TED Community » Yvanna Saint-Fort

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  A reply on Conversation: Should social media be taught in school?

  Feb 23 2013: I completely agree, there are so many good things that come along with social media that aren't always highlighted.

• A comment on Conversation: Should social media be taught in school?

  Feb 23 2013: I think so. I'm a college journalism student in the US and oftentimes in class we reference how social media websites like twitter are shaping the field. Twitter especially is a great way to get news updates from the AP or CNN etc. not just info on what the celebrities are up to. Being able to use social media is a good skill to have especially when there are jobs specifically dedicated to managing media accounts. For example the city of Boston specifically employs someone to tweet, and make Facebook posts etc. about what's going on in the city. Learning social media in schools will probably have little impact on how students abuse the sites but it would make them more marketable. It would also help students to realize that whatever they put on the internet is there to stay and that schools they apply to, jobs they want etc. will be able to see it, they might conduct themselves differently. Either way, it's clear that social media is here to stay.

• A reply on Conversation: Can donor funding really fix African challenges, or should we empower African communities to address their own challenges?

  Feb 21 2013: I agree with 2. If something is really going to change, there needs to be aid offered without the need to get something in return. But realistically speaking, what nation or organization is going to say "here's a couple hundred thousand dollars, do with it what you please and I won't ask questions or make demands."
  
  In reference to 1, I sort of agree. A lot of politicians all around the world are corrupt. But assuming that every single politician is corrupt and won't use money where it needs to be used is exactly what allows these corrupt politicians to get away with everything. It's assumed that there is no such thing as an "un-corrupt" politician when in fact there is. It takes the same effort for someone that is corrupt to come to power as it takes for someone who isn't corrupt to come to power.
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  A comment on Conversation: Can donor funding really fix African challenges, or should we empower African communities to address their own challenges?

  Feb 21 2013: Part of the problem is that Americans and people from other westernized nations have a habit of referring to Africa as one homogenized nation when this is far from the truth. Different nations in Africa experience different things, have different habits and respond to challenges and foreign aid differently. For example, foreign aid or assistance from an NGO might lead to greater corruption in Ethiopia but that same aid might also cause great change in Nigeria. For any sort of sustainable change to come about in any given African nation, there needs to be a change in mindset within that individual nation. Right now there is a tendency to forego dealings with governments based on the assumption that the majority of governments within African nations are inherently corrupt. While this might be the case, corrupt governments aren't something that should be avoided just because they can't be easily fixed. All problems are internal and no amount of foreign aid can help if these internal factors aren't fixed. It takes one person, one regime to corrupt a government and it takes the same amount of effort to fix a government. That being the case, westernized nations, IGOs, NGOs and whatever organizations that want to help need to approach the situation from a liberal standpoint based on cooperation. As in "we're here to help you with what you need, what exactly do you need?" rather than saying "this is what you need, do it this way or we won't help."