Tag Archives: Africa

Google wants blimps to bring wifi access to sub-Saharan Africa

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“Google is planning to develop high-speed wireless networks in sub-Saharan Africa with the help of high-altitude balloons that can transmit signals across hundreds of square miles. The internet search giant wants to connect one billion more people to the internet in emerging markets such as Africa and south-east Asia, and is ready to team up with telecoms firms and equipment providers to build networks that will improve speeds in cities and bring the internet to rural areas. Google is considering a mix of technologies, broadcasting signals from masts, satellites and even remote-controlled balloons known as blimps.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/28/google-wants-blimps-to-bring-wifi-access-to-sub-saharan-africa/

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Roadside manicure services boom in Nigeria

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“A comfortable salon may be the ideal place to have a manicure-pedicure, but in Nigeria’s sprawling economic capital, the curb above a open sewer works just fine.  Privately tailored suits delivered to your home or office are a luxury reserved for the wealthy in some cultures, but in Lagos, many in the middle class are also in regular contact with their personal clothier.  And, while paying for your toe and fingernails to be soaked, scrubbed, trimmed and moisturised is considered a luxury in some parts of the world, in Lagos, ‘it’s for everybody,’ said Bashir Haruna, 32, a groom at a polo club who also hauls boxes at an appliance store for extra cash.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/22/roadside-manicure-services-boom-in-nigeria/

Roadside manicure services boom in Nigeria

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How I Printed So Much Money in Zimbabwe That the Country Experienced Hyper-Inflation

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“The former head of Zimbabwe’s central bank, Gideon Gono, wrote a book in 2008, Zimbabwe’s Casino Economy. The book is about his running of the bank during the country’s period of hyper-inflation.”

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/05/how-i-printed-so-much-money-in-zimbabwe.html

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State Department self-censors criticism of Eritrean diaspora tax in Human Rights Report

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“With the release of the 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices yesterday, it seems the U.S. State Department has finally realised its hypocrisy in condemning Eritrea for imposing tax on the Eritrean diaspora to fund wars in Africa, while aiding the IRS to impose tax on the American diaspora so that the US can also fund wars in Africa, and the Middle East, and Central Asia, and … Unfortunately, State’s response has not been to levy similar criticisms against the IRS or to stop cooperating with it, but instead to tone down their criticisms of Eritrea.”

http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/04/20/state-department-self-censors-criticism-of-eritrean-diaspora-tax-in-2012-human-rights-report/

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Kenya’s new cellphone money model could disrupt global banking industry

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“M-Shwari is a new banking platform that allows subscribers of Kenya’s biggest mobile network, Safaricom, to operate savings accounts, earn interest on deposits, and borrow money using their mobile phones.  It expands on Kenya’s revolutionary use of sending money by mobile phone — known as M-Pesa, ‘mobile money’ in Swahili — launched in 2007 and now widely used across the east African nation, where some 70 percent of people have mobile phones. With a minimum transfer of cash set at five shillings — around five US cents — the application revolutionised day-to-day banking for millions left out of the formal system.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/28/kenyas-new-cellphone-money-model-could-disrupt-global-banking-industry/

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Supreme Court rules foreign citizens can’t sue in U.S. for rights violations

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“The Supreme Court unanimously upheld a federal appeals court’s decision on Wednesday barring foreign citizens from suing corporations in American courts for human rights violations committed abroad.  The Los Angeles Times reported that the 9-0 decision limits the scope of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) of 1789 in rejecting a lawsuit brought against Royal Dutch Petroleum by a group of Nigerian citizens accusing the company of helping their country’s government in a series of human rights violations — including, murder, rape and torture — during the 1990s.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/17/supreme-court-rules-foreign-citizens-cant-sue-in-u-s-for-rights-violations/

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Entrepreneur Works With Coke’s Distribution to Deliver Medicine to Remote African Villages

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“In the 1980s, entrepreneur Simon Barry was an aid worker in remote villages in Zambia, and he became aware of how easy it was to grab a Coke nearly every place he went, but he also noticed how many basic necessities were missing. Barry got the idea to somehow use Coca-Cola’s distributing success to deliver lifesaving supplies to the countries most in need. Unfortunately, the idea did not become a reality until about five years ago, with the help of Facebook and the Internet.  The joint efforts resulted in a test program, called ColaLife. The program gets medical aid to Zambia using the extra space in Coke crates.”

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/entrepreneur-works-coke-distribution-deliver-medicine-remote-african-175039535.html

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How Mobile Devices Are Changing Africa

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“Mobile phones are kicking off a revolution in Africa, with everyone from farmers to villagers relying on apps to make electronic payments, check on expiration dates for medicine, and predict future storms or the best prices for produce. More kids in Africa have access to the Internet than consistent electricity. Nobody owns a PC or can access a fixed-line telephone, so mobile phones are a conduit for everything from email to news to making payments via SMS. Many people on the continent also own phones equipped with flashlights and radios and the percentage of the population equipped with mobile devices is primed to explode over the next few years.”

http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/sxsw-how-mobile-devices-are-changing-africa/

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Entrepreneurs crowdsource traffic tips to help drivers out of jams in newly car-dense cities

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“If you own a mobile phone and spend sunup to sundown watching the traffic pass in Ghana’s capital, then Iddrisu Mohammed wants you to be his spy.  With an iPad in his hands and two phones in his pants pockets, Mohammed crisscrosses Accra on foot, looking for people to become informants for Jamless, a recently launched traffic information service that hopes to restore a little sanity to the capital’s hectic commute. ‘What Jamless will do is give you the traffic situation in any part of Accra that you are and give you alternate routes to use if the place is jammed,’ said Mohammed, who is the company’s informant manager.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/23/entrepreneurs-crowdsource-traffic-tips-to-help-drivers-out-of-jams-in-newly-car-dense-cities/

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Scientists use iPhones to diagnose intestinal worms

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“Scientists used an iPhone and a camera lens to diagnose intestinal worms in rural Tanzania, a breakthrough that could help doctors treat patients infected with the parasites, a study said on Tuesday.  Research published by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed that it is possible to fashion a low-cost field microscope using an iPhone, double-sided tape, a flashlight, ordinary laboratory slides and an $8 cameral lens.  The researchers used their cobbled-together microscope to successfully determine the presence of eggs from hookworm and other parasites in the stool of infected children.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/12/scientists-use-iphones-to-diagnose-intestinal-worms/

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