We must not be silent. We must be present. So, I know many people and especially people of African descent, here, they fear being in politics
all the countries that we try to influence the people that are our biggest region because we are the largest remittance of money. The money that you send because you will not send to me but you will send to your families, meaning you have a direct influence on the people who sent the money. Meaning you tell them these money I'm new to start a business
or Facebook is or
giving the police officer something of that someone will do it. And the technology has also made it so important and also has also made communication as easy as possible. You know, I never thought that my own grandmother would face me or something. But now other people muscle technology Knology. So we can take this and move it into production in certain technology ways, and make sure that we use our our advantage position to influence growth and also participate in research to be invited.
Back to Sankofa looking behind to determine the way forward and which our keynote speaker talks about history. You know, so many of us here are fortunate to know about pan Africanism and the readers, patches, remember, you know, on Chroma as the QA you know, I will know, but again, how many of these people do my kids know? That's the question I'm about to ask. Because why history, the teaching of history has been taken out of our school system. Your blinking, uh, I guess and women and youthful agenda, but how to this youth know, the framework that was written in 1963 that this was the plan for Africa. When we can't even access those historical I mean, I was so I mean, then back to the four people in my generation, so many of us history was was a compulsory subject all the way and you had to let the data the numbers, the mains, the people and everyone you know, and now you've posted things we might add useful agenda, which is beautiful, because that's where what we're doing now, this entire town hall is for the future is for my kids generation and our children's generation. But how can we go back today? How can we take a step back to look at what we had before. When we know that we're trying to decolonize the curriculum, but still our curriculum, our indigenous educational system is broken down. I mean, recently, many of you knew the Minister of Education came about introducing indigenous language, saying we have to go back to teaching indigenous language. And guess what, there was rebellion going amongst because we can't do that. So how do we propose, again decolonizing, this educational system and bringing forward indigenous ways Indigenous education, so our kids, the youth of tomorrow, is able to understand where these leaders Thomas Sankara with alternativ are just naming all of those people like that. And so many of them are assets because they have this vision to move forward.
You're addressing the issue or you're going back and you know, as I mentioned, you don't really that not only tell you about the thing that you need to do is just to the people that are involved in doing that, involving the members know, you know, acknowledging the Supreme Being within that, and even the environment that when you create an environment that is responsive, and you use that theory that lens, you're going back to the basics, we leave that to the people there is too much that you need to learn, whether it is lighting or whatever it is going back to this. That's what I propose. That's the approach that we need to take. They want to portray it as everything that we will do that. As it will single. If you look at the African agenda now. They started in South Africa, or South Africa. They have now introduced a brand new are totally private universities. But now in private schools and high schools
in UBC there's actually subjects you can learn Swahili.
How can we have a huge issue like UBC, how we Africa started as a minor program as a minor? And then we said there is no no we have to do things deliberately to make sure that things are going the right direction. We cannot talk about international and Africa and bring all these things. And no, it has to be a deliberate move. But again, who are there to move the agenda. That is a political institution affair. But it means here that I was talking about the African agenda. When you look at the direction but but city so 96 to 2018 years, so many years. But that's 6060 years. That's what we must do. Without move about this, no. So we are so high. The idea is to collect no use the to do all these things and bring them to the table because they demand the fundamentals. But we need to reset. Yeah. Okay, so
we've come to the end, but each of you have a PowerPoint which you like to share, either. Okay, do you have a you have a platform Do you want to make this as the final point, just as a final
point I wanted to point that contribution. Remember, when my mother went back to the White House, she she wanted to claim the land and the officer has any children Yes. You have any? Any? Yes. My son
and we fought for the liberation of this country. And now the nine of us right. And the Constitution was revised to on top of things likewise, young people from the beginning women in one that needs the world now in terms of representation because at the time during constitution they automatically give 3% to women 3% to you to security now the whole world. But you look at how this transformed the young to be able to bring the ideas and women able to contribute your rights. Labor we will maybe talk about Africa as a catalyst for sustainable development in Africa. And I want to talk about Rwanda as a case study.
