It all began with a gift. When Jacqueline Novogratz was a young student, her uncle gave her a sweater. It had pictures of zebras and Mount Kilimanjaro – just the thing to appeal to the imagination of a young American girl. It was her introduction to a continent that she came to fall in love with.

For more than two decades Novogratz has been working as a philanthropist in Africa and other parts of the developing world. In her book, The Blue Sweater, she tells the story of how she came across a little boy in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. He was wearing the sweater – her blue sweater. More than ten years earlier she had donated it to Goodwill, in the United States.

“I was jogging one morning in Kigali, when I saw this young boy wearing my sweater,” She says...

“So I ran up to him…and there was my name on the collar of that little boy’s sweater.”
Novogratz tells her story with a sense of good humor. That random meeting with her sweater in a remote African town was, to her, a testament to the interconnectedness of human beings around the world. She calls it an epiphany that made her understand the importance of giving.
“This action that had been taken by me and my mother a decade earlier had come back to me…through a young boy,” she says. It also reinforced the notion that “our action and inaction…can impact people we might never know…and that to me is the most important metaphor that the blue sweater creates.”

Novogratz was not in Rwanda as tourist. She was helping set up the country’s first women’s cooperatives union, also called a micro-finance bank. She had been a successful banker in New York but left that job after working in a South American slum. She was trying to help “poor Brazilians who,” she said, “were working so hard but not having access to bank credit.” She was inspired to combine her skills as a banker and her passion for philanthropy.

Her boss at the bank turned down her suggestion for a program facilitating loans to the poor. So in 2001, she created Acumen, a non-profit global venture fund that uses ‘entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.’ Novogratz is not very keen on giving aid to poor countries. This is an idea she shares with many opponents of the current foreign aid regime.”Pure aid and charity in the traditional way is not going to solve poverty and too often creates dependence”

Capitalism with a humanitarian ethos

She says that her work with Acumen proves that small amounts of cash donations combined the right business approach could help fight poverty in low income communities. She has already invested millions of dollars in small business ventures that have a social impact on their societies.
Entrepreneurs in developing countries that have benefited from small loans have been able to develop their big business ideas and are delivering affordable “critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.”

The “Blue Sweater” is a story that does not have an ending. It is an ongoing narrative about fighting global poverty. Like any ongoing story, it has its own challenges. Both personal as a person who works in different cultures, and professional as a head of an organization that seeks to blend capitalism with
humanitarianism.

Michela Wrong is a journalist who by all accounts is loathed by your typical African politician. The reason is simply that she does not fear to expose corruption. In her many years living and working on the continent,she has encountered many cases of corrupt officials exploiting the people they are supposed to serve. She has been banned from travelling to a number of these countries. It appears then that she is doing rubbing some people the wrong way. In Kenya like in many African countries, corruption is deeply entrenched in institutional culture. The people seem to have resigned themselves to accepting it as inevitable. After over two decades of a corrupt regime, Kenyans were relieved to see a newly elected president who to many was a symbol of unwavering principal. Mwai Kibaki came to power riding a wave of discontent after former President Moi’s Kanu party failed to secure another term to govern Kenya. Michela Wrong was in Kenya at the time and she was anxious to see the type of relief that the new administration would bring. Among many of her Kenyan friends was a man named John Githongo-a fellow journalist who often wrote about the corrupt regime under Moi. The new government was determined to fight corruption.
Githongo was appointed to head the anticorruption efforts of the new government. He had previously headed the Kenyan chapter of Transparency International, a non-governmental agency devoted to fighting corruption. Following his appointment,it became apparent that his ‘political-godfathers’ expected him to close his eyes to their corrupt ways. After all he was Kikuyu, and he could not tell on his own people. Most importantly, these politicians were of the opinion that since the Kalenjin had held the riens of power for the past two decades, it was now “Their time to eat”. And that is the basis of Wrong’s book titled “It’s our time to eat”.
A commonly used term, ‘eating’ simply means that politicians who are in charge of a country’s institutions and resources “… are going to use our time in power to do very well…It translates into contracts for people from your constituency,jobs for the ‘boys’…we are going to fill our pockets...” Michela Wrong explains to me during an interview from London.


Kenyan officials who appointed John Githongo, did so with an expectation that his ethnic loyality would take precedence over any need to expose their corruption. Unfortunately for them....


they were wrong about him. Githongo’s struggle for his life than made him flee for his life began when he wrote a report that revealed how several of President Kibaki's cabinet ministers and aides sought to conceal fraudulent deals to help steal billions of shillings. He exposed the multimillion dollar "Anglo Leasing" corruption scam involving contracts for a company that was conniving with Kenyan officials to steal millions of dollars in Kenyan payer’s money. The report implicated among others, powerful Kenyan ministers including the Vice-President Moody Awori.
Wrong writes that Githongo’s work soon made him the most hated and admired men in Kenya.

