STWR - Share The World's Resources

In West African mythology, the "Sankofa" is a bird that flies forward while looking backward, with an egg symbolizing the future in its mouth. 

News from Sub-Saharan Africa these days is mostly bad. Stories of extreme poverty, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and political instability fill the media and the region’s prognosis seems bleak.

Millions of South Africa’s children live in poverty and under conditions where their rights in the Constitution have not been realised. What is required from the African Union and the South African government is an outline to why South Africa has such high levels of child poverty, what child poverty is, and how it has been thought about.

Author Patrick Bond on the neoliberal project:

The recent statement by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the gap between the rich and poor countries is ever-widening makes one wonder whether this schism is ever going to be closed or more aptly whether poor countries are ever going to catch-up with the rich nations.

Here is a proposal for a new reality television show.  It is called “Country Swap! The UK Government goes to Africa”, or just “Country Swap!” for short.  The idea is that the United Kingdom Government is sent to a low income African country, and becomes their government for a decade or so.  Accusations of colonialism could be avoided in part by the politicians taking out full citizenship of their host country, which could keep them at the end of the show.  Sure, there would be democratic issues, but everyone involved could be handsomely compensated after the series by a major sponsorship deal from Coca Cola, Nokia, or some other suitable corporate partner.

Climate change will devastate Africa without substantial help from the world community, according to a new report released at the opening of a major U.N. climate change conference in Nairobi, Kenya Monday.