Global Perspectives

A few weeks ago I heard a story about a Rwandan choir who needed help. I was immediately intrigued. The choir in question is the Solace Praise Choir – a gospel choir made up of young people who have been orphaned either through the 1994 genocide or its related cousin – the HIV pandemic. The choir formed because of the work of Solace Ministries which I visited in 2004 and has been providing exemplary vocational training as well as emotional and spiritual support for traumatised children and widows ever since the genocide. Now, this talented and ambitious choir wanted to record their music as a precursor to a possible European tour. They found a European recording company who claimed they would record an album for them. Money was paid for their services but the choir got nothing in return as the music producers ran off with the cash. This choir who had all endured so much now faced the prospect that their music dream was in tatters. There didn’t appear much that anyone could or wo...

When Obama launched his presidential campaign 22 months ago in Chicago, Illinois – he borrowed an expression from Martin Luther King when he talked about the ‘ fierce urgency of now’ . Despite only being a senator for little more than 2 years, Obama didn't wait to be invited to apply for the most influential job in the world. His sense was that he could not afford to wait - not due of personal ambition - but because of his conviction that the world desperately needs a new breed of leadership which calls out the good latent in the human heart. Despite his audacious belief that he was the man to do it, that sense of urgency that has propelled Obama – beyond all expectations - to become the 44th President of the United States of America. Obama’s victory is a game changing moment in history. Certainly, on the issue of race, we have taken a huge step forward. It exposes the poverty of equality of other nations. The UK's wretched record on involving ethnic minorities at the top t...