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Quest Means Business
US Anti-Piracy Bill On Hold; Online Piracy Crackdown; Megaupload Debate; Hacker Group Anonymous Responds; General Electric Revenues Drop; CEO's Fault or Just Bad Economy? US Earnings Season; European Markets Slip; Greek Credit Talks Continue; German Chancellor's Mission to Solve the Eurozone Debt Crisis; Offshore Wind Company Brings Urban Renaissance to German Town; Testing the Pledge of the Harkin-Engel Protocol; Interview with Marc Pritchard; Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy; Interview with Oprah Winfrey
Aired January 20, 2012 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD QUEST, HOST: "V" is for victory in Silicon Valley. The anti- piracy bill is taken offline.
"V" is also for volatility. General Electric says 2012 will be tough.
I'm Richard Quest. I mean business.
Good evening. Tonight, US lawmakers have backed away from a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills. If you didn't know what SOPA stood for at the beginning of the week, chances are, now you do know. It means the Stop Online Piracy Act, SOPA.
It was designed to block access to sites containing authorized (sic) copyright material, essentially to protect intellectual property from theft. But it's been met with ferocious resistance from the internet community. Heavyweights like Wikipedia and Google, who launched 24-hour blackouts, to small tech start-ups who cry "censorship."
Now, the whole question of censorship and the whole issue of piracy, not to mention the unauthorized use of copyright material, well, today has also been one of the US government's biggest anti-piracy crackdowns.
Seven executives from Megaupload, one of the world's largest file- sharing websites, have been indicted amid claims of piracy, money laundering, and racketeering.
One of them is the co-founder, Kim Schmidt, otherwise known as Kim Dotcom, accused of masterminding a criminal enterprise that allegedly generated more than $175 million in illegal profits. He was arrested by police in New Zealand, that's his home, at the request of the US authorities. Assets were also seized.
Hours later, a number of US websites, including the Justice Department and FBI's were targeted. It's by the group we've known and heard of before, they are called Anonymous.
This has been described by the US authorities as a major breakthrough in their battle to protect copyrighted material. If you'll join me in our copyrighted library, well, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
This is the company, Megaupload is the company we are talking about. It's a file-sharing website and it's, according to some sources, the 13th most popular website on the internet. Four percent of all internet traffic, four percent. It made $175 million in profit, and it has had celebrity endorsements from the likes of Kanye West, Floyd Mayweather.
But of course, file-sharing, even going back to the days of Napster, is extremely controversial. Well, you may think not, but others do, because of the -- says that these people like Megaupload are piracy powerhouses. The amount of material, films, videos.
The servers are located the world wide. People can upload illegally and share material, movies are streamed. It costs, apparently, up to $500 million in lost copyright revenues.
The leader of Megaupload is Kim Dotcom, and three others arrested by the New Zealand police. They are all wanted in connection with illegal copyright activity. Millions of dollars have been frozen.
Let's go to Amber Lyon in Los Angeles to talk about this and put this into context. On the one hand, the Megaupload lovers will say this is an affront and an attack on their right to do with what they will. And on the other hand, the police say arrest them all, quicker the better.
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There has been a tremendous debate, especially in the US, Richard, this week over anti-piracy legislation, also the shut down of Megaupload.com. Like you said, supporters of the site say that maybe one out of ever hundred files is a pirated video or potential video game.
And then, on the other side, they say that well, this site has cost about $175 million in copyrighted material.
There has been an intense protest all around the world, especially within the internet collective Anonymous, against the shutdown of this site. Yesterday, Anonymous DDOS attacked the US Department of Justice's website, also the FBI's website.
The collective says they galvanized almost immediately after they found out that Megaupload was shut down. They galvanized online, they began a DDOS attack. I spoke with some of these hackers who say they were involved or watching this closely, and here's how they say it went down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYON: So, Anonymous sees the shutdown of Megaupload as a type of internet censorship?
ANONYMOUS MEMBER: Exactly. It's a violation of freedom of speech, and Anonymous and a lot of other movements regard the internet as sort of independent from any government, and they regard the government interfering in the free flow of the internet as stopping outside of their jurisdiction.
LYON: How long did it take for the Department of Justice's website to go down?
ANONYMOUS MEMEBER: I would give it seven or eight minutes, not even.
LYON: Seven or eight minutes?
ANONYMOUS MEMBER: I say seven minutes.
LYON: Is -- what was the thoughts within Anonymous that it was that easy to take down the Department of Justice's website.
ANONYMOUS MEMBER: With enough power and with enough manpower you can take down pretty much anything.
ANONYMOUS MEMBER: It's basically the power of an absolutely massive group of people coming together. They're not happy. And this wouldn't be possible with one or two people. It's one of those things which is very genuinely an expression of how many people are angry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: So, Amber, those of us that are old enough to remember the battles over Napster in the 90s and into the first part of the century will certainly say, frankly, nothing new in the argument. There are those people who say everything should be free on the web, and there are those, like Time-Warner, parent company of this network, that say it has to be protected.
