Dear Diary,
Its been a very busy and mind blowing last 24hrs.
Some very note worthy moments have ensued in the last day and two . some I will share..others I will not bother with in this post.
Over the weekend, I was busy with planning and hosting events which led me to have a fun and exhausting weekend and amongst the events I was involved with was an African Business Conference which kept me busy for the last little while.
Anyways, as I listened in this conference and absorbed what the key note speakers had to offer on investing in Africa, I began to really ponder on how the term Africa is synonymous with poverty, hunger & lack. How did it come to be that the same place where the entire human race evolved from has come to be known as “the dark” continent? What are the chances that an average person who’s dependent on the media for news or info would vacation or honey moon in Africa? NONE!
As my mind wondered away at that conference, gruesome, horrific and dreadful images of Africa filled my mind..i struggled with finding better images but the more I fought it the more vivid the images became..lack..malnutrition..hunger…death…HIV..just ABJECT POVERTY!
Can we find people NOT dying of mal nutrition in Africa?
Yess we can!.. I know my parents are doing great and no, they’re not looters!
Yess we can! Cuz I know my friend’s parents don’t live in mud houses and huts as media makes us believe.
Yess we can! as I have friends there who live in mansions and drive the best cars and have chefs and maids and live a verry good life all LEGITIMATELY and don’t own a single credit card!
Yes, I am touched that the rest of the world thinks about me (Africa) evry so often and dips their hand in their pockets to donate to a good cause. I appreciate the kind gesture but its time I showed the world a different side of me.
I am tired of the perpetual depressing face of AFRICA So, Forget the donations love, Keep your charitable contributions, That’s not what sustains me…stop the aid, what I need Is a hand up not a hand out.
LESSONS LEARNED
it began to really dawn on me that while media has had a pretty big bite of the self esteem of Africa as a continent, we as sons or daughters of Africa (so to speak) share a part of the blame but its not a blame game today. We need to be Good ambassadors of our home land
We as Africans or friends of Africa need to come to the realization that it does not do us any good to sit around and have negative conversations that do not serve us neither is it funny to sit around and bash your place of origin
Yours Truly,
Ehi Bourgeoisie
