Many of us were shocked to hear about Muammar Gaddafi’s death two months ago. None of us expected the events in Libya to take such a drastic turn. Irrefutably, change was inevitable, and sooner or later the revolution was bound to come to a head, but the violent murder of a president regardless of his autocracy, leaves a sour tone. A lot of people have clearly shown delight in the fact that the former Libyan leader is now dead, while others are distraught. Let’s examine both ends of the spectrum.

The revolution showed its initial signs early in February 2011. Following the protests in neighboring nations of Egypt and Tunisia, the people of Libya decided they had had enough of Gaddafi’s despotism. Despite having been in power since 1969, Gaddafi was unwilling to relinquish his hold on power and adamantly refused to step down. The people decided to take matters into their own hands and an opposition rebel group was formed. Their mandate seemed pretty simple; take down Gaddafi or force him to leave power and allow for a more liberal Libya. Peaceful measures failed to get Gaddafi to see reason, and hence the commencement of what turned out to be one of the most unpredictable revolutions in Africa. The revolution attracted international attention from Europe and North America, and military forces came together to aid rebel groups in Libya and put an end to Gaddafi’s reign.

Gaddafi was a ruthless despotic leader who had been in power for over 30 years. Most of his supporters stood by him through the revolution and fought for him with their every breath. The fall of their hero is undeniably devastating, and in light of his accomplishments, its understandable why they would cling on to the very end. His contributions to the nation of Libya cannot be ignored:
1. Gaddafi turned Libya from an exploited and underdeveloped nation, into a robust oil exporting nation. The economy of Libya is stronger than most of the other African states, primarily due to their oil export industry. Gaddafi raised prices of oil and extraction in Libya, thus increasing Libya’s revenues. Libya exports just about as much oil as the Middle East.
2. As a result of the oil industry and export, Libya has no debts. This is a great accomplishment since several developing and developed countries have accumulated a lot of debt, and some economies are on the brink of bankruptcy.
3. Gaddafi decreased the threat of neocolonialism in Libya by requesting western oil companies in Libya to increase Libya’s share in revenues, or risk expulsion from the nation.
4. Literacy rates rose from 10 to 90%, government support provided for university scholarships and employment opportunities.
5. He also developed infrastructure like buildings, roads, schools, hospitals which all contributed to the growth of the economy. Note should be made though that most of these developments were favoured in Gaddafi’s own hometowns; Subha and Surt.

It’s been said that it’s not how you start that matters, but rather how you finish. This statement rings true in Gaddafi’s life. Despite all his contributions to Libya, the last couple years reflect a great leader gone rogue. What should have been a great finish for him, turned out to be a tragic one. Not only were people aggravated by his long stay in power, but also by his ruthlessness. How can one reconcile the last couple months of his life with everything else that he did for Libya? Some of his tremendous contributions pale in comparison to the various human rights violations in Libya, notably:
1. Gaddafi abolished the Libyan constitution of 1951, and replaced it with laws based on political ideology. It is almost impossible for a country to survive without a constitution. A constitution is a binding legal document that shows a government’s commitment to uphold justice and also outlines every citizen’s guarantee to personal rights and freedoms. Absence of a constitution naturally leads to injustice and violation of human rights and freedoms. As a result of such a catastrophic move, all Libyans have been denied basic rights, like the right to equality, and security, freedom of speech, association .
2. Gaddafi abolished Christian calendar holidays, and replaced them with a Muslim calendar, making it the nation’s official calendar. This is a violation of the right to free worship, and undermines the right of equality.
3. Gaddafi viewed all forms of political parties as dictatorships. He instead advocated for direct rule by people’s committees according to Islamic law. This is ironic considering that it’s the direct rule of the people that led to his demise. The right to form political parties is another right that citizens are entitled to, and absence of a constitution to protect this right consequently leads to human rights violation.
4. Gaddafi used a large part of the nation’s revenues and profits to boost the wellbeing of his family and close elites. He only structurally developed his hometowns, while certain cities and towns were extremely underdeveloped.
5. The rates of corruption in Libya are disturbingly high, primarily because Gaddafi turned a blind eye to his close allies and government officials who inappropriately administrated the nation’s funds, and exploited the working class and poor.
6. We also cannot ignore the various human rights violations by the militia and government – arbitrary arrests, execution and mutilations of political opponents; recruitment and employment of hit squads to murder critics abroad, were all actions that Gaddafi let slide.
7. Gaddafi was also determined to eliminate all dark skinned people from migrating into Europe. He referred them as “barbaric, ignorant and starving Africans” who would deter the development of Europe. His statements were not only racially discriminatory, but a backward move that undermines the progression of equality of all human beings.
8. Gaddafi admitted to having sponsored the bombing of the Pan AM flight 103 plane which exploded in Scotland, killing 270 people.
9. Gaddafi sponsored and armed other African dictators in central, northern and eastern Africa.
10. When the revolution initially started, Gaddafi referred to the rebels and his opposition as “rats” and “cockroaches”, whom he would fight until the last drop of blood had been shed. He wasn’t in the least concerned about the demands of the people or the need for basic rights and freedoms.

History shows that the fate of most despotic leaders whom revolutionaries seek to remove never have a happy ending and it certainly wouldn’t have been different in this case. The intensity of the revolution in Libya however dictated a profound difference and proved that we were about to witness something new. It is tragic to witness a promising political leader adopt a despotic mindset, and deliberately violate the rights of the very people that he should be defending and protecting. The last couple of years of Gaddafi’s reign were characterized by unarrest, violence, unlawful arrests and killing of innocent civilians, actions that cannot easily be swept under the rug. So what went wrong? Is it possible at all that the tragic events of Libya could have been prevented?

Now that the revolution is over, and Gaddafi’s government has been overthrown, it is imperative that the people of Libya unite and form one democratic government with a constitution to protect the rights of all citizens. To date, the ex-rebels who aided in the overthrow of Gaddafi still haven’t been disarmed, and all efforts to do so have been futile. It is naïve to expect a seamless transition from a bloody revolution to a peaceful democratic, human rights respecting nation. However, in order for this nation to move forward,and become a constitutional state, the rebels have to surrender their arms and concede to forming a military coalition with the aim of defending and protecting Libyan citizens. Anything short of this would render all their efforts leading to this point in time, useless.

Dear baby Seven,

Your first breath of life on Earth is being celebrated as a milestone. On this October 31, 2010, we welcomed you to this rock of blue azure, your new home. It is the 3^rd planet from the sun, and the only one inhabited by life in the entire solar system. There are many species that live on this planet, but none quite as unique as the one you were born into today. You see, you are human, the seven-billionth being alive.

It took thousands of years for our population to reach one billion. Since then, our numbers have grown faster and faster. By the time you are 13, baby number 8 billion will join you on this planet.

Unfortunately, the more we grow, the less resources we have access to. As the world gets more crowded, you will have to fight for everything. One thing about being human: we know how to fight. We fight just as fiercely for the wrong things as we do for the right things. We fight for land, clean water, food, fossil fuels, and nonessential natural resources. We point guns and throw bombs, spears and arrows at each other recklessly. We pillage and furiously flex our muscles at anything that stands in the way of what we desire. We are so relentless in our pursuit that we forget how to be hospitable to each other and our environment.

So far, we have not been very good stewards of our home. We are the only species on this planet that requires such enormous amounts of energy. Energy powers everything about us. It defines our very identity. It feeds us, clothes us, and propels us from here to there. It powers our curiosity, and emboldens our greed. Mind you there’s nothing wrong with energy, just how we access it.

Humans rule supreme with unrivaled intelligence, zeal, ambition, and drive.

That intelligence and ambition drives us to invent and reinvent. We are destructively creative beings by nature; never satisfied with the status quo. “Out with the old and in with the new,” is a motto you will hear a lot in your lifetime. We create to destroy.

This is the world you are born into, but it is not a world you have to accept. Another thing about being human is that each of us has the inherent ability to be great, the capability to so greatly influence the world we live in that one person may inspire a change in how all others relate to each other and the environment. These influences come can be anywhere from inventions to social movements sparked by a single action.

Look at your hands. You have an opposable thumb. Believe it or not, it is very important. In a few years, I am sure you will be using that thumb to tap away at some piece of electronic glass to expand your knowledge. I am sure you won’t know what a keyboard is yet, but that’s what I am using to type this letter to you. Thanks to human intelligence, we are able to invent things; wonderful, delightful things that allow us to share knowledge and experiences and stretch our natural resources so that we fight just a little less.

But I wonder if you will have access to these wonderful inventions. You see, we may celebrate your birth today, but we still have no idea where you are on this rock. And where you are makes all the difference in determining what kind of life you will live, how hard you will have to work just to enjoy your short time here. If your first breath of life is in Africa, chances are you will have better access to information technology than the most basic of inventions, such as running water and waste management systems. In fact, today there are more mobile phones on the continent than there are toilets. By the time you are a teenager, there will be more internet enabled smart phones than toilets and households with electricity access on the continent. If you are in Europe or America, there is a much better chance that you will have access to any and all of the above.

But again, despair not. This reality may be what you inherit today, but it does not have to be the future you live in. I write this letter to you to give you hope, that between the great milestones of your life will be days filled with opportunity and hope. Here’s to wishing that you grab every available opportunity to succeed. Here’s to wishing you beat the odds and become great. Here’s to a dream of you rising one day to be the bright light the world needs to see. Here’s to being the difference maker. Here’s to the responsible choices that you will make in your life time. Here’s to wishing that one day you will write a letter, very much like this one but with more wisdom and guidance, to welcome baby number ten billion. For now, please enjoy sucking on that opposable thumb. It just maybe the secret to your future success.

The word “diaspora” is fraught with contested connotations. It is a condition to which some of a country’s most wretched and disillusioned citizens have aspired to, consoled by the thought of escape, of healthier grass in greener territory.  And yet in analyses of the state of affairs in their country, many citizens are quick to mention the role the emigrating population has played in the “brain drain”. While the system is usually blamed for driving this skilled class away , many times, this group has been accused of contributing to the problem by leaving the system more and more bereft. To the people in question, the relationship with the homeland is always complex.  Life in the diaspora is often coloured by nostalgic memories of childhood, a conscious feeling of distinctness in a foreign territory and despite sometimes high levels of comfort, a constant yearning to connect with the homeland.

Since the talk about Africa’s renaissance surfaced on the scene, the atmosphere has changed and many diasporic individuals have braced themselves for the new dawn and packed their bags for home. And those at home have found themselves in that state of ambivalence; sometimes rejoicing and anticipating a reversal of national fortunes in this classic brain gain fairytale and sometimes, resenting the pompous stuck up group of people who have taken their jobs and their place in the limelight. At other times, this reaspora class has turned out to be the disappointment of the century as they continue to deliver less and less, sometime perpetuating the corrupt system in spite of their training and “exposure” abroad.

But in the diaspora, hearts and consciences will continue to be tugged at as people remain torn between doing the “honourable thing” and going back and being a sellout by enjoying the comfort of the diasporic life. The judgmental voices of certain co-nationals at home constantly haunt them and they are immediately shut down whenever they denounce, from their “their comfort zone”, a new law or an outrageous development back home.

Consider the statements made by a resident of Nigeria on an online platform:

“Going to America is for the selfish and irresponsible. A responsible Nigerian will stay in Nigeria thru thick and thin to contribute to [its] development. After all what is a lifetime of one person in history ? Only 60 or 70 years and I would rather contribute mine to Nigeria than to America. Life is not about 70 years of contort and enjoyment , but about the satisfaction that you too have contributed. You can chose who to contribute to[:] America or Nigeria. We de kamke and we talk as equal stakeholders here and not as parasites”

To cosign that statement, a fellow resident said:

“All the selfish ones can go to America. They will live for 60 years in “comfort” and die in [their seventies or eighties] and so what? I will stay in Nigeria and and try my best and die here. I will urge and advice  my children to do the same. In that way my own country will one day develop. I am not a quitter and not a coward. I will sacrifice my lifetime for Nigeria and not for America.”

A few things can be surmised from the above comments:

1. One can only contribute to the homeland by staying in the homeland
2. Anyone who leaves the homeland for whatever purpose is a traitor and a coward
3. By extension of this simple logic, people who stay are contributing whereas people who leave are not. The latter are irresponsible for “enjoying in the new territory” and “contributing instead to the development of that territory.“

While this generalization reeks of bitter self-righteousness and hypocrisy, it is also largely simplistic and false. To unpack the falsities behind these statements, I urge the reader to consider the term engagement. It is a term I have used in a previous, more personal reflection. It refers to an attachment of sorts to a particular entity- an attachment characterized by interest, passion and an active growing process. Engagement can occur anywhere, in the homeland as much as in the diaspora .

