Danny Jordaan greeting participants

Over the weekend, Columbia hosted the annual African Economic Forum. Africa enthusiast Aaron Kohn attended and provides an overview of the weekend-long event. Even-handed Bwog correspondent Katheryn Thayer attended one of the panels and writes a detailed account after the jump.

“Africa has come too far to turn back now,” remarked the CEO of the 2010 World Cup South Africa, Danny Jordaan on Saturday. The organizer of the event encouraged those who met for the 8th annual Columbia University African Economics Forum to represent Africa as the “Roaring Giant,” the theme of this year’s forum.

On Friday and Saturday, panelists and speakers demonstrated Africa’s growth and its undaunted strength in the wake of the financial collapse in 2008. World Bank economists, NYT bestsellers, TV executives and even a Nigerian Vice Presidential Candidate allayed the harsh realities of Africa as it is often portrayed with their own encouraging outlooks.

The SIPA Pan African Network, the African Business Club, and the African Law Students Association, all organizers of AEF 2011, made the case that the World Cup has not been the only encouraging event to take place in Africa. Private investment now outnumbers aid money flowing into the continent, Nollywood (Nigerian Movies) is the second largest film industry in the world (Bollywood is first and Hollywood is third), and cellular communications and natural resource industries continue to grow.

People may look at Africa and see the wars taking place, government corruption, and a troubling colonial history. Yet, as hundreds of millions of people who used to be living under $2 a day rise out of poverty, Nigeria expects to have the world’s second-largest city, and citizen-driven reform begins to affect policies across the continent, investment and growth show a positive outlook.

Binyavanga Wainaina, author and Director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Literature joked that when his colleagues call a publisher and ask, “Is it okay if I email my transcript? Postage is very expensive,” the publisher probably thinks, “Oh, there must be a drought.” It is time to stop thinking of Africa as a sleeping lion. The Giant is awake and its opportunities and talents are still slow to be recognized.

Read more…

While insults were hurled outside the gates, all was peaceful in Roone yesterday afternoon as Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi addressed the issue of “The Current Global Environment and its Impact in Africa” as part of Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum. Mark Hay reports on this smooth-talking politician’s calm yet controversial visit to Morningside.

Zenawi in 2008

From the protests outside, one might have expected more of a ruckus in Roone yesterday as two-decade Ethiopian leader (currently Prime Minister) Meles Zenawi prepared to take the stage. But it seems that Columbia has learned from Minutemen, head-kicking, and Ahmadinejad fever: no bags were allowed into the event, suited men ominously lined the south wall, keeping sentinel watch over the full crowd, and the question and answer segment was kept pegged to artificial pacifism.

Though docile, the crowd inside represented the staid counterpart of the protests outside—a slightly larger group who view Zenawi as the face of an independent and growing Africa, as a paragon of stability and savvy, cheering wildly at his every answer; a slightly smaller group who view the man as a dictator limiting free press, jailing and intimidating opposition parties and minorities, and manipulating his Western allies, cheering with equal vigor but less mass at every critique of the man and then grumbling to each other in Amharic. And clever man that he is (view him as the devil or, as he seemed to wish, the savior, he is a smooth operator), Zenawi did not want to stir the waters.

Zenawi’s address itself presented little of interest on the surface. He focused in on an element of Ethiopia lauded by Joseph Stiglitz in his introduction of Zenawi: economic progress via uniquely African methods. In a soft and drowsy, yet audible academic’s voice, Zenawi presented the audience with his summarization of neoliberalism’s flirtation and eventual abusive and destructive relationship with Africa. The reforms of neoliberal financial lenders “were sold as the ultimate salvation of [Africa’s] problems,” said Zenawi. “The reforms could not and did not lead to salvation,” but instead, he argued, created three consecutive lost decades for Africa.

In the past this may have been a daring assertion, to march into the universe’s financial hub and speak ill of the reigning financial order, but Zenawi knows when to tap discontent with existing institutions, to mine the discontents of the world as he accuses the larger world of mining Africa. And he knows when to play the cards of hope, ideals, and faith. For, not to fear, said Zenawi, “there is a silver lining for Africa because of the global economic crisis.” There is a chance for Africans to determine their own future, to overcome the handicaps imposed by circumstance and foreign hands, and to find salvation, utilizing itself as a source of vital resources and the site of a future manufacturing hub. It’s a happy note that jabs at America and its old financial order, but does so in a way that feels inclusive to spurned Americans and calming to those jittery with apocalyptic visions. Read more…

Peter Sterne saw Jeff Sachs IN REAL LIFE! His report from the World Leaders Forum follows.

Yesterday evening, Jeffrey Sachs hosted a panel discussion with an assortment of East African leaders. Despite not knowing exactly who would be on the panel, over 400 undergraduates, grad students, and honored guests crowded into the Low Library Rotunda to hear about the “Challenges of the Drylands.”

“The toughest development challenge on the planet, ” he began, ”are the extremely arid regions,” such as the drylands centered northeastern Kenya and the border with Somalia. This is an area where people herd cattle instead of growing crops and there are more problems than in “the Book of Job, with drought, flood, drought, then epidemic,” not to mention armed conflict. Thankfully, the Earth Institute has started to promote the development of drylands regions in Eastern Africa through the Drylands Initiative which already includes Uganda, Dijibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Sudan, and will include Eritrea.

