Relatives in shock, mourn accident victims in Kawethei, Kangundo Kenya

 Residents of Kawethei village in Kangundo, Machakos County were still paralysed by the hard blow they received on Saturday night, after 23 members of the village, including six from one family, were killed in a road accident.

By Monday, the atmosphere in the sun-baked village was still charged with gloom, shock and mourning as families and neighbours came to terms with the incident that also left many residents fighting for their lives in hospital

Miriam Mutua is assisted by relatives as she mourns her mother, Rose Ndinda

Homes of several families were scenes of mourning as neigbours and leaders converged to console and help them to handle the tragedy.
"We have never seen a thing like this before. We have just lost so many people at once that we don’t know what to do. We are still in shock. But we pray for strength from God,” said Nicodemus Wambua, a resident.
Huge crowds of villagers assembled in the local Catholic Church to mourn and pray for the deceased and injured in a highly emotional service that left several people breaking down into tears.
The normally bustling Kawethei shopping centre appeared a pale shadow of itself as most shops were closed.
“Normally, this place would be full of people selling and buying. But today everyone is mourning and very few people feel like working. We all have to be with the families that have suffered the big loss. The shock was just too big,” said Alex Ndaa, a vegetable seller.
Some of the closed shops included those of victims who perished during the accident including Grace Kavindu, a vegetable seller who left behind eight children.
Her son Musyoka Maingi, who ran a popular hotel in the shopping centre, was nursing serious injuries in Kangundo hospital.
“We don’t know what to say. We only leave everything to God. We are praying for strength and comfort during this difficult time,” said Nduku Musyoka, the daughter of the deceased woman as she welcomed mourners to her home.
Family to Makueni
Twenty-four-year-old Philomena Mukali, who lost her mother Margaret Kikuto Sila was huddling together with her sister Stellamari Sila in a quiet mourning.

Her mother, who had five other children was a retired worker of Postal Corporation and had retreated to her home to farm.
“I feel totally empty. My mother was the love of my life and now that I have lost her, I don’t know how my life would be,” she said.

A woman grieves for her relative. Photo: Govedi Asutsa/Standard

But the focus of attention was Patrick Nzioki whose family lost six members including a six-month-old baby, the grandson of Richard Muneene who had led the family to Makueni.
“Now all I am praying is for the four injured members of my family to recover while I think of burial arrangements. My mind is totally confused with shock and grief,” he said.
Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthana led the village in mourning as he pledged that he will work with local and national leaders to ensure that the deceased are given a proper burial
He hinted that the deceased may be buried on the same day in a mass burial on a date to be fixed by a committee.
“For those who have lost their loved ones, we want you to know that you are not alone. We are with you all the way. We cannot afford not be with you at this difficult time,” he said.
Strength and patience
A priest at Kangundo Catholic Church consoled family members and residents who gathered to mourn the deceased.

“This is such a big tragedy for our village, but let us pray to God to give us strength and patience to live through it. God must have a reason for doing this and we fully accept God’s decision,” he said.

Kangundo District Commissioner Charity Chepkonga directed the Provincial Administration officers to be on stand by round the clock to help the families with burial and transport arrangements
Peter Musyoki, who was in the second car that was transporting villagers back home that fateful night said the lead car was more than 20 kilometres ahead of them, suggesting it must have been speeding.
Muthama advised Kenyans to exercise care when boarding public vehicles, urging them to avoid overcrowded ones.

Road accident claims 23 relatives and friends in my village Kawethei

Writen by David Mutua.

Kenyan Prime Minister visiting the survivors.

It's a sad week in my village in
Kawethei, Kangundo Kenya. 26 family and
relatives, neighbors and friends died and many are going through a painfull and
tough time due to injuries sustained over the weekend through the worst road
accident of the year in Kenya. Thanks to the Kenyan Government for offering
support for funeral and hospital expenses, we appreciate very much.

We are requesting for prayers and soon CALD - http://www.thecald.com through our
facebook group the Kawethei Community Development Network will be working with
people on the ground, family members, friends and friends of Kawethei people to
setup a mid term and probably long term support system to those families that
were affected.

I know what it feels like when government, friends and family support the
shortterm and leave you, thats when reality sinks. Life is not same anymore. I
am the first born and I lost both my parents in 1995.

