched the collapse of the Soviet Union, which brought Ismaili communities in central Asia back into contact with the outside world, as well as the rise of militant Islam. “Communities like the Ismailis don’t live in a vacuum,” he notes, saying that his job as Imam is to think carefully about how to address the problems in the societies his followers call home. The Ismaili diaspora is almost as widespread as the Jewish one.

I wonder whether he sees the clash between Islam and the west as the most serious global problem. “I’m unwilling to say that in these major issues today faith has been the prime driver. In my view it’s political issues that have been the prime driver,” he says. I ask whether that means they need political solutions. “Bang on,” he replies.

He believes ignorance about Islam in the west is a huge problem. “The Islamic world as an important part of our globe has really been absent from Judeo-Christian education in a strange way,” he says, asking how anyone can be considered properly educated in the west when they know nothing about Islam.

We have to finish, so I ask what he thinks his legacy will be, which provokes laughter and the response that he doesn’t have the faintest idea.

As I switch off the tape recorder and prepare to leave, he visibly relaxes and begins talking about Afghanistan in a far more open way, reminiscing about the Mujahideen leaders he knew during the country’s civil war. We step out into the roof garden, where running water blocks out the roar of traffic. The peace lasts only a moment – the Aga Khan always has more meetings – and I have to go in search of lunch.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2e55dd3a-8b59-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c.html

Iraq and Afghanistan: Ready for Tourists?

By William Moss Wilson

Recent initiatives show signs of hope for reviving long-dormant tourist sectors in war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Swiss-based Aga Khan Foundation is contributing $1 million over the next three years to the Bamiyan Ecotourism Project in central Afghanistan. According to Sanjeev Gupta, a regional program coordinator for Aga Khan, the project’s goal is to develop tourist infrastructure, train sector-related employees, and raise awareness about the region.

The relatively safe Bamiyan province is home to the stunning mountain lakes of Band-i-Amir and also to the cliff-carved Buddha statues, unfortunately destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Local infrastructure in Bamiyan has a long way to go. The 150-mile journey from Kabul to Bamiyan takes ten hours on tortuous dirt roads through the Koh-i-Baba mountains. The alternative route is thought to be under Taliban control.

In Iraq, where oil money is filling state coffers and civilian mortality rates are at their lowest since the beginning of the Second Gulf War, optimism seems to be gaining a foothold.

The Iraqi Ministry of Tourism held a tourism fair last month and sponsored a contest for local artists to design posters promoting travel to the country. Mohsen al-Yacoubi, head of the tourism board, delivered the results of the contest to a packed conference room at the al-Mansour Melia hotel, the site of a deadly suicide bombing last year. The ministry announced plans to open tourism offices in select European cities in 2009.

Outside investors are also placing bets on the improving security climate in Iraq. American investor Robert Kelley broke ground last month on a $100-million luxury hotel in downtown Baghdad.

“We think the Iraqi people want to get along with each other,” Kelley told the Associated Press.

For time being, travel is discouraged outside the heavily fortified Green Zone. No official timetable exists for the reopening of the Baghdad Museum. The museum is located outside the Green Zone and officials worry that it could become an easy target for suicide bombers.

Religious tourism is already on the upsurge, thanks in part to an $80-million renovation of a military airfield in Najaf. Iraq’s newest airport opened to commercial traffic on July 20. The airport provides access to several of the Islamic world’s holiest sites in Najaf and nearby Karbala. An investment group led by the Kuwaiti firm Al-Aqeelah plans to pump another $170 million into the project as traffic into the airport increases.

The consensus among travelers, from Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree to Robert Young Pelton’s comebackalive.com, is that travel in Iraq south of Kurdistan remains a foolhardy endeavor. Both the US State Department and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs strongly discourage unnecessary travel to any part of Iraq or Afghanistan. Their web sites warn of the familiar dangers, terrorism, rampant kidnapping, and widespread use of roadside bombs, as well as less obvious threats-the World Health Organization has confirmed Iraq as a site of human deaths from avian influenza.

Other countries, including the UK, Denmark, Japan, and Germany, have amended their travel warnings to note the higher security level in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Source: www.ethicaltraveler.org/news_story.php?id=1105

Ali to Karim premieres in Los Angeles

Approaching the Redondo Performing Arts Center, near Los Angeles, the theatre’s marquee was visible and I was excited. With the evening performance totally sold out and a sizable audience for the matinee show, ALI TO KARIM: A Tribute to the Ismaili Imams was going to be a special event.

From the elegant and informative programme booklet to the anticipation of the audience, it was evident that the unfolding of the Imamat and the Jamat’s 1 400-year history was going to be engrossing. While some anecdotes and historical facts may have been familiar, the lives of the Imams, their heroic sacrifices and contributions, and the community’s displacement and survival over the centuries, were presented in an innovative manner.

A simple white stage lit up as the cast of professional British and local Ismailis took the audience on a roller coaster of emotion. Tears rolled at the description of the massacres at Karbala and Alamut; pride swelled at the mention of Al-Azhar, one of the earliest universities in the world. And in between, the antics of some characters made spectators chuckle and laugh in merriment.

