Friday, October 19, 2012

Listen to Nehanda Radio Live Zimbabwe



Who is Nehanda Radio?

Nehanda Radio is a Zimbabwean radio station that provides 24 hour running news on the website and during broadcasts. We also aim to provide breaking news as it happens via our popular e-mail alert system which listeners and readers can subscribe to. Zimbabwe is in the midst of a great tragedy and we believe we have a role to play in informing everyone involved in trying to change things.

Why the name

We draw our inspiration from Mbuya Nehanda, the mother of our nation. She was the spirit medium that was the inspiration behind the 1896-97 first chimurenga. When the Europeans arrived in Zimbabwe, Nehanda’s spirit medium was a woman by the name of Nyakasikana. She lived in the northern part of Zimbabwe and used her leadership to spearhead the first war of resistance (Chimurenga CheKutanga) against European domination of the region.


Listen to Nehanda Radio Live

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Famine In East Africa



With East Africa facing its worst drought in 60 years, affecting more than 11 million people, the United Nations has declared a famine in the region for the first time in a generation. Overcrowded refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia are receiving some 3,000 new refugees every day, as families flee from famine-stricken and war-torn areas. The meager food and water that used to support millions in the Horn of Africa is disappearing rapidly, and families strong enough to flee for survival must travel up to a hundred miles, often on foot, hoping to make it to a refugee center, seeking food and aid. Many do not survive the trip. Officials warn that 800,000 children could die of malnutrition across the East African nations of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Kenya. Aid agencies are frustrated by many crippling situations: the slow response of Western governments, local governments and terrorist groups blocking access, terrorist and bandit attacks, and anti-terrorism laws that restrict who the aid groups can deal with -- not to mention the massive scale of the current crisis. Below are a few images from the past several weeks in East Africa.







Source:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/07/famine-in-east-africa/100115/

BusinessDay - Poor crops ‘to worsen’ hunger season in Horn states

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Izhar cardboard bike project

Film-maker & producer: Giora Kariv. gigicom77@gmail.com Photography: Uri Ackerman



Contact for the bike: danit@erb.co.il



For more information and content about this project:



erb.co.il/en/aboutus.asp?p=yxdn-vrjd-ufzg-ukyv



ERB in Facebook:



facebook.com/pages/ERB-Financial-Group/108159489328980



ERB in Twitter:



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Izhar cardboard bike project on Vimeo









GET A LIFE NOW: Izhar cardboard bike project on Vimeo: Izhar cardboard bike project on Vimeo ERB provides a full-spectrum of customized financial services for start-up, high-tech,...

"The How of Happiness" Sonja Lyubomirsky - TalkRational







Daily Mail a daily in England gives away the most important text in the book???


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/you...n_page_id=1908



Quote: 

Take these 12 steps to a happier you

By SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY (Taken from the book by DM )» Last updated at 18:21pm on 7th December 2007




STEP 1 - Show gratitude (* There's a lot more to gratitude than saying "thank you." Emerging research shows that people who are consistently grateful are happier, more energetic and hopeful, more forgiving and less materialistic. Gratitude needs to be practised daily because it doesn't necessarily come naturally.)



STEP 2 - Cultivate Optimism


STEP 3 - Avoid overthinking and social comparison 
(* Many of us believe that when we feel down we should try to focus inwardly to attain self-insight and find solutions to our problems. But numerous studies have shown that overthinking sustains or worsens sadness.)



STEP 4 - Practice kindness



STEP 5 - Nurture social relationships



STEP 6 - Develop coping skills



STEP 7 - Learn to forgive (* Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, pardoning or condoning. Nor is it a denial of your own hurt. Forgiveness is a shift in thinking and something that you do for yourself and not for the person who has harmed you. Research confirms that clinging to bitterness or hate harms you more than the object of your hatred. Forgiving people are less likely to be hostile, depressed, anxious or neurotic.