“He became a very controversial figure…but there were people in the lower echelons of Kenyan society who look at this man as a hero…” say Wrong.

Githongo could have chosen to keep quiet and make a lot of money in the process. But he took his job seriously, and took personal risk by reporting on government official’s malfeasance. “He refused to shut up and put his professionalism first…he denounced what he saw….” Says Wrong. Three top government ministers, all close confidantes of Mr Kibaki, resigned after the Anglo Leasing report was released. Neither they nor any of the other top ministers and businessmen named in the report - including the vice-president, Moody Awori – were charged.


It's Our Turn to Eat is written with detailed narratives and what some analysts call ‘brutal honesty’. It takes time to show Africa’s predicament as many nations grapple with the sometimes futile fight against corruption. The situation is not helped with the millions of aid money that flow into the continent without much accountability to where it goes.
Michela concludes on a positive note, “What people like John Githongo do is very important… it shows that people can answer to the dictates of their conscience and not just shrug their shoulders and be passive…’she says

Listen to the interview with Michela Wrong





John Githongo lecture on Governance and Corruption



The Orwell Prize 2009 Launch, Part 5: Michela Wrong

Is hip-hop dead? Well,Walter Dawkins an expert on the issue seems to think so. He says that these days if you turn on the radio. What used to be exciting, groundbreaking music seems to have been reduced to a one-note din. The only topics discussed are bling-bling materialism, how many guns you have, and "ho's." Hip-hop poster boy 50 Cent appears on the cover of Rolling Stone with the caption "Mastering The Art of Violence." There's the raunchy Lil' Kim, and of course, top dog and now Oscar-winner Eminem, who has threatened to kill his wife numerous times on his records.

Back in hip-hop's heyday of the '80s and early '90s, some of the most popular groups were also some of the most vibrant - the militant Public Enemy, the uplifting Arrested Development, the stylistically abstract A Tribe Called Quest, and the teacher KRS-One. Despite different approaches, they seemed to be working together to speak about the black experience and create the melting pot that made hip-hop so refreshing and vital.

"In the late '80s, there was such a diversity (in hip-hop)," says Kevin Powell, former Vibe magazine senior writer and editor of "Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hip-Hop Photography." "If you were a young black male growing up then, you could aspire to be Chuck D, or Big Daddy Kane, or Too Short, or Doug E. Fresh. You had choices. That doesn't exist anymore."

It's certainly harder to find. And offering it may take courage. When everyone else is talking about violence and riches, it's tough to talk about more cerebral issues without being laughed at by your peers and being called soft. "It is more difficult to try and make the masses buy it," says Common, one of hip-hop's most positive thinkers. He and Talib Kweli, performing at Roseland tomorrow evening, headline one of the most socially conscious hip-hop tours of the year.



So what happened? How did rap devolve from its glorious past to what even some founders suggest is its least innovative period? One of the reasons for the nihilistic themes that dominate today's rap music, Stephney believes, can be traced directly to the rise of the crack epidemic in urban communities.

"The heavy influence of the crack trade changed many of the values of the youth black culture since the mid-'80s," Stephney says. "That's where you get the materialism, the guns, the absolute die-hard mentality for meaningless things. So if you add all those things to the history of black people in general, then you get a very bad mix."

This mentality started reflecting itself in the music in the early '90s with the introduction of the group NWA. Their albums explicitly detailed a hard-core lifestyle of violence, drugs and sex, and when sales exploded - to both black and white teenagers - the themes in rap songs started to turn decidedly darker.

Politically aware groups like Public Enemy and Digable Planets were pushed aside as records labels, hungry to match the enormous sales of NWA and always eager to exploit the next big thing, looked for groups that replicated the winning formula. After the mega-success of Suge Knight's Death Row Records - which released albums by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg - hip-hop's new direction was firmly set.

This week on Upfront we looked at Sex education and information in Africa. In most African societies,talking about sex is taboo. Parents and teachers,the two most important conduits of information in any community are less than forthcoming when it comes to passing on information about sex. The result is a community that is less than informed on one of the most important topics. Sex education has always been important to any young person. In this age of HIV/AIDS, there is an increased sense of urgency. The lack of information could be the difference between life and death. It however seems that this fact has not yet sunk in to the minds of many African parents and educators who have let the cultural constraints on this sensitive topic,override the importance of sex education.