Multimedia images provided the stage backdrop and lent context to the tale. The mix of drama, comedy, narrative, legend, poetry, painting and film used to illustrate the chronology of the 49 Ismaili Imams, carried the audience from one period to the next, seizing them in rapt attention.

Whatever their level of prior knowledge about Ismaili history, members of the Jamat responded overwhelmingly with appreciation at the incredible effort expended over the past year in the conception and realisation of this historic Golden Jubilee International Programme.

A thunderous standing-ovation at the end of the two-and-a-half-hour performance was not the only sign that the immense effort of the project team was appreciated. Elementary school children and senior citizens alike were intent on capturing every word and understanding every gesture.

“Absolutely unbelievable,” said high school graduate, Raziq-Omar Jivani. “It reinforced what I knew. It brought our history to life in a surprising and creative production. I would definitely recommend all to see it. Five stars!”

Dina Mousawi, the Iraqi-Ukrainian actress who played several characters, was asked about her experience of working on the production over the past several months. “What stands out the most and is the most moving,” she said, “is how so many from this community came forward to help… I have never seen such generous people or such volunteer spirit in any Muslim community.”

A member of the National Cast, Noren Panjwani, from Charlotte, North Carolina, had been rehearsing with the cast for three weeks and was appreciative of how the professional actors had helped the novices with their acting — skills that will endure long after the performance. She noted that “the [non-Ismaili] cast seems to know more about our history and faith than most of us,” a reflection of the tremendous amount of research that went into writing the script and educating the cast.

At the end of the evening I felt as though I had returned from a time capsule that had transported me across several continents and centuries. Members of the Jamat eagerly conversed with one other, discussing what they had learnt. Pride in our Ismaili heritage was apparent in the smiles all around.

For more information on ALI TO KARIM and a schedule of cities and dates on this tour, please visit TheIsmaili.org/AlitoKarim.

Source: http://www.theismaili.org/cms/500/Ali-to-Karim-premieres-in-Los-Angeles

Canada’s Engagement in Afghanistan

Farrah Musani: Action Diplomacy

Kandahar, Afghanistan — Kandahar might seem like an unusual place to run into a diplomat. It’s a conflict area, after all, and whether or not you have diplomatic passport, stepping outside prescribed safe areas can land you in a good bit of hot water.

But that’s exactly where Farrah Musani, an officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been for the last year.

“This is a totally atypical environment for DFAIT to be working. I don’t think there’s anything else like it,” Musani tells me over coffee in the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) cafeteria.

“It’s been a pretty intense experience – but a very good one.”

Born outside Toronto, Musani moved with her family to Calgary in 1987. She graduated from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government before joining the Foreign Affairs team 2 years ago.

After a year with START– the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force – in Ottawa, Musani got the call to head south. “I remember I got a phone call in mid-May last year,” she recalls.

“I called my parents and said, ‘How would you feel about my going to Kandahar for a year?’ At first all I got was silence on the other end of the line, but actually they were pretty cool about it.”

Musani’s work has focused on a number of areas, including assessing the state of the justice system in the region.

“A lot of what I do has focused on gathering information, and assessing people’s perception of what’s needed.”

The policing sector in Afghanistan is widely acknowledged – by Afghans and the international community alike – as needing fairly comprehensive reform. Indeed, this will increasingly be a focus for Canada, both in Kandahar, and country-wide.

Through the Global Peace and Security Fund, Musani is bridging the intangible diplomatic work characteristic of her department, with bricks-and-mortar projects like building police sub-stations. She suggests that Canadians and Afghans have been working closely on the file, and are starting to see results.

BRINGING BALANCE
The Government of Afghanistan’s effort to further the justice file is also a focus for Musani. She suggests that presently the justice sector is divided between the formal system, with judges and lawyers, and the informal system, which is generally described as being more “restorative” and is “supposed to return a sense of balance” to society.

“There are clearly limits to both systems,” Musani says, and she has been working with leaders from all walks of life in Kandahar to determine how best to identify and work within those limits.

It’s with talk of meeting chief justices and prosecutors, that one gets a sense for Musani’s background in diplomacy, and of the tremendous impact that such political officers can – and have – make on the ground. “I can really see the progress made since I started last year – we’re learning how to work as a team.”

The team she’s talking about involves not just Afghans, but also Canadians from a wide spectrum of agencies: the Canadian Forces, the Canadian International Development Agency, Corrections Canada, her home department of DFAIT and the RCMP. “There’s a complementary way of operating here in Kandahar. We’re not pinned into any one department’s possibly narrow way of doing things.”

Canada’s engagement in rebuilding Afghanistan is the largest in our country’s history. And Musani seems proud to be a part of it. “This is a huge engagement for Canada – and I feel like if we’re going to do it, we should do it right.”

Musani wraps up her stint in Kandahar this summer, but further adventures are not far off: she’s slated to start at Canada’s embassy in Kabul come the fall.

Source: http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca
/canada-afghanistan/kandahar/diplo.aspx

Jubilee for an imam among equals

After 50 years as the spiritual leader of 15 million Muslims, the Aga Khan is known for his progressive views - and his Irish connections

THE AGA KHAN was at the Curragh to watch the Irish Derby last Sunday. Not that you’d know it. While reporters scurried around trying to pick out the famous faces in the parade ring, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV and his daughter, Princess Zahra, came and went from the race track unnoticed by the 35,000 or so racegoers.

