Monday,
January, 3,
2005
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2005 is supposed to be the year for Africa. The worlds of culture, economics and politics will, one hopes, be dominated by a celebration of all that is wonderful in Africa and a focussed effort to remove the obstacles to the people's progress out of poverty.
This involves untangling trade agreements that shut out African farmers from exporting and overwhelm them with imported subsidised surpluses to kill off the domestic market for their produce. It means an end to the usurious lending programmes of Western banks and governments that leave the poor of a country paying half their income to Western banks that lent money to crooked dictators long since departed. And it means the pooling of knowledge and creativity required to find new ways for African economies to grow without killing the environment or destroying social bonds and customs.
Can Africa rise again? Without doubt. It has the people, the natural resources and the cultural fabric required. Simply by stopping the current way in which Western companies and governments profit out of African misery and war and removing the debt burden would be enough to let the millions of talented Africans take their rightful place in the world.
And if Western expertise and money switched from millitary to medicinal in nature, the immediate circumstances and lives of millions of ordinary people would be transformed.
Let's all hope that 2005 is the tipping point for Africa.
Hey Damian,
CATALYSIS OF KENYA DEVELOPMENT NETWORK TO THE TIPPING POINT FOR AFRICA
Nice to read about you and your work. You are doing a great thing.
Yes Africa can rise again. Africa will rise and we are making it happen. We
are the the people, the natural resources and the cultural fabric required to make that work. Beyond the will of the Western Governments, what is needed in Africa
are institutions that will create value to the dead capital that is so much
prevalent in the African continent. That dead capital is readily exploited by
any passer by. These institutions must be comanaged and owned by the people on the continent
KDNetwork is addressing this question very seriously, and it is very exciting
to know that there are others such as yourself who have a similar vision. To make
this vision work, KDNetwork is on a mission to organize multiple events in 2005.
The earliest event will be held in Chicago, IL in March 2005.
My best regards.
MACHARIA WARUINGI,
PRESIDENT,
KENYA DEVELOPMENT NETWORK & THE KENYAN EDGE.
www.kdnc.org
I wish I could do more then send money to help them. I am very sorry about this wave of destruction (no pun needed.)
I think it is soo terible that all the people in africa were hit by the tsunami. I also fell bed that we have all we can eat and preople in africa have to starve for days toget food.
I feel saddened by the destruction caused by the tsunami in all locations but even more so by the fact that very few if any people know that it affected Africa, as well. However, the African continent has endured so much. It has fallen only to gracefully rise time and time again. I feel that this is no different, and it is my greatest hope that one day soon I will play a role in the inevitable resurgence of this great continent.
i feel terrible for the people who’ve been affected by this disaster and i wish there was more i could do than just giving money and food. My school collected money and then left it at that so really we haven’t really collected food. Those poor people….
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I feel really sad for all the children in Africa that got effected by the tsunami.Its so sad what happend. I will hope and pray for all the victims.