Train to Pakistan is a powerful novel about a village that is torn apart during Partition. The book paints a vivid picture of the separation between the Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs that occurred in the summer of 1947.

Generally, the books we read about tragic times in history focus on the heroes, those who were brave. In contrast, most characters in Train to Pakistan are weak and do not stand up for what they believe. We do not look up to any of the characters. While this may be a realistic portrayal of human nature, it does not leave one feeling very optimistic about the current conflicts between India and Pakistan and the divide between the ethnic groups within India.

This moment of history clearly still effects us today and it is therefore critical to understand so we can think about ways to help things improve. Train to Pakistan is a good book to read to gain some insight into these events.

Who would have thought that there is a need to redesign the paper face mask? It certainly would not have crossed my mind before our two-day innovation workshop with the masters from IDEO.

Equipped with Polaroid cameras and notebooks, we set out to observe construction workers building out Acumen Fund’s new office space in Google’s building. We watched and listened and returned with some insights. Air quality is bad because of the dust. Tools are strewn everywhere because each contractor brings its own. Workers need knee surgery because they spend too much time climbing ladders.

We discussed the problems we saw and framed the questions, “How might we design a better ladder?” “How might we reduce energy consumption on construction sites?” We brainstormed solutions: a chair ladder, an ipod mask, solar-powered lights… And we designed prototypes with pipe cleaners, construction paper, clay, and popsicle sticks.

We played and put on skits and laughed at ourselves. We were creative and we had fun. Most importantly, we learned that anyone can be a designer.

This is a compilation of previous entries that was recently posted on the Acumen Fund Blog.

The Acumen Fund Fellows have been fortunate to meet many inspiring leaders and engage in plenty of thought-provoking discussions over the past four weeks. The question about how to write and talk about Africa has been raised several times. In April, Jacqueline referenced "How to Write About Africa" on this blog and discussed it with the fellows during the first week of orientation. This piece exposes the simplicity of how most people write about Africa and inspired us to think about how to do it in a different way.

View 1 - The Outsider Who Gets It: Gayle Smith, currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and former journalist and senior staff member of the National Security Council and USAID, spoke to the Acumen Fund fellows about her work in Africa and as a member of the U.S. government. Many people don't understand the appeal of living in the developing world, and I often have trouble articulating it. After living in East Africa for 20 years, Gayle explained it well, "It was easier and more satisfying to live there than in the U.S. There's a sense there's something bigger than you there. In D.C., there is nothing bigger than any of us." While working for various NGOs in Africa, Gayle saw that there were stories that needed to be told and insisted that the media print them. Gayle's unique combination as an outsider with extensive experience in East Africa provided her an honest view of the culture, people, politics, and economy and her understanding of the complexities led to her success as a journalist.

View 2 - The Insider Who Exposes It: The book "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe is a powerful reflection on the introduction of western culture and colonization to a Nigerian village. When it was published in 1959, it was probably the first book written by an African that most Americans read. Achebe's novel is honest and extremely critical of the colonial forces who he recognized did not see anything in Africa that was larger than themselves. As an insider, Achebe delivers us well-rounded and real characters and aptly describes the complex forces that pulled Nigerian villages apart.

View 3 - The Outsider Who Simplifies It: In the recently released movie, "The Last King of Scotland," a young doctor from Scotland moves to Uganda to work in a rural health clinic. He becomes Idi Amin's personal physician and gets caught up in the ruthless dictatorship. The film begins with colorful, stereotypical footage of Africa, people singing and dancing on the side of the road, a beautiful African woman seducing a young westerner, and an older white doctor and his wife "saving" a village of Africans at their rural clinic. As the movie goes on, Uganda becomes a much darker, more corrupt, and violent place as Amin's rule becomes harsher. Even in a "flat," globalized world, we are frequently exposed to such stereotypical portrayals of Africa: one that is simple, happy and colorful, and the other that is dark, corrupt and violent. While an interesting story with strong characters, in an effort to simplify the context, the film does little to accurately showcase Uganda.

In a month, I will leave for Kenya to work with Acumen Fund investee, HealthStore Foundation, for eight months. While I am there, I look forward to writing about Africa and hope that as I understand its complexities, I can move towards writing about a real place that fits in to our world today where real people live and have the same hopes and fears as you and I.

Slate and Tree Hugger Recently launched a Green Challenge - an 8 week carbon diet to reduce CO2 emissions. You start with a 5 minute quiz to assess your current emissions. Each week, you make pledges to reduce your carbon emissions and can even buy carbon credits from companies like TerrePass to offset emissions from driving and flights.

Week 1: My emissions were surprisingly high (which I attribute to lots of flying), so I bought a $30 pass to offset my upcoming flight to Kenya. I also pledged to take fewer taxi rides and travel by train instead of by plane for short trips.