The imam, or spiritual leader, of 15 million Ismaili Muslims doesn’t court publicity. But that doesn’t stop the western media’s fascination with his private life. There’s plenty of material to choose from, whether it’s his vast wealth (more than €1.5 billion, according to the latest Sunday Times rich list), his hundreds of racehorses or, most recently, his reported hiring of Paul McCartney’s lawyer, Fiona Shackleton, to handle his divorce from his second wife.

He agreed to a rare interview with The Irish Times after becoming an honorary doctor of laws at NUI Maynooth this week, but it was requested beforehand that no personal questions be asked. When you are facing a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad, it doesn’t seem like a good time to ask about celebrity tittle-tattle.

Prince Karim was a 20-year-old student at Harvard when his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, died after naming him as his successor to lead the Ismaili Muslims. The Ismailis, the second-largest group of Shia Muslims, are scattered across 25 countries in five continents.

There was some surprise when the young prince was chosen, thus bypassing his father, Aly Khan, who led a flamboyant life which included joining the French Foreign Legion and marrying Rita Hayworth.

That accession took place more than 50 years ago and the 71-year-old father of four is now seen as one of the most progressive and liberal Islamic leaders.

Through the Aga Khan Development Network, he runs a group of development agencies working in areas such as health, education, enterprise, architecture, culture, micro-finance and disaster reduction. Its programmes are open to all, regardless of gender or religion. The network includes 235 non-profit hospitals and clinics and more than 300 schools.

BECAUSE OF HIS humanitarian work and promotion of equal rights, he has received many decorations and awards, yet he seems genuinely moved by the award from NUI Maynooth.

“I am deeply honoured,” he says “because this institution is a remarkable institution in its own right and therefore to receive an honorary degree from an institution such as this is very meaningful indeed.”

He hopes to work with NUI Maynooth on projects such as student exchanges and joint research programmes. Maynooth’s roots in Catholicism are particularly interesting to him because many universities in the developing world started as faith institutions and are now trying to transform themselves into modern research facilities.

“In the developing world, at least, we have an enormous amount of mediocrity,” he says. “Standards are terribly, terribly low and unless those standards are enhanced . . . you are not making a permanent contribution to the processes of change.”

So the connection between Ireland and the Aga Khans, which began in his grandfather’s lifetime, may well be strengthened. The Aga Khan owns several stud farms here, including his public stud at Gilltown, in Kilcullen, Co Kildare.

“We are not what I would call a commercial enterprise,” he says. “We are a traditional breeding operation and therefore our goal is to produce every year, if we can, outstanding thoroughbreds. And Ireland has made a massive contribution to that ever since my grandfather started.”

A large bronze statue of his most famous horse, Shergar, stands at Gilltown Stud. The Epsom and Irish Derby winner was kidnapped in 1983 while at stud.

While the IRA was widely thought to be responsible for the kidnapping, no one was ever charged with the crime. Fifteen years later, the Aga Khan still mourns the loss of Shergar.

“I think Shergar was only one aspect of the internal conflict in Ireland, one of the tragedies of this conflict,” he says. “Obviously I think it was a massive loss to Irish breeding, but the country has paid a very, very high price for its internal difficulties and there’s a lot to be learned about the way it got past that situation.

“I think there’s a lot to be learned also about how it got into that situation, because I still see the need to divide between faith issues and political issues.”

This is something he regularly emphasises as he urges the western world not to generalise about the Muslim world, saying it would be akin to taking the Troubles as the model for Catholicism.

“Certainly in the Islamic world we are tending to see issues which are political presented as faith issues, which they’re not,” he says.

The Aga Khan says it is unacceptable that religions are put forward as the major cause of situations when political problems are really to blame.

“The Middle East, after all, is a political issue first,” he says. “Kashmir was a political issue first. Even Afghanistan was a political issue first, rather than a faith issue. So I think it’s very important to understand what are the main forces that are playing in these contexts.”

He is interested in the current debate on whether the hijab, the Muslim headscarf, should be worn in Irish schools and cautions against the issue being used to create division.

“My own sense is that if an individual wishes to associate publicly with a faith, that’s the right of that individual to do that, whether he’s a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim. That is, to me, something which is important,” he says.

But he says that people should not be forced to wear the hijab. “To go from there to an imposed process by forces in society, to me is unacceptable. It’s got to be the choice of the individual who wishes to associate with his faith or her faith. I have great respect for any individual who wants in the right way to be associated with his own faith. I accept that totally and I would never challenge it.”

He is a fervent believer in pluralism in education and thinks people must be taught in early childhood to see those from different backgrounds as equals.

“It’s an issue of equity of people in society,” he says, adding that he has been encouraging governments in developing countries to provide for equality of opportunity in their constitutions. “So governments have to answer to the question: ‘Are you governing in an equitable manner?’ ”

And how is his advice being received?

“Sensitively,” he says. “But it is essential.”

IN THE 1960S he founded the Nation Media Group in Africa, and the Daily Nation now has more than four million readers. Street vendors rent out the paper so that each copy is read by 12 or 13 people, he says.