* Forgive yourself for past wrongs. Recognising that you too can be a transgressor will make you more empathetic to others. )



STEP 8 - Find more flow (* "Flow" was a phrase coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1960s. It means you are totally immersed in what you are doing and unaware of yourself. Happy people have the capacity to enjoy their lives even when their material conditions are lacking and even when many of their goals have not been reached.)



STEP 9 - Savour the day



STEP 10 - Commit to your goals (* People who strive for something personally significant, whether it's learning a new craft or changing careers, are far happier than those who don't have strong dreams or aspirations. Working towards a goal is more important to wellbeing than its attainment.)



STEP 11 - Take care of your soul (* A growing body of psychological research suggests that religious people are happier, healthier and recover better after traumas than nonreligious people. ...
* Find the sacred in ordinary life ...)



STEP 12 - Take care of your body 














"The How of Happiness" Sonja Lyubomirsky - TalkRational









Saturday, September 22, 2012

Africa next: With investment outpacing aid, is this a new golden age for the poorest continent? - The Globe and Mail

 

Watch

Video: Investigating the Africa boom
Children work to separate and crush rice in the village of Romaro, Sierra Leone, April 21, 2012. Mining and agricultural business in this area have given some new opportunities to villagers, but they are having to adapt to a new wage-based economy.

 

In this first of a six-part series, Globe and Mail Africa correspondent Geoffrey York investigates how Africa's growth is changing its future.
In the dusty streets of the tiny village of Romaro, a building boom is under way. Crumbling mud shacks are being replaced by new tin-roofed houses. Almost overnight, the village’s ancient way of life has vanished. Most of its farmland has been swallowed up by a Swiss multinational, Addax Bioenergy, which has leased more than 14,000 hectares of Sierra Leone for a $330-million sugar-cane plantation to produce ethanol for the European market.
In pictures: The faces of development in Sierra Leone

Centuries of subsistence farming have been replaced by wage labour as the 200 villagers are propelled into the globalized economy. Most families in Romaro now have at least one person employed by the Swiss company, which pays leases and helps to plow the remaining farmland. The money has allowed the villagers to build 13 new houses.
“We get a wage every month,” says Mohamed Kamara, a security guard at the sugar-cane plantation. “Now, I have job security, and I can get credit from a bank. It’s far better than before.”
It's the unexpected message of today's Africa. Every week, another bank or investment fund is touting it as the next big thing, an emerging lion to follow the Asian tigers. Resource exports are soaring, and growth is climbing to unprecedented heights – second only to Asia, and fast catching up. And for the first time in generations, Africa is receiving more investment than foreign aid.
But people tell a different story just a few kilometres away from Romaro, in Lungi Acre. The 700 villagers there have been boxed in by the Swiss project, their huts surrounded by the vast plantation. Rice and cassava fields were bulldozed, and people were left with so little water and farmland that they say they must buy imported rice in the markets. Just outside the village, a water reservoir is fenced off with razor wire, and guards patrol to chase villagers away from the sugar cane.
“Addax is making the situation much worse,” says Abdullah Serry, an elder. “There’s no water for the little land we have left. We were dependent on those lands for all these years. We depended on them for survival. Now, we rely on Addax for everything.”
The dynamic of the two Sierra Leonean villages is the tale of the new African boom.
As investors and traders pour in, some of the poorest corners of the continent are being transformed. “Tomorrow’s Africa is going to be an economic force,” says a report from Goldman Sachs. KPMG trumpets the Africa story as “the rise of the phoenix.”
Many factors have made this possible. After decades of stagnation, in recent years most African countries began to reform their economies. Wars, coups, political instability and disease have declined since the late 1990s. And rising commodity prices have lured investment in African resources.
Mobile technology is leapfrogging ahead (Africa has become one of the fastest-growing markets for Canadian firm Research in Motion’s BlackBerry) and a new consumer class has been born. Multinational retailers are leaping in, and even Wal-Mart recently acquired a chain with nearly 300 stores in 14 African countries.
The prosperity of China has been a particular spark, with about 2,000 Chinese companies investing $32-billion in Africa by the end of 2010. Beijing’s trade with Africa has soared from $2-billion to an incredible $166-billion in the past dozen years.
But what is the truth behind the hype? The Globe and Mail has spent months investigating the African boom, journeying from Congo and Burkina Faso to Liberia and Botswana, talking to everyone from miners and farmers to factory owners and chief executives.
The rise of Africa is an issue with huge ramifications for Canada, since it could affect how we tailor our foreign aid, how our mining and energy companies choose their next targets and where our manufacturers will find their future markets. Yet the realities are obscured by lingering clichés about Africa and an unwillingness to consider the social costs.
As foreign investment mounts, it often brings with it traumatic social dislocation and a distorted economy. The money often disappears into the pockets of a corrupt elite, while ordinary Africans see fewer benefits. Oil-rich countries such as Nigeria and Angola are the most extreme examples, where billions of dollars in oil revenue have gone into the foreign bank accounts of top officials, leaving most of their citizens poorer than ever.
It does not have to be this way. A few African countries, such as Botswana and Ghana, have carefully managed their resource revenue and transformed themselves into middle-income countries. Botswana has capitalized on its diamond mines by creating a fledgling industry in diamond sorting and processing, and it is increasingly seen as a model for the continent.
Single page





