TED and the sponsors behind the conference made an amazing commitment to including innovative young African leaders, thinkers and entrepreneurs into the TED Global conference. Of the 450 attendees at the conference, 100 are “fellows”, here through the generosity of GE, Google and AMD. That generosity took an unexpected extra step this morning, when TED staffer Tom Rielly announced to the assembled fellows that Google and AMD would be donating a new Mac or PC laptop to all fellows, and that Noah Samara from Worldspace would be giving each fellow a satellite radio and an annual subscription.
This isn’t the only generous effort coming out of the TED Global conference. William Kamkwamba, the amazing young Malawian engineer who built his first windmill at age 14, has captured the imagination of many of the people in the crowd. A number of TED attendees have banded together to support him fiscally to complete his high school education and go onto university. A TED staffer is travelling to Malawi next week to start working on finding tutors for William to help prepare him to attend a top high school in Malawi.
Some members of my blogging community, including Ndesanjo Macha, have committed to coaching William… and critically, in coaching TED on how to provide William with help and support without overwhelming him or uprooting him from his family or community. Friends like Ndesanjo have had the experience of growing up in rural communities and moving to huge cities to pursue their education - I hope that he can help TED support William in a way that’s as constructive as possible.
While today has felt a bit like Christmas, especially for everyone who’s currently dreaming of their new radios and laptops, it’s important to remember that the real value of this conference has been bringing everyone together here in Arusha. It’s rare that we get a chance to hear from this many amazing African voices at any one event. It’s even more rare that these voices get heard by an audience of global decisionmakers, people with the power to help bring some of the amazing ideas shared here to scale. Thanks to everyone who’s made it possible for TED to be in Africa and for a hundred amazing fellows to be here.
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Rights groups sue Paladin over Malawi uranium mine project
A coalition of Malawian rights groups sued Australian firm Paladin and the government on Thursday in a bid to halt to a 185 mln usd uranium mine project.
'We have obtained an injunction against Paladin and the Malawian government for flouting procedures about uranium mining,' John Chawinga, secretary of the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice, one of the rights groups, told Agence France Presse.
He said that the coalition wants the government to review an environmental impact assessment of the project, and said the 'project is environmentally hazardous and we don't want to take chances with people's lives'.
'We have only been told about the economic benefits but Malawians have not been told about the advantages and disadvantages of uranium mining. What are the dangers?' Chawinga said.
The project to mine uranium at Kayelekera in northern Malawi could have 'catastrophic consequences for future generations if people are exposed to radiation', he said.
The coalition also said that the project could pollute Lake Malawi, Africa's third largest freshwater body and a source of clean water, fish and employment for millions.
In April, the project by Paladin Africa, a subsidiary of Australia's Paladin Resources, received a mining licence after the firm and the government inked a 10 year development deal.
The mining is expected to earn the impoverished nation 220 mln usd annually in export earnings at the end of 2008, representing about 10 pct of gross national product and 40 pct of current export income.
Martin McAllen, a representative of Paladin, parried concerns about pollution. 'No process or waste waters will be directly discharged into the environment of the rivers, but will be captured in and stored in specially designed dams and ponds,' he said.
Charles Msosa, a spokesman from the energy and mines ministry, defended the government, saying it had 'complied' with the environmental management act and had 'undertaken to monitor the project on an ongoing basis'.
'The government would like to inform all Malawians who wish the country well that it is in the public's interest that the uranium project at Kayelekera be carried out by Paladin,' Msosa said in a statement.
A court hearing has been fixed for June 19 in the administrative capital Lilongwe.
'We have obtained an injunction against Paladin and the Malawian government for flouting procedures about uranium mining,' John Chawinga, secretary of the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice, one of the rights groups, told Agence France Presse.
He said that the coalition wants the government to review an environmental impact assessment of the project, and said the 'project is environmentally hazardous and we don't want to take chances with people's lives'.
'We have only been told about the economic benefits but Malawians have not been told about the advantages and disadvantages of uranium mining. What are the dangers?' Chawinga said.
