All the American yuppies pride themselves that they will soon be forced to drive electric cars, which are "non polluting".
Well, ignore those local electric plants, of course.
But as AlJ points out: To make the batteries, you need cobalt, and Cobalt mining is destroying the local environment in the DRC.
Cobalt is one of the key ingredients added in electric batteries, and more than half of it is currently mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Amnesty says children as young as seven work in dangerous conditions in Congo cobalt mines.
"At the present time, you'd have to say that there isn't a lot of regulation around the mining of cobalt," says Gavin Wendt, the founding director and senior resource analyst at Australia-based Minelife.
"A lot of the cobalt that's mined is generated from illegally operated mines that employ almost slave labour: underaged workers, illiterate workers, workers that don't get paid very much ... They're controlled by warlords, and the industry is appallingly run."
I have a Madonna and child that was carved at the Serima Mission school. If you look at Mary, you say: She is a Karanga: she has the facial features of the Karanga clan of the Mashona.
Alas, I don't have a photo of the statue, which I gave to my brother for safe keeping.
There is an article about the Serima school here: some of the students went on to be professional artists.
and here is a picture from the Zimbabwe National Gallery by an unknown artist: titled: Come let us adore him. Note the three kings at the left side.
of course, the locals disliked the primitive art, and the educated , at least, preferred the more sophisticated stuff of the west: hopefully, as in music, they will combine both traditions as their culture evolves into today's world.
Even 40 years ago, many of our nurses came from urban middle class families who owned stores etc. One of our sisters wrote her PhD thesis on how the family structure and personal interactions were changing with education: I found a copy at a university in the US after I returned, and found it interesting, because she described what I actually saw in the changing society.
This was even more true when I went back to urban Liberia, where few had ties with their villages.
In other words, 90 percent of what Americans (or South Americans or Asians) think about Africa is nonsense, although the CNN reports in their "on Africa" segments are fairly good.
I mean, even my friend in Rural Zimbabwe has had a cellphone for years, and when she was teaching had access to their high school's computer.
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too often the west sees Africa via their own eyes, but now there is an active Nollywood to show African stories. Yes, in English because it is the "lingua franca" for Nigeria.
lots of "Nollywood" films on youtube, by the way.
Hopefully, Zimbabwe will have their diaspora return and get their film industry going again.
In Zambia, 12.4% of women and 3.6% of men are obese — still below the average for the continent and nowhere close to the U.S. rates of roughly 36% for each gender. But obesity rates here have grown rapidly enough over the last several years to have become a deep concern for national health officials.
“It’s a very big issue,” said Chitalu Chilufya, the minister of health. “It is a challenge that needs to be nipped in the bud now or else it will grow out of hand.”
With expanding waistlines has come a rise in health issues. Diabetes, barely heard of here not long ago, now affects around 4.1% of Zambians, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
“We’re losing a lot of people due to strokes and heart attacks because of obesity,” the health minister said.
and that doesn't even include the problem of high blood pressure from "western" foods that have a lot of salt in them.
why do I say this is "good news"? because the alternative is starvation, poverty, and dying of TB or other infections.
December 18, 2017: As 2017 ends Congo faces the same problem it faced in 2016: President Joseph Kabila illegally remaining in office. The December Accord of December 31, 2016 (also called the Saint Sylvester agreement) was supposed to create a peaceful political path for Kabila's exit. Congo's Catholic bishops mediated the negotiations that led to the December Accord. New elections were to be held in 2017 -- that was stipulated. Kabila would leave office after the elections and civil war would be avoided. Despite the February 2017 death of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, the Congolese opposition coalition Rassemblement continued to demand elections in December 2017 and stage occasional national strikes. UN officials in Congo and the Catholic Church supported the coalition's demand for new elections. However, no national elections are occurring in December 2017.
Sigh.
This does have a "Mugabe" link however, since Mugabe sent his troops there as "peacekeepers" many years ago (since then they have left).
How Mugabe double-crossed Joseph Kabila & the DRC
Way before Marange, Mugabe and his military men had already started rampant racketeering, illegal mafia-style smuggling, double-crossing, double dealing, as well as illegal arms peddling with Congolese rebels. In fact, Mugabe double-crossed Kabila by selling arms to the rebels in exchange for diamonds used to enrich, not Zimbabwe, but Mugabe and his security men."
read both articles if you have an interest in civil war, civil rights, refugees, or "blood diamonds".
