Far From the Africa Crowd

Vote for Africa’s own Yohaness Gebregeorgis as CNN hero of the year.

This story has not filtered much into the local media in Colorado but I take
this opportunity to bring it up. After reading about Yohannes
Gebregeorgi’s story many times, I am now compelled to do something about it.
If you have heard all the commercials on TV about preparations for the CNN
Hero of the year, take it a step further and go to www.CNN.com/heroes and
cast your vote for this son of Africa.

Why would I cast my vote for him?

Here is how I see it.

First, this man has educated and continues to educate thousands of children
in Ethiopia on how to read and write. He has done so by starting the Shola
Children’s library and other school projects where Ethiopian kids enroll and
receive the education that they otherwise would not get if left in the hands
of the government. How many of us would do this for children that are not
our own.

Second, this story exemplifies what Africans in the Diaspora should be doing
to help build a better Africa. While we are away from our beloved continent,
whatever education and material wealth we gain should be channeled back to
Africa to make it better. The saying that “when you teach a man how to fish,
you teach him to fish for the rest of his life” fits perfectly well into
this story. What Yohannes has done is to teach the children of Ethiopia how
to read so they can become productive Ethiopian citizens for the rest of
their life.

Lastly, this story has a Colorado connection. Ethiopia Reads, the
organization that Yohannes founded and which has helped implement the idea
about books and a library for children in Ethiopia has local operations on
50 Steel Street in Denver. It is here that the US operations for Ethiopia
read are run.

Earlier this year, Yohaness Gebregoergis was nominated as a top ten CNN Hero
of the year by a panel that includes notables such as former Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and Deepak Chopra. On Thanks Giving day, CNN will air an All
Star Tribute featuring the nominees for this year.

If we can forget about the doom and gloom created by the world financial
crisis for a moment and look at history, economists will tell us that the
crash of the stock market and fears of a recession or depression is nothing
new. By the way, some of us can barely remember the crash of 1987 when the
stock market lost as much as 45% of its value in markets around the world.
In 2008, the only thing that appears new is that it is being witnessed by a
whole new generation that was not here in 1987 or as happened in 1929 during
the great depression. In both cases, the world did not come to and end.

For me, I remain optimistic and yet hopeful except my concerns are less with the
future of the United Sates and more on the future of Africa.
America, they say, can weather this crisis and soon it will become a story
for the history books. On the other hand, we still have a continent that many
of us love. Though far away, Africa remains intertwined within the fabric
of the global community. What impact is this crisis having on Africa as a
whole?

Will the USA keep its commitments to Africa under the Millennium Challenge
Corporation agreements? Will the USA hold its pledge for a $48 Billion
increase in AIDS treatment to Africa under the presidents Emergency Plan for
Aids Relief (PEPFAR)? Will the G8 nations hold to their commitment in 2005
to double aid to Africa to $25 billion a year by 2010? Are we going to
remain hold up in our homes and not discuss the implications of this crisis
towards Africa? Are we all going to stop sending money back home? Do we sit
back here and weep that things are going badly?

Or do we rethink new ways about how we can help Africa
deal with these problems?