May the almight God Rest the souls of those left us in eternal peace, give the
hand of the Holy spirit for quick recovery for the injured and endurance for
those that were left behind.

Click this link to watch a video about the accident - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0z6GcRPjDY&feature=related

Diaspora Challenge

For Burundians, Liberians, Kosovars, Palestinians and Rwandans abroad wanting to start an enterprise back home!

* Benefit from BiD Network's online templates, feedback and coaching program

* Be selected for IntEnt's program for starting entrepreneurs

* Win a business trip for training, b2b and investor meetings

* Get access to a network of more than 40,000 like-minded entrepreneurs, coaches and investors

* Win a technical assistance prize worth €5,000

---

Participation Criteria for this competition

1. Check the general participation criteria here
2. You must be Kosovar, Palestinian, Rwandan, Liberian or Burundian living abroad.
3. Your country of business must be: Palestine, Kosovo, Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi.

How to Submit your Business Plan?

1. Become a member of the BiD Network. Register here.
2. Create a profile in the BiD Network. Log in with your email and password.
3. Fill in and submit an online business summary by clicking "+Add a business plan" and answering the 15 questions about your business idea. You will find this button under "New contributions" when you are logged in. Make sure to click the box Diaspora Challenge at the bottom of the application.
Submit your application before the 30th of September 2011 and access our coaching services.
4. Submit a complete business plan. If you already have a complete business plan you can attach it to your application directly. You can also submit it once your application is accepted. We offer business plan templates and coaching. For a more detailed instruction click on the grey box 'How to present your plan' on the right.
Make sure to submit your complete business plan before the competition deadline on the 31st of December 2011.

After you submit your plan:

1. Your plan will enter the assessment process. You will receive extensive feedback in each stage.
2. In January 2012, the finalists will be selected. These will be invited to participate in BiD Network's SME Forum and Marketplace.
3. Whether or not you become a finalist, all high quality business plans are eligible for the BiD Network Investor Matchmaking Services.

For more information go to. http://www.bidnetwork.org/page/193644/en

Memorial Honors Life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has returned to Washington.

The memorial honoring King’s legacy opened to the public for the first time August 22. Built on four acres of the National Mall, the memorial includes a 450-foot inscription wall with more than a dozen quotations selected by a council of historians from King’s writing, sermons and speeches. A “stone of hope,” separated from a “mountain of despair,” features a 30-foot (9-meter) sculpture of King. The memorial is reminiscent of a phrase in his speech in which King said his dream and his faith would allow civil rights marchers to go back to the South and “hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”
The King Memorial is near the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, from the steps of which King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in the summer of 1963. At the time, African Americans in many places were segregated from whites in schools, shopping places and restaurants and on buses. Their attempts to register to vote in the South often were met with violence. King had begun a long campaign of nonviolent resistance to rectify these wrongs. In his “Dream” speech, King said his people would not be satisfied “until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Less than one year later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, ending segregation practices.

The opening of the memorial to the public begins a week of events in Washington, including concerts and symposiums, leading up to the dedication ceremony on August 28.

Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/inbrief/2011/08/20110823111323kram0.522442.html?CP.rss=true#ixzz1VtOabfd4

Ethiopia gets a record US$1.5 billion from Diaspora

Ethiopia received a record US$ 1.5 billion from its citizens abroad during the just ended 2010/11 fiscal year, data released by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has revealed.

The figure, which represents money sent by Diasporans through banks, represents an 88 per cent growth from the previous year.

©Reuters

But officials believe money running into millions of dollars is sent through illegal channels and cannot be accounted for.

During the 2009/209 financial year, Ethiopia, home to over 80 million people, received about US$ 780 million from its citizens.

Around one million Ethiopians are estimated to live in the United States of America, Europe and in other countries, mainly in the Middle East.

The state owned NBE introduced new policies to encourage Diasporans to send and save money locally.

For the first time the Diasporans were allowed to save money in foreign currency, a practice that was not allowed in the past.

The devaluation of Ethiopia’s Birr by more than 20 per cent last year has also encouraged more foreign currency inflows.

However, remittances are still very low compared to other countries that have less people living abroad.

