Most of the SAWIP 2012 team know by now that I am rather fond of cities – as are most people with whom I have been in contact for more than 5 minutes in the last two years. I am fascinated by the impact that cities have on our species, the underlying elements that make them work (or fail) and the impact that our future urban environments will have on the way we live, survive or, well, die.

I am still working on finding ways to more clearly articulate why exactly it is that cities fascinate me so much. I was therefore delighted to come across the following video this past week. I would recommend it as must-see viewing for everyone, and particularly those friends with whom I have had such enjoyable conversations about cities.

Right at the beginning of our SAWIP journey, at the orientation camp, we were each asked to bring along one item that represented our South African story and identity.

If someone asks me what my South African identity is, that's easy to answer. I'm Afrikaans. But once you start asking questions around that it starts getting more tricky, quite quickly. Apart from the language that I speak at home, what exactly is it that makes me Afrikaans? Many of the stereotypical "Afrikaans" characteristics are ones to which I don't relate particularly strongly. Hunting, Khaki, Rugby, Biltong, Castle Larger, the majority of Afrikaans popular music - all of which have their appropriate place and time - don't feature particularly strongly on my hierarchy of needs.

I find myself, perhaps, in a space similar to many other young Afrikaans speaking South Africans who are currently searching for ways to redefine themselves as Afrikaans speaking South Africans.

In thinking about what item could represent my South African story, I remembered the poem bellow, Die hand vol vere, by Breyten Breytenbach that he wrote while in exile. While his story is very different from my own, there are certain core elements of his message to which I relate quite stronly.

I remember reading it at the orientation camp, and what I thought about the poem and my relating to it back then. Little did I know back then just how much I would lean about what it means to be Afrikaans from the kids on our team who aren't, my experience in Washington and my interaction with the students from Ireland, Palestine and Israel. This is just one more of the numerous things I can attribute to my SAWIP 2012 experience, and something that I am grateful for.

The translation on the right has been borrowed from this site by"TonyMac".

As some of you may know, our team has been featured on the Africa.com blog over the past few weeks.

This week an Article that I wrote was published on their blog, and I would love to hear what other people think about my "Thoughts on defining 'Africa'". In writing I tried to be as sensitive as possible to avoid the kind of generalization that is to a somewhat ironic extent the topic of my article. I am thus open to hearing other views on this, so please do comment if you have any thoughts.

The link to article: http://www.africa.com/blog/blog,thoughts_on_defining_8220africa8221,792.html#

The first meeting of the SAWIP, WIP and NSL classes of 2012 on the Washington DC National Mall

Today a few of the SAWIP class of 2012 and I had the pleasure of attending the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in the Cape Town City Hall. This years lecture was given by Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and member of The Elders.

The purpose of this blog is not to write about what Robinson lectured on (I will have to attempt to cover her outstanding message in a subsequent post), but I should note that I was impressed by her willingness to address some serious issues head on in this honorable forum.

I was sitting next to Kwadwo when Robinson took the stand. The moment she started her lecture, and we heard her accent, I could tell that both of us were filled with nostalgia and "verlange" (I tried to find an English word, but there doesn't seem to be one that says it quite right) for our friends from the Washington Ireland Program team.

I have often been surprised to find how many people, even people who know SAWIP intimately, are unaware of our two sister programs from Ireland and the Middle East.

The Washington Ireland Program (WIP) was the first of the three programs, and was established 17 years ago to support the peace and reconciliation efforts in Northern Ireland and Ireland. The second is New Story Leadership (NSL), a program which seeks to inspire a new story of possibility for the Middle East by bringing outstanding Israeli and Palestinian students to Washington DC.

We first met the students of the WIP and NSL teams about a week into our stay in DC. On a scorching Saturday morning (thinking back, I suspect this was the morning after one of our first "free nights") we met on the Washington mall for a "sports day" of which I was, admittedly, a bit skeptic at first. Within 15 minutes of our arrival, however, the Irish (being their usual jolly self) had everyone involved in an array of crazy games ranging form "Irish Baseball" (I can't remember the name - but by the looks of the bat it seems a lot more violent than the US version) to Charades (which the Irish are upsettingly good at).

