Eritrean's Hostage in Egypt

The article I'm blogging about I found on BBCNews. The article says that about 250 African Migrants are being held hostage by people smugglers in Egypt. According to the article, many of the group were from Eritrea and were kidnapped when illegally crossing the Israel border. It is reported that some of the hostages have been held for 6 or more months in shipping containers in the desert because their ransoms aren't being paid. They say that this people smuggling and kidnapping happens quite often and Israel is even trying to build a border in the desert to try to deter it from happening. The ransoms have gone up. What started as wanting $2,000 has now gone to between $8,000 and $15,000. The article says that there are efforts underway to get the hostages back safe.

This article caught my attention because it was talking about hostages and people-smuggling. While I'm not entirely sure what that involves, it didn't sound good. To me, the ransoms seem ridiculous to ask of people and their loved one who were illegally crossing borders. What I infer from that is that they don't have much money, that's what happens in the United States, Mexicans cross our borders in search of money and jobs so I'm assuming that's what these African migrants were doing as well. It's also just really...wrong? That people kidnap each other for money and smuggle them for money as well. I try not to think that Africa is a bad place, but sometimes these articles make that hard.

Pirates in the Indian Ocean

The article I'm blogging about I found here in the Daily Nation. The article is discussing piracy in Africa. Somalia seems to be where most of these problem pirates are coming from. The article says that alot of places have had to increase shipping charges on freights because ships are having to take longer routes to avoid Somali pirates. According to the article, a ship from Mumbai in India used to take twelve days at sea and it now takes eighteen days because they've had to change their route further South by Madagascar. And ships from Dubai to Mombasa used to take six days and now take twelve to avoid Somalia. Also according to the article, pirates have attacked sixteen ships and successfully hijacked five of them in East African waters in just a month, three in the last three weeks.

I chose to blog about this topic because it is one that can be and has been brought up in American news, which isn't often the case with other topics I've chosen. Somali pirates I've really noticed stories about in the news and such in the last year or two, but that's just me noticing so I'm not sure the real timeline. The article isn't a real long one but from it, it leaves me questioning why Somalia doesn't have better regulations on boats and letting them out into the sea. Also, why doesn't the Somalian government have more patrol boats and government type boats out in the sea to stop this from happening so often? I'm not for sure, but I think the U.S. has a lot patroling type stuff and the Coast Guard and whatnot. It's really a shame that these pirates have caused higher shipping charges and besides that, extra fuel to make the trips. I really think that we should be moving into a "green" era and pirates are definately preventing that when they make ships travel further.

According to this youtube clip about Somali Pirates, they say that the government is somewhat involved, even taking percentages of ransoms. It's an interesting three minute clip.

"So Be It"

The article I'm blogging about today I found here on BBC News. It is entitled "Mogadishu mayor: 'I may be killed.'" Mohamed Ahmed Noor took on the unwanted job as major of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Mogadishu is commonly referred to as "the most dangerous city in the world," so why did Noor want to take the job? He said it was because Mogadishu was where he was born and raised and he thinks the city gets too much bad press. According to the article, Somalia's central government collapsed in 1991 and ever since the country has been in constant conflict with Islamist al-Shabab militia, who has controlled a significant section of the capital city since then also. Noor explained that while on a bad day Mogadishu may have 10-20 deaths in a day, he feels that it's nothing compared to Baghdad or Kabul who sometimes can have 50-100 deaths in a day, but yet Mogadishu is considered the most dangerous city and not those places. Noor took on this job knowing that any day it is possible that he may be assassinated or die in a mysterious explosion, he explained this to his family that he left in London, where they were residing in a fairly safe place. They understand that he is doing something good, but don't agree that he should put his life in danger. But Noor doesn't seem to care about the possibility of giving his life up for the city. His goals are to clean up the streets and markets and "light the streets of Mogadishu so people can start to lead a normal life," even though he knows he can't work effectively, go wherever he wants, or provide resources.

This article caught my attention because of the title. "I may be killed." Noor doesn't seem afraid at all about going to live in and try to change one of the most dangerous cities in the world, not just in Africa, but in the world. I found it interesting that he was asked to come be mayor even though he lived in London, but it was more interesting to me that he accepted the offer. He said he felt he needed to because no one else would and he was born and raised there, but think of all the people that were born and raised in Somalia's capital. Why was he the only one willing to take the job? I feel sorry for his family, knowing that there is a great possibility that their father/husband may never come home to them in London. The al-Shabab is likely to go after him, but hopefully the 8,000 African Union Troops stationed there can protect him and the other citizens as well. Unlike some African countries, Noor says he welcomes outside help. This article is drawing attention to the public which I think is a good thing because it can draw out money and other aid. Outside countries have sent soldiers as help to other African countries so Noor doesn't understand why no one ever bothers helping Somalia. I think it's so brave of Noor to take on this job and I will be watching for other articles on BBC News about Noor and Magadishu.

