An interesting article from the Guardian & Mail. It's interesting they mention the AU have been working to try to diffuse the situation in Libya... this fact seems to have gone relatively unreported. Whether this is because of a lack of progress or some other reason remains to be seen.
President Jacob Zuma is disappointed with the decision taken by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant of arrest for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Monday, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news reported.
"President Zuma is extremely disappointed and concerned by the issuing of warrant by the ICC against Colonel Gaddafi," presidential spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told the SABC.
"It's quite unfortunate that the ICC could take such a decision while the African Union (AU), through its ad hoc committee, has done so much and, I think, the progress so far signals that there's a commitment now from both the side of the Libyan authority led by Colonel Gaddafi and the TNC [transitional national council]."
He said the issuing of the warrant undermined the work done by the AU committee.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and military intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi for crimes against humanity on Monday.
Zuma, who is on the committee, hosted the AU ad hoc high level committee on Libya in Pretoria on Sunday to discuss the implementation of the AU roadmap on Libya.
The African leaders said Gaddafi had agreed to stay out of negotiations on ending Libya's four-month political crisis.
The committee, which is chaired by the President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Azizhas, held interactions with the Libyan parties on three occasions, including with Gaddafi and the TNC leadership in Tripoli and Benghazi in April.
Other members are heads of state of the Republic of Congo, Mali, Uganda and South Africa, as well as the chairperson of the AU Commission.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
We've been reading...
The future's bright, the future's ... Africa
Telegraph -- The CEO of Orange, Stéphane Richard is a man who speaks his mind and doesn’t mind how he speaks. As former French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment, recipient of the prestigious Legion of Honour and one-time adviser to a certain Dominique Strauss-Khan, the 49-year-old Richard knows how to get his audience’s attention. At a reporters’ lunch during the French Open tennis at Roland-Garros he described eventual winner Rafael Nadal as ‘vulgar’ and was equally forthright when describing recent meetings with Presidents Obama and Sarkozy. Lost in translation maybe, but while Richard made these remarks with a twinkle in his eye, his subsequent comment that he will visit every African country where Orange does business ‘within two years’ was delivered with more serious intent...
Britain: Give us back our money
Daily Nation -- Britain is demanding a refund of Sh7 billion aid to Kenya’s free education programme following revelations of massive corruption. “The UK Government will push the Government of Kenya hard for return of the UK’s share of lost funds,” the Department for International Development (DFID) said in a statement. During an interview in Nairobi, DFID deputy head Mike Harrison said the money once repaid will be ploughed back to fund education in Kenya but through non-State channels. “We are insisting that besides the government instituting radical reforms in the Ministry of Education, our proportion of the pool fund must be returned,” Mr Harrison said...
Senegal president in U-turn after protests
Guardian -- Senegal's president has agreed to cancel a proposed change to the constitution that would have paved the way for his son to take power, amid massive street protests that marked the biggest challenge to his 11-year rule and threatened to derail a country known as one of the most stable in the region. Anger boiled over Thursday as thousands of protesters attempted to rush the gates of parliament, where lawmakers were meeting to debate the law. Clouds of teargas enveloped the square, as police fought back the demonstrators with gas, rubber bullets and fire hoses. The demonstrations quickly spread from central Dakar to the suburbs and on to three major towns in the interior. There were also protests abroad in Paris and Montreal. The controversial amendment would have created the post of vice-president, a departure from Senegal's European-style government, which has a president and a prime minister...
What if everything were just a game?
BBC -- One more step, and a tiny creature will cross the bridge and get to safety. Just one more step - but letters do not match, the fragile structure blows up and the brown mole falls into a digital abyss. But as Juha Valtamo, a 21-year-old Finnish student, correctly types the next word that appears on the screen of his laptop, another mole happily reaches the destination. Digitalkoot may sound like a typical online game - but there is more to it than just building bridges and saving moles. Every time players complete a level, they help with a real-life task - digitising huge archives of Finland's National Library. Developed by Finnish start-up business Microtask, Digitalkoot - which means digital volunteers in Finnish - combines two very hot trends in today's business world: gamification and crowdsourcing. Words that players need to type come from millions of pages of newspapers, magazines and journals, digitised by optical character recognition...
