An enemy is someone to study. During 27 years of captivity in South Africa, Nelson Mandela studied the Afrikaners, descendants of South Africa's Dutch settlers, who created the apartheid system that made blacks second class citizens in their own country. He learned their language, studied their leaders and made friends with their prison guards. South Africa no longer has an apartheid system.
My old home town of Chicago has a lot of local problems, a high murder rate is one. But Chicago also is enrolling more high school students in International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. (There also are IB programs for younger students.) These programs enable students to look out at the world with confidence, not fear.
Students who can trace the Yangtze River from the busy port at Shanghai to the lake district at Wuhan and westward to China's largest city, which IB students are apt to know is Chongqing, rather than Beijing, are not afraid to learn about China's economic and military expansion. They also know the Chinese Communist Party is struggling to block the exercise of constitutional guarantees, attendance at religious services, democracy protests in Hong Kong, tax evasion by its movie stars, Gobi Desert sand storms from adding to air pollution and climate change's rising seas from swamping its artificial islands.
International Baccalaureate programs, begun in 1968, originally were developed for the children of diplomats, military officers, and business executives frequently transferred to different countries. By satisfying rigorous IB standards, students are prepared to satisfy entrance requirements at colleges and universities wherever they might live. To learn more about IB programs and to find schools that offer them, go to ibo.org.
(Also see the earlier post "Introduce Disadvantaged Kids to the World.")
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Monday, February 25, 2019
Friday, December 28, 2018
A New Start
As 2019 approaches, it's time for a new start. An African-American panelist discussing race relations in America observed the Civil Rights Movement offered a more promising starting point from which to consider future race relations than the era of slavery. Nelson Mandela emerged from apartheid and 28 years in prison in South Africa with the same idea. Basically, he asked, what is gained by doing the same thing to whites as they did to blacks, when blacks are in power?
When blacks gained power in neighboring Zimbabwe, the government ignored Mandela's advice, seized white farms, plunged the country's economy into a rapid decline, and left the population dependent on food aid to avoid starvation.
The point is, at the beginning of 2019, we are free to choose where we want to begin. There are some great starting points: the 10 Commandments, the U.S. Declaration of Independence's declaration that all men are created equal, and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Beginning 2019 with this 70-year-old declaration in mind, countries could avoid pre-World War II conditions: genocide, refugee migrations, Middle East conflict, abortion, proliferation of weapons, human trafficking, squandering natural resources, and polluting the environment.
Happy New Year!
When blacks gained power in neighboring Zimbabwe, the government ignored Mandela's advice, seized white farms, plunged the country's economy into a rapid decline, and left the population dependent on food aid to avoid starvation.
The point is, at the beginning of 2019, we are free to choose where we want to begin. There are some great starting points: the 10 Commandments, the U.S. Declaration of Independence's declaration that all men are created equal, and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Beginning 2019 with this 70-year-old declaration in mind, countries could avoid pre-World War II conditions: genocide, refugee migrations, Middle East conflict, abortion, proliferation of weapons, human trafficking, squandering natural resources, and polluting the environment.
Happy New Year!
Saturday, November 10, 2018
How Can Bananas Be 29 Cents a Pound?
You may have noticed Chiquita prints labels on bananas from Honduras over pink ribbons supporting breast cancer research. Possibly the company has seen research by Kantar Consulting in the UK. Kantar's Purpose 2020 study found "almost two-thirds of millennials and centennials...express a preference for brands that have a point of view and stand for something." Consultants went on to conclude consumers expect brands to use their social power for positive change.
Nowadays, the world has a wide variety of models that affect positive change. Religious missionaries and JFK's Peace Corps show how to bring education and skill training to impoverished areas. Experienced nongovernmental organizations rush water, food, and medical quick-fix support when earthquakes and other natural disasters strike, while international banks grant low-cost loans to finance the projects and equipment for long-term solutions. Foundations, universities, and major stockholders pressured South Africa to end apartheid by withdrawing investments from South African companies. Supermarket shoppers lent their economic power to Cesar Chavez's campaign to better conditions for lettuce pickers.
The mothers, children, and other relatives walking, riding, and floating north to escape violence and poverty in Central America crave positive social change. According to ethicalconsumer.org, United Fruit, now Chiquita, and Standard Fruit, now Dole, came to Central America in the 1890s, because fertile land and government corruption provided excellent conditions for their banana businesses. In time, grocery chains habitually began to use bananas as loss leaders, offering them at low prices to attract shoppers who would buy other items, such as greeting cards that can be $3 or more, at profitable prices. These shoppers now are in a position to pressure supermarkets to buy from suppliers who treat workers fairly. Customers, who work for a living themselves, understand employees are entitled to fair compensation for their work. Those who climb trees to harvest bananas in Guatemala cannot be expected to subsidize grocers by accepting low wages, poor education and housing, and medical problems from unsafe working conditions.
Today's greater access to worldwide information prompts both consumer concern for the exploitation of labor in foreign countries and exposure to the consequences of government corruption. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in Kenya recognizes foreign companies involved in corrupt practices "ruin our country." At the same time, what company wants to risk prosecution for bribing government officials for a construction contract in Brazil or to pay off officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, if the same commodities are available in Australia?
Migrant refugees don't want to walk miles to seek asylum from violence and poverty. Consumers and businesses have the power to change the conditions that can help them stay home.
Nowadays, the world has a wide variety of models that affect positive change. Religious missionaries and JFK's Peace Corps show how to bring education and skill training to impoverished areas. Experienced nongovernmental organizations rush water, food, and medical quick-fix support when earthquakes and other natural disasters strike, while international banks grant low-cost loans to finance the projects and equipment for long-term solutions. Foundations, universities, and major stockholders pressured South Africa to end apartheid by withdrawing investments from South African companies. Supermarket shoppers lent their economic power to Cesar Chavez's campaign to better conditions for lettuce pickers.
The mothers, children, and other relatives walking, riding, and floating north to escape violence and poverty in Central America crave positive social change. According to ethicalconsumer.org, United Fruit, now Chiquita, and Standard Fruit, now Dole, came to Central America in the 1890s, because fertile land and government corruption provided excellent conditions for their banana businesses. In time, grocery chains habitually began to use bananas as loss leaders, offering them at low prices to attract shoppers who would buy other items, such as greeting cards that can be $3 or more, at profitable prices. These shoppers now are in a position to pressure supermarkets to buy from suppliers who treat workers fairly. Customers, who work for a living themselves, understand employees are entitled to fair compensation for their work. Those who climb trees to harvest bananas in Guatemala cannot be expected to subsidize grocers by accepting low wages, poor education and housing, and medical problems from unsafe working conditions.
Today's greater access to worldwide information prompts both consumer concern for the exploitation of labor in foreign countries and exposure to the consequences of government corruption. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in Kenya recognizes foreign companies involved in corrupt practices "ruin our country." At the same time, what company wants to risk prosecution for bribing government officials for a construction contract in Brazil or to pay off officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, if the same commodities are available in Australia?
Migrant refugees don't want to walk miles to seek asylum from violence and poverty. Consumers and businesses have the power to change the conditions that can help them stay home.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
How to React When You've Been Wronged
Colombia's new President, Ivan Duque, will come to office facing a population that suffered hundreds of thousands killed by rebels who now are allowed to hold public office under the terms of a 2016 peace accord. Instead, many of his wronged constituents want retribution for crimes against their families.
In The Monarchy of Fear, Martha C. Nussbaum writes about Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the valid anger he faced as a leader of once-enslaved African-Americas in the United States. She also sees anger growing among those whose standard of living is threatened by automation and outsourcing of jobs, while others thrive from globalization.
When President Obama was asked to deliver the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in South Africa this year, he too reflected on the way globalization and technology can benefit the rich and powerful while facilitating inequality. But he reminded his audience about how Mandela responded: 1) to his over 20 years of captivity under an apartheid structure that defined the artificial domination of whites over blacks by studying the thinking of his enemies, and 2) to his election as President of South Africa by abiding by the constitutional limit of his presidential term and by not favoring any group.
Obama acknowledged, IT IS HARD to engage with people who look different and hold different views from you. But you have to keep teaching that idea of engaging with different people to ourselves and our children, he said.
Each of us has to hold hard, as Nelson Mandela did, even while he was in prison, to the firm belief that being a human entitles each of us to a human inheritance. All people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, Obama reminded his South African audience. What flows from that firm belief in the equality of rich and poor, woman and man, young and old, and every other human difference is Mandela's conclusion: "It's not justice if now you're on top, so I'm going to do the same thing that those folks were doing to me, and now I'm going to do it to you."