Here is a picture of a market, one of the places that Noor has said he wants to help to clean up.

Source

Flooding and Malaria

The article I'm blogging about I found here on allafrica.com. It's entitled Nigeria: Flooding Will Increase Incidence of Malaria, Vermin. It's discussing some flooding that has occured recently in Nigeria and all the problems that can occur along with flooding, one problem being the increase of Malaria outbreaks. Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite that is transferred to humans when bit by the Anopheles mosquito. There are 300 to 500 million cases of Malaria every year and more than 1 million deaths from it. As most people know, flooding causes increases in water which in turn causes increases in bugs and insects; such as mosquitos. Mosquitos can cause a variety of different diseases but in Africa, the biggest problem is Malaria. It not only effects the people infected, but it effects the economy of the people as well. It starts out effecting the individual because the person is sick, they are unable to work which means they are unable to make an income and if the person infected is the primary "bread-winner" of the household, the whole family suffers because it is not only costing them money to go to a health-care facility to get treated, but they are unable to put food on the table because they aren't working. Within the community, it is effected by the flood itself destroying property and agriculture and multiplying pests like insects and rats. So while a flood can cause a whole array of things to go bad, Malaria is an especially dangerous thing to have numbers increase.

I chose Malaria as a topic this week because it is such a huge problem in Africa (as well as other tropic places) and because I also recently learned some things about it in my Microbiology class. It really is such a dangerous disease because it can be especially difficult to protect yourself against. Any mosquito around could be carrying it and it's really hard to protect yourself from mosquitos 24/7 and it already effects possibly 500 million people a year so massive floods could cause the numbers to raise even higher. It's effects can take over quite fast and once you get to a certain point, there can be nothing done for you which is why the death rate stands at about 1 to 2 million a year. To me, I think that Malaria should be the number one disease researched and the number one thing that scientists should want to find a vaccine for because there's just no controlling it. It not only effects Africa, but countries all over the world, including the United States. You can't stop mosquitos from biting someone like you can stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Malaria is not spread from humans to humans, only by blood transfusions or sometimes from mother to un-born baby but it's certainly nothing like the spread of HIV/AIDS to other humans. It's really something that grabs my attention and I wish I could do something to help solve this problem.

Here's a link to a short 10 minute video about Malaria. It's not discussing Malaria in Africa, but instead in America. It really can help you understand how it can be spread and the disease process itself.

Decreasing HIV

The article I’m blogging about I found here on allafrica.com. It is entitled Rwanda: HIV Mother-to-Child Transmission Down Eight Percent. The story comes out of Kigali. It tells us that since 2004, mother to child transmission of the HIV/AIDS disease has come down to only 2.7 percent from 11 percent in Rwanda. There are now 384 health centers in the country that provide help to pregnant women to help them from passing the disease to their babies. When they start using drugs from 28 weeks to 14 weeks the drugs successfully fight the virus and stop it from being passed into the unborn babies. Although the percentages have come way down, there are still about 23,000 babies born to HIV positive mothers every year and 7,000 of them need ARV therapy but another positive is that 72 percent of the children with HIV are getting ART therapy, which has increased 10% in the last 5 years. Although Rwanda has come very far, they still want to call upon everyone to help them further fight HIV and AIDS in their country until children are no longer being born with the disease.

I chose this article because one of questions answered in this weeks discussion posts had to do with HIV/AIDS and I thought it would be a good topic for a blog. My first thoughts after reading this article was that other countries need to take note from Rwanda. They are doing an AWESOME job in helping to fight against HIV and AIDS. No child should have to be born thinking/knowing that they could die at any time of this horrible disease and it's not even their fault and it might not really be their mothers' fault either, she could have been infected without knowing or against her will. Africa has such high numbers of occurrences and deaths from HIV and AIDS; it comes second only to Malaria. I think Rwanda is doing everything right in this case because they are providing health care facilities for pregnant women all over the country; 384 of them! The only problem now is women being able to get to them, which I know can be a problem in countries that have few roads and few people with vehicles but providing nearly 400 who give them drugs to help protect their unborn babies is an awesome start to decreasing that number from 2.7 percent to zero. I know zero is probably not realistic but maybe in the case of transferring mother to child it's more realistic than other cases. Every child should have the opportunity to be born healthy, they shouldn't be punished because their mothers may or may not have done something wrong. Go Rwanda!