This morning marked the start of what I have come to appreciate as one of the most valuable elements of our entire stay in Washington. Over the 5 weeks that followed we had several "formal" encounters with the WIP and NSL teams, all of which I enjoyed. It was in "happy hours", lunches, late nights out and the discussions on the Middle Eastern conflict at Lior's house, however, that I got to know some of the best and most valued friends I have ever had the privileged meeting.

In spending time with these new friends from Ireland, Israel and Palestine, I not only gained a new appreciation for how special our own country is - but also a sincere appreciation for the unique stories of the Irish and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, attempts at reconciliation, friendships and ongoing troubles. I truly believe that our three stories compliment each other in ways too numerous for us (SAWIP) not too make a more conscious effort of formally (and informally) engaging with the students from these two programs.

There has been speak of having more organized events between the three programs while in DC, but I would also like to see our relationships post-DC realize into more than just Facebook friendships. I we could find a way to continue dialogue between our groups, and ideally, find ways to host each other in our own countries - that would be a truly fantastic (and, in my mind, meaningful) endeavor.

All of our programs have the future of our respective countries (or regions) at heart. At least in the case of South Africa I feel that the time for looking inward for solutions to our domestic problems has come and gone. In the WIP and NSL programs I see an opportunity to build meaningful relationships further and wider - relationships that reflect a shared future in an increasingly global arena.

More pressingly, however, I just really miss deciding to skip the last 12am train for the sake of talking for a bit longer (and having another drink) with my friends from NSL and WIP.

Last night I came across the TED video that I have embedded bellow "Eric Sanderson pictures New York -- before the City".

Watching it made me think back to the 5 days our SAWIP 2012 team spent in the Big Apple - and also the very different reactions that our team members had to the city.

Depending on where you go, New York can present very different experiences. Whether it be the Upper West side, Mid Town, China Town, SoHo, Little Senegal in Harlem or Central Park - no two neighborhoods of Manhattan are alike, and then there are the other 4 boroughs. And them, as I have commented on before, our team is rather diverse in itself. These different sides to the city, and our very different team, inevitably produced post NYC opinions ranging from "greatest place on earth" to "hell-hole".

Without being too philosophical about this - I feel that New York City, to an extent, reminds me of just how different peoples perceptions of the same thing can be. For yet another, completely different, view on NYC have a look at this video:

Last night our team attended the SAWIP - Donald M. Payne Congressional Forum. It was an honour to be able to speak at this event, and I would like to share my speech with you here.

Esteemed Members of the Congress of the United States
Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Board Members of the Washington Ireland Programme, New Story Leadership and the
South Africa-Washington Internship Programme,
Programme Directors and Managers
Distinguished guests, friends, & Fellow South Africans,

Good Evening.

1. My name is Carel Grove Kleynhans. I am a student of economics at Stellenbosch University, a member of the South Africa - Washington International Program Class of 2012, an Afrikaner, a South African and I am honoured to be here tonight.

2. Being white I come from a privileged South African background, although, until 3 months ago I naively prided myself on being culturally exposed with regards to the diversity of my country.

3. On the 26th of March, the day before my 23rd birthday, I heard that I had been selected for the SAWIP 2012 team.

4. In the 3 short months that followed, however, my pseudo liberal views would be challenged more times than they had been in the 23 years prior.

5. My SAWIP experience has reminded me of the importance of being receptive to ideas that might, on their face value, be in conflict with your own.

6. I stand here with a new appreciation for how important critical, yet mutually respectful dialogue is in achieving the real change we so eagerly speak about.

7. That said, I would like to share one an idea with you tonight, and briefly touch on how I see my generation and a program like SAWIP relating to this notion.

8. From the outset I will admit that my knowledge of the subject matter is limited, and my remarks are to be seen as the observations of a youth with little experience.

9. I invite you, however, to seek the value in them precisely because of my inexperience.

11. The past century has emphasized the extent to which technological advances affect human ability to control- and adapt to their environments.

12. In almost all arenas the 20th Century brought unprecedented technological progress - all of which has significantly impacted our society.

13. From observation it seems, however, that technology of governance, the techniques, systems and institutions that we apply to govern our societies, has not undergone comparable change during this period.

14. All around the world we see structures of governance struggling to cope with the realities of the 21st Century. President Obama has said that “we cannot meet 21st Century challenges with 20th Century bureaucracy”.

15. I suspect, however, that we need to be open to the possibility that the challenges facing governments lie deeper than the bureaucratic level.