Nussbaum expresses the same idea. Saying something is wrong and should never happen again is valuable, but deciding to fix it by making the doer suffer is not helpful. Put another way, an African-American, speaking on a panel at a forum, observed it is more productive to go forward with an attitude based on the Civil Rights movement than an attitude derived from slavery.
Once you concentrate on your own value as a human being and that of all other humans and vow not to repeat past failures, there's hope for a better future.
In The Monarchy of Fear, Martha C. Nussbaum writes about Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the valid anger he faced as a leader of once-enslaved African-Americas in the United States. She also sees anger growing among those whose standard of living is threatened by automation and outsourcing of jobs, while others thrive from globalization.
When President Obama was asked to deliver the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in South Africa this year, he too reflected on the way globalization and technology can benefit the rich and powerful while facilitating inequality. But he reminded his audience about how Mandela responded: 1) to his over 20 years of captivity under an apartheid structure that defined the artificial domination of whites over blacks by studying the thinking of his enemies, and 2) to his election as President of South Africa by abiding by the constitutional limit of his presidential term and by not favoring any group.
Obama acknowledged, IT IS HARD to engage with people who look different and hold different views from you. But you have to keep teaching that idea of engaging with different people to ourselves and our children, he said.
Each of us has to hold hard, as Nelson Mandela did, even while he was in prison, to the firm belief that being a human entitles each of us to a human inheritance. All people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, Obama reminded his South African audience. What flows from that firm belief in the equality of rich and poor, woman and man, young and old, and every other human difference is Mandela's conclusion: "It's not justice if now you're on top, so I'm going to do the same thing that those folks were doing to me, and now I'm going to do it to you."
Nussbaum expresses the same idea. Saying something is wrong and should never happen again is valuable, but deciding to fix it by making the doer suffer is not helpful. Put another way, an African-American, speaking on a panel at a forum, observed it is more productive to go forward with an attitude based on the Civil Rights movement than an attitude derived from slavery.
Once you concentrate on your own value as a human being and that of all other humans and vow not to repeat past failures, there's hope for a better future.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Cut Off the Head and the Colombian Snake Dies?
In fact, eliminating the head of a drug cartel can spawn a host of little drug organizations, Jack Devine wrote in his book, Good Hunting. What happened after Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Qaddafi were eliminated? What have those who watched the TV version of the successful hunt and death of Pablo Escobar, Colombia's notorious drug lord, witnessed after Colombia's June 17 election? The 2,000-member National Liberation Army (ELN), though smaller than FARC's once 18,000 guerrillas, is demonstrating the challenge separate dedicated cells can present.
During 50 years that resulted in 220,000 deaths, the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of (FARC) used drugs to finance efforts to overthrow the Colombian government. Coca cultivation for the cocaine trade continues to grow, reaching a new high in 2018 with a 17% increase over 2017. Security forces have failed to stop the violence occurring in former FARC areas where cocaine production continues on the Colombian border.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for the 2016 peace accord he negotiated with FARC, could not run for another term. Two potential presidential successors emerged from the May 27 primary this year:
Ivan Duque, the conservative Democratic Central party candidate mentored by Alvaro Uribe, a major critic of the Santos peace accord and Colombia's former conservative, authoritarian president, who is now accused of accepting a bribe (a charge he denies) from right wing paramilitary groups,
ans
Gustavo Petro, a pro-peace former guerrilla member and former mayor of Bogota who also opposed President Santos.
Duque won with 45% of the vote and will take office as President on August 7. Petro may not be the only loser. When FARC controlled as much as 40% of the country, a diverse variety of species was untouched in this wide tropical area. Under Santos, scientists working on the "Colombia BIO" project began a comprehensive systematic survey in the former FARC territory with the idea of transforming biological assets into economic benefits, such as the eco-tourism Chile and Argentina plan to attract with their national park systems featuring biodiversity. How important the new regime considers funding for "Colombia BIO" is unknown.
What is known is fragmented FARC and ELN guerrilla groups, as well as paramilitary forces, continue to fight for control of the coca fields still being cultivated to supply the demand for cocaine in the US and elsewhere. Infrastructure needed to switch to legal crops and approved funding for former FARC members to set up co-ops have not materialized
ELN members live without uniforms in towns and villages as civilians who infiltrate political parties, local governments, progressive social movements, and universities. A 5-man central command, headed by Jaime Galvis, that uses encrypted computers to direct attacks has never engaged in serious peace talks.
Despite the problem of even getting ELN to a negotiating table, Duque's supporters continue to consider peace treaty terms with FARC too lenient. His congressional leader, Ernesto Macias, rejects the peace accord's provision that imposes no prison time on disarmed FARC leaders who agree to confess their crimes to a special tribunal based on the model South Africa used after apartheid. Ten non-voting members of FARC; including Sandra Ramirez, the lover of FARC's founder, Manuel Marulanda, now hold seats in Congress. Duque, who studied at Georgetown and worked for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., won election on a vague plan to foster entrepreneurship, talent, and knowledge that had more appeal to voters than Petro's idea about replacing oil, the country's major export, with a green economy based on agribusiness. Duque needs the cooperation of Macias to pass legislation to reform Colombia's pension system by raising the retirement age, to improve court efficiency, and to reduce corporate taxes.
In September, 2018, a referendum on seven measures designed to stem corruption was defeated, when only a third of the voters needed to pass it went to the polls. The death of Jorge Enrique Pizano in his home, apparently from cyanide poisoning in November, 2018, finds Colombia involved in one of the Odebrecht bribery cases spilling over from Brazil. Partners, the Odebrecht construction firm and the Grupo Aval financial group owned by Colombia's Luis Carlos Sarmiento, won a $1.6 billion contract to build Ruta del Sol, a road connecting Bogota with the Caribbean beaches. A Grupo Aval auditor, the deceased Mr. Pizano , had discovered $30 million of the $1.6 billion contract was paid for what were listed as consultancies that could have been a cover for what were, at least in part, political bribes. Grupo Aval and Nestor Humberto Martinez, Grupo Aval's attorney, denied prior knowledge about $11 million in bribes Odebrecht admitted to the U.S. Department of Justice it paid to obtain the Ruta del Sol contract. Yet in early 2018, Mr. Pizano had given the Noticias Uno TV program recordings of his secret conversations with Mr. Martinez about the consultancy payments. Mr. Martinez, who is now Colombia's Attorney General, has recused himself from all cases, including Mr. Pizano's death, relating to the Ruta del Sol contract. Public pressure urges his resignation.
Colombia has seen an influx of as many as 1.5 million immigrants fleeing dire political and economic conditions in neighboring Venezuela. Work permits, health benefits, and study opportunities have been provided for at least 442,000 as a return favor for the hospitality Venezuela offered those fleeing FARC's reign of terror. To cover Colombia's growing need for revenue, Duque considered expanding the value-added-tax to include staples, including some foods, that are now excluded, but Duque is likely to find his approval rating drop the way Santos' did to 14%, when he raised taxes. In fact, Duque's approval rating in November already is half the 54% it was a month after he took office.
,
During 50 years that resulted in 220,000 deaths, the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of (FARC) used drugs to finance efforts to overthrow the Colombian government. Coca cultivation for the cocaine trade continues to grow, reaching a new high in 2018 with a 17% increase over 2017. Security forces have failed to stop the violence occurring in former FARC areas where cocaine production continues on the Colombian border.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for the 2016 peace accord he negotiated with FARC, could not run for another term. Two potential presidential successors emerged from the May 27 primary this year:
Ivan Duque, the conservative Democratic Central party candidate mentored by Alvaro Uribe, a major critic of the Santos peace accord and Colombia's former conservative, authoritarian president, who is now accused of accepting a bribe (a charge he denies) from right wing paramilitary groups,
ans
Gustavo Petro, a pro-peace former guerrilla member and former mayor of Bogota who also opposed President Santos.
Duque won with 45% of the vote and will take office as President on August 7. Petro may not be the only loser. When FARC controlled as much as 40% of the country, a diverse variety of species was untouched in this wide tropical area. Under Santos, scientists working on the "Colombia BIO" project began a comprehensive systematic survey in the former FARC territory with the idea of transforming biological assets into economic benefits, such as the eco-tourism Chile and Argentina plan to attract with their national park systems featuring biodiversity. How important the new regime considers funding for "Colombia BIO" is unknown.
What is known is fragmented FARC and ELN guerrilla groups, as well as paramilitary forces, continue to fight for control of the coca fields still being cultivated to supply the demand for cocaine in the US and elsewhere. Infrastructure needed to switch to legal crops and approved funding for former FARC members to set up co-ops have not materialized
ELN members live without uniforms in towns and villages as civilians who infiltrate political parties, local governments, progressive social movements, and universities. A 5-man central command, headed by Jaime Galvis, that uses encrypted computers to direct attacks has never engaged in serious peace talks.
