How my random, spontaneous Euro Road Trip came about

May has been quite the interesting month for me - filled with non-stop action, multi-time zones and an absolute ton of things to see and do. In retrospect, I'd do it all again - except for Air Canada canceling my flight from Fort McMurray to Toronto.

It started with work - formally met the boss's boss late in April and got some great feedback from both himself and my boss, which naturally has led to even more responsibilities at work: leading a rapid results project team, as well as being the designate for the boss when he's away; all this in addition to my normal duties as the Plant Engineer for the oldest primary upgrading unit in the world. Extremely busy and challenging, but as Nigerians are wont to say in such times "We thank God". Some have food but cannot eat, etc...(if you don't know the tune, don't worry).

Given the foregoing, you can understand why I needed a break, which the opportunity of my sister's wedding provided - technically, two weddings as is common in Nigeria: a traditional wedding on the 12th and the church wedding on the 14th. Shortly before the wedding, I also came up with the idea of a road trip through Europe. The stage was set for chaos, adrenalin and yes, fun.

Which African Union?

Sub-Saharan African leaders have continually shown undue deference to people with lighter skin than theirs, and in this day and age we see that trend continuing. Recent events in Ivory Coast and North Africa have only underlined this bold statement.

It's why our leaders sold off their people and historical artifacts for mere trinkets - most of which were worthless - to the Portuguese, French and English. The belief that the man with the white skin was a god that needed to be assuaged.

It's why our leaders allowed themselves to become colonial stooges (contrast that to the colonial experience in North Africa) and allowed what at the time were foreign gods and ways of living to become de jure.

It's why since "independence", our leaders spend billions of dollars yearly on foreign education, weaponry, goods and services, etc with very little care for developing the manufacturing industries in their respective countries.

It's why despite the turmoil currently surrounding North Africa - Libya in particular - the African Union has been relatively silent. After all, Libyans are our lighter skinned brothers, relatively wealthy and with a demagogue ruling the stable - the very recipe for the AU adopting a hands-off approach.

Do we have a revolutionary temperament?

I've listened and read with growing amusement the articles, interviews, tweets and blog posts about the uprisings in the Middle East and how they are a portend for what was to come in Africa, in particular. It was only until I happened upon this article - http://mg.co.za/article/2011-03-30-how-african-is-the-arab-revolution that I said "finally, someone who understands the differences between black Africa and North Africa.

Now, before you crucify me, let me state without equivocation that I am a full believer in the need for a true revolution to remove the retrogressive and corrupt elements in African governments. Akin to what Jerry J. Rawlings did in Ghana in 1979, the benefits of which that country is now reaping. Also akin to Jehu in ancient Israel, as recounted in the 1st Book of Kings for those who know their Bible. Good? Great.

How ethical is renewable energy?

As I tweet more, I blog less.

I've noticed this to be true of many of my friends who actively tweet and own blogs, especially those of the sporting and socio-political variety. I guess twitter is doing to blogging what facebook did to instant messaging. Not quite eliminating it (a la e-mail to letter-writing), but making it the second option.

I've also been tied up with the rigorous demands of drilling for oil in one of the largest reserves in the world - yes, I'm proud to be linked with the oil sands of Alberta, as "dirty" as some environmentalists claim it is. I guess no one has told these environmentalists that there is some good being done here - reclamation of settling ponds into veritable wildlife preserves, the carbon offsets companies here are involved in, the wind power and ethanol generation that some led by Suncor (shameless plug for my company) are engaged in, or how rigorous their safety standards are.

Or while we wait for the hydrogen-powered cars of the future, does no one think of the socio-political issues around drilling in the Middle East? Sure, you can suck up oil from the ground using a straw in those places, but at what cost to the people there? At what cost to generation X of the United States and its allies, who aren't fighting a war for world peace or to bring down a tyrant - as was the case in the first two world wars, respectively - but who are fighting instead so that the West can have oil at $70 per barrel?

Redefining Africa's Investment Potential

My good friend, Anne Griffin sent me a link to this interesting article from the Wall Street Journal - A Continent of New Consumers Beckons. She wanted my opinion on the article and if I felt it was an accurate depiction of the continent. I'll start with a caveat - any article that generalizes the experiences of individual African countries and regions for the sake of expediency or due to ignorance of the many fissures (geographic, tribal and social) within the African continent is suspect. However, since that's the context in which the article was written, I crave the reader's indulgence in the generality of my response and analysis of the article. It's a good article, and factual. There's no doubt that the middle class of Africa (as a whole) is beginning to "take off" and exert some influence in the global market, especially where it concerns consumer goods. I believe the mobile phone market in Africa is bigger than that of the Indian subcontinent, for example - or very comparable. Considering where the continent was 10 years ago, that's nothing short of a miracle. Highlighting this surprising statistic is that the poorest of the poor in India or Pakistan hardly posseses a mobile phone, while his/her counterpart in subSaharan Africa has at least one...ironic, but we'll get to that. In addition, there's a high demand for personal totems of status - cars, designer clothing, latest handheld devices, etc as material possessions are often seen as the only indicator of wealth in traditional African societies. The article also highlights some of the issues that can/will prevent explosive growth - corruption, lack of social services, poor (albeit improved from before) government, etc. Therein lies my problem with the otherwise well-documented piece - not enough attention was paid to this non-consumeric aspect. I'm of the school that believes that the African middle-class, despite what African governments and economists would have us believe, is nothing but a phantom idea. There can be no sustainable middle class, nor can it become a major player in the global economy, until some of those base (read, social) issues are addressed. Across the continent (and certainly in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana), there are many people who would rather have enough credit to finance their phone bill than eat 3 square meals a day. This is where the gray area comes in to play - how many people know that the fancy clothes, fancy phone and fancy car are masking someone who can only afford to eat 1 or 2 square meals daily? In the eyes of the world, and because this individual partakes in economic activities, s/he is middle class. It's more complex than that. In basic economics, a middle class inidividual/family is defined as one that after paying for all their needs, has some extra money to take care of a few wants. In terms of disposable income, there isn't much - even among African professionals who are gainfully employed.

