The Better World Show #002 - Lalita Ari, Oasis Africa
This week, after an introductory chat with Scott about Kenya and the challenges in Africa, Cameron chats with Lalita Ari, co-founder of Oasis Africa. During a visit to Kibera (Kenya) in June 2005, Lalita’s friend Kim Winter discovered a community of 100 orphans learning in a dark, small sewage-ridden, unsafe iron shed. After seeing the need first hand, Kim and Lalita decided to start ‘Oasis Africa - The Kibera School for orphans Project’ to raise awareness and funds to help create a better future for these children by providing food, education, shelter, safety, health services and essential trauma counselling they require to make a difference.
We think Lalita and Kim deserve a heap of attention for taking action and demonstrating what one or two regular people can do to make a better world if they just make a decision to have a go. I’m sure you will all get inspiration from listening to Lalita’s story.
You can support Oasis Africa’s work by buying a copy of Lalita’s CD (profits of this CD will go to the care and running of a school) and you can directly support Oasis Africa with financial contributions by going to their site.
Other links from the show:
You can support the show by voting for us on iTunes or on DIGG.
Our theme music for this episode is:
“Shag Carpet” (mp3)
from “Downright Upright”
by Brian Bromberg
(Artistry Music Group, LLC)
More On This Album
August 28th, 2007 at 4:01 am
I loved the show, as always. But I do not understand one thing Cameron. And this still bothers me. You’re saying that the western culture should be compensating for the damage they have done. I understand we all should help, but please think about one thing. If the 3rd world countries are capable of reaching the same standard of living as the modern world on their own, how come they hadn’t done so before the colonies? Looking objectively at the situation, Europe should have met with Africa half-way. The shouldn’t have been so many discrepancies between the two worlds if we were all able to evolve in the same manner. I’m not talking about man-power or the number of ships that Europe had. I’m talking about the levels of technology these two world had.
If everyone on this planet lived at the standard of living the Americans do, there would have to be 10 planets like Earth to supply us with all the resources and space.
It is all sad what I saying here, but it forces me to think why the world is the way it is today. And the same for Australia. When the British came to Australia they didn’t meet the locals at the same technological level the British were. Why is that?
The law in parts of Africa is still based on what Napoleon created. Should France compensate for such deeds as well?
Anyway, I wish everyone the best and when I can, I help. And also I hope everyone can live at the standard the West enjoys. Although, I know it is not possible.
Cheers, Cam.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Good question. The best book I’ve read on this subject is “Guns, Germs And Steel” by Jared Diamond.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns%2C_Germs%2C_and_Steel
However I don’t think it matters, from a moral standpoint, whether or not two races of people progressed at different speeds. Just because one race has better weapons than another isn’t a justification for invasion and genocide. If anything, shouldn’t the more “civilized” race should exhibit higher values?
August 29th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
A few years back I discovered Parecon, after looking into other possible ways of having a living viable economy that was not based on capitalist ideology. It mght not be thee way, but it may lead to another way.
http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm
I´d like to hear what people think about this. btw, there is a lot of reading so be warned!
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:24 am
Guys, I’m a long time listener of several of TPN’s shows…and a current subscriber to quite a few. I’m also a less than proud member of Cameron’s “lazy-ass, good for nothing audience”.
I thought it important to provide that background to this post to put the action of posting here in the context of not having done so before (or at least not for a long while!).
Episode #2 of your show changes that. I’m moved by it…and I’m posting here to say, “THANK YOU!” to Lalita and Kim for the work they’re doing, and also to you two guys (Cam and Scott) for the effort you’re putting in to bring both this new show to life and the stories and people you feature the attention they deserve.
Good on ya’ll. :-) :-)
CHEERS!
David
September 6th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
http://stopbush2007.org/
Everyone in Sydney must go and protest against Bush.
Stop talking, and start walking!
September 24th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Holy shitfight Cam… I hadn’t checked out g’day world in a week and all hells broke loose.
Anyway, whats going on with the better world show? I’m not geeky enough for the g’day world stuff, i’d rather listen to this show… you guys too busy lately?
October 22nd, 2007 at 4:46 am
Enjoyed the show. Rather than responding to the central part of the show, which was inspiring, I’ll instead pick nits in something you mentioned in passing - trade. IMHO one of the biggest good news stories to have happened in my lifetime is the rise of so many Asian countries out of poverty. Forty years ago the only country in Asia that wasn’t a basket-case was Japan. Even countries like Singapore and Korea, that we now think of as comparatively wealthy, were afflicted by poverty. Indonesians were starving and largely uneducated.
Now, Singapore and Korea have a Western standard of living, Malaysia and Thailand are not far behind, and Indonesians are well-fed and have reasonable access to education. They have all made huge strides forward. Indonesia is my mother-in-law country, so I’m very familiar with how ordinary people there live, and I could go on for ages about it and bore you witless :).
The number one reason that these countries have succeeded in overcoming poverty is trade. The bottom line is, these countries produce stuff that people in western countries buy. They have all, to varying degrees, encouraged trade and foreign investment. You can see there is a direct relationship between the degree to which they have encouraged trade and investment and their level of success - a friend of mine who worked at the ASEAN secretariat showed me a study she was working on comparing foreign investment regulations among the ASEAN countries. The relevant rules in Singapore fit on a single page, whereas those for Indonesia were about a hundred pages.
Clearly there are right ways and wrong ways to go about encouraging trade. It’s not about just bending over and inviting the multinationals to have their way with you - as some countries in Central America seem to have done (to some extent, in response to encouragement from their northern neighbour). But I want to encourage you to avoid the simplistic “trade is bad” arguments we so often hear from people who protest against “globalisation”. IMHO, what is worth debating is not whether we encourage trade at all, but how to do it best, and how to learn from the example of the Asian economic miracle.
BTW, I second the recommendation for Guns, Germs and Steel. Jared Diamond’s other books (Collapse, The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee) are also brilliant.
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:16 am
Thought you guys might be interested in this http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/ruralstudio/index.shtml Some people building affordable housing.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
It will only take a handful of souls to change the world. May the tribe of Lalita Ari increase.