So, where does this go now?
LYON: Well, you talk with some members who are -- some people who are against the shutdown of Megaupload, and they say that this is just going to turn into a game of whack-a-mole, and that you're just going to keep going after sites. They're encouraging these companies to come up with new, innovative technologies to kind of bypass the piracy.
As you were mentioning, Richard, Napster -- kind of the solution to that, to start charging for music, was iTunes, and that's what these activists are saying that they want.
But on the other side, you have law enforcement saying it's just almost impossible to get a hold of this, and so that's why they feel like they need to take control and shut these sites down, Richard.
QUEST: Amber Lyon is in Los Angeles for us tonight, and it's all copyrighted material.
When we come back in just a moment, Europe's economic misery has infected one of America's biggest companies. We'll talk about that after the break.
(RINGS BELL)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Weakness in Europe has drained the spark out of General Electric. Jeffrey Immelt says he'll be restructuring his company's business, there, after sluggish demand led to disappointing numbers. Year- on-year profits fell 18 percent -- 18 percent -- in the last quarter. Revenues were down 8 percent.
Felicia Taylor is in New York. Look, GE is a backbone company of international -- whether it's engines, turbines, light bulbs. Look, we all know what GE makes. So, it's not surprising that they're having tough times in Europe.
FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. It really isn't a surprise. And frankly, this is one of those companies that Wall Street watches very closely because of all those different divisions that you just suggested were obviously a part of the company.
GE was obviously hurt by slower than expected growth in Europe and also -- this is where the surprise came in -- reduced demand for appliances.
However, this is kind of interesting, too. The forward guidance was pretty strong. As you said, Jeff Immelt is going to take a look at earnings growth in both industrial and capital segments and concentrate on that.
The capital -- GE's capital department has always been quite strong, so there are a number of analysts that are actually saying the stock is a buy at these levels. The share price, however, has fallen more than 50 percent since Immelt took over in 2001. So, critics are definitely pointing their finger and blaming him for the downward spiral of the stock.
But let's face it. Managing a company isn't easy. Like you said, there's all these --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Aw! Aw, hang on!
TAYLOR: -- different divisions that they've got --
(RINGS BELL)
QUEST: Hang on! Hang --
TAYLOR: Well, it's true.
QUEST: No! No! No!
TAYLOR: Absolutely! And you've got sea shift --
QUEST: Since when -- since --
TAYLOR: -- and they -- well, they should have had a benefit from control -- they got rid of its NBC Universal division to Comcast, that should have been a bigger plus.
QUEST: Since when did you become --
TAYLOR: Go ahead.
QUEST: -- the cheerleader for CEOs Anonymous?
(LAUGHTER)
TAYLOR: Oh, I wouldn't go that far. I mean, Jeffrey Immelt has certainly not been a stellar performer in terms of GE. There's been a lot of stumbling along the way.
But when you're faced with a weak economy, the fact that he's able to come out and say there's going to be double-digit growth in 2012, that means that there are definitely going to be some things taking place that are -- that haven't been in the economy -- in the company in the last couple of years. So, that bodes well for GE moving forward.
And lets face it, the stock is up -- what? It's up -- eh, fractionally today. But it was trading around 16 not too long ago, and now it's at 19, 17. Listen --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Stay where you are.
TAYLOR: -- I used to work for NBC --
QUEST: Stay -- stay --
TAYLOR: -- so I used to work for GE.
QUEST: Stay where you are. Stay -- don't you move one iota. Todd Benjamin is with us. One of our --
TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.
QUEST: Todd. We'll -- come, we'll talk about the wider economy at the moment.
BENJAMIN: Yes.
QUEST: But put into perspective, the GE earnings and as we -- you hear what Felicia's saying.
BENJAMIN: Yes, I think first of all, you'd have to compare where revenues were when Immelt took over and where they are now. I think that would be a fairer counterpoint.
But in general, I think, look. Earnings is tougher right now. The consensus is earnings will outgrow per share earnings by about -- just under five percent.
As you go further along in the recovery process, it gets tougher and tougher because cost-cutting can only take you so far, and then you have to do real business.
QUEST: Right. You stay where you are, as well. Felicia, I'm afraid Todd -- I couldn't quite work out whether Todd was with me or with you on this. I think he's being a diplomat this Friday night.
(OFF CAMERA REMARKS)
QUEST: You want that -- you want -- one sentence, there. One sentence, Felicia.
TAYLOR: Say again? What's the question?
QUEST: Oh, there wasn't one. I just thought you were so anxious to get back into the discussion, I was going to give you another word. Felicia Taylor is in New York. Listen, if she isn't quick, she doesn't get another chance. You and I, Todd, carry on talking about what's happening in the US economy at the moment.
The numbers looked like they were getting better. The numbers -- people thought they were getting better.
