The Next Big Issue

I find that many of the big issues facing our society start getting popularized in Africa. AIDS is one major point in that argument. But I think the next great problem is the issue of water. The next great conservation conversation might be about two things:
1. How we conserve water.
2. How do we make water readily accessible to those who need it?

We do a great job of wasting water in the U.S. How many of us leave the water running when we brush our teeth? How many of us don't use "gray water" to water plants? Small steps can help us save a significant amount of water. This water saving will help us funnel the resources to Africa where some people have to walk hours upon hours to find water to drink.

One solution is digging wells in African countries where needed. Check out the website below to learn more about 1,000 Wells project championed by Jars of Clay.
http://www.bloodwatermission.com/

It's about Africa....

Mugabe Tries To Handle His Competition

Ah, yes Mugabe from Zimbabwe is performing the oldest trick in politics: if you are worried about your opponents taking power from you, just put them in jail!

The police in Zimbabwe are now holding 200 members of Mugabe's opposition party in jail and the UN Security Council is holding a closed session about the declining situation in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe's opposition party now has political control after the most recent election threatening Mugabe's power.

It is time to look at the real losers in this situation: those who still don't have access to food and medicine because of Mugabe's political aspirations.

Mugabe needs to allow change to take place rather than hold onto power.

Something big is happening in Zimbabwe

check back in a few minutes......

And we think George Bush is bad

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has announced that humanitarian groups are not longer able to function in his country because one supposed group is campaigning for the opposition in the June 27 presidential runoff between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

What does this mean? Lots on two fronts:

1. AIDS medication will no longer be given to many.
2. Food, which is in short supply to say the least, will not be handed out.

Death and starvation in the name of politics.

Impeach Mugabe?

Border War

Burkina Faso is not the typical place one decides to visit. It is land-locked nation in West Africa. But some people have been visiting from neighbor countries for a different reason: to escape the fighting between Malian forces and the Tuareg rebels. (A similar year-old Tuareg-led revolt has hit neighboring Niger).
The Tuareg are a nomadic group. Their latest attack has been motivated by what they feel is unwarranted interferences in their traditional territories.
This brings up an interesting question that I don't have a really good answer to: who owns what land?
We have traditional borders but what do they mean? Looking back at the history of the U.S., Native American ideology states that no one owns the land which explains why Manhattan was sold for a few dollars....why would you be paid for something that doesn't belong to you?!
We are seeing that groups are proclaiming rights to their territorial home. How do we draw the borders and who has rights to them?

Water in Kenya

While reading Reader’s Digest the other day(RD is old school..I used to study the vocabulary words when I was young!), I stumbled across a story about a teacher named Patty Hall who was about to retire after 35 years of teaching. She had spent much time in Kenya and received an email about a river drying up in a village she had visited. Not thinking she wanted to devote the time needed to this kind of project when she was retiring, she almost hit the delete button. She decided not to and started getting her students involved. When she asked how much it would cost to build a dam in the village, they said 480,000 Kenyan shillings which is the equivalent of $7,000.

She involved her students in this process to raise the money for the dam. The students were shocked that people had to spend most of their day transporting water. Many children could not go to school because they were getting water for their family. Her students felt like they couldn’t do anything to help situations like this but with the class banding together, they raised more than enough to build the dam.

A whole village now has water. A WHOLE village. $7,000 is not a drop in the bucket but would you trade that amount of money for the lives of the residents for the village, the animals that live there, and the ecosystem in the area. All three of these rely on water to survive. A thought for this summer....as we spend money on our homes, going out to eat, or a vacation, considering putting the equal amount to a cause like this.

It's about Africa.....