Flash

The semester is ending, and I thought it would be okay to do something I’m personally not a fan of: posting a blog without a link to the article.

So this week’s post does not come from the internet, and so I don’t have a link. I found it today in a Vogue magazine, and I thought it was interesting enough to share. The month is November, but it’s only the third (or fourth…fifth?) of December, so it’s ok.

Andrea Tese is a photographer who teaches photography in Malawi, as a kind of job-training for people who do not have the option of going to professional school. She goes with an organization called Goods for Good, which donates surplus materials from American companies to children in Africa. During her stay, she lives in a village called Mchezi, where there is no street lights, no telephone, and a few wells. She had to dress in a way that “respectfully covered her legs” , and boil the water for her shower. Each day after the morning ritual, she grabbed her camera and walked to the community-based organization where the Tailor-in-Training program is taught.

There are people creating uniforms for orphan girls from fabric that would have otherwise gone unused by fashion houses in the U.S. Waste there is transformed into opportunity. While the girls have the opportunity to attend school with the uniform, the people who make them learn a new way to earn a living. Andrea teaches photography to HIV positives. By the end of the class, she distributes 100 disposable cameras donated by a NY company. This was the first time her “students” had ever held a camera. They had three days to shoot 35 pictures, and came up with some pretty amazing frames: because they had so little opportunity, they chose carefully the things they wanted to portray. She hopes that capturing life will give them life, and open new windows.

South Africa Goes Blue

Article:

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

Article

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. =]

Signs of Globalization in Africa? (couldn't help myself...)

p.s. Check today's first post, too!

It takes a Woman to save a country? A Lovely Dream.

It seems like hope for Africa is along the way, at least for Liberia. And the hope, of course, comes in the hands of a woman =]. I found this article about Ellen Sirleaf, the first female president in Africa (with an incredible background), and the changes she has made to her country: apparently the woman represents hope to many Africans (and westerners!). It looks like she has been fighting corruption pretty accurately, stating that women have less reasons to be corrupt and therefore make better presidents. Statements aside, it seems to be working: she just got $4.6 billion worth of debt relief through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Plus, of course, women work harder (her words, not mine…). She also got an enormous loan for Liberian businesses, which should improve the overall economy of the country.

The writer of the article seems highly skeptical about it, but I believe the woman has come for the good of the country. She seems highly motivated, or maybe I’m just in the mood for hope. Either way, it’s a good investment of time to read the entire article (5 pages) to see things that can be done to help corrupt nations. The writer seems to believe her efforts to be silly in a country that has been destroyed by war, but change comes in the small things, right? Her people seem to mostly like her. Coming from an extremely violent marriage, she seems to understand what it is like to be tied-up to circumstances, and the need for change.

p.s. There is also some cool info on Liberia's history.