Africa next: With investment outpacing aid, is this a new golden age for the poorest continent? - The Globe and Mail

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Small is Beautiful


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Eco Power Africa - A Mini Power Grid Startup

Eco Power answers a need for more mini-grid energy startups across the continent.Their product could be self built or purchased:
The GEK gasifier which is designed to consume kilos, not tons of biomass daily. The GEK gasifier is clearly a winner for those who have plenty of biomass lying about, such as lumber sawmills, farmers or food processors. Other entrepreneurs will have to obtain biomass. Since biomass is waste by-product, the main expense will not be the biomass itself but transporting it to the gasifier.
A need for decentralized micro-grids:
the solution is modeled on the telecom breakthrough in Africa. Following the central-station model as practiced in the West meant that Africa had no tele–communications for decades. Cellular telephone technology allowed local entrepreneurs to build small, cheap, and rapidly deployable cell towers. Cellular technology enabled Africa to avoid replicating the expensive centralized model.

The same can be done with electricity generation. Instead of investing billions in constructing major power stations, transmission towers, and distribution and metering infrastructure, it is much easier to deploy micro-to-small power generating nodes that will supply electricity efficiently on a localized basis.

By default, power generation in most of Africa is already Distributed Generation. Institutions and individuals that can afford it use diesel genrators. But diesel is much too expensive, inefficient and polluting.

Because there is no readily available distribution network for conventional fossil fuels – gas, oil or coal – distributed generation in Africa will depend on the advent of green technologies.

EcoPower Africa’s solution is to generate electricity with locally available biomass fuel, making electricity much more affordable.
Coupled with biogas generation, mini-grids like these could solve the energy power generation problem. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, September 15, 2012





 




 




PERMANENT ERROR

 
During 2009-2010 Hugo photographed the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. The area, on the outskirts of a slum known as Agbogbloshie, is referred to by local inhabitants as Sodom and Gomorrah, a vivid acknowledgment of the profound inhumanity of the place. When Hugo asked the inhabitants what they called the pit where the burning takes place, they repeatedly responded: ‘For this place, we have no name’.

 Their response is a reminder of the alien circumstances that are imposed on marginal communities of the world by the West’s obsession with consumption and obsolesce. This wasteland, where people and cattle live on mountains of motherboards, monitors and discarded hard drives, is far removed from the benefits accorded by the unrelenting advances of technology.

The UN Environment Program has stated that Western countries produce around 50 million tons of digital waste every year. In Europe, only 25 percent of this type of waste is collected and effectively recycled. Much of the rest is piled in containers and shipped to developing countries, supposedly to reduce the digital divide, to create jobs and help people.

