What I liked about the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship

Guilty admission. I am a fault finder.  Show me a perfect rose and I will find the petal that is slightly wilted. Or at least that’s how I grew up. I’ve spent much of my adult life learning to behave differently but it still comes out from time to time. What’s wrong with being critical? [...] [...]

African Women and American Academics

I find myself wondering if I am the only one dismayed by the “mudwrestling” going on among Dambisa Moyo, Jeffrey Sachs and William Easterly… and others. In case you haven’t heard, Dambisa Moyo has written a provocative book on the merits of development assistance. Her book, Dead Aid, challenges some of the accepted wisdom about [...] [...]

Ubuntu and Descartes

When I first encountered the Southern African word ubuntu a few years ago, it instantly resonated with me. A person is only a person through other people…. the suffering of one person diminishes all of us. Or as Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it, “a solitary human being is a contradiction in terms”. A notion that [...] [...]