Rwanda is not only giving healthcare facilities for people infected but there are also some schools in Rwanda with AIDS Clubs which are designed to educate the students about the disease and how to prevent it. Here is a quick 2 minute YouTube video about one place in particular.

Crooked Cops

The article I’m choosing to blog about comes from allafrica.com. It’s out of Harare and is entitled “Who will police the police?” According to the article, a scary new trend recently is for police to be involved in armed robberies and other crimes they are supposed to stopping. According to Joyce Moyo in the article, the society has become a very worrisome one. Some say the root of the problem is that the police aren’t being paid enough and their low salaries are pushing them to commit crimes instead of prevent them. Recently, there was an arrest of seven policemen who went "rogue" or went criminal I suppose. It says that these are not the first arrests of policemen and won’t be the last either. These police are committing and/or serving as an accomplice to criminals in armed robberies because they are being promised large rewards which is attractive to these policemen because they don't have as high as salaries as they hope for and in some cases need. Some are even using their service weapons to do commit crimes. The policemen who were recently arrested are suspected of killing three people in the process of one robbery that they did. Crimes have been happening country wide, not just in one area either. Andrew Phiri quoted in the article said, “We do not choose if you are a doctor, teacher, soldier, policemen or vendor. We will arrest you if you break the law.” I think he put it very well.

I think this article is really depressing. These people can’t even trust their own policemen when illegal things are going on. I know there are crooked cops in the States too, but this is a huge problem in Harare right now. Many, many police are believed to be involved in these crimes, even murder, not just robberies or petty thefts. They’re really doing a horrible thing I think because these men are supposed to be people you can trust and call for help when you need it and they themselves are the criminals, who use their weapons that are provided by the government and that are supposed to protect you, to harm you. Armed-robberies, murders, and money crimes are all being done by the local policemen. It makes me thankful I'm from a small place with low crime numbers.

Poaching is a Problem

I'm choosing the topic of poaching as my one blog on animlas. The article I’m choosing to blog about is from Kenya. It is named “Elephant Poachers Go Hi-Tech to Stay Ahead of Rangers.” I found the article on allafrica.com. The article is about people who are poaching elephants and rhinos for ivory from the elephant’s tusks and the rhino for their horns. There are four major African countries that are the main focus of the problem, but the source to the article declined to name them, because while they’re the major problem, all of Africa is having the problem. According to sources in the article, in 2007 there were 47 elephants that died and in 2008 it rose to 145 elephants. In 2009 the number of dead elephants was 216 and now in 2010 that numbered has been surpassed before the year is even over. In South Africa, there were 122 rhinos counted dead last year and this year they’ve lost 210 and it’s only October. A charity in South Africa is really trying to draw attention to this problem; they’ve even enlisted the help of American rapper 50 Cent to create global awareness. The ironic part of this poaching problem is that it is INCREASING now that we have more technology than ever to stop it! The crime is now even being considered as organized crime so that the punishments can be harsher.

I chose this article because I am an animal lover, I may not have ever had an elephant or rhino, but to me any animal is precious. I think that animal poaching is a huge problem everywhere. In Africa it’s elephants and rhinos, in Iowa it's deer and pheasants and everywhere has an animal they can say is poached. People don’t like to follow the rules and have no sense of what they are actually doing, everyone is just focused on themselves instead of the world as whole, which can be blamed for global warming and things like that. They are endangering the species by poaching simply because they think they can get away with it because there aren’t enough rangers to patrol every herd of elephants and rhinos or every acre of hunting ground. I’m not sure on regulations, but I think that buying ivory and rhino horns should be illegal, if it isn't already, especially if we know that it’s coming from poached animals. What is so important about the ivory and rhino horns that can’t be made artificially or from some other source? These are such beautiful animals and they only live in Africa and their numbers just keep decreasing. It’s a shame that so many African countries are controlled by insurgents who use things like ivory and rhino horns to fund their evil.

