Ken Liffiton: south africa : in general

It is our goal to transfer ideas to achieve better things in the future for every country we are involved with. By serving as conduits between countries we can bring about useful change.

Coming to South Africa has been an interesting experience; I knew little about Africa previously and have learned a lot from being here. Some issues here are similar to those I have seen elsewhere in the world, while others are unique to a country with a history entirely different from those of the rest of the nations of the world. However, lessons learned from both sorts of issues are valuable to our experience as world citizens.

South African approaches to issues shared with other countries, such as HIV/AIDS or housing, can be learned from by other countries while South Africa can in turn learn directly from other nations. Meanwhile, the issue of successfully transitioning from apartheid to a democratic state is one special to South Africa, but many elements of it may be learned from and hopefully applied in the future to countries that are just opening up to the world.

As people who now have firsthand knowledge of South Africa, it is our goal to transfer ideas to achieve better things in the future for every country we are involved with. By serving as conduits between countries we can bring about useful change. At the same time, we can apply our knowledge to our own local communities in the United States, dispelling myths, bringing in new ideas, and strengthening old ones. As a group we have newfound power that we can use to make many things better.