mweshi

I can’t believe the conference is about to end in a few! This has been the most fulfilling, thought provoking, inspiring and educational event I have ever attended and as I mentioned this morning to conference attendees, thanks to TED for this wonderful opportunity of brining together so many progressive Africans. What happens after this conference now is entirely up to all of us who love our continent. To all TEDsters out there, let’s make this event the genesis of the cheetah renaissance!

Salim Amin is asking every African and those interested in the continent to help his for Africa by Africa 24-hour news channel, A24 come to fruition. With 900 million people on the continent, we continue to look to international news channels to provide information about our continent.

Amin’s channel aims to provide training for journalists across the continent as well as breaking news with 46 stations, offered to all terrestrial television providers free of charge and revenue will be generated through advertisements.

It’s time Africa got its own 24-hour news channel. Most of the talks and discussions here at TED this week have focused on the fact that we rarely have positive viewpoints on Africa from western media and this channel will definitely bring and help to paint a positive light on the continent.

James Shikwati just finished his talk and his main point is that we kick aid out and start thinking of new and ingenious ways of growing African economies, especially through business and youth empowerment.

Ory Okolloh, a lawyer, activist and blogger from Kenya gave a pretty poignant talk about reversing the brain drain and what can be achieved if Africans in the diaspora were to come back and simply take the plunge to help the continent.

President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete also spoke to us this morning about uplifting our people by giving them opportunities and incentives. As a TEDster and an African, I would personally like to thank President Kikwete for the wonderful hospitality Tanzania has given to us through the week.

Tanzania is one country that in my eyes continues to work hard at political stability, economic growth and a solid succession path that has always looked for fresh ideas and new leadership especially in a time when most African states have political dinosaurs continuously imposed on them without a transparent process.

This entry was posted on Thursday, 7th June 2007 at 9:08 am and is filed under Africa, Art, Business, Design, Film, Life, TED, tedglobal2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.