Very interesting and important article NYTimes "An African's Message for America" 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/opinion/an-africans-message-for-america.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0

Global Challenges materials:

http://www.aascu.org/GlobalChallenges/

The seven Global Challenges include:

Population
What effects will population growth/decline, aging, migration and urbanization have on our future world?

Resources
What changes will we see in food, water and energy consumption/production?

Technology
What changes are we going to see in computation, robotics, biotechnology and nanotechnology?

Information
How does the vast amount of data change how we learn and govern in the future?

Economies
How is our economic landscape changing?

Conflict
How do we cope with a post-9/11 world? Is there a new paradigm?

Governance
What is the role of leaders, corporations and NGO’s in this new environment?