16. Technological advances are changing our social, economic, natural and even political environments faster than our current systems of governance can adapt.

17. One example of this is our inability to adopt an international strategy for addressing climate change - a dynamic problem with strong ties to technological- and economic development.

18. I would like to think that, by now, most of us acknowledge this problem as real and pressing. However, progress on the policy front does not seem to reflect the seriousness of the matter.

19. Some other popular examples include the recent financial crisis, the Arab Spring, the European sovereign debt crisis, crony capitalism, gerrymandering and crisis in the healthcare industry - to only name a few.

20. At their core, none of these examples are new phenomena. What they all have in common, however, is that technology amplifies their impact on society.


21. The challenge in improving on technology of governance stems from the fact that the incentives for innovation are not set up right.

22. In the private sector firms have a direct profit incentive to innovate.

23. Governments, on the other hand, face a political incentive to maintain the institutional status quo. Additionally, we have emotional attachments to systems of governance for which many men have fought and died for.

24. In speaking to the British House of Commons in 1947, Winston Churchill noted:

“Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

25. I want to challenge you to ask yourself the following: do you, in your thinking, allow for the possibility that Churchill was right? Is it possible that we have yet to discover a better system of governance than democracy - or our current configuration of it?

26. And, if not, are we then not thinking like the unfortunate commissioner of the US patent office, Charles H. Duell, who allegedly said in 1899 that "everything that can be invented, has been invented."

27. Accepting that we perhaps need to fundamentally rethink the institutions that we use to govern our societies is an uncomfortable process.

28. It requires us to momentarily distance ourselves from notions that are dear to us and find a place where we can experiment with new ideas.

29. The difficult reality is that progress is impossible without openness to the possibility that a rethink is needed.

30. This may all sound quite abstract, but I mention it to illustrate an important point:

31. The challenges that my generation face are becoming increasingly abstract.

32.Poverty is as real today as it was 30 years ago - but it is becoming all the more obvious that solving the poverty issue is not independent of addressing environmental change, social injustice or outdated institutions.

33. I see SAWIP playing two very important roles in this regard:

34. Firstly, SAWIP brings people from diverse backgrounds together in an environment that encourages critical discussion about these abstract issues. I have personally seen SAWIP alumni conceptualize and execute paradigm-shifting ideas that I believe would not have come about if it were not for their interaction with each other.

35. Secondly, speaking to all our guests here tonight, SAWIP introduces us to you.

36. While our generation might be more equipped to change things than previous generations, there is no substitute for experience and some good old fashioned guidance.

37. We live in a time of constant change, abstract problems and many conflicting messages. This implies that simply can not work form the presumption that what has worked today will work tomorrow.

38. I truly believe that we are currently experiencing a unique window of opportunity to reinvent our future - but that it will require us asking ourselves some of those uncomfortable questions.

39. I certainly don’t have the answers to questions, yet, but I do believe that it would be irresponsible for leaders, both young and old, not to look for them.

Thank you.

This afternoon our team visited the Holocaust Museum.

To be honest, it was not something that I was particularly looking forward to in the light of how little time we have left in Washington I was amazed, however, at how meaningful the experience was.

Firstly, the museum is a feat of architectural genius. The entire experience is incredibly moving and the physical spaces really facilitate the journey through the story of the Holocaust exceptionally well.

As is proving to be a bit of a theme, the part of the experience that was most meaningful to me was the discussion with our team after going through the exhibits. We sat down around a boardroom table in the museums research library and what followed was one of the more moving conversations I have witnessed on this trip. It quickly became apparent that several of us had experienced mini (and some major) existential humanist crisis-es and to some extent lost our belief in the inherent goodness of people.

I can't really describe the details of the conversation - but in an hour and a half we somehow managed to work back to having some hope for humanity. The talk I have posted bellow sums up many of the conclusions we reached - and watching it now I am actually quite proud of how many of these insights were raised by members of our team in our conversation.