I'll keep you posted about how well I do, but I encourage you all to pledge to reduce your CO2 emissions with me.

On Wednesday, we took a day out the office to reflect on ourselves and society with Peter Reiling of the Aspen Institute. This followed nicely from the good society readings and discussions on rights, liberty, equality, community, and efficiency, that we had with Jacqueline at the beginning of the program.

Aspen Institute's approach is text-based dialogue, and we read pieces from Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Leo Tolstoy, and others and used these readings to discuss big issues.

We spoke about responsibility and Peter asked us why we do the work we do. Are we doing enough? We spoke about the well-paying jobs we had given up and the risks we were taking this year. Upon further reflection, we discovered that to not do what we loved was a risk and that we are doing this work because it is exciting and interesting. I am not making a sacrifice. So, if I am doing this work out of self-interest, then, am I doing enough? Do I have a responsibility to do more?

Peter then led us into a discussion about legacy: whether we think about it, if it is egotistical, and how leaders create legacy. I live my life so it will have meaning today and the way I will be remembered does not seem very important to me. Perhaps this is because I am young and hope I have many more years to live. I do think it is important to avoid glorifying ourselves for the work that we are doing. And, while it is important to recognize people, it is critical to not get caught up in the pursuit of recognition and prizes and lose track of the work that we're doing.

Finally, we talked about how much is enough and if we feel like we are in balance. It seems like those of us who do not have families or partners feel like our lives are in balance. However, in Peter's experience, most leaders do not feel like they live balanced lives. The leaders we met later in the week confirmed this.

It was a bit disturbing to think that leaders cannot be in balance. If they have families, it seems many feel like they do not spend enough time with them. Some of those who do not, wish they did. Can we only be personally OR professionally successful? Do we need to make enormous personal sacrifices to be able to really make a difference? It was helpful to be shaken up a bit and stop for a few hours to evaluate the lives we have chosen and think about the path upon which we’re walking.

I was curious to figure out why Acumen Fund had chosen Shakespeare's The Tempest as one of the seven books for the orientation program. I expect that one reason is the theme of colonialism.

Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded on an exotic, magical island for 12 years. During this time, Prospero and Miranda assert control over their surroundings and enslave Caliban, an island inhabitant. When Caliban expresses resentment about his situation, Miranda reminds him that she "saved" him from savagery. "Abhorred slave, which any print of goodness wilt not take, being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, took plains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one or other. When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known."

Prospero also exerts his power over the spirit, Ariel. Prospero promises several times to release Ariel but does not stay true to his word. Ariel is also frustrated with Prospero, but continues to serve him. It is not until Prospero position of power is restored that he is willing to release Ariel.

Prospero and Miranda's treatment of Caliban and Ariel is reminiscent of the European colonizers towards to native peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Miranda convinces herself that Caliban is better off as a refined slave and treats him as something less than human. It is not clear to me if Shakespeare is critical of the colonizers' attitude or if he accepts this as the norm and is merely portraying Prospero and Miranda as typical of 17th Century European royalty.

Seth Godin, marketing guru and author of The Big Moo and other books, spoke to us about the ineffectiveness of traditional advertising, product innovation, and how to be a remarkable company. Seth is a very enthusiastic, creative guy who gives a great talk. However, I’m not sure how well Seth’s theories apply to the bottom of the pyramid.

Seth recommends scaling social enterprises as quickly as possible.
While I'm sure that's appropriate for for Krispy Kreme or Subway, when there are real concerns about effectively managing a supply chain and when the risks of pirated drugs and inadequate training of nurses are serious, opening as many new outlets as possible may not be the best approach.

Allen Grossman's, professor of management at Harvard Business School, talk with us was nearly in direct opposition to Seth's. Allen explained that the core objective of a social enterprise is the creation of social value and emphasized that achieving scale may or may not increase social value.
Value = # people impacted x depth of impact

As all of us go into the field to work with Acumen Fund investees, we grapple with issue of scale. Should our organizations grow as quickly as possible? How much could quality suffer with rapid growth? What would happen to a chain of health clinics if one or two nurses misprescribed drugs and patients died? On the other hand, when people in developing countries are dying of treatable illnesses, is it right to be patient and grow slowly? While I don’t have the answers to these questions now, I hope they will become clearer over the course of the year.

Today we fasted. Nadaa issued a challenge to Acumen Fund fellows and staff and asked us to observe Ramadan for one day by fasting from sunrise to sunset.

I'm not going to say that it was easy giving up coffee, water, and food for a day. In fact, we were a pretty grumpy group. However, the sense of community that was developed by our common experience was remarkable and pleasure of breaking the fast together with dates, water, and wine was delightful.

At dinner, we talked about the next challenge to engage in. What could we do before we leave for the field that would push us harder?