At the same time, the opposite process – disengagement- can occur. In the diaspora, it is a process whereby the individual shuts himself/herself off from anything concerning the homeland (because of painful memories and permanent grievances or  general apathy) in order to begin anew, as it were. In the homeland, it is a process whereby the individual sees himself/herself only as a consumer- never as a creator. He/she stays in the system and contributes nothing to the development of his/her community. At the end of the engagement- disengagement continuum is what I call destructive engagement. To shed light on this, I juxtapose below, clear instances of engagement and destructive engagement while posing some questions to consider:

(1) A citizen stays in the system for many years but contributes nothing to the system. Instead of creating wealth, once in public office, she multiplies offices that add no value to the system; she continues to rob the state and amass wealth at the expense of development. Furthermore, in order to secure her position within the system, she masterminds several criminal activities to silence or weaken competitors.

Meanwhile,

Another citizen moves out of the system to take advantage of better career opportunities. Based on the wealth she has acquired in the diaspora, she is  better able to improve things back home on micro and macro levels. She is able to see more siblings through school and set up enterprises for her parents and relatives. She uses some of her diaspora-earned wealth to invest in a burgeoning venture which will create more jobs in one sector or another and improve the national economy as a whole.

 Which of the two individuals shall we call patriotic?

(2) A citizen moves abroad for educational prospects and has the opportunity to attend some of the finest institutions in the world. Based on the skills he acquires, he is able to leverage various resources (such as the internet) to improve the practices of people back home. He collaborates with local organizations to engage in capacity-building. Sometimes, he is able to return home (alone or with a team of experts) to conduct seminars, workshops etc thus equipping people at home with the skills they need to thrive in the system or take advantage of opportunities elsewhere.

At the same time,

A lecturer remains in the system but does not push for innovation in the classrooms and libraries. He does not seek out ways to improve teaching and learning methods nor does he actively engage students within and beyond the classroom. However, he remains an avid innovator in hotels and bedrooms.

 Which of these individuals is selfless? 

( 3 ) Certain terrorist groups bomb public spaces while their counterparts terrorize students on campuses, gang-rape innocent girls, and deface public property. They remain in the system and contribute to its rot. But they have not stepped foot outside the country and have thus not enjoyed the comfort of Western development.

Their co-nationals, on the other hand, have been more fortunate. They have lived in Western systems and have benefitted from countless opportunities. As a result of their excellence, they have found themselves in positions of power and have been able to enjoy international credibility. They then spin this fame and reputation into genuine noise for the homeland. They create awareness about issues back home; they influence policy makers to change certain greedy practices and craft better polices. They tell the story of their land in a way that only they can because they have walked those paths before and will not stand and watch the media portray their people in an undignified light.

 Which of these groups is cowardly? 

An honest answer to these questions will reveal that the honourable-dishonourable dichotomies do not overlap with the already blurry homeland-diaspora ones. Thus, in the final analysis, as progress continues and interests and identities continue to be negotiated and renegotiated, as people on ground work hard to effect change or struggle to physically escape their present realities, one thing is certain: one can be honourable at home and abroad. It is my hope that as diaspora and homeland networks and resources continue to be leveraged for the good of the continent, the question will no longer be “should I go hither or thither?” but “how can I make positive engagement central to my lifestyle in any environment I find myself?”

Fellow Ugandans,

As a creative consultant, it is not often that I get to work on a project that both pays me and also contributes to the development and well-being of Uganda. I would like to introduce you to such a project.

I met Pratheepan “Deep” Gulasekaram in DC at the Clinton Global Diaspora Forum. He, along with a crew of determined colleagues put their skills together in the wake of the Asian tsunami and built a fully functioning hospital in Sri Lanka. They successfully negotiated a public-private partnership with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health to complete and ensure the long-term success of the newly constructed Matara Children’s Hospital.

After the completion and hand over of the project that was recognized by Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr., they have set out to build a children’s hospital in Uganda. “Project Heart: Uganda” has already broken ground. The walls and roof are already up and completion is in sight.

After a long talk with Deep last month, I agreed to assist their efforts to connect to members of the East African Diaspora that would bring value to their initiative. Not because they are my clients, but because it is a much needed initiative that will bring value to Uganda’s medical system. Additionally, I wanted to share this project with you as a plea for all of us to help support this initiative to make sure it is successfully launched with as much of our buy-in as possible. After all, it will be our family members that will benefit in the long run. The above video of one such child who was helped by these very same doctors to repair her heart

Here is a project that is reaching out directly for us to be part of its success and the re-invention of Uganda’s medical services & facilities. For once, it is not another aid project that FAILS to request to partner with us. It is a project that we all know could save the life of one of our family members.

On Sept. 24th, “Project Heart: Uganda” is having a fund-raising event in Los Angeles. If you are in California and are interested in meeting Deep and his inspiring colleagues, I am sure they won’t fail to inspire you with the vision that they have for the hospital.

Here are some things you can do to help this project:

I look forward to seeing us all rise to the occasion for this initiative. Even if all you do is  donate $1.00 (though I secretly hope it is more than that, nearly $3 billion in remittances is sent to East Africa annually-let’s put some of it towards a sustainability initiative). If you’d like more information, I’d be happy to put you in touch with Deep and his team. A new web site with more information is in the works that will keep all of you updated on the project.

My new position at World Bank: Lead Social Media Strategist for Connect4Climate

I have been hoarding this news for a few weeks now. Earlier this month I accepted a consultancy at the World Bank to help launch and maintain their soon-to-launch ‘Connect4Climate’ campaign. Connect4Climate will be a campaign, a competition, and an community of individuals and global partners that care about climate change.

As many of you know, I am passionate about photography, a die-hard enthusiast of Africa’s mobile promise and the continent’s youth. That is why I was immediately drawn to the climate change photography and video competition component of this initiative. This position combines all of my passions into one fantastic opportunity. I look forward to hearing to the many emerging youth voices on the continent and in the Diaspora. If those voices are as passionate as our very own Teejay, then you know this is going to be good.

As the Lead Social Media Strategist – Connect4Climate, my job will be to get as many youth voices on the continent to engage in the conversation about climate change at the local and international level through the C4C competition. We all know that climate change affect all of us. That is why I will be reaching out to all of you reading this to engage with us to share your stories, links, data, and interesting anecdotes that will broaden the baseline of this very critical topic of discussion.

So while I am busy working with the team on launching the new site later this month, please make sure to connect with us on our Facebook page. Invite your friends, colleagues, enthusiasts, fans, supporters, (and climate change “doubters” are welcome too). Let’s get the conversation started. You can find me on Twitter @tmsruge. The C4C Twitter account will be open sometime this week. I will update this post with the new account once that goes live.

So let the conversation begin!

Why You Should Vote for Africa, Tech & Women SXSW Panel

I decided to write this blog post as a way to help prospective voters and supporters to understand the thinking and passion behind our Africa, Tech & Women: The New Faces of Development SXSW panel submission.  We believe this panel will help to change the conversation on Africa, about whom most people have a limited negative perception; its women, who are often depicted as helpless, uneducated and unproductive; and dispel the myth that there isn’t much technological development taking place in Africa.

When TMS Ruge and I embarked upon this SXSW journey together, we decided we would create a panel building upon his successful SXSW 2009 presentation, Africa 3.0.  We knew that with the 2012 panel, we wanted to add a new dimension and feature multiple voices.  After a lot of research and brainstorming, we discovered that the African Union declared 2010-2020: The African Woman Decade and decided it would be a source of inspiration for us.  Additionally, we’re both very passionate about gender rights issues, publicizing the greatness of Africa and its Diaspora and are tech enthusiasts — and as such, we decided on the title: Africa, Tech & Women.

The subtitle: The New Faces of Development came about after lots of trial and error.  We finally agreed to it, given that it encompasses the areas we want to cover and from a new perspective: (1) Economic, (2) Technological, (3) Philanthropic, and (4) Community.

We then decided we should showcase the different ways in which a cross-section of African women based in the Diaspora and on the continent are impacting Africa’s development through technology.  We were able to identify three incredible African women who leverage use technology in very significant ways to affect change on the continent and beyond.  They also helped us to flesh out the panel topics, so that the description you read below is representative of what we all want to share, in the limited time available on a panel.  Additionally,

Africa, Tech & Women SXSW Panelists

1. Isis Nyong’o – InMobi (Kenya)

Isis joined InMobi in February 2011 to lead business expansion in Africa. With over nine years of business development, marketing and sales experience, Isis is responsible for the overall growth on the continent.  Isis joins InMobi from Google where she led the company’s business development efforts in Africa. She specialized in mobile partnerships and developed Google’s content strategy to bring more African content online. She brings extensive media and tech experience to InMobi and drove the launch of MTV Networks in Africa where she was responsible for commercial relationships including distribution and sales. She developed the marketing strategy for Kenya’s first online recruitment service, MyJobsEye and holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Business School where she was president of the Africa Business Club. Isis has been named by Forbes as one of The 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa, is one of the ‘Top 40 Women under 40″ in Kenya, and is frequently featured by the Africa media including, Al Jazeera, BBC, Nation Newspaper, NTV, Standard Newspaper and UP Magazine, among others.

2. Ebele Okobi-Harris – Yahoo! (USA)

Ebele Okobi-Harris is Director of Yahoo!’s Business and Human Rights Program, leading Yahoo!’s efforts to promote privacy and free expression on the Internet. Before joining Yahoo!, Ebele was a corporate securities and mergers & acquisitions attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, Paris and London, an attorney fellow at Consumers Union (a consumer rights advocacy non-profit) in San Francisco, a director of Advisory Services at Catalyst (a non-profit with the mission of advancing women in business) in San Jose and Amsterdam and at Nike’s EMEA headquarters as an MDP focused on marketing and business development in Africa.

Ms. Okobi-Harris earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Southern California, a JD from Columbia Law School and an MBA Certificat des Études from Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris.

3. Milly Businge – Kikuube Village Council (Uganda)

Milly Businge is a respected village elder and mother of eight children in the small village of Kikuube. She serves as the Local Chairperson (LC1) of her village, representing a population of nearly 1000 residents. She has been unanimously re-elected to this position by the residents of Kikuube because her work representing them at the government level. She has often wanted to retire and refused to stand for the position during elections, but the villagers always rally and vote for her anyway. That’s the mark of a great leader.  Mrs. Businge was also recently officially ordained as a minister and serves as the pastor of the small but growing community church.

In November 2010, Mrs. Businge delivered the keynote speech during the “Villages in Action” conference that was hosted in Kikuube.  The conference was broadcast live over the internet and proved to be a very successful initiative — giving the poor an opportunity to be heard in the global conversation about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

When she is not managing domestic disputes, land wrangles, and community health awareness campaigns in her community, she spends her time reading. She is also an enthusiastic user of mobile technologies as they help her connect with her constituency and connect globally to her son (TMS Ruge) in America.

4. Liz Ngonzi – New York University Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising (USA)

Born in Uganda and “raised” at the United Nations, Liz Ngonzi is an international educator, speaker and consultant, who has since 2009, been on Adjunct Faculty at New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy & Fundraising – for which she has developed and taught courses on online and mobile fundraising, and where she is one of four noted social media experts.

Liz is a recognized authority on ICT for development, the African Diaspora market, hospitality / service management, women in business, and social entrepreneurship.  She’s a frequent conference speaker, including as a panelist during the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration, in the spring of 2007; as a featured international speaker at the May 2011 Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising’s 10th Biennial Convention in South Africa; and as a panelist for New York University’s Philanthropy 3.0 Speaker Series: Mobile in Advocacy The Next Frontier.  In September, she will speak in the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 41^st Annual Legislative Conference and will chair the 2^nd Annual ICT Women Empowerment Africa Summit in South Africa.

A committed volunteer, Liz has held several board positions, including currently serving as a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women (for which she is a Vice Chair of its Communications Committee); the Advisory Board to the Cornell University Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship; and the United Nations International School’s Council for Alumni Affairs.

Media outlets in which Liz has been featured, include: CBS’ The Early Show, Crain’s New York Business, New Jersey Jewish News, Successful Meetings Magazine, The New York Times, The Nonprofit Times and ZambiaBlogTalkRadio.