From TED.com

Last night we had a panel discussion with a few prominent entrepreneurs on, well, entrepreneurship. One of the panelists touched on the future of education, particularly the influence of the internet on education, and the conversation that followed reminded me on the video bellow. I feel it's something that everyone should see, so I encourage you to take invest 20 min of your life in something truly worth while:

This is a picture of Kwadwo (SAWIP) and I having lunch on The Hill with Sarah Mulcahy and Lewis Mooney of the Washington Ireland Team. Sarah and Lewis both work in Congress, and Kwadwo and I work close enough that we can meet up for a little lunchtime adventure every now and then

I post this picture because, to an extent, I perceive it as symbolizing something of the intern culture in Washington. One of the more obvious things about life as an intern in DC is that there are many other interns. In almost every office in Washington there is some young (usually bright - although, not always) student or young-professional who is new to the city and over-eager to make friends (and "contacts"). Very few of them get paid, and the few that do earn next to nothing. This mix of young semi-broke yet bright students from all over the world gives the city a unique vibrancy - if you are willing to look for it.

On the other hand, though, I am curious about the effect that this seemingly unlimited supply of free, over-eager labour has on the inner-working of the legislative capitol of the world. I am paraphrasing here from a conversation we had over one of these adventurous lunches, but it seems as if a lot of these interns are doing very menial tasks for most of their workday. I am still deciding whether this represents a gross under-utilization of talent and resources, or whether it reflects on the importance of experience - and related, the uselessness of inexperienced interns.

*I'll do an update on this post once I've given it some more thought and spoken to a few more interns about this.

I would like to start this post by acknowledging the typo in the title of Part 1 of this blog entry. I realize that it reads "Fist" and not "First", but somehow the typo and it's meaning almost seems more fitting - so I will leave it as is.

Almost two more weeks have passed since I promised to finish part one of this post. In this post I shall therefore only briefly get to the point I was trying to make, and leave the new stories for later.

The point I am trying to make requires some insight into the situation shown in the picture above (please excuse the poor quality). I took this photo during one of our weekly themed team discussions. The objective of these discussions is to allow different team members to facilitate critical conversations on topics ranging from global health to human rights, unemployment, LGBT rights and entrepreneurship - to name a few.

To deviate a little, a few of our team members were at a SAWIP Leadership Dinner last night where one of the guests was Dr. Renosi Mokate, an Executive Director at The World Bank. Dr. Mokate asked our team whether we thought that the SAWIP experience has saved/won us time in our professional careers. In answering her I spoke about the experience of engaging with 14 other SAWIP team members on some of the issues I've mentioned above. Although I like to think that I am not culturally isolated as an Afrikaans South African, I have never had the opportunity to engage critically and intellectually with people form such radically different backgrounds from my own. In sitting in the conference room pictured above, I caught myself thinking how could a rational human being (whom I like hanging out with) be so ignorant in their view on such an obvious reality.

It took me some time to figure out that that experience right there was invaluable - and in my opinion the most important thing that I'm getting from my SAWIP experience as a whole. In every conversation with my SAWIP class of 2012 I am getting better at understanding where Phiwe from the Eastern Cape really comes from. Slowly I am learning how to engage meaningfully with him (and the rest of the team) on issues on which we differ substantially.

Although our conversations are far from professional (or even civil) at times, I can say that we are getting better at finding each other in some of these very emotionally charged topics. I hope to spend many years working with people form all races in South Africa, and to Dr. Mokate's question, I can confidently say that, if not years, my SAWIP experience has certainly saved me several bad career moves.

I write this sitting on the bus en route to New York City with the SAWIP 2012 team beaming all around me.

We have been for in America for one day short of two weeks and, at the risk of sounding overly sentimental, the time has been truly life changing so far. Yes, the clichés of being in a foreign city with amazing people apply, the program content is quite stimulating and even my internship at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is turning out to be much cooler than I anticipated (side note, I was quite ambitious in my expectations). Yet still, there is something more abstract and intangible that has been at the centre of what has made my SAWIP experience so enriching, so far. Before I get to what I think this special element might be, I’ll give some context of what our team has been up to over the past 13 days.

We arrived in Washington DC on Thursday, July 14th. I spent about 2.5 hours getting two cases of wine through customs, and was surprised at how friendly my host family still was, despite the long wait. In the first few days we did a walking tour of the DC monuments, had a classic barbeque with the SAWIP board of directors and attended a youth day celebration at the Ambassador’s residence where I had the pleasure of dining with Minister of Trade and Investment, Rob Davies. Our internships started on Monday. After a bit of a slow start I was delighted to find that I would actually be doing some real research, looking into alternative investment vehicles that HUD can use to get more “bang for their buck” in the US affordable housing market (insert excitement).