The Aga Khan is now trying to create a network of correspondents across sub-Saharan Africa “so ultimately we’re able to become the African information enterprise for Africa, because that doesn’t really exist in Africa. It’s very much a regional resource or a national resource.”

Africa is in a learning process with “fragile democracy, fragile economics”, but ultimately he has great hope for the continent. “The African leadership I know is acutely aware of the necessity to move forward in these critical areas for national development. That wasn’t the case in the 1960s and 1970s.”

Inevitably, talk turns to Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe’s controversial re-election.

“I’m not a politician, but what we are talking about again is every African having the right to aspire to a better quality of life. And that is the goal of good government: to improve the quality of life of the individual in society,” he says. “If this particular government is failing, then that government is answerable for failing.”

He points to the recent crisis in Kenya and says the non-governmental bodies and faith institutions played a key role in resolving that conflict.

Since he left Ireland on Monday, the Aga Khan has embarked on a seven-day visit to the UK to mark his golden jubilee. In 1931, his grandfather’s 50th anniversary was celebrated by Ismailis sending him his weight in gold. On another occasion he received his weight in diamonds.

These weighing ceremonies were a widespread means of fundraising by religious groups and local rulers in colonial India and other areas. Ismailis still pay a proportion of their income back to the community, but needless to say the current Aga Khan has never been weighed in gold. Nor would he wish to be.

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/newsfeatures/
2008/0705/1215184125694.html

Arif Alibhai - Volunteers distribute AIDS drugs in rural Uganda

U of A health researcher’s pilot project shows treatment on par with the best hospitals in east African nation.

Keith Gerein, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Sunday, January 13

When Arif Alibhai went to Uganda two years ago, he knew the job before him required both scholastic ability and a humanitarian touch.

The east African country had made substantial strides in combatting an AIDS epidemic, yet the progress was tragically uneven. Anti-retroviral drugs were available only at major urban hospitals, effectively denying treatment to patients in many rural areas.

The challenge offered to Alibhai, a University of Alberta health researcher, was to devise a system of dispensing medication in these remote districts.

The catch? Not only would any solution have to be low-cost and sustainable over the long term, it would also have to get around a critical shortage of doctors.

After tossing around a few ideas, Alibhai and his team came up with a plan: Instead of using health professionals to deliver drugs, the job could be done by unpaid community volunteers.

So far, the concept appears to be working.

Early results from a rural pilot project show treatment that is on par with the best Ugandan hospitals — a success story that could potentially serve as a model for drug programs in other AIDS-afflicted countries.

“The whole point was to look at the problem of how rural people access treatment,” said Alibhai, the senior project manager. “We asked ourselves, is it possible to move the treatment to where the people are?”

The site chosen for the pilot project was Kabarole, a predominately rural district on the western edge of Uganda where subsistence farming is the main activity.

A poor area, the prevalence of HIV among adults in Kabarole is 10 per cent, significantly higher than Uganda’s national rate of six per cent.

Such a disparity is a major concern, said Tom Rubaale, a member of the district health team. Since the disease kills people in their prime working years, it has a particularly devastating impact on poor families who depend on their strongest adults for income, he said.

That thin line between survival and starvation is one reason why rural AIDS patients in Kabarole often choose not to be treated. With anti-retroviral drugs offered only in the district capital, many people find it’s too far to go, said Joa Okech Ojony, a district health officer.

“It may take two days for people to make the trip, and they can’t afford that because it’s two days away from their livelihood,” he said. “Others are too frail to travel, and even if they weren’t, the costs of travel are prohibitive.”

The project team knew that bringing drugs into rural areas would solve only half the problem. The more critical conundrum was the lack of doctors. Without them, who would hand out the medication? Who would ensure patients took their pills twice a day on schedule? Who would keep watch for adverse effects?

In searching for answers, team members recalled a study done in Haiti on hard-to-reach patients and thought they could adapt the Caribbean program to sub-Saharan Africa.

“Anything we did had to be sustainable in the long term, meaning it had to be minimal cost,” said Alibhai, who joined Ojony and Rubaale in Edmonton recently at a global health conference. “We already knew that volunteerism is a big part of Ugandan culture, so calling on volunteers seemed to make sense.”

Working out of small rural health clinics — upgraded with funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research — community members were recruited and trained to take on many duties traditionally performed by health professionals.

The most important of these was to make weekly visits to patients to ensure they were taking their medication, and to check for any negative reactions.

After six months, the project has shown strong results. Ninety per cent of rural patients have had successful treatment outcomes, while the drug adherence rate has hovered near 99 per cent — achievements at least equal to the district hospital. Alibhai believes the program’s success is due, in part, to the personal touch patients receive from friends and neighbours assigned to check in on them. Volunteers can outperform doctors when it comes to offering social support, compassion and encouragement.

And success builds success. As people hear of positive results and see neighbours getting better, more patients sign up for the program. Women in particular are more likely to seek treatment when it is delivered in a community-based setting, said Walter Kipp, the U of A health scientist who supervised the project.

Researchers will continue to study the drug program over a two-year period. During that time, one of the biggest challenges will be to avoid complacency, both in keeping patients taking their drugs and keeping volunteers motivated to perform their duties, Kipp said.