Liz founded and runs Amazing Taste, LLC., a values-led boutique consulting firm that connects NGOs with philanthropists and corporations, to achieve strategic objectives through fundraising events, marketing campaigns, along with educational activities.   Amazing Taste has worked with or advised domestic and international educational institutions, gender rights organizations, healthcare foundations, political campaigns, and youth development organizations.

Liz spent her 10-year corporate career in marketing, sales and business consulting at Digital Equipment Corporation, MICROS Systems, Inc. and Arthur Andersen, respectively.  She obtained her Master of Management in Hospitality degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems degree (with a concentration in Telecommunications Systems) from Syracuse University.  Additionally, she graduated from the United Nations International School.

5. TMS Ruge (moderator and “token male”) – Project Diaspora (USA)

TMS Ruge was born in Masindi, Uganda and grew up in Uganda, Kenya and the United States. Capitalizing on his understanding of different cultures and markets, Ruge has become a successful global social entrepreneur.

In 2007 he co-founded Project Diaspora — to motivate, engage and mobilize the African Diaspora to take an active role in Africa’s development. Following his passion to engage the continent, he has invested his time and money in a number of development initiatives including Uganda Medicinal Plants Grower’s ltd. – an indigenous farmers’ business specializing in the export of value-added medicinal plants, and Women of Kireka – a women’s jewelry making cooperative.

A technology enthusiast, Ruge writes and speaks extensively on Africa’s current renaissance driven by technology, youth and the Diaspora. He is a frequent contributor to several online publications including CNN, PopTech, The Globe and Mail, and The Guardian, and the Project Diaspora blog. He is also the host of The Digital Continent Podcast, a weekly technology podcast for people who believe that Africa is full of innovation and opportunity. Ruge is also a founding board member of Hive Colab – an open, collaborative, community-owned, work environment for young Ugandan tech entrepreneurs to focus on projects..

Ruge also serves as an advisor for ?OpenAction.org – an online platform that allows development organizations to richly engage their online audience.

He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from the University of North Texas.

Description of the Proposed SXSW Africa, Tech Women: The New Faces of Development Panel:

This panel provides a rare glimpse into the multitude of ways African women are applying technology to advance Africa’s development. The panel aims to dispel the myths about African women as breeders and victims — incapable of participating in their own continent’s development, by: (1) showcasing contributions they are making in the technology field – through entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and community leadership; and (2) providing insights into how they are using technology to raise awareness about, mobilize campaigns against and address human rights violations.

The panel will specifically explore how African women are using technology to make an impact through: – Digital advocacy to protect people’s rights – Social media to help grassroots organizations engage new supporters worldwide – Mobile advertising to enable small businesses to access new markets – Internet connectivity to integrate the often unheard community voices into the global conversation on development

Throughout the discussion, panelists will provide anecdotes on how the resulting increased access to information, is altering the role of women in African society.

Questions our panel aims to answer are:

1. What is the role of women in Africa’s fast emerging digital landscape and what types of contributions are they making?
2. How is technology improving the everyday lives of women on the continent?
3. What is the negative impact of increased access to information, on the role of the African woman in her society?
4. What are the opportunities and connections technology is facilitating between women in the Diaspora and on the continent?
5. Given the increased adoption of mobile phones in Africa and the rise of its middle class, what opportunities exist for marketers interested in targeting African women?

Please help us to amplify the voices of African women in the global discussion on development.

Vote for Africa, Tech & Women: The New Faces of Development and tell your friends to do the same.

Thank you

Follow us on Twitter: Liz Ngonzi @LizNgonzi | Isis  Nyongy’o @Inyongyo | TMS Ruge @TMSruge

We got this notice for an exciting new web series that will be shot on the East Coast and in Ghana. If you have acting chops or think you fit the roles, then download the PDF with character breakdown. Prepare your strong monologues now, I have a feeling these are going to be very sought-after roles for African actors and entertainers.

The creators of ‘The Other City’ (a working title) are casting for a pilot for a web series to be shot this fall/winter.  ‘The Other City’ is the African version of ‘Sex and the City,’ based in Accra, Ghana.  We are looking for women from the African Diaspora between the ages of 20 and 35, as well as male models of African descent between the ages of 20 and 40.

Date:  Thursday, August 25
Time:  3pm – 7pm
Address:  420 W. 118th street – 118th and Amsterdam (Columbia University)

Prior to the audition, please email to theothercity233@gmail.com a professional resume, headshot, and video link. Most importantly, please email a time you expect to arrive at the auditions. Shooting will take place in October/November in Washington DC (2 days) as well as next year in Accra, Ghana (2 weeks).

Download the call sheet »

For our fellow Diasporans in the UK, you might be interested in checking this out. We got word that FELA! is coming to Sadler’s Wells for a few weeks (July 20 – Aug 28 to be exact). Here’s more information below:

FELA!
Sadler’s Wells
Wednesday 20 July – Sunday 28 August 2011
Performances: Tue – Sun at 7.30pm, Sat & Sun mats at 2.30pm
Tickets: £15 – £50
Ticket Office: 0844 412 4300
www.sadlerswells.com

“There should be dancing in the streets. There has never been anything like this.”
- New York Times

Sadler’s Wells’ summer show for 2011 is the Tony Award-winning Broadway dance musical FELA!. A provocative hybrid of dance, theatre and music, exploring the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, the production runs at Sadler’s Wells from 20 July to 28 August 2011.

Leading the cast is Olivier Award-nominated Sahr Ngaujah, who returns to the title role, having garnered acclaim for his portrayal of Kuti in New York and London. Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T Jones’s visionary staging, FELA! reveals Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist and celebrates his pioneering music.

Recognised as an icon in the international world of rock and roll, soul, jazz and hip-hop, Fela Kuti combined elements of traditional Yoruba, high life and jazz, giving rise to “Afrobeat”. Through his music he condemned military regimes in Nigeria. He was arrested more than 200 times and beaten savagely on many occasions. Despite this he continued to live in Nigeria and produced more than 70 albums during his career.

FELA! was choreographed, directed and co-written (with lyricist Jim Lewis) by Bill T. Jones, a leading light in American contemporary dance. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982. The company last performed at Sadler’s Wells in 2004.

Jones’ awards include the 2007 Tony Award, the 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening and the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven.

FELA! received its world premiere Off-Broadway in September 2008, where it won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, before transferring to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre in November 2009 where its accolades included three 2010 Tony Awards®, for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Design, and an Astaire Award for Bill T. Jones’ choreography.

FELA! is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, and music and lyrics by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel, the design and Tony Award winning costumes are by Marina Draghici, lighting design by Robert Wierzel and the Tony Award winning sound design by Robert Kaplowitz.

FELA! is produced in association with Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Roy Gabay, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Edward Tyler Nahem, Slava Smolokowski, Chip Meyrelles/Ken Greiner, Douglas G. Smith, Steve Semlitz/Cathy Glazer, Daryl Roth/True Love Productions, Susan Dietz/Mort Swinsky, Knitting Factory Entertainment and with Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson.

“The dancing is ecstatic, the music lifts the spirits and the stage is alive with movement”
- The Guardian

Additional Notes on Fela Kuti and Bill T Jones:

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, north of Lagos in 1938. His father was a Christian schoolmaster, minister and master pianist and his mother was a world-recognised feminist leader, who was very active in the anti-colonial Nigerian women’s movement during the struggle for independence. Educated in Nigeria, and later in London where he studied music, Fela Kuti found his authentic musical voice adding elements of traditional Yoruba, high life and jazz, giving rise to “Afrobeat”. Through his music he condemned military regimes in Nigeria for their mismanagement, and marginalization of the underprivileged. He was subsequently constantly harassed, arrested more than 200 times and beaten savagely on many occasions. Despite this he continued to live in Nigeria and produced in excess of 70 albums of music during his career. He toured the United States and Europe with an entourage of 80 people to public and critical acclaim. He died in August 1997 at the age of 58 from an AIDS-related illness. In Nigeria one million people attended his funeral.

Bill T. Jones won the 2007 Tony Award, the 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening. His many awards also include the 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship, the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven, the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the 2005 Wexner Prize, and the Aaron Davis Hall Harlem Renaissance Award. Before forming Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, Bill T. Jones choreographed and performed nationally and internationally worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company last appeared at Sadler’s Wells in June 2004.

From time to time, my inbox is graced with a link someone came across and thought I’d be interested in checking out. More often than not, the sender is seeking my opinion on the contents of the link. I guess myself and the smartaid crew on Twitter have kind of gotten a reputation for not slacking on criticizing bad aid practices. Guess I am guilty as charged. When I read this piece on Mashable, I did a double-take before pulling out my tried and true aid-snark criticism.

But before I do that, let me first ask a question. What separates us from our money on our way to doing something charitable? Is it because we love the product or because we love the cause that the product’s proceeds support? I took part in criticizing TOMS’ ‘buy one, give one’ campaign earlier this year. I’ve generally not agreed with any initiative that falsely claims that giving things for free solves endemic problems. I think this is a fairly elementary understanding of good development.

So why am I pausing before I criticize Sevenly’s new t-shirt initiative? At first glance, I thought, ‘now here is something that I can get behind.’ But the more I think about it, the more I am torn about this little variation to the status quo.

Sevenly stretches its gimmicky name to it’s logical conclusion. It partners with a deserving non-profit organization. They design a shirt, and put in on sell for seven days. Seven dollars from each sale goes to support the partner organization. This is a little different twist from the TOMS Shoes BOGO model in that it is a strictly financial donation to a non-profit organization on the sale of a T-shirt (see also (Product) RED).

Again with my question: What separates us from our money? Surely you can find a T-shirt at your nearest Banana Republic or Old Navy for the same amount. It is also reasonable to assume that you can find a charity as the recipient of your hard-earned $24. Apparently, the problem is that we are doing more of the latter and very little of the former. Here’s why Sevenly was founded:

Co-founders Dale Partridge and Aaron Chavez were motivated to create the site after seeing the amount of worthy non-profits that shut down within their first year open. The problem isn’t apathy so much as a lack of following, funding and awareness.

Sevenly is attempting to address donor apathy by rolling charitable giving into consumer habits. As I write this, a ‘poverty-porn’-laced video from World Relief highlighting rape in Congo is playing on the home page. I am left asking myself exactly how giving $7 to World Relief is going to stop that little boy in the video from getting raped. At this question I am lifting my hands off the keyboard asking myself why I would be so heartless as to question World Relief’s efforts to stop(?) rape in Congo?* But really, how is selling a shirt going to stop the rape of over 1000 men, women, and children today? How much of that $7 is actually reaching the ground? Do you really really care when you hit the buy button?

Like TOMS, Sevenly has simply figured out a better way to sell shirts and make a profit, not a better way to help non-profits stay sustainably relevant. Which is another way of arranging a mutually-beneficial backscratching. The non-profits are just a beneficiary cog in the marketing machine. By targeting your heart strings, philanthropic e-commerce has found a new way to separate you from your hard-earned money and leave you that much more separated from the cause du jour. If this strategy had any merit at all as a philanthropic initiative, Sevenly should have reversed its share of the piece of the pie by giving away 2/3 and finding a way to operate on 1/3. Any initiative that leans heavy in favor of self-sustanability is just pulling your chain. I’d be impressed if the company designing and manufacturing the shirts for this week actually employed a subset of the recipients in the Congo. I highly doubt any of that is happening.

Sigh. So much for thinking there was something to like about Sevenly. Seems to me it is just a continuation of the status quo. Yes, yes
I know what you are going to say:

“At least it is better than nothing.”

That, my friend, does not make it right, now does it?

*For more nuanced analysis of the complexity in Congo (and to put into context why a $7 donation isn’t going to help rape victims), please start reading Dr. Laura Seay’s excellent ‘Texas in Africa‘ blog.

My dear sister, I have started this letter only about a million times. And a million times I have crumbled it up and thrown it away. As the years have passed the pile of words and paragraphs have sat in the hollow chambers of my heart; collecting layers of regret and sorrow. I have tried to make keys and lock them away in darkness, but the doors never seem to lock. The letters unfinished beckon incessantly to be put to their final purpose, haunting me with your face alight with that smile so seared in my memory. It’s all I had and it is all I have now. But the memory of you is a weight I can no longer carry. Life, my dear sister, it marches on you see. I fear I must heed its calling, lest my days in the sun pass me by. And so this I must say to you. This I must reveal to you. This I must unchain from my soul. This I must retire to the depth our past. These words to you my dear, on this most auspicious of times, must be set to light on this brand new day.

