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By TIMES WIRES
Published October 25, 2006

Biz tidbits from the Internet, blogs and podcasts

African vanity and Red get his blood boiling

Madonna went to Malawi this month to adopt a 13-month-old boy. "Price tag for this celebrity accessory du jour: $3-million to antipoverty programs and $1-million to produce a documentary on the plight of Malawi's children," Richard Kim wrote on the Notion, the blog run by Notion magazine thenation.com. "But don't worry, if an African baby is too pricey for you (and conjures up undesirable associations to Angelina Jolie or slavery), then you can buy Red instead," referring to the "(Product)Red" campaign, in which Gap, Apple and other companies offer products under the Red brand and give part of the profits to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (joinred.com). The campaign, created by the singer Bono and Bobby Shriver, is intended to allow companies to make a profit after deducting their donations.

Knowledge@Wharton the online business journal of the Wharton School, and the Boston Consulting Group have published a report, "Selling in China," which offers advice on how companies can make sense out of the market. Included at knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu are sections on how to navigate China's "labyrinthine networks" of state-owned and private wholesalers.

Iraq's problems are tied to its violence

T. Christian Miller's book about the Iraq war, Blood Money, has flown a bit beneath the radar. His subject - the corruption- and incompetence-riddled efforts by private contractors to supply the military and rebuild Iraq's infrastructure - seem less urgent than the violence. But as Miller of the Los Angeles Times points out, the violence cannot be separated from the fact that Iraq's water, electrical, telephone and other infrastructures are subpar at best. On his blog at huffingtonpost.com, Miller keeps track.

[Last modified October 25, 2006, 10:31:37]