World AIDS day

Apparently that's what today is, so here's something I found about it.

December 1st was declared World AIDS day in 1987. Every year has a different theme, focusing on a specific aspect of the disease and how it affects people. Sometimes the theme spans multiple years. For example, it's been "Getting to Zero" since 2012 - zero infections, zero deaths, zero discrimination.

I didn't know any of this before, so I learned a lot from doing a little research.

30 years ago, Band-Aid put out a song called "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to raise money for a growing famine in Ethiopia. This song, among other things, prompted many people to give money to help with the famine, but this probably ended up making things worse. The government of Ethiopia was very corrupt, using the aid to help supporters while leaving political opponents to starve. In addition, the lyrics of the song received criticism for being patronizing and painting all of Africa with the same brush.

Just recently, they've changed some of the lyrics and repackaged the song to help with the Ebola outbreak. It's being criticized for the same reasons.  This article explains it in greater detail - I'd recommend taking a look.

Apparently, tourism all over Africa is suffering because people don't know their geography and think Ebola is everywhere. Since you're in this class, you probably already know better, but here's a picture to illustrate:

Things Stay the Same

In Sudan, voter registrations are now being accepted in preparation for the country's first election since the split with South Sudan. Unfortunately, many potential voters have no interest in participating.

There's more in this article. Basically, Sudan has had the same president for 25 years, and he is still a candidate despite promising that he would step down. As a result, most people in Sudan don't see the point in voting, because they know it's not a fair election and that he'll win regardless of the results.

The people's assumption is probably correct. The current president has all kinds of human rights violations on his record, and has refused to appear in court about the issues. Even so, I can't help wondering if the people's apathy makes things easier for him. If everyone assumes he's going to win, then that's less trouble for him. But since the assumption is probably correct, a significant opposition among the people would not accomplish much. It's a depressing situation.

I have never lived anywhere with this kind of problem, so I don't know what things are like for the people of Sudan. I don't know what the best course of action would be. All I know is that without fair elections, nothing will change - and if people know their actions don't matter, there will be no desire for that change to occur.

I almost forgot about the blog this week, but when I was on Facebook, I was linked to this by the National Geographic page. It's a short video about an African-American community that, because their ancestors were brought to islands off the southeast cost of the country and remained isolated, ended up retaining a lot of their culture to this day.

I remember these people being mentioned in my American history class. Even though they are American, this still relates to African history because it derives from the slave trade. The truth is that the slaves brought to the Americas managed to retain quite a bit of their culture. This particular group was able to hold on to more than usual. So now, recording and preserving that culture is being viewed as important.

It's a bit early for a blog post, but I found an article that looked really interesting.

It's basically about the king of Swaziland, and how rich he is compared to the ordinary people in the country. This is to be expected of royalty, but given that Swaziland is a fairly poor country, as well as a small one, it just seems all the more unfair.

The article goes on to explain that Swaziland is one of the last absolute monarchies left in the world, and it goes into detail about what that means. Apparently, the people have mixed opinions about the way their country works. Some are fine with things the way they are, but others think it should change.

It's fairly long, but it's an interesting read.

Ancient manuscripts and the digital age

So apparently, in 2012, the city of Timbuktu was occupied by Muslim extremists. Since Timbuktu used to be a city of scholars, it's got a lot of old manuscripts. The extremists tried to destroy the writings that they deemed "blasphemous," but they didn't have much success - largely because the most valuable manuscripts are personally owned and scattered among the people that live there.

This article is about some of the people who've made it their mission to preserve these artifacts. One of the points made in the article is that they're trying to make digital copies of the manuscripts in case anything happens to the originals. Things like insects and water damage remain a threat to even the best-kept writings, after all.

Paint the Town Pink

When I looked for an article to post about, I tried to find something that wasn't in the top cluster. I was looking for something that was unique, interesting, and not likely to be posted by someone else. I also wanted something that wasn't depressing - we hear enough bad news already.

This is what I found.

Apparently, there had been pink paint appearing on abandoned buildings in Johannesburg (South Africa) over the summer. Just a few days ago, the person in charge of the project made himself known. He's an artist from New York who came to the city for a different project, but noticed the old buildings and started to find out more. Apparently, a lot of them have squatters living there, many of whom are forced to pay "rent" to people who don't even own the buildings. They don't usually have water or electricity, either.

As it turns out, housing is a real issue in South Africa. A lot of people live in makeshift houses or other similarly unstable dwellings. Certain parts of Johannesburg also have a serious problem with crime, and the housing situation seems to contribute to this. So this artist decided to start painting buildings pink, choosing the color because it seemed a good choice to represent safety. He and a team of over 30 people got together and started the project, with the intention of drawing attention to both the abundance of abandoned buildings and the living conditions of those who make them their homes.

There have been mixed reactions to the project, but it seems like most of the reception has been positive. It's also harmless - the paint washes off if anyone wants it gone, and most of the buildings already have graffiti elsewhere. 

I think it's a cool idea, myself. Not only does it make the dull, broken-down buildings look more lively, it also draws attention to a cause that doesn't seem to get the attention it should.