Lidwina: Throughout the past year I worked on two different Design and Product development projects (with a focus on traditional crafts) in Ethiopia carried out by the United Nations and the World Bank. Very soon I realised the strong potential for artistic skills in the country. The designers, artists, traditional painters as well as manuscript- writers I worked with were very talented people and had the strong ability to go through various creativity processes easily (with a nice outcome), after they were discussed. Because of the potential the question permanently raced how to carry this ambitious punch of people further on - in terms of education/design, building up a network within the designers, artists, manuscript writers and traditional painters and then to link them with national and international projects, companies, schools/universities.

On an ordinary workday, Ami suddenly called me in Ethiopia after I haven`t heard from him for years...

Ami: Running a Home Textiles decorative factory I started in Thailand over twenty years ago, I always looked for designs, creativity and talented individuals. The conventional wisdom has always been that production, founded on good craftsmanship and cheap labour takes place in the “East”, the intellectual side takes place in the “West”. I hated those distinctions; I hated a geographical “Maslowian” division of labour. And so I loved it when I saw increasing opportunities for design and creativity in Thailand, but I loved it more, when I discovered, with Lidwina, a new “West”. I worked with her on a few designs projects in the past, she was a 16^th century discoverer, an 18^th century missionary, a 20^th/21^st century development worker, and a futuristic, 23^rd century designer, all wrapped in on. When I traced her through her Viennese Mom to Addis Ababa, she told me about the leather-craft World Bank project she was involved with. What could we do, we both wondered, and then we realized that if my company needs “Western” designers to sell to “Western”, and, increasingly, “Eastern” clientele (yes, we sell in S.E. Asia, we sell even in China, and, further East, much further East, we sell in the US, even all the way to the “East Coast” LOL!!!), then what’s more West than Ethiopia. Some people ask me where’s the next place for cheaper labour (China is getting expensive, they say), but I say, what’s the next place for fresh ideas, designs, new angles, new sources of inspiration, creativity. Go West, Young Man….and I did….Lidwina was waiting, with a big bowl of Ingera.

Lidwina: There are no guidelines as such. We are not aware of any projects that have tried something like that idea before. Or are we?

But each country has its own history, tradition and present life – which are great recourses for creativity. Ethiopia has clearly developed a strong language in terms of artistic expression/design. It is a strong basis on which can be built especially if some further investment is done in terms of education (language, design, use of internet and computer) and network building.

Ami: We are creating the model as we go. We use the things we have and try to make them work in harmony. We can then welcome new elements that we consider as beneficial. What do we have: There is a Thai factory, well established with lots of global connections to buyers. It has a strong creative design team there headed by Efi, who’s so closely attuned to fashion and lifestyle trends, having designed and created in Paris, California, Tunis (he went “Beyond Tunis” already 15 years ago), Laos (setting a UN sponsored women’s fashion products cooperative) and for the past 9 years, Bangkok. As he is adopting Thai values, his team of Thai designers are craving Western values; what a mess! So, why not to complicate an already complicated life by digging and tapping a new fountain of creative youth.

Lidwina knew her way in Ethiopia so well, she was so well tuned in to a large network of painters, artists, manuscript writers, tribal chiefs, shamans, you name it. She could write the biography of each of them. Nobody I knew was interested in Africa!!! But I thought, lets throw the conventions straight out of the window. So, I went to Ethiopia expecting the worst. What did I find? I found the worst!!! But then I also found the very best. I was stunned by the amount of cultural and artistic debris collecting rust and dust. A mind-boggling network of King Solomon Mines of the soul, treasures dug deep into the spirit.

Lidwina was teaching me that “capacity” is not just for factory managers. Its about people.... Its hard for selfish “biznessmen” like me to get, but with her enthusiasm, she got me on board. On my side, I was trying to hint to her that the “Private Sector”, rather than being the source of all evil in the Universe, could actually build “human capacities” fast and effectively. I think I got her on board. I discovered the existence of a civil sector, she rediscovered the existence of the private sector.

I’d love to tap into a promising new kind of networking that breaks conventions on sectoral and geographic divides. West or East, Private, Civil or Public, who cares? All are welcome.

One condition though: ITS GOT TO WORK.

Lidwina: But one of the most important issues for me was and still is, that this idea has to work for all, the factory, Tel Dan, in Bangkok, as well as for the designers in Ethiopia. Both need to benefit!! All have to develop in the process and gain. So how to get there?

Before we started with our first design-session last summer I selected the best manuscript writers, traditional painters, designers and students I had worked with in the past year. The backgrounds of these people were very different. Some were priests, others students, some had hardly any education, all came from different places from all over Ethiopia.

With this very selective bunch of talented people we developed wonderful textile designs. The themes we worked on were requests from Tel Dan in Thailand, Tel-Dan collected themes globally. It was a try, no one in this particular group has ever done textile design before. The two weeks were devided into an educational part – to introduce basic textile design issues and the other time was used for pure design sessions. Throughout all the time intense and fruitful discussions were going on inbetween the designers and myself. It was wonderful, manuscript writers learned from artists, designers from traditional painters.

Ami and Lidwina: Where are we heading, whats the "flight plan"? We went through a workshop in Addis, but it will need additional input, and it will need critical mass to take
off. Could we create a community of artists in Ethiopia, link them on
line with the latest retail trends in the consumer destinations, bring
them over to Thailand to work with our team, go there, organize
additional workshops, offer them scholarships, take them to the consumer destination centers, give them a face, give them a voice, right there, on center stage.

The internet, modern transportation, will allow it to happen much easier, and
perhaps will allow it to happen fast and maybe spread. But let there be
no mistakes: These are tools, not substance. You can't do it only online,
you need to meet, discuss, inpire face to face, and you don't just fly in
and out, you need to stay for periods, in both directions.

It can and should be done in other places, for other products. Maybe there
will be more destinations for us too (Ami: Lidwina worked in many countries, and we have the capacity to move around the globe). But we guess that it is also a
question of focus. This is not a gimmick. This is about people, This is about… “CAPACITY BUILDING”. You need to connect with
these people, work with them, you can go to other places too, but you
don't just jump around like crazy. This is about the most important
business there is: EDUCATION. But it’s also very much about a very
educational activity: BUSINESS. In that order of priority, (Ami: OK!!!) .