In reality, the inhabitants of dumps like Agbogbloshie survive largely by burning the electronic devices to extract copper and other metals out of the plastic used in their manufacture. The electronic waste contaminates rivers and lagoons with consequences that are easily imaginable. In 2008 Green Peace took samples of the burnt soil in Agbogbloshie and found high concentrations of lead, mercury, thallium, hydrogen cyanide and PVC.

Notions of time and progress are collapsed in these photographs. There are elements in the images that fast-forward us to an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it, yet the alchemy on this site and the strolling cows recall a pastoral existence that rewinds our minds to a medieval setting. The cycles of history and the lifespan of our technology are both clearly apparent in this cemetery of artifacts from the industrialised world. We are also reminded of the fragility of the information and stories that were stored in the computers which are now just black smoke and melted plastic.







Link: http://www.pieterhugo.com/




PIETER HUGO - Photographer








 





PERMANENT ERROR




During 2009-2010 Hugo photographed the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. The area, on the outskirts of a slum known as Agbogbloshie, is referred to by local inhabitants as Sodom and Gomorrah, a vivid acknowledgment of the profound inhumanity of the place. When Hugo asked the inhabitants what they called the pit where the burning takes place, they repeatedly responded: ‘For this place, we have no name’.

Their response is a reminder of the alien circumstances that are imposed on marginal communities of the world by the West’s obsession with consumption and obsolesce. This wasteland, where people and cattle live on mountains of motherboards, monitors and discarded hard drives, is far removed from the benefits accorded by the unrelenting advances of technology.

The UN Environment Program has stated that Western countries produce around 50 million tons of digital waste every year. In Europe, only 25 percent of this type of waste is collected and effectively recycled. Much of the rest is piled in containers and shipped to developing countries, supposedly to reduce the digital divide, to create jobs and help people. In reality, the inhabitants of dumps like Agbogbloshie survive largely by burning the electronic devices to extract copper and other metals out of the plastic used in their manufacture. The electronic waste contaminates rivers and lagoons with consequences that are easily imaginable. In 2008 Green Peace took samples of the burnt soil in Agbogbloshie and found high concentrations of lead, mercury, thallium, hydrogen cyanide and PVC.

Notions of time and progress are collapsed in these photographs. There are elements in the images that fast-forward us to an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it, yet the alchemy on this site and the strolling cows recall a pastoral existence that rewinds our minds to a medieval setting. The cycles of history and the lifespan of our technology are both clearly apparent in this cemetery of artifacts from the industrialised world. We are also reminded of the fragility of the information and stories that were stored in the computers which are now just black smoke and melted plastic.









PIETER HUGO - Photographer

Link:  http://www.pieterhugo.com/




Friday, May 11, 2012

Mali Crisis Worsens West Africa Food Crisis | Special Section | World | Epoch Times

Mali Crisis Worsens West Africa Food Crisis | Special Section | World | Epoch Times



West Africa’s Sahel region is facing a massive food shortage, with as many as 15 million people facing hunger or starvation, a high-level United Nations official said.
The recent clashes between Tuareg-led rebels and the Malian government have worsened the food insecurity in the Sahel region, a belt-like area that stretches across Africa, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Tens of thousands of people have fled Mali to nearby countries such as Niger, where food is in short supply.
“In this case, the crisis is different than it’s ever been in the past,” said Ertharin Cousin, the Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP), referring to crises in 2005 and 2010. “It’s even more complicated because of the evolving conflict situation in Mali as well as the high food prices,” she said in a press release.
Cousin said around 35,000 refugees have poured into Niger from Mali in the past several months, exacerbating problems caused by a rain shortfall and failed harvest in the region. The lean season, which technically starts in June, has already started for some families.
“Because the rains failed last season, what you’re seeing is that the hungry poor, the most vulnerable populations, are now at the point where they have depleted their assets,” Cousin said.
However, with the political situation in Mali still in flux, the U.N. expects even more people to cross into Niger.
“My father gave me a goat that I sold to pay for transportation from Menaka (in eastern Mali) to Niger, but it was not enough for all of us so I left my three youngest children with my cousins,” Mariama, 47, was quoted as saying by the U.N.
“We could not stay in Menaka as my family members are also having problems to feed their own families; we just did not want to be an extra burden.”
Ousseini, a 30-year-old Malian teacher, said he was forced to sell some goats and a television to get enough money to take himself, his wife, son, and seven nephews to the Mangaize camp in Niger. “We left because of insecurity, but also because I have not been paid since February,” he said.
Around 1 million children risk starving to death in the near future in the Sahel region if the international community idles, the U.N. said.
The Sahel is the transitional point between the Sudanian Savannas in the south and the Sahara desert, and cuts across Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Sudan including Darfur, and Eritrea.
Niger is the worst affected country in the region, Cousin said. The WFP has begun an emergency operation to feed 3.3 million people in Niger, focusing on children under two.
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