BENJAMIN: No, look. I think if you look at the general consensus, people do feel things are getting better, and I think there is evidence and data to point that out. Manufacturing is certainly doing better, unemployment is coming down.
It's questionable whether they can continue that downward trend, especially if more people get back into the workforce, then unemployment could rise again, which would be ironic for President Obama's reelection chances.
And then the third component, of course, is housing, and a lot of people think this is a lynchpin to a very sustainable recovery. More housing data came out today. Sales were up again. But not everybody agrees that sales really are looking better. In fact, Bank of America is one of those, and they list some very good points.
QUEST: OK. But let's just talk about the rate of growth, whether it's 2 to 2.5 to 1.5 to 3 percent. How -- how important is it at this stage of the European debt crisis for the US to -- to be the engine, if it can be?
BENJAMIN: Well, look, I think there are two engines, right? You've got China --
QUEST: Which is slowing down.
BENJAMIN: Slowing down, but still with very strong growth. And then you have, of course, the US. You're right, the eurozone is in a recession. And we could get back to the crisis we were in after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy if things in the eurozone fall apart again.
QUEST: Now, the World Bank earlier this week put it into its report - -
BENJAMIN: That's right.
QUEST: -- that what -- they actually said.
BENJAMIN: That's a lynchpin.
QUEST: They said that if it goes back to 2008, it could be as bad for the emerging market. Isn't that just hyperbole?
BENJAMIN: No, I don't think that is hyperbole, because I think first of all, you've got to remember, we're so much further along in this process and so much fiscal stimulation has already happened, there's not that much more that can be done, certainly on a government level. They're tapped out, OK?
Also, on a Central Bank level, yes they can continue to do quantitative easing and so forth, but that also has its limitations in terms of how much they want to really have on their books.
So, I think the policy maneuvering is much more narrow right now, and therefore, it's much more challenging if we got ourselves back into that type of situation.
QUEST: President Obama goes into this election with the most mediocre growth that has been seen for many years, an unemployment rate that has been -- is the highest for decades, and a leveraged consumer that still hasn't really fully unwound their debts.
BENJAMIN: I think that's absolutely right, and --
QUEST: Can he win?
BENJAMIN: Well, look. It depends who runs against him. And I think the way it's -- going to be positioned in terms of the election, it's going to be about, are you for the middle class and fairness and the rest of that, which Obama's already talking about, or are you for these so-called fat cats who pay a 15 percent tax rate because they can get stuff -- special privilege in private equity?
QUEST: Were you as -- were you offended by Goldman Sachs's bonuses this time around and the level of compensation that we've paid out?
BENJAMIN: Look, I don't -- if you make money, it's OK. I think what I have a problem with, and he didn't do anything illegal, is Mitt Romney when he's paying a 15 percent tax rate and a lot of people think that's just unfair.
QUEST: Well, Benjamin. Throwing a -- we're at it again, you could take this earnings and we could talk, but we're out of time.
BENJAMIN: Yes. Let me just point one quick --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Oh, I have a --
BENJAMIN: No, seriously, you're talking about Obama's reelection chances. No president, I think, since -- in the post-war period has been elected when the unemployment rates been above 7.3 percent, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, and it was trending down, then. So, Obama has his hands full.
QUEST: Many thanks, Todd Benjamin.
European markets have held onto their weekly gains, despite slipping in today's session. The four-day winning streak is over. Investors still waiting and worrying for a deal to come out of the debt talks in Greece. Mining stocks struggled. These are the closing numbers.
(RINGS BELL)
QUEST: Down on the Friday close. Zurich was down the -- worst. The FTSE was off after China's manufacturing, the falling price of oil currently hurt companies in Frankfurt, Commerzbank rallied as well.
When we come back in a moment, we're ready to bring you developments as they break. Athens is thrashing a deal to save Greece from default. It's the private sector involvement that we're talking about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Greece is locked in talks with its private creditors in Athens right now, putting together a deal, in theory, to save the debt-laden country from default. CNN's source in Athens says the Greek prime minister will meet the head of the International Institute of Finance at any moment. Jim Boulden is following developments. Jim's with me.
And so, we know the area of disagreement.
JIM BOULDEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
QUEST: Is it -- the maturity's 30 years, it's a 50 percent face value haircut.
BOULDEN: Yes.
QUEST: Is it really all about an interest rate of 4, 4.2, 4.5 percent?
BOULDEN: It seems to be this idea of an accelerator that over the time of the bond, the interest rate will increase, so I'm guessing that's where the sticking point is, because it will make a big difference in how much Greece gets or doesn't have to pay, how much a savings it gets on the interest that it's paying on those bonds over time.
One analyst has said that, basically, if this goes through the way he thinks it will, that Greece could save four billion euros a year in interest payments alone, and that's four billion that won't have to come from the IMF or the ECB to help repay its bills in the short term, and it's four billion in the long term that Greece can use to help its own economy.
That does sound like a lot of money. It's not going to be enough. We said that again last night, didn't we? It's not going to be enough to save Greece. It is a step in the process.
