⚡Moonshot
Good morning! If you missed yesterday’s, you can find it here.
Last night, we attended an awesome event on Climate Change Photography. We had a chance to hear from Josh Haner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer with the New York Times, about his incredible series documenting climate change around the world — from Bolivia to Greenland to China. The discussion began with a picture of a polar bear standing alone on a single piece of ice, surrounded by water — this picture has now become synonymous with climate change, so much so that people have become desensitized to it.
Haner therefore has been trying to capture different kinds of stories, those that show the devastation to people, their homes, and their heritage, with the hope that it resonates with people in a different way. It definitely did with us — the photography is honestly shocking. For example, the picture below showcases Lake Poopó, Bolivia’s second-largest lake. In just 10 years, it completely dried up.
Now, Haner is embarking on a journey to try to photograph solutions. He mentions that this is far trickier — the devastation of climate change resonates with people far more than the solutions. We don’t like to hear this, but it’s true. That being said, Haner did mention that across his travels, he saw some remarkable solutions around the world — for example, instead of building sea walls, Rotterdam is letting the water into the city and using it in its parks (e.g., creating water basins where crew teams can row). For the New Yorkers here, Brooklyn is designing a new park that’s intended to do the same!
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Africa: Is it possible to “entrepreneur” your way out of bad leadership?
A motorcycle taxi driver known as boda-boda, from SafeBoda in Uganda. Innovation has been built on the back of the mobile industry (Reuters / Francis Musaka)
Ory Okolloh, one of Kenya’s best known tech investors and activists, spoke at the 2015 Quartz Africa Innovators Summit in Nairobi about how entrepreneurship was promoted to the point of being fetishized in Africa. She believed:
“You can’t entrepreneur around bad leadership, we can’t entrepreneur around bad policy.”
This perspective has become quite popular, but is it possible that this way of viewing Africa’s circumstances limits progress?
The cup is half empty. Rankings such as World Governance Indicators, Corruption Perception Index, and the Global Competitiveness Report expose the failings of African governments when compared to the achievements of rich-country governments. But they only tell half the story. African governments have very limited funds to spend on their citizens.
DR Congo, Central African Republic, and Burundi spent $39, $57, and $65 per citizen respectively. Contrast that with Norway, Denmark, and Sweden that spent $36,871, $30,415, and $27,000 per citizen respectively.
With less resources, African governments can spend less on every level of support in a government, which almost automatically puts them on the bottom of the above mentioned rankings. But there’s hope!
The cup is half full. The common assumption is that only after systems and structures are in place in a society can innovation and entrepreneurship thrive. However, Efosa Ojomo argues in The Prosperity Paradox that innovation is the process by which societies develop, especially if those innovations create markets. Why? Because markets provide access to goods that were often too hard to come across before or too expensive.
An example. Let’s take a look at Africa’s mobile telecommunications industry. In the late 1990s, most countries didn’t have any infrastructure. Today, on the other hand, virtually every African country has a thriving mobile telecommunications sector, which made telecommunications so simple and affordable that the average African can now access mobile phones.
Innovation leads to value. But also taxes. This industry not only made hundreds of billions, but also provided tens of billions in taxes and created millions of jobs. With this new infrastructure, other startups have been built from the payments to insurance industries.
Innovation can drive good governance. When these new market-creating innovations thrive, citizens become empowered to demand more from their governments and change social contract in those areas. This is what happened in the United States, Europe, and fast growing East Asian nations.
United States, an example. As more people created wealth for themselves during the Industrial Revolution, their desire for less corrupt government with better management was taken more seriously.
“Politically, the rage of victims counted for very little in 1840, not much in 1860; by 1890, it was a roaring force”
Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Friedman
During that period, the US saw greater public outcry against corruption and reform. As innovation accelerates, so does governance.
The cup could be overflowing. Is it possible that Africa needs to start with innovation? Of course, governments need to get their house in order, but in the meantime, could the people be doing something that produces better and faster change? By pushing for market-creating innovation, more people will be empowered to not only be heard but also be enabled to change how the governments work.
