Notes From The Week #2

Yo. Welcome back and hope you had a great week. First things first, I appreciate the kind words I’ve received from last week’s notes. Some of you sent articles and messages for me to think about on some of the points I mentioned last week. That’s super cool to see. I’m glad that an outlet I’m using to organise some thoughts and ideas is beneficial in some ways to you all. I would love for the interactions to continue so if you see anything that prompts a thought feel free to share. If you want to provide a counter-view to a thought then feel free - the aim is always to learn.

Cultivating Community

“A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.” - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

A few months back I was having dinner with a good friend at a popular Nigerian restaurant in London. On the table next to us was a group of about 10 men. Maybe it had been the effects of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown but I saw myself pleasantly surprised at the sight of these men sharing jokes, discussing how work was going and enjoying their food. I told my friend that seeing them made me want to be more intentional in my efforts to cultivate community. We’ve all been hit hard the last few years and it’s important to make time for our family and loved ones.

A Different World & Increased College Enrolment 

As someone who loves exploring art and culture I’m always interested in the way art and culture embodies, intersects and even produces reality. Anybody who knows me, knows that my favourite sitcom of all time is A Different World; a spin-off from the Cosby show. The show follows the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college. Inspired by student life at historically black colleges and universities.

After A Different World’s first season, Debbie Allen became the producer and in most cases the director. As a graduate of a historically black college, Howard University, she was able to draw from her own college experiences to reflect the social and political experiences across HBCU campuses. Part of her production process would even involve a yearly trip to Atlanta where the series writers would visit Clark Atlanta, Spelman and Morehouse. They would meet with staff and students and from those consultations episode ideas and topics to discuss would emerge.

What I find most particularly interesting about A Different World is how much it impacted African American culture and subsequently had a material impact on the amount of African Americans who were encouraged to attend college as a result of the show. From the debut of The Cosby Show in 1984 until the end of A Different World in 1993, American higher education grew by 16.8 percent. During the same time period, HBCUs grew by 24.3 percent.1 A Different World’s popularity had a benign domino effect on actors in other popular black shows of the time with black college apparel appearing on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Living Single and Martin. All shows with prime-time slots and mainstream audiences.

Idea Arbitrage

A friend (Jean-Pierre) has been in town from Canada over the last few days and I’ve been spending some time with him showing him around London. The other day we caught the tube to go to Covent Garden and when we were tapping the gates for the underground, he mentioned how impressed he was with how ahead of the curve London’s transport system was with integrating contactless payment solutions and Apple Pay. Later on in our journey, he was reading an advertisement on the train and said; “that’s a cool idea, that would work really well in Canada” making a note of the company’s name on his phone. Seeing his interest and enthusiasm towards things I’ve been accustomed to was quite striking.

In economics, Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same asset in different markets in order to profit from tiny differences in the asset's listed price.2 In the same way ideas that have been developed in one part of the world may not yet exist or be a prominent feature in another part of the world.

So for people looking for their next business venture, not-for-profit system or a project to work on perhaps the best advice would be to travel. Hit up friends in different cities and ask them to show you around. Read blogs and articles on some of the less touristy spots to visit and meander. Very quickly you may realise that solutions, systems and processes that have become normal and second-nature to you may not be the case in that part of the world.

Protests & Decentralisation

Still remaining with my friend, in one of our conversations this week I asked him to run me through what actually happened with the Canada convoy protest. When he gave me the play-by-play on the situation it was clear to see how the fabric of a social contract between the government and the citizen can slowly become undone when it is perceived that the government is encroaching on the personal liberty of the citizen.

The fact that at least 76 bank accounts linked to the Canada convoy protests totalling CA$3.2 million were frozen under the Canadian Emergencies Act3 works to set a dangerous precedent. My friend mentioned that seeing the events unfold in real-time further emboldened his belief in blockchain as a viable system going forward. Decentralised systems that don’t require the participation of a central authority.

I had a similar sentiment when seeing the #ENDSARS protests across Nigeria play out in late 2020. Similar to the Canada Convoy protest, the Central Bank of Nigeria froze the bank accounts of some of the protestors. The protestors leveraged social media, particularly Twitter, to continue accepting donations for the protests through the use of crypto.

One of the most encouraging moments I remember from seeing the protests unfold over social media was when a protest was taking place outside of a state Governor’s residence and one of his officials came to the gate and said that they would like to speak to the leader of this particular protest. The people protesting said that it wouldn’t be possible. Confused, the official asked why - the people responded that they didn’t have no leader and they talk as a collective body - they were all the leader. A perfect picture of decentralisation.

I came across this podcast a few months later and shared similar sentiments about the potential for blockchain and crypto using Nigeria as a reference point.

Until next week. Peace.