Don’t Give Up On Us - A Rwandan Experience

(June 14, 2009) – Toronto resident, Ashmead Ali, launched his first book, Don’t Give Up On Us – A Rwandan Experience, based on a visit to Rwanda at an event in Scarborough today.

Ali’s outlook in life has made him form an interest in the developing world – in its history, politics, poverty, and injustice. 

In today’s “small” world, where people discuss poverty and international development issues at their dinner tables, Canadians need to have a clearer understanding of these matters.

This book, using Rwanda as its backdrop, presents a simple and unmuddled understanding of complex issues that afflict the poor African.

Although many books have been written on poverty, they are of a serious nature, with page after page of information that is sometimes difficult for the ordinary reader to understand, to follow, and to remember.

Don’t Give Up On Us reads like a story, in language for anyone to grasp without much effort, but in a serious tone.

The reader is introduced to: brief geography and history; education; youth; unemployment; small enterprise; trade; health and sanitation; African brain drain and diaspora; the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and their development programs; Africa’s crippling debt; etc. Yet the book still reads like a novel.

“Ashmead Ali has used his time in Rwanda to masterly examine and address important issues that affect poor and rich countries of the world,” said Lama Mugabo, Executive Director, Building Bridges with Rwanda, about the book.

“Although Ali arrives with the wide eyes of a novice to Africa, he writes vividly of the poverty and the problems with aid, trade, education and development he encounters, providing a refreshing and hopeful look at a very old topic – how best to “help” Africa – with a kind of clarity that will help readers understand why one of the world’s most promising continents languishes far behind developed nations,” added Karen Palmer, former Africa-based freelance reporter.

Copies of the book can be obtained by e-mailing – ashmeadaali@yahoo.ca