Funding is another issue. More money is needed not only to keep the program going in Kabarole — where an estimated 16,000 people will need treatment in the next five years — but also to expand the project to other areas of Uganda and other countries afflicted with AIDS, Alibhai said.

“When you start working in global health,” he said, “you have to make a commitment to stay in it for the long term because the need is great.”

Source: http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/
story.html?id=ef3c27f8-01ce-474a-9350-2f507e78305c&k=91768

Bridges that Unite: a way forward for Canada in the world

Victoria, British Columbia—February 1, 2008 - This evening, at the Victoria Conference Centre, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation joined Aga Khan Foundation Canada’s Chief Executive Officer Khalil Z. Shariff along with local dignitaries and other guests to officially launch Bridges that Unite, a new, interactive exhibition showcasing our national ability to bridge the developed and the developing world.

The traveling exhibition invites visitors to consider Canada’s role in the world through the lens of a remarkable 25-year partnership with the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in some of the world’s most isolated and impoverished regions.

“Bridges that Unite is an opportunity to explore what we’ve learned, to build on our experience and to chart a way forward for Canada and the world,” said Khalil Z. Shariff, CEO of Aga Khan Foundation Canada, which is presenting the exhibition. “Canada at its best has had a real impact in a way that is sensitive, thoughtful and sustained,” he said. “The exhibition draws on our rich experience in the developing world to spark a conversation about what Canada and Canadians can contribute to ensure a more peaceful, prosperous and pluralist world.”

“Over the years, as Canada has contributed to the work of the Foundation, we have seen the solid results achieved by the Foundation, often in extremely challenging environments,” said Minister Oda. “In many diverse ways, the partnership between Aga Khan Foundation Canada and the Government of Canada has been a long and successful one.”

Twenty-five years ago, Canada invested in an innovative partnership with the AKDN in northern Pakistan – one of the world’s poorest, most isolated and volatile regions. Since then, this partnership has grown in scope and depth and created a wealth of knowledge and practical experience that has had a ripple effect across Asia and Africa. Visitors to the exhibition will discover that, from Afghanistan to Zanzibar, a ring of chairs, in which people meet to discuss and find solutions to their problems, has become a symbol of lasting, positive change.

Embarking on a national tour following a two-week stop in Victoria, Bridges that Unite offers a vibrant, interactive space in which to explore some of the most pressing questions of the 21st century. Thought-provoking stories of initiatives spanning several continents are told through powerful images, evocative soundscapes and interactive, multimedia components.

This stimulating environment will also provide a compelling backdrop for lectures, workshops, and cultural events. Online discussions and exhibit highlights at www.bridgesthatunite.ca will allow visitors to continue the conversation as Bridges that Unite travels across Canada.

For more information on the Bridges that Unite exhibition including venues, dates and program details, please consult our website at www.bridgesthatunite.ca.

NOTES:

Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) is a Canadian international development organization, and an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network, founded in 1980. Working primarily in Asia and Africa, AKFC works to address the root causes of poverty.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a group of non-denominational development agencies founded by His Highness the Aga Khan, with wide-ranging mandates covering social, economic and cultural development.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Jennifer Morrow,
Aga Khan Foundation Canada
613.697.9532

Source: http://www.bridgesthatunite.ca/press-releases/

Bridges that Unite : Interactive, touring exhibition explores Canada’s role in developing world

TORONTO - In the chilly confines of a warehouse, images, voices and words carried from the far reaches of the globe converge, radiating from still photos and video screens.For citizens from at least 40 countries including Afghanistan, Kenya and Pakistan, their common bond is Canada, which plays a crucial role in shaping their communities and lives.

Organizers of the Bridges that Unite exhibition, which had a preview stop in Toronto recently, say they hope these stories will soon be part of a national conversation as they hit the road with the interactive, travelling display designed to engage Canadians and help them explore the country’s role in the developing world.

Bridges that Unite marks a quarter-century partnership between Canada and the Aga Khan Development Network in the region. Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) is an agency of AKDN, an international group of non-denominational agencies with a humanitarian agenda encompassing social, economic and cultural development.

The network was founded by His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of about 15 million Ismaili Muslims in some 25 countries, including between 80,000 and 100,000 in Canada.

The Canadian International Development Agency and AKFC first collaborated 25 years ago in northern Pakistan employing principles around keeping the community in charge. They’ve seen “extraordinary results” in that part of the world, said Khalil Shariff, CEO of Aga Khan Foundation Canada.

Shariff said there have been improvements in almost all measures, including infant mortality and education for men and women.

“We thought this is an example of Canadian leadership, of thoughtful, sensitive, long-term visionary Canadian leadership, which is unheralded,” he said.

“At a time in the world where that kind of leadership is in real demand, we thought that showcasing it in a way that would make it accessible to lots of Canadians made sense: not only that experience in the northern areas of Pakistan but everything it has spawned across many other parts of the world.”

Just beyond the entrance of the sprawling 465 square metre exhibit sits a ring of chairs, symbolic of the approach allowing individuals to identify their own ideas and priorities for community development. Interactive audio elements allow visitors to listen to those working in the field, including program officers instructing on how to run a community meeting, take minutes and assign responsibilities.