NBE said as of June 30 total deposits at its branches dotted around the country stood around US$ 5 billion while total assets and capital of the bank reached over US$ 6 billion and around US$400 million respectively.

Ethiopia, which does not allow foreign financial institutions to open branches locally, has around 15 local private banks.

But analysts say the country needs at 40 more banks for the country’s financial services sector to be fully developed.

Brain drain hits US as immigrants head home to start businesses

In 1980, immigrant entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa came to the United States and stayed, starting two companies that created more than 1,000 American jobs. Now an academic, Wadhwa sees first hand that today’s immigrants are not following his lead.
Every year he asks foreign students in his classes at Duke University how many intend to stay permanently in the United States. “It used to be that everyone raised their hand,” Wadhwa says. “Now they look at you funny. They say, ‘What does that mean?’”

For a majority of highly skilled immigrants who want to start companies, the promised land is no longer the United States, writes Wadhwa and four co-authors in a recent report from the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo based non-profit that supports research on entrepreneurship.

In The Grass Is Indeed Greener in India and China for Returnee Entrepreneurs, the researchers surveyed 153 professionals who returned from the US to India or China to start a business.

They found that 72 per cent of Indians and 81 per cent of Chinese said the opportunities to start a company in their home countries “were better or much better” than in the United States.

Some say the flow of immigrants back home is a “brain drain” for the US that calls for an immigration policy overhaul. Sending would-be entrepreneurs packing robs the United States of new companies, new jobs and long-term economic growth, they argue.

Others say the pull is as strong as the push: that as economies blossom in China and India, the opportunities sprouting on native turf are simply too tempting to resist. Some experts maintain that returning immigrants don’t actually spell a net loss for the United States anyway. They see the flow as more of a “brain circulation” that benefits economies on both sides of the sea.

Wadhwa, a senior research associate at Harvard Law School and director of research at Duke’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialisation, falls on the “brain drain” end of the spectrum.

“It’s not a brain drain; it’s a brain haemorrhage,” he insists. He sees the flow as a policy problem, the result of a visa system that broke down after 9/11 and the dot-com bust, stymying more than half a million skilled immigrants.

Would-be entrepreneurs now wait years in “green card limbo,” stuck in jobs tied to H-1B visas that allow neither transfer nor promotion, Wadhwa notes. “Not only can you not start a company, but you are stagnant in your career.”

It’s a world away from three decades ago, when Wadhwa immigrated from India. “It took me 18 months to get a green card,” he recalls. He started his first company 15 years later — and wasn’t alone.

In fact, one out of every four technology and engineering companies launched between 1995 and 2005 had at least one immigrant founder, Wadhwa discovered in a nationwide survey of more than 2,000 companies in 2007. In Silicon Valley, the number was 52 per cent.

Immigrants would continue to start companies in the US if given a better chance, Wadhwa argues.

He believes the StartUp Visa Act, a proposal in Congress that would give visas to immigrants who have enough venture capital backing to start a business, would “unleash a flood of entrepreneurship.”

It could create “tens of thousands [of jobs] in the short term, hundreds of thousands in the long term.”

Although less than 10 per cent of respondents in the Kauffman report said visas played a “very important” role in their decision to return home, and more than 80 per cent claimed visa issues were “not” or “not at all” important, Wadhwa is skeptical about those responses.

“People are saying they are going back because of economic opportunities, but the truth is that we’re not giving them a chance to grow deep roots.”

One of Wadhwa’s co-authors, AnnaLee Saxenian, a dean and professor in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkley, sees a number of reasons for immigrants to go back.

“I believe that Chinese and Indians are returning primarily because of the new economic and professional opportunities in their home countries,” she says. “However, the challenges of getting visas, the suspicion of foreigners in the US since 9/11 and the severity of the economic downturn have all served as ‘push’ factors as well.”

Wharton management professor Ethan Mollick believes an immigrant’s decision to return home is more complex than a green card. “It’s a little unfair to [characterise it as] a decision between pure policies,” says Mollick.

Economic opportunities

Returnees consider not only their country’s economic development, labour costs, financing, infrastructure and regulations, but also social support systems, quality of life, family connections and a myriad of other factors when deciding where to go, he says.

