Apropriate Development

I read an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy this week about the X Prize Foundation. Mr. Vander Ark, formally the education grantmaking coordinator for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has just taken a position with the X Prize Foundation. The X Prize Foundation, and it's CEO Mr. Peter Diamandis, offer multi-million dollar awards to encourage individuals, non-profits, and businesses to develop solutions to solve the world's biggest problems, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Their first big project was the Space Ship One which is a space craft that carried three people on an suborbital flight twice within two weeks. This first project didn't sound to me like one of the world's biggest problems, but their future efforts include giving awards for the development of a highly fuel efficient car that is also marketable. Other efforts will be to improve schools, research biofuels, and the development of innovative ways to fight global poverty through entrepreneurship.

Mwandawiro Mghanga, of Nairobi, and the MP for Wundanyi, wrote an editorial in The Nation on January 31, 2007, saying that Kenya invests immense resources to produce highly skilled professionals and intellectuals, but that it does not have the ability to pay the salaries and provide the lifestyle to keep these trained Kenyans in the country. He feels that the most sustainable solution to brain drain is an overhaul of the education and belief system. He says, "In other words, the root cause of the problem of brain drain will be found in the nature of Kenyan society and the values embodied in it. Kenya is a capitalist society. The education system that sustains this system embraces values of egoism, greed, competition for wealth and positions, exclusion and the search for personal wealth at whatever cost." His solution? A socialist system, where intellectuals value helping the poor instead of their possessions.

The Oregon Trail. Do you remember that computer game we used to play in school? I loved it. Someone even donated a copy of it for my school kids while I was in the Peace Corps, and the grade six students were able to understand and play it. But I am not sure how much it may have taught them. I should have included a lesson about the history behind it. For me, the game gave me an experience of early American life in very basic terms. It was a history lesson on the social and economic conditions of the days of the Oregon Trail. And although my son or daughter may have died of something serious, I was still able to shoot that rabbit and provide for the rest of the family.

I have heard many stories about the unifying power of sports. Many Peace Corps Volunteers tell of bringing a soccer ball or a makeshift soccer ball out into the community. Not only do children rush to play and to interact with you, but adults often join in. All feelings of fear or nervousness of meeting each other disappears. Sports allow us to meet others, to interact with others, to share a common goal. As a coxswain for many years on rowing teams, I know the power of unifying in order to achieve something in common. I understand the powerful feeling that you have, the feeling of being part of something.

Many companies do team building exercises, many non-profit organizations that serve inner-city youth use team building and adventure activities. Participants gain confidence, leadership and cooperation skills, and learn how to push themselves out of their comfort zone. Many of these programs and activities work wonders even though they are "hard."

I was quite excited and inspired recently to hear a Jamaican friend of mine tell about a new project happening in her community. In Schoolfield, a very rural district between Malvern and Santa Cruz in the parish of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, a project was recently started to help high school students from the district pay for their taxi fare to and from school. Although I don’t have all of the details of the project, I was happy to hear of how this new project was started, implemented, and how it is working out.