Every day after work we have themed discussions with prominent figures within their respective fields. The first week featured discussions on global health issues with a lady form the World Bank as well the head of health policy for advocacy agency ONE.org (of Bono fame). On the Wednesday we met the Irish WIP team for the first time at the Irish Embassy, and had the privilege of being addressed by Jake Sullivan, right hand man to Hillary Clinton and director of US foreign policy. I was lucky enough to get a chace to ask his thoughts on the ability of governments and their “systems of governance” to keep up with the impact that technology is having on the societies they govern. All his remarks were strictly off the record, so even though nothing he said was particularly controversial, I shall refrain from paraphrasing in fear of being tackled by a guy in a black suit. While writing this. On the bus. (looking around suspiciously).

Over the weekend we had another event with the WIP team, and also got to meet the (super-cool) NSL team from Palestine and Israel. Our Washington based community service project took us to a predominantly black neighborhood where we joined a community “health fair” in promoting free HIV testing. Tamsanqa and I decided to venture into the neighborhood on foot to get a feel for the way people lived, thought and were out there. After several impromptu conversations with kids of roughly our age, and we were both struck by the overwhelming sense of hopelessness that these youths demonstrated in their views. I admit that we weren’t exactly approaching them on equal grounds (my pale complexion seemed to be somewhat out-of-place), and our conversations were limited both in time and understanding – but the feeling was clear: these kids saw absolutely zero opportunity of getting out of their predestined life, confined to that (or similar) neighborhood. Having spent the week hanging out in places of real influence, being charmed by people with real power, this contrast seemed particularly stark in the land of opportunity.

In part 2 of this post I promise to actually get to my point – this being that the (almost extreme) diversity of our team has been, by far, the thing that has contributed most to my “development” as a human being over the past 13 days. I look forward to explaining this and telling you about the amazing event that we had at the Woodrow Wilson Centre last night to celebrate the legacy of Nelson Mandela. But first, however, I’m going to walk the 5 blocks up to Time Square with some of my favourite people in the US of A (and world for that matter).

This week I have very little time to write, as I start my exams on Monday and this first week will be my toughest. I would, however, like to share a quick thought.

This past semester I have had the privilege to take a course in Developmental Economics under Professor Servaas van der Berg. Prof. Van der Berg truly is one of those (numerous) unsung heroes of the New South Africa. He is regarded as one of South Africa's leading experts (if not the-) in the field of social development, and particularly education. Rumor has it that Trevor Manuel once introduced him as "Comrade Researcher" in the light of his contributions to shaping South African's social assistance programs.

One thing that I feel quite strongly about, coming out of this course, is that there are some serious misconceptions 'out there' regarding the role that the South African government has played in poverty alleviation. I recently finished an essay for Prof. Van der Berg's course that I would like to share with you. I must note that it has not been graded yet, so, as with any written work, there may be errors and you should not take everything for the absolute truth.

I will share the introduction and conclusion here, and provide a link to the entire essay for if you feel prompted to read. It's broken up into easily navigable sections, so you should be able to easily skip over the bits that bore you.

Introduction

The Constitution of the Republic of South African states the following in its bill of rights:

“Everyone has the right to have access to... social security, including, if theyare unable to

support themselves and their dependants, appropriate socialassistance”.

This right to access has been central to the South African governments’ social policy since the transition to democracy. Chu and Hemming (1991) classify social security as spendingon "the public provision of health, education, housing, and other social services". In all theseareas the South African government has excelled in shifting fiscal and even real resource tothe poor. Great strides have been made in alleviating extreme poverty and improving the living standards of the poor, yet many challenges remain. This essay provides a brief overview of social spending in South Africa since the transition to democracy, and tries tofocus on the impact that this has had on the poor.