Sixty per cent of Indians and 90 per cent of Chinese in the Kauffman report cited economic opportunity in their home countries as a “very important factor” in their decision to return.

Family ties were considered very important for 76 per cent of Indians and 51 per cent of Chinese. And more than 60 per cent of Indians and 51 per cent of Chinese said they were motivated by the idea of contributing to their home country’s economic growth.

Although the United States is “still better than anywhere else in the world by far” in terms of venture capital and business networks for startups, the rest of the world is also becoming more competitive, Mollick points out.

“Everyone now realises that startups are one of the most important keys to economic growth,” he says, noting that 62.5 per cent of new jobs in the US come from companies less than five years old.

Support networks for entrepreneurs are also starting to move overseas, points out Gavin Cassar, a Wharton accounting professor and an editor at the Journal of Business Venturing.

Historically, the US has been a magnet for talent, in part because it has a structure for successful startups — complete with lawyers, accountants, venture capitalists, angel investors and a regulatory framework that helps deals get done.

Another possible “pull factor” for immigrants: Partnering with venture capitalists of their own ethnicity than those with complementary professional expertise, according to new research from Wharton management professor David Hsu.

“We like to deal with people much like ourselves,” says Hsu. Hsu looked at a number of factors, including gender and alma mater.

“It turns out that there’s a lot based on: ‘Are we both Indian’ or ‘Are we both Chinese.’” In the Kauffman report, 19 per cent of Chinese companies and five per cent of Indian companies obtained venture capital.

Most of the companies (73 per cent of Chinese and 86 per cent of Indian) were funded by personal savings.

Knowledge exchanges

Hsu says he is “hesitant to make a strong statement” about the policy implications of the Kauffman report because it’s not certain that returnees who start businesses back home would have been able to bring the same amount of value to the US market. He points to Charles Zhang, founder of Sohu.com, as an example.

One of China’s first returnee entrepreneurs who came back after getting a PhD from Boston’s MIT, Zhang established the Chinese language search engine and portal in the early 1990s when China’s Internet landscape was just emerging.

The company now employs thousands and brought in record revenues of $174.4 million in the first quarter of 2011, according to the company’s unaudited first quarter results. “It’s not clear that there would have been the same value created if he had started it here,” says Hsu. Similar sites in the United States were already well established when Zhang went back to China to start his venture — and some Silicon Valley startups later imploded after the dot-com bubble burst.

“You can’t just look at any performance metric on one side and say, on a one-to-one basis, (that) we’ve lost that. There’s a completely different set of circumstances.”

Knowledge flows

Even if immigrants do return to their home countries, the United States may benefit from the long distance relationship, according to research on networks and alliances by Wharton management professor Lori Rosenkopf.

Through the analysis of patent citations, Rosenkopf has studied how knowledge flows between firms when engineers move from one to another. The assumption used to be that if an engineer left a firm, all of his talent and knowledge went with him to the new company.

But the person doesn’t really take away all of his brainpower, Rosenkopf found.

“He goes to the new place and maintains his social connections with the old firm, and in doing so creates an exchange,” she says.

Noticing that engineers at both firms often cited work by their old colleagues in patent applications, Rosenkopf concluded that engineers in a sense continued to work together, and both firms benefited.

She also found that the further the move, the greater the exchange.

“When people move further to different regions, the effect of learning is actually greater,” she notes.
Although Rosenkopf has not studied the knowledge flow of immigrants, her research on networks and alliances indicates that a move of immigrants back home could result in an increasing exchange between countries.  

Africa: Investors Report Improved Business Climate in 29 Countries

Sudanese-born billionaire entrepreneur, Mo Ibrahim once said that the perception of Africa's business climate is much worse than the reality and that whenever there is a gap between perception and reality, there is a fantastic business opportunity.

In the 1990s, he struggled to build his mobile phone company, Celtel, because banks wouldn't lend him money to invest in a 'lost' continent. Ibrahim later sold Celtel for $3.4bn. Not all investors know that many African countries are making notable progress in removing barriers to doing business. As Neville Isdell writes, it will take the continued commitment and conversion of goodwill into practical action in order to achieve the reforms needed to enable businesses to thrive.