So, I want to share with you why I started this organization and then look at the policy reform that was put in place in 2012. Looking at 20 years, so it was possible to look at the challenges and opportunities I'm going to share two examples. One wants to transfer technology to expatriate nationals, and then go more to an organization and building bridges deployment support in Rwanda. And then we'll talk about solutions. That's it. So as I said, I created building bridges with Rwanda in a way to create a platform for international businesses who wanted to make a contribution to Rwanda after the genocide and relocated to Rwanda in 2008. And over the period, what six times more than 600 National volunteers in the country, we do have a center of innovation, and we created opportunities for local businesses as well as non people to pursue the next. So this is Belgium coronial. Legacy when it came to one, it was actually scandalous because Rhonda had been in existence since the 15th century. So for the League of Nations to give Belgium the right to babysit this country and to become mature enough to be a song was a house because it was akin to Belgium had no business in common and what was its goal? In Catholic Church, the right education and healthcare. Imagine, if you didn't sign up with the Catholic Church, you didn't have access to education or health care. Most of pedagogy that was left by the Belgian colonial system, focus more on memorizing than critical thinking. And remember, I went to Pearson college when I came here, and years later, a friend of mine from the states have gone to Belgium to do this master's in business administration, and told me that what it found in Belgium was the education system didn't teach me critical thinking they're all about memorization and they would mind how counterproductive this memorization process was because we memorize for exams, and after the exams we forget. Next slide. It's
education.
reform policy in 2000 when Rhonda launches vision 2020 The key was to transform Rwanda from highly indebted country to a middle income country in 20 years. They also understood that they had to create the infrastructure and so for ICT information communication technology to be used as a as a driver and economic driver. Kids have to learn how to use computers and Rondo is one of the first countries to jump on one laptop per child. And it was interesting story given the laptops and take them home and father saw this laptop so he took the laptop to the market to say people look, you can buy this. But just to tell you that when you start kids with computers in a very young age, you're actually transforming the society. And these kids are now really doing amazing things. With one also learned was that technology can be used to drive the economy so agriculture, medicine, everything you do, as I said, so that's really shameful. Next slide. So I'm going to share two examples of this one is a top 10. In 2006, I was invited to join this UMBC project which is a transfer of technologies to expatriate nationals. And I can understand why many African countries are not doing this, particularly in countries that were affected by conflict and they need to do so what happened UNDP recruit random recruits are professionals who can come to help rebuild the society UNDP pays for your travel. And also ex parte for this home happy to be back home. The government pays for transportation schools and from work and and your person a government department for two to three weeks where you do a series of training testing in ministry of local government. And I really enjoyed meeting that not only that, as as a national expert, your learning curve is more high. You know your culture you know your system. You know how to help you people. And the government also benefits from his ex parte is to ask for an expert to come would love to help reveal the society. So there's a winning party. Next slide, please. So, I talked to a teacher who had come to this issue with me. And basically she told me she was a teacher in Ontario. And when she went to one that she looked at the education system and wanted to make an impact. One of the things that really traumatized was the corporal punishment. I remember talking to a teacher here in Canada who taught me and taught me that professional development day with parents common talking teachers. Whose father husband and father is because you don't believe in nothing. And the guy was traumatized. I can't do that. When we when we use corporal punishment, to childhood trauma. I remember when I was in elementary school, it teaches you to understand that one plus one equals two and keep guessing and finally say two and what took you so long? Is because we don't have student centered education.
And we, we, we, we use punishment. If you punish a child this is the memorization. Exercise because we memorizes that said, you memorize for the exam, but you don't remember.