Telegraph -- The CEO of Orange, Stéphane Richard is a man who speaks his mind and doesn’t mind how he speaks. As former French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment, recipient of the prestigious Legion of Honour and one-time adviser to a certain Dominique Strauss-Khan, the 49-year-old Richard knows how to get his audience’s attention. At a reporters’ lunch during the French Open tennis at Roland-Garros he described eventual winner Rafael Nadal as ‘vulgar’ and was equally forthright when describing recent meetings with Presidents Obama and Sarkozy. Lost in translation maybe, but while Richard made these remarks with a twinkle in his eye, his subsequent comment that he will visit every African country where Orange does business ‘within two years’ was delivered with more serious intent...
Britain: Give us back our money
Daily Nation -- Britain is demanding a refund of Sh7 billion aid to Kenya’s free education programme following revelations of massive corruption. “The UK Government will push the Government of Kenya hard for return of the UK’s share of lost funds,” the Department for International Development (DFID) said in a statement. During an interview in Nairobi, DFID deputy head Mike Harrison said the money once repaid will be ploughed back to fund education in Kenya but through non-State channels. “We are insisting that besides the government instituting radical reforms in the Ministry of Education, our proportion of the pool fund must be returned,” Mr Harrison said...
Senegal president in U-turn after protests
Guardian -- Senegal's president has agreed to cancel a proposed change to the constitution that would have paved the way for his son to take power, amid massive street protests that marked the biggest challenge to his 11-year rule and threatened to derail a country known as one of the most stable in the region. Anger boiled over Thursday as thousands of protesters attempted to rush the gates of parliament, where lawmakers were meeting to debate the law. Clouds of teargas enveloped the square, as police fought back the demonstrators with gas, rubber bullets and fire hoses. The demonstrations quickly spread from central Dakar to the suburbs and on to three major towns in the interior. There were also protests abroad in Paris and Montreal. The controversial amendment would have created the post of vice-president, a departure from Senegal's European-style government, which has a president and a prime minister...
What if everything were just a game?
BBC -- One more step, and a tiny creature will cross the bridge and get to safety. Just one more step - but letters do not match, the fragile structure blows up and the brown mole falls into a digital abyss. But as Juha Valtamo, a 21-year-old Finnish student, correctly types the next word that appears on the screen of his laptop, another mole happily reaches the destination. Digitalkoot may sound like a typical online game - but there is more to it than just building bridges and saving moles. Every time players complete a level, they help with a real-life task - digitising huge archives of Finland's National Library. Developed by Finnish start-up business Microtask, Digitalkoot - which means digital volunteers in Finnish - combines two very hot trends in today's business world: gamification and crowdsourcing. Words that players need to type come from millions of pages of newspapers, magazines and journals, digitised by optical character recognition...
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Teen Perspective: Changing the world
Here's a post written by 13 year old Isabel Fox. It appeared as a guest post on her mother's blog. It's a great read affirming the fact that anyone - young or old - who aspires to make a difference in the world, can.
People are constantly saying, “I can’t change the world. I’m only one person.” Well for me there has always been more to that saying, “I can’t change the world. I am only one teenager; one kid.” For a period of time I honesty felt this way. I felt that there was no way I could ever change the world. Then I started a class at DREAMS Center for Arts Education; though I signed up for a theatre class little did I know that it would end up affecting my life in such a way. At the start of the class the instructor (Ron Dortch) asked each student what they wanted to be when they grew up. I stood up and told him, “I want to be an activist”. Instead of staring at me incredulously or laughing; he looked at me and told me, “Then you will be an activist.” Those words gave me the strength and encouragement I needed to know that can I be an activist; that I can be an activist now; I don’t have to wait until I am older.
People are constantly saying, “I can’t change the world. I’m only one person.” Well for me there has always been more to that saying, “I can’t change the world. I am only one teenager; one kid.” For a period of time I honesty felt this way. I felt that there was no way I could ever change the world. Then I started a class at DREAMS Center for Arts Education; though I signed up for a theatre class little did I know that it would end up affecting my life in such a way. At the start of the class the instructor (Ron Dortch) asked each student what they wanted to be when they grew up. I stood up and told him, “I want to be an activist”. Instead of staring at me incredulously or laughing; he looked at me and told me, “Then you will be an activist.” Those words gave me the strength and encouragement I needed to know that can I be an activist; that I can be an activist now; I don’t have to wait until I am older.
At the same time my mom began working with ONE. This gave me numerous opportunities to use my voice. I can sign petitions, I can go to government meetings, and I can even write letters to my senators and representatives. I went with my Mom to work at ONE table’s and spread the word about ONE because it is truly making a difference.
Near the end of my time with Brother Ron he asked us to do a faith project. I wrote a monologue and to end this post I would like to insert a section of that monologue.