QUEST: OK. If everybody doesn't agree, and this is --
BOULDEN: Oh, yes.
QUEST: -- the sort of questions that everybody is asking at the moment. The all you need to know on Greek debt. If everybody doesn't agree. Let's say there are those holdouts.
BOULDEN: Yes. A few hedge funds.
QUEST: A few hedge funds --
BOULDEN: Yes.
QUEST: Even Great Auntie Bessie who's got three bonds and doesn't want to sell them. What happens? Can they scupper the deal?
BOULDEN: They can't scupper the deal, there's something called a collective action clause, and I just turned it on to make sure I say it right. A CAC, that they could, if enough -- if it's a super majority, then they can trigger it so that it's not voluntary for the rest, but it becomes 100 percent.
Greek law will then say, fine, you have to take this, you don't have a choice.
QUEST: So, that's if it's -- so, if they get to a particular level --
BOULDEN: Yes.
QUEST: -- of acceptance, then everybody's de facto deemed to have accepted.
BOULDEN: Yes, but not voluntarily.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: Work with me, Jim.
BOULDEN: Well, OK. Let's be honest. This is a lot of -- you like to say it's in the weeds. It's very technical. And what we're hearing is that they'll -- likely will get some kind of temporary kind of agreement, an outline tonight. They work through the weekend, and then we will hear more what the finance ministers have to say next week about these kind of issues.
The European Commission seems to have been very worried about this being considered a default. Well, it is a default in many other ways, people will say it's a default.
QUEST: Since it's -- it's a voluntary default.
BOULDEN: And then others will say some of it is an involuntary default and some will say the credit default swaps have to be implemented and all this. But it seems that the markets have priced all this in. I think the worst-case scenario would be if the whole things collapses tonight.
So, as long as they get most of the bond holders to agree and to get all the details done, then we have to see -- each bond member has to go back to their own countries and get it agreed to with their regulators. It's going to take 30, 35 days to get this sorted even if we hear about it tonight as an agreement.
QUEST: You weren't planning on having a weekend, were you?
BOULDEN: It's going to be next week in Davos, a lot of the news will be coming from, I think.
QUEST: That was revenge. All right, Jim. Have a lovely weekend, many thanks, indeed.
Germany's chancellor is stepping up her mission to try to solve the wider debt crisis. Angela Merkel plans to sit down with Christine Lagarde of the IMF on Sunday. The chancellor will also open the World Economic Forum next week in Davos.
Mrs. Merkel will be speaking from a position of strength. Europe's top economy says it has no worries about a possible recession amid the ongoing eurozone crisis. No recession, according to them. Germany predicts it will return to robust growth in 2013.
Now, the city of Bremerhaven begins 2012 with unemployment on the way down, and that's the way it's been for the past six years, even through the worst of the global downturn and the eurozone crisis.
Our correspondent Fred Pleitgen traveled to Germany's north coast. He went there to see for himself how a sea breeze is lifting Bremerhaven's once desolate heavy industry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Workers are busy around the clock at AREVA Wind Energy. Willy Peters worked in the local shipyards for 40 years. He's seen Germany's shipbuilding industry all but collapse here.
Now, at almost 60 years old, he's happy to have found a new job in a new industry.
"This is machine tool manufacturing at the highest level," he says. "I feel great here because they demand a very high quality standard that I love to achieve."
AREVA is a huge French energy provider. The chief operations officer tells me, favorable conditions lured the company into investing in Bremerhaven.
JEAN HUBY, AREVA RENEWABLES: The first thing is a strong maritime tradition. We are -- access to sea, we are close to the sea, it's what our job is all about, fitting wind turbines for the offshore.
Then a very important point is a strong commitment endeavor by the place, by the administrative, the local authorities, to support the development of this industry.
PLEITGEN: Bremerhaven, on Germany's north sea coast, has become a hub for offshore wind energy technology and production. It's secret? Merging its longstanding expertise in shipbuilding with the still nascent wind power sector.
The company WeserWind builds the massive foundations that the wind turbines will stand on when they're deployed in the ocean.
PLEITGEN (on camera): Most of the people who work here used to be in shipbuilding, and many will tell you they never would have thought that heavy industry could thrive in this region again. But WeserWind says it has enough orders to keep this place running at capacity for years to come.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): One of the main reasons for this upswing is a massive shift in German energy policy. The country wants to cut down on fossil fuels and nuclear and expand renewables.
One offshore wind park is already online in the North Sea, 27 more have been approved. Ultimately, Germany wants to place thousands of wind turbines in the North Sea, and that has helped Bremerhaven to an unlikely resurrection.
Traditionally a fishing town, when that industry collapsed in the 1980s, unemployment skyrocketed and tens of thousands left the city. Then, Nils Schnorrenberger and his team at the local tourism and business council decided to bank their city's future on offshore wind energy.