Despite the problem of even getting ELN to a negotiating table, Duque's supporters continue to consider peace treaty terms with FARC too lenient. His congressional leader, Ernesto Macias, rejects the peace accord's provision that imposes no prison time on disarmed FARC leaders who agree to confess their crimes to a special tribunal based on the model South Africa used after apartheid. Ten non-voting members of FARC; including Sandra Ramirez, the lover of FARC's founder, Manuel Marulanda, now hold seats in Congress. Duque, who studied at Georgetown and worked for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., won election on a vague plan to foster entrepreneurship, talent, and knowledge that had more appeal to voters than Petro's idea about replacing oil, the country's major export, with a green economy based on agribusiness. Duque needs the cooperation of Macias to pass legislation to reform Colombia's pension system by raising the retirement age, to improve court efficiency, and to reduce corporate taxes.
In September, 2018, a referendum on seven measures designed to stem corruption was defeated, when only a third of the voters needed to pass it went to the polls. The death of Jorge Enrique Pizano in his home, apparently from cyanide poisoning in November, 2018, finds Colombia involved in one of the Odebrecht bribery cases spilling over from Brazil. Partners, the Odebrecht construction firm and the Grupo Aval financial group owned by Colombia's Luis Carlos Sarmiento, won a $1.6 billion contract to build Ruta del Sol, a road connecting Bogota with the Caribbean beaches. A Grupo Aval auditor, the deceased Mr. Pizano , had discovered $30 million of the $1.6 billion contract was paid for what were listed as consultancies that could have been a cover for what were, at least in part, political bribes. Grupo Aval and Nestor Humberto Martinez, Grupo Aval's attorney, denied prior knowledge about $11 million in bribes Odebrecht admitted to the U.S. Department of Justice it paid to obtain the Ruta del Sol contract. Yet in early 2018, Mr. Pizano had given the Noticias Uno TV program recordings of his secret conversations with Mr. Martinez about the consultancy payments. Mr. Martinez, who is now Colombia's Attorney General, has recused himself from all cases, including Mr. Pizano's death, relating to the Ruta del Sol contract. Public pressure urges his resignation.
Colombia has seen an influx of as many as 1.5 million immigrants fleeing dire political and economic conditions in neighboring Venezuela. Work permits, health benefits, and study opportunities have been provided for at least 442,000 as a return favor for the hospitality Venezuela offered those fleeing FARC's reign of terror. To cover Colombia's growing need for revenue, Duque considered expanding the value-added-tax to include staples, including some foods, that are now excluded, but Duque is likely to find his approval rating drop the way Santos' did to 14%, when he raised taxes. In fact, Duque's approval rating in November already is half the 54% it was a month after he took office.
,
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
February's International Film Festival
One of the most pleasant ways to learn about a country is to go to a movie made in or about somewhere you don't live. When Oscar nominations for short and feature films are announced, it's time to start looking for theatres that show them, because many of these potential Academy Award winners have an international connection.
This year, in the animated shorts category, South Africa presents Revolting Rhymes based on Ronald Dahl's dark spin on fairy tales. One French short, Negative Space, shows a sad relationship between father and son can exist in any culture, and, in another French short, two amphibians explore a deserted mansion. These shorts are shown together with two U.S. films: the Pixar short, Lou, that ran before Cars and Kobe Bryant's retirement letter, Dear Basketball.
Since the live action shorts nominated for Oscars often portray news events, they can be a pleasant way to see both uplifting and unpleasant aspects of a country. Watu Wote (All of Us) shows how Muslims risked their lives to protect the Christians riding on a bus with them, when Islamic terrorists attacked in Kenya. The British short, The Silent Child, introduces the social worker who taught a deaf 4-year-old girl the sign language that enabled her to come out of the shadows and be included in family conversations. Two U.S. entries cover a school shooting in Atlanta titled DeKalb Elementary and My Nephew Emmett based on the 1955 racist murder of Emmett Till. Australian humor is on display in The Eleven O'Clock, a short about an appointment between a psychiatrist and patient that try to treat each other.
Families already may have seen the animated feature, Coco, which has a Mexican theme depicting how a death in the family shouldn't end memories of a relative. Loving Vincent probably won't have wide distribution, but if young people have a chance to see this Polish-British feature, it might be their only time to see a movie where each frame about Vincent Van Gogh is made by an oil painting. Since Angelina Jolie produced The Breadwinner, this animated feature likely has wider distribution. It shows how an 11-year-old girl disguised herself as a boy to grow up with more opportunities under the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Although too advanced to be appropriate or understood by young people, the live action foreign language films nominated for Academy Awards provide adults with points of view from Chile (A Fantastic Woman), Lebanon (The Insult), Russia (Loveless), Hungary (On Body and Soul), and Sweden (The Square).
Oscar winners will be announced on Sunday, March 4, 2018.
This year, in the animated shorts category, South Africa presents Revolting Rhymes based on Ronald Dahl's dark spin on fairy tales. One French short, Negative Space, shows a sad relationship between father and son can exist in any culture, and, in another French short, two amphibians explore a deserted mansion. These shorts are shown together with two U.S. films: the Pixar short, Lou, that ran before Cars and Kobe Bryant's retirement letter, Dear Basketball.
Since the live action shorts nominated for Oscars often portray news events, they can be a pleasant way to see both uplifting and unpleasant aspects of a country. Watu Wote (All of Us) shows how Muslims risked their lives to protect the Christians riding on a bus with them, when Islamic terrorists attacked in Kenya. The British short, The Silent Child, introduces the social worker who taught a deaf 4-year-old girl the sign language that enabled her to come out of the shadows and be included in family conversations. Two U.S. entries cover a school shooting in Atlanta titled DeKalb Elementary and My Nephew Emmett based on the 1955 racist murder of Emmett Till. Australian humor is on display in The Eleven O'Clock, a short about an appointment between a psychiatrist and patient that try to treat each other.
Families already may have seen the animated feature, Coco, which has a Mexican theme depicting how a death in the family shouldn't end memories of a relative. Loving Vincent probably won't have wide distribution, but if young people have a chance to see this Polish-British feature, it might be their only time to see a movie where each frame about Vincent Van Gogh is made by an oil painting. Since Angelina Jolie produced The Breadwinner, this animated feature likely has wider distribution. It shows how an 11-year-old girl disguised herself as a boy to grow up with more opportunities under the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Although too advanced to be appropriate or understood by young people, the live action foreign language films nominated for Academy Awards provide adults with points of view from Chile (A Fantastic Woman), Lebanon (The Insult), Russia (Loveless), Hungary (On Body and Soul), and Sweden (The Square).
Oscar winners will be announced on Sunday, March 4, 2018.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Follow the Interest
Just as criminal investigators are advised to "follow the money," "follow the interest" is good advice for those hoping to engage young people in world affairs.
A variety of interests might draw a student to Africa. Consider fashion. What inspired Ruth E. Carter, the costume designer for Black Panther, the comic book-inspired movie kids are eager to see? Like Carter, who studied African tribal patterns, colors, and silhouettes, fashion conscious movie goers will be inspired to think about how they too could incorporate the Ndebele neck rings Okoye wears in the movie into their outfits.
Students interested in film careers won't think twice about casting people of color from any country in the movies they plan to make. They know Lupita Nyong'O, a young Nigerian-raised star won an Academy Award for her supporting role in 12 Years a Slave.
Fashion designers-in-the-making also have seen Nyong'O modeling African-inspired clothes in Vogue. The magazine also introduced them to Nigeria and the Lagos-based Maki Oh, the designer responsible for the dress Michelle Obama wore on a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2013.
Paul Simon's interest in music caused him to sing with Mama Africa Miriam Makeba in South Africa in 1987 and to record his Graceland album with South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo choral group. The British hip hop grime of Ghana's Stormzy draws the current generation of music trend setters to Africa.
With the Olympics approaching on February 9, student downhill skiers, cross-country skiers, bobsledders, figure skaters, and speed skaters might want to learn more about what produces champions in Austria, Germany, Russia, Canada, and Sweden.
Those interested in soccer, already follow their favorite sport in Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester, and Brazil.
And if students like food and cooking, those interests can take them anywhere in the world.
A variety of interests might draw a student to Africa. Consider fashion. What inspired Ruth E. Carter, the costume designer for Black Panther, the comic book-inspired movie kids are eager to see? Like Carter, who studied African tribal patterns, colors, and silhouettes, fashion conscious movie goers will be inspired to think about how they too could incorporate the Ndebele neck rings Okoye wears in the movie into their outfits.
