Spirit

Last night I had a great conversation with Muratha, a comrade who was recently in South Africa to adress their President along with other hot shots and CEOs, about youth and the current major push towards ICT. The guy's just brilliant - following his presentation, there was much focus on youth throughout the rest of the (very) high-level meeting. And he has placed youth 'squarely in the lead of their [African Peer Review Mechanism] process'. Amazing.

He also said some things about past failures of development efforts by well-meaning developed countries, that got me thinking more about African development and the politics of aid, which had been triggered earlier when I came across a review of Matthew Lockwood's new book The State They're In (via Singapore Angle).

The same author, in another article, says that we need to scrap standard remedies on debt and aid: that breeding African equivalents of the Asian tigers yonder east, instead, is the way forward. I find that interesting because African politics, which he talks about as the 'missing jigsaw' in the puzzle of African development, is so different from that of Southeast Asia - yet those distinctions are being cut across by this overriding approach to economic development. I am looking forward to reading up more on all this.

On a more wistful note, Muratha commented that he 'liked [my] spirit'. He misses the spirit that he had 3 years ago, and says he sees it fresh in me. He had an analogy that made me feel encouraged, yet cautious at the same time:

[the spirit's] not really lost....it's like joining the UN...U start so enthusiastic...but the system gets you sooner or later

Certainly a soundbite to chew on.


Technorati: youth, Africa, ICT