NILS SCHNORRENBERGER, BIS BREMERHAVEN: We had a rate of unemployment over 25 percent six years ago. Nowadays, we have a rate of unemployment 14 percent and the companies gave 2,000 people jobs in the offshore sector only in Bremerhaven.
PLEITGEN: At its peak, the city hopes wind energy could employ up to 15,000 people here. For now, at least, this fairly new industry and a gamble by city officials has given Bremerhaven new hope after decades of decline
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Bremerhaven, Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: After ten years of inaction, time to face the facts. The link between chocolate and child slavery must be broken, and tonight, we're going to ask how we do it.
(RINGS BELL)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest.
More QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment.
This is CNN. And on this network, the news always comes first.
The former U.S. House speaker, Gingrich, is widely touted as the big winner of Thursday night's Republican debate. It was the last debate before the key South Carolina primary. The latest polls show Gingrich closing in on the frontrunner, Mitt Romney.
France is suspending its operations in Afghanistan following the killing of four French soldiers. President Nicholas Sarkozy says a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire at a training exercise, killing the troops and wounding at least 15 others. He says France might pull out of Afghanistan altogether if the security situation doesn't improve.
Italian officials now say the partially sunken cruise ship off Giglio Island has been shifting on the rocks below, making it too dangerous for the search teams. As a result, rescue operations are on hold. Twenty meter -- 21 people are still missing from last week's disaster.
New Zealand police say they had to cut their way into a safe room inside this mansion to arrest the owner of a controversial Web site. U.S. authorities asked for international help to shut down Megaupload.com. They say the site's executives were response for massive online piracy.
The singer Etta James has died.
(singing)
QUEST: The soul legend known for songs like "At Last" and "The Wallflower" died in Los Angeles with her family at her side. She had been undergoing treatment for leukemia. Etta James was 73.
It is the indisputable dark side of chocolate and tonight, we bring you evidence that child slaves remain hard at work in the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast. Ten years ago, the chocolate industry committed to ending this form of labor.
Now tonight, we are going to test the pledge of the Harkin-Engel Protocol. In less than half an hour from now, CNN's David McKenzie takes us deep inside Ivory Coast as part of our Freedom Project investigation. It's called "Chocolate's Child Slaves." 8:00 in London, 9:00 in Berlin, midnight in Abu Dhabi.
And you can join the discussion immediately afterward in a special half hour program. Becky Anderson and myself will be here.
Kevin Bales is co-founder of freetheslaves.net, a non-profit organization. Their mission is to end all forms of human slavery within the next 25 years.
He's the author of the book, "Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves."
He joins us from CNN Washington.
Now, Kevin, you -- you and I have talked before about this. And tonight, we focus on, obviously, the chocolate industry.
The more I have learned about the way the industry seemingly turns, not a blind eye, but an ineffectual response, isn't that really the problem?
KEVIN BALES, CO-FOUNDER, FREETHESLAVES.NET: It's good to see you again, Richard.
I wouldn't say that's only problem. I think the chocolate industry has done something remarkable and positive by being the only industry which has actually brought a large number of companies together to bankroll work on the ground to take child and slave labor out of their supply chain. No other commodity industry has done it. That's the good news.
If there is not such good news, it's that they need more resources and they needed to put in more resources to do that.
But, of course, the resource question has also begged another question -- what about all the other industries...
QUEST: Right.
BALES: -- and businesses that use cocoa, like the cosmetics industry?
You know, they're -- they seem to have dodged the bullet on this completely. There are lots of other foodstuffs that are made with cocoa besides chocolate.
And where are -- where are those people participating?
Maybe that's where some of those resources should come from to make sure that this job gets done.
QUEST: So, and we'll -- just one more question on cocoa and then I want to talk about other industries.
Why do you think these other industries -- these related cocoa industries, have been so successful at avoiding their responsibility in this issue?
BALES: Well, in large part -- and I'm going to point a finger directly at you, Richard, for a moment. Journalists keep saying chocolate companies, chocolate slaves and so forth. They don't say cocoa butter slaves. They don't say makeup slaves. They don't say Cocoa Puffs slaves. They're always pointing to the chocolate companies.
So that by keeping their heads down, they've been able to avoid this issue.
But, you know, it's also true that there have been two civil wars in the Ivory Coast since the beginning of the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which was a good idea.
QUEST: Right.
BALES: But it's hard to get that work done during a civil war. So that...
QUEST: Yes.
BALES: -- there's been a lot of things in the way. That's no excuse. It still has to be done and it still has to be done because people have to put the right resources to it to make it happen.
QUEST: OK, we're going to talk a lot more about chocolate, cocoa in the next few hours. So let's put it to one side.
Just give me one -- one other industry that if there's one industry that -- that you think I should be far -- turning my firepower on next, which one would it be?
