Tag Archives: africa

21% of Africa’s Freshwater Species Threatened With Extinction (Pics)

Photo via ICUN According to a new report from The International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN), a 5-year study involving 200 scientists has found that the flora and fauna of Africa’s freshwater ways are threatened with extinction thanks to four main factors: agriculture, water abstraction, dams and invasive species. In all, 21% of the freshwater species are at risk, a huge number that turns right around to threaten the culprits — the livelihoods of millions of humans are put at risk with such a loss. Despite the dire news, the report… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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21% of Africa’s Freshwater Species Threatened With Extinction (Pics)

Africans have ‘child rape gene’: Sweden Democrat

A blog post by a local Sweden Democrat politician, Per T K Wahlberg, in which he claims that black Africans are genetically programmed to rape children, has raised questions about the party's attempts to distance itself from open racism. Wahlberg occupies 26th place on the Sweden Democrats list for municipal elections in Landskrona in southern Sweden and he currently sits on the culture committee and election commission. The party claimed 11 seats in Landskrona municipality at the last election in 2006. On his blog “Landskronabackspegel” (Literally: Landskrona rearview mirror) Wahlberg, a 76-year-old retiree and one of the party's more experienced members, published a post on the genetic characteristics of black Africans: “For many thousands of years, the Negro could chill out in the heat, eat some bananas, rape some passing woman or child, fight with other negro males and eat them up, play the drums a little, run around a bit, catch an antelope, eat a few bananas, love a bit, get drunk on fermented fruits or herbs, and so on. This has been going on for millennia without any evolutionary pressure in the form of environmental factors forcing the negro to develop in another direction.” Wahlberg told The Local on Friday that the quotes are all taken from the provocative Swedish political and media discussion forum Flashback, and are written “ironically”. Nevertheless, he declined to distance himself from the broad content of the post. “You could say that some parts have some truth to them. But generally speaking it is written with irony,” he said. In a prior recent interview with the local Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) daily, Wahlberg was more forthright over his personal views. “I think that it was quite an accurate description. If we look at history, then humanity began in Africa once upon a time, and then there were some who emigrated to Europe and Asia. But at what level are they now? Not much has happened over these thousands of years,” he told the newspaper. Wahlberg's blog furthermore includes several recent posts critical of Islam and Muslims. Despite the nature of his blog, Wahlberg told The Local late Friday morning that he has not received any internal criticism from the party hierarchy. However, in the wake of the attention given to Wahlberg's blog by Sweden's mainstream media, he has since left the party. Sweden Democrat party secretary Bj

Chimps Found Deactivating Snares Set By Human Bushmeat Hunters

photo: Graham Racher via flickr Go chimps, go! An interesting new paper in the journal Primates documents how a group of chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea have been successfully deactivating snares set by human bushmeat hunters. Though not always successful, the scienti… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Chimps Found Deactivating Snares Set By Human Bushmeat Hunters

Afghanistan & Sub-Saharan Africa Have World’s Greatest Food Security Risk: New Report

image: Maplecroft New analysis shows Afghanistan as well as several sub-Saharan African nations as having the greatest food security risk in the world, classified as ‘extreme risk’ (red in the image above). Furthermore, 36 of the 50 most at-risk nations in the world are found in Africa…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Afghanistan & Sub-Saharan Africa Have World’s Greatest Food Security Risk: New Report

Solar Transforms School Performance in East Africa (Video)

Image credit: Solar-Aid From the launch of SolarAid to the massive expansion of its SunnyMoney micro-finance operations , TreeHugger has been excited about this charity’s work to harness clean technology for economic development. We’ve already seen a great video about how solar can be a life-saver for rural families . Now the charity has released another video, this … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Solar Transforms School Performance in East Africa (Video)

A Super Modest Proposal

Pops Logan has a solution to the problem of immigrant children becoming citizens. added by: Progresshiv

