The Pillaging of Mineral Resources Leaves Behind Poverty Holes for Africans
By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE (IDN) – More than a decade ago, he lost his home as diamond miners from China razed it to the ground searching for the gems. Still, today, 74-year old Tobias Mukwada lives with his family in shanty thatched huts they erected hoping that perhaps one day the Chinese diamond merchants would remember them and offer them a decent home.
But for the poverty-stricken Mukwada and his family, it may be a wait in vain.
Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe ordered Chinese diamond miners out of the mining fields in the country’s eastern highlands in 2016. CHINESE | JAPANESE | SPANISH | THAI
World Population Expected to Reach Nearly 10 Billion by 2050
Yet Another Challenge to Global Goals
By Jaya Ramachandran
NEW YORK (IDN) – Compared to 7.7 billion today, around 8.5 billion people are expected to inhabit the planet Earth within little more than a decade, and almost 10 billion by 2050, with only a few countries accounting for most of the increase, says to new United Nations report.The World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights, published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), provides a comprehensive overview of global demographic patterns and prospects. The study concludes that the world’s population could reach its peak around the end of the current century, at a level of nearly 11 billion. CHINESE | JAPANESE | SWAHILI
African Governments Join Activists to Fight Sextortion
By Kizito Makoye
DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – A poster bearing a message “Graduate with A’s not with AIDS” at the University of Dar es Salaam, tells a grim story of female students who offer sex to obtain higher grades.
“My teacher wanted to date me. When I refused his sexual advances, he retaliated by giving me poor grades,” says Helena (not her real name).
The 23-year-old law student, who has since experienced dismal performance in her studies, is increasingly worried about her academic future. GERMAN | JAPANESE | PORTUGUESE | SWAHILI
Female Solar Engineers Light Up Remote Villages in Zanzibar
By Kizito Makoye
KENDWA, Tanzania (IDN) – As darkness falls, Natasha Mahmood and her brother huddle around the weak flame of a paraffin lamp, rushing to finish their homework before their mother blows it out to save fuel.
“I often try to get it done early. But that’s not always the case. My teacher sometimes punishes me for failing to complete my work,” says Mahmood, as a trail of smoke from the lamp rises into a corrugated roof smirched with soot. GERMAN | JAPANESE | SWAHILI
| Published by The Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as the Flagship Agency 33 Lafferty Street, Toronto, ONT M9C5B5, CANADA Europaplatz 2, 8th Floor, 10557 Berlin, GERMANY Ichimura bldg. 4F, 3-2 Kanda Ogawa-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 101-0052 as part of a Joint Media Project with the Soka Gakkai International 15-3 Samon-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0017, Japan |