AFRICA REFORESTATION.
British politicians should take an interest in political and social developments in African countries, and an interest in how the Africans manage their natural resources. Ethnic Africans in Europe should take an interest in the political and social developments in their home countries, and they should take an interest in the way African natural resources are managed.
It is no exaggeration to say that the survival of the human species may be dependent on the reforestation of Africa . And at the moment it could be argued that African farmers should be encouraged to grow food crops. Food crops for Africans, rather than so called cash crops like flowers, tobacco and coffee for Europeans. Pleasantly enough this is not a European led idea. The Kenyan environmentalist WANGARI MAATHAI, about whom there is a lot on the internet, has had a lot to say about this sort of thing. As far as I know, she has claimed to have personally organised the planting of over 20 million trees.
It might be supposed that African countries are hopeless politically and that Africans themselves are hapless, permanently unfortunate. This is particularly unfair to Africans, and leads on to an important point. Basic realities have changed.
For the past fifty years, Europeans and others have supported corrupt regimes in African countries in order to establish ‘spheres of influence’ and easy access to natural resources. The ending of the Cold War and the recent collapse of Free Trade Capitalism has changed all that. The conditions now exist in which African countries can become pleasant well organised countries, with among other advantages well organised agriculture.
Of course, African countries still have serious social and political problems. Africans flee to Europe to escape cultures of bullying based on both female circumcision and male circumcision. African governments should be encouraged to make illegal both female circumcision and male circumcision. In many Asian countries and most African countries, cultures of bullying based on male circumcision have been going on for far too long.
British politicians taking an interest in political developments in African countries, should mean exactly that. A good starting point would be to memorise the list of African countries and capitals. Various people may think vaguely that they should get round to looking at such a list. Well, here it is. It allows one to make sense of maps and allows one to understand news items. There have been riots recently in Nouakchott. There have been elections recently in Brazzaville. And so on. I should acknowledge that the list has been abstracted from a Collins School Atlas, recommended and available from all good bookshops.
British politicians should take an interest in political and social developments in African countries, and an interest in how the Africans manage their natural resources. Ethnic Africans in Europe should take an interest in the political and social developments in their home countries, and they should take an interest in the way African natural resources are managed.
It is no exaggeration to say that the survival of the human species may be dependent on the reforestation of Africa . And at the moment it could be argued that African farmers should be encouraged to grow food crops. Food crops for Africans, rather than so called cash crops like flowers, tobacco and coffee for Europeans. Pleasantly enough this is not a European led idea. The Kenyan environmentalist WANGARI MAATHAI, about whom there is a lot on the internet, has had a lot to say about this sort of thing. As far as I know, she has claimed to have personally organised the planting of over 20 million trees.
It might be supposed that African countries are hopeless politically and that Africans themselves are hapless, permanently unfortunate. This is particularly unfair to Africans, and leads on to an important point. Basic realities have changed.
For the past fifty years, Europeans and others have supported corrupt regimes in African countries in order to establish ‘spheres of influence’ and easy access to natural resources. The ending of the Cold War and the recent collapse of Free Trade Capitalism has changed all that. The conditions now exist in which African countries can become pleasant well organised countries, with among other advantages well organised agriculture.
Of course, African countries still have serious social and political problems. Africans flee to Europe to escape cultures of bullying based on both female circumcision and male circumcision. African governments should be encouraged to make illegal both female circumcision and male circumcision. In many Asian countries and most African countries, cultures of bullying based on male circumcision have been going on for far too long.
British politicians taking an interest in political developments in African countries, should mean exactly that. A good starting point would be to memorise the list of African countries and capitals. Various people may think vaguely that they should get round to looking at such a list. Well, here it is. It allows one to make sense of maps and allows one to understand news items. There have been riots recently in Nouakchott. There have been elections recently in Brazzaville. And so on. I should acknowledge that the list has been abstracted from a Collins School Atlas, recommended and available from all good bookshops.
01/ Algeria (Algiers).
02/ Benin (Porto Novo).
03/ Burkina (Ouagadougou).
04/ Cameroon (Yaounde).
05/ Cape Verde (Praia).
06/ Central African Republic (Bangui).
07/ Chad (Ndjamena).
08/ Cote d’Ivoire (Yamoussoukro).
09/ Djibouti (Djibouti).
10/ Egypt (Cairo).
11/ Equatorial Guinea (Malabo).
12/ Eritrea (Asmara).
13/ Ethiopia (Addis Ababa).
14/ Gabon (Libreville).
15/ The Gambia (Banjul).
16/ Ghana (Accra).
17/ Guinea (Conakry).
18/ Guinea Bissau (Bissau).
19/ Liberia (Monrovia).
20/ Libya (Trípoli).
21/ Mali (Bamako).
22/ Mauritania (Nouakchott).
23/ Morocco (Rabat).
24/ Níger (Niamey).
25/ Nigeria (Abuja).
26/ Sao Tome and Principe (Sao Tome).
27/ Senegal (Dakar).
28/ Sierra Leone (Freetown).
29/ Somalia (Mogadishu).
30/ Sudan (Khartoum).
31/ Togo (Lome).
32/ Tunisia (Tunis).
33/ Uganda (Kampala).
34/ Western Sahara (Laayoune).
35/ Angola (Luanda).
36/ Botswana (Gaborone).
37/ Burundi (Bujumbura).
38/ Comoros (Moroni).
39/ Congo (Brazzaville).
40/ Dem Rep Congo (Kinshasa).
41/ Kenya (Nairobi).
42/ Lesotho (Maseru).
43/ Madagascar (Antananarivo).
44/ Malawi (Lilongwe).
45/