THE WORLD – Page 182 – IDN-InDepthNews

Africa2017-02-172023-07-10

Tanzanian Schools Turn to Maximising Resource Use

By Kizito Makoye Shigela

DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – The ringing of the bell marks the end of lessons at Hekima Primary School, and for 10-year-old Leila Kitwana and her classmates it signals time to tend the school’s vegetable gardens where students take turns to water vertical gardens through a drip irrigation system using rainwater stored in giant tanks.

“We grow different types of vegetables, they are an important part of our meal,” says Kitwana.

Until recently, most students at this school in the impoverished Tandale area of Kinonodoni district in Dar es Salaam Region had spent more time looking for water than attending lessons. “We had a borehole but the water there was too salty to drink,” explains Kitwana. “We only used it for cleaning toilets.”

Africa2017-02-082023-07-10

Blood-Delivering Drones to Save Mothers, Babies in Tanzania

By Kizito Makoye Shigela

BAHI, Tanzania (ACP-IDN) – In Bahi, a remote district west of Tanzania’s capital Dodoma, local residents have always expected to donate blood whenever they go to hospital.

“My daughter had acute malaria and she urgently needed blood, yet there was no blood available,” local resident Hawa Ambweni told IDN. She said she had to pay some money to order blood from the district hospital.

“I was quite nervous waiting for the blood to arrive,” she said. “My daughter’s life was in danger.”

Asia-Pacific2017-02-042023-07-10

The Role of Independence in an Interchanging World Order

By Asanga Abeyagoonasekera*

“Geographic facts do not change, but their meaning for foreign policy will.” – Nicholas J. Spykman,

COLOMBO (IDN) – A new world order has begun with roles interchanging. United States as the leader of the free world and the architect of globalization is advocating nationalism in a close of its borders while China who earlier spoke about national values is now praising globalization.

President Xi during his visit to Davos clearly gave leadership toward the case of globalization. According to President Xi, “There was a time when China also had doubts about economic globalization, and was not sure whether it should join the World Trade Organization. But we came to the conclusion that integration into the global economy is a historical trend. To grow its economy, China must have the courage to swim in the vast ocean of the global market.

Asia-Pacific2017-02-022023-07-10

Sri Lanka: Celebrating ‘Independence’ in a Mess

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – On February 4 each year Sri Lanka celebrates the gaining of independence from British colonial rule. 69 years since then, it is appropriate to ask: “what independence?” The country is currently in a real mess brought about by a successful regime change campaign orchestrated by “civil society” groups, which toppled the government of “war-winning” President Mahinda Rajapakse in January 2015.

Today, the country’s foreign minister acts like a colonial era British Viceroy and not as the country’s top diplomat safeguarding the nation’s interests and dignity. The Prime Minister while trying to drum up foreign “investments” acts as if he is willing to sell any part of the country to the highest bidder and the President roams around the island like a colonial-era “gate mudaliyar” attending functions and trying to assure the natives that they are in good hands.

Africa2017-02-012023-07-10

African Union Denounces US Ban on Muslim Immigrants

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – An outraged African Union (AU) recalled the kidnapping of Black Africans as it considered the controversial new US anti-immigrant rules. After forcibly bringing Africans to the U.S. as slave labour, noted the AU, Washington now slams the door on Muslim immigrants entering the U.S.

“It is clear that globally we are entering very difficult times,” cautioned outgoing AU Commissioner Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, speaking at the January 30-31 summit of 53 member states in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

“The very country to which many of our people were taken as slaves during the transatlantic slave trade has now decided to ban refugees from some of our countries,” she said.

Africa2017-01-302023-07-10

‘Lifestyle Diseases’ Pose Grave Challenges To Africa

By Zipporah Musau*

NEW YORK (IDN | Africa Renewal) – Anxiety grips Jennifer Nakazi as her phone beeps for the third time since she arrived at a busy bank lobby in downtown New York. She’s going to wire money to her family in Uganda. Her brother is calling with the latest update on their critically ill mother.

After battling diabetes for almost a decade now, the 63-year-old matriarch has just been hospitalized after her blood sugar level hit a record high. Her blood pressure also shot up, raising fears she could also be hypertensive.

Africa2017-01-222023-07-10

Southern Africa’s Women Wrestle Climate Change On Their Own

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – From planting maize to trying tobacco and cotton on her fields, 44-year-old mother of four Silvia Hungwe says she has seen it all as she wrestles with effects of climate change which have caused her crops to fail each farming season.

Seated under a tree as she talks to IDN in Mbudzi on the outskirts of Harare, an area that has turned into a hive of goat trading activity over the years, Hungwe – who has now turned to keeping goats – is on the lookout for customers.

A number of other women like Hungwe are strolling nearby with their goats, eagerly approaching each passer-by in the hope of doing business.

Africa2017-01-172023-07-10

Concern About U.S. Africa Policy Under Trump

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Long-time Africa specialists who have looked at a four-page list of Africa-related questions from the Trump transition staff say they are seeing an American retreat from development and humanitarian goals while business opportunities will be getting an extra push.

The four-page list has been making the rounds at the State Department and Pentagon, according to the New York Times.

Of priority interest to the new administration is the prospect of dollars to be made in this “new” frontier. One of the first questions on the list went straight to the point: “How does U.S. business compete with other nations in Africa? Are we losing out to the Chinese?”

Asia-Pacific2017-01-162023-07-10

Kashmiri Community Propagates Peace Amid Simmering Violence

By Stella Paul

KULGAM/KASHMIR, India (IDN) – Travelling along the roads of South Kashmir, you are constantly greeted by pro-liberation and anti-India slogans. They are written on the tar roads, house walls, little signboards hanging from tree branches and even lamp posts.

“Go India Go Back” and “We Want Freedom” read some; others proclaim “Burhan is Alive” or “Burhan Zindabad” – in reference to Burhan Wani, a young militant gunned down by the security forces in July 2016.

But suddenly, the slogans begin to change. Signposts and walls appear adorned with messages like “Welcome” and “Love for All, Hatred for None”. That is when you know you are in a village of the Ahmadiyya community.

Africa2017-01-112023-07-10

Community Volunteers Help Tanzanian Widows Access Land Rights

By Kizito Makoye Shigela

MUFINDI, Tanzania (ACP-IDN) – At Kiyowela village in Tanzania’s southern highlands, every widow has a story to tell about how community volunteers have helped them solve property disputes with their relatives.

Zaituni Lekiza still remembers the suffering she went through when her father-in-law kicked her out of her matrimonial home after her husband died two years ago. “He asked me to leave because I no longer belonged to the family,” she told IDN.

The 39-year-old mother of two, who lives in Mufindi district, had been married for eight years but was thrown out of her home after her father-in-law accused her of being behind the death of his son.