The African Leadership Academy was founded in 2004 with a vision of bringing together Africa’s most promising 15-to-18-year olds and making them into the leaders that will transition Africa into peace and prosperity. Five years later, John Sakara, an ALA student, stood on a stage at ALA’s Leadership Symposium at UCLA’s Anderson School and told an auditorium about his dreams to be at the forefront of Africa’s industrial revolution. Sankara is not your average teenager. But as Fred Swanker, founder of ALA, put it, he’s got 179 more John Swanikers back at the Academy. Something is working. Read the rest of this entry >>

Mohamed ElBaradei spoke at the annual Paul C. Warnke Lecture on International Security last week. The subject of the lecture was “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons: Illusion or Possibility.” ElBaradei is stepping down from his position as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He discussed past decisions, room for improvement, and hope for the future.

One of the central themes that dominated ElBaradei’s speech–and came up often in his responses to questions that followed from the audience–was dialogue.  His said that the lack of dialogue between the U.S. and countries like Iran, North Korea, and Iraq during the Bush Administration contributed greatly to the mounting problems today between the U.S. and those countries. Read the rest of this entry >>

In the third suicide bombing along the Pakistan border since Saturday, twenty people died and 45 were wounded on Wednesday when a suicide bomber drove his car into a donkey cart in Islamabad, Pakistan. At least 40 people have died in the bombings.

According to the Washington Post, “The latest bombings, all carried out against nonmilitary targets, highlight the human cost of Pakistan’s decision to launch a major army offensive against one of the Taliban’s main tribal strongholds.”  Violence has spread to densely populated areas nearby. Read the rest of this entry >>

As we mentioned last week here on TakePart, tomorrow the African Leadership Academy will host a day-long symposium titled “Looking Ahead: Fresh Perspectives on Leadership and Governance in Africa.”

Richard Nuccio, Director at The Civitas International Programs of the Center for Civic Education, will be speaking during the segment of the symposium titled, “Leadership From the Ground Up: Inspiring Youth to Take Charge.” This week, he took some time to answer questions for TakePart. Tomorrow, we will be in attendance at the symposium, so please stay posted for more updates!

Q. What do you see as Africa’s greatest challenge right now?

A. Two out of three Africans are under the age of 25. One of the many challenges that Africa will face is educating young people to become active and responsible citizens in their nations. Africa faces extreme versions of the problems facing many modern educational systems, including: 1) the need to educate large numbers of students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and economic conditions; 2) inadequate funding for education; 3) inequities in access to education, particularly for rural, low socio-economic groups, girls, and minorities; 4) inappropriate curricular content and inadequate pedagogy; 5) pre-service teacher instruction centered on lecture and rote memorization; and 6) a lack of educational research with few trained researchers working in the field of education. Read the rest of this entry >>

Even as I speak, the very last polar bear may be dying of hunger on account of climate change, on account of us. And I will sure miss the polar bears. Their babies are so warm and cuddly and trusting, just like ours. --Kurt Vonnegut, Armageddon in Retrospect.

We’ve got 100 years left with polar bears. So says the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. One hundred years before the Arctic’s most iconic beast–now the poster animal for global warming–can no longer find food, and joins the ranks of saber tooth tigers, mastodons, and woolly rhinos. But there still is hope. So says Richard Ellis.

Photo: Richard Ellis

Read the rest of this entry >>

When Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood, slaying 13 people and injuring many more in a killing spree just before Veterans Day, he reignited the questions that defined 2001, the year of the Twin Tower attacks–Should Muslim soldiers and Muslim Americans be scrutinized extra carefully because of the threat of Islamic Extremism? In a word: No. Islamic Extremism is exactly that–extreme, and in the margins of a widely practiced religion.  But there are exceptions, and Hasan was one of them. Read the rest of this entry >>

Notorious for factory farms and hunting season, Midwesterners are often taken to the chopping block on animal rights issues. Sometimes the accusations are founded. And sometimes they are not. But in the case of pet mills, Midwesterners are hardly cold-hearted killers.

Recently, Nebraskans have been up in arms over proposed legislation that would take funding away from inspections of commercial pet breeding facilities. Though the cut, proposed by State Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege, would free up $419,000 over two years, over 800 Nebraskans called in to say they were concerned that animals would suffer an unspoken expense. Read the rest of this entry >>

On November 13, the African Leadership Academy (ALA), in collaboration with the Pacific Council on International Policy and UCLA Anderson School of Management, will host a day-long symposium entitled: ‘Looking ahead: Fresh Perspectives on leadership and governance in Africa’. (Information for the event is at the bottom of this post).

The event will feature experts on leadership and governance in Africa, and will include a talk by Nuhu Ribadu as well as an African Leadership Academy student.

The ALA is a nonprofit institute located in Johannesburg, South Africa. With its innovative two-year program on leadership, the ALA prepares Africa’s most promising 15-18-year-olds to become influential leaders of tomorrow, instrumental in transforming and improving Africa. Students are selected on merit, and the curriculum focuses on leadership, entrepreneurship, and African studies. Equipped with these skills, “ALA graduates will attend the world’s finest universities and will lead Africa toward a peaceful and prosperous future.” Read the rest of this entry >>

Portrait of Jane Goodall, auction item.

The green carpet–made of sustainable and fully recyclable modular carpet tiles– said it all: Friday night’s event was about respecting the environment and all its creatures.

The occasion? The third annual Jane Goodall Institute Global Leadership Awards Celebration. Each year, the celebration honors individuals and corporations who exemplify the Goodall creed by taking informed action on behalf of all living things.

No surprise then, that Ed Begley, Jr., who wrote for Hopenhagen this week and is known to appear at Hollywood events by bicycle, received the award for Responsible Activism in Media and Entertainment. Read the rest of this entry >>

Day Two of TED MED is over (see Day One’s coverage here), and people sound antsy to put words into action.  Peter Menzel’s speech on the environmental and health catastrophe caused by plastic bags did its job; says one tweeter: “Plastic bags are a f*&%ing scourge. clogging storm drains in Yemen during monsoon season, causing widespread flooding. awful. #TEDMED.”  Another says, “Peter Menzel: pollution from plastic bags is choking the world and killing animals in dev countries. #tedmed.”

Menzel is a photojournalist whose work focuses on science and environment. (You might also recognize him from his famous series of photos on what the world eats, which we covered earlier this year here on TakePart). You can see a twitpic from Menzel’s speech here.

Up next? Robots. Reuters reports that iRobot CEO Colin Angle will discuss the role of robots in the future of health care. Sound scary? It’s not as extreme as it sounds. They are exploring “the potential of robotics as an assistive technology to promote wellness and enhance quality of life for seniors.” That means robots would perform tasks like chores and medicine administration.  So we don’t have to worry about computer chips in our brains…yet.

Stay tuned for more updates from TakePart as we track the ins and outs of TED MED.