Students interested in film careers won't think twice about casting people of color from any country in the movies they plan to make. They know Lupita Nyong'O, a young Nigerian-raised star won an Academy Award for her supporting role in 12 Years a Slave.
Fashion designers-in-the-making also have seen Nyong'O modeling African-inspired clothes in Vogue. The magazine also introduced them to Nigeria and the Lagos-based Maki Oh, the designer responsible for the dress Michelle Obama wore on a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2013.
Paul Simon's interest in music caused him to sing with Mama Africa Miriam Makeba in South Africa in 1987 and to record his Graceland album with South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo choral group. The British hip hop grime of Ghana's Stormzy draws the current generation of music trend setters to Africa.
With the Olympics approaching on February 9, student downhill skiers, cross-country skiers, bobsledders, figure skaters, and speed skaters might want to learn more about what produces champions in Austria, Germany, Russia, Canada, and Sweden.
Those interested in soccer, already follow their favorite sport in Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester, and Brazil.
And if students like food and cooking, those interests can take them anywhere in the world.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Space-Searching International Team Sees Results
Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have found 150,000 stars with 4,706 planets casting a shadow, when they orbit past. The February 23, 2017, issue of Nature reported astronomer Michael Gillon at a Belgium university headed a team that used telescopes in Chile, Hawaii, South Africa, Morocco, Spain, and England to find the Trappist-1 solar system with a planet, Trappist-1e, that maintains a habitable temperature above freezing and below boiling as it orbits around its sun-like star.
Light from stars is scattered and absorbed differently, if orbiting planets have an atmosphere with a chemical composition. Atmospheric gases, such as methane, oxygen, or carbon dioxide, signal the possibility of water and life. The Hubble Space Telescope has been able to tell what atmospheric gases from two of the Trappist-1 planets don't have, but the spectroscopes the James Webb Space Telescope will carry when it launches, possibly in October, 2018, will be capable of more atmospheric analysis.
Light from stars is scattered and absorbed differently, if orbiting planets have an atmosphere with a chemical composition. Atmospheric gases, such as methane, oxygen, or carbon dioxide, signal the possibility of water and life. The Hubble Space Telescope has been able to tell what atmospheric gases from two of the Trappist-1 planets don't have, but the spectroscopes the James Webb Space Telescope will carry when it launches, possibly in October, 2018, will be capable of more atmospheric analysis.
Thursday, December 22, 2016
I Love Coffee; I Love Tea
South African tea farmers, who formed the Heiveld co-operative in the Suid Bokkeveld, are among the Africans who have learned to play the game. Not satisfied with the low prices middlemen brokers paid, and the subsequent low wages they received for the long hours (up to 10-12 hour days) they worked on tea plantations, they formed a co-operative to sell directly to Fairtrade importers who pay fair prices. Their incomes tripled by dealing with companies, such as Lemonaid & Chari Tea.
Fairtrade certified co-operatives are a good fit with companies formed to satisfy health conscious consumers who are willing: 1) to pay a slightly higher price for products that use natural ingredients and 2) to treat all farmers fairly and with dignity. In the case of Lemonaid & Chari Tea, the company also set up a foundation which uses per bottle contributions from its specialty drinks to finance solar energy and education projects for co-operative members.
For coffee bean farmers, current conditions are not this favorable. Rising temperatures and, in some areas, unusual drenching high altitude rain associated with climate change have caused a decline in harvests and an increase in pests and widespread roya, a leaf rust fungus, in Central America and Africa. While several big coffee companies are helping farmers move to higher ground, move away from the equator, develop more resilient coffee plants, and diversify crops, most coffee growers are poor small scale farmers unable to mill and market their own coffee beans.
Since worldwide coffee demand is growing and coffee yields are shrinking, criminal gangs in Kenya and elsewhere have an incentive to overpower private security guards, pay off police guards, steal entire harvests from storage facilities, and sell stolen bags of beans to unscrupulous or unsuspecting middlemen.
Coffee plantations also have an incentive to scam coffee certification systems that are designed to recognize farms for good environmental, social, and economic practices. Inspectors for the Rainforest Alliance, the Netherlands' UTZ seal, and the Fairtrade International seal have failed to spot problems in Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer. When confronted, farm owners have been known to claim violations were corrected before a deadline, labor issues were resolved, and information about code non-conformities and improved conditions is confidential. Noted certification violations include: false pay deductions for absences, for pay advances and for days off and a failure to register seasonal workers and provide their required medical exams.
In some counties, government regulations requiring coffee marketers to provide sizable bank guarantees and to obtain export licenses have hampered the formation of coffee co-operatives that can sell directly to companies, such as Starbucks.
(An earlier post, "Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?" also addresses the coffee shortage.)
Fairtrade certified co-operatives are a good fit with companies formed to satisfy health conscious consumers who are willing: 1) to pay a slightly higher price for products that use natural ingredients and 2) to treat all farmers fairly and with dignity. In the case of Lemonaid & Chari Tea, the company also set up a foundation which uses per bottle contributions from its specialty drinks to finance solar energy and education projects for co-operative members.
For coffee bean farmers, current conditions are not this favorable. Rising temperatures and, in some areas, unusual drenching high altitude rain associated with climate change have caused a decline in harvests and an increase in pests and widespread roya, a leaf rust fungus, in Central America and Africa. While several big coffee companies are helping farmers move to higher ground, move away from the equator, develop more resilient coffee plants, and diversify crops, most coffee growers are poor small scale farmers unable to mill and market their own coffee beans.
Since worldwide coffee demand is growing and coffee yields are shrinking, criminal gangs in Kenya and elsewhere have an incentive to overpower private security guards, pay off police guards, steal entire harvests from storage facilities, and sell stolen bags of beans to unscrupulous or unsuspecting middlemen.
Coffee plantations also have an incentive to scam coffee certification systems that are designed to recognize farms for good environmental, social, and economic practices. Inspectors for the Rainforest Alliance, the Netherlands' UTZ seal, and the Fairtrade International seal have failed to spot problems in Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer. When confronted, farm owners have been known to claim violations were corrected before a deadline, labor issues were resolved, and information about code non-conformities and improved conditions is confidential. Noted certification violations include: false pay deductions for absences, for pay advances and for days off and a failure to register seasonal workers and provide their required medical exams.
In some counties, government regulations requiring coffee marketers to provide sizable bank guarantees and to obtain export licenses have hampered the formation of coffee co-operatives that can sell directly to companies, such as Starbucks.
(An earlier post, "Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?" also addresses the coffee shortage.)
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Teens Find Drought and Zika Remedies
Entering contests and writing to potential mentors not only can help individual students jump start their own careers but these proactive efforts also can help humanity. Dr. Hongjun Song, the mentor who received a letter from the student involved in Zika virus research, observed: "Unencumbered by previous experience, high school students aren't afraid of failure and are freer to try things than graduate students or postdocs."
Help for drought-starved crops
Kiara Nirghin, the 16-year-old South African girl who won the grand prize in Google's Science Fair (googlesciencefair.com), reasoned that a superabsorbent polymer (SAP) used in diapers could help soil retain more water when drought threatens crops. To avoid the pricey, less eco-friendly acrylic acid chemicals used in current SAPs, Ms. Nirghin tried creating a SAP by applying UV light and heat to avocado and orange peels. When sprinkled on fields, her polymer, which holds 300 times its weight in liquid, provides water for crops that would otherwise die from drought.
(Kiara Nirghin is among the world's 30 most influential teens TIME magazine lists at time.com/teens2016.)
Help for studying the Zika virus
At the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, engineers developed a $2 genetic test to detect the Zika virus immediately by using color-changing dye in a device about the size of a soda can. The process requires no electricity or extensive technical training.
Chris Hadiono, whose parents are U.S. immigrants from Indonesia, was a high school intern at Dr. Hongjun Song's neurology lab at John Hopkins University, when he developed a bioreactor device used to determine how the Zika virus causes the abnormal brain development which results in the small heads of newborn babies, i.e. microcephly, and many more problems.
Using 3D printing instructions from a YouTube tutorial, Hadiono created a machine with gears that keep 12 "mini-brains" floating and growing in wells, each filled with about one teaspoon of nutrient rich liquid, by constantly stirring the liquid in all the wells at the same time.