The article also seems focused on the urban centers of the countries it mentions, not realizing that the continent only has a 30% (at most) urban population. In addition, even in major cities, only a very small percentage of the population (about 5% in Nigeria; slightly more in countries like Ghana and Kenya; less in Francophone Africa) has a relatively high quality of life (i.e. one that could qualify at least as "lower middle class" in Western countries). Who is measuring the economic indices of the 70% who don't have any functional means of livelihood, given that the main economic thrusts of rural areas - farming, herding, fishing and resource exploitation - are either in decline or don't provide many benefits for their host population? Of course, economies like those of Botswana and South Africa are some exceptions to the rule - and again we run into the problem of generalizing African problems and successes, but even these countries aren't anywhere close to the BRIC nations.

Lastly, the article doesn't mention the gross lack of basic infrastructure, the dying - or dead - manufacturing/agricultural base, the increasingly worse security situation (likely liked to high unemployment) and the over-dependence on diminishing natural resources (with a resultant lack of economic diversification). In other words, the very things that could curb the future growth they are projecting. That being said, it's hard to go against the article seeing as it is a WSJ piece. From the standpoint of attracting investors to the continent and exposing the potential for consumer-based growth, it is on point. I just worry that this sort of focus could result in another spate of unsustainable growth without any solid, conservative foundations to fall back on in lean times (social security, taxation, infrastructure development, healthcare, etc) and let's face it, investors only care about those things when they aren't making money - at which point they split town! The type of investors African countries need are those who are willing to be social, not just financial entrepreneurs. Investors who are willing to refuse giving a bribe at the risk of losing a contract, because they know that they are laying a foundation for the total growth of their countries of interest, not just boosting the foreign exchange kitty for local, state and federal governments to share among themselves. It's why I've often advocated for investors to have historical or direct links to the continent, because only then can true ownership be implemented. If anything, I feel this article is a wake-up call to African and diasporic Africans (both those who left the continent willingly within the last few decades and those who were forced to leave a few centuries ago) to invest in the continent and take ownership of OUR opportunities. Otherwise, the vultures will come in to feed (as they have in the past and as they continue to do) and we'll be singing the same old song when this new - and potentially great - economic wave has passed.

The Death of Debate and Discussion

I've decided to put a pause on my usual haranguing of the Nigerian system (and yes, the Black World Order in general) and focus on topical questions  - still in my areas of focus such as human/economic development, renewable energy, political/social reform - that can encourage debate and constructive discussion. The one thing that I continually decry in the black community is the slow death of the debate.
This is something I've observed with my friends both in North America and Africa, as well as with the black communities in North America and countries in Africa. Oh, we meet and we talk, but usually we're shouting over one another and most importantly, we aren't listening to other people's points of view and discussing them in a non-threatening while still critical manner. For our societies to take full advantage of the diversity of thought, energy and drive of the young black professional, these are attributes that we must imbibe and display. If nothing else, we can be an example to those generations who've gone ahead of us.
To those who deride debate and discussion as a "waste of time", choosing instead to follow their "action-packed plans", I say to you - action is important and will be part of the overall educational, social and economic emancipation of the black race (be it in Africa, the Caribbean or North America). However, just as the pen is mightier than the sword, so are debate and discussion over rabid action, which is usually designed to do no more than draw attention to a cause. Where debate and discussion fail is when the true aim of a movement is compromised and subsumed for the sake of an individual or group's selfish interest. In the race for economic and social development in Africa, many technocrats abandoned their ideals and people-oriented plans when presented with fat contracts and juicy appointments. In the race for the social and economic advancement of African-Americans, many community leaders abandoned the needs of their constituents for political offers and distinguished posts - most of which came with the price of silence in the face of economic inequality and social injustice. In the Caribbean, the story wasn't much different.
Far be it from me to suggest that we don't play our roles in nation-building and equipping future generations of people of African descent to take their rightful place in the global polity - I just urge that we continue to debate and discuss the issues that will enable us to achieve the real aims, dreams and hopes of all our kith and kin rather than relying solely on the crumbs handed down from the elite whose interests - at best - are to maintain the status quo.