For the rest of the essay, find it here: http://carelkleynhans.com/South_African_social_spending.pdf

Conclusion

Social security is a constitutional right in South Africa, and since the transition todemocracy government has shown their commitment to fulfil their duty to uphold this right. South Africa has one of the largest social spending programs among developing countries,and well-targeted social grants have substantially reduced money metric poverty for itsresidents. Increased social spending has, however, not been mirrored by equal improvements in social outcomes. Inefficiency and mismanagement continue to hamper governments’ ability to translate spending into service delivery. While it is true that social spending may cause unfavourable demographic trends and present opportunity costs, South Africa has not yet reached a level of development where these effects are significant. In the light of current international phenomena, however, there seems to be increased need for perceptive long term social policy planning. In its most recent budget, government seems to acknowledge that capacity to further increase social spending is limited, and an emphasis shift from transfers to investment can be seen in its planning. The combination of smart investment and a continued commitment to improving efficiency in social spending is what is needed to provide all South Africans with their constitutional rights. Only then will the poor be in aposition to climb onto the self-improvement ladder and access their rights to not only social security, but also opportunity.

Exams beckon :)

C

On Thursday we had our second “community service” team meeting. For those of you who aren’t aware, every SAWIP team has to conceptualize and implement a community service project of their own upon returning from Washington. As far as I understand, the reasoning behind this is that we a) get to implement and apply the knowledge and skills that we acquired during the program, and b) that we continue in the SAWIP mantra of service in leadership.

As we were sitting around a boardroom table throwing ideas back and forth, I found myself wondering what some of the most creative and innovative community service (or general social assistance) programs that were “out there” looked like. I thought back to this article that I shared with the team a few weeks ago. In it Carole Cadwalladr of The Gaurdian writes about her experience at a Silicon Valley based for-profit learning institution in Silicon Valley whose stated aim is to "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges."

From Cadwallars first paragraph it is obvious that Singularity University is for real, and serious:

"It’s day one at the Singularity University: the opening address has just been delivered by

a hologram. Craig Venter, who was one of the first scientists to sequence the human

genomeand created the first synthetic life form, is up next.”

Re-reading through the article I can’t help but compare the projects that I have been involved in to some of the things the “students” at Singularity University get have done. Father of the internet, inventor of Google’s self driving car, founder of Pay-Pal and Ashton Kutcher - they’re all there. I will concede that these people are to a large extent the exceptions of society, but I can’t help asking myself: what am I currently doing or learning that will increase my odds of being someone (perhaps a leader) who can do things (good things) at the scale that these guys do?

I forgot about Singularity University for a bit, and did what any searching youth would do: I turned to Google. I soon came across familiar names like Kahn Academ, the project of a lone actuary that is now providing free online education to hundreds of millions of kids around the world, and TED.com who recently launched their own online education initiative, TED-ED. Another popular form of online philanthropy is found in crown funding websites that pool resources for different charity projects. Changemakers is one of the leaders in the field, and similarly JustGiving, a UK based non-profit, has raised over £450 million for good causes since it launched in 2000. (This infographic shows how online crowd funding was in 2010, already, accounting for billions of dollars in donations.)

To backtrack a little; when I checked into the TED website I remembered a girl that I met last year at the TEDxStellenbosch conference (another form of social service if you ask me). She was an architecture student and spoke about how she helped design and build an innovative new hospital for a remote location in Rwanda. I remember her telling me about her involvement with IDEO.org, the non-profit arm of the world famous design company with the same name. Apart from their beautifully designed website, I really like their mission:

“Through Human-Centred Design projects, we're bringing stability, hope, and dignity to communities around

the world that are wrestling with poverty. Along the way, we’re sharing what we learn and accomplish

with everyone—so we’re all learning together. And through the IDEO.org Fellowship Program, we’re

fostering a community of future leaders with expertise in design thinking, then letting them

loose on the world.”

And they’re doing exactly this. These are some of the brightest young designers, entrepreneurs, leaders and all round cool kids who are implementing some really, Really awesome projects.

I remember speaking to a mentor of mine, Stafford Massie, who was the first CEO of Google Africa. He was in a rush as usual, and said kind of in passing: “you know what, we should load Kahn Academy onto 150 000 HTC smart phones and just hand them out in the Eastern Cape”. I recall him saying that he could probably get the phones form someone he knew, and something else about a small logistical hiccup that would need to be bridged, but that he just did not have the time to execute the project right now. Whether this was feasible or would actually work is besides the point to me. Stafford thinks in a in a way that the people of South Africa desperately need. Outside of the box, and with a keen disregard for impossibility. I ask myself, what are we doing to equip our leaders to think more like him, or the people at IDEO or TED? We load on knowledge about different leadership styles and we have in depth discussion about public health and BBBEE (all of which, I agree, are crucially important in their own right), but I feel that there is something that the “next generation of young leaders” are out on missing.

