Thoughts

In my three weeks of life here in Johannesburg, I’ve just started to comprehend my first impressions of the quirky place. At first, there are just so many new things that you just take them for what they are; but soon enough you start asking yourself, “Why is that? What’s going on there? Who made that rule/law/decision? Why don’t they do something about…?” So, I think I’ve begun that stage. (From past experience, after this stage comes something like adaptation—that is, you realize the questions are ultimately pointless and you have to adapt to the new place. That said, I..

In short, yes.  While sudden influxes of cash and resources can create problems, they can also create incredible opportunities.  Ndubuisi Ekekwe, founder of the non-profit African Institution of Technology, wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review in which he reports: In early June, Cisco Systems made a $10 million venture capitalinvestment into Cairo's emerging small businesses (not a $10 million donation).  This is one of the first of it's kind. Many Silicon Valley companies (Microsoft, Google, Nokia, and Blackberry, specifically) are touring Africa to recruit top college talent, launch innovation competitions, and build out Africa's technological base. About this,..

I read an article the other day in the Columbia Journalism Review called "Hiding The Real Africa," and it detailed how and why we never get good news from Africa.  I really recommend reading the article yourself (4 minute read), but here are the high points in case you're a headlines type. :-) NGO's don't want you to hear the good news because: A. If they stay negative, you'll keep writing checks and B. If they go positive and another NGO stays negative, you'll start writing checks to someone else Because newspapers are failing worldwide and those staying afloat are cutting..

A: Smelling like Campfire The rebels killed his brothers. Raped his sisters. Maimed his father. And yet, when Mahamed talked about his native Sierra Leone, he smiled. The rebels, he said, were forced to fight. He forgave them. He knows that they don't represent his country. I met Mahamed while covering a party celebrating Sierra Leone's independence in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I work for the Lincoln Journal Star. Most of the people attending the party had come to Lincoln as refugees of the decades-long war. I was supposed to find a unique angle on the event, preferably one that looked..

Another stellar guest post by Bob Albrecht.  Thanks Bob! It’s Israel -- a country, not a continent -- that candidates for president have to have a proven record of caring for if they’re to win the right to call shots from the Oval Office. Before issuing an AFRCN APPRL endorsement of the Republican presidential candidates, let us look not at Israel but instead at the relationships the men and women vying to wrestle away a second term from President Obama have with Africa. Surely none will have closer ties than Obama, who was born in Kenya (Kidding!). Shortly after her..

This is guest post by Bob Albrecht.  He's a pro. I’ve taken about a week before chiming in publicly -- or even discussing privately Rick Reilly’s graduation speech to avoid one of two scenarios: Getting defensive over criticism of a man whose words have made me well up with tears on many occasions (I’m man enough to admit that) or joining a running of the bulls-like throng condemning Reilly for saying something stupid. If you’ve yet to hear what ESPN’s Reilly had to say during his speech to the final graduating class of the University of Colorado School of Journalism,..

(Now, I know I already wrote about wrote about “Criticizing Africa” before and talked about leadership, I’d like to look at this from a slightly different angle this time.) Admittedly, I am a leadership junkie.  I really like to read and learn about leadership skills, techniques, and best practices.  I also really like teaching it and helping others discover themselves as people and as budding vanguards.  I believe that effective leadership is truly the answer to every problem that ails the world because good leaders can set the right agenda, inspire the masses to execute the agenda, and then can..

Last post, I said that I believe t-shirts do matter.  At first, I felt like “t-shirts are t-shirts” (like one might say “rocks are rocks”), what makes them matter?  As I thought about it more, though, I realized that t-shirts do matter.  Their ubiquity and pervasiveness doesn’t make them less relevant, but paradoxically more relevant.  When everyone has them, there’s a struggle to be different, unique, and noteworthy.  So in a world of commodities, of similarity, and of continuity, what makes the ever-present t-shirt any different?  Well, here’s what makes our t-shirts different: AFRCN APPRL doesn’t use slave labor to create..

Recently, I read a blog post entitled “Why T-Shirts Matter” and I have to admit that I initially looked at it somewhat skeptically.  Even as someone who runs a t-shirt company, I needed to be convinced that t-shirts “mattered.”  The blogger was the unofficial t-shirt designer for LinkedIn, having made many designs over the past few years, and he argued that t-shirts mattered to his company (and others) because people actually cared more about them than the $10 they cost to make.  He’s probably right, but after I thought about it, I had some of my own thoughts about why t-shirts..

Today, I was at King Soopers and I decided I would get in line to buy Rockies tickets. I was the only person in line, but I walked through their little rope maze all the way to the front. Just as I was about to reach the counter, a dark-skinned man slid down the counter (he had been off to the left), right in front of me. I stepped back so he could go first, as I could tell that he had just been off to the side filling out paperwork. That's when the trouble started. The King Soopers employee..

Africa lacks leadership and forward thinking. But those aren't my words. No, they belong to Fred Swaniker, a native of Ghana and the co-founder and CEO of the African Leadership Academy (an amazing organization that educates Africa's best and brightest in the areas of leadership, social entrepreneurship, and community building).  He had some really interesting comments: Why did you create this school? The countries I’d lived in that I saw things were working, like Botswana, you could see that it was the leadership at the root cause of it. And no place shows you the impact of leadership in Africa..

If you've browsed through our shop and scoped out our shirts, you may have noticed that we mention different shirt cuts.  Perhaps you've asked What does that mean? Fear not.  The following is a list of features for our STANDARD cut and FITTED cut tee shirts. STANDARD CUT True to American Sizing and Style. Not baggy, not tight.  Just right. Very similar to an American Apparel standard fit. FITTED CUT South African / European Sizing Tighter.  Form-fitting for muscles large and small. 1 size smaller than usual American sizing. BONUS: GIRLY CUT The sizing also runs 1 size small, so..