{"id":12090,"date":"2016-05-16T07:30:32","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T13:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=12090"},"modified":"2016-05-16T07:30:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T13:30:32","slug":"montana-ethic-project-what-we-can-learn-from-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/montana-ethic-project-what-we-can-learn-from-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Ethic Project: What we can learn from Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Metcalfe\"<\/a>

Joey and Libbie Early<\/p>

George Metcalfe talks about lessons learned in Africa, and how they apply to Montana.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the 11th\u00a0chapter of the 32-part video series \u201cThe Montana Ethic Project.\u201d This chapter features George Metcalfe, a social entrepreneur for most of his life, speaking on the subject of \u201cEconomic Development in Africa and Its Relationship to Montana.”<\/p>\n

You can watch the whole video below. Here is how it begins:<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve engaged in change and development endeavors for some 40 years in some 50 countries and 15\u00a0developing nations and economies in Eastern Europe and Africa. I\u2019ve worked on similar projects in the\u00a0United States, though not as often as overseas.<\/p>\n

“This topic that I\u2019m dealing with today is important to me because I am a Montanan by birth. My early\u00a0years as a boy in Montana, in Butte where I was raised, gave me a background and drive to see and\u00a0understand the world I did not know yet existed.”<\/p>\n

Here is another, edited excerpt from Metcalfe’s presentation:<\/em><\/p>\n

“I must give you a reference from someone who has influenced me greatly in recent years. His name\u00a0is Bernard Ladieu Waydrago. He is from Burkina Faso in Africa. He indicates in his thoughts about\u00a0development, ‘The real issue is trying to extract and use the ability of peasant organization’\u2014like\u00a0community groups here in Montana\u2014’to achieve a better physical and human environment.’ Indeed,\u00a0under their program, the principle is to develop without damaging, something we Americans are not as\u00a0versed with as we should be. … Damaging without developing has to be accomplished without\u00a0rejecting local values, perceptions, of what people want to achieve and what they perceive to be\u00a0development.<\/p>\n

“To take another quotation from him, ‘The danger for many Africans’\u2014think of this in terms of Montana\u2014’is that the erosion of our ways by the aggressive ways of others, our own values by outside or external\u00a0values, will destroy our sense of responsibility for solving our community problems.’\u201d<\/p>\n