In the Guardian’s article, “Guinea’s Anti-Corruption
Activists Raise Doubt Over Mining Crackdown”, they write:
There
is a saying in Guinea that is popular among those who work in development:
"Everything is a priority". It is a wry observation that, in a country
in which almost nothing works, it is difficult to work out what to tackle
first. The facts are stark. A recent survey showed that 62% of Guineans have no
access to running water, 62% have no access to electricity, 65% say they have
inadequate access to roads, and 72% think the
justice
system is broken. The country's human development indicators are well below
those of other sub-Saharan African countries – the UN ranks the country's
development 178th of 185 in the world.
Wow.
This is the country that I have called home for nearly two years. I know the
lack of water and that our electricity is so scare that you do not call periods
without electricity blackouts, rather you call the hours with electricity a
grand surprise. While the roads in my region are not bad by Guinean standards,
not even the national highway is completely paved and it is only the national
highway, one road snaking around the country to hit the major cities, which is
paved. My problem with the justice system, starts with the fact that something
so lacking in transparency cannot really be called a system. And justice… A recent survey found that 98% of businesses in Guinea,
and 93% of citizens, have experienced corruption.
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| Lack of electricity means lack of food conservation. This is a workshop on how to preserve our abundant mangos through jamming! |
And
so this is the country that I have come to love and am here to help develop and
it can be a daunting task. I’m in my fourth quarter, the clock is running out,
and we are down so many points. What’s a girl to do? For me, the answer is
social entrepreneurship. If you don’t know which problem to tackle first, go
for the base. Start with the youth. They have time and the passion to make real
change. Teach people to see a lack of
development as an opportunity. Give them the skills they need to create
innovative projects and manage them for success. Teach them the benefits of
networking so that they can have access to the resources that are present in
the region. Give them mentors who know how to operate in the context to serve
as their guides. Find positive deviants and give them the confidence to be
visionaries. And that is the Dare to Innovate project. It has grown immensely
over the past year and starts officially with a weeklong conference August 11th.
It will launch the social enterprise sector in Guinea and already is attracting
trainees from other West African countries. I’m excited and proud of my
partners and have seen enough sports movies to know even if there are mere
minutes on the clock and you are down, the underdog, full of passion and grit
can win. And Guinea, is nothing, if not the underdog.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Guinea? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Guinea in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez