News
Solar Joe and the soccer star: a MEDA match made in Cuba Readers with long memories may recall MEDA’s solar oven project in Cuba in the mid1990s. At that time, Canadian environmental entrepreneur Joe Froese (sometimes known as “Solar Joe”) devised lowcost solar ovens made from recycled printing press plates. Under MEDA’s sponsorship he moved to Cuba to build and test-market the ovens to be used in homes as well as in medical clinics and daycare centers. Part of the reason for the initiative was that Cuba no longer received cheap oil from the recently-collapsed Soviet Union and many Cubans had taken to using unsafe fuels. A total of 218 domestic solar ovens and 49 institutional ovens were produced during the two-year project, providing Cubans with a clean source of heat for cooking and other applications such as sterilizing medical instruments. In the meantime, Froese married a Cuban woman, Esperanza, who then accompanied him back to Manitoba and started her own travel business. Fast-forward to the present: The couple now has two children, one of them 14-yearold Kianz, an emerging soccer phenomenon whose potential is sadly under-utilized in Canada’s fledgling soccer culture. To help the lad develop his prowess, the Froese family recently migrated back to Cuba, where soccer reigns. The move paid off, as Kianz made it onto the Under-17 Cuban National Team and recently played in the FIFA U-17 World Cup qualifying matches in Jamaica. Froese’s story caught the attention of Lesley Hughes, a veteran Winnipeg journalist. Together they are writing a book — titled Marrying Cuba The Marketplace March April 2011
— which is expected to be published soon. Froese says the book’s Foreword will be written by his former boss, Ron Braun, who was MEDA’s executive vice-president at the time. The book is described as follows: “Marrying Cuba is ... an intimate look into a forbidden world — Fidel Castro’s Cuba as it slouches toward its end. Author Joe Froese is a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur who married into a Cuban family and discovered that, for better or for worse, he had married the country, its history and its future. Here he shares his struggles to understand ‘Cubanismo’ ... everything Cuban ... life, love, birth, death, money, the ever‑present state, and the Cuban love‑hate relationship with the Maximum Leader. We go with him into the hospital, the classroom, the bank, the graveyard. As in any marriage, we see joy, affirmation, confusion, disappoint-
ment and heartache. Most of all, we share Joe’s discovery that human beings can never escape the changes we make for love. Marrying Cuba will leave readers deeply interested in the changed Cuba to
come...and better prepared to understand her.” We’ll keep you posted on the book’s progress, and the unfolding story of the unplanned impact of an early MEDA venture. ◆
Canadian Mennonite University launches new degree in business Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), Winnipeg, will offer a new business degree this fall — Bachelor of Business Administration Co‑op (BBA Co‑op). The four‑year BBA features a co‑op component option, which will involve six terms of work placement in addition to eight academic terms. Students will be able to complete the degree, including the work terms, in five years. Gordon Matties, dean of humanities and sciences, says the new program aims to not only equip students for workplace performance but also provide opportunities to “reflect constructively and critically in the process of shaping worldview and character.” Students will grapple with tough ethical decisions common in the marketplace and explore justice considerations as they engage the world. “These commitments are relatively unique to the program,” says Craig Martin, assistant professor of business and organizational administration. “We will be going beyond traditional courses
Kianz Froese, 14, sports his Cuban National Team jacket, which his proud father describes as “a real trophy. You can’t buy one, you earn it.” Former Cuban president Fidel Castro wore an identical jacket when he appeared on public television a few years to dispel rumors that he had died. 22 26
in business ethics and legal regulation.” Martin, who will head the program, adds that the BBA Co-op will offer a stronger work experience component than other business programs in the province. “What is unique is the amount of co‑op experience students will get,” he says. Besides more experiential learning, students will have more opportunity to gain work experience and earn money to pay for their education, says Matties. The seeds of the BBA Co-op program go back to before the founding of CMU in 2000, says Matties. “CMU supporters in the business community have been encouraging us for years to move in this direction.” CMU offers undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences, business, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music, music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in theological studies and Christian ministry. ◆