We find this take to be fascinating because we often talk about the importance of the public sector when it comes to certain change. However, this perspective is a refreshing one. It’s a sentiment that allows us as people to be the actors in the story of change instead of relying on bureaucratic forces.
Big Money vs. Big Tech
Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder, now leads the Economic Security Project (Jeenah Moon for The New York Times)
Building or investing in tech companies has helped generate an insane amount of wealth over the last few decades. One would expect that these billionaires would want to keep tech companies going as-is to continue generating returns. While this may be true for most, some are going down an opposite road — they are trying to use their money to break down big tech.
How are they doing so? The support is indirect, but powerful:
The Ford Foundation supports organizations that study and fight inequality — for example, they’ve given $200,000 to the Knight Foundation to study how tech monopolies directly impact workers
The Hewlett Foundation is supporting organizations trying to reshape the free market economic policies in DC
The Economic Security Project, founded by Chris Hughes (a Facebook co-founder), is pooling money to support projects focused on antitrust and corporate concentration concerns — for example, they are supporting Color of Change to study how corporate concentration is affecting communities of color
Other billionaires doing the same include George Soros and Pierre Omidyar
Will this work? It’s going to be tough — big tech spends tens of millions on lobbying every year. That being said, this big money flowing in the opposite direction may be the only way to actually shift the needle.
What else can billionaires do? In addition to breaking up big tech, billionaires can (and should) use their capital to improve society. It is the only form of capital out there that can make moonshots without worrying about risk. Here are some options:
Fund scholarships, young investigator awards, and research fellowships
Establish thematic research centers focused on specific causes
Create incentive prizes to push people to innovate
Build advisory organizations to support other philanthropists
Engage in direct advocacy with governments and corporations
Billionaires have increasingly been coming under fire in this country. Their wealth represents decades of exploitation that has resulted in the deep inequalities that see in society today. Anand Giridharadas, the author of Winners Take All, really stresses this point — when we prop up philanthropic billionaires, we often ignore the methods they and their corporations have used. This, of course, doesn’t apply to everybody (Hamdi, we still love you), but the point definitely strikes a chord.
In many ways, we agree with Anand. But we also believe that we cannot ignore the power that their capital can have. Their vast amount of philanthropic capital can do a tremendous amount to change the world. We should not prop them up as heroes and should hold them accountable for their actions — but we should use what they give to drive change.
We know that this is a contentious topic (even among our readers), so we’d really love to hear your thoughts! Can we, in good conscience, use what they are giving?
Short takes
The UK votes today, with Brexit as the key issue dividing the electorate. Follow live updates from the NY Times here!
Women hold just 7 percent of board seats in the 200 most heavily funded US startups and 60 percent don’t have a single woman on the board
Violence continues to grow in India over India’s citizenship bill. Check out our earlier coverage on the issue here.
160 plant-based companies agree to consistent labeling standards to help consumers understand the products easily.
Australia vs Big Tech. Government warns FB and Google that they’ll have to agree to new rules on competition by November 2020. Even if they don’t, the rules will be imposed anyway.
Tomorrow Today
🎟️ Date and time for the next one to be announced soon!
We’re thinking February.
Change cannot be achieved alone, only together. In that spirit, we are hosting community events at our space in New York City. Eat some food, learn from some seasoned, unconventional activists, and meet others aspiring to change the world!
Why are we hosting this?
For us, community is the center of everything. In an age of prolific digitization, there's a great need for greater human connection. It's almost necessary to carve out time and space to purposefully engage in person. While it's amazing to be able to discuss and interact with multiple people online and exchange stories and insights, we don't think anything beats the experience of sharing a meal.
Igniting Tomorrow
💰 $100k-$250k Pre-Seed Funding
UPDATE: We’ve already had multiple people reach out and share their ideas. It gets us super excited to learn more about the projects and companies everyone is working on. Please keep reaching out. We’ll be releasing more information around this in the upcoming year.
Many of you are either already working on a number of world-changing things or have ideas bursting out of you every day. Our goal is to see unconventional activists like you succeed. Let us help connect you into the space and access the financing you need to get started. If you’d like to share your ideas (or know a friend working on something exciting), please reply to this email!
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