Monday, June 14, 2010

NextGen Africa Forum @ NYU June 14

Singer Madonna in September 1990 at the AIDS P...Image via Wikipedia
I have been seeing a lot of buzz around this event at NYU this evening. I signed up and I think you should too. Pass it on.

NextGen Africa Forum
Monday, June 14, 2010 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (ET)
NYU's Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South
New York, NY

And there is an after party at Amity Hall, proceeds from drinks to go to Goods4Good.

80 West 3rd St

Amity Hall is showing all World Cup games live. That would be one great reason for many people to keep going back there: to celebrate Africa. I love soccer.



Christine Huang: The Huffington Post:NextGen Africa: What's Next for Africa's 50 Million Orphans?
Of the 2.2 billion children that populate the world, 163 million of them are parentless. ..... "It's getting worse," Aronson explained. "The number [of vulnerable children and orphans] is increasing because the number of adults living with AIDS and other diseases is increasing; because of conflict and war... These are all large contributors. But the most important reason is the increase of extreme poverty. This is an issue which has been growing over the decades; the hundreds of millions of people living in poverty is growing daily, and the financial crisis we're living in today is adding to that." ....... Goods for Good, a New York-based nonprofit organization, that partners with international corporations and grassroots organizations to provide school supplies, clothing, health products, and other necessities to orphans and vulnerable children in developing nations. ........ "Children's and women's issues are not given their due in mainstream press -- they're the least interesting topics in the media. And yet they're the most interesting topics -- because the success of the planet is up to them," Aronson said with conviction. "If I were asked, what would be the best bang for you buck in helping the world be a better place to live, I'd say it would be investing in women and their families -- so that all women would have prenatal care, and so their babies are born healthy, and their families could live in a healthy environment."
Dr. Jane Aronson
Joyce Banda
Ann Veneman
Dr. Claire Gaudiani
Melissa Kushner

This event is not going to be easy to attend. I am already going through so many emotions. So many large scale problems grip the continent of Africa. But one has to always make the effort to fall on the side of hope, not despair.

I roam the tech circles in town hoping to contribute to the idea of universal broadband. I am a Third World guy. Africans at college looked so different, but they knew what mud huts were, and we bonded. I was one of Obama's earliest supporters in New York City. 500 years of world history can not be remedied in five years, but the journey has to begin.

On my way to this event I am also reminded of Madonna. I have always liked her. So I was not surprised with her Malawi work.







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Iran: The World Has Wasted A Year

The Azadi Tower is the symbol of Tehran, Iran,...Image via Wikipedia
It has been a year since the Iranians have been braving the streets. Their courage is in stark contrast to the Iranian diaspora that has failed to help steer the political goal of the revolution from forcing the mullahs to hold a re-election to pushing the theocracy out of power altogether and turning Iran into a modern democracy, and in stark contrast to the global netroots/grassroots that has been myopic, unreal, shallow, and just plain not pragmatic. And I am not even going to talk about the world leaders and the world governments.

A theocracy and a dictatorship is designed to be unreasonable. If you want to feel the warmth of reason from Tehran, you help the democracy movement. You help the reform movement. But the people who are pissed the mullahs might be sharpening nukes want to act cautious lest they cross those mullahs. That is insane. There is not much logic in that thinking. The world has to help the Iranian democracy movement to the hilt. Talk of moral support sickens me. Turn your Twitter avatar green. You impressed someone else, not me. Because I have been under the impression you are going to start and stop with that. That's not enough. This democracy movement should have been over and concluded by now. This is taking too long. A democracy movement is supposed to last weeks, not months and years. This is unreal. The world has not stood with the people of Iran.

There are two huge reasons for the world at large to get behind the democracy movement in Iran. One, nukes. Two, the larger so called War On Terror. You want Iran to become a democracy because a democracy makes sense. A democratic Iran the world will be able to reason with. And you want the democracy movement in Iran to succeed so that success can be replicated in every other country in that region. I can't wait for democracy movements to erupt in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for example.

I am glad the people in Iran are still going strong. I am sad they have been so let down by the world.

Effort has to be made to shift the goal. Begging the mullahs to hold a re-election will only lead to frustration and possible failure. You give the mullahs a deadline. They step down or you shut the country completely down until they step down and make way for a caretaker government that will hold elections to a constituent assembly. And you announce all human rights violations to that point will be persecuted by the caretaker government. The beatings of protesters and the torture of those detained has to be accounted for. There has to be a price to pay.

And the world has to give logistical support. A democracy movement asks for logistics just like military misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan do.

Iran: An Opportunity
Iran: Yes, We Can
How We Have Failed Iran
Dumb White People (DWPs) And Iran
The Fraud In Iran
Iran: This Is What I Am Talking About
The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal

A democracy movement is science: it can be made to work every single time.
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