How do I even pretend to imagine your pain, your hurt, your loneliness? How do I erase it all away with words that come a little too late? Time I can not reverse, but the future awaits me to shape her. I must not wallow in my own regret. Even you wouldn’t have me drown in the shallows of what I cannot change.

You have waited for me I know, to say something, to say anything. I have tried so many times to come and failed. I have known the way and yet I continue to hesitate. At the fork, I stare down the meandering road until it disappeared in the distance. For these many years, I have been turning left for home, wishing I had had the strength to do otherwise. For these many years, you have waited to no avail. For this I am truly sorry.

You see, mother has been afraid of me leaving. She thinks I won’t come back either. She too misses you terribly. It is a sort of sadness written on her soul. No prayer goes without a wish that the truth wasn’t the truth; that there was still chance; that this cruelty of fate wasn’t woven in the fabric of our lives. I sat once in the garden with her, seeing if she would change her mind about letting me come. A few billowing clouds wafted across a plate of glassy blue sky. The wind was ushering in the season’s daily rains. The flowers she tended to so lovingly seemed to bow in resignation, as she looked at me with tears in her eyes.

“You must not go,” she said, “she’s no longer there.”

I remember thinking of this truth, and wanting to fight it once more, shove it back with the words unsent and the memories lost. I wanted the news that I received almost three years earlier not to be true. You were no longer there but yet I knew I had to come and do something. What, I did not know.

You see, the day we separated in Nairobi — you heading to see grandmother in Juba and me going to see grandfather in Masindi — almost felt like it was normal. I was never supposed to lose you for good. Perhaps I should have cried or protested more to stop it. I wish I had known more at the age of four. Or maybe you should have done something since you were older.

Oh, how I have lamented the sorrow you must have felt from not knowing where I was. I was told a terrible war waged the minute you reached grandmother. I waited for you to come, not understanding why you wouldn’t leave and just come, not understanding what war was. I wrote letters that never seemed to come back. I prayed prayers that never seemed to reach you. The seasons passed and the winds blew and the stars shimmered and the sun rose and set and the moon glowed and our reality became clear. You were not coming for me, nor would I ever reach you in time.

The call shook me from a deep night’s slumber. It was Uncle Joshua.

“I have news, are you awake?” he asked.

You had passed away a year before I started looking for you. I was at university and hoping to find you before I graduated so you could attend. I know you would have been proud of me. Mother came to watch me give the graduation speech. Father made a big meal for our party. I felt empty and guilty. I remember spending that summer so gutted, hollowed and haunted. I slept in fathers bed crying for days. I’d never been closer to him.

I have been so gutted in my soul for over a decade now. I think it is time I forgave myself. What do you think? Can I truly forgive myself if I don’t know if you forgave me? I will never know if you did or not. So I must make this choice to do so, because at the very least you would have wanted me to be OK. You always tried to make sure I was ok. So on this day I vow to make the best me that I can be, because of you. On this day I vow not to be sad but optimistic and hopeful that a new future is possible.

Wherever you may lay, know that on this very morning, a new kind of day is dawning. One that I think you and so many of us paid the ultimate price for. Please tell whoever is laying next to you that today a nation is born. The winds sway the tall grasses above you, shaking the morning’s dew from their sinewy leaves as they reach for the new morning sun. Today we awake to a new future full of possibilities, full of promise and hope. I hope you can see us celebrate, I hope you can hear the drums in the distance. I hope you can feel the stomping feet. I hope you can feel the joyous sound. I hope you can see our new flag shimmering in the morning sun. And I hope that you know, I wish you were here to celebrate with me.

Happy birthday Lucy, this is our day in the sun.

Two years ago, I traveled with a group of about fifteen students from across Europe and North America to a small village in the Dominican Republic. We stayed in the community for two weeks trying to finish up a school building, building a public bathroom and organizing educational programs for the children. The villagers were very happy to see us and thanked us for coming to help them. In turn, they cooked for us for the duration of our stay.  But every day- or other day- when we had meetings and reflections, no villager was present. We talked about communication, respect, the economy, the needs of the community, and a host of other things. However, our reflections were held in exclusion. Sometimes, the village head came to talk to us- but with the help of an interpreter because they spoke Spanish and we spoke English. But besides the dances and games and during the construction process, we never had villagers come to us to share their experiences and teach us about leadership or values. When we were leaving the village, we were very sad.  We thought about the children and how helpless they were. But we were convinced that we had done something commendable and that we were to continue to have hope in the world.

Upon my return to Canada, I became very interested in the study of international development and development practices. As I started reading development blogs and about the complexities of the development industry, I began to learn about the harmful effects of patronizing projects, those save-them-they-are-helpless projects, those I-know-what’s-best-for-them projects and those I’m-a-good-person-helping-humanity projects. As I read and interacted with people in the industry, I learnt that the development approach matters, that good intentions are not enough and that local voices need to be heard.  I have since written about awareness campaigns that rob people of their dignity, development projects that harm stifle local initiative, the harmful effects of going to build schools overseas, the importance of Africa’s youth population and  the notion of “help” and  the importance of Diaspora engagement in African affairs. I tried to promote better practices in NGOs and have facilitated training programs on development practices but only recently have I been able to connect the dots….

How about Diasporans leading typical international development projects but making sure that the projects promote local initiative and build local capacity while protecting people’s dignity and promoting local leadership in development affairs?  Eureka!

It sounds good in principle but upon meeting Thato Makgolane, I found that it also looks good in practice. In 2010, when Thato took some students from the Sauder Business School at the University of British Columbia to his hometown of Phalaborwa, South Africa under the Arc Initiative Project, he made it clear that this was not a “save-Africa” project. “If you’re looking for one of those, look elsewhere”, he said to the team; “[My] people should not be perceived as purely just been poor people…and incapable… we are vibrant and given opportunity, we have some amazing skills and abilities.” The Arc Initiative project was structured in such a way that both UBC students and Phaloborwa students and residents were given a platform to share information about their cultures and practices. At any given time, there were people from both countries giving opinions about a subject. Business and management professionals in the Vancouver area were also brought on the project to share skills and best practices in business alongside local business owners in the area.

The focus of the three-day workshop was on financial management, leadership, strategy and marketing with small business owners and people in the financial sector.  At the end of the workshop, the participants were presented with a case analysis which they had to solve thus ensuring that they had learnt something from the workshop. Some students from UBC were placed to work in local cooperatives and business enterprises as interns for six-weeks thus assuming an apprentice role and contributing to the enterprise when their skills were needed.  The project ended with a business ideas competition and the competing projects were not only reviewed by the students but by the local business people. The winners of the competition were then given funds to launch their sustainable business projects.

The “arc” in the name “Arc Initiative Project” signifies bridge-building across people and nationalities and a two-way-street philosophy. Thato believes that partnerships of this nature should be visible not only in the implementation of projects but also in their design. In other words, as he has done, Africans need to play an active part in birthing ideas that will lead to their growth instead of waiting for Westerners or Easterners to come up with ideas and simply partnering with them to implement those ideas.

Arc Initiative: The CMAs from WardenFilms | Ryan Warden on Vimeo.

And he is right. At the end of the day, one thing is evident: as international development projects continue to remain on the development scene, African Diasporans must step in and lead the way, designing the very plot of these projects, encouraging dialogue among Western and African students and individuals, facilitating knowledge transfer across continents, protecting and promoting local enterprise, destroying stereotypes and proving to the world, that indeed, Africa does not need to be saved.

For more about Thato and the Arc Initiative Project, visit their website

Helen, Jennifer and Grace at the Stone Cold movie screening. Read more here!

It’s that time of the year again – marathon training time! I started training for the Marathon de Montréal 2011 in May just as my first year law exams began. For the rest of the summer, I will be training in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where I am working with LICADHO, a human rights organization. Eventually, I will make my way back to Montreal for September and a final month of running around Mont-Royal.

Last year, a number of you helped donate to Women of Kireka’s School Fundraiser. We have since phased out that program as the women are increasingly able to make ends meet through Women of Kireka’s jewelry sales. We are now hoping to start combining new materials in our jewelry and we are looking for two kinds of generous support: either a donation through ChipIn, which will go directly into buying new jewelry-making tools or materials OR a purchase from the Women of Kireka shop.

Thank-you again to everyone who helped us out last year!

Britain’s Brainiest Family is Black and Has 9-Year-Old High School-Bound Twins — what a catchy title for a compelling story about the British-based offspring of Nigerian immigrants — Chris and Ann Imafidon — blessed with what is seen as extraordinary brains.  I discovered this and another related compelling article, during my routine search for blog post content and was quite inspired, given that the last time I had conducted such a search, I had come across many dis-empowering images of Africa and its people, sparking my piece entitled: Rebranding Africa: Let’s Simply Start by Connecting the Dots for a Kid in Podunk! The basic premise of that piece was that Africans and those in the diaspora need to work towards helping shape a full picture of who we are — beyond images of “primitive” and helpless people — through the sharing of the plethora of existing success stories of those in the diaspora who are making their marks on their respective spheres and who consequently serve as ambassadors for a more inclusive dialogue about the African continent.

Paula & Peter Imafidon (Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2553538/Twins-youngest-to-sit-A-level-maths.html)

One of the compelling articles I cite above, penned by Jack Malvern in The UK Times on March 1, 2010, characterizes the Imafidon children as prodigies, including the main subjects of the piece, Paula and Peter, who at the time of its printing, the author noted as nine-year-old “Wonder Twins” bound for high school.  This family included the oldest sibling, Anne-Marie — at the time 20 — and who at the time held “the world record for being  the youngest girl to pass A-level computing, at 13,” while at the same age, she won a British government scholarship to pursue undergraduate studies at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in the United States; the next sibling, Christiana (who at the time of the article was 17), at the age of 11, became the youngest student to pursue an undergraduate education in any British University; and Samantha (at the time 12), who at the age of six, passed two rigorous high school–level mathematics and statistics exams, and whose feat was further emulated by her “Wonder Twin” siblings, Paula and Peter.

While I sincerely applaud Mr. Malvern and other journalists who  took it upon themselves to spotlight the Imafidon children, the undertones I read are that the family members are a collective anomaly – a notion which their father dispelled in an interview with Black Voices’ blogger, Ruth Manuel-Logan, in which he attributed their success not to any innate super powers, but simply to an Excellence in Education program for disadvantaged inner-city youth, in which they had all participated and as I inferred – active parenting and great genes.  He  stated further that “Every child is a genius…Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in the environment that will nurture that talent, then the sky is the limit,”  citing examples such as Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters, whose talents he believes were also nurtured.

Given the aforementioned and many other examples I have personally witnessed of highly intelligent and accomplished Africans, achieving great success in all spheres around the world (some of whom I included in my earlier cited piece) — I wonder why Africans still accept to be depicted as” (1) people who are seemingly too inept to effectively participate in their own development, (2) have low levels of education attainment, (3) need to be constantly saved by others, and (3) presumably have contributed nothing to this world, beyond breeding too many children who drain the globe’s resources.  The overwhelming majority of images I see in the media about the continent, are those of Africa’s natural resources that are fodder for the picking and its animals and landscape that are the source of enjoyment for tourists.

I was further compelled to write this piece, based on a heart wrenching Twitter message I received in response to my earlier cited piece on the need to re-brand Africa from the nonprofit group Youth Advocacy Network (YAN), which teaches kids in Buea, Cameroon, about video production, social media and computer literacy, as a means to share their stories with the world.   The message was: “Our students researched Africa & the flood of neg stats/media was hard to take in. Esp 4 kids using the web for the 1st time…” – which I interpreted as: their children were negatively affected by the negative images they found in the search results for Africa, most likely because the images failed to reflect the reality they see on a daily basis and the aspirations they each have.  It is for them, and other future leaders of the African continent and other parts of the world, that I plead that we seriously consider changing the image of Africa.  I fear that if we fail to provide an inclusive depiction of Africa, we fail those current and future generations that could potentially benefit fully from all that Africa has to offer.

For a more balanced picture, I refer to my own personal experiences.  In the early 1990’s, I was fortunate to meet a young Cameroonian, Dr. Acha Leke (a native francophone), while he was an undergraduate electrical engineering student at Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States — from which he eventually graduated at the age of 21 as its first black valedictorian — enrolled in a five-year program from which other would have graduated at the age of 23.  He eventually went on to obtain his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University; became a partner at the prestigious management consulting firm, McKinsey and Company; was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum; and in his very valuable spare time, co-founded the inpiring African Leadership Academy – an institution aimed at developing the next generation of ethical and well-trained African leaders.