BALES: I think I would suggest that you look at electronics -- laptops, cell phones and so forth. The minerals that come out of war-torn Congo, produced by slave labor by armed gangs that are running the conflict and the civil war in war-torn Eastern Congo, those minerals are entering the supply chain, ending up in the cell phones, laptops and computers and other electronics we buy.
Now, we know how that supply chain works. We know it's a little tricky, of course, because, you know, these are criminals who want to keep it hidden. But we also know that it can be followed, that those minerals can be followed and that while the electronics industry has been talking a good line, I think it's time to put some firepower there and say let's trace it all the way back, let's clean it up.
QUEST: All right. A final question, and it's one I come back to repeatedly with the Freedom Project, because I happen to think and believe that, frankly, nothing gets done until the chief executive of a company says it's time to do something. Just as much as the chief exec can open and close a factory, shift a company into new areas and take them out of other areas, if the CEO says it's time to do something, that's when things get done.
BALES: Well, I couldn't agree more. And I think we're looking for CEOs with moral courage. I understand that it's difficult to say to your public and your consumers, hey, there may be slavery in my product, help me with this, as opposed to I'd rather not talk about it, I'm going to hire a great P.R. firm to hide it.
QUEST: Kevin, we thank you for talking more about it.
Kevin Bales joining me there.
I'll be back with more after the break.
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
Good evening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Procter & Gamble is still banking on the Olympic athletes to bring good publicity by sponsoring 150 of them in London to give sales a boost at the games. P&G launched its new Olympic campaign at the opening of the Youth Winter Games in Innsbruck last Friday. It will focus on thanking the mothers of athletes heading to London later this year.
Jim Boulden spoke to Marc Pritchard, head of marketing at P&G, and wanted to know why -- why P&G and the Olympics?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC PRITCHARD, GLOBAL HEAD OF MARKETING, PROCTER & GAMBLE: So we've been involved in the Olympics. And we got involved in Vancouver 2010. And we had several brands that sponsored several athletes.
But we really wanted an idea that brought together all of the brands under a unifying P&G idea. And while on the surface, you know, it doesn't seem like P&G would have anything to do with sports of athletes, what we didn't recognize is that every athlete has a mom. And P&G is in the business of helping moms.
So what we thought we could do is just simply use our voice to be able to thank moms around the world with our Thank You, Mom program as part of the Olympic program, to recognize all that they do to nurture and help athletes, but, also every mom to raise good kids.
And it's been great for us so far.
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So you have clear-cut evidence that a sponsorship of something like the Olympics does add to the bottom line, does add to sales?
PRITCHARD: It does, indeed. In fact, what we found is when we can bring our brands together under a really big idea, such as the Olympics on Thank You, Mom, it does contribute in a way that any single brand can't do by themselves. So it really has a nice synergistic effect and we do have evidence, as I said, from Vancouver and the other efforts, that this is good for business.
BOULDEN: You're sitting in Austria, of course, a Eurozone country. And we're in the middle of the Eurozone trying to repair itself.
I wonder, as a big, global brand, how much the Eurozone upheaval over the last year effects you, worries you, keeps you up at night. You can't do anything about courtesy exchange rates, but surely you have to look at this idea that the Eurozone is -- is in deep trouble.
PRITCHARD: Well, what I -- what we -- what I can say is that, you know, what we -- when it comes to ways in which we can build our business with ideas like the Olympics that can help grow, we've seen that through good times and through -- through tough times.
And so this is what -- what we like to do with -- with our business all the time is -- is be able to focus on the big ideas, the big ideas that can connect with consumers so they can see that our company is doing something good and also see the benefits of -- of our brands. Because our brands are really superior performing products. And when we can come up with ideas from the Olympics to be able to connect with -- when that allows us to be able to get people interested in our business, generate more sales and keep the business going, whether it be in the developed markets like the U.S. and Europe, or also in the developing markets around the world.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
QUEST: Now, then, the weather forecast. I'm going to Davos, lots of snow.
Jenny Harrison is at the World Weather Center.
JENNY HARRISON, ATS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Richard, I'm going to start out with the satellite across in Europe. There's been a lot going on the last couple of days, really. Look at all this. It is deepening the snow. The colder air, of course, turning that rain into snow.
I actually just want to show you, as well, July. Let's look a little bit ahead. July and August, of course, the Olympics straddling both those months. The average temperatures then in London 22 Celsius. About 57 to 59 millimeters of rain expected in the month of July, also August. So, as I say, give or take over those two months and about 12 of those days should prove to be wet ones. But certainly very wet weather, as well as wintry weather in the next couple of days. We're seeing increasing winds, as well, through the Central Mediterranean. It's been very blustery around the location of the shipwrecked cruise ship. This is the wind forecast as we go into the weekend. The winds will be very strong and gusty, mostly coming in from the northwest. No real letup, as you can see there.
These are the current conditions. And those winds, they have been varying. But you can see now, also coming from the southwest. So all of that different movements and motion of the winds is what is really making the ship so unstable. And, again, on Sunday, there is some more rain in the forecast.