Before Hadiono's contribution, the neural tissue of human brains, "mini-brains," already could be produced by turning human skin cells (3D printers also can create human tissue and bone) into stem cells which could be turned into the neural stem cells that became human neural brain tissue resembling the human cerebral cortex affected by the Zika virus. And a magnetic bar could continuously stir a rich nutrient broth-like medium, or liquid, that enabled "mini-brains" to float and grow in all directions. The problem was the big device required too much costly medium and could only be used once to accommodate a few experiments at a time. With Hadiono's bioreactor device, at a much lower cost, researchers can see how the Zika virus infects and kills neural stem cells in 12 different parts of a human's cerebral cortex at the same time.. With the work of another teen, maybe prevention and a cure for microcephly will not be far behind.
Help for drought-starved crops
Kiara Nirghin, the 16-year-old South African girl who won the grand prize in Google's Science Fair (googlesciencefair.com), reasoned that a superabsorbent polymer (SAP) used in diapers could help soil retain more water when drought threatens crops. To avoid the pricey, less eco-friendly acrylic acid chemicals used in current SAPs, Ms. Nirghin tried creating a SAP by applying UV light and heat to avocado and orange peels. When sprinkled on fields, her polymer, which holds 300 times its weight in liquid, provides water for crops that would otherwise die from drought.
(Kiara Nirghin is among the world's 30 most influential teens TIME magazine lists at time.com/teens2016.)
Help for studying the Zika virus
At the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, engineers developed a $2 genetic test to detect the Zika virus immediately by using color-changing dye in a device about the size of a soda can. The process requires no electricity or extensive technical training.
Chris Hadiono, whose parents are U.S. immigrants from Indonesia, was a high school intern at Dr. Hongjun Song's neurology lab at John Hopkins University, when he developed a bioreactor device used to determine how the Zika virus causes the abnormal brain development which results in the small heads of newborn babies, i.e. microcephly, and many more problems.
Using 3D printing instructions from a YouTube tutorial, Hadiono created a machine with gears that keep 12 "mini-brains" floating and growing in wells, each filled with about one teaspoon of nutrient rich liquid, by constantly stirring the liquid in all the wells at the same time.
Before Hadiono's contribution, the neural tissue of human brains, "mini-brains," already could be produced by turning human skin cells (3D printers also can create human tissue and bone) into stem cells which could be turned into the neural stem cells that became human neural brain tissue resembling the human cerebral cortex affected by the Zika virus. And a magnetic bar could continuously stir a rich nutrient broth-like medium, or liquid, that enabled "mini-brains" to float and grow in all directions. The problem was the big device required too much costly medium and could only be used once to accommodate a few experiments at a time. With Hadiono's bioreactor device, at a much lower cost, researchers can see how the Zika virus infects and kills neural stem cells in 12 different parts of a human's cerebral cortex at the same time.. With the work of another teen, maybe prevention and a cure for microcephly will not be far behind.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Will African Roses Replace Dutch Tulips?
World events can have both positive and negative effects on countries. By voting to leave the EU, Britain's new tariff relationships hold promise for Africa. On the other hand, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explosion on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 1, 2016 casts doubt on a deal between a US and Chinese company and much more.
While the UK currently imports most of its fresh fruit from Spain and 70% of its fresh vegetables from Spain and the Netherlands, African countries anticipate they will gain a larger share of the UK market for flowers, vegetables, fruit, and tea, should tariffs on EU goods increase and tariffs on African imports end. South Africa already is the second largest source of the UK's fresh fruit, and a quarter of Kenya's fresh produce exports go to Britain. Changes in taste also might continue to boost UK imports of African produce, like pineapples, melons, and avocados, not grown domestically. Retailers caution African exporters, however, that regulations require imported produce to be safe and responsibly produced.
Although African countries might gain from Britain's EU exit, they suffered from the Falcon 9 rocket explosion. The Amos-6 satellite that was destroyed would have given Africa internet access to Facebook.
While the UK currently imports most of its fresh fruit from Spain and 70% of its fresh vegetables from Spain and the Netherlands, African countries anticipate they will gain a larger share of the UK market for flowers, vegetables, fruit, and tea, should tariffs on EU goods increase and tariffs on African imports end. South Africa already is the second largest source of the UK's fresh fruit, and a quarter of Kenya's fresh produce exports go to Britain. Changes in taste also might continue to boost UK imports of African produce, like pineapples, melons, and avocados, not grown domestically. Retailers caution African exporters, however, that regulations require imported produce to be safe and responsibly produced.
Although African countries might gain from Britain's EU exit, they suffered from the Falcon 9 rocket explosion. The Amos-6 satellite that was destroyed would have given Africa internet access to Facebook.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
There's No Business Like Bug Business
Chickens, pigs, and some other animals don't share the same distaste for bugs that people did in the thriller novel and film, Snowpiercer. (Although in parts of the world, people do eat caterpillars, locusts, and termites.)
Some kids keep ant farms and net containers, where caterpillar larvae turn into butterflies. Sean Warner and Patrick Pittaluga kept the larvae of black soldier flies in a laundry room of their apartment building to start their company, Grubby Farms, in Georgia. Other firms, such as Enviro Flight in Ohio, Enterra Feed in Canada, J.M.Green in China, and Agri Protein in South Africa, also are attempting to make a profit by producing animal feed from black soldier fly larvae.
What is the dual objective motivating this effort? Protein from black soldier fly larvae could replace the fish meal animals now eat. About 75% of the fish in fish meal comes from anchovies, herring, sardines, and the other disappearing small fish eaten by commercial seafood catches, whales, sea lions, and other large mammals. Moreover, since black soldier fly larvae live on food and human waste, they could reduce what ends up in landfills.
At present, the industrial scale production technology needed to make this waste mass into biomass process profitable is still developing. The operation requires heavy machinery to move waste tonnage to a processing plant where heavy buckets of waste are carried to the shallow bins where larvae feed. After oil and protein powder are produced, markets need to be found. Government approvals present other obstacles. A blog developed by dipterra.com does an excellent job of presenting the many challenges confronting this business.
Since the technology involved in the bug business is still in its infancy, African investors and entrepreneurs have a good opportunity to become players in the field. Africans might find insects other than black soldier flies that could become a new protein source, and Africa, with its growing under-35 years of age population, also has the right innovators to take advantage of new opportunities. As Bill Gates noted in his speech at the University of Pretoria on July 18, 2016, he and Mark Zuckerberg were college-aged, when they made their innovative contributions to society.
(Also see the earlier posts, "Why Will Africa Overcome Poverty?" "Invest in Africa's Agricultural Future," "Want An Exciting Career?" and "Look Beyond Africa's Current Woes.")
Some kids keep ant farms and net containers, where caterpillar larvae turn into butterflies. Sean Warner and Patrick Pittaluga kept the larvae of black soldier flies in a laundry room of their apartment building to start their company, Grubby Farms, in Georgia. Other firms, such as Enviro Flight in Ohio, Enterra Feed in Canada, J.M.Green in China, and Agri Protein in South Africa, also are attempting to make a profit by producing animal feed from black soldier fly larvae.
What is the dual objective motivating this effort? Protein from black soldier fly larvae could replace the fish meal animals now eat. About 75% of the fish in fish meal comes from anchovies, herring, sardines, and the other disappearing small fish eaten by commercial seafood catches, whales, sea lions, and other large mammals. Moreover, since black soldier fly larvae live on food and human waste, they could reduce what ends up in landfills.
At present, the industrial scale production technology needed to make this waste mass into biomass process profitable is still developing. The operation requires heavy machinery to move waste tonnage to a processing plant where heavy buckets of waste are carried to the shallow bins where larvae feed. After oil and protein powder are produced, markets need to be found. Government approvals present other obstacles. A blog developed by dipterra.com does an excellent job of presenting the many challenges confronting this business.
Since the technology involved in the bug business is still in its infancy, African investors and entrepreneurs have a good opportunity to become players in the field. Africans might find insects other than black soldier flies that could become a new protein source, and Africa, with its growing under-35 years of age population, also has the right innovators to take advantage of new opportunities. As Bill Gates noted in his speech at the University of Pretoria on July 18, 2016, he and Mark Zuckerberg were college-aged, when they made their innovative contributions to society.
(Also see the earlier posts, "Why Will Africa Overcome Poverty?" "Invest in Africa's Agricultural Future," "Want An Exciting Career?" and "Look Beyond Africa's Current Woes.")
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Fight, Flight, or Something Else
We all have enemies. The alarm clock that tells us it's time to get up, when we'd prefer to sleep in. The bully who terrorizes us on social media. Our usual reaction is fight or flight. And we know the results. Violence leads to more violence and destruction, a shattered alarm clock. Flight can result in the kind of isolation from all people and depression that Sebastian Junger describes veterans suffer, when they return home after their tribal bonding with buddies in a war zone.
When unusual circumstances make fight and flight impossible in a prison situation, we get a glimpse of a third way to deal with enemies. If it helps avoid violence and loneliness, it could be worth a try.