African Leadership Academy Crest

Dr. Leke is but one of many highly intelligent and committed Africans I have been privileged to meet along my journey.  Other examples include the visionary students with whom I had an opportunity to work during the early 1990’s, as a volunteer publicist for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-based, African Technology Forum (ATF) — a journal chronicling scientific and technological advances within and without Africa — furthering the continent’s development.  Most of these students had at the time, moved from Africa to attain degrees from top universities in the United States, including:

1. Karanja Gakio, ATF co-founder who went on to co-found Africa Online with fellow Kenyan and MIT classmate Ayisi Makatiani (named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum) – the continent’s first Internet Service Provider– which was eventually sold to Prodigy Services Corporation.
2. Mawuli Tse, a Ghanaian national, who at the time was an MIT student and ATF co-founder, who has since become the Director of International Sales for iBasis, a global leader in international voice, mobile data and prepaid services that turns the challenges of international telecommunications into new opportunities.
3. Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang (born to forward-thinking illiterate Ghanaian parents), who conducted his MIT doctoral research on a hybrid engine for a leading American automobile manufacturer.
4. Nigerian-born, Dayo Ogunyemi, at the time an undergraduate MIT student (and fellow UNIS alumnus), who subsequently went on to attain his JD/MBA degrees from Columbia University, and following two decades as an entrepreneur, financier, strategy consultant and attorney is now the CEO of 234 Media — a firm that makes principal investments in the media, entertainment and technology sectors in Africa.
5. Fellow Ugandan, Dr. Khaitsa Wasiyo, who at the time was an undergraduate student at Tufts University — eventually going on to complete her Ed.D at Columbia University’s famed Teachers College, and subsequently founded Elgon Project Management – “a turnkey, one-stop solution for building open source interactive websites for learning, collaboration, and performance.”

So given all of the aforementioned, what’s my point?  The “Wonder Twins” and their siblings are not an anomaly — they are but examples (as stated by their own father) of what dedicated parenting, focus, and enrichment programs aimed at developing youth…can accomplish.

The examples of some of the very intelligent and accomplished Africans I have been blessed to meet along my journey should help to solidify the notion that Africa has highly intelligent people who have made and continue to make contributions worthy of note, on the continent and beyond.  They also are also helping to move the continent toward Africa3.0.

Note: I also recently learned about 15-year-old American teenager, Saheela Ibraheem — born to Nigerian immigrants — admitted into 13 prestigious American universities, from which she has just accepted an offer from Harvard University to pursue studies in neuroscience and neurobiology.

Please feel free to connect with me: About.me || Twitter

I spent this past week in Washington, DC attending Secretary Clinton’s Global Diaspora Forum. The UN foundation invited me to participate on a panel discussion the Global Diaspora’s role in tackling global problems.

The power of the Diaspora as change agents is not something new to us here at Project Diaspora. Since 2007, we’ve been singing that song from the perspective of the African Diaspora’s role in development of Africa. While the continent’s Diaspora was well-represented, I noticed a lack of Sub-Saharan Africa voices on the major planery panels. Semhar Araia, founder and executive director of Diaspora African Women’s Network (DAWN) and a member of Eritrea’s Diaspora, was one of the few voices I noticed.

I can possibly give the State Department a pass as this was the first conference of it’s kind. I am sure subsequent forums will include an equal representation from all regions. There was an underlying current of the need for collaboration among the Diaspora’s.

In his opening remarks, Thomas Debass, Director at the Global Partership Initiative in the Office of the Secretary of State, noted that “the tone of the conference is about partnership and less about pontification.”

The following are notes from the first day’s keynote speeches and plenary sessions. I zeroed in on interesting stats and quotes that I thought most relevant to this audience:

• We [ global diaspora ] are natural ambassodors
• 300 organizations represented
• Diaspora at State is a brand new office set up by Secretary Clinton

Maria Otero
Under-Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs

• Highest ranking Latina in the history of Department of State
• Raised with 8 siblings in La Paz, Bolivia
• Moved to Washington, DC when she was 12
• “Our hearts, our minds and our stomachs always remain in our home countries”
• Her siblings lived somewhere between Bolivian culture and new home in America. All her siblings got jobs that fulfilled that balance
• Has been fortunate to work in careers that have dealt with her home country
• Over 25% of American population is first generation immigrant
• US throughout has used used Diaspora to engage with their home countries
• This event today builds on our ties to our countries of origin. Seeks Diaspora to inform State Department on foreign diplomacy.
• “What State Dept calls diplomacy, we call a phone call to family and friends.”
• We know we are the link between the two and our voice matters
• Diaspora communities are first to respond and last to leave in any time of intervention
• Diplomacy under this pres and Sec of state is no longer limited to a phone call from government office
• From one immigrant to many, I greatly appreciate you being here
• All the issues that I work on I know are important to you

 

Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State of the United States

• Extend greeting to everyone that is visiting via internet
• One of great strengths of the US is its diversity
• More than 60 million Americans are first or second generation diaspora
• What would countries do without remittances from America. Remittances dwarf foreign aid
• Not possible for any government to deal with everything it has to deal with, that’s why we need ‘smart power.’ Building coalitions, people-to-people exchanges is the essence of smart power
• You are our peace corps, our usaid, opic all rolled into one
• In a crisis, first people to respond are those with family or friends where disaster strikes
• Many of you have stepped in where others were unwilling or unable to assist
• Irish Americans were instrumental in peace process in Ireland
• America has an obligation to try and promote peace around the world (with guns?-TMS)
• Particularly interested in women involved as peace makers
• There are some member of some communities who want nothing to do with their respective communities of origin
• GDF will instutionalize as a convener, catalyst, collaborator (work closely with diaspora to maximize impact
• We need to get into the basics of what it means to participate in the process of politics
• We need you to help to us (State dept) on what is best to be done to organize
• Too many people who pledge for democracy believe in one election, one time
• We want you to tell us what we should be doing

 

Partner Commitments to the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance (IDEA)

• IFAD
  • Diaspora investment in ag is end of conflict and beginning of development
  • 250 million leave outside countries of origin worldwide
  • We all have a profound connection to our friends and our families
  • 325 bil in remittances around the world, help in education, health, family
  • Role of diaspora goes beyond short-term relief
  • Investment in ag is best vehicle to development. Social and polical benefits
  • Diaspora willing to invest while foriegn firms run away
  • How can we better leverage Diaspora investments in agricuture
  • Diaspora save $400 bil every year, money is not the problem
  • Diaspora throughout the world will send over $1.3 trillion, goal is to encourage moving some of that money towards investments to foster growth and development
  • “Let us create a world where migration is a matter of choice, not a matter of necessity”

• Inter American Development Bank
  • Latin America will soon reach 100% mobile phone penetration, the highest in the world
  • It is impossible for any one institution to have everything

World Bank

• • African Diaspora is the 6^th region for Africa’s development
  • Africa in the last decade has done better than it has ever done, growing at about 5.7% per anum.
  • Africa’s sound policies rebounded after the global crisis because of sound policies
  • Any attempts to grow the continent needs to employ all economic regions
  • Data on physicians: 1 to 33,500 patients in Liberia
  • No way africa is going to achieve MDGs in childbirth without investment in this areas
  • 2 million in the US and other areas
  • Infrastrucre on the continent.
    • Domestic resources mobilization is almost saturated
    • $48 billion needed annually to build up Africa’s infrastructure

Haiti

• I would ask the remittances laws be changed to allow for more flow and less control at the top by remittance companies controlling remittance flows.

MVIA launches BOOM

• • World’s first global mobile-based bank account
  • Does not charge money transfer fees
  • First two global diaspora will be Mexico & Haiti
  • Will include large towns and cities as well as rural areas
  • Partnership with 25000 owner-operated money-transfer facilities
  • Bank over 1 million over next 5 years
  • Eliminating cash will increase security for many Mexicans who count on remittances
  • 30% of Haiti’s GDP is generated from remittances**
  • Zero transaction fees to Haiti for the 1^st year
  • More information at www.useBoom.com

 

The Hand Foundation

• Different views on various topics get in the way of organizing for development
• Human capital development is really critical in running our home countries

 

Western Union

• • Main business is to serve movement of money for diasporas
  • 10% of GDP for approximately 40 countries
  • 70% is functionally banked using technology
  • 70% of proposals came from USA for Diaspora Marketplace participants
  • Founding member of Diaspora Alliance
  • Announcing renewed partnership with USAID and will launch second DMP later this year
  • Celebrating 160^th birthday

The business card exchanges were fast and furious. Deciding which panel to attend and which to miss was a heart-breaking process, as I found the discussions both deep and engaging. It was unfortunate that so many panels were held concurrently, because it meant missing out on so much content. Here’s to wishing that the next forum provides a better avenue to accessing the panels & discussions that were missed online.

In recent times, there has been much talk about Africa’s emerging middle class and its potential to foster reform on the continent. However, little emphasis has been laid on the fact that Africa is also experiencing a youth bulge.  In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, one in three persons is between the ages of 10 and 24;  75 percent of Kenya’s population is under thirty. The Population Reference Bureau says that “one-half of the population is below age 25, a powerful engine of renewal for the country”.

While these figures have become a source of optimism, they have also become a source of concern. Uganda, the country with the highest youth population in the world (over 80%) also has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the region. Evidently, whatever success Africa achieves in the coming decades will largely be undermined if her youths cannot sustain themselves leading to an entrenched dependency crisis where the young population in the labour force can neither support themselves nor care for their dependents. This, however, is not the future Africa envisions.

The term “youth class” is somewhat misleading because inequality still prevails in this class. Some youths, enjoying social amenities and quality education, have a better chance at self-sufficiency than their counterparts who know too well about deprivation and have little or no access to resources. It also masks the diverse forms youth activism has taken in Africa’s 54 countries, some of which can hardly be described as democratic; some with a history of civil war and unrest and others with a history of relative political stability. In addition, youths from different regions do not share a common culture and common values. Nevertheless, Africa’s youths remain a potent force. In post-independence Africa with a history of agricultural expansion and contraction, debt crises, war, hunger, HIV, democratic struggles and a host of other independence disappointments, the contingency of the time period is what brings the youth together in the same way that decades ago, their parents joined movements to protest against colonial governments.

It is worthy of note that some of the issues that youths are protesting against  are the very issues that have not taken the youth factor and the average citizen into account. Generally, as Afro-optimism resurges, terms like “home-grown solutions”, “capacity building”, and “youth-led development” are beginning to recur in rhetoric and practice. The success of any development schemes will depend on how well they are able to bridge the inequality gap and empower youths from all socio-economic classes.

As many writers (including our very own) continue to portray Africa’s youth in a hopeful light, labelling them as agents of Africa’s rebirth and drivers of economic growth , many young Africans are increasingly wondering what part they will play in this success story. Others have moved right into action, writing the very plot that becomes narrated in academia and the media. It is impossible to talk about the youth without talking about social media and the ways youths have been able to leverage social networking as a constant source of information and an avenue for mobilization.  In March 2010, when Nigeria’s youths marched in front of the National Assembly to say “Enough is Enough” it was clear that they had begun to insert themselves in civil society debates. This group would later go on to monitor the 2011 elections, using social media to reach out to their peers, encouraging them to vote and join the movement for good governance in Nigeria. To the east of the continent, Kuweni Serious [translated as “guys, let’s get serious”] a youth group in Kenya released a thought-provoking YouTube video in 2010 (which was shared on Facebook and other platforms) telling their peers that “if this country burns, we burn with it.”

These same power messages were on the minds of some of Africa’s brightest as they convened in Cambridge and Bretton Woods in March 2011. These young students, many of them undergraduates and graduates in the Diaspora harboured big dreams for their home countries and were not waiting to graduate and relocate home to realize these dreams. As they shared their plans for waste management, public health, education and social entrepreneurship projects, storm clouds of hope began to gather and in their wake rained feelings of consolation, invincibility and infinite possibility from the hopeful message summed up in their declaration- “the Africa we desire can be won. It exists; it is real; it is possible. It is ours.”