I believe in a lot of things. I believe that peace is more rewarding than war. I believe that love can conquer hate. I believe that we will one day be able to work together and end global poverty and the spread of AIDS. I believe that everyone has a voice that needs to be heard. I believe that education is the tool to the future. I believe that I CAN make a difference in the world.
My faith is simple, I want to live each and everyday to the fullest and not care what other people think. I want to make an impact on the world today. I want to prove that anyone anywhere in any day and age can do anything they put their mind to.
Activist Now,
Isabel Fox
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sustainable vs Effective Leadership
It's been a little while since I posted anything from the Lead Change Group blog on here, so I'm making up for that with this and the next post. They're both by Mike Henry, the founder of the Lead Change Group. This post is about Sustainable vs Effective Leadership; the previous was on Good vs Effective Leadership. I hope you find them useful!
A while back, I wrote a post titled Good Leadership vs. Effective Leadership about the difference between a good leader and an effective leader. The premise of that post was that an effective leader was one who got others to do what that leader wanted. A good leader was one who got others to achieve a positive goal. Good leadership goes beyond effective leadership by achieving a result where the benefit exceeds the cost.
In our modern culture, the Internet provides more options and more ability to influence. Therefore, it’s difficult to have a commonly shared definition of words like “good” and “positive.” Each person has always been free to define those words for themselves, but recently it seems opinions and definitions vary more and more. As someone who’s mission is to apply character-based leadership to make a positive difference, I often get asked to define “positive.”
A while back, I wrote a post titled Good Leadership vs. Effective Leadership about the difference between a good leader and an effective leader. The premise of that post was that an effective leader was one who got others to do what that leader wanted. A good leader was one who got others to achieve a positive goal. Good leadership goes beyond effective leadership by achieving a result where the benefit exceeds the cost.
In our modern culture, the Internet provides more options and more ability to influence. Therefore, it’s difficult to have a commonly shared definition of words like “good” and “positive.” Each person has always been free to define those words for themselves, but recently it seems opinions and definitions vary more and more. As someone who’s mission is to apply character-based leadership to make a positive difference, I often get asked to define “positive.”
Good vs Effective Leadership
It's been a little while since I posted anything from the Lead Change Group blog on here, so I'm going to make up for that by sharing two posts today. They're both by Mike Henry, the founder of the Lead Change Group. This post is about Good vs Effective Leadership; the next will be on Sustainable vs Effective Leadership. I hope you find them useful!
Let’s agree today that good leadership is not the same as effective leadership. Let’s agree that the word good is an evaluation of the end result rather than the leader’s actions. Did it achieve good purposes? Did it create value? (By value I mean benefit in excess of cost.) Did the benefit to all parties exceed the cost to all parties? Let’s agree that good leadership is that authority or influence that creates a good outcome. If the outcome is not generally good, it would be bad leadership. Using this model, “bad” becomes a big word. Any leadership that doesn’t create positive outcomes for the contributors and stakeholders can’t be good. As Jen stated in her comments, what Hitler did can’t be good. It can however be effective.
Effective Leadership
An Effective leader is someone who manages to get people to do what they want. It could be defined as one who exerts influence to get others to achieve the leader’s objectives regardless of the quality of the outcome. It will be effective if people allow themselves to be influenced. The outcomes can be good or bad.
Just Plain Ugly
In keeping with the movie, ineffective leadership is just plain Ugly. We won’t even try to clean it up. If you have to stoop to manipulating or threatening or bullying, that’s ugly leadership.
It seems from my connecting with people all over the world through Twitter and the Lead Change Group on LinkedIn, as well as the interest that has been shown in starting local leadership groups like Authentic Leadership Cincinnati or Lead Change Tulsa, that a growing number of people agree that our world needs an infusion of good leadership: effective leadership that brings about net-positive outcomes. The only way to do that is to contribute more than you consume. Let the revolution continue in your life and sphere of influence today!
Let’s agree today that good leadership is not the same as effective leadership. Let’s agree that the word good is an evaluation of the end result rather than the leader’s actions. Did it achieve good purposes? Did it create value? (By value I mean benefit in excess of cost.) Did the benefit to all parties exceed the cost to all parties? Let’s agree that good leadership is that authority or influence that creates a good outcome. If the outcome is not generally good, it would be bad leadership. Using this model, “bad” becomes a big word. Any leadership that doesn’t create positive outcomes for the contributors and stakeholders can’t be good. As Jen stated in her comments, what Hitler did can’t be good. It can however be effective.
