Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Is Something Wrong With Me?

Prof,

No one is doing the wrong thing  --- not you and not the folks talking about what you consider less important. Take the issue of appointments, for example, it matters for many reasons. Here are a couple. First, you cannot prevent/solve any of the critical problems without the right (effective, competent, qualified, compassionate, selfless, etc, etc) people in-charge. Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO). Notably, all the things you find worrisome (the ongoing protests, the devastations by COVID-19, the behavior of President Trump, declining economies in Africa) are caused/exacerbated by or represent bad leadership. So learsdip and who is appointed or hired to do what cannot and should not be considered trivial or less important. It is the key factor as Chinua Achebe reminded us in his book The Trouble with Nigeria. Second, representation, fairness, equity, diversity, inclusion, and participation are essential ingredients of sustainable development. Hence, being nepostistic and concentrating key positions in the hands of a section invariable results in worse (rather than better) outcomes for all. The worsening security situation in Nigeria illustrates this point. It is therefore dubious to suggest (as at least one has done on this list) that it doesn't matter who is in charge of what because all are Nigerians. It matters a lot, especially as those in-charge have been ineffective. In a country of over 200 million people you can and should certainly find more effective hands if we are not blinded by favoritism, neposition, tribalism, and other myopic/nefarious interests. Solving societal problems is like making a good soup. You need a good recipe, good ingredients, good chef and good equipment like pots, cookers etc with human resources being the most important. If you have a bad or incompetent chef (cook) the other things cannot be effectively utilized to achieve he desired goal. So it is with all "concerns of our civilization and collective humanity". 

Regards,

Okey    

On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 7:04 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Reading some items on this site as well as others, as in the case of appointments in Nigeria, I have come to the conclusion that something is wrong with me as a person and with my emotion. When there are bigger issues, as in the ongoing protests, the devastations by COVID-19, the behavior of President Trump, declining economies in Africa, I become obsessed with those issues. I forfeit sleep and food. I will hold a cup of coffee and won't be able to raise it to my sleep. I feel betrayed.

 

I wonder how some of you are able to leave the bigger issues and focus on the smaller ones, sometimes totally irrelevant to the concerns of our civilization and collective humanity. How are you able to disconnect and live your normal life?

 

At 3AM this morning, I came to the conclusion that you are the ones who are doing the right thing and that something must be wrong with me.

Moderator

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Okechukwu Ukaga, MBA, PhD
Executive Director and Extension Professor

University of Minnesota Extension Southeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership

Website: www.rsdp.umn.edu  Office: 507-536-6313; Cell: 218-341-6029  

Book Review Editor, Environment, Development and Sustainability (www.springer.com/10668),

"Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach" -- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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