“If we don’t understand, for instance, that the heart of most international development efforts is bringing the community together to discuss over time their problems, it’s gong to be very hard for us to appreciate why it’s complex, why it takes a long time,” Shariff said.

“If all we think (about is) distributing handouts, we’re going to be very poor decision-makers and very poor contributors.”

The Aga Khan University in Pakistan has also developed strong partnerships with Canadian institutions including the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Students can participate in exchanges or earn scholarships to study in Canada in hopes of taking their newfound knowledge back to their communities.

Hamilton’s McMaster University was involved in setting up a nursing school at Aga Khan University in Pakistan 25 years ago. In the past decade, the Aga Khan University went on to establish a growing presence in east Africa. In one of the featured short films, a Kenyan nursing grad speaks of her work at a local hospital while helping to raise her orphaned nephews and nieces.

“What we’re talking about here is investments in higher education so you create the leaders that you need to strengthen society and ensure all the parts are working together so you can have a vibrant, pluralistic, democratic society where people have choices,” said Jennifer Morrow, the foundation’s communications director.

The exhibition also spotlights Canadians who serve as “agents of change.”

Sarah Bandali followed two years of work with Aga Khan’s Geneva office with a two-year stint in Mozambique where she designed and facilitated HIV-AIDS prevention workshops.

She said it’s important to recognize the process of development is incremental, and the aim is to establish longer term changes and outcomes.

“I think working with communities, they have a lot of hope and inspiration and willingly and actively want to participate in enhancing their own development,” she said.

“I think they appreciate that you’re not only wanting to help them but you’re actually actively taking their concerns and voices into account by actively engaging them in the process itself.”

At the conclusion of the exhibition, visitors are welcome to share their thoughts on ways to help push Canada forward with “21 questions for the 21st century.” They can express what they believe to be among the most pressing global issues and how Canada can help address them. The answers will be compiled and posted on the exhibition website, along with details of future tour stops.

While initially greeted with walls of photos of a diverse array of faces, the journey concludes with visitors reflecting on their own image in a mirror and the Aga Khan’s parting words: “Successful experience with democracy, civil society and pluralism are the national genius of Canada of which much of the developing world is in dire need.”

“The significance of the mirror is that we see ourselves as the future, as Canadians who can make a difference, that we do have the capacity as individuals to have a voice of how we want Canada to play a role in the developing world,” Morrow said.

Bridges that Unite is slated to open Feb. 1 in Victoria at the Victoria Conference Centre, the first stop on a scheduled nationwide tour which will be open free to the public.

The Ismaili Imamat and its Institutional Capacity

Imamat, His Highness the Aga Khan, AKDN, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Ismaili, Jamat, Golden Jubilee, Aga Khan University.

“One of the central elements of the Islamic faith is the inseparable nature of faith and world. The two are so deeply intertwined that one cannot imagine their separation. They constitute a ‘Way of Life’. The role and responsibility of an Imam, therefore, is both to interpret the faith to the community and, also, to do all within his means to improve the quality and security of their daily lives.” His Highness the Aga Khan. ¹

In a single sentence, His Highness the Aga Khan IV captures both the role and mandate of the institution of Imamat, historically validated and particularly evidenced in the last 50 years. The exemplary life of Prophet Muhammad has enabled Muslims in every age to understand the links between matters worldly and spiritual. In Shi’a Islam, it is the mandate of the Imam to ensure a social context that maintains a harmonious balance between din and dunya. During the last half century, His Highness has responded, with foresight and determination, to a world where his followers have lived in extremely varying conditions and in which there has been accelerating change. Central to his leadership, work and long-term vision is the untiring pursuit of a better quality of life for current and future generations.

Since acceding to the Imamat in 1957, he has developed a global network of institutions. Ismaili community (Jamati) organisations at local, national and international levels serve the Imam’s murids, while other Imamat institutions, most of them operating under the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), work to improve living conditions and opportunities for people, regardless of their faith. Under the Imamat’s guidance, professional staff and selfless volunteers in large numbers, work to transform lives through these institutions.

Putting a modern complexion on the historic guiding and leading role of Imamat, ordained well over a millennium ago, the Imamat has, in recent history, established religious, social, economic and cultural institutions to respond to the changing circumstances of the Jamat. Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah founded organisations that addressed the conditions of the first half of the 20^th century, when many of the Ismailis lived under colonialism. This institutional structure has evolved and expanded remarkably under the present Imam. He has formalised, consolidated and reoriented existing organisations and has established many new ones. The last half of the century has witnessed significant global changes including decolonisation, Ismaili migration to the West, strengthening of contacts with Ismaili communities in Central Asian, economic and social upheavals, wars, rapid technological advancements, and globalisation. Against this backdrop, the institutions of the Ismaili Imamat have spread over a space more extensive than at any other time in history.

On 13^th December 1986, His Highness the Aga Khan promulgated The Constitution of the Shi’a Imami Ismaili Muslims, bringing the transnational community’s governance under one institutional structure. Ordaining the Constitution, His Highness said, “It is my belief that the Ismaili Constitution will provide a strong institutional and organisational framework through which my Jamat (community) will be able to contribute to the harmonious development of the Ummah and of the societies in which the Jamat lives.” This framework, organising the community’s dini (spiritual) and dunyavi (material) matters, has proved to be an effective and sustainable civil society model.

Ismaili Councils are responsible for social governance at the local, regional and national levels. The Ismaili community institutions also include Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Boards, Grants and Review Boards, and Conciliation and Arbitration Boards. Other boards operate in the areas of economic wellbeing, education, health, housing, social welfare, and youth and sports. His Highness determines the roles, responsibilities, composition, powers and jurisdiction of these bodies. He has also established the Leaders’ International Forum (LIF) to whom he refers specific matters affecting the Ismaili community. The Institute of Ismaili Studies is a key academic and educational resource for the community. It addresses, amongst other aspects of its mandate, the Ismaili community’s religious education needs by conducting research on its intellectual, spiritual and literary heritage and provides materials for religious formation.

AKDN agencies deal with the development needs of people regardless of their faiths. The Network is an endeavour of the Ismaili Imamat to realise the social conscience of Islam. It brings together organisations and programmes that seek to relieve society of ignorance, disease and deprivation. In societies where there is a significant presence of Muslims, it also seeks to revitalise and broaden the understanding of Islam’s pluralist cultural heritage. AKDN’s mandate derives from the ethics of Islam which aim for a balance between the material and the spiritual. Islam’s ethical ideal is to enable each person to live up to the exalted status of the being in whom Allah has breathed His spirit. Allah made all that is in the heavens and the earth an object of trust for human beings. Therefore, worship is incomplete without an active social conscience. By grounding societal values in the principles of moral responsibility, Islam lifts the social order to a spiritual level. In the words of His Highness the Aga Khan:

“To the Imamat the meaning of ‘quality of life’ extends to the entire ethical and social context in which people live, and not only to their material well-being measured over generation after generation. Consequently, the Imamat’s is a holistic vision of development, as is prescribed by the faith of Islam. It is about investing in people, in their pluralism, in their intellectual pursuit, and search for new and useful knowledge, just as much as in material resources. But it is also about investing with a social conscience inspired by the ethics of Islam. It is work that benefits all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality or background. Does the Holy Qur’an not say in one of the most inspiring references to mankind, that Allah has created all from one soul?“²

The Imamat’s vast institutional network addresses the needs of the poor, particularly in Asia and Africa. AKDN organisations are structured broadly under three categories: Economic Development, Social Development and Culture. The Network’s long experience in engaging with social and economic development has drawn governments to it for policy advice and partnership. The Ismaili Imamat and AKDN have formalised frameworks for their development initiatives by entering into internationally recognised Protocols, Agreements of Cooperation, Memoranda of Understanding or Letters of Intent with many national governments and international organisations. These serve to strengthen and formalise the Imamat’s and AKDN’s international partnerships, relationships and long-term commitments in the countries and regions within which they work.

AKDN adopts a comprehensive strategy to help people move out of poverty and enable them to participate in the social and economic mainstream. It is guided by a philosophy of human dignity and self-reliance. For development to be sustainable over the long term, local people are engaged in planning and development. This requires projects to be inclusive and respectful of the pluralism of societies. Additionally, encouraging the recognition of merit promotes excellence and continual improvement in standards.

The provision of quality education is the cornerstone of AKDN’s approach to uplifting the human condition. This view emerges from the teachings of Prophet Muhammad and Hazrat ‘Ali that inspired Imam al-Muiz’s establishment of Al-Azhar University, one of the oldest in the world.

The global network of AKDN’s educational institutions, including pre-schools, Aga Khan Academies, Aga Khan University and University of Central Asia, is a testament to His Highness’s conviction that knowledge is vital to the fulfilment of individuals and betterment of society.

Addressing AKDN’s social development mandate, Aga Khan Foundation’s programmes incorporate education, healthcare and environmental safeguards, revitalisation of cultural assets, and the development of appropriate infrastructure, rural support and income generation opportunities. Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance’s not-for-profit programmes, which provide small loans to the less fortunate, constitute a critical building block for an equitable civil society.

The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development is the only for-profit agency of the Network. Its innovative agenda, based on the AKDN’s strong ethical framework, promotes public and private sector partnership in which investment decisions are primarily based on prospects for improving lives. Taking bold but considered steps to invest in fragile and complex economies, it has assisted in rehabilitation efforts after war or internal turmoil in places as varied as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Tajikistan and Uganda.

To complete the picture, architecture, urban revitalisation and traditional music are the responsibility of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. It focuses on culture as a means of enhancing the physical, social and economic regeneration of Muslim communities. It runs the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, the Historic Cities Programme, and various education and culture programmes including the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Imamat’s plans for the coming years include new poverty alleviation initiatives as well as the establishment of additional Aga Khan Academies, AKU’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Global Centre for Pluralism, Aga Khan Museum, Delegations of the Ismaili Imamat, and Ismaili Centres and Jamatkhanas in Dubai, Dushanbe, Houston, Khorog and Toronto. The Golden Jubilee will witness various new initiatives, which will undoubtedly come to be seen by future generations as part of His Highness the Aga Khan’s unique legacy.

