October

A new era.  Naomi has moved from dancing her way through the day to singing.  Sometimes quite loudly. 

I've been traveling a lot for work, mostly to Rwanda and Kenya. Very interesting assignments that allow me to meet many people and learn a great deal. I also get to work with a lot of great project teams which is my professional bread and butter. On almost all these assignments, whether they are conducting management training or investigating a new development project or helping make systems run a little more efficiently, the quest for good leaders is ever-present. In Kenya, people are awaiting the results of the International Criminal Court hearings about the post-election violence in 2007 as they get ready for new elections next year. In Rwanda, people are building strong, accountable and seemingly amazingly organized government and non-government structures as they inch closer to the 18 year anniversary of the "start" of the genocide. I visited the genocide memorial in Kigali with my team. No story tells all sides, but this one seems to be a more accepted version of events according to my colleagues.

http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/old/index.html

In each place, I was struck by the potential power of leadership. In both places many people asked me about our President. I talked about the challenge I see in being the big boss of the U.S. The way politics, these days, is overwhelmed by the need for constant compromise over pure conviction. I said I think it is hard to be Obama, the statesman, and be President at the same time right now. Maybe one day politics will push back to a purer form of representation, but I'm not sure I see a direct path there right now.

While I was away, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (and two others). I read an interesting article that said it was not responsible of the nobel committee to give this award just days ahead of national elections in Liberia. It will be interesting to see how things pan out this year in Liberia, for sure, and I am a big champion of hers. She, too, suffers from the fact that politics is a game of compromise in her own country.