Mass Rapes in Congo

The article I am blogging about was found here on allafrica.com and is entitled Congo-Kinshasa: UN Seizes Leader of Rebel Group Presumed Responsible for Mass Rape. The article is explaining who was arrested for being involved in rapes and how they were involved. "Lt Col" Mayele was arrested and being held responsible for the rapes of over 300 people in Congo’s east. According to the article, the attacks took place usually after dark in the Walikale region between July 30^th and August 2^nd.  The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men, and 3 boys, some of these victims were even raped multiple times. There were over 900 homes and 40 businesses looted and 116 people were taken captive to work in forced labor by this rebel group. There were some 200 attackers involved. The government responded quickly and arrested Lt Col Mayele ensuring that those who were involved will be held accountable for their actions.

I chose this article to blog about because it was so disturbing and really just scary. I found this article to be quite shocking because over 300 people were raped and/or sexually assaulted! It really proves what a dangerous place Congo can be, especially after dark where there are probably not lights in alot of places, especially remote places. Rebels are present in many African countries and are known for things like this, but what a massive amount of people to be affected! 900 homes looted, 300 people raped and 100 taken captive, all by 200 rebels. It’s something I can’t even imagine. 900 homes, I’m not sure if there are many more homes than that in the small town I live in. I do think it’s a positive thing that the government has responded to the event and made an arrest right away, it proves that they care and aren't just standing by and letting the rebels do whatever they want to. Those rebels need to be held accountable for what they did to all those people and homes and the government has made the right step in doing so by making an arrest of one of the rebel groups leaders and not just an individual member. Hopefully it can bring some peace of mind to those poor people affected.

I'm not sure of it's reliability, but if this video was really the translations of these men then it was really disturbing. They are discussing raping women and blaming it on being away from women too long and saying it isn't their fault. Here is the link.

Blood Diamonds

The article I’m blogging about was found here, which I found when I “googled” blood diamonds in Africa. Although the website wasn’t one that was suggested in our class links, I thought it still to be reliable because it is a .org instead of a .com. The webpage is entitled “Conflict Diamonds: Sanctions and Wars.” The page explains what a blood, or conflict diamond, is and why the UN has banned buying them. According to the webpage, a conflict diamond is a diamond that originates from areas controlled by forces that oppose the official government and are used to fund militia who fight against the government forces. The UN has banned buying conflict diamonds because in some countries, conflict diamonds fund rebel groups who cause brutal wars amongst their own people. Rebel groups are also a large cause of children soldiers, which I spoke about in my last blog. Rebel groups often terrorize villages and are notorious for gang rapes of women. Although much is done to try to stop the conflict diamonds from making it out of Africa, if the conflict diamonds do make it to market, they are difficult to trace and if they are polished, impossible to be identified from another diamond.

I researched this topic because it was one that Dr. Malloy suggested for a blog topic, but also because I thought it would be interesting. There’s been a lot of talk about it in the news recently about conflict diamonds with Naomi Campbell, who is a popular supermodel accused of having a blood diamond in possession and claiming it is a gift from friend Liberian leader Charles Taylor. Also there has also been a movie made about it (which I saw and enjoyed). I think it’s a difficult topic however, because Africa is so rich in resources and many countries need as many resources and ways to make money as possible, but the diamonds have instead turned into a way to fund rebels instead of families who are in need and nor do they help the economy either. The rebels are a terrorizing group, so it's right not to help them in anyway, that would be like the U.S. buying things that we knew were helping Al-Qaeda. The rebels use the diamonds to buy guns and explosives that they use to harm their own people. I think the governments need to be stronger to stop the rebels and help their own. I know it's easier said than done, but enough with the corruptness.

This is a photo of a young boy who had both of his hands cut off by rebel soldiers.

Source

Here is a YouTube link of the trailer to the movie Blood Diamonds. For those who haven't seen the movie, maybe watching this will make you want to. I think it's probably a fairly accurate portrayal of what it's like.

Child Soldiers in Sudan

The article I am blogging about was found here on allafrica.com which I found through the links in our online class. The article is entitled “Sudan: Southern Child Soldiers ‘Need More Opportunities.’” The article talks about the attempts that are being made to dismiss all the children who are soldiers in the army in Sudan. One of the main problems it presents is that the children joined the army to help support their families because while they were under their parent’s roofs, they were underfed, etc. because their families could not make enough to support them. Now that the government is trying to offer support for the children to get out, officials are worried what will happen. Will the children go home and see their struggling families and feel they are worthless? Will the children feel pressured to go back to the army to help support their families again? According to the article, it is hard to even determine how many child soldiers there actually are.