Dinner with new friends

It’s been almost a year since I arrived in Brussels and how time has flown! In the last twelve months I’ve met many interesting and creative people from all over the world, the kind of people it’s been a pleasure to learn from and to know. They’ve all been generously encouraging and personally inspiring in their individual ways.

Last night, I was lucky enough to be in the company of such a group of people thanks to my new friends, Lies and Sulaiman, who hosted a lovely dinner party with a creative, engaging, caring collective: Cleve, Lee, Anne and Tim, Omar and, of course, Tamara, who introduced me to Lies and Sulaiman in the first place.

At several points in the evening, the discussion turned to ‘my’ library idea. During the course of numerous conversations, the assembled intellects pointed out the following:

• Reading is a form of escapism.
  I recently interviewed Andy Thornton, Director of AfriKids UK. He told me that people, in their generosity if not in their wisdom, would donate toilets to villages in Ghana where there was no plumbing. And yesterday when I remarked that people in the north were too poor to worry about reading books Cleve pointed out that that wasn’t necessarily the case, that reading can often be a form of escapism for those living a harsh reality. Later on, Sulaiman told me that when he was living in a refugee camp as a child, he and his brother would voraciously read copies of month-old newspapers to stay in touch with the world and maintain their knowledge but also to escape into other worlds. Moral of the story: Never underestimate the importance of books and reading to anyone and never underestimate the value of knowledge. Books (and newspapers / newsmagazines) may age but the knowledge contained within them never dates, even if the world has moved on, the world contained within their pages still has a value.

• Get members to donate books.
  I was telling Lee about my plan to charge for membership to subsidise other/rural branches and the various levels of benefits associated with each membership. He suggested that one way to subsidise membership would be to get people to donate their old books in exchange for a reduced rate. This hadn’t occurred to me before. By offering this incentive, it encourages books to be recycled as well as growing the collection. Or, even better, get people to donate a book in addition to their subscription. Both great ideas!

• Facilitate the move from an aid economy to a knowledge economy.
  Omar, who has spent his life working for the UN and is now retired, said he had two big regrets about African development: the failure of African leadership and the dependence on aid. Omar has a lot of knowledge gained from vast experience of development around the globe. He’s passionate about Africa moving from an aid-dependent economy to a knowledge economy and books, of course, play an important role in this.

• Developing a reading/writing culture.
  At the end of the night, Tamara, my Malawian friend and South London homegirl who’s lived in Nigeria - Lagos, no less - became my Socratic interlocutor. ‘Will people be willing to pay to read books?’ ‘Who will your market be?’ ‘How will it make money?’ ‘What sidelines can you add on?’ All extremely valid questions which need airtight answers in order to firm up the idea. Then she raised my biggest bugbear – the lack of (internationally renowned) Ghanaian authors, especially in comparison to Nigerian authors – Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri, Chimanda Ngozi Adichie, E.C. Osundu, Teju Cole, the list goes on… This is, of course, very true. The aim of the library is obviously to encourage and develop a reading culture but, through this, develop a writing culture too. Almost every successful writer is an avid reader. The two go hand-in-hand. As well as a repository of books, the library will also hold writing workshops, host writer events with visiting authors and, over time, develop a publishing arm as an added incentive to encourage budding writers. She pointed me to the wonderful Cassava Republic Press, a Nigerian publishing house whose mission is to change 'the way we think about African fiction'.

‘My library idea’ is now ‘our’ library idea! Thanks to everyone for their generous input. I look forward to many more dinners where ideas are shared and refined in the company of talented, creative and caring people.

In conversation with M K Asante (CNN Inside Africa)

Tumi and the volume - Asinamali

Cool new music straight from South Africa courtesy of A. Neun. Thanks for the tip!

A bibliophile's paradise

This morning, I set out to discover the legendary Brussels second hand bookshop, Pele Mele and, boy, did I discover it. 'Cavernous' doesn't do it justice. High shelves stacked with books of every genre, edition and format with a vast selection in English. Serious fellow bibliophiles with baskets full of classic and contemporary literature.

In my own basket was:

• Aminata Forna, Memory of Love
• Andrea Levy, Small Island
• Zadie Smith, On Beauty
• Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
• Hisham Matar, In The Country of Men
• Karen Blixen, Out of Africa
• Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea

...all for the paltry sum of just €13! And hardly a cracked spine in sight! I fear a love affair is just beginning...

The beautiful Boston Athenæum

A tale of two lefts

During last night's audience with Nichi Vendola, a completely un-scripted, two-way engagement between the politician and his supporters, I couldn't help feeling dismayed at the contrast between the Italian left and the British left. Yes, the left in Italy has been dismal over the past twenty years, barely able to rise above the chronic in-fighting and ideological divide between the various factions. However, at a time of real crisis, they've seen their opportunity and are doing everything to seize it. Who would have predicted, just six months ago, that Silvio Berlusconi would lose his stranglehold on Milan or suffer a humiliating defeat in three successive referenda? Not many.

By contrast, the British left, supposedly bouyed by the election of a new, young leader less than a year ago, is in uncontrolable freefall. I felt embarassed when asked about the situation in Britain in relation to the left by Italians excited at the prospect of change in their own country. As someone politically non-aligned, I believe that a strong oposition only benefits the democratic system, regardless of which side of the political spectrum that opposition is on. And bearing in mind that the LibCon coalition does represent a change from thirteen years of Labour government, it could be argued that we in Britain have had our evolution, if not revolution, and, for once, are freakishly in line with our European cousins in our swing to the right.

But my nagging feeling of disillusionment was only compounded when I returned home to read on the Twittersphere about Ed Miliband's bizarre performance in a television interview. The video of the interview has since become an internet sensation and added fuel to the fire of those calling for Ed's head. If Ed had nine lives before the infamous interview, now he must surely have at least six fewer.

Yesterday's Guardian boldly predicted that France will turn to the left at next year's elections. That seems  outlandish even by French standards. Assuming the esteemed leader writers at the Guardian are right, though, and given the turn of events in Germany and Italy, in this respect, at least, Britain is lagging behind the rest of Europe. And if things don't change soon, it could take another generation, another Blair, to reignite the spark that the British left has all but lost.

The man who would be PM

The Italian Obama? Nichi Vendola

Last night, in a trendy bar in Brussels’ beautiful Parc Cinquantenaire, three hundred young, professional, Italians crowded into a room, each vying for space. Elbows were sharpened. The atmosphere was electric. You'd think it was an intimate gig by a big rock band. There was a buzz and an energy. There was passion and determination. There was beer and there were burgers but neither was of any interest to this crowd, who’d hurried to the venue after work to secure themselves a prime spot. They were all here to see the man who would be the next prime minister of Italy and they hung on to his every word.

Nichi Vendola has been dubbed ‘the Italian Obama’. His following has been called cult-like and his politics ‘all things to all people’. But for these people here, many of whom left Italy because they saw no future for themselves in their native, he is the best hope they have for a revival of their homeland. A former communist, openly gay and devoutly Catholic, he may seem an extreme choice but, after two decades of Berlusconi, it’s Vendola’s extreme difference that makes him such an attractive proposition to many.

Three topics dominated the agenda: ‘precarious’ jobs, the stability pact and the bankruptcy of the European left. Vendola didn’t have all the answers but he was honest enough to admit it and humble enough to invite free thinking on the issues.

Young Italians, like young Spaniards, young Egyptians and young Tunisians are desperate for change. Who knows? Come 2013 they may finally get it. Fingers crossed.