Also, absence of public speaking skills when I see that students are not equipped with the ability to speak, when they finish. They can move on to do that. Also, one of the things we need to change is that there's more career guidance. I realized when I first borrow money to go to university, please invest it doesn't talk to the industry. student graduates why we should be able to train students where we need them. And then for them as soon as they finish or even inspire them to create their own jobs. Having a graduate students been exposed. It's very dangerous. And I think we need to get close. Look at the rights and responsibilities. If we if we train students responsibly, not only we build the responsibility to create a world this is going to come to an end Yes, you wrong I think we need to invest more in critical thinking and also allow students to think independently. We need to build that constantly so that when they finish university they can actually not be able to get jobs and perform well. But also think about how they can also be one of the things that I thought Wanda was doing very well was to include intrapreneurship are all starting from primary school. A child learns that when they have a chicken child that they can actually make AIDS and make money to pay for the tuition to pay for the uniforms. And I see this intrapreneurship started from primary school, going through secondary school. Now the one that's creating amazing platforms such as connect Africa, anybody read connect Africa is an amazing organization started in Rwanda. And now it's in four different countries where young people are actually taking leadership. I was at a connector Africa. I saw this on YouTube, where Kenyan delegation has talked about how Kenya
so many young ministers
hoping to rally to rejoice, but he said we don't have enough women. And this is true when Africa learns that we cannot continue to exhort 50% of our population. We cannot continue to ignore women and our daughters in this journey. We bring redness, say for instance. Women, household economy. They think about the wellness of the children of the family. Whereas fortunately, men when they think about themselves and how they can continue to grow the power. So I think this this is really a mental illness.
almost running out of time.
So closing, I want to talk about move to this position that looks at
the value of
this man as a survivor. He helps young street tune with educational opportunity and live this is amazing. Grateful to Oman to talk about is a philosophy that you're here because I'm there and we help each other from the bottom of our hearts. With this philosophy, we can actually make them
and so on that note, we I am here because you're here and you're here because we're here. And so that's a village of me. Can you just end with one sentence and then come on it. I'm here because you are here. We are here because you're here and we're all here together.
So you're supposed to talk about how we can influence you know, for future generations back in back in Africa, we need to do more, especially with getting involved in policy we need to reach out to the address on the platform.
And it's not just about anytime we need some money in Africa, Nigeria in the first quarter of this year.
Like to see okay. Breaking complex languages into what they understand. Okay, there's difference between rights and privilege. These are the things one politician wants to give their lives to get the guy to give you all those things are not sustainable. So you need to ensure that they are accountable. And you know, we need to start you're logged in to the system you have to find a diarization You know, influence on the system who are the inputs to the voters can make our leaders accountable. The aspirants can set up debates that we will get more as aspirants ask them questions and you know, make them feel accountable to whatever they are given. To the system from my own perspective. You know. It's not about down to the individual level to say, okay, as a Nigeria as someone from my state, I am responsible for the interests of the oldest and which constitute general vital interests and development of the society. Thank you so much. Once again, it's such an honor until only last one last one.
Of course, I'm delighted to be here, including me Yeah, so I think because you're there, you're there because we are here and of course, we encourage our people to continue needing our support. And I think I want to end on a note that the Africa today is different. Because we have history that we know most of it was written by other people other than Africans will love the history we have been talking about, but Africa llbean down the history, another issue that we need to pass on African people so if we save our well being Africa that's what I say we are. Whatever was taken from us and said environment 1.212121 might ask me so if we were to contain that and do business across Africa, you know, we they're free after the continental trade. Business, have one flight have one industry or one whatever you will one shop stop one stop shop within Africa, we will to go places.
One comment say we Yes, exactly.
So what am I trying to say here? We need to contain the African money in Africa and once we do that, we will not beggars but we are. Yes, because we've got the six years now. We got the same way over and over again. But I did what man thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you so very much. I want to thank you so much for coming to listen to me Dr. Dr. Louis, where I an outlet won't be allowed to join so we'll be
outside when you finish
it Okay, we have a lot of small jobs very spicy the Nigerian labor and Ghana kind of small jobs and