Democracy and a vibrant free enterprise are growing, making Africa a promising emerging market. Governments are shifting the negative international perception by improving the business climates. The continent is known for its abundance in natural resources, which include 90% of the world's platinum, 50% of the world's gold,70% of the world's coltan (which the majority of cell phones around the world use) and 30% of the world's diamond reserves. It is also the second largest and second most-populous continent.

Africa is by no means as 'lost' as is occasionally stated. This is already revealed by the growth rates of the past decade but also by several recent studies, which demonstrate that Africa has enormous potential.

Having lived and worked in Africa for much of my life, I have witnessed, first-hand, Africa's entrepreneurial spirit, which is visible in any African marketplace. I have also encountered the obstacles that make doing business on the continent an uphill struggle. Registration of businesses is one of the first barriers encountered by most investors in Africa, whether foreign or national.

This is an important barrier that needs to be tackled as it plays a catalytic effect on enterprise formalisation to private sector development, job creation and poverty reduction. Some governments have recognised the importance of improving the business registration procedure in order to position their countries appropriately in the current shifting landscape. Some countries are taking proactive actions.

To provide some illustrations of the effectiveness of the Investment Climate Facility (ICF) approach: in Burkina Faso, business registration now takes just three days rather than 18, costing $106 rather than $350. In 2007, there were 13 procedures involved in registering a company in Rwanda. It would take over 30 days at a cost of $400. Today, two procedures are involved that are processed within 24 hours at a cost of $43. In Liberia, the number of procedures to register a business has been reduced from 12 to 5, the time it takes from 68 to 20 days and the cost of registering a business from US$819 to US$119.

For the first time, in these countries, entrepreneurs can register a business without being impeded by prohibitive times and costs. These reforms were implemented in partnership with ICF and are immensely beneficial to the growth of businesses and support formalisation of enterprises.
ICF focuses on delivering tangible and sustainable changes that are required to build a more conducive investment climate. Across the continent, ports, judiciaries, customs and taxation systems, land and business registries are all undergoing reforms to remove red tape, streamline procedures and automate processes. Businesses of all sizes are reporting immediate and tangible improvements to the ease of doing business in the 29 countries that ICF works.

The World Bank's Doing Business 2011 report revealed that a record number of African countries have significantly improved their investment climate. High performers include Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Zambia and Senegal, and reforms are snow-balling at a rapid pace. ICF responds quickly to funding requests. The entire process from project application to agreement generally takes fewer than six months and ICF can provide green lights to projects that meet its selection criteria within weeks. Projects focus on delivering practical, results-orientated solutions in as short a time frame as possible.

The results achieved in fewer than four years of operation are testimony to the validity and effectiveness of ICF's strategy, and heralds a new proven model for aid, with private-public collaboration at the heart.

It is as a result of this continued commitment and conversion of goodwill into practical action, and public-private collaboration that Africa and businesses in Africa will continue to grow. We will all benefit from a more prosperous and economically stable Africa.

Neville Isdell is Co-Chair of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF) and former chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company. ICF works to remove the barriers that exist to doing business in Africa, recognising that a healthy investment climate is crucial for the continent's economic growth.

Remittances from Kenyan Diaspora

Commentary on Remittances for June 2011 Mr. Charles Gitari Koori, Director Research Department

The Central Bank of Kenya conducts a survey on remittance inflows every month from the formal channels that include commercial banks and other permitted international remittances service providers in Kenya.
The monthly remittance flows have remained strong in 2011. In June 2011, remittances to Kenya amounted to US$ 71.9 million, which was 37 percent higher than the level in June 2010 and marginally higher than US$ 68.1 million recorded in May 2011. In the first half of 2011 remittance inflows amounted to US$ 406.5 million, and were 35.4 percent above US$ 300.2 million recorded over a similar period in 2010 (Table 1). The average flow therefore rose to US$ 68 million from US$ 50 million in a similar period in 2010. The 12 month cumulative average also shows that remittance flows have kept pace and sustained an upward trend from the second half of 2010 (Chart 1).