West Africa’s Sahel region is facing a massive food shortage, with as many as 15 million people facing hunger or starvation, a high-level United Nations official said.
The recent clashes between Tuareg-led rebels and the Malian government have worsened the food insecurity in the Sahel region, a belt-like area that stretches across Africa, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Tens of thousands of people have fled Mali to nearby countries such as Niger, where food is in short supply.
“In this case, the crisis is different than it’s ever been in the past,” said Ertharin Cousin, the Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP), referring to crises in 2005 and 2010. “It’s even more complicated because of the evolving conflict situation in Mali as well as the high food prices,” she said in a press release.
Cousin said around 35,000 refugees have poured into Niger from Mali in the past several months, exacerbating problems caused by a rain shortfall and failed harvest in the region. The lean season, which technically starts in June, has already started for some families.
“Because the rains failed last season, what you’re seeing is that the hungry poor, the most vulnerable populations, are now at the point where they have depleted their assets,” Cousin said.
However, with the political situation in Mali still in flux, the U.N. expects even more people to cross into Niger.
“My father gave me a goat that I sold to pay for transportation from Menaka (in eastern Mali) to Niger, but it was not enough for all of us so I left my three youngest children with my cousins,” Mariama, 47, was quoted as saying by the U.N.
“We could not stay in Menaka as my family members are also having problems to feed their own families; we just did not want to be an extra burden.”
Ousseini, a 30-year-old Malian teacher, said he was forced to sell some goats and a television to get enough money to take himself, his wife, son, and seven nephews to the Mangaize camp in Niger. “We left because of insecurity, but also because I have not been paid since February,” he said.
Around 1 million children risk starving to death in the near future in the Sahel region if the international community idles, the U.N. said.
The Sahel is the transitional point between the Sudanian Savannas in the south and the Sahara desert, and cuts across Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Sudan including Darfur, and Eritrea.
Niger is the worst affected country in the region, Cousin said. The WFP has begun an emergency operation to feed 3.3 million people in Niger, focusing on children under two.
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Bid to stop elephant poaching in Cameroon ends in violence - Calling Card News

Bid to stop elephant poaching in Cameroon ends in violence - Calling Card News


Bid to stop elephant poaching in Cameroon ends in violence

March 12, 2012


Poachers have always targeted elephants for their ivory tusks, but the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) recently reported more than 300 have been slaughtered in the past few months. In an effort to stop the illegal slaughter of these creatures, the IFAW and the Cameroon government have employed military force.

However, this tactic resulted in violence. A clash between poachers and the Cameroon Rapid Intervention Battalion left 10 elephants, one soldier and one poacher dead.

"The fight against poaching is a war and like any other war there will be casualties," said Celine Sissler Bienvenu, director of IFAW France and head of operations in Africa. "These poachers are working in gangs. We found shells indicating they are armed with military-issue automatic or semi-automatic weapons... Villagers who have come into contact with the poachers were told of their plans to collect as much ivory as they can until the end of March."


The best way to put an end to the unnecessary slaughter of elephants in Cameroon, according to Sissler Bienvenu, is to remove the demand for ivory on an international level.