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Mister Wong
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Go forth and educateJohn F. Kennedy sent out his Peace Corps, the youth of America, to help underdeveloped countries. Their mission was to dig wells, improve farming techniques, build clinics and schools and assist nurses, doctors and engineers to improve the local communities in the third world.
Much more than International Monetary Fund mega loans to underperforming countries, is the need to educate their youth. America has seen the need to get into the classrooms in Afghanistan, to build schools, to teach, to develop the minds and skills of a country once wracked by the skewed rule of the Taliban. A right move for the long-term soundness of the next generation.
It is one of the most cost-effective projects to fund, and probably one of the most important.
Ignoring the jobs-for-locals ethic and adopting a best-person-for-the-job attitude, South Africa could well benefit from a foreign aid of teachers: teachers to teach teachers, as well as students at ascending levels.
With unemployment rife in first-world countries, it may well be time to send in teachers who are newly qualified to venture into the poorer countries to spend their gap year imparting knowledge. With youth comes freshness, energy and enthusiasm and a closer age affinity to the students.
An ingrained understanding of the world at large is one step on the road to averting some of the potential conflicts, and will greatly improve the lot of the indigenous locals to help themselves.