The project to mine uranium at Kayelekera in northern Malawi could have 'catastrophic consequences for future generations if people are exposed to radiation', he said.
The coalition also said that the project could pollute Lake Malawi, Africa's third largest freshwater body and a source of clean water, fish and employment for millions.
In April, the project by Paladin Africa, a subsidiary of Australia's Paladin Resources, received a mining licence after the firm and the government inked a 10 year development deal.
The mining is expected to earn the impoverished nation 220 mln usd annually in export earnings at the end of 2008, representing about 10 pct of gross national product and 40 pct of current export income.
Martin McAllen, a representative of Paladin, parried concerns about pollution. 'No process or waste waters will be directly discharged into the environment of the rivers, but will be captured in and stored in specially designed dams and ponds,' he said.
Charles Msosa, a spokesman from the energy and mines ministry, defended the government, saying it had 'complied' with the environmental management act and had 'undertaken to monitor the project on an ongoing basis'.
'The government would like to inform all Malawians who wish the country well that it is in the public's interest that the uranium project at Kayelekera be carried out by Paladin,' Msosa said in a statement.
A court hearing has been fixed for June 19 in the administrative capital Lilongwe.
Grad student's passion for children creates change in homeland
Khama Chibwana made a big difference in his native Zomba while living a world away in Victoria. Chibwana, who recently completed his master’s in child and youth care, devoted his time on campus to finding solutions to child care problems in Zomba, Malawi, a rural African municipality, where the effects of AIDS and poverty have left many residents struggling for basic resources.
Chibwana was teaching at the University of Malawi when he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship in 2005. He chose to come to UVic and immediately focused his studies on the problems with child care in Zomba. “I was interested because of the magnitude of need,” he says. “I thought this must be studied. There is a need for authorities to be involved.”
Chibwana says vast differences in resources exist between community-funded child care centres and those that also receive funds from outside organizations.
“At this stage there isn’t any systematic assessment of child care centres, so it’s hard to know what communities are in need,” he says. Part of Chibwana’s thesis involved selecting a random group of child care centres in Malawi and comparing their resources, from the condition of the facilities to play materials available.
While in Victoria, Chibwana helped spearhead Zomba KIDZ, a project that began as part of Saanich’s Centennial celebrations and focuses on improving early childhood development in Zomba.
He worked to help educate Saanich employees about child care situation in Zomba. The group has raised over $50,000 to build a community facility where children in the region can go to play, learn and receive basic nutrition and healthcare. Chibwana helped the group forge a partnership with Chancellor College, a campus of the University of Malawi, to deliver the program.
Chibwana has returned to his job at the University of Malawi and is working with government and non-profit groups to help shape policy on childcare in the region.
Chibwana was teaching at the University of Malawi when he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship in 2005. He chose to come to UVic and immediately focused his studies on the problems with child care in Zomba. “I was interested because of the magnitude of need,” he says. “I thought this must be studied. There is a need for authorities to be involved.”
Chibwana says vast differences in resources exist between community-funded child care centres and those that also receive funds from outside organizations.
“At this stage there isn’t any systematic assessment of child care centres, so it’s hard to know what communities are in need,” he says. Part of Chibwana’s thesis involved selecting a random group of child care centres in Malawi and comparing their resources, from the condition of the facilities to play materials available.
While in Victoria, Chibwana helped spearhead Zomba KIDZ, a project that began as part of Saanich’s Centennial celebrations and focuses on improving early childhood development in Zomba.
He worked to help educate Saanich employees about child care situation in Zomba. The group has raised over $50,000 to build a community facility where children in the region can go to play, learn and receive basic nutrition and healthcare. Chibwana helped the group forge a partnership with Chancellor College, a campus of the University of Malawi, to deliver the program.
Chibwana has returned to his job at the University of Malawi and is working with government and non-profit groups to help shape policy on childcare in the region.
