Videos from the Trenches
April 13, 2007
No, not Iraq–Africa!
Tonight I came across a great nonprofit program called Scenarios from Africa that gives children and young people in Africa the opportunity to educate themselves and others about AIDS by collaborating with directors to produce educational film shorts.
While the aim of all the films is quite obvious when you watch them, the many videos that you can view directly from the website are also very telling of the situation in Africa and what daily life is like there. Some are sad, some are quite funny–watch a couple if you have a few minutes; you’ll be glad that you did.
Entry Filed under: A Closer Walk, AIDS, Africa, South Africa, Uganda, Universal Responsibility, awareness, downward leveling, epidemiology, global health, humanitarianism. .
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1.
adkgirl06 | April 13, 2007 at 1:42 am
DasG11b, Norcross, Georgia, United States; March 28 2:18am:
Unfortunately, the only feasible way to solve many of Africa’s problems (AIDS, Darfur, (human rights, disease) is going to be to help them industrialize. Many oftheir largest problems come from lack of societal infrastructure… schools for education, proper sanitation, medicine… etc.
The problem is, the industrialization of the rest of the world has already caused enough trouble for the enviroment. Look at pollution, greenhouse gasses, a limited supply of petroleum… we’re not doing so well with only 25% of the world’s population industrialized. You can bet that if we industrialze Africa, they’re not going to be driving hybrids and recycling.
Global warming is a good example: What’s going to happen if we solve all our own environmental probems, reducing greenhouse gas emmissions, etc… only to light up a thousand coal plants in Africa. Do you think they’re going to have strict regulations? Laws? Policies? If you do, think again.
The unfortunate reality may be… we’re not in a position to help Africa yet. As much as that sucks to say, if we go in and help them with our current levels of technology, we may be setting the entire planet up for even worse disaster later down the road.
2.
adkgirl06 | April 13, 2007 at 1:43 am
Ashcans, Atlanta, Georgia, United States; March 28 3:06am:
Thanks for posting this, I’ve only watched a half-dozen so far but they’re interesting to see. Also nice to see a Kenya entry there. I hope more people see this and get some idea of what life is like.
As to the above, I think its a bit cynical. There is no real reason that Africa should build thousands of coal plants; they aren’t laying telegram wire right now, they’re building cell phone towers. Africa actually has an advantage in employing new technologies because they have little or no sunk costs in older facilities. With the right backing and help from the West, a lot of developing nations could leapfrog to sustainable energy solutions. Africa cannot go back, it has to find a workable road forward.
3.
adkgirl06 | April 13, 2007 at 1:44 am
DasG11b, Norcross, Georgia, United States; March 28 7:33pm:
So you’re comparing a technology we have successfully replaced (telegrams vs wireless) with a technology we haven’t successfully replaced (coal power).
What are they going to do, build nuclear plants? Wind power isn’t going to cut it. They already have a few good hydro projects (check the Merowe High Dam, but temper your enthusiasm with the knowledge that it can produce power for a large pecentage of the population because it doesn’t take a lot of energy to run Sudan, currently.)
I agree on the sunk costs, which is a definite help, but what are they going to build instead of old-school technology?
4.
adkgirl06 | April 13, 2007 at 1:44 am
Ashcans, Atlanta, Georgia, United States; March 29 1:50am:
It doesn’t take a lot of power to make a meaningful difference in most of Africa. We don’t have to worry about bringing every African household up to levels of American consumption, or even European consumption.
You could make a big impact on the power supply just with modern renewable energy; a lot of Africa is ideal for solar collection, wind farming, and geothermal power. None of these is going to support the consumption of a thorughly modern Africa, but that isn’t the demand. They can certainly meet basic residential demands, particularly because many of these can be conducted on a small local level that doesn’t require expanding the entire grid.
Many of these technologies aren’t at a point where they are effective solutions for the West, but they can certainly fill the (much lower) needs of developing areas. Just as cellphones provide an adequate solution for African communication needs, where the West still has need for hard lines because of higher demands on the technology.
And why not nuclear power? The raw fuel is on the continent, and so is the expertise — South Africa has been running nuclear plants for twenty years now. It won’t take off because nuclear anything is still a global bogeyman, but its not out of reach.