While it's hard to believe, the fellowship orientation program is now half over. In a month, we will be on our way to the field. I'm sure each of us would name different highlights, but I wanted to take this opportunity to mention a few of mine.

Urban Green Builders: We visited Eric Anderson in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and saw how one man is turning around one of the poorest and most crime-ridden cities in the country. Eric's company won the development rights for a number of historic buildings in downtown Bridgeport and is developing them into commercial spaces and mid-income apartments. Eric's vision is that people will be able to live and work in Bridgeport and will be able to easily access public transportation to the city. With community involvement, downtown Bridgeport will be re-populated which will increase income levels, decrease crime, and generally make Bridgeport an attractive and desirable city. I was inspired by Eric, a very humble social entrepreneur who is truly making a difference.

Redhook Community Justice Center: In Brooklyn, we were able to see how a justice system focused on providing assistance and support instead of punishment has been able to turn around a poor, isolated neighborhood. Red Hook has a community court that tries minor cases (drugs, petty crime, public housing disputes, etc.) and frequently sentences offenders to things like drug treatment, mediation, anger management, high school equivalency classes, youth groups, and vehicular programs. The attorney, judge, and case workers are involved in the community, know many of the defendants, and work to address the underlying issues to break the cycle of crime. Like we talk about doing in our work, Red Hook provides defendants with choices and treats them with dignity. This is radically different than the mainstream justice system and Red Hook has found it to be significantly more effective at reducing crime and reintroducing pride and hope into the community.

Storytelling Training: Acumen Fund recognizes that it is difficult to explain the work we do and realizes that it is critical for us to share it. Practical training is one component of the orientation program, and Katzenbach Partners has put together a three-part storytelling training program for Acumen Fund staff and fellows. While we can all use more practice, having a framework in which to tell a story and becoming conscious about how we and others tell stories is helping all of us improve. I hope that writing here will help me think through my stories and enhance my ability to tell them.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a powerful reflection on the introduction of Christianity and western culture to a Nigerian village. I found it interesting that Achebe created a central character that was not likeable. While unfortunate things befell Okonkwo, I did not feel entirely sympathetic. Perhaps this was done to make Okonkwo’s character seem more real. Achebe did effectively explain how Okonkwo had developed into the person he was. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” In our work, it is important to remember what this fear does to people who are living on the edge; the fear of falling further into poverty is real and that fear can make people do cruel things in an effort to keep themselves afloat.

This fear follows Okonkwo throughout the story and by the end we see that his fear was well-founded. The introduction of the white man into the village had caused the community to break up and fall apart. The end of the book is especially powerful and left me sad and disgusted by the white colonizers. As they cut his dead body down from the tree, the Commissioner can only think about how he will incorporate Okonkwo’s story into his book. This man’s story will be stripped of its details and his humanness will be removed so that it can fit neatly in with the Commissioner’s reflections about “the pacification of the primitive tribes.” While I haven’t figured out how to effectively write about Africa, with the Commissioner, this book effectively provided a model to avoid.

Please joins us for Acumen Fund's 5th Anniversary Party Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 6 p.m. Come hear from Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen Fund CEO, meet the partners who helped launch the idea, listen to Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City, and dance to music by Wumi.

Tickets to the fundraiser are $500 and can be purchased online.

Location:
The Roxy
515 West 18th Street
between 10th Avenue and West Side Highway
New York City

Last night, I saw the Last King of Scotland, which I recommend. The movie raised several questions in my mind. In the movie, a recent medical school graduate from Scotland moves to Uganda to work in a rural health clinic. He ends up becoming Idi Amin’s personal physician and gets caught up in Amin’s ruthless dictatorship.

The film begins with colorful, stereotypical footage of Africa, people singing and dancing on the side of the road, a beautiful African woman seducing a young westerner, and an older white doctor and his wife “saving” a village of Africans at their rural clinic. As the movie goes on, Uganda becomes a much darker, more corrupt, and violent place as Amin’s rule becomes harsher.

In a “flat”, globalized world, why do we continue to have such simplified portrayals of an entire continent? Can’t we show something in between the simple, happy, colorful Africa and the dark, corrupt, violent, Africa?

Binyavanga Wainaina writes one of my favorite pieces about Africa. I hope that as I write from Kenya, I will be able to avoid the stereotypical descriptions of the continent and the people and move towards writing about a real place that fits in to our world today where real people live and have the same hopes and fears as you and me.

Gayle Smith, currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and former journalist and senior staff member of the National Security Council and USAID, spoke to us about her work in Africa and as a member of the U.S. government.

Many people don't understand the appeal of living in the developing world, and I often have trouble articulating it. After living in East Africa for 20 years, Gayle explained it well, "It was easier and more satisfying to live there than in the U.S. There's a sense there's something bigger than you there. In D.C., there is nothing bigger than any of us."