Read more…

Engineers Without Borders is holding a giant Roone-sized event this evening at 7:00.  Beyond Borders: Food will feature discussions with experts about the “cultural and social contexts” and the “systemic factors” affect our food.

Academic blathering aside, the event will feature an “Indian/African” dinner – no word on whether this is a hybrid or two seperate cuisines, but run on over and fill your plates.

Free tickets are at the TIC.

Eva Suarez attends a plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative, feels poor.

This week marked the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative — in other words, what the former President spends his time on when he’s not jetsetting with pretty ladies or hobnobbing with Kim Jong II. Clinton provides a forum for world leaders, major philanthropists, international CEOs, and prominent members of the media to discuss solutions for global problems. Unlike the Davos Convention, the emphasis is less on talking and more on creating “commitments”– explicit promises to give money to a specific plan or cause.  Clinton expects his invites to give money, even without the prospect of taking a catnap in the Lincoln Bedroom, and he strives to make sure they don’t forget it.  This was an event for the best and brightest,  or at least the richest, of Clinton’s honchos.  Before a panel on developing Northern Ireland, Clinton played the schoolyard bully and had the house lights brought up so he could call audience members who had not yet given money out by name.   Sessions seemed like trade fairs; each presenter was out for the crowd’s money as much as their interest. Thursday’s plenary session on infrastructure was no different, with panelists Jeffrey Immelt, the head of GE, Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan-Renault, John T. Chambers, the head of Cisco, Kristina Peterson, the head of finance of Suntech America, and Kofi Annan, Columbia Global Fellow. Moderating the panel was Ray Suarez, of the PBS Newshour.

In the green room before the show, Suarez brought the panelists together with Bill Clinton for a warm up discussion. There was continental breakfast, and Usher was also there, maybe to serve as a subtle reminder to Clinton that he’s not the first black president, no matter how many gospel churches he cries in. There was lots of juicy “off the record” conversation, and lots of swag. Repeatable from backstage — Kofi Annan likes orange juice, and Bill Clinton knows a surprising amount about planes. After about 45 minutes of croissants and basking in each other’s glory, the session began.

Read more…

Another blog has discovered our friend Sarah Dooley.  Yes, her character is a lot like Michael Scott, but so much cuter!

A Columbia grad student played in that intertubes-inspired concert at Carnegie Hall: “I haven’t hardly played at all.”

Drought in Africa: yes, it could happen, and it’s happened before: “startling.”

Ever wonder what happens in that underground lab by Avery?  It’s the behavioral labs for the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.  A reporter discloses the horrors within.

Studying at a university that crushes your self-esteem, remind yourself now and again that you have skills.  It’ll raise your grades by one third of a grade.  Hopefully.  Maybe.

The J-School, with PrezBo’s impetus, is leading the way in adapting its curriculum to the post-print world.  In love with newsprint?  First, learn Photoshop.

The world’s largest collection of pop music is now available for your perusal at a library near you.  Hopefully, most of it is pre-Britney.

News flash: Ivy League tuition is expensive.  So we’ve signed up for a government supplement fund to help GI’s complete their education here.

Bwogger Jon Hill was perusing The New Vision — Uganda’s leading website! — and noticed that your Columbia is opening up a peace institute in Gulu, located in the Gulu District of Uganda.

The University is partnering with five NGOs (including UNICEF and the Christian Children’s Fund, among others) to open the Institute, which will be located in Gulu High School.  

According to Paul Kellner, a researcher at the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, the institute is designed to teach conflict solving skills.

Previously, on the Joy Luck Book Club: Marisha Pessl’s merits as author and as hottie were debated. In this week’s episode, certified hottie Dave Eggers presents What is the What, and the J.L.B.C. convenes, gin cocktails in hand, to their secret clubhouse somewhere in the outer boroughs…

Reading Rainbow!

Dan: Dave Eggers is famous for two things: the painfully earnest magazine McSweeney’s and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a wonderful book that I can barely recall. (That’s the one with the brother and The Real World audition, right?) What is the What represents both a return to the literary spotlight and something of a return to form for Eggers – after two little-read works of fiction, he’s once again bending genres with a novelized autobiography told by Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee.

Read more…

Cool trip alert: Bwog alumnus and liveblogging pioneer Bryan Mochizuki, along with a passel of current Columbia students, just touched down in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where the group will be filming the work of NGOs to spread awareness of development issues in the East Afican nation. Follow their adventures here. 

Are you on an international expedition? Or know anyone else who’s fled the country for the summer? Let us know at bwgossip@columbia.edu.

Not to be outdone, Madonna has hopped on the African-orphan-hugging bandwagon with a $3 million donation to J. Sachs’ Millennium Voices foundation, which will help villages in the malaria-infested African nation of Malawi. The rocker chalks up her newfound generosity to having had kids of her own, as well as the giving spirit of Jewish mysticism–a new orphan care center will have programs based on Spirituality for Kids, the Kabbalah children’s program.

Sachs chides celebrity-shy critics: “Of course there are no doubt people who on a fling say something, but that’s not what Madonna’s doing, it’s not what Angelina’s doing, it’s not what Bono’s doing…the cynics are just wrong. They don’t get it.”

Bwog cheers! And wants the Olsen twins to be next.