BLACK RAISE!
The morning started with a BANG thanks to the strange article in the morning paper. “Cockpit ‘kristo’ going to memory olympics,” the title read. Two Pinoys, an ex bet-taker in a cockpit (aka ‘kristo’) and a registered nurse, were going to compete in the UK Open International Memory Championships in London on August 26-27. Get this, this is an international arena for mental gymnastics. WOW. Nope, they’re not autistic-savants or the proverbial geeks.
When ordinary pinoys who are relatively untrained can compete this way amidst the lack of a strong learning culture in the nation…doesn’t it tell you something? If we can do it, even with odds against us, why don’t we bring this to higher and larger realms of battle. If we have so much raw potential, why do we stop with the raw and never bring this potential further. Imagine if this raw human capital is harnessed for the good of the country. Imagine the possibilities.
DAMBISA MOYO AND DEAD AID
The first time I heard about Dambisa Moyo was in June last year. The June 27 issue of Newsweek featured her book, Dead Aid. This woman had guts, I thought. Even the flak from Bono and his One Foundation and the rest of the world did not impede her. The book was revolutionary as it advanced the view that multilateral aid has worsened Africa’s underdevelopment trap over the decades. Dambisa’s message could cut through diamonds. But it was months after this, during the Ondoy aftermath, that I went back to what she had written and realized its importance with regard to the circumstances of the Philippines. I underscored the essence of her book as an example of self-respect on a personal level and ownership and stakeholding from a policy perspective amidst the aid-addicted Filipino psyche and the policies derived from that.
FOX Business – Dambisa Moyo says Aid to Africa isn’t working
From a Brown Raise viewpoint, Dambisa Moyo became a figure to watch not just for her being a champion for African ownership of its own development goals but more so for being a breathing example of “Black Raise.” Her book begins with a personal quest of attempting to find out why Africa is in a desperate situation and how this can be reversed. Her questions are motivated by a heart for her roots, nation and continent. The preface of Dead Aid reads:
“For me, finding a sustainable solution to Africa’s woes is a personal quest. Having been raised in one of the poorest countries in the world, I feel a strong desire to help families like my own, who continue to suffer the consequences of economic failure every day of their lives. Throughout my professional and academic life as a student of economics I have pondered the question of development. I have often wondered, while other emerging regions have ostensibly turned the corner towards economic prosperity, why my continent has failed. This book is a consequence of my thoughts and deliberations over the years.”
NEIL TUROK AND THE NEXT EINSTEIN INITIATIVE
This year, another “Black Raise” example came to light. In the course of my research, I came across The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). This is the brainchild of theoretical physicist Dr. Neil Turok. It shamelessly aims to produce a band of passionate people who will change Africa. How? It has this simple conviction: The next Einstein will be African. Hence the birth of the Next Einstein Initiative. The latter’s homepage says:
What is NextEinstein?
A vision: Only Africans can solve Africa’s problems.
A solution: Mathematics and Science lead to peace and prosperity.
An opportunity: The Next Einstein can be African.
How did Dr. Turok’s views begin?
Dr. Turok grew up in special circumstances. Born in South Africa, he grew up in his parents convictions as anti-apartheid advocates. His parents were not only imprisoned for their beliefs but the family had to live as refugees. Fast forward to Neil Turok’s teenage years. When he reached the age of 17, he went back to Africa and volunteered as a teacher. In that experience, his own convictions came to their own. He saw that African children are intelligent and full of potential if only they can be given a chance. What he got from this experience was a broken heart for Africa. And that is the best beginning. He was armed with the belief that African talent must be discovered, nurtured and cultivated. In one word it was empowerment towards self-sufficiency. After many years of establishing himself in theoretical physics, having been appointed Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University in 1997 and the current Chair of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, his road map was formed.
Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein
When Dr. Turok won the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Prize in 2008, he again shared his vision for equipping Africans through the AIMS, which was established in 2003. African solutions by Africans, he said in his speech. His vision was so compelling that it produced an elite graduate program of world class rigorous academic training, after which, the students are equipped to cross swords with any academic giant in the world. In one interview, Dr. Turok shared that some critics see the endeavor as a waste of resources since only a few Africans will devote themselves to such a track, notwithstanding the full scholarship. Is this the best way to help Africa? Can math and science stop famine and ethnic cleansing? But there is wisdom in what Dr. Turok undauntingly says: if these students, though few in number, can be inspired, they will change Africa. Dr. Turok may not have the monopoly of answers but what is important is that he indeed carries an answer. He made the best use of what he had–math and science–for the good of Africa.
FRESH HOPE FOR AFRICA
In the March 1, 2010 issue of Newsweek, Jerry Guo writes that while China and India receive all the airtime for their economic rise, the oft overlooked Africa looms as global growth story. “In 2007 and 2008, southern Africa, the Great Lakes region of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and even the drought-stricken Horn of Africa had GDP growth rates on par with Asia’s two powerhouses.” It is exciting to hear that entrepreneurship has increased, thanks to the start of an unmistakeable brain gain in Africa’s most robust economies. A country’s rise still goes back to the story of people.
AIMS in South Africa
Through all the seeming brain work in Dr. Turok’s endeavors, what is really behind the vision is a simple story of fire. Change begins with a personal broken heart for the things we want to change. We must be the first answers to the wrong we want to right. Second, it’s all about empowerment. Solutions for Africa must primarily come from Africans. It is very fitting for Dr. Turok to teach this. The person who begins as a solution is the best person to teach others to become solutions themselves. Last, the story is about inspiration. Great movements in the world always begin with movements within an individual’s heart where convictions, principles and dreams are decided. Indeed, as Emerson and Carlyle put it, there is no such thing as history, only biography. History begins with a personal renaissance in heart spilling over to the mind, moving the hands to turn the world upside down. As Dr. Turok said, if these few Africans are inspired, they can change Africa. Indeed and beyond.
Welcome to the Black Raise.
~ Apolinariang Binibini
Calleja, Nina, “Cockpit ‘kristo’ going to memory olympics,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 15, 2010.
Moyo, Dambisa (2009), Dead Aid. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, NY
Guo, Jerry, “How Africa is becoming the new Asia,” Newsweek, March 1, 2010.