Notes

¹ Excerpt of an address by His Highness the Aga Khan to the Tutzing Evangelical Academy, Tutzing, Germany, 20^th May 2006

² Excerpt of a speech made by His Highness the Aga Khan at the opening of the Alltex EPZ Limited plant, Athi River, Kenya, 19^th December 2003
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Source: http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=108987

Your Google reputation could cost you a job

CHAD SAPIEHA

Special to Globe and Mail Update

January 25, 2008 at 11:25 AM EST

When a 20-year-old university student recently Googled himself, he discovered the top result was a 2006 news story that listed him as one of several people arrested on drug-related charges.

The student, who asked that he not be named, recently began applying for work in his profession, which is one that’s prone to extensive background checks. He fears prospective employers might write him off based on what they find out about him online.

“It’s the only real testament to my character that my potential employer would find online,” said the student, who adds that the person named in the story is him, but that the charges were dropped and he has no criminal record. “Likely, I would not even receive a follow-up phone call to allow me to explain the circumstances under which this incident occurred.”

He’s not alone in his concern.

Employers are increasingly turning to online searches or social networking sites to discover information about potential employees. According to research carried out by ExecuNet, a Norwalk, Conn.-based human resources agency, 77 per cent of executive recruiters use search engines to help screen candidates. Meanwhile, employment website CareerBuilder reports that, in a survey of more than a thousand hiring managers, one in four stated they use search engines to help filter applicants.

“I’ve never done my job without Google,” said Cheron Martin, lead technical recruiter at Shore Consulting Group, a Toronto staffing and consulting firm.

However, she pointed out that she’s not conducting searches with an aim to dig up dirt on the applicant, but rather to learn more about their pertinent experience.

“Once I was looking for someone to work as a programmer with the Department of National Defence,” she explained by way of example, “and through online research I discovered that the applicant had previously been with a company that had worked on military applications. It was highly relevant to the position he was applying for, and that information wasn’t on his resume.”

But even if an employer is simply looking to learn more about an applicant’s experience, they sometimes stumble across personal information that can affect how they view the candidate.

One Toronto-based hirer, who asked not to be named, said that a search of a promising candidate’s name turned up a dating advertisement posted by the applicant that contained “sex-related information that could be seen as bizarre.” When she revealed what she had found to a senior executive in her office, he told her that the applicant “wouldn’t be a good fit for their corporate culture.” As a result, the company discarded the candidate’s application.

That screening ability opens a can of worms for human resource professionals.

Hirers can discover information about employees online that, legally, they aren’t allowed to ask about in interviews, such as religious affiliation, marital status and race, says Claude Balthazard of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO).

“If you aren’t allowed to ask about a topic in an interview, you aren’t allowed to use that information if you discover it online,” said Mr. Balthazard. Still, he acknowledged that screening based on inequitable prejudices probably happens, and that most candidates who fall victim to this practice will never be the wiser.

However, there are ways job seekers can manage information about themselves that appears online.

Andy Beal is an Internet marketing consultant with Raleigh, N.C.-based Marketing Pilgrim and co-author of Radically Transparent, a book about managing personal and professional identities online. He works with clients to improve the results returned when their names are searched using Google.

“If a client comes to me with something negative in their search results and wants it pushed out [of the first page of links returned by Google], we have to find ten other pieces of information about them that are positive and get those things to appear before the negative,” he said. “The problem is that scandal is popular. People like to talk about it, and they like to link to negative stories. Google’s algorithm looks at all of those links and thinks that [the page to which these links lead] must be highly relevant to the search query. We have to convince Google that there are other pages with information that is just as relevant.”

It can be an expensive process. Mr. Beal said his clients spend between $3,000 and $10,000 to clean up their search results, and, due to the chaotic nature of the Internet, he can offer no guarantees that, at the end of the day, searching his client’s name will result in nothing but squeaky clean results.

That’s why he recommends that people begin managing their Internet identities before any undesirable information appears online by registering a domain containing a person’s name, or creating personal and professional pages on networking sites like MySpace and Linked In.

“Build up credibility in the eyes of Google,” said Mr. Beal. “You’re being searched all the time, whether you know it or not.”

Some Canadians may already be in the early stages of learning about and managing their online identities. According to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted last fall on behalf of MSN Canada, 76 per cent of Canadians who use the Internet are conscious of the impact that their online activities could have on their image, and 59 per cent have conducted searches of their own names to see what the World Wide Web has to say about them.

As for the student whose name surfaced in a story about a drug bust, he may have solved his problem on his own. He emailed the publication that had originally posted the news story in which he was named, explained his situation, and asked that his name be removed from the article. He received a prompt response stating that his request would be honoured (though, at the time of this writing, the story containing his name was still posted).

Despite his experience of having a negative result associated with his name in online searches, the student doesn’t think it’s invasive for employers to conduct online research into prospective employees. He simply advises they use prudence.

“Discretion needs to be exercised,” he said. “The employer should speak with the person about what is found in online searches before discarding their application.”

The HRPAO’s Mr. Balthazard said this would be an example of best practices in the human resources profession, and he hopes that most hirers take this step. However, just how often employers actually call applicants to give them a chance to explain unflattering information found online is unknown.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
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