No more poverty by 2015?

We are dot-connectors. The watchdogs of power structures.

We have the responsibility of being fair and accurate; to be accountable to our audience and to trust our public's intelligence. We shall inform and inspire further research.

We are journalists. 20 of us, 10 from Africa and 10 from Eastern Europe, will team up to report about Millennium Development Goals in Africa this summer. 

(Top: Costa, a reporter from Zambia, and Aleksandra, a former classmate of mine from the College of Europe.)

Empowerment. Support. Control. Politics. Manipulation. Values. Pity ... = development aid

May 9th was our first day of training in Brussels with Deutsche Welle's East4South program. We discussed our role as journalists and filmmakers and the meaning of development aid. 

Perspective. The 20 of us sat in a circle: in the middle, a plastic container. We each had to describe it in three sentences or less - and none of us guessed we were looking at a nasal cleanser. Some descriptions were factual (blue and transparent, with a lid on top and a handle at the base), others, more whimsical (a strange object for tiny Tupperware creatures which could also be used as a tall swimming pool when the lid is removed). Our container was a bit similar to the one on the left, but it was turned upside down.

I am struck by the beauty of our African colleagues, their happy spirit and their professionalism. Their hope. 

We journalists, after all, shall also deliver hope...