Effective Leadership
An Effective leader is someone who manages to get people to do what they want. It could be defined as one who exerts influence to get others to achieve the leader’s objectives regardless of the quality of the outcome. It will be effective if people allow themselves to be influenced. The outcomes can be good or bad.
Just Plain Ugly
In keeping with the movie, ineffective leadership is just plain Ugly. We won’t even try to clean it up. If you have to stoop to manipulating or threatening or bullying, that’s ugly leadership.
It seems from my connecting with people all over the world through Twitter and the Lead Change Group on LinkedIn, as well as the interest that has been shown in starting local leadership groups like Authentic Leadership Cincinnati or Lead Change Tulsa, that a growing number of people agree that our world needs an infusion of good leadership: effective leadership that brings about net-positive outcomes. The only way to do that is to contribute more than you consume. Let the revolution continue in your life and sphere of influence today!
SENet: Student Entrepreneurs Network
SENet (Student Entrepreneurs Network) exists to discover and develop young entrepreneurs from school and beyond. They aim to change students' mindset to become job creators consistently and effectively promoting entrepreneurship in all high schools, tertiary and professional institutions in Ghana and Africa as a whole. SENet is affiliated with The African Network Of Entrepreneurs (TANOE).
If you're a budding entrepreneur or simply have an interest and want to know what it's all about, I encourage you to check out their website for more information. Alternatively, you can see them in action during their Student's Summit of Entrepreneurial Ideas which takes place on Friday 12th August at Zenith College.
If you're a budding entrepreneur or simply have an interest and want to know what it's all about, I encourage you to check out their website for more information. Alternatively, you can see them in action during their Student's Summit of Entrepreneurial Ideas which takes place on Friday 12th August at Zenith College.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Michelle Obama's Southern Africa Trip to Focus on Youth Leadership
According to the White House, Michelle Obama will set off on a week long trip to South Africa and Botswana tomorrow. Amongst other things, she will be focusing on youth leadership. If you're on Twitter, I encourage you to use the hashtag #YoungAfrica to join the conversation, get the latest updates of her trip and more. You can also get more information via Facebook on the US Bureau of African Affairs page.
Here's what Michelle had to say about the trip:
You can read more from James Butty of Voice of America after the jump (click here to read original article).
Mini Seminar: Gender & Development
Feels like a very long time since we last had a Mini Seminar. On Friday (17th June) Professor Ampofo led our session on Gender & Development. As you can probably imagine, it was a highly interactive seminar with lots of debate.We were accompanied by Ofowaah Boateng of Databank Reasearch and Michael Opare-Darkwah from Databank Legal and Compliance Office. They were on hand to offer support to Professor Ampofo and answer any questions.
We started off by stating exactly what is meant by gender and development, and why when it is mentioned, people often (incorrectly) think it concerns only women's issues.
We discussed factors that create gender inequality across a range of different situations; religious views, society's expectations, roles within the home, etc. It was interesting how the views from males often differed from females... Joseph in particular said a few things that turned out to be controversial!
All in all it was a highly informative session that was enjoyed immensely by all. We'd like to say a big thank you to Professor Ampofo, Ofowaah and Michael for taking time out to attend the session.
Pictures of the seminar are up on our Facebook page, click here to check them out.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Mini Seminar later today!
To quickly remind you, we’ll be having a Mini Seminar this Friday (17th June); Dr. Akosua Ampofo will be speaking on Gender & Development. Professor Ampofo is the Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. The seminar will take place in our usual classroom (3D) but will start at 3.30pm instead of 3.
Another quick thing – I’ve recently created a YLMP fan page on Facebook and would like to close our group page. With a minimum of 25 likes (which we should be able to get easily), I will be able to secure the ‘facebook.com/ylmp’ URL (which would be fantastic!!) The transition has been pretty slow going so far though; I’d really appreciate it if you could help out by giving the page a like at www.facebook.com/pages/Databank-Foundation-Young-Leaders-Mentorship-Programme/217964914881526. Please encourage your mentees, friends, family and colleagues to do the same!
Another quick thing – I’ve recently created a YLMP fan page on Facebook and would like to close our group page. With a minimum of 25 likes (which we should be able to get easily), I will be able to secure the ‘facebook.com/ylmp’ URL (which would be fantastic!!) The transition has been pretty slow going so far though; I’d really appreciate it if you could help out by giving the page a like at www.facebook.com/pages/Databank-Foundation-Young-Leaders-Mentorship-Programme/217964914881526. Please encourage your mentees, friends, family and colleagues to do the same!
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