While reading Lawrence Wright's book, The Looming Tower, I came across the report of an interrogation between Ali Soufan, a Muslim FBI agent, and Abu Jandal, who served as an Osama bin Laden bodyguard. After listening to Abu Jandal describe himself as a revolutionary trying to rid the world of the evil that came mainly from the United States, Soufan realized Abu Jandal had a very limited knowledge of the United States. He gave him a history of the United States in Arabic. Since Soufan had learned Abu Jandal was a diabetic, he also brought him sugarless wafers with his coffee.
The sugarless-wafers-and-coffee-gesture reminded me that I had read Nelson Mandela had done something similar during the 27 years he was locked up in a South African prison. When one of his guards came in to run the projector on a movie night, Mandela heard him complaining that the tea he was carrying was cold. On the next movie night, Mandela was able to provide the guard with a cup of hot tea and cookies. Mandela would later invite the guard to his inauguration as President of South Africa.
While in prison, Mandela learned the Afrikaans language of the Dutch descendants who imposed the apartheid restrictions on blacks in South Africa. He also studied the Afrikaner history and philosophy.
Being a Muslim himself, Soufan could engage Abu Jandal in a discussion of the Quran 's instructions for the honorable conduct of warfare. "Are not women and children to be protected?" he asked. Soufan went on to point out al-Qaeda even killed Muslims in the attacks on the U.S. embassies in East Africa and in New York. Abu Jandal insisted, "The Sheikh is not that crazy. It was the Israelis." When he could no longer deny what the overwhelming evidence showed to be true, Abu Jandal provided information about the structure of al-Qaeda, locations of hideouts, and escape plans.
My granddaughter, who will be a high school senior this fall, is on the "Senior Citizens" committee created to help freshmen feel at home in the new surroundings that house 2,200 students seven hours a day. Since her mother had been on a similar high school committee, she passed on some advice about what to tell freshmen. I told them, if they see me in the hall, don't be afraid to come over and tell me how things are going or to ask for advice. Introduce me to your friends. I'm not a big bad senior who knows it all. A few years ago I was a freshman and next year I'll be a freshman again in college. Fight, flight, or understand.
When unusual circumstances make fight and flight impossible in a prison situation, we get a glimpse of a third way to deal with enemies. If it helps avoid violence and loneliness, it could be worth a try.
While reading Lawrence Wright's book, The Looming Tower, I came across the report of an interrogation between Ali Soufan, a Muslim FBI agent, and Abu Jandal, who served as an Osama bin Laden bodyguard. After listening to Abu Jandal describe himself as a revolutionary trying to rid the world of the evil that came mainly from the United States, Soufan realized Abu Jandal had a very limited knowledge of the United States. He gave him a history of the United States in Arabic. Since Soufan had learned Abu Jandal was a diabetic, he also brought him sugarless wafers with his coffee.
The sugarless-wafers-and-coffee-gesture reminded me that I had read Nelson Mandela had done something similar during the 27 years he was locked up in a South African prison. When one of his guards came in to run the projector on a movie night, Mandela heard him complaining that the tea he was carrying was cold. On the next movie night, Mandela was able to provide the guard with a cup of hot tea and cookies. Mandela would later invite the guard to his inauguration as President of South Africa.
While in prison, Mandela learned the Afrikaans language of the Dutch descendants who imposed the apartheid restrictions on blacks in South Africa. He also studied the Afrikaner history and philosophy.
Being a Muslim himself, Soufan could engage Abu Jandal in a discussion of the Quran 's instructions for the honorable conduct of warfare. "Are not women and children to be protected?" he asked. Soufan went on to point out al-Qaeda even killed Muslims in the attacks on the U.S. embassies in East Africa and in New York. Abu Jandal insisted, "The Sheikh is not that crazy. It was the Israelis." When he could no longer deny what the overwhelming evidence showed to be true, Abu Jandal provided information about the structure of al-Qaeda, locations of hideouts, and escape plans.
My granddaughter, who will be a high school senior this fall, is on the "Senior Citizens" committee created to help freshmen feel at home in the new surroundings that house 2,200 students seven hours a day. Since her mother had been on a similar high school committee, she passed on some advice about what to tell freshmen. I told them, if they see me in the hall, don't be afraid to come over and tell me how things are going or to ask for advice. Introduce me to your friends. I'm not a big bad senior who knows it all. A few years ago I was a freshman and next year I'll be a freshman again in college. Fight, flight, or understand.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Want An Exciting Career?
Students who will begin their careers in the next five to 20 years will be working to about 2060 to 2075 or longer. They can worry about being unemployed by robots or discover Africa.
Of course, Africa already has been discovered as an exotic home of wild animals, gold, diamonds, rubber, slaves, and the origin of mankind. Because of the scramble for colonies, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch are spoken there along with local languages. Currently, with advances in mobile communication; transportation, including by drones; and medicine, Africa is on track to come into its own normalcy. The middle class is growing. And the size of the continent suggests regional divisions into northern, western, southern, northeastern, and southeastern markets. A recent acquisition recognized the opportunity to finance trade in Africa. Helios Investment Partners, the private equity investment firm founded and managed by Africans, Tope Lawani and Babatunde Soyoye, in 2004, acquired the UK's Crown Agents Bank and Crown Agents Investment Management in April, 2016.
What might be most attractive to the world's future tech-savvy, well-educated, independent workforce is the challenge Africa presents. The enticing work environment Sydney Finkelstein describes in his new book, Superbosses, is one where creative energy is purpose-focused on a vision, commitment to a task is satisfying, and talent is recognized and rewarded at an early age.
Some international bankers already are enjoying unique opportunities to figure out how to handle complicated financial deals in Africa. Lending for African projects from Asia's investors, Japan, China, and India, for example, is secured by assets, such as the turbines Japan provided for a coal-fired power plant in Morocco, and repaid from revenue that the projects, such as the power plant, will generate. Similarly, when a loan for buses will be repaid by future bus fares, bankers have to know what questions to ask. Which government agency has authority to make the purchase? Will the buses be able to handle African road and climate conditions? Who will train drivers and maintenance workers? Is payment to be made in local or hard currency? Is there a way to hedge against the devaluation of local currency, and what are the options should emergency measures prevent hard currency from leaving the country?
Gaurav Wahi of India's Jindal Steel and Power Limited, a company with operations in South Africa and Mozambique, called attention to a May 16, 2016 Forbes article that provided excellent practical advice about doing business in Africa. Companies looking for immediate, low-risk African opportunities have limited options in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Swaziland. Half of China's $12 billion investment in Africa between 2005 and 2015, for example, went to South Africa. Few African countries currently have relatively high per capita GDP incomes and reliable infrastructure (ports, roads) and institutions (legal, police, and educational systems).
Elsewhere in Africa, companies that can become "early pan-African powerhouses" need patience and moxie to do the following:
No one doing business in Africa will be stuck implementing a bureaucratic playbook. Marketers will be reading the accounts of explorers and missionaries to identify routes to their target markets along rivers and in desert oases. Freight forwarders will fill their Rolodexes with importers and exporters, if they know which carriers can be counted on to meet delivery schedules and if they know how to fill shipping containers to get the best cargo rates. Manufacturers will prosper when they attract the best employees, because they have a reputation for providing excellent training programs and benefits.
Just considering a normal bell curve distribution of talent, not only business, but African agriculture, sports, education, security, law, fashion, and the arts are all fields ripe for development in the coming years. An exciting career awaits those willing and able to work together with Africans.
(Also see the later post, "There's No Business Like Bug Business.")
Of course, Africa already has been discovered as an exotic home of wild animals, gold, diamonds, rubber, slaves, and the origin of mankind. Because of the scramble for colonies, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch are spoken there along with local languages. Currently, with advances in mobile communication; transportation, including by drones; and medicine, Africa is on track to come into its own normalcy. The middle class is growing. And the size of the continent suggests regional divisions into northern, western, southern, northeastern, and southeastern markets. A recent acquisition recognized the opportunity to finance trade in Africa. Helios Investment Partners, the private equity investment firm founded and managed by Africans, Tope Lawani and Babatunde Soyoye, in 2004, acquired the UK's Crown Agents Bank and Crown Agents Investment Management in April, 2016.
What might be most attractive to the world's future tech-savvy, well-educated, independent workforce is the challenge Africa presents. The enticing work environment Sydney Finkelstein describes in his new book, Superbosses, is one where creative energy is purpose-focused on a vision, commitment to a task is satisfying, and talent is recognized and rewarded at an early age.
