Who Can Help Africans Solve their Problems?

Hoosiers and Africa

It’s time we change the way we think about our relation to Africa. Look at the images of Africa we see on TV, read the stories that make it into our newspapers. The problem isn’t exactly that the news is almost invariably bad, the images almost always disturbing … Africa is indeed a wounded continent. Of course we need to balance the bad news with an understanding that the continent is also filled with stories of beauty and hope, even in the midst of conflict and crisis.

No, the problem with the disturbing images and stories is that they shape the way we Americans think of our connections to Africa. The crises seem hopeless, overwhelming, insoluble. Even wealthy international institutions such as the United Nations or the US Agency for International Development seem all but impotent in the face of AIDS, bone-crushing poverty, wars and genocide. Our natural response is passivity, fatalism, resignation. Even the beauty can seem strange and foreign, distant from our lives.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The reality is there are very tight links between Africa and communities in a state such as Indiana. Powerful Hoosiers have had an impact -- probably no state has produced a trio of individuals as influential as Sen. Richard Lugar, outgoing head of the World Food Program Jim Morris, and USAID chief Randall Tobias. But three guys from Indiana are not why Indiana really matters to Africa. The real reason: thousands of ordinary people in Indiana are engaged in helping Africans find solutions to the problems they face. In fact, there are more than a thousand initiatives to address African AIDS and poverty in Central Indiana alone. Every church, every university, civic organizations, even individuals, all forming partnerships with counterparts in Africa that usually bypass national governments in DC or Africa. When you think about it, that's amazing. The flow of physical and financial resources is significant, but the greater impact could be less tangible. Personal transformations of Africans and Hoosiers, of churches and communities are tough to measure, but they do matter.

Kenya is a good example. When the story is told some day of how Kenya survived the 21st century, its relation with Indiana will be an important chapter. You can learn about these Indiana-Kenya connections at Sagamore Institute January 26. The idea for this discussion began when the International Interfaith Initiative proposed sending a bus to Wright State University in Dayton to hear a talk by Kenyan Wangari Maathai on January 30. The choice of Maathai for Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 represents a new way of thinking about "peace" since Maathai's organization, the Green Belt Movement, encourages women's groups to plant trees to conserve the environment and improve quality of life ... worthy endeavours, but not within the scope that has been awarded Nobel Prizes in the past. Some Kenyans view the acclaim for Maathai with a bit of unease because her Movement's goals sometimes seem to give "Nature" priority over ordinary people's livelihood. (See the article by my Sagamore colleague Carole Kariuki.) Even more controversy over Maathai resulted when it became widely known that she believed AIDS was deliberately engineered to kill Africans. (She has since toned down this view.)

The meeting at Sagamore on January 26 was intended to provide context for Maathai's Dayton talk ... but it quickly became evident that there are more than enough Indiana partnerships (existing and aspiring) in Kenya to justify and sustain an important conversation. Start with what the IU Medical School has done in Eldoret in partnership with Moi University. So remarkable have been the Med School's achievements that all of IUPUI is being drawn into partnering in Kenya. Even more, the Med School's Kenyan connections are redefining IUPUI's view of civic engagement as teams from the university are now trying to form parallel "strategic partnerships" in China, Mexico, and India.

There's more. IU's Kenyan activities have cut a channel to Eldoret through which other organizations in Indianapolis have flowed to Kenya, then have fanned out on their own throughout the country. The Rotary Club of Indianapolis is launching a very ambitious program. North United Methodist Church has opened a home for HIV-positive orphans in Eldoret and a shelter providing support for HIV-infected women in crisis. Through NUMC's work, Global Interfaith Partnership of Indianapolis is establishing a very ambitious program to help orphans and vulnerable children in Chulaimbo, Kenya. The list goes on and on.

When people hear about the IU partnerships in Kenya, they want to be part. The program has generously made it easy for you to make a financial contribution, but if you are so inclined you really ought to attend an arts fundraising event at the Studio School & Gallery February 10. It should be a great way to experience the beauty of Kenya as well join other Hoosiers who are helping Africans find solutions.

We have other opportunities to learn about Africa in ways that should provoke new thinking about solutions. "South Africa" is one of this spring's Great Decisions series, giving us a couple chances to hear from very cool local folks who are engaged in connecting Indy and South Africa. February 21 Terri Jett will talk at Church of the Saviour. Terri leads a summer seminar to South Africa for Butler students who are considering a call to ministry or other community service. March 6 Kelly Campbell will talk at Butler University to the Indiana Council on World Affairs. In addition to having studied in South Africa, Kelly is VP of Ambassadors for Children, which provides a chance for people to make short trips to Africa to work with kids.

You should take advantage of the off-beat events that will connect you better to Africa, whether learning about weddings in Nigeria at IMA on February 1, or watching a ton of films from Africa this spring at the Indianapolis International Film Festival.

For more information about the brainstorming event about Indiana and Kenya at Sagamore on January 26, contact John Clark at john@sipr.org. If you want an idea of why I think these local-to-local partnerships solving global problems matter, look at the case study of the Indy Rotary Club's 15 year relation with a Rotary Club in Savanna la Mar, Jamaica. My co-author Courtney Burkey recently has helped take that partnership in a new and even more interesting direction by introducing a nonviolent conflict resolution program into schools in Sav la Mar... I look forward to hearing how that is going. To find out more about IU's vital work in Kenya, contact Fran Quigley at quigley2@iupui.edu. If you want to learn more about South Africa before attending Terri Jett's and Kelly Campbell's talks, the Foreign Policy Association has assembled a nice collection of studies and articles. (The images above in this posting come from the IU-Kenya Partnership photo gallery. The picture of the Rotary bus stop in Eldoret below came from Neil Moore.)