Bring Water Into Climate Change Negotiations

Longer periods of drought, decreased river flow, higher rainfall variability and lower soil moisture content: water is at the heart of the impacts of climate change. Yet the precious commodity scarcely features in climate negotiations. Three hundred million Africans lack access to clean water; 500 million lack access to proper sanitation, according to Bai-Mass Taal, Executive Secretary from the African Ministers’ Council on Water. “Lack of water security will be exacerbated by climate change, which directly threatens food security,” says Dr Ania Grobicki, head of the Global Water Partnership (GWP). Yet there is no focus on water in climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “There is no United Nations agency for water, and there's no international convention regulating water resource management and there is no water focus under the UNFCCC,” says Grobicki. “Water also evaporated from the text of the Copenhagen Accord.” Grobicki and her colleagues argue for a focus on adaptation measures on the ground. Rehabilitation and maintenance of existing infrastructure is one place to start. “With our local partners, we cleaned up a water course that was polluted by waste water from a sugar cane plantation in Swaziland,” says Alex Simalabwi from GWP's Partnership for Africa's Water Development project. “As a result 10,000 smallholder farmers have access to clean water.” Burkina Faso, where 80 percent of the population depends on agriculture for a living, has invested in the construction of more than 1,500 small dams since 1998. These reservoirs – built at relatively low-cost, often with local communities contributing labour to their construction – are a vital protection against drought. Most African agriculture is rain-fed, says Grobicki. “As climate variability increases and temperatures rise, water security drops radically. Dams ensure water is available throughout the year.” The scale and operation of water infrastructure needs to be carefully planned. “Using water from the river for irrigation might benefit a farming community, but it could have damaging effects downstream. That’s why it is important to have shared decision-making. In this process there will be trade-offs, but also shared benefits,” she says. Other adaptation measures include shifting to more drought-resistant crops and the use of satellite imaging to reveal moisture content of soil and guide farmers' irrigation efforts: pilot projects in several countries already send out such information via text messages to farmers' phones. Water-saving technologies can further maximise the benefits of these strategies. “Drip irrigation offers huge potential for saving water in rural areas, while remote sensing can be used to inform farmers about the moisture content of the soil so they know how much water they need to use to grow their crops,” says Grobicki. Drip irrigation is a highly efficient means of watering crops and applying fertiliser via tubing spread throughout the field. In Zimbabwe and Malawi, smallholder farmers are coping with drought with simple drip systems consisting of a couple of large plastic containers on a raised platform, and 100-odd metres of plastic tubes delivering the water to vegetable gardens. snip The call is for water to be recognised in climate change negotiations as both the transmitter of climate change impacts and an important vehicle for strengthening social, environmental and economic resilience to them. continued added by: JanforGore

Fat Joe Wants To End 50 Cent Beef With Bathroom Brawl

‘I would love to be in an airport … we go in the men’s room, best man wins, that’s it,’ Joe says on MTV’s ‘RapFix Live.’ By Mawuse Ziegbe Fat Joe Photo: MTV News Fat Joe and 50 Cent have been throwing jabs at each other on records and in the press for more than five years. Even though half a decade has passed since their beef first erupted, it appears that when it comes to the NYC MCs, some things never change. Earlier this week, the ever-combative 50 Cent sent out a viral video crackin’ on the album sales of Joey Crack’s recent release, The Darkside, Vol. 1. When a Fat Joe fan broached the subject via Twitter during the Bronx rapper’s appearance on “RapFix Live” on Friday (August 6), Joe responded that 50’s swipes were way off the mark. “There’s nothing I really believe about 50 Cent,” Joe told MTV News’ Sway. The Terror Squad MC said the 50’s infamous claims about Joe’s lack of influence on the international hip-hop scene were untrue. “When he did that first interview dissing Fat Joe with you [Sway], with the candlelights and all that, he lied,” Joe said. “When he said no one knows Fat Joe in Africa, I saw that interview from Africa and I had 70,000 people out there. There isn’t a country I ain’t touch in Africa. I just came back from South of France, I toured China, Japan, wherever you name, 60,000 people come out to see Fat Joe.” Fat Joe, who has been making noise as a respected MC since the ’90s, said 50 should focus on sustaining a long-term hip-hop career. “I been in the game 16 years. He gotta try having longevity in this game,” Joe said, adding that 50’s once-robust album numbers have fallen off in recent years. “You talk about album sales — he went from selling 10 million albums to not even going gold this last album. So, he lost nine-and-a-half-million fans in four years. I don’t really trip off him,” Joe said. Crack dubbed himself “an ambassador for peace” in hip-hop, a title earned he said as a result of his amicable relationships with many MCs and typically beef-averse approach to making records. 50, on the other hand, goes after anyone who does it big in NYC rap, Joe said. “The latest one he’s going at: Puff Daddy. He has beef with Jadakiss, he has beef with Cam’ron. Anybody we consider dope in New York, he has went at them. There ain’t nobody he ain’t touch,” Joe said. “Fat Joe ain’t out here trying to battle-rap everybody in the world. That’s not what I’m about. What I am is a man, and when you disrespect my family and you disrespect me like that, there’s gotta be answers to the questions.” Joe admitted that while he’s all about keeping the peace, he’s open to deading the years-long drama between him and Fif — with a man-to-man confrontation. “The day 50 Cent want to lock up with me in a bathroom and do this like men, we can hug each other and keep it moving the day after that,” Joe said. The MC later mused, “I would love to be in an airport, we bump into each other, we go in the men’s room, best man wins, that’s it.” Joey also cleared up rumors about some unrelated drama that recently went down in the NYC hip-hop scene. The night before his “RapFix Live” appearance, Joe hit the stage at legendary spinner Funkmaster Flex’s bash at Manhattan’s Webster Hall, where he brought underground MC French Montana onstage. Later, of what appeared to be Harlem’s Jim Jones and his crew throwing ice at French, hit the Web. Hip-hop fans have been rumbling about the footage, which suggests that Jones was taking out his anger toward former Dipset associate Max B on French, who is cool with the jailed rapper. “They was throwing it at each other, be clear on that. Once again, Fat Joe, ambassador for peace in hip-hop. This kid French Montana is killing the streets; all the young boys love him to death. French is like, ‘Yo, Joe, let me come out, introduce me.’ So I introduce him, the crowd is going crazy and then they start throwing stuff at each other. I understand Jimmy’s point of view. French used to be cool with Max B and they disrespected [Jim Jones’] wife and family,” Joe said. “I tried to bring peace towards that but who knows where that’ll go.” Do you think 50 and Fat Joe should bring an end to their beef once and for all? Share your thoughts in the comments. Related Videos ‘RapFix Live’ With Fat Joe Related Artists Fat Joe 50 Cent

