South Africa Goes Blue

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South Africa recently joined over 160 countries to mark the World Diabetes Day. Diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol screenings were done at a hospital in Bloemfontein. This year, Table Mountain in South Africa lit up in blue to fight diabetes, as did numerous monumental buildings in other countries. They’re bringing diabetes to light.

I remember back when diabetes in Africa was still a joke… that was before Jamie’s post on how it’s growing in modernized nations. Now it seems like they’re aware of the problem, and actually doing something to prevent/stop it. It’s only one day, but every long journey begins with a single step (or something like that…). It’s an official UN day, and seems to be doing a great good in South Africa. The blue circle is the global symbol of diabetes. More than doing check-ups, the day is important because it brings awareness of the problem, and keeps it “in the public spotlight”.

Nile at Night

Article:

I was looking around for this week’s post, when this picture from the NASA website caught my attention. The article was even more interesting, and it’s so relevant to what we usually discuss in class that I had to post it. I’m not sure this qualifies for an article, but since this is a blog about pretty much anything related to Africa, I’m going to give it a shot.
The shiny area in the picture is the Nile River. The picture was taken by NASA at night, to show (through night lights) where population was concentrated in the region. I thought it was incredible to see how people are found mostly around the Nile, even though we’ve discussed this so many times in class. This is still because most of Egypt’s population depends on the Nile to grow their crops (even though they have irrigation systems) and so life away from it would be much harder. Remember that the Nile spreads farther south into other countries as well, and that the same thing happens there. Cairo (Egypt) is the brightest part of the “long-stemmed flower”. Seeing a picture of it makes it a little more real.

Sahel Music and Technology Addicts

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Villagers in the Sahara are swapping songs via bluetooth and archiving them in their cellphones. Do they have those? Of course! even in villages that don't have reception ;). "They're not just phones, they're all purpose media devices". According to the article, people in WestAfrica use their phones in much the same way we use our computers. This, if you recall, takes place in the "sahel", the desert we saw on the video in class. Somehow the image of boys crossing the sahel with their cattle, surviving on milk because they don't have enough food, and listening to music on their phones seems funny to me.

Phones are being used as a way of exchanging culture; the guy in the article uploaded some of his western music into the phones, and copied some of the African music for himself, then put the songs together as a cassette, to show the world what the sahel people listen to. There is a link where you can listen to the songs. This is proof that no matter how poor, hungry, or destroyed by war a place is, there is always a little extra space for Art. =]

Wilderness

I found this picture taken by an amateur photographer in Africa, and just thought it was cool enough to share. =]