Some international bankers already are enjoying unique opportunities to figure out how to handle complicated financial deals in Africa. Lending for African projects from Asia's investors, Japan, China, and India, for example, is secured by assets, such as the turbines Japan provided for a coal-fired power plant in Morocco, and repaid from revenue that the projects, such as the power plant, will generate. Similarly, when a loan for buses will be repaid by future bus fares, bankers have to know what questions to ask. Which government agency has authority to make the purchase? Will the buses be able to handle African road and climate conditions? Who will train drivers and maintenance workers? Is payment to be made in local or hard currency? Is there a way to hedge against the devaluation of local currency, and what are the options should emergency measures prevent hard currency from leaving the country?
Gaurav Wahi of India's Jindal Steel and Power Limited, a company with operations in South Africa and Mozambique, called attention to a May 16, 2016 Forbes article that provided excellent practical advice about doing business in Africa. Companies looking for immediate, low-risk African opportunities have limited options in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Swaziland. Half of China's $12 billion investment in Africa between 2005 and 2015, for example, went to South Africa. Few African countries currently have relatively high per capita GDP incomes and reliable infrastructure (ports, roads) and institutions (legal, police, and educational systems).
Elsewhere in Africa, companies that can become "early pan-African powerhouses" need patience and moxie to do the following:
- Identify home office talent with the ability to live in a foreign environment, to accommodate company policies and processes to local cultures, and to connect with local employees.
- Manage relations with governments (secure agreements and contracts)
- Deal with a lack of government regulations and poor land ownership records
- Develop self-sufficiency that might require vertical integration from raw material sourcing to production and distribution
- Provide low-cost products and services
- Expand uses for mobile phones (prepaid bank accounts, marketing, customer service)
- Train employees and provide benefit retention packages that prevent poaching by competitors
- Establish firm guidelines (ethical reputation requirements, experience working with other foreign companies) for evaluating potential local partnerships
- Provide security
- Form contingency plans for insurrections and political instability
- Anticipate economic volatility from commodity price swings
- Gain guarantees from multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank
No one doing business in Africa will be stuck implementing a bureaucratic playbook. Marketers will be reading the accounts of explorers and missionaries to identify routes to their target markets along rivers and in desert oases. Freight forwarders will fill their Rolodexes with importers and exporters, if they know which carriers can be counted on to meet delivery schedules and if they know how to fill shipping containers to get the best cargo rates. Manufacturers will prosper when they attract the best employees, because they have a reputation for providing excellent training programs and benefits.
Just considering a normal bell curve distribution of talent, not only business, but African agriculture, sports, education, security, law, fashion, and the arts are all fields ripe for development in the coming years. An exciting career awaits those willing and able to work together with Africans.
(Also see the later post, "There's No Business Like Bug Business.")
Friday, October 9, 2015
Who Are Your Country's Super Heroes?
Judging from their popularity in comics, graphic novels, and movies, young people love super heroes. Can they match the following countries with some of their super heroes?
_____A. Mahatma Gandhi launched a program of civil 1. Pakistan
disobedience that led to independence.
_____B. Bishop Desmond Tutu called for Western 2. Poland
nations to apply sanctions that led to an end
of apartheid, i.e. segregation of blacks into
separate homelands and other indignities.
_____C. Malala Yousafzai won a Nobel Peace Prize 3. Turkey
for urging all countries to educate their
girls and women.
_____D. Fidel Castro assembled a Communist 4. France
guerrilla band that caused the country's
corrupt dictator, Fulgencio Batista, to flee.
_____E. Dorothy Day was commended by Pope Frances 5. Myanmar/Burma
as a champion of workers and the poor.
_____F. Lech Walesa organized the Solidarity 6. Cuba
trade union that began the movement
that ousted the Soviet Union from Eastern
Europe.
_____G. Aung San Suu Kyi, known as "The Lady," 7. India
who received a Nobel Peace Prize for
keeping democracy alive in the face of a
military regime takeover.
_____H. Mao Zedang, leader of the "Long March" away 8. United States of America
from rivals, who returned to lead the country in
1949 and to try rapid economic development
through a program called the "Great Leap
Forward."
_____I. Mustafa Kemal, who took the name Kemal 9. South Africa
Ataturk and was elected president in 1923,
established the country as a secular republic
after hundreds of years as part of a Muslim
empire.
_____J. Charles de Gaulle led the country's 10. China
government-in-exile until World War II
ended and he could return to be elected
President.
Answers can be found at the end of the earlier post, "What Moscow Could Learn from History."
_____A. Mahatma Gandhi launched a program of civil 1. Pakistan
disobedience that led to independence.
_____B. Bishop Desmond Tutu called for Western 2. Poland
nations to apply sanctions that led to an end
of apartheid, i.e. segregation of blacks into
separate homelands and other indignities.
_____C. Malala Yousafzai won a Nobel Peace Prize 3. Turkey
for urging all countries to educate their
girls and women.
_____D. Fidel Castro assembled a Communist 4. France
guerrilla band that caused the country's
corrupt dictator, Fulgencio Batista, to flee.
_____E. Dorothy Day was commended by Pope Frances 5. Myanmar/Burma
as a champion of workers and the poor.
_____F. Lech Walesa organized the Solidarity 6. Cuba
trade union that began the movement
that ousted the Soviet Union from Eastern
Europe.
_____G. Aung San Suu Kyi, known as "The Lady," 7. India
who received a Nobel Peace Prize for
keeping democracy alive in the face of a
military regime takeover.
_____H. Mao Zedang, leader of the "Long March" away 8. United States of America
from rivals, who returned to lead the country in
1949 and to try rapid economic development
through a program called the "Great Leap
Forward."
_____I. Mustafa Kemal, who took the name Kemal 9. South Africa
Ataturk and was elected president in 1923,
established the country as a secular republic
after hundreds of years as part of a Muslim
empire.
_____J. Charles de Gaulle led the country's 10. China
government-in-exile until World War II
ended and he could return to be elected
President.
Answers can be found at the end of the earlier post, "What Moscow Could Learn from History."
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Falling Commodity Prices Spur Diversification in Emerging Markets
Commodity exporting countries that have depended on the Chinese market have been hard hit by the slide in China's economy. Zambia, for example, relies on copper exports to China, which consumes 40% of the mineral's global output, for 70% of its foreign exchange earnings and 25 to 30% of its government revenue. Like Nigeria, which has depended on petroleum exports that are declining in value, Zambia sees a new need for economic diversification.
Check out countries heavily dependent on commodity exports:
Check out countries heavily dependent on commodity exports:
- Bauxite: Indonesia, Jamaica, Brazil
- Chromite: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Albania
- Coal: Indonesia
- Cobalt: Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Copper: Chile, Kazakhstan, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru
- Iron Ore: Brazil
- Lithium: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia
- Manganese: South Africa, Gabon, Brazil, Ghana
- Molybenum: Romania, Chile
- Nickel: (Indonesia banned exports to China), New Caledonia, Madagascar
- Petroleum: Saudi Arabia, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Nigeria
- Platinum: South Africa
- Tin: Indonesia, Myanmar
- Tungsten: Myanmar, Bolivia
- Uranium: South Africa, Namibia, Niger, Kazakhstan
- Vanadium: South Africa
- Zinc: Peru, like Australia, has cut production and jobs
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?
Children may be looking at a cut in their allowances, if the adults who provide them are big coffee drinkers.A quick lesson in economics teaches disposable income is the money people bring home from work after taxes are removed. For most people, a large portion of disposable income pays for such necessities as food, housing, transportation, and clothing. After paying for these necessities, what is left over is discretionary income that can be spent on things like a mango, doll, game system, or any other things children want.
For those who need their morning cups of coffee, the anticipated increase in the world's price of coffee beans will reduce the amount of disposable income they have left over for discretionary spending. Is an allowance a necessity that has a claim on disposable income? If it is, it won't be affected by higher coffee prices. But a child's allowance may suffer, if the adult paying it considers an allowance in the same category as discretionary spending for a new toy. Increased coffee prices that reduce the amount of disposable income left over for discretionary income can cause a reduction in a child's allowance. If that happens, older children might decide to look for jobs that give them an income and the power to decide their own disposable and discretionary spending.
Considering a wider economic context, kids might learn to ask why coffee, banana, soda, bus fare, and other prices go up and down. When a supply increases and demand stays the same, prices go down. But, when supplies decline and consumer demand increases, prices also increase. That explains a coffee price increase.
In Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, because of climate change, temperatures are rising in the high altitude tropical regions that grow high-quality Arabica coffee beans. There, coffee bean output is threatened by the pests and plant disease that flourish because of long periods of drought and short periods of heavy rainfall. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia suggests survival for Arabica growers will require them to move 300 to 500 meters farther above sea level, an impossibility for Brazil's highly mechanized, commercial coffee plantations that supply 70% of the world's 1.6 billion cup daily coffee demand.
