invites you to ask and answer questions covering social themes of global significance. When you ask in order to understand, when you answer in order to share, this is what we mean by dropping knowledge.
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Jonathan Stack's
biography
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QuestionWhat can we learn from Africa? santini297Answer
Jonathan Stack: I mean one thing we need to learn is that Africa isn't just one place. Africa is many things. So, there is no one thing to learn. What else we can learn? I will tell you one thing I learned from Africa. I learned extraordinary generosity. I have never been in a place where I saw more kindness and more predisposition to giving. I lived in a small village in Liberia during the civil war and when I had to give, I gave to children who were starving to death, and in all the giving, I never once saw a child take a piece of food and not share it. They didn't know how to share; it was like genetically built in somehow to like give to those around them, to their children, to their younger brothers, sisters, parents. That is amazing because I think the selfishness in my world is so prevalent that that is -- it's like almost unfathomable. The other thing that I saw was resourcefulness. We were staying in this full house and we were -- we brought with us tins of food and after we would eat, we were throwing the tins out the back. Like a few days later, I saw these little cars appearing, like kids are taking the cans, cut little holes, built wheels and then made toys. And they were working around with their little tin cars down their miserable streets that had -- going to their miserable homes with no food. But, they have found a way to take something and turn it into piece of artwork, a source of joy for themselves and pleasure. And I just -- things like that that just makes you know like there is so much hope out there. And so, hope, generosity, kindness, these are all things you can learn from Africa. Africa also provides us an opportunity to -- endless opportunity it could be anywhere though, just because there is so much need there and then there is so much opportunity to give and remind you that you as an individual, you don't have to like change the world. That is the greatest place where the small deed can make a huge difference in a person's life.
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