TED Global 2007 final thoughts
Well, TED Global wrapped up yesterday and quite a few of us were left a tad sad that such an amazing week was over. I believe the people of TED provided us with a great platform with which to communicate with one another and if we can harness the power of those present at TED, Africa’s future is looking very bright! Here’s a quick summary of some of the talks from yesterday.
Patrick Awuah - Cofounder, Ashesi University in Ghana
Africa can only be transformed through enlightened leaders.
The question of transformation in Africa is a question of leadership.
Every society must be intentional about educating its leaders.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - former Finance Minister of Nigeria and Fellow of the Brookings Institution
Why is it that Africans want to totally take the other side of the aid coin by completely refusing it. Africa has been giving aid to the west since the slave trade and we should not be ashamed or refuse if they want to give it back. The US and Europe could not have been built without Africa’s aid. Let’s not be on the defensive for what the west is giving back.
Support women and create jobs. Put more resources in the hands of women:
Placing more resources in the hands of women results in greater spending on human capital, i.e. household services, health, education and food
Aid should be channeled to the right places with total involvement of its recipients from the onset; if this trend continues we won’t achieve any development. Africans need to take charge of where aid should be channeled.
Planted seeds
Emeka put it well when he summarized the conference and said “what we have done at this event is plant seeds.” Indeed the seeds of change, progress, and a new African renaissance have been planted!
8th June 2007 at 7:35 pm
Was a pleasure meeting you there buddy and I hope you enjoyed your red wine. More power to the cheetah generation.
9th June 2007 at 10:28 pm
Was definitely great meeting you too! Let’s carry the torch that’s been lit forward and there won’t be any stopping us now!
15th June 2007 at 11:36 am
[...] the maestro of the event, Mr. Emeka Okafor, who is also an Africa blogger. This section of his post reads: Planted [...]
19th June 2007 at 11:11 pm
Dear Fellow TEDster!
You are an inspiration to us.
Its is 2 weeks already…and we are still digesting stuff from TED. Out of the big ideas in our heads, we have started with a small one.
For a few years Ike Anya and I (Chikwe Ihekweazu) commented on health affairs in Nigeria whenever we felt there was a need. We have done this through traditional media with its limitations. Both not being real early adopters of new technology we did not really appreciate the power and impact on blogging until Arusha.
Now we have educated ourselves the best we can, learnt about tags and rss feeds etc. A whole new world! It was had enough to get off the PC before our life with blogs…and now?
Finally we have our Blog up and running (http://nigeriahealthwatch.blogspot.com/) . It discusses health affairs as it affects the 140 million odd Africans that call themselves Nigerians. We might eventually spread out further, but decided that we start with what we know best.
We are both Nigerians, public health physicians, passionate that we all have a right to long productive lives irrespective of the geographical circumstances of our birth!
In the TED spirit, we will seek progress, will challenge the status quo and seek means of improving the lot of our people. While talking the talk, we will walk the walk.
Support us in adding this to your rss feeds. Send the links to your communities, send in your comments, criticise us, advice us, and grow with us!
You are an inspiration!
Chikwe Ihekweazu/ Ike Anya
TED Fellows to TEDGlobal2007
23rd June 2007 at 7:54 am
[...] Bankalele, Mentalacrobatics, Ethan Zuckerman, Mweshi, Afrigadget/White African, Africa: The Next [...]