Meanwhile, across in Germany, a lot of snow into the southern regions, the line of the Alps. Look at these temperatures. With the wind, it feels like minus 24 in Moscow right now. A lot of that snow is working its easy eastward.
As for Davos, well, let's have a little look and see what that means for Davos for the next few days. We have got some snow in the forecast. Look at that beautiful location.
Snow on Saturday, the same on Sunday and Monday. But you might just be treated to some sunny skies in between.
And let's just end on a couple of these pictures, Richard. These have been sent in from one of your hardworking engineers who is out there already. Always the concern, not enough snow on those trees. But I think we can safely say plenty of snow on the trees in Davos already this year.
QUEST: Yes.
HARRISON: Oh, you'll have a great time.
QUEST: I'm looking forward to it already.
HARRISON: I bet you are.
QUEST: Many thanks, Jenny.
Speak to you next week.
And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight.
I'm Richard Quest in London.
MARKETPLACE AFRICA is next.
I will see you in Davos next week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBYN CURNOW, HOST: You're watching MARKETPLACE AFRICA.
I'm Robyn Curnow on the grounds of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy.
Now, the U.S. talk show host has hand-picked underprivileged girls from across South Africa to get a quality education. More importantly, she says she's trying to create a new generation of female leaders, a point that is underscored by a recent report that says that female entrepreneurs, women leaders, are an undervalued resource in Africa's economy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW (voice-over): If Oprah has her way, these girls are the next generation of South Africa's doctors, lawyers, and perhaps even the country's future political leaders. They are the first girls to graduated from the school Oprah created in 2007.
Born into poverty, victims of abuse, and, in some cases, orphaned, these girls were plucked from communities and a state-run education system that offered them very few opportunities.
The school itself has faced challenges along the way, including an incident in which a dormitory matron was accused but later cleared of abusing students.
But today, the girls tell me after five years in this unique African experiment, their lives and prospects have been changed forever.
(on camera): And where do you come from and -- and how difficult or easy is it hopping between, perhaps, two different worlds?
JULIET MANTSO, STUDENT: Well, I come from three states. I live with my grandmother. My mother passed away when I was about four. And my dad left me afterwards.
So having come here, of course, it's a different transition.
CURNOW: And you're obviously a bright girl. You're studying medicine.
MANTSO: Yes. But, of course, I had to work hard to accomplish that.
CURNOW: Well, what -- what is -- how important is it, what -- what is being done here?
MANTSO: What is being done here is that children who otherwise would have been viewed in society as, you know, children who did not have a future or as just, you know, a bunch of black kids who couldn't do much, have been given opportunity, which is something extraordinary, something that many people did not believe in the success of it. So it's something that is out of this world, I think.
MARWIYA JAMES, STUDENT: Coming here has opened my mind to a lot of other opportunities that are available that I think I would not have been introduced to were I at home. And it's very important to me, because now I realize the importance of education. And being given this opportunity, I can now take it upon myself to go and share it with everybody else and give them, also, you know, show them that there is a future and that they can do anything that's possible.
CURNOW: And you were hand-picked by Oprah.
Why do you think she chose you?
LESEGO TLHABANYANE, STUDENT: Why do I think Oprah chose me?
I have spunk and I wasn't afraid to say what I thought was right, what I thought was wrong. I'm a very opinionated person.
CURNOW: South Africa is still a place where women are treated as second class citizens a lot of the time, as a commodity sometimes.
Difficult trying to bridge that?
TLHABANYANE: It's been very difficult be, especially being a woman and being empowered and being especially a young girl and being empowered and coming from a neighborhood where it's not expected and it's seen as disrespect if you do it.
And so it's been very difficult to try to introduce it in the community, even with the girls there, because they have lived a certain life for such a long time and now they can't change their mind set.
So it's been very difficult to try and help other people empower themselves in -- in my community.
CURNOW (voice-over): Anne Van Zyl is the head teacher of the school.
(on camera): This school is many things. But it also presents a hope for a new generation of girls who are hoping they're going to change some of Africa's prospects.
ANNE VAN ZYL, HEAD OF THE OPRAH WINFREY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY FOR GIRLS: Well, I think the point is that's what -- exactly what Ms. Winfrey was looking for. She was looking for girls who had guts, who had determination, who were not victims, who were not victims of their circumstance and who would -- would have the determination to move forward whatever the challenges were. and so we are trying to prepare them to be leaders either in the community, in business, in social services. And they have a very strong commitment to serve their communities.
They have all this privilege, but they know that actually serving the community is really what's important.
CURNOW: But, crucially, this is about breaking a cycle of poverty...
VAN ZYL: Yes.
CURNOW: -- isn't it?
VAN ZYL: Absolutely. And that's why they work so hard, because they know this is their one chance to break the cycle of poverty, to get an education here. All these girls are going on to special education, to universities and colleges. And from there, they're going to go on and conquer the world.
CURNOW: How important is it to educate girls, particularly here in Africa?