Below are only some of the initiatives African and African Diaspora’s youths presented at the symposium:

1. Harambe Nigeria is an agri-business initiative aimed at equipping young Nigerians with the tools they need to thrive in the agricultural sector. In a country blessed with agricultural resources but overly reliant on oil, the success of agriculture will help to diversify the economy and provide an alternative means of livelihood for many of the unemployed youths. Harambe Nigeria has succeeded in engaging hundreds of youths, providing training programs and providing opportunities for agri-entrepreneurship opportunities and is now in the process of recruiting more members.
2. Harambe Cameroun and Youth Consortium for Progress in the Gambia- in addition to educational programs- have entrepreneurship competitions to encourage youths develop business plans which will address social problems. The former’s motto best explains their philosophy: Transforming our problems into opportunities and  the latter’s describes the audacity of the  youth class: We dare!

Africa’s youth class -as diverse as that class is-is the class of right now. They stopped seeing themselves as leaders of tomorrow and have begun right away to assume leadership positions and place themselves at the centre of development decisions in their communities. As more African diaspora youth feeling out of place in the land of their educational sojourn begin to seek ways to engage with the continent and apply the skills they’ve learned, and as their counterparts on the continent organize rallies, go out to vote and hop on social innovation programs, the youth voice is becoming a loud voice on the continent.

As the voices are becoming amplified, the message has gone ahead of the voices, picking willing and able youths along the way, grooming them to run faster than before. To be sure, the ‘how’ matters and some initiatives have been less efficient than others in providing immediate and long-term solutions to problems that have plagued their societies. But the need to act and to produce successful results have become all the more imperative; signalling to all the great importance of the times and the very fact that Africa’s youth class cannot be ignored.

The Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog has been publishing some analysis on Africa’s middle class. According to research reports they cited, 1 in 3 Africans on the continent can be classified as middle class. The Guardian’s tight definition of Africa’s middle class is those individuals spending between $2-$20. It is quite a large range and actually a shocker to some people.

I wanted to take a look at those numbers a little deeper in my layman-nowhere-near-economist-or-mathematician kind of way. Help me out here if the math is flawed, but I hope you understand what I am trying to get at. Most of the reports cited by the Guardian articles make no mention of the Diaspora. Surely our $40 billion in annual remittances should be counted. Right? Does it really matter where we earn it when all of it is being spent on the continent?

Let’s look at the numbers. David Smith first reported that Africa’s middle class totals a staggering 333 million. That is a third of the continent’s population that spends between $2 and $20 per day. This is not the same definition used to describe the global poverty line. That, is defined as those earning less than $2. I am not yet sure what the difference is between earning and spending, but I am sure they mean different things in this context.

So let’s do some calculations.

According to Smith’s cited calculations, Africa’s middle class has between $666 million and $6.6 billion in discretionary income. When you look at that from the perspective that Africa’s population is 1 billion people and its total GDP was over $1.6 trillion, then we are not talking about a whole lot of money here. But, this small range is responsible for generating half of the continents collective GDP of $1.6 trillion.

The middle class was responsible for at least half of Africa’s GDP of $1.6tn, he added. The trend reflected years of sustained economic growth, with sub-Saharan Africa projected at 5.5% this year.

My question is why aren’t remittances counted in this equation? If we (Diaspora) are spending $40 billion annually on the continent, what kind of contribution are we having on the continent, when a mere $6.6 billion at the top level of that range accounts for half of the continent’s GDP? What am I missing here? Especially when that $40 billion is contributed by roughly 10 million of us frequenting Western Union, Money Gram and other means of transferring money to the continent. That’s an average of $4000 per year per per Diaspora or $11 per day per Diaspora in discretionary income sent to the continent. $11 per day put the Diaspora in the upper middle class based on that earning range. Why isn’t this part of the equation and conversation? I’ve got to be missing something here.

Africa’s Diaspora spends more on the continent than the supposed middle class on the continent, yet we are not counted. I don’t get it. The Diaspora needs to be counted as part of the continent’s middle class. Just because we don’t live there full time doesn’t mean that our money isn’t being spent there. And to answer their question, yes this “missing” middle class is contributing to a reduction in poverty and literacy. I know this because my remittances do just that. A third sibling is graduating from Makerere University while the other two are already gainfully employed. Now that’s just me. Multiply that effort by roughly 10 million and we become a catalytic, economic force for change — especially as many of us are turning that discretionary expenditure into money-generating businesses or social ventures.

Trade Africa quoting the ADF and World Bank:

Report on African countries remittances, skills and investments are jointly carried out by the African Development Bank and the World Bank as part of the Africa Migration Project.

A breakdown of the$40billion investment showed that Nigerians in diaspora invested 57 percent; 55 percent in Kenya; 36 percent in Burkina Faso; 20 percent in Uganda and Senegal, 15 percent.

Interesting to note that Andy Sumner and Nancy Birdsall‘s piece references The Globe and Mail’s piece that defines the middle class as a catalyst in 5 categories:

the catalyst class (a) has an interest in accountability because they pay more taxes; (b) probably don’t work for the state and thus don’t see their loyalty and interests tied to the status quo; (c) have parents who led quite different consumption lifestyles to them; (d) probably have internet (cafe) access and cell phones; and (e) want “open business conditions, fair and honourable contracts, and a route to employment unclotted by corruption”.

When it comes to Africa, if that doesn’t sound the like the Diaspora, I don’t know what does. Again, I am no economist, but the numbers are painting a picture that many are not seeing. Any ideas why?

UPDATE:

Andy Sumner has a great follow-up piece on the definition of the middle class

A few weeks ago, Zimbabwe made headlines for yet another public display of gross violation of human rights. At least 45 citizens who run human rights organizations and/or publicly defend human rights have been unlawfully detained. Even though, 39 of these have been released, the rest could face the death penalty if convicted. For over a decade or so, the nation of Zimbabwe has been crippled by one catastrophic humanitarian crisis after another, and the situation appears to be worsening. It goes without saying that a country that respects human rights thrives politically, economically and socially. It’s easy to understand the political and social benefit of observing human rights, but the economic advantage might be not be as apparent.

Granted democracy is just one aspect of human right, but is also the most basic depiction of a government’s commitment to uphold the rights of its citizens. Its contribution to economic development, albeit contentious, given that some economies have survived under despotic leadership is not inconsequential. Absence of peace and human rights will most certainly lead to an uprising, or political instability, and the resources that would have otherwise been plugged into the economy are spent on maintaining stability. Whilst some economies might benefit from a military industrial complex in times of war, Zimbabwe doesn’t have that privilege. The blatant abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe is appalling and needs to be addressed. Many nations seem to have forgotten the simple basics; hence the various revolutions in the last couple of months. Happy people do contribute to the growth of an economy – believe it or not.

So much can be said about Zimbabwe as a country. Its history and politics have been nothing short of despotic and frustrating. In 2002, Robert Mugabe passed the infamous land reform, a legislation that stripped all white farmers of their land titles and authorized police forces to literally kick all farmers, their kin off their land. Zanu, the then ruling party promised to restore the acquired land from over 800 white farmers to landless blacks in Zimbabwe. Consequently, a considerate number of those who lost their land and possession were taken to military camps where they were unlawful detained, beaten, and abused for several months. Redistribution of property to the poor is admirable, but there is no question that violent seizure of land from those who rightfully own it is a violation of human rights. Additionally, the last two presidential elections have been characterized by violence, mass killings, unlawful detainment and mysterious disappearances. Again, it is no secret that Mugabe and his associates instigated these violations. Because Mugabe was not willing to give up power, the electorate event ended with a global agreement to power division, with both the ruling and Democratic Party to sharing the political mandate. This nation has probably done just about everything to frustrate other members of the African Union, not to mention that the economy of Zimbabwe has been plagued with inflation for over a decade.

Brian Orend, one of my favorite commentators and authors on human rights defines a right as “a justified claim on someone or some institution for something, which one is owed.” Every human being is entitled to the rights and freedoms provided for by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and every nation that ratifies this document is bound by its stipulations. Human rights are universal and equal for everyone, and not only do we as human beings have a claim on those rights, but the government as an institution is obliged to respect and protect those rights. One of the many rights legislated by the declaration is the right to free expression without interference. To strip citizens of their right to voice their opinions and stand up for the rights of others, is a loud declaration of tyranny. On April 6th 2011, Abel Chikomo, director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, was charged with running an illegal organization. Mr Chikomo claims that these allegations hold no water because organizations registered under the common law associations are supposed to be exempt from registration under the PVO act. These charges are baseless and are a ploy to further frustrate and violate the rights of the people in the nation.

Forming a legal charity organization that is focused on defending the rights of others is an exercise of one’s freedom of expression – an internationally recognized right. Therefore for the government to unlawfully detain citizens who are only seeking to enjoy their rights is pure madness. It is disappointing when leaders of a nation decide to violate the rights of the people they are meant to protect. As a member of the diaspora, I worry about nations that think they can get away with violating human rights, especially nations whose economies are struggling.

This by no means assumes that the big super powers of the world are not guilty of human rights violations; on the contrary, most super powers are guilty of the most heinous violations the world has seen (the holocaust, Nanking saga, Guantanamo Bay). However, some of these nations seem to have learned from their mistakes and they are keen not to suffocate the rights of the majority. Zimbabwe however has learned nothing from historical human rights violations, and apparently the government is turning a blind eye to present day events as well. While the rest of the world is literally fighting to protect and defend human rights (Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya Sudan), the Zimbabwean government is shamelessly and aggressively doing everything in their might to overshadow human rights! How can the economy possibly grow, if laws such as “land seizures – passed in 2007”, unlawful detention, unfair elections, violence and censorship of the press prevail? It is imperative that the fundamental rights and freedoms of all citizens are respected and honored. War and violence are not favorable for investment and development, and a commitment to respect all citizens is a step towards change.

In essence, it is laughable for a sane democratic leader to willingly harm the citizens he/she is meant to protect. Article 5 of the UDHR stipulates that:
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Of course punishment and retribution are necessary elements that uphold the legal system. However punishment for “unjustifiable crimes” is preposterous, especially in the absence of a fair legal system. The fact that the death penalty is considered as punishment for citizens who stand up for human rights is not only ironic but wrong on so many levels. Assuming that the arrested individuals get a chance to fair trial, on what grounds can the crime of “forming a legitimate political organization” be justified in the courts of law? But as with everything else, the legal system in Zimbabwe seems to be taking a back seat.

Zimbabwe has a chance to rise up from the ashes and right the wrongs that have been committed. However, change is inconceivable in any nation, if a)the leaders of that nation don’t recognize the problems that face them, b) are indisposed to do anything about them, c) continue to promote their own desires above those of the citizens they are meant to serve. The principles of human rights are simple. The need to respect and defend even the most basic rights is an assumed obligation of every democratic leader, especially those who recognize and adhere to the legality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It’s that time of the year again.  When students are looking to find something that’ll keep them busy during the summer months and corporations and foundations are reviewing summer internships applications.  This is the time when international non-profit organisations begin mass campaigns, distributing flyers and trying to recruit students to take advantage of the “amazing opportunity to go build schools in Africa” and then go hiking or spend a few days touring the country and going to the beach. “Here’s your chance to save the world”, they are sometimes sure to add.

While the idea of  contributing to meaningful development sounds amazing, it is important that students are able to distinguish between tourism-based projects centered around a “saving the world narrative” and more concrete projects with more emphasis on the complexities of development work. After spending more than half the year in school, students should be able to engage in intellectual discussions about development projects and not base decisions solely on sentiments.

Before you commit to any school building project, here as some questions you should ask yourself.

Foremost question: What is this really about? Am I looking for a fun and perhaps responsible/honourable way to spend my holidays or am I truly concerned about development and education. If the answer is the former, book a trip to Disneyland or to a famous tourist resort; donate 100 dollars to your favorite charity; tip the housekeeper  at the hotel or the steward at the restaurant. Done and Done!

If the answer is the latter, here are some more questions you should ask yourself:

• Have I read about development and education?
• Do I know the trends- enrollment rate, dropout rate- etc in my destination country?
• What factors affect the ability of students to achieve quality education?

Once these questions have been answered satisfactorily, call the organisation and ask about the problem and challenges  of education  in this region. If you get answers like “children don’t have books and can’t afford to go to school”, ask the representative if these children sit idly at home or if they are employed in some trade elsewhere or some other form of education. Ask how building a school will provide children with books or pay their school fees. Ask how it will provide incentives to go to school for children who have to feed themselves and cater to other family needs.

