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Seeing Africa From A Different Perspective

"I didn't have a goal to change Africa. I just wanted to marinate in it,"

Fying in a motorized paraglider over Africa, George Steinmetz has captured the diversity and dichotomous struggle between modernity and tradition.

I tend to be a bit of a supporter of the romanticized concept of globalization. I like the idea of a democratization of information, resources and increased connectivity. But, as i watched this video, I struggled with the idea of giving up what you have for the rush of the new.

Does development have to look the same everywhere? Is the African dream a white picket fence? Should we take the established path to development worldwide? And, if not, how patient are we willing to be while we figure out the best method for each respective community?

I guess the challenge will always be making people see the longterm benefit of conservation and their willingness to continually reinvent the wheel.

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Operation: Do Better

On a recent 60 Minutes, they did a segment on a program called Operation: Proper Exit, which takes soldiers suffering from PTSD back to Iraq to get closure. While I am a firm believer in therapy and doing what we can to repair the mental and physical wounds of our soldiers, I couldn't help feel like this was a high profile gesture of extraordinary compassion extended to a select few. We shouldn't have been there in the first place, but what's done is done. First, we need to think about how to more evenly take care of the hoards of veterans with problems. And Second, we need to rethink war, defense and armies because there is no way to fix a broken soldiers and we can't afford to give every soldier the kind of closure that Operation: Proper Exit may offer. This war has been marred by reports of poor or misuse of limited resources and to me this is just one more example. We need to cut our loses, get out, decide how best to treat and care for our veterans.



Millennials, we need to think different. We can do better.