American University in Cairo opened in 1919.  This month, Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University is opening a campus in Kigali, Rwanda.  CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) has an MBA program in Accra, Ghana that recently opened.  In What are we doing here?, we filmed with missionaries in Malawi from the African Bible Colleges, who recently opened their third campus in Uganda.  Is this the beginning of the rise of Western (and Eastern) higher education in Africa?  What will this mean for Africans?  Check out this interesting NY Times article by D.D. Guttenplan: Local Options Help Slow Africa's Brain Drain.

Check out this article by STEPHANIE STROM about a new effort by Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group.  Click here for the article.

There was an article in yesterdays, NY Times by John Collins Rudolf about food and agriculture production in Africa - click here to read the article.

In Minnesota and other midwest states in the U.S. the average farmer uses 100 kilograms of chemical fertilizer per hectare and the average farmer in Kenya uses only 7 kilograms per hectare.  Less fertilizer is better for the environment.  The question is how to have a "green revolution" in Africa without the environmental problems.  Dr. Chinkunutha, the economist turned farmer who appears in "What are we doing here?" says organic agriculture is the way to go?  Now the Malawian government is getting results by subsidising chemical fertilizer to it's countries farmers.  Either way, we need to end the way we give out food aid as that has a direct negative effect on African farmers - click here for more information on food aid/African farmers.

There are thousands of orphanages in Africa - many of which are supported financially by the West.  Could that financial support be more effective if it went to surviving family members of orphans to help Aunts, Uncles and grandparents take care of their family members?  In a new article by CELIA W. DUGGER and slide show by Moises Saman of the NY Times suggest just that. 

Check out the article here. 

Slide show here.

A new nation may be created in South Sudan - it will be decided by a vote in 2011.  Check out his slid show narrated by Jeffrey Gettleman