I will concede that many of the examples I mention above are closely related to the internet in some way, and this in itself reflects the kind of “early adopter, risk taking” demographic at the forefront of this industry attracts. But my question is, what are the principles these individuals live by that drive them to do these extraordinary things? And what can we do to instil these same values (or attitudes, perhaps) in our young leaders, so that they too can excel in their own fields - whatever they may be. Imagine the next generation of South African politicians with a feel for design thinking, or policymakers that pride themselves on innovative solutions. I want to emphasise that I by no means wish to imply that our current approach to “training” young leaders is wrong or even inadequate, but merely that we have a lot to learn not only from Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, but also from Steve Jobs, Larry Page and even, perhaps, Ashton Kutcher.

I am writing this blog post on the Sunday evening that concludes our curriculum week on "Leadership and Youth Development" - although it will only be posted later this week to prevent some of the "Sunday blog traffic".

I went into this week thinking that for SAWIP, being a youth leadership development program, this is a particularly relevant week of our curriculum. On Thursday evening we had a meeting with Leo Makgamathe of Brand South Africa. Although I was sadly unable to attend, I can report that the team had very positive feedback about the conversation that ensued. Much of it, apparently, was related to the reading that we received prior to the meeting; an informative and inspiring piece by Miller Matola for Business Day - "SA Needs a Capable State and Active Citizens” [Business Day. March 2nd, 2012].

Yesterday (Saturday) we had our second Leadership themed event, thing being a session on "Resonant Leadership" by long standing friend of SAWIP, Nigel Bailey. The full day event covered a wide range of leadership related topics, and we thank Nigel for the time and effort he commits to not only our class, but the SAWIP program in general.

Yesterdays conversation made me think of the following TED talk that I would like to recommend to you.

In this TED talk, Simon Sinek carefully frames his ideas on "How great leaders inspire action". I won't spoil the talk for you here, but listen for these quotes from his talk while watching:

"People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it".

"We follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to."

"[Leaders] who start with 'Why' who find the ability to inspire those around them".

Although he links many of his ideas to business leaders and the corporate environment, I feel that the core concept of his talk (this being the "Golden Circle") is something that relates to all forms of leadership, and something that I would love to see more in leadership in our country.

In this coming week we will be talking Public Health, and I'm already looking forward to hearing the teams thoughts on the proposed National Health Insurance scheme.

Back to work,

Carel

Hi, I'm Carel.

I'm part of the SAWIP 2012 team, and this is my first blog post.

When I first heard about SAWIP the idea of a program of its nature really appealed to me. I have been looking for a platform from which I could contribute more significantly to the country that I love and believe in, and SAWIP seemed to fit the bill perfectly. (And yes, there was of course the added allure of spending 6 weeks in Washington DC).

I sit here, however, amazed at how little I knew about what I was getting myself into when I was filling in my application form (all 8000 words of it). The application process, interview, selection camp, that fantastic phone call from Kim, the orientation camp and our first curriculum event at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation in Cape Town last night have all far exceeded my wildest expectations.

Firstly I would like to commend the SAWIP team and Alumni for their effort and excellence throughout the selection process. One could really sense the attention to detail and care that was taken to choose the right team. And I must say, I feel privileged to be a part of this team. I've known them less than 5 days in aggregate, and already they have had a major impact on the way I perceive myself, my country and my place in this country. And then there is the surprise of the curriculum that Kim and Brian matter of factly presented to us at the orientation camp. I do not mean to imply that I was not expecting a challenging program - that's one of the reasons I signed up - but I think it is safe to say that the whole team was slightly shell shocked to see just how busy we wore going to be in the next 8 weeks leading up to Washington. From what I can make out from the program we have received, however, there is only reason for us to be very, Very excited.

As I mentioned, we had our first curriculum event last night. As I understand it was the first of many SAWIP dialogue sessions to be held in Cape Town, with the theme of this one being Active Citizenship. I won't say much about the contents of the discussion, as I suspect the topic will be covered in detail by other team members writing about it very soon (watch this space). I will rather leave you with the following quote that I feel touches on some of the stories and sentiments shared last night:

"No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline." - Kofi Annan

To that I say, "let's go".