Date: 2025-08-20 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00025477
TPB DIALOG
CHRIS MACRAE ... FROM NOVEMBER 2014
Re: Mutual Introduction educational friends of asia and africa and americas futures
CHRIS MACRAE ... FROM NOVEMBER 2014
Re: Mutual Introduction educational friends of asia and africa and americas futures
Original article:
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
christopher macrae
Wed, Nov 26, 2014, 6:20 PM
to Prita, Dr, Natasha, naila@teleconsultgroup.com, mostofa12@yahoo.com, Tebabu, Stefanos, ana.torres@yabt.net, hatwins2@aol.com, sunitag@globaleducation.org, ophira.ginsburg@wchospital.ca, Mayumi, Yvonne, navneet.singh@unitedsikhs.org, vflamant@worldbankgroup.org
Prita this looks wonderful- I hope at least some of us can meet next week; may I mainly leave people to add their own introductions- just briefly what makes me so mad about youths (net generation) potential- my first job in 1972 north of england (UK national development project computer assisted learning project)- father the Economist's Keynsian pro-youth economist saw students testing elearning networks and spent the next 10 years debating the future Entrepreneurial Revolution of the net generation -our 1984 book rehearsed how it could yet be different than Orwell's Big Brother outcome- father's last project was to sample 2000 of dr yunus social business book in late 2007 mainly to youth- since then I have been to dhaka to interview yunus 10 times and sir fazle abed 3 times; mostofa is my youth contact in dhaka who organises visits; about end 2009 I met Naila Chowdhury who had been yunus first female director of grameen phone- after 16 years of mobile partnership experiments with poorest women villagers she moved to our region in 2012 http://women4empowerment.org
sir fazle was extremely kind , with the Japan ambassador to dhaka he guested a remembrance party to dad in 2012, and thats where my bi-annual debriefs of him mainly on open education possibilities started - since june he's been most curious about www.yazmi.com but he is also deeply concerned about his succession at brac - so I dont want to squander his precious time but I would love to be of some help to him and hope that could involve yazmi and indeed all of us -meanwhile seeing how well soros, and paul farmer and sir fazle abed got on at the 20th open society celebrations in Budapest in 2012 led me to be extraordinary grateful for the 3 greatest living public health servants kim, farmer and abed ...
happy thanksgiving chris macrae 301 881 1655 bethesda
From: Prita Chathoth
To: christopher macrae
Cc: Dr Ranga
Sent: Wednesday, 26 November 2014, 14:59
Subject: Re: Mutual Introduction
Dear Mr. Macrae and Dr. Ranga,
I was brought into this discussion a little late and so am not familiar with the context entirely. But reading through Mr. Macrae's email, I feel energized and many ideas and thoughts start flowing in:
I have many associates at BRAC university, both faculty and students. Richard Cash (of ORT fame), Mushtaque Chowdhury (Vice Chair of BRAC), and Demissie Habte (formerly with the World Bank but a stalwart of the original BRAC Public Health team) are all acquaintances; Prof. Malabika Sarker, who teaches public health at BRAC School of Public Health, was part of our team at Heidelberg University, and is someone interested in public health networking; Dr. Enamul Hasib, also working at BRAC, and I co-authored a paper on the health impacts of climate change in Bangladesh; I visited some of BRAC's schools and found their work amazing and am quite a fan of Sir Abed; I did some work with the Grameen team when I produced a documentary that focused on microfinance (I interviewed several Grameen beneficiaries and visited their villages, etc.);
Ron Laporte, who leads the Public Health Supercourse team at the University of Pittsburgh, is someone who we have to connect with at some point; (my late friend Dr. Eugene Boostrom, was a founding member of the supercourse); Ron and Ismail Serageldin, who I mentioned in an earlier email, work closely together in health networking;
I shall tell you about an Ahmedabad-based Institute that we should liaise with, especially Ranga, because of its highly visible work and ability to connect (I will leave that for our brainstorming session);
Re: Gandhi and the ashram, my father worked and lived with Gandhiji at his ashram in Wardha for a couple of years (inspired by Gandhiji's teachings, my dad left home at a young age and went to see Gandhiji and he took him in to live at the ashram as a 'free student'.) My dad's biography is to be formally released at a function in Kerala on December 27th. Mr. Macrae, I would like to invite you to the function and we would be delighted to host you at our house in North Malabar. My dad personally knew several of Gandhi's close associates and he is someone who can answer your questions about the Montessori development. He is very good at telling stories and the first section of his bio is on his association with Mahatma Gandhi.
I would be delighted to participate in the brainstorming session. Thank you, Ranga, for inviting me. By the way, I do not know WB President Jim Kim personally but I have known Sanjay Pradhan, senior VP and Kim's right-hand person, since 1994.
Looking forward to seeing you all next week.
Thank you.
Cordially,
Prita Chathoth
On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 12:43 PM, christopher macrae
Dear Dr Ranga and friends
It would be great to meet next week
Mostofa and I skyped toady and he will work from the local end to arrange skype diary of sunita gandhi from Lucknow
All three of naila, mostofa and I know yunus and sir fazle abed. Actually Mostofa is also currently trying to get me into Sir Fazle's diary for another session on 1 all these potential changes and connections in education, 2 latest health networking issues connecting paul farmer, jim kim and sir fazle abed, .3) convergence of financial inclusion approaches. When it comes to education the whole of BRAC has huge capacity whereas Grameen no longer so
Regarding Ahmedabad, I have never been there but always been fascinated by the connection between the ashram and the university
I have always been curious as to whether the Montessori development with Gandhi and the IIM University have any connections. One of the interesting things about BRAC University is that its students are expected to spend one term doing an action learning projects in rural areas.
sincerely
chris macrae