Usually when one goes to hear somebody speak, the chances of actually meeting the guest speaker are incredibly low. But on October 28, at a wine and cheese meeting, students, professors, and guest speakers were able to mingle together and engage in conversation regarding Africa and other current events.
People came from as far Alberta to this meeting all for different reasons. Nicole Sguigna, a student at Wilfrid Laurier had previously done a research project on Kenya with Debra Langan, her professor, so she was interested in hearing more about Africa. Another Laurier student, Gillian Athaide, volunteered for the wine and cheese meeting so that she could socialize with students, professors, and people from other cities so that she could make new friends and get to know people on a personal basis. Everyone was very friendly and open to share their backgrounds and what brought them to the event which provided a positive environment. Erik Hager, an advisor of the leadership program, came to represent the community and had a deep interest in Africa especially because he previously sponsored some kids in Congo through World Vision.
Professor and organizer of the event, Peter Faruggia, said it took him nine months to put the entire event together and that this was the sixth interdisciplinary conference that he had run. Peter is one of the ten members of the institute TSHEPO which researches information on Africa. The name TSHEPO means hope in Tswana, a language of Botswana, which researches information on Africa.
Lisa Chegini, another Laurier student volunteer at the event, said she volunteered because she wanted to experience something new and expand on the knowledge she already had of Africa and globalization. “I only know a little bit about Africa and its many countries, but I do know that there is and has been a lot of people working for little to no money and if I can learn something from this weekend I would want to know why this happens.”
The guest speaker, Ali A Abdi from the University of Alberta, shed a little light on Africa and globalization and why it happening in so many African countries. “Leadership is the problem; people who are capable of being good political leaders need to be found, ones that aren’t corrupt.” Ali also stated that an independent media is needed for many different African countries so that a voice is given to the public. He also said that the public needs to be educated and that the governments should be transparent and have intelligent leadership. Ali also said that the governments should also be held accountable by the public. Ali said the weekend would mainly cover the developments, education, and human well-being of Africa and how globalization is affecting people.
Though the main reason people came to the wine and cheese meeting was to talk about Africa and globalization, many new relationships were formed and the people ended up being more colourful than the wine.
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