On the show we talked to many young people whose parents were less than forthright in talking to them about sex. They often learn about it through anecdotal information passed on through informal channels. This means they either got the wrong information or it was distorted by the existing shrowd of secrecy.
Regardless of culture,there is a certain sensitivity attached to the topic of sex. It is not the easiest subject to discuss with your children or students. In a culture that maintains that young people have no business accessing such information,they bury it deep and hope that when their young grow,the information will be readily available to them. Their argument is that there are other important things in life that should take precedence in one's learning priorities. We now know the fallacy in that argument. The less you know the more at risk you are.
People providing sex education have attitudes and beliefs of their own about sex and sexuality and it is important not to let these influence negatively the sex education that they provide. For example, even if a person believes that young people should not have sex until they are married, this does not imply withholding important information about safer sex and contraception. Attempts to impose narrow moralistic views about sex and sexuality on young people through sex education have failed.11 12 Rather than trying to deter or frighten young people away from having sex, effective sex education includes work on attitudes and beliefs, coupled with skills development, that enables young people to choose whether or not to have a sexual relationship taking into account the potential risks of any sexual activity.

According to Avert an international AIDS Charity,effective sex education also provides young people with an opportunity to explore the reasons why people have sex, and to think about how it involves emotions, respect for one self and other people and their feelings, decisions and bodies. Young people should have the chance to explore gender differences and how ethnicity and sexuality can influence people's feelings and options. They should be able to decide for themselves what the positive qualities of relationships are. It is important that they understand how bullying, stereotyping, abuse and exploitation can negatively influence relationships.

Avert also warns that people providing sex education have attitudes and beliefs of their own about sex and sexuality. It is important not to let these influence negatively the sex education that they provide. For example, even if a person believes that young people should not have sex until they are married, this does not imply withholding important information about safer sex and contraception. Attempts to impose narrow moralistic views about sex and sexuality on young people through sex education have failed. Rather than trying to deter or frighten young people away from having sex, effective sex education includes work on attitudes and beliefs, coupled with skills development, that enables young people to choose whether or not to have a sexual relationship taking into account the potential risks of any sexual activity.

I am not big on sci-fi, but I have been looking forward to the movie District 9, ever since I heard that Peter Jackson was part of the project. The movie is directed by a young unknown South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp. I have been a fan of Peter Jackson's work since his The Lord of the Rings trilogy days. So i figured that if attached he his name to a project, it was worth watching.

I was also curious to see the work of Neill Blomkamp, because he is a young African filmmaker. In case you didn’t know; Hollywood honchos are not so eager to hire African film directors. I barely knew Neill, his earlier work was a six minute film ‘Alive in Joburg’. District 9 expands on the themes and elements from this short film.

Before the movie was released,I avoided watching all the movie trailers. These days,there are so many trailers for an upcoming movie, that by the time you get to watch it, you know the ending. I wanted to be surprised by District 9. And indeed I was—in both a good and bad way. It was a great movie movie; an allegory to the apartheid regime in South Africa. I was also surprised that for the first time,aliens were depicted as the good guys. With all the policy debates in the US around the issue of immigration, the louder voices of the far right-- Hannity, Lou Dobbs and others--have successfully caste a dark shadow around immigrants or aliens-- as they are known in the US. When it comes to this issue, cable news overflows not just with vitriol, but also with a series of myths that feed viewers' resentment and fears, seemingly geared toward creating anti-immigrant hysteria.

In District 9, the aliens—real aliens—are blamed for the high crime rates and other social ills. The aliens are loathsome, trash-eating vermin who fight endlessly, destroy property for no reason, and piss on their own homes, which isn’t a truthful or flattering allegorical comparison for actual black South Africans under apartheid. In real life these myths are notable for their sheer ludicrousness. Also in the movie like in real life, there is no attempt to have a conversation around the issue.

Finally, one of the issues I have always had with Hollywood movies like ‘Coming to America’ is that they promote stereotypes about Africa. In District 9, the bad guys are Nigerians—who peddle in witchcraft and have cannibalistic tendencies. Heck they even speak a little Swahili—a language not so common among the Nigerian population. The other issue I have is the narrative elements of cannibalism and interspecies sex—attributed to the black gangs. This just undercuts the movies good intentions. It also diminished the potential for intelligent, nuanced allegory and a lost opportunity for the thousands of Americans that made it the number one movie this weekend at the box office.

This week on Upfront we talked about Nepotism. A practice that involves favoring relatives or friends rather than on an objective evaluation of ability or suitability. In work places,nepotism manifests itself when one offers a job to a relative, despite the fact that there are others who are better qualified and willing and able to perform the job.

One of the problems often cited in causing Africa's underdevelopment is that;most of our institutions under perform due to a poor manpower system.Recruitment of new hires is based on who you know and what type of relationship you have with them.This runs in every institution from the army,police to the president's office. Qualified people will often be left out of the hiring process,in favor of an unqualified applicant who happens to know the boss.

Nepotism is a form of political corruption eating at the fabric of African institutions.

Many of listeners who participated on the show acknowledged that nepotism exists in their country. Many college students have a fear of finding a career in a crowded job market that is marred by unfair hiring practices.
It is wrong for any government officials to use their powers for illegitimate private gain. Hiring someone because they are related to you or you personally know them is a form of political corruption, and it should not be condoned.