VAN ZYL: Crucially important, because the -- the women are the ones who are the -- the power in the villages, in the communities, in the townships.
CURNOW: We know this, but it's not happening, is it?
VAN ZYL: No. Of course...
CURNOW: Much as we'd like it to.
VAN ZYL: No, but that's why we -- that's why these girls have got to be role models to their -- their peers in the -- in the townships, in the rural communities. They're going to be role models. They've got to say, we can do it. You've got to be able to go out and make it. You're not literally going to go up to -- into a corporation. You've got to go up and make a difference in your village, in your township, in the area that you're...
CURNOW: And make money and be self-confident.
VAN ZYL: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. And that's what they're going to go and do, I hope.
CURNOW (voice-over): Coming up next, we talk to the U.S. talk show queen about how to create a new generation of female leaders in Africa.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CURNOW: We're now in the library of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy. Now, the U.S. talk show host is passionate about education.
When I sat down and chatted to her here, she stressed how important it is to harness the power of Africa's young girls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Before you said that you were one
OPRAH WINFREY, FOUNDER, OPRAH WINFREY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY FOR GIRLS: Yes, I am one proud mama. And for once, I think I know what that feels like for real. It feels like a real sense of accomplishment.
I saw them when they were carrying buckets of water on their head and now 100 percent of this class -- 100 percent of this class has been accepted into colleges. Ten percent going to the United States. I mean that's just -- that's pretty incredible.
CURNOW: This is like a laboratory, in a sense, isn't it?
You take a...
WINFREY: Yes, it is.
CURNOW: You take a poor child...
WINFREY: Yes.
CURNOW: -- you give her a chance, you sprinkle -- sprinkle in a bit of Oprah.
What -- what else is needed?
WINFREY: Well, this is -- this is a laboratory -- I love it, laboratory, yes, Robyn. It is in the sense of this. I wanted this to be a model. Everybody, you know, when I first started, I got a lot of criticism, like why are you doing Africa and why only 400 girls and you could spend that money and you could do many other things.
Of course you can. Of course. You can spend the money in a myriad of ways. You can have closets full of shoes and do nothing for anybody.
But I wanted to do what had not been done. And Dr. Busperry (ph), who is head of child trauma services in -- in -- in -- down in Houston, he said to me, you know what, you -- you're doing something that has never been done before, because, you know, I don't know -- he said, I don't know of a place in the world that is an institution created for taking people who come from the worst of circumstances and you put them in an environment where you expect the best of them.
Usually, you take people from the worst of circumstances and you create a home or a shelter for them to get by until they can go back into the worst of circumstances.
The girls come in here wanting it. They come in with a hunger and a desire and a knowing that in order to break the cycle of poverty, I've got to seize this moment. That's what they said in their initial interviews and that's exactly what they did in the -- in the follow-through.
CURNOW: So what is that ingredient?
WINFREY: The ingredient for creating success is building a strong support team, a strong leadership team and a support team that can family them, literally, nurture and family them in such a way that they are emboldened to learn. And that's how you change the world. You want to change the world in developing countries, in poor countries, in Third World countries, in countries that are developed. You want to change the world. You change a girl's life, because the thing that has kept me steadfast in the midst of every challenge -- and believe me, there are a lot when you start from scratch building a school 8,000 miles away -- is the girls, is the heart of every girl. I have always believed and believe in the girls. I've known that no matter what we were going through, the girls were worth it, no matter what happened at the end of the day, the girls -- the investment in the girls, which is really an investment in the future leadership of this country.
CURNOW: You've hand-picked a lot of these girls.
WINFREY: Yes.
CURNOW: You're also one of the most powerful women in the world.
WINFREY: Um-hmm.
CURNOW: How do you, A, see the leadership in somebody, and how do you then create a powerful woman out of that?
WINFREY: Oh, wow! It's really one of the most exciting things I think anybody can do. The biggest mistake I have seen schools in this country and other countries make, particularly when they're working with children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, is that they lower the bar and they lower their expectations.
I brought these girls in here and I said to the staff, I said to the administrators, and I said to the girls over and over again, there is no bar.
Do you understand?
There is no bar. You were born in the year that apartheid ended in this country. That means that you are a child of freedom. There is no bar.
So -- and, you know, in the beginning, I think we had teachers who were like oh, the girls, they come with their disadvantage. So we've eliminated that word, disadvantage, because disadvantage allows other people to look at you like you have some kind of disease. And they lower their expectations for what you can be.
I said, nobody has a disadvantaged brain. Nobody's here with a disadvantaged mind. Nobody's disadvantaged spirit.
So the whole point of the school was to offer an opportunity for those girls who wouldn't have had it, who wouldn't have had it. Many of these girls are, like the 250 million girls around the world, who would never have received a high school education, that would have never gone beyond primary school. That's, you know, that's -- that's big stuff.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
CURNOW: That's all from us here at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy.
See you next week.
END