If s/he says the problem is that the nearest school is miles away and that building a school will ensure that children in the village have access to education, ask him/her whether this issue has been taken to the local authorities in what way civil society is engaging with institutions to demand access to infrastructure. Inquire if the nearest teacher is also miles away and how building a school will provide teachers, desks, books, and an administrative structure that is not only concerned about quantity but about quality and discipline.

Find out how these teachers will be paid. Some schools that are built during these development projects end up lying fallow or being used as storage barns, secret hideouts or for other purposes because there are no teachers and there is no plan to employ any for the long term. But the structure has already been built and the organisation has managed to convince the volunteers that they are heroes and they saved the world with pictures of them accomplishing the feat. If you are told that there are teachers on ground, ask him/her about their qualifications and whether they have already started teaching or tutoring the children in some capacity, or whether they are simply waiting for you to come and build a school.

If the organisation asks you to bring books from America, ask her about the national curriculum, about the prescribed textbooks for the different subjects that are supposed to be offered at the school and why your donated books are better.

The question you must never forget to ask is: “What happened to the locals? Are the youths there useless?” Always  explain that you have no experience whatsoever in building or construction. Ask him/her if there any local builders on ground, and why they can’t be employed instead.  Surely, some of them must be parents and might need those wages to send their children to school and meet other needs. If this school must be built, won’t it be wise to engage the youths in some legal/ community-oriented activity during the holidays? Might this not serve as some sort of apprenticeship or skills-training program? Ask about the consequences of shipping foreigners to  communities to develop them: Has it made the youths overly reliant on foreign aid? Has it left them out of decisions that directly affect them? Make sure the organisation does not portray people on ground as helpless and useless; waiting for your heroic intervention.

If the one-week hike or stay at the beach at the end of your project keeps being mentioned, you can be sure it’s a bait. Any organisation that has projects “tailored to suit your needs” should be asked why it is “your needs” and not local needs that are of primary concern. Find out where your $3000 is going to and how much of it goes back into advertising and running the NGO. Find out how if the employees also participate in this project or merely travel around the world preaching about “amazing opportunities”. At this point, if your questions have not answered satisfactorily, it is clear that his/her organization has not critically thought about education and development and the most effective ways of promoting both in the destination country and that project is not worth committing to.

Here are some other options:

1. Look up other organizations (or research institutes) that are involved in more responsible projects.
2. Look up openings for youth camp counselors or mentors in your area. Find out what local organisations are up to. After all, charity, they say, begins at home.
3. Find out about regional and international conferences, leadership training programs you might be interested in (let’s start acquiring some of the experience you were required to show at that interview).

It’s important to get involved in development causes but many projects have become mass advertising feel-good money-making ventures that send the wrong ideas to students about development. This trend must be not be encouraged. At this point, it is no longer enough to be be doing something for if you’re not doing it right, the consequences might be dire.

For more on international volunteering overseas, read this really funny but insightful piece from cracked.com .

I’ve spent the last week thinking about what to write for “A Day Without Dignity”. Lately, I’ve been getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of uninformed people and organizations, both large and small, who continue to show zero restraint in effort to demonstrate how socially aware they are. The Smart Aid crew of bloggers has done a commendable job of late of rising to challenge these individuals and organizations.

As repetitive as the exercise has become, I think that is is important that our voices continue to rise against any and all acts of “dumbassery” in the field of international development. I especially welcome those voices from developing countries – so often the target of ill-informed campaigns meant to rescue them from their supposed underprivileged lives.

I spent this past weekend with my mum in her village of Kikuube in Western Uganda. It’d been number of years since I’d spent my birthday with her. I started my birthday with a long run through the winding slopping hills in the early morning mist. The cool breeze felt like heaven as my Nike-clad feet crunched the gravel on the country road. Danger, our scrappy family dog, ran along side me, jutting in and out of the bushes like a dart.

My morning jogs through the village had ceased to be a source of amusement for the villagers. They knew me by now, and greeted me with smiles and waves. I couldn’t help but take note of everyone’s feet as I passed them, keeping a small mental list of how many wore shoes and how many didn’t. Good thing it was early morning on a Sunday, there were few feet to count and many were already in the gardens barefoot and tilling mother nature for the season’s planting.

After breakfast, I took the motorcycle through the winding pathway to the local church. My mother is usually the preacher, but she was ill this morning, down with a chronic asthma flare up. I’d changed her medication a few weeks earlier, the side effects of the transition had left her energy-spent and weak. The view along the way to church has always been my favorite things about Sunday morning in Kikuube Village: endless rolling terrain of sugarcane plantations. The bustling forests of yesteryear were slowly being replaced by subsistence farmers transitioning to cash crops. Mother nature was loosing as the community continued to develop.

Hi heels on a dusty mud floor at Kihoole Church in Kikuube village

I arrived amid songs of praise with but a handful of people. Church always started this way. The deacons would arrive to setup the sanctuary by sweeping the dusty mud floors, cleaning off the array of drums and stringing flowers. There were no windows or doors to open and the roof was missing one shingle. Even then, the sanctuary had come a long way in the last three years. I had claimed the responsibility of paying for the floor to be put in, as my way of giving back. The jubilant choir kicking up dust as the songs of praise hit their spiritual climax served as a gentle reminder that I hadn’t fulfilled my promise. The women clapped and danced up a storm. At one point they kicked off their high heels and sandals and let the spirit ride. As the voices got higher, the hands clapped louder, the sweat dripped, and the hips swayed to the hypnotic rhythm of the traditional drummers. The songs subsided into prayer as we prayed for continued peace, the blessed rains, the health of our children and family members, school fees, our leaders, our markets, our friends and our enemies. We prayed for those we knew and those we did not. We gave thanks for what we had and what we didn’t have. As I rode home, my mind played back the dancing feet kicking up balls of dust as the children played in the corner, some with shoes and some without, and the odd thought that, no one prayed for shoes.

Barefoot children on their way home from school

Why has it become so easy for people to start feel-good campaigns that no one asked for? There are a thousand things this village needs and nowhere on the list are t-shirts and shoes. Or used bras, socks, underwear or whatever the latest SWEDOW item du jour. We can safely say that it has nothing to do with the intended communities. The whole exercise is about making someone feel good. Unfortunately, that someone is never the recipient. It is never the people in this and many other villages that are purported as poor and thus in need of XYZ. It is probably easier to go a day without wearing shoes and feel good about “doing something.” Yes you are doing something, but do you know that what you are doing is the dumbest, most ineffectual act of dumbassery you could do. Yes you are doing something, but tell me how going a day without shoes is going to magically pay for the badly-needed school fees in this village. How is that act of self-sacrifice going to bring development and jobs? Yes, you raised awareness. But it was awareness of your own guilty pleasures and a life of excess. So you send a pair of TOMS shoes to the kids I passed on their way to school Monday morning, how is that going to make their badly-equipped classrooms better? Or train the teachers? Or pay them better. Let’s not mention the cobbler in the town center you just put out of business. Unless of course, your argument is that when the pair of cheap TOMS shoes — which were never designed for this environment — break down, he can fix them. Nice one.

Is it really that hard NOT to do something no one asked for?

I took another extended ride on Monday, spending time in the trading center to just observe the day in the life of Kikuube Village. I stopped by Gabriel’s shop. A 76-year old retired teacher with 4 sons he still worried about. None had adequate jobs and were grossly under-paid. He was wearing a dusty black pair of shoes that looked like they’d been brought back to life by a talented cobbler. He was lamenting about taking out a loan from the bank at 25% interest to help his youngest son start a small business. His own shop was sparse but frequently visited. He has never let me leave without taking a soda. What would this man do with a pair of TOMS shoes? Probably sell them. He worried less about himself and his feet and more about the future of his sons. And shoes were the last thing on his mind.

I came home and asked my mother (without revealing to her what I was about to write) what was the one thing, above all, she wanted me to have as I was growing up. Without hesitation and in the soft voice I’ve always known to have wisdom, she said, “an education.” Not a good pair of shoes. Not a tshirt. Not good life. But an education. As simple as that sounded, it left a resounding thump in my heart. As I went to sleep that night, I stared at the picture she gave me for my birthday. It was a black and white photo of a little boy holding his chin and smiling. I turned it over to read the inscription,

“Teddy on his 4th birthday, April 3rd.”

I was wearing a pare of gum boots. TOMS didn’t get me those, my mother did, along with my education.

I’m writing this post in support of “A Day Without Dignity”, a counter-campaign launched by Saundra S. of Good Intentions are not Enough to critique TOMS shoes “A Day Without Shoes Campaign”

Now every year, TOMS launches an awareness campaign to raise awareness about “shoelessness”. In their words:

I think sometimes we forget what we have, and occasionally it’s important to remind ourselves. Most people don’t even realize how many children in developing countries grow up barefoot and all the risks, infections and diseases they endure. For most of us, modern shoes our so comfortable and accessible, we all but forget about our feet, but they are a source of constant focus for others. I wanted everyone to personally understand the impact of shoes, and the difference they can make, so we thought, “Why don’t we get a taste of what these kids go through every day?”

As I read that paragraph, I thought about Jason Sadler’s very controversial and equally offensive  One-Million T-shirts Campaign to send used T-Shirts to Africa because  according to him, “different countries, different villages, different towns, they all need shirts, some people only have half a shirt to their name and some children don’t have a shirt at all”.

I’m sure Jason regrets not asking people to go naked for a day. Sigh.

Ok. Back to TOMS.

My Questions:

Who are these people in “developing countries”?

Is the developing world a homogenous other? Why do we keep reproducing these dichotomies and stereotypes? “People there don’t have food; people there don’t have clothes; people there suffer; they grow up barefoot; they all need shirts”

Isn’t there inequality in America?

Why do “we” need to “remind ourselves” and “get a taste” ? It’s really about “us”, isn’t it?

What about this culture of reminding ourselves of difference in a way that objectifies others and makes gross generalizations- all in the name of awareness? This culture of hopping on to the next insensitive exercise to create awareness. People have breast cancer and cancer-free people decide to create awareness/“remind themselves” by posting the colour of their bras on facebook or stating where they like dropping their handbags. Children get abused and instead of documentaries, petitions and indictments, “privileged” children, many of whom don’t know what it feels like to be abused, feel the need to jump on an exercise and post a picture of their favourite cartoon character to “create awareness”. The fact is that we are all aware of difference, injustice and gross inequality. We are all well-aware that people go through different struggles. The media has created enough awareness about poverty, starvation and war “in the developing world”. We really don’t need another awareness campaign especially not another condescending remind-ourselves exercise.

Awareness makes sense when people come together to talk about issues that plague their society and develop a real hands-on solution to these issues. Awareness doesn’t make sense when people who are not directly affected, but by virtue of the fact they think they are so privileged, come up with disrespectful exercises. It’s almost as ridiculous and insensitive as people coming up with a campaign to abstain from talking to their immediate family members for one week, in TOMS words, because “sometimes we forget what we have… and so we thought, ” why don’t we get a taste of what these [other] kids go through every day?”  I wonder why we need to objectify people to be grateful for our lives? Where do we draw the line? HIV/AIDS for a day, anyone?

More importantly, awareness campaigns should not be taken seriously  if there is no real information about an issue. Bringing up an issue is the first step but awareness programs must go further. Okay, some people don’t have shoes. Do they consider their ‘shoelessness’ as a problem? Have they never had shoes in history? Why don’t they have shoes now? Are their communities far from shoe markets? Have deforestation/famine, war, economic crises, the closure of a factory and consequent retrenchment of workers caused a drop in real income and  affected their ability to meet their needs? What about the raw materials for making shoes- rubber, leather, cotton etc? Are they readily available? How has this affected the price of shoes? How have the people in question adjusted to these unfavourable trends?  Have they improvised in any way? What role has technology played in all of these? Has their condition been improving or steadily getting worse?  Are there some practices/government polices/NGO programs that are stifling initiative and hindering people’s ability to meet their needs? How can these be addressed?

TOMS has been lauded as a company committed to social entrepreneurship i.e. making money while improving the lives of people. Instead of disrespectful and stereotypical campaigns, why isn’t this mission reflected? Why aren’t they producing documentaries about how particular people are improving their lives and becoming empowered, about sustainable business initiatives involving local shoemakers/cobblers, about local markets,  about local investment, about challenges in particular regions and how these challenges are being tackled in order to create a model that others can perhaps follow. If people are really affected by these issues, why isn’t TOMS giving them a platform to speak out? Why are social entrepreneurs and awareness raisers trying to “remind themselves” and “get a taste”?

