Archive for August, 2007

This grab-you-by-the-throat speech by

Ghanaian economist George Ayittey unleashes an almost

breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt

leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive.

These “Hippos” (lazy, slow, ornery) have ruined postcolonial

Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic?

Because of the young, agile “Cheetah Generation,” a “new

breed of Africans” taking their futures into their own

hands.

When he was just 14 years old, Malawian

inventor William Kamkwamba built his family an

electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working

from rough plans he found in a library book. In conversation

with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Kamkwamba, now 19, tells a

moving story of ingenuity and adaptation, and shares his

dreams for the future.

"The aid system is broken," says Ashraf Ghani in this powerful, reform-oriented talk. He discusses how to mobilize capital for state-building; why technical assistance fails; and why classic economic theory proved useless in Afghanistan, which is "dominated by the drug economy and a mafia." He outlines the 10 key tasks of a functioning state, from providing infrastructure to the rule of law. And, finally, he argues for investment, not handouts: "A dollar in private investment is equal to 20 dollars of aid," he says.

In the past two years, the tech community has been abuzz with discussion of the One Laptop Per Child project. At TED 2006, Nicholas Negroponte, formerly of the MIT Media Lab, explained the vision and details of the project just as it was beginning. He takes us inside the strategy for building the "$100 laptop," and explains why and how the project plans to launch "at scale," with millions of units distributed in the first seven countries. "This is not a laptop project; it’s an education project," he says.

Patrick Awuah left a comfortable life in Seattle and returned to Ghana to co-found a liberal arts college. Why? Because he believes that Ghana’s failures in leadership — and he gives several mind-boggling examples — stem from a university system that fails to train real leaders. He explains how a true liberal arts education — steeped in critical thinking, idealism, and public service — can produce the quick-thinking, ethical leaders needed to move his country forward.

The spirit of Africa cannot be easily grasped. Nigerian poet and novelist Chris Abani attempts to do so through poetry and stories, including his own story of artistic and political awakening, which began with an inventive teacher who taught him the forbidden history of his own people. How, he asks, can we reconcile stories of terror, war and corruption with one’s enduring sense of wonder?