In November, I visited Ethiopia for the first time to make this presentation at the  Ethiopian National Agricultural Learning Event, with our partner, Addis Ababa-based FarmOrganic International:

 Day one of the conference featured research and best practices presented by international non-governmentlal organizations like Oxfam and CARE that have worked in the region for decades, to the federal government,  Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Women's Affairs, to multi-lateral, international organizations like the World Bank, to multiple regional agricultural centres and Farmers Unions which live the subject.

A straw poll of 30+ Americans and Europeans, and a handful of Middle Easterners, reveals that the prevailing perception of Ethiopia (for decades) has been the starving child.  

 In fact, this conference told another story: that of the Ethiopian farmer.  Turns out agriculture is the primary contributor to the Ethiopian GDP, employment and foreign exchange earning.  More than 90% of Ethiopian exports are agricultural products -- most exported without being processed.  

I'm enlightened and always surprised by visiting other cultures, appreciative of the others' experience and lifestyles from which we might learn a thing or two.

So I took particular interest last night in two segments -- on Denmark and Dubai --  of this wonderful Oprah rerun, reinforcing a few hunches:

• The Danes: "Less things, more life."
• In Dubai, extended family lives in close proximity and comes together daily for meals.
• What we label socialized medicine, the Brazilians call compassion.

The Oprah web site reports, "For the past 30 years, scientific researchers and survey results have all reached the same conclusion—Danes are consistently happier than the rest of the world. On the "world map of happiness"—a map created by a social psychologist in England—Switzerland, Austria and Iceland rank just below Denmark on the happiness scale. Canada comes in at number 10, while the United States is a distant 23rd."