Aid agencies warn that a new dam project, and land confiscations for plantations, point toward a social and ecological ‘catastrophe’ in the Ethiopian Lower Omo Valley. Over half a million tribal people in both Ethiopia and Kenya face the total destruction of their way of life as a result of large scale infrastructure and agriculture projects. A [...]
Tag Archives: Kenya
Signs of the NY Times: Touch and go in Myanmar. Pessimism in Kenya. Farming meets YouTube. Science and the U.S. economy.
M.I.T. grad Rikin Ghandi has implemented perhaps the world’s best synergistic cooperation between communications technology and agriculture. Vexed at how difficult it was to share important agricultural developments with the farmers that need them most, he developed Digital Green, a platform and process for sharing and extending knowledge among farmers in the most remote areas. [...]
Maasai Youngster’s Tech-Invention Saves Lives, Livelihoods, and Communities.
13 year-old Richard Turere could no longer sit by and watch the slaughter of his family’s livestock by lions in the Nairobi National Park. Using little more than an old car battery, light bulbs, and a prodigious talent for invention, this young boy has solved one of the gravest conflicts plaguing traditional agriculture in Kenya. [...]
Change You Can Play: Outbreak Responder
CodeSustainable’s Outbreak Responder is a time-management game that places the player in charge of malaria control projects. The game focuses on showing the general dependencies and relationships between the actions taken against malaria and its outcome. The goal of the game is to show and teach the individual elements of the fight against malaria and their interlacing.
Signs of the NY Times: The disenfranchisement of drug abusers. The facts of fracking. Kenya’s new president, controversy. Civil rights in Iran.
Op-Ed contributors Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Ruth Dreifuss make a salient point in exposing drug abusers as one of the last demographic groups that is widely deprived of basic human rights. Drug users often find themselves on the margins of society, and their mistreatment – excessive incarceration, lack of medical care, physical abuse and sometimes [...]
Press Review: Child executions in Yemen & Google ads help illegal ivory trade
After violent elections in 2007, millions of Kenyans vote in mostly peaceful elections. [BBC] The number of Syrians seeking refuge in underfunded camps in Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon is expected to tip the one million mark this week. [Washington Post] At the two-year anniversary of Syria’s uprising, the country needs fewer arms—not more. [The [...]
Press Review: Land disputes divide Kenyans & Child trafficking laws in India
Land disputes are causing violent ethnic divisions in Kenya and are set to become a main issue in upcoming elections. [Washington Post] Despite an epidemic of child trafficking in India, the country’s parliament may abandon new legislation banning the practice. [The Guardian] Australian environmentalists say that decades of progress towards conservation could be lost if [...]
AFRICA’S AUDACITY OF HOPE? What might Africans expect from a second Obama Administration?
In the week that Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term as US president, Fairplanet asked five young Africans about their hopes for their country’s relationship with the US over the coming four years.
Somalia in Transition – An Interview with the British Ambassador to Somalia
Somalia is in transition. Over the past year, the Horn of Africa’s most troubled state has seen significant progress; with the 2012 Somali presidential election among the most notable developments. After two decades without a stable government, Somalis witnessed open campaigning and were able to cast their vote in what was an important step [...]
A farmer helps fight poverty
The success of Wawire, in Kimilili, demonstrates how income generating activities can free farmers from poverty. Patrick Wawire used to be like any other farmer in Kenya: Producing just enough to feed his family and struggling to pay his childrens’ school fees. This was until early 2011 when he learnt about the i-TOF centre and [...]
Somali business flourishes in Kenya but xenophobia threatens the peace in Eastleigh
The Somali Spring? For the last two decades, the majority of news reports coming in from Somalia have been almost exclusively negative. The country has been plagued by clan-based enmities, some of which still run deep within today’s Somali society, extreme political instability that left the country without a functioning government since 1991, as well [...]
Organic farming in East Africa
Organic farming has become much more important in East Africa in recent years. Environmentally friendly agricultural methods are a prerequisite for sustainable rural development. In order that organic farming represents a viable option for small farmers, it must also be economical for them. During the conversion from conventional to organic agriculture they are thus dependent [...]