Should Singular Black (i.e. African) Achievements Be Celebrated?

This morning I received an e-mail which a close friend forwarded to me. I'm guessing she expected me to react positively and with joy. Unfortunately, I found it hard to - not because I didn't celebrate the achievements of the African-American man described in the e-mail, but because I questioned the raison d'etre of the e-mail. I've replicated the e-mail below along with my response...

E-mail Text
" America's High Tech "Invisible Man"

By Tyrone D. Taborn

You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone. But almost everything in your life has been affected by his work.
See, Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from Stanford University . He is in the National Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the modern-day personal computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon. And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American.

So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal computer without reading or hearing a single word about him? Given all of the pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals of African Americans on television and in print, you would think it would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.
Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel when it comes to telling the stories of African-Americans. Dr. Dean isn't the first Black inventor to be overlooked Consider John Stanard, inventor of the refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer, Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp.

All of these inventors share two things:
One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society relegated them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Dean won't go away as quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn't. Dr. Dean helped start a Digital Revolution that created people like Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell Computer's Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in information technology can be traced back directly to Dr. Dean. More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as inspiration for African-American children. Already victims of the "Digital Divide" and failing school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more enthusiasm if they knew someone like Dr. Dean already was leading the way.

Although technically Dr.. Dean can't be credited with creating the computer -- that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician, widely considered to be the father of modern computer science -- Dr. Dean rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today. The computer really wasn't practical for home or small business use until he came along, leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers.

In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily lives . For most of us, changing the face of society would have been enough. But not for Dr. Dean.. Still in his early forties, he has a lot of inventing left in him. He recently made history again by leading the design team responsible for creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.. It's just another huge step in making computers faster and smaller. As the world congratulates itself for the new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to guarantee that the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding the most stunning technological advance the world has ever seen.. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark Dean become a footnote in history. He is well worth his own history book.

My Response
I think that his achievements are amazing, but...why do we always seek out and over-promote black folks who are doing well? Doesn't this make it more obvious that there are many who aren't?
Instead of wondering why he hasn't been given all the "recognition" we feel he's due, why don't we wonder why there aren't more like him?
:-)

My Friend's Response to Me
:) simple- if we don't then who will? And that directly impacts how many people like him we generate.

Fact: growing up in a society where most people in positions of power and/or success do not look like you limits an individual's idea of what/who they can be.
This is mitigated by strong families & home life. Unfortunately - those are no longer as prevalent for black children. If we don't tell our own stories we allow society to dictate what is told to our children and who their heroes should be.
That in turn impacts the number that can be more like Dr.Dean.
***********************************************************************************
 
This is a discussion that I think is worth having, especially in the African community in the diaspora (African-Americans, African-Canadians, Caribbean Americans/Canadians, Afro-Britons, etc) because it may very well contain the key to changing (for the better) the way we view education and success. For too long, the "black" community has chosen to use one-off role models to show the way to the youth when all else fails. I don't believe it's working, so a change in how we seek to motivate our future generations may be overdue.
 
Now, I don't deny the achievements of Mr. Dean and both the author of the piece on Mr. Dean and my friend made some valid points. I took exception to two things in my friend's response:
 - the notion that kids growing up need to see someone LIKE THEMSELVES in a position of power or influence or prestige for them to desire it
 - papering over the influence of the family and working around that situation instead of through it.
 
Why? Because I think that's the ultimate cop-out for most black people.

What about the generations of poor rural kids from countries in Africa (using Nigeria as an example) in the 1930s to 1960s who were motivated to excel academically and became world-renowned engineers, doctors and scientists with qualifications from schools like Oxford and MIT? Others were architects of movements to end colonialism and became the founding fathers of their countries. Growing up, I can guarantee that they didn't even hear about (much less see) people like themselves, i.e. African/black, who were at the heights they eventually reached.

Bottom line - A child's success, especially in academics with the mental rigor involved therein, is MOSTLY about the emphasis placed on education by the people in that child's life - family, teachers, friends, etc.

Showcasing those who have achieved is all well and good and may have a minimal effect, but maybe I didn't like the way it came across in the email (despite all he's done, he hasn't been properly recognized, etc). That "whining" almost obscured the true genius of the man and does him a disservice. I'm sure his intent when coming up with those patents was largely for the intellectual gratification he received and not a yearning over global acclaim. What about his fellow inventors - it's not exactly as if we know all the Caucasian or Asian ones!

If I was a young kid who was inclined NOT to go to school and I read that email, I'd probably come away thinking that it WASN'T worth it to go through all that schooling only to end up without the acclaim I thought I deserved.

As long as we continue to over-celebrate the achievements of intellectuals of African descent, we'll continue to expose the stark reality - that there simply aren't enough of them to go around. Let's refocus our energies on ensuring that our youth have the knowledge and tools to become the intellectuals of tomorrow...and it starts with the family unit - we can't run away from that!