The Kev Blog

This from a Tom Peters post in September:

Describing Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

Fundamental premise: “The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers.

But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”

Pink makes a sound analytic argument for all this, based on the Rise of Asia and the New Technologies, among other things. One other zinger I cotton to:

“The MFA [master of fine arts] is the new MBA.”

The other book is The Big Picture, from the person I consider to be the most innovative educator in America … Dennis Littky. Dennis considers the current school system a disaster.

He’s working on a new model, piloted in Providence, RI, and now spinning out across the nation courtesy a big grant from the Gates Foundation. Littky’s work dovetails brilliantly with Pink’s. He believes we need to get beyond the rote learning and teach-to-test shackles … and get kids to engage in activities that mean something to them.

Consider: “From the media, we hear these great tearjerker stories of kids who succeeded despite the odds. But all of our kids are instead facing the odds of an education system that is all wrong. The odds are against them because the system works against them instead of with them. … I see it every day: kids who people have dismissed as ‘dumb in math’ or ‘uninterested in science’ or ‘nonreaders’ doing incredible things in these exact same areas because they were (finally) allowed to start with something they were already interested in. A 9th-grade kid who ‘hates science’ sees a movie about freezing people, then decides to read a college biology text on cryogenics, and then gives a presentation on it that blows your socks off.”

Peters then goes on to explain that he thinks the state of education in the world is as important as terrorism. “I don’t think I’m crazy,” Peters says. “I think this is the equal of security concerns … perhaps the ultimate security concern?”

Image credit.

September 24, 2007
Marc and Craig Kielburger

Walking along the streets of Khartoum these days, it’s not very difficult to find a dim sum restaurant.

It’s an odd image, to be sure. The colourful Chinese signs – for everything from restaurants to pharmacies – stand out in Sudan’s dusty capital. But it’s a reflection of Africa’s rising economic reality. Foreign investment, once scared away by fears of war, corruption and instability, is pouring into the continent like never before.

Last year alone, nearly $40 billion worth of foreign direct investment landed on African soil – more than double that of 2004. Africa’s growth rate is now outpacing both Japan and the United States.

And Asian investors are leading the way. Exploding economies in places like China, India and Singapore mean that those countries are in need of untapped natural resources and fresh markets for their goods. Africa is the perfect fit.

In fact, the economic ties between the two continents are now the strongest in the developing world. China has companies in nearly every African country, and upwards of 750,000 Chinese nationals work on the continent.

But despite the multi-million-dollar contracts and trade deals, this new era of co-operation, as the United Nations calls it, has done little to boost Africa’s fortunes.

That’s because much of the foreign investment has been geared towards the continent’s resource-rich oil and mining industries, which often generate low tax revenues – meaning little money actually trickles back into the economy.

For example, according to a UN report, Ghana has seen a significant spike in investment in its gold industry, yet receives as little as 5 per cent of the value of the gold it exports. So despite its mineral wealth, nearly 80 per cent of the country lives on less than $2 a day.

At the same time, many of the business deals with countries like China are becoming wrapped up in the continent’s political troubles.

Beijing has long been criticized for propping up the regime in Sudan accused of committing genocide in Darfur. Nearly two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports are sold to China, in deals worth $2 billion.

For Sudan, increasingly isolated for its role in the killing of civilians, that is much needed cash.

While most Western countries would hesitate to work with governments suspected of massive human rights violations, China sees the allegations against Sudan as internal affairs. For them, business and politics don’t mix. That has many people worried and has spurred calls in the U.S. for a boycott of next year’s Olympics in Beijing if China does not do more to end the bloodshed in Darfur.

So if Africa is going to reap the benefit of economic investment, foreign businesses will need to stop treating the continent as a place to flood markets with cheap goods in exchange for oil and minerals, no questions asked.

Many of the continent’s economies are driven by single commodities. Those economies must diversify if they are going to compete. And Africa will have to better attract foreigners to its manufacturing and agricultural sectors, alongside its lucrative natural resources, by clamping down on corruption, red tape and poor governance.

Doing so would mean the billions of dollars pouring into Africa would benefit local populations the way it is supposed to. That’s an investment worth making.