Table 1: Monthly Remittance Inflows ( 2004 to 2011 in US$ '000)

Year	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
January	25,154	28,564	31,506	40,930	53,925	39,535	45,117	64,139
February	27,676	26,056	30,283	39,533	50,382	53,353	46,423	60,759
March	29,944	31,219	36,354	48,562	59,344	55,361	52,309	71,577
April	27,773	29,216	35,369	38,251	67,872	48,117	52,679	70,071
May	26,931	32,358	42,427	41,163	48,538	49,180	51,172	68,124
June	30,047	34,360	35,667	48,643	49,490	46,347	52,541	71,888
July	33,187	29,133	41,065	53,350	44,137	50,372	50,652
August	28,894	31,759	30,587	58,803	43,388	55,947	51,993
September	28,894	31,616	28,841	60,575	48,953	53,347	58,557
October	25,223	33,037	29,633	46,848	61,113	53,037	58, 503
November	25,473	34,282	31,403	55,564	43,970	48,231	56,380
December	29,130	40,557	34,459	41,421	40,129	56,329	65,617
Annual Total	338,326	382,153	407,593	573,643	611,241	609,156	641,943	406,538

The increase in remittances in 2011 reflects economic recovery in source markets, and a favourable domestic economic environment. The source markets for remittances have on average maintained the same shares with North America contributing 54 percent and Europe 26 percent of total remittances to Kenya in June 2011, compared with 51 percent and 29 percent respectively in May 2011.


Link: -http://www.centralbank.go.ke/forex/Diaspora_Remit.aspx

Redefining Business in the New Africa

The landscape for business in Africa is changing. Are you ready for it?

2001-2010 proved to be a transitional decade for Africa, ushering in a new image and status for the continent. Africa began to show it was truly shaking the shackles of its colonial and chaotic past. Now that the New Africa has arrived, what does that mean? And, what does it mean for business?
On almost every issue that has been pegged a negative for Africa – population boom, poverty, disease, governance, economic instability, and conflicts – there is evidence of a growing shift in the other direction. Businesses need to wake up and proactively shift to this new reality, or paradigm. While business principles apply across any market, businesses need to adapt their strategies to the context of Africa to be successful and understand that Africa is one of the key regional markets in the next generation of business.
Redefining Business in the New Africa sets out to establish a new baseline and framework for engagement in Africa, which reflects the current and future trends of a region headed for emerging market status. While Africa still has to deal with legacy issues, the power of its “now” and future is greater.
In this book, you will learn about:

• A new context and framework for business in Africa
• A few major future trends and sectors in Africa
• Strategic approaches to doing business in the New Africa
• How to tackle, or respond, to some of the challenges in the New Africa

Get ready to rock and roll in this new era for business in Africa!

Link - http://www.redefining-business-in-the-new-africa.com/

How To Succeed In The African Market

Want to do successful business with Africa? Here are some tips to help you do just that...

F inding the right customers in the African market can be a time-consuming process. Being such a large continent, with as many as 53 countries, marketing one's products and services in African markets is indeed a challenging task. However, for a successful marketing effort, it is imperative to identify and associate with reliable and efficient business partners in key African countries. There are a number of ways to go about identifying potential trade partners. A good starting point is via an organisation that specialises in marketing and business promotion in the African markets. Such organsations have not only the necessary experience and expertise, but also the right contacts to help you in your marketing efforts.

Another useful tool to search for business associates in African countries is the Internet. Although the internet is not as widely used in many African countries as it is in the developed world, it nevertheless provides you with an opportunity to search for your business counterparts in several African countries. Dedicated websites like the Africa Business Pages (www.africa-business.com) provide useful information for those looking for business contacts in the African continent. In fact, Africa Business Pages is the only Africa-related website that offers downloads of most African Business Directories that can help you directly contact your potential business partners in African markets. However, before you launch yourself into a "search-and-target" operation, here are some pointers that will help you understand the mechanisms of the African markets and help you choose the right business partner for yourself:

The Future of Africa in 2050

People may acknowledge that Africa has certainly made great strides in its most recent history. However, the bigger question is whether these changes will continue. This piece looks at likely scenarios for Africa into the future based on existing and emerging patterns.Thank goodness as I was getting ready to co-write this book, I ran across a monograph being done by the Institute for Security Studies¹ in South Africa called African Futures 2050.
I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Barry Hughes, Director of the Pardee Center of International Futures at the University of Denver in the United States and a partner on the ISS project. This sub-section reflects our discussion.²