Monday, October 05, 2009

Malawian Teen Saves Africa?

Now this is the kind of initiative that will save Africa in the coming decades.

Now 22, Kamkwamba wants to build windmills across Malawi and perhaps beyond. Next summer he also plans to construct a drilling machine to bore 40-meter holes for water and pumps. His aim is to help Africans become self-sufficient and resolve their problems without reliance on foreign aid.

This kid hand built a windmill after reading 2 US text books - Explaining Physics and Using Energy at a rural library. All it takes is a few windmills and suddenly these Malawian farmers are living a much better life. Just having lights at night so people can read and learn things after farming all day will make things better for everyone.

I think kids like Kawkwamba and cell phone banking are going to transform Africa from a land of corrupt Marxist kleptocracies where people can barely survive into the next world economic engine. If you can increase the billion people of Africa's living wage even a few dollars the world GDP will improve by trillions. My prediction is that it will only take 20 years and Africa will be spoken of in the same way as Brazil is now.

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