When we in the West think of sub-Saharan African, images of drought ridden crops and large, starving families can often spring to mind. Yet, contrary to our many misconceptions, Africa is set to become a key producer helping to feed our starving planet. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Africa’
Africa: From Food Scarcity to Surplus
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012Cheap Smartphones Flood Developing World
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
Smartphones are one of the most empowering tools on the planet. They provide a portal to the Internet’s fountain of knowledge and they allow access to the world’s communities via social media.
When everyone on earth can afford a smartphone, a more just civilization will be upon us.
And that day is arriving faster than many may anticipate, thanks to companies like China’s Huawei, who released an $80 smartphone into the Kenyan marketplace earlier this year.
So far, over 350,000 Kenyans have gained access to the smartphone known as IDEOS, which runs Google’s open-source operating system – Android – and gives users access to over 300,000 various apps.
Some of these apps are opening huge doors for ambitious Kenyans, like Medkenya, a tool that puts a library of health information at the user’s fingertips and performs other helpful tasks like guiding the ill to hospitals.
Another app, called M-Farm, lets farmers broadcast product prices and locations to the world via SMS. Other similar agri-apps can help diagnose and track the spread of crop diseases via crowdsourcing.
By empowering individuals and uplifting small businesses and farmers, low cost smartphones are sure to be one of the most integral tools to ever help ease humanity’s burdens.
It’s really happening! Our world is getting better by the instant, at a faster pace than ever before. Pretty soon the dark days of feckless infighting and battling over basics will be behind us.
We’ll soon enter a new era where we can focus our energy on more fruitful endeavors, like allowing the the human spirit to flourish throughout the universe.
Horn of Africa – Where’s the Hope?
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
The area straddling Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya, has been dubbed the “triangle of death” as the worst drought in more than fifty years grips the area. And the stories coming out of there are entirely heart-wrenching.
So where’s the positive spin? Where’s the silver lining?
Well, for the hundreds of thousands of people who could very well starve to death, I don’t see anything uplifting. But in the bigger picture, there is some hope to be garnered.
For one, it’s great to see a world still willing to come together and help. On Monday, the U.N. World Food Program announced a plan to airlift food aid into Somalia, and the United Nations has raised $1 billion to address the issue.
But most inspiring is the knowledge that days of starvation and famine on earth will soon be obsolete.
Science and technology are moving forward through leaps and bounds, faster than ever before, and will soon provide us with the means to meet the basic needs of every single human.
So, while it can suck to live in a world where mass starvation exists, we can at least take comfort in the thought that things won’t always be like this.
South Sudan Sucedes
Saturday, July 9th, 2011After decades of bloody civil war, a new nation graces the world map: South Sudan. The African nation has broken free from the north to become the 193rd country on earth.
While severely impoverished states are often rife with political instability and inherent violence, Sudan has been particularly hard struck, with an estimated 2 million lives lost in the past 20 years.
Having survived such dire conditions, the Sudanese people are eager for change.
Freed from their oppressive government and blessed with rich natural resources, it will be nice to see if the people’s present jubilation spills over into rekindled optimism, helping to rebuild the war-torn nation and setting South Sudan up as a beacon for the rest of the developing world.
Update on Egypt
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011The revolution is building in Egypt.
The Egyptian regime has outlawed any anti-government demonstrations and are trying to block internet access to social sites, like Facebook and Twitter.
Protesters and police have both been killed.
Hundreds have been arrested. One journalist had a dictaphone to record his being confined and corralled away along with dozens of other activists.
Regular civilians have been opening their Wifi access to the public, lending their support to the cause.
Even Egyptian police captains want regime change.
Here’s hoping the Egyptian establishment’s hired goons will not successfully silence this uprising.
