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WhErE dO wE gO fRoM hErE?
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It’s early in the morning in a small village that prides itself as producing the best Coffee in the world to quench the thirst of sophisticated executives at Wall Street and Main Street, adrenaline filled corporate lawyers and everyone else in between.
A young woman who looks 15 years older wakes up at the crack of dawn to prepare breakfast for her 7 children; the breakfast consists of thin black tea taken with yesterday’s night leftovers.

As I watch the event unfolding many questions crosses my mind:-
Where is the Top Quality coffee that she toils everyday to produce?
Can a nation export crops when it people are starving?
Can a nation’s natural resources become a curse?
Can slavery still be existing in the 21st century?

The woman quickly prepares breakfast and wakes up her children to start another day under the bright African sun. The children have to travel more than 2km to reach the nearest government school. As the children leave for school she hurries’s up to go and till her farm which does not even produce enough to feed her 7 children.

Why is this so?
How comes no one seems to care for the millions of poor subsistence farmers who toil in unproductive farms all day?
Where are all the young people with brilliant ideas, energy and enthusiasm for bringing economic change to the wretched of the world?
Where are the scholars who will come up with academic models for economic empowerment to lift people out of poverty?

The young people are all too busy trying to outdo each other to care about the young woman, they have their issues too; Unemployment, lack of skills, lack of opportunities blah blah
The Dons are busy regurgitating 18th century theories to young minds to come up with new knowledge.
The politicians are too busy tearing each other and organising goons to attack the opponent’s supporters to think about the right policy mix to help the poor.
I am too busy lamenting what others are not doing …………………………………….

These are some of the challenges that developed nations face each and every day but we the young people but decide to change the status quo. We must rise above the greed, the fierce urge to achieve economic success at the expense of others, the get rich quick mentality, the politics of exclusion and govt knows it all, the lack of self confidence to build institution, the begging mentality since no one else will great a future for our continent.

We must learn how the international economic game is played and become better than even the current players, we must engrained in our people a passion that is infectious because we only have blood, toil, sweat and cheers to give.

I do not know why natural resources are a curse in Africa from DRC Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Angola, Sudan to Papua New Guinea.
We can blame the MNC, the mercenary, the greedy politicians but the buck stops with us he young people of Africa we watch as our natural resources are raped, we are paid peanuts to exploit our mothers, sisters and brothers.

Finally this is not a lecture but a call towards more candid and serious discussion on how to lift people out of poverty. Prof Sachs (et al) is doing his part through the millennium villages yet he has never experienced extreme poverty 1st hand, what about WE THE PEOPLE WHO SEE EXTREME POVERTY EVERDAY OF OUR LIVES.
JOIN ME TO CHANGE THIS SITUATION ONE DAY AT A TIME

JOIN THE GROUP youngpatriots@takingitglobalgroups.org and let’s share our ideas, thoughts, plans and start ACTING NOW




May 21, 2008 | 1:16 PM Comments  0 comments

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