Although growing coffee under a canopy of trees, such as shown in the photo of coffee growing in Mexico, would increase the predators that feast on insects that damage coffee beans, reduce the costs of chemical pesticides and fertilizer, and curtail polluting run-off, for all but a few specialty brands, the trend in the past 20 years has been away from shade-grown coffee. High-yield Robusta coffee, like that grown in Vietnam and Indonesia, can withstand higher temperatures, but its lower quality is used mainly for instant coffee. Wet processed coffee beans from the Indonesian island of Sumatra gives them a different taste that some coffee drinkers dislike but others enjoy, especially when, for example, McDonald's mixes them with beans from other sources.
Whatever the coffee type, the same conflicts the palm oil and timber industries face regarding deforestation, questions of land ownership, competition among food crops, and water scarcity affect all types of coffee growers.
While the future of coffee production is uncertain, increased demand is certain. Using Arabica grown in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania, Starbucks, in partnership with Taste Holdings, is planning to open in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016. Positioned as part of the fashionable, upscale urban scene in Shanghai and Beijing, coffee consumption in traditional tea-drinking China is growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Although China's four-cup-per-person-per-year is very low compared to the U.S. and Europe, Starbucks and Costa are responding to the potential for growth by planning to double and triple the number of their shops in China by 2020. Sumerian, a local company, also has entered China's coffee shop scene. Although China currently imports most of its coffee beans, domestic growers have increased their production from 60,000 to 120,000 tons in five years. Unfortunately, most Chinese coffee is grown in the sun in southern Puer, Yunnan, where more fertilizer and water are required and, at the moment, all but 30% of Yunnan's coffee is exported because it is a lower quality than what Chinese shops prefer to serve.
With coffee consumption increasing, coffee bean growers have an incentive to solve production problems and meet high quality standards. Children who receive an allowance from coffee-drinking adults have an incentive to keep an eye on coffee prices.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Don't Study by the Fire
Legend tells us Abe Lincoln studied by fire light, with a candle or in front of his fireplace. That's no longer necessary, even in poor countries and rural areas with no electric lights.Female-owned Rethaka, a South African innovator of eco-friendly goods, now offers 100% recycled, solar-powered backpacks that double as study lamps at night. Read more about African ideas that break up big jobs to give smaller companies a chance to provide employment, ways to involve the public in the fight against corruption, new forms of conveying the news, and more at trendwatching.com (10 African Trends).
Friday, October 24, 2014
Never Too Young to Invest in the Future
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Small and large scale investments offer money-making opportunities throughout the world. Check out $25 gift-giving ideas for kiva and other organizations at the blog post, "Gifts for Happy Holidays."A Special Report in the Financial Times (October 6, 2014) is cause to consider major money-making opportunities in Africa. Javier Blas wrote that high commodity prices, cheap Chinese loans, and improved governance have led to Africa's currently healthy growth. (Go to the later blog post, "Chocolate's Sweet Deals," to see how cocoa growers and investors can cooperate to benefit from the growing demand for chocolate in emerging markets.)
The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association estimates there is now $25 billion worth of private investment in Africa. It is in basic household goods, power, telecom transmission and pipeline projects, not just commodities, oil, diamonds, gold, and other minerals. When the US Carlyle Group launched its maiden African fund with a $500 million target, it closed at $700 million. It's first African investment, $150 million in Nigeria's Diamond Bank, was followed by an investment in a tire and parts retailer in Johannesburg, South Africa. Runa Alam, chief executive of London-based Development Partners International (DPI), a private equity fund that invests in African businesses, observed that top business schools are producing investors with skill sets that include global and local networks that can sniff out investment worthy companies in Africa, not only in China and Latin America.
Indeed, private investment continues to find opportunities in Africa. In February, 2015, Actis Capital (a London-based private equity firm that concentrates its investments in emerging markets) and Mainstream Renewable Power (a Dublin-based clean energy developer) teamed up to invest $1.9 billion in a new Lekela Power venture that will operate solar and wind power projects in South Africa, Ghana, and Egypt.
That is not to say Africa is problem free. Economic conditions have not improved across the board. Potential unemployment hovers over large chunks of the new middle class. The young population of one billion, on its way to four billion by 2100, is disillusioned and under-educated. (See the later blog post, "Recess Differs Around the World," to get a glimpse of Africa's under funded schools.) Compared to Asia, Africa's young people are unqualified for manufacturing jobs. (The earlier blog post, "Discover Africa," however, tells how young Africans take advantage of entering and winning contests and are starting their own businesses.)
The Ebola crisis showed that disease can still devastate some parts of Africa; the abduction of over 200 teenage girls in Nigeria shows how religious and ethnic divisions persist; and corruption and greed continue to infest government and motivate leaders, except in Nigeria (See the later blog post, "Nigeria's New Beginning."), to cling to their positions after their constitutional terms of office end. With mobile phones and social media, however, young people have the means to voice their demands and frustrations and to receive solicitations from Islamic extremists. Nonetheless, young voters can be a powerful bloc capable of making their call for change heard. In the end, Africa is an investment opportunity that should not be overlooked.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
International Fashion Designers Find Consumer Niches
On "Project Runway" (Lifetime channel at 9 pm ET Thursdays), this season's televised competition is showcasing the influence of international designers. Sandhya channeled her heritage from India to turn a dip-dyed flowered print into an original summer frock that won the show's first challenge and puzzled her U.S. competitors.
What designers such as Sandhya are doing is satisfying consumers who search for fashions and accessories that express their individuality. They may be motivated to wear T-shirts that support a cause as Vivienne Westwood's "Save the Arctic" one does (See the earlier post, "North Pole Flag."). Or they look for the environmentally, sustainable clothes mentioned in the earlier posts, "The World of Fashion" and "Fashion Forward." Mumbai-based fashion designer, Rahul Mishra, for example, espouses "slow fashion." His garments draw on the craftsmanship of India's embroidery experts and weavers to involve many talented village hands in the process of making his clothes. Why? He sees fashion as an opportunity for participation, not just consumption.
Some fashion consumers also want to be the first to go upscale to provide employment to those manufacturing luxury brands "Made in Africa." One designer who caters to this upscale consumer is Hanneli Rupert, daughter of Johann Rupert, chairman of the Richemont group that includes Cartier, Van Cleef, and other luxury goods. In 2009, she first introduced her Okapi brand, named for the "zebra giraffe" from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At her Okapi website (okapi.com) and at her Merchants on Long store in Cape Town, South Africa, Ms. Rupert sells bags, card cases, and other African-sourced leather goods. This fall the Okapi brand also will be available online at the luxury fashion Net-a-Porter website (net-a-porter.com).
The New York Times (July 31, 2014, page E5) observed that consumers looking for hard-to-find, unusual products are willing to pay top dollar to artisans with incredible fashion, furniture, and textile skills whether they live in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Peru, or Kenya. This season's "Project Runway" contestants are on the brink of exciting careers.
What designers such as Sandhya are doing is satisfying consumers who search for fashions and accessories that express their individuality. They may be motivated to wear T-shirts that support a cause as Vivienne Westwood's "Save the Arctic" one does (See the earlier post, "North Pole Flag."). Or they look for the environmentally, sustainable clothes mentioned in the earlier posts, "The World of Fashion" and "Fashion Forward." Mumbai-based fashion designer, Rahul Mishra, for example, espouses "slow fashion." His garments draw on the craftsmanship of India's embroidery experts and weavers to involve many talented village hands in the process of making his clothes. Why? He sees fashion as an opportunity for participation, not just consumption.Some fashion consumers also want to be the first to go upscale to provide employment to those manufacturing luxury brands "Made in Africa." One designer who caters to this upscale consumer is Hanneli Rupert, daughter of Johann Rupert, chairman of the Richemont group that includes Cartier, Van Cleef, and other luxury goods. In 2009, she first introduced her Okapi brand, named for the "zebra giraffe" from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At her Okapi website (okapi.com) and at her Merchants on Long store in Cape Town, South Africa, Ms. Rupert sells bags, card cases, and other African-sourced leather goods. This fall the Okapi brand also will be available online at the luxury fashion Net-a-Porter website (net-a-porter.com).
The New York Times (July 31, 2014, page E5) observed that consumers looking for hard-to-find, unusual products are willing to pay top dollar to artisans with incredible fashion, furniture, and textile skills whether they live in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Peru, or Kenya. This season's "Project Runway" contestants are on the brink of exciting careers.
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