In The News

Zimbabwe's Cholera Victims Find Salvation in South Africa

Basildon Peta December 9, 2008
Cholera is typically transmitted through water or food contaminated by fecal matter, reports the World Health Organization. A corrupt government in Zimbabwe has made sanitation a low priority, and perhaps the biggest tragedy for its people is that a disease so easily treatable goes neglected. Treatment includes simple rehydration or hydration salts, reports WHO, but Zimbabwe health workers lack...

Lucrative Piracy Business Thrives Off Somali Coast

November 20, 2008
Piracy represents a major source of income for the desert nation of Somalia, fragmented politically and lacking any central authority since the early 1990s. The nation on Africa’s eastern coast is desperately poor, with a per-capita GDP of $600. Poaching of fish stocks has stripped coastal waters, and years of conflict have left plenty of weapons in Somali hands. So some Somalis, armed with...

Birds v. Coal: South African Court Asked to Decide

November 19, 2008
Wildlife conservationists have filed suit to stop a British–South African mining company from extracting coal from an area of wetlands and grasslands, habitat for 300 bird species, reports the Environmental News Service. The mining company claims that no threatened species are in the area, but “BirdLife South Africa, supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds based in the UK, has...

How the Mobile Phone in Your Pocket is Helping to Pay for the Civil War in Congo

Mike Pflanz November 14, 2008
An abundance of rare minerals bless and curse the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Raw columbium-tantalite ore, commonly known as coltan, is ground to make a heat- resistant powder used in capacitors for mobile telephones and other electrical devices, reports Mike Phlanz. The bulk of the world’s supply is inside war-torn Congo. “The links between Congo's vast riches and its blood-stained...

The World's Most Utterly Failed State

October 10, 2008
Piracy is one of the oldest legacies of globalization; as goods are traded among increasingly connected peoples, others carve their place in the global economy by disrupting trade and stealing what they can on the high seas. Since the end of its "Golden Age" in the 1800s, piracy has taken on a largely nostalgic role in pop culture and travel attractions in the West, but remains a...

Aid Is Good, Business Is Better

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Nicky Oppenheimer September 1, 2008
Africa lags behind other continents on most indicators of development, largely because the cost of doing business is too high, suggest the president of Liberia and the chairman of De Beers, writing an opinion essay together for the International Herald Tribune. Record amounts of aid flow to the continent, but countries should regard that aid as temporary and enact reforms to spur sustainable...

China “Is Fueling War In Darfur”

Hilary Andersson August 1, 2008
For years, the United Nations, suspecting Chinese involvement in Sudan, has searched for military trucks made in Chinese factories and imported directly to Sudan. Preliminary investigations by BBC located some trucks, including one with a Chinese anti-aircraft gun inside. BBC also reports that Chinese fighter jets have been used for missions in the region. China's official stance is that it...