While Gayle found it frustrating at times, she encouraged us to work in the public sector. "There's a desperate need for people who know what they're talking about." Our government reaches for safe people and supporters and is missing visionary leaders. In a discussion earlier in the day with Acumen Fund staff, we talked about the selection of Ban Ki-moon as the next UN Secretary General. While a safe bet, and perhaps a good administrator, Ban Ki-moon is certainly no visionary and will not be the moral voice that our world desperately needs. Ban Ki-moon will not call what happened in Rwanda "genocide". What will he possibly do about Darfur? After saying she is "more frightened about the world today than ever", Gayle argued that either we can stay on a path where no one challenges the U.S. or we can allow visionary leadership to emerge. We need to start listening to people who can effect positive change.

Gayle warned us about avoiding working with the government while we're in the field. There's a huge divergence of people within the government; while some are corrupt, others are forward-looking. In many developing countries, governments lack the capacity to do what they want and through our work, we can help them become strong and better able to serve their citizens.

Finally, Gayle talked about the importance of spreading the word about our work. We have a moral and economic imperative to address poverty. Acumen Fund is more effective and efficient than organizations like the World Bank and USAID. We must encourage others to "join us at the new table" as Carol Bellamy says. We were encouraged and energized after Gayle's time with us and are working to get our writing published. We need to share our stories beyond our insolated world of development practitioners and write for publications as diverse as Marie Claire, Slate, and the BBC.

My thoughts on Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh:

I found Shadow Lines very interesting because the plot was so connected to the histories of India and the U.K. at the time the story takes place. The tensions with Bangladesh were vivid, as were the liberal, student movements in the U.K.

Shadow Lines did a good job illustrating the fear of poverty in the Indian family that straddled the upper and lower classes. Because upward mobility is so difficult in India, the fear of falling back into poverty is real. An especially resonant line from the narrator was, "I knew perfectly well that all it would take was a couple of failed examinations to put me back where our relative was, in permanent proximity to that blackness: that landscape was the quicksand that seethed beneath the polished floor of our house; it was the sludge which gave our genteel decorum its fine edge of frenzy."

As we think about storytelling, provides great examples of the importance of stories. Amitav Ghosh weaves several interconnected stories through the novel and interrupts stories with other stories. The stories of Tribid's death runs through the novel and the telling of it is only finished at the end. I particularly liked the line, "Everyone lives in a story, he says, my grandmother, my father, his father, Lenin, Einstein, and lots of other names I hadn't heard of; they all lived in stories, because stories are all there are to live in, it was just a question of which one you choose."

Peter Goldmark, currently the Director of the Climate and Air Program for Environmental Defense and former CEO of the International Herald Tribune and President of the Rockefeller Foundation, spoke to us today about two ultimatums we currently face: global warming and weapons of mass destruction. He defined these as issues that our generation must deal with because if we do not, it will be the end. While this sounds like a bit of a doomsday predication, Peter gave us hope that we could do something about it.

We currently know more than any generation and we have more choices than most people. Peter likes to ask his audiences, “Shall we walk in the footsteps of the men of old?” Stop for a second and think about it. What’s the answer? Peter’s answer is “no, but we should seek that they sought.” We should avoid making the same mistakes as our predecessors, but like them, we should work towards a greater good.

Peter argued that it doesn’t do any good to be pessimistic and that we’re not smart enough to be pessimistic. How could any of us possibly know what is or is not possible? He told the story of Nelson Mandela who brought down apartheid in South Africa by taking one step forward at a time. While Mandela didn’t know how many steps it would take to reach his destination, he knew that the only thing he could do was to move forward.

In our work, we must do the same. We must take one step forward at a time to help alleviate global poverty. Others can walk with us on our journey, but if at some point, they choose to take another path, so be it. We must remember why we’re doing this work and stay focused on what’s important.

Peter shared some items from his “toolbox”. Take or it leave it, but these are some practical tips from a wise man who has much more experience in this world than I.

1. Every 2 – 3 years look for something you don’t know about and learn all you can. Read about it, talk to a Nobel Prize winner about it, attend lectures, take classes, etc. Some topics Peter has chosen include the neural wiring of the brain, magma, tropical forests, and drinking water).

2. Learn about science. Quantum physics and string theory are especially important. Read “What Remains to be Discovered”.

3. Choose to experience new things. Learn a new sport every 3 – 4 years.

4. Find a mentor (or 2 or 3) and allow this person to enrich the quality of your thinking.

5. Pick your jobs carefully. Interviewing is not a beauty contest. Before you accept a position, you should be able to write 3 pages of good things about the person you will work for. If you can’t, find out more or don’t take the job.