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Fat Joe Wants To End 50 Cent Beef With Bathroom Brawl

Lollapalooza Lookback 1997: Korn Spend The Summer In ‘Hot-Ass Africa’

Korn headlined Lolla’s strangest incarnation — and then the fest took six years off. By James Montgomery Korn Photo: MTV News With the 2010 edition of Lollapalooza set to kick off Friday, MTV News decided to dive deep into our archives and dig up the greatest/ weirdest/ scariest/ downright rocking-est moments in the fest’s rather epic history. We’re calling it “Lollapalooza Lookback,” and we think it’s a pretty fitting tribute to the granddaddy of American music festivals. We’ve already tackled Pearl Jam’s 1992 afternoon set , Nine Inch Nails’ stage-trashing heroics from 1991 and Ice Cube’s “buck wild” goals in ’92 ; now, we’re fast-forwarding to 1997, a time when nobody seemed to know what was happening with music — not even Korn, who inexplicably found themselves on the main stage. 1997: Korn Usher In the Dark Days To put it mildly, 1997 was a pretty weird year in music. The alt-rock heyday had come and gone, nu-metal was still in its infancy, and the freaking Prodigy had just scored a #1 album. In a lot of ways, it was the beginning of the end for rock music’s vice-like grip on young America. Sure, you had albums like Radiohead’s OK Computer, Spiritualized’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space and the Verve’s Urban Hymns, but those were all inherently British albums by British bands. Things here in the States were a bit of a mess. And that’s how we ended up with Lollapalooza ’97. It was certainly the weirdest lineup the fest had ever put together (and I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way), featuring electronic acts like Orbital, the Prodigy and the Orb, the seminal Devo and two of Bob Marley’s kids, Julian and Damian. Not to mention Snoop Dogg, Tool and, perhaps oddest of all, Korn. And yeah, all of this happened one year after Lolla featured Metallica in the headlining slot, but that doesn’t make any of it seem less strange, not even 13 years after the fact. Not surprisingly, the crowds that showed up didn’t quite know how to act — they famously ripped up seats during Korn’s sets and treated the electronic acts with stout indifference. Tickets didn’t sell all that well either, which meant that this would also be the last Lollapalooza until 2003. Still, MTV News was there at the kickoff, in West Palm Beach, Florida, and we had our own Serena Altschul attempt to interview some of the headliners. When she asked Korn what it meant to perform on a fest like Lollapalooza, she got the following responses, which sort of summed up the entire experience rather nicely. “It means, like, drink all day !” bassist Fieldy laughed. “I think it means, like, bringing a lot of different people together,” guitarist Munky added. “I think that’s what [Lolla organizer] Perry [Farrell]’s original idea was, to bring a lot of different styles of music together, just so everyone could have a good time and appreciate the different styles of music.” “I think it means, like, spending the summer in hot-ass Africa,” then-drummer David Silveria chuckled. Yow. And while this certainly wasn’t Lolla’s greatest moment, it’s certainly worth documenting, because no history would be complete without a few dark periods. And make no mistake about it: 1997 was about as dark as it got. Still, things have changed a lot since then. For starters, Korn haven’t been back since. Make sure to come back Friday, when we reveal another Lollapalooza Lookback. Plus, MTV News’ Lollapalooza Live will be streaming Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m. right here on MTV.com. Related Videos Lollapalooza Lookback

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Lollapalooza Lookback 1997: Korn Spend The Summer In ‘Hot-Ass Africa’

UN Recommends Chili Ping Pong Balls & Snake-Filled Bread to Stop Animals Marauding African Farms

photo: flickrfavorites The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has some novel and low-tech solutions for dealing with the age-old problem of wild animals raiding the crops of African farmers : Chili peppers to drive off elephants, guard donkeys for lions, cheetahs, and hyenas, and (perhaps my favorite for sheer inventiveness) placing live snakes in loaves of bread … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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UN Recommends Chili Ping Pong Balls & Snake-Filled Bread to Stop Animals Marauding African Farms