Post 7 George Ayittey Cheetas vs Hippos

The speaker said that there was a new generation of Africans coming into the world, he called them the Cheeta Generation. He said that they stand up to corruption and don't wait for governments to take their time in making decisions, they are the kind of people who do something about the situation. He also said the fate of Africa was on their backs because if they don't take action any more that the people's voice will be crushed and/or forgotten. He also introduces another generation, the Hippos. They are the people who are ruling and many of them are stuck in the past. They complain about what happened a long time ago instead of doing anything about it. He also says that the "begging bowl" of Africa is leaking. 40% of the goods and wealth are exported instead of being put back into the local eonomy. He also states the corruption takes away 148 billion dollars  year in foreign aid. Another fact is that Africa spends 20 million to import food. In the 60s African countries could grow enough food for themselves, and enough to export. But, this is not the fact any more. He says this is the result of horrible leadership, there have been 204 African heads of state. And, when he put the question on an internet forumn the people who answered couldn't think of twenty good ones. The vast majority have failed their people he said. He uses the metaphor of a vampire to show what the governments do, they just suck the wealth out of everything under their control. He also says that things were in good shape before the European powers came and changed the way everything was being done. Watching this talk really made me feel lucky that I have it so good in comparison to so many people in the world. His effective speaking techiques were based on using facts. Many of the facts were very shocking and really make you think about how much is lost each year. To think that hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost each year is hard to think about. Since his presentaion was fact based it was relatively stiff. But, for this topic it worked because the raw facts are more powerful than him trying to casually present them. Also the facts set up his call to action. He says that the hippos are running things and that they have really screwed things up for everone but themselves. At the end of his talk he call upon the cheetas to stand up for the people and to take back Africa one villiage or city at a time. I think that what matters the most from this video is that you can't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in because if you don't you will be swept under the rug and squashed.