Malawi uranium project has government backing - Paladin
Mining exploration and development firm Paladin Africa said on Thursday that it had received a statement from the Malawian government confirming its support for Paladin’s Kayelekera uranium project, after a group of nongovernmental organisations named them in two actions.
The government said in a press statement that it had complied with the Environmental Management Act in relation to the Kayelekera uranium project.
"The government has complied with the Act and it has undertaken to monitor the Kayelekera uranium project on an ongoing basis,” Paladin cited the government as saying. “It is in the public's interest that the project should be carried out by Paladin as the Ministry believes that the government of Malawi has not transgressed any of its laws.”
Paladin said that it remained confident that it had proceeded in the proper manner and that it was encouraged by the “positive stance” that the government of Malawi had taken.
The government said in a press statement that it had complied with the Environmental Management Act in relation to the Kayelekera uranium project.
"The government has complied with the Act and it has undertaken to monitor the Kayelekera uranium project on an ongoing basis,” Paladin cited the government as saying. “It is in the public's interest that the project should be carried out by Paladin as the Ministry believes that the government of Malawi has not transgressed any of its laws.”
Paladin said that it remained confident that it had proceeded in the proper manner and that it was encouraged by the “positive stance” that the government of Malawi had taken.
Mugabe to attend Mama Mutharika's burial
Mama Mutharika will be buried on Saturday at Ndata Farm in Thyolo, about 30km from the Malawian commercial capital, Blantyre, where her husband, President Bingu wa Mutharika, comes from.
Ethel, like Mugabe, was born in Zimbabwe of Malawian parents. Her father came from Zomba, Malawi, but was in Zimbabwe as an immigrant worker.
Mugabe's father, Masuzyo Matibili, was also an immigrant worker from Malawi but because the white Native Commissioner who registered him in Mutoko when he entered Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) could not pronounce his name properly, let alone spell it, he renamed him Gabriel. He married Bona and had several children, among them, Robert.
Young Robert and some of his siblings adopted the name Mugabe, belonging to one of the helpers of the Jesuits who were setting up Kutama Mission, because their father, Masuzyo Matibili, had dumped Bona for another woman in Bulawayo.
Bingu wa Mutharika has close links with the Zimbabwean strongman, from his days in exile from the Malawian dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Ten years Mugabe's junior, Bingu was born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom. He reverted to the family name, Mutharika, and adopted the first name, Bingu, during the 1960s when pan-Africanism was sweeping across the continent.
He mingled with Mugabe as Common Market for East and Southern Africa's secretary-general and was editor of the now defunct Southern Africa Economist magazine in Harare. He also owns a farm in Chegutu.
Last year, he named a popular highway — Midima Road — linking Limbe with his home area, Thyolo, after the Zimbabwean despot, sparking protests from Malawians who felt Mugabe did not deserve such an honour given his iron-fist rule of the southern African nation. Enraged Malawians defaced the plaque put up in Mugabe's honour during the protests.
Once one of the world's most respected statesmen because of his ability to unite warring parties in 1980, Mugabe has sunk to a ruthless dictator who is trampling on southern African nation's citizens' rights with reckless abandon.
Having embarked on a one-party state system at independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe grudgingly adopted pluralism after challenges from some of his closest lieutenants.
First, his cousin, the late James Chikerema, teamed up with the first black chief justice in independent Zimbabwe, Enoch Dumbutshena, to form the Forum Party for Democracy, throwing Mugabe's one-party plan into disarray. The new party won a seat.
Second, former ZANU PF secretary-general, Edgar "Two Boy" Tekere, formed Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) and contested the 1990 plebiscite, shocking Mugabe by winning 20 percent of the vote. That saw the new party having two representatives in the House of Assembly.
Then came the former Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary-general, Morgan Tsvangirai. His Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) contested elections in 2000. It won 58 seats of the contested 120, the closest an opposition party came to toppling the Zimbabwean strongman.
Mugabe, stunned by the result, unleashed the veterans of the independence war on hapless white commercial farmers who had openly supported the new party.
