More Big Thoughts from Big Thinkers Cause Bigger is Better

Salon has a kind of mini TED series going parterned with something called the Big Think which, in itself, is a big ole site full of all kinds of podcasts and commentaries by all kinds of talking heads. Given the supposed attention span of our students this short expert commentary could be useful spark for discussion (of course, the subject really needs a long burn but, you know better to start a fire....whatever). They supposedly post a new one every Monday. They have quite a few up now, including psychologist Carol Gilligan, Philosopher David Dennet, Economist Joseph Stiglitz and others. Go have a look.

Here is the latest clip up by Dambisa Moyo, Zambian author (Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa) with some comments about "helping Africa". She explores the dependency issues created by Western aid and contrasts that a bit with the "Chinese" model for African "development". Pretty standard argument these days...except for all those who still want to "save Africa" or adopt its babies.