My home country, Nigeria,  is one of those  countries with the “developing country” label and yet, in spite of economic inequality, shoe markets/shops abound. Yes, “modern shoes” abound (Please, what do traditional shoes look like?).  In all my sixteen years of living in Nigeria, I never met one person who didn’t have a pair of shoes to his/her name. This doesn’t mean that there were no such people -I still wonder if there are- but it points to the fact that this was not a part of my “developing world” reality. Furthermore, walking barefooted in Lagos, Ibadan or Abuja was/is not a problem but a practice. I had seen well-to-do people, some of whom traveled abroad on vacation every summer and live in mansions, walking barefooted on Sundays not because they were poor and helpless but for religious reasons. Do TOMS awareness raisers know this? I doubt it. Do these people who walk barefooted need to be pitied? No. Does anyone need our pity and misguided self-reminders? No.

This kind of ‘awareness campaign’ has other -perhaps unintended- repercussions as some young awareness raisers suddenly start thinking that they are responsible for the development of the ‘developing world’ and have the right to withdraw their assistance when this world ‘misbehaves’. I was quite shocked to hear about an argument between a boy from Cameroon-I think- and his Canadian friend. Realizing that he was losing the argument, the Canadian boy said something like “ It’s the fault of Canadians who send money to all these starving children every month. Now that they are well-fed and have the chance to come to our country, they think they know everything and have the right to argue with us.”  WOW! Thanks, World Vision, for raising awareness.

In conclusion, awareness campaigns such as “A Day Without Shoes” that place awareness raisers in a privileged position, make them feel superior to others and reinforces stereotypes in the name of “reminding ourselves” instead of focusing on detail, context and local agency should not be supported.  The next time someone asks me where I’m from and proceeds to ask me how come I speak English fluently and I’m dressed well  or wearing nice shoes even though I’m from a “developing country”, I know who to blame for this.

May is a great time to honor mothers, and in that spirit, Friends of the Congo, Arena Stage, and DC Arts and Humanities council, are bringing together a Mother’s Day fundraiser at Arena Stage; with a semi-private reception, the special showing of the play of the 2009 Pulitzer prize for drama, RUINED, and followed by a panel discussion about the Women in the Congo.

As a cross-cultural branding and productions company, Afrolehar LLC (AL) has joined forces with the Friends of the Congo and its partners to promote this special mother’s day fundraiser to benefit the Association of Widows of South Kivu and the Congo Restoration organisation; both non-profits are working to provide, including, but not limited to, human development services, capacity-building for reintegration in society, and healthcare for women and children.

Please extend the invitation to your mother, your loved ones, your friends, associates, and members.

For tickets, please purchase by clicking on this link. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/167649].

For Group sales, sponsorship, and media inquiries, please contact Rahel Getachew by phone (703) 894-8945 or by email at rahel@afrolehar.com.

If you require further information about the event, please visit Congoarena.com.

We look forward to seeing you at this Special Mother’s Day Fundraiser, in solidarity with the women of the Congo, to celebrate Mothers’.

Should you have any questions, please free to contact me at your earliest convenience.

News reports in the last couple of weeks have been filled with ongoing events in Libya. For those who haven’t heard yet, there have been a series of hair-raising violent protests going on in Libya. Some political analysts claim that Libya is on the brink of a civil war given how ferocious the demonstrations have been. Even though its too soon to tell whether or not the protests will go that far, the effects of it have been felt by not only the Libyans who are surrounded by violence, but also citizens all over the world who are now faced with the gas crunch.  The uprising which has been labeled “the bloodiest yet” against a long reigning ruler has knocked out nearly 50% of its 1.6 million barrels per day output, hence the hiked prices of gas all over the world. Given that Libya is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers, gas prices are bound to only get higher if things don’t get better in Libya. The hike in gas prices does not only affect car owners who have to pay a little more for gas, but will also determinately affect the prices of goods and services in some nations.

 President Muammar Gaddafi, who has been the leader of Libya since 1969, is still desperately clenching onto his presidential seat, like a king would his throne, the latter deservedly so. His reign has been nothing short of despotic, erratic, oppressive, and antagonistic towards other nations. The people’s response to his long-term abuse is long overdue. Muammar has been involved in some questionable activities that have never commanded as much attention as they are now. There have been reports of unlawful deaths and violence in Libya, dating back to early January of this year. Although Gaddafi initially denied any involvement in these activities, sources in Libya say the president and people in his inner circle are behind all attacks.

 The situation in Libya, although unique, isn’t something new to the world. Over the last few months, we have seen citizens of different nations take matters into their own hands and oust autocratic leaders who have been in power for an extended period of time.One would think that given recent events in Northern Africa (Tunisia, Ivory Coast) and Egypt, Muammar would have been smart enough to relinquish power and allow for peaceful change in the nation. That however has not happened, and instead he has responded to peaceful protests with violence, and torture of innocent citizens who only seek justice and freedom in their homeland.

 Even though the people have formed a united front against the government, Muammar’s army remains unmatched for the opposition forces. His army reclaimed the areas originally secured by the opposition. Citizens live in fear of losing their lives or being attached by Muammar’s army and therefore can’t even go out at night. There is also a shortage of basic needs like food and medical care in Tripoli, the nation’s capital, as the government has taken over supply. 

 Words fail, as one wonders how to sufficiently describe the gross violation of the rights of the people of Libya. First of all, any leader who views violence as a solution to a problem (and purposely suppresses justice) automatically loses the legitimacy to rule. Muammar Gaddafi has proved on so many occasions that what he desires is not an avenue to be a trustworthy and democratic leader, but rather a pompous tycoon who can control his subjects, like a master would his slaves. A true democracy demands that whoever assumes power should honor the needs of the citizens he governs above his own personal ambition, because it is in and of itself a government of the people. One would be living a fool’s dream however to expect political leaders to always be forthright in their dealings. These actions are almost always forgivable, if they are within the confines of the law. Is it too much to ask though, that every leader respect the rights of the people he governs?

 Various nations have responded clearly to Muammar. France and Britain (both members of the Security Council) have conceded to supporting a no-fly zone over Libya if Muammar continues to attack civilians. Last week, President Obama appealed to the international community to be ready to act, should the situation quickly deteriorate to a humanitarian crisis. The European Union stated that they would also readily engage military action in Libya, if they had the full backing of United Nations and the Arab community.

 Although the international response the Libyan crisis is admirable, intervention is needed right now in order to stop what could potentially be one of the worst humanitarian conflicts of the 21st century. Opposition forces in Libya have appealed to the international community to expedite the no-fly zone policy, which would turn the odds in their favor. The Security Council is reluctant to get their hands dirty, because this could quickly turn into another messy conflict in the Muslim world.

 Although the UN has often taken a back seat in matters of humanitarian conflicts correlated to politics, it was reported last Wednesday that the UN had decided to refer the current events in Libya to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This could result in one of two things: justice for the people of Libya, or a long and uneventful trial with no resolve. Regardless, it is commendable to see the UN engage its resources in an attempt to stop the ongoing mayhem. The Security Council of the UN has officially launched an arms embargo and asset freeze which is not only significant in the fight to protect the rights of the people of Libya, but also sends out a message to other political leaders who might follow in Muammar’s footsteps.

 It is really surprising however to see the Security Council step up, after a series of disappointing results in the last couple of years, most notably, the Darfur ruling in which three of the five Security Council members abstained from voting to send the case to the International Court of Justice, decidedly, very little effort has been made to bring the human rights violators in question to justice. The sanctions imposed on Libya are a great start to achieving justice. However, it’s a tough road ahead, and all the necessary steps to ensure that justice is served still have to be taken. In the past, cases presented before the ICJ haven’t always yielded favorable outcomes, and some have dragged out for years without any ruling. Here’s to hoping that this case will be followed through to the very end, and that the people of Libya will receive justice.

 While the world waits to see what happens next in Libya, our hopes and prayers are with the brave citizens that stake out on the streets in a fight for freedom. May they receive inspiration from the Egyptians who successfully forced their despotic leader out of power. Fingers crossed that change will come sooner than they ever thought!

I dedicate this blog posting to all the victims and survivors of natural and man-made disasters.

Yesterday morning I woke up to the horrifying news about the earthquake in Japan, which as if that wasn’t enough, was followed by a tsunami, possible radiation exposure and forecasts of another, and most likely, more devastating earthquake.  As I write this piece, I send prayers for those affected by the devastation and hope that the situation does not escalate beyond the unimaginable damage and destruction that has already occurred.

Houses swept by a tsunami smoulder near Sendai Airport in Japan. (Reuters)

At times like these, we question the value of life which can be interrupted or even destroyed without a moment’s notice — robbing us of precious opportunities to communicate for the last time with loved ones.  Case in point is the well-publicized natural devastations our planet has suffered in less than ten years, including: Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2006 tsunami in Asia, and last year’s earthquake in Haiti.  Please note that I highlight the aforementioned, recognizing that there are numerous other natural devastations, and countless man-made conflicts that have and continue to devastate our precious Earth.  Many have and will continue to say that these natural and man-made disasters are signs of disapproval from God, Mother Nature and/or our planet — about the way we increasingly mistreat one another and abuse our planet.  Whatever your belief, my opinion is that we had better put our differences aside and start learning lessons from what is happening globally, to find a safer way forward.

Personally, as I kept reading about the escalating situation in Japan and environs throughout yesterday, I was inspired to think about how those of us outside of the immediate devastation could use it to prepare to do some good for others.  From what I understand, many places in Japan have been leveled to the point where the country is effectively at par with if not below those so-called third-world countries has been disrupted if not completely destroyed, which seriously impedes search and rescue efforts.

While researching topics for an emergency and disaster preparedness forum I organized in 2005, I learned that in short- and long-term crisis situations, communication is one of the most important tools for people.   Through communication, affected people are able to determine the severity of their immediate condition, gather and share information that can help them and outside help to improve their situation and mitigate further threats.  Specifically, a woman survivor of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, needs information that will (a) enable her to understand if she was in the epicenter of the earthquake (b) if there are any aftershocks predicted (c) if there is criminal activity around her, against which she needs to safeguard her family (d) what she needs to do to signal for assistance (e) if rescue and relief are on the way.  Similarly, an African woman survivor of civil unrest living in a village that is off the communication grid, needs to communicate in the same manner as her Japanese counterpart described above.

The challenge is how will the women in the aforementioned scenarios obtain and share vital information when the communication tools that those of us in unaffected areas take for granted are not available to either one of them?

Mobile communication via SMS messaging is one viable answer.  Earlier this week, I fortuitously served on a panel organized by a colleague Marcia Stepanek, at New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, entitled: Philanthropy 3.0 Speaker Series: Mobile in Advocacy The Next Frontier.  During the panel, I shared with and learned from my fellow panelists, insights about how mobile communication has and continues to be used to further causes.  We learned about the great work that FrontlineSMS is doing to increase vital information flow in various African countries, through the use instantaneous SMS two-way communication.  We also learned about the impact Ushahidi’s free and open-source, crisis mapping software has made on disaster situations, during conflicts and the tracking of political activity.  We also learned about the importance of the Twitter and Google’s Speak-2-Tweet service to information exchange –despite the Internet blackout– during the Egyptian revolution.  While all of these are incredibly enabling technologies, it is not possible to use them in situations where the vital communication grid necessary to transmit voices or even data, has been destroyed or never existed.

What would work in my view, is the use of satellite, for emergency disaster situations any where in the world and for off-the-grid areas in developing countries.  I know that satellite communication is successfully used by military personnel in conflict situations requiring off-the-grid communications and believe, we need to learn from them.  Specifically, what I propose is that governments identify vetted people in various locations including the remotest areas in their respective countries, known as connectors or influencers, to be the safe guarders of satellite phones, which in most situations should work.  Such people (with backup people for redundancy), keeping the video phones on them at all times, implanted with satellite transmitters, and trained to effectively serve as contact points responsible for communicating within and without their respective communities (aided by a support network), any vital information that would help ultimately save lives.  Should the safe guarders die, they and/or their phones could be tracked via satellite and the video switched on remotely, to record surrounding activity.  The same information would be quite useful for off the grid communities — enabling the tracking of threats, facilitating rescue missions and monitoring activity.

I welcome any ideas, suggestions and  innovations that would benefit the two fictitious women I mentioned above.  So while we are unable to change what has happened, I believe we are able to take action today, to make a better future.  I really do hope that we come together as a human race to effectively address our common problems.

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