David Stevens, a Marondera farmer, was murdered in cold blood, triggering an orgy of violent farm seizures countrywide. Nearly 5 000 white farmers fled to neighbouring countries and Europe where they have contributed immensely to those countries' agricultural output.
The new farmers, most with no farming experience and without the necessary resources, soon started looting and vandalising agricultural equipment on those farms, leaving them derelict.
Once Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe is now a basket case and this year, the country has a one million tonne grain deficit.
Bingu is battering Malawi's maize with sugar from Zimbabwe. Only 200 000 tonnes of maize will be realised from the deal, leaving Zimbabwe with an 800 000 tonne deficit which will have to be met by expensive imports from faraway countries such as United States and Brazil.
Ethel, like Mugabe, was born in Zimbabwe of Malawian parents. Her father came from Zomba, Malawi, but was in Zimbabwe as an immigrant worker.
Mugabe's father, Masuzyo Matibili, was also an immigrant worker from Malawi but because the white Native Commissioner who registered him in Mutoko when he entered Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) could not pronounce his name properly, let alone spell it, he renamed him Gabriel. He married Bona and had several children, among them, Robert.
Young Robert and some of his siblings adopted the name Mugabe, belonging to one of the helpers of the Jesuits who were setting up Kutama Mission, because their father, Masuzyo Matibili, had dumped Bona for another woman in Bulawayo.
Bingu wa Mutharika has close links with the Zimbabwean strongman, from his days in exile from the Malawian dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Ten years Mugabe's junior, Bingu was born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom. He reverted to the family name, Mutharika, and adopted the first name, Bingu, during the 1960s when pan-Africanism was sweeping across the continent.
He mingled with Mugabe as Common Market for East and Southern Africa's secretary-general and was editor of the now defunct Southern Africa Economist magazine in Harare. He also owns a farm in Chegutu.
Last year, he named a popular highway — Midima Road — linking Limbe with his home area, Thyolo, after the Zimbabwean despot, sparking protests from Malawians who felt Mugabe did not deserve such an honour given his iron-fist rule of the southern African nation. Enraged Malawians defaced the plaque put up in Mugabe's honour during the protests.
Once one of the world's most respected statesmen because of his ability to unite warring parties in 1980, Mugabe has sunk to a ruthless dictator who is trampling on southern African nation's citizens' rights with reckless abandon.
Having embarked on a one-party state system at independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe grudgingly adopted pluralism after challenges from some of his closest lieutenants.
First, his cousin, the late James Chikerema, teamed up with the first black chief justice in independent Zimbabwe, Enoch Dumbutshena, to form the Forum Party for Democracy, throwing Mugabe's one-party plan into disarray. The new party won a seat.
Second, former ZANU PF secretary-general, Edgar "Two Boy" Tekere, formed Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) and contested the 1990 plebiscite, shocking Mugabe by winning 20 percent of the vote. That saw the new party having two representatives in the House of Assembly.
Then came the former Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary-general, Morgan Tsvangirai. His Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) contested elections in 2000. It won 58 seats of the contested 120, the closest an opposition party came to toppling the Zimbabwean strongman.
Mugabe, stunned by the result, unleashed the veterans of the independence war on hapless white commercial farmers who had openly supported the new party.
David Stevens, a Marondera farmer, was murdered in cold blood, triggering an orgy of violent farm seizures countrywide. Nearly 5 000 white farmers fled to neighbouring countries and Europe where they have contributed immensely to those countries' agricultural output.
The new farmers, most with no farming experience and without the necessary resources, soon started looting and vandalising agricultural equipment on those farms, leaving them derelict.
Once Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe is now a basket case and this year, the country has a one million tonne grain deficit.
Bingu is battering Malawi's maize with sugar from Zimbabwe. Only 200 000 tonnes of maize will be realised from the deal, leaving Zimbabwe with an 800 000 tonne deficit which will have to be met by expensive imports from faraway countries such as United States and Brazil.
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