China, Japan, Indiana

Eastern and Midwestern Cultures Mingle

Even though Indiana is far from the Middle Kingdom, there are plenty of opporunities for Hoosiers to learn more about doing business with China. Law firms and business schools regularly sponsor lectures and symposia about how your business can benefit from breaking into China. For instance: On January 24-25 Indiana State University's Networks Financial Institute will host an excellent event. The first day in particular focuses on business relations between Indiana and China. Lots of top-notch and experienced experts from outside the state as well as some of Indiana's most influential policymakers and experts.

The FNI conference incorporates a new twist on previous conferences by asking how Indiana can attract Chinese investors to the state. Most conferences explain how US businesses can benefit by investing in China to take advantage of the infinite pool of cheap labor, or how US businesses can get rich by selling stuff to increasingly prosperous Chinese consumers. This is one of the first conferences around here to discuss in depth how to tap into the enormous surplus of dollars that Chinese companies have been accumulating during the country's unprecedented economic boom. So Indiana is joining the other Midwest states, and all the countries of Africa and Latin America, in enticing Chinese and their money.

Hoosiers may feel a sense of déjà vu all over again … it sounds like the 1980s search for Japanese investment to the state led by then Governor Bob Orr. These days, when communities and states desperately claw one another in a frantic effort to snare Japanese auto parts manufacturing plants, we forget how controversial Japanese investment was twenty years ago. The jobs were non-union, and workers feared they’d have to sing the zaibatsu hymn every morning before robotic work. It went smoothly in part because Japan was (and is) a democracy, our closest ally and after decades of military occupation of the US had a thorough understanding of American culture.

It will be different with China. The cultural, social, and political distance is much greater, the controversies will be greater. So attend a conference like NFI’s in large part to start acculturating yourself to some of the challenges ahead.

But be aware of the limits. If we are fortunate, in the years to come we will see a lot more Chinese and Japanese people around Indiana, not just Chinese and Japanese dollars. Learning more about these cultures will be essential, and not just in the aspects of business culture and protocol that are often discussed at conferences (e.g., the differences between how Japanese and Chinese exchange business cards, or the strategic targeting of large quantities of alcohol in the two cultures). We need to pay more attention to all aspects of Japanese and Chinese cultures.

Central Indiana has some surprisingly rich Asian cultural resources at its disposal. Consider the excellent collections of Chinese and Japanese art at IMA. More remarkable is the gallery of Master Au Ho-nien in the basement of the student center at University of Indianapolis. Master Au may be the greatest living traditional Chinese artist, no one should miss touring his marvelous paintings.

We could think instrumentally about these unique chinese and Japanese cultural assets: after exchanging business cards and before imbibing in large quantities of alcohol, take your potential investor to IMA or the Master Au gallery. A Chinese businessperson will have few chances to see the work of a Master as masterful as Au. It will be a token of cultural respect and a subtle demonstration that Indiana will be a welcoming environment offering enclaves of high culture.

But here is a better way to treat these collections of art: they make us better people. All of us. We don't preserve them in museums as curiosities or only to impress outsiders with our global sophistication. They are opportunities for cultural cross-fertilization, not just sheltered bubbles within which our visitors can find a piece of a world they left behind. They are what allows us to select and integrate the best of all cultures. Art is important, but it is only part of the aspects of cultures form which we should seek to learn. We need better ways to think about trust, family, faith, the future. We should restlessly and relentlessly try to make ourselves better.

In this spirit of creative synthesis, everyone should leap at a unique event on Valentine's Day at the University of Indianapolis: a collaboration of Master Au, singers from Indianapolis Opera and Shanghai, musicians from the faculty of UIndy, all exploring various aspects of Chinese and Western views of love. It is a remarkable experience, watching Master Au paint: grace and economy combine with wit and humor to remind one of the fact that he is a representative of a 3000-year-old civilization.

In fact, this idea of synthesis and creativity is sure to be discussed by Jane Hirshfield on March 27. In addition to being one of this country's most renowned poets, her translations of Japanese poetry have won many awards ... despite not knowing Japanese (she works with Japanese speakers, of course). I have been repeatedly stopped dead in my proverbial tracks, reading her book of essays about poetry, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. It has forced me to rethink about my ideal of selecting the best of all cultures, and her talk should be excellent.

We have other chances to immerse ourselves in Chinese and Japanese culture. As so often is the case, IMA is the place to be. They will have a special presentation of Chinese and Nigerian wedding practices February 1. IMA also is showing two classics of Japanese cinema with “Gion Bayashi” January 18 and "Kaidan" April 28. That will be in the middle of the Indianapolis International Film Festival, which is sure to offer gems from Japan and China.

If you want more information about China's investment around the world, including Indiana, check out the Financial Times special report "China Goes Global." You can get more information about Midwest states' courting of Chinese investment from the MidWest US-China Association. Ploughshares has published a fascinating profile of Jane Hirshfield. For more information about Master Au Ho-nien, look at the museum catalogue. (This link is just to the text, you need to buy the full book for the images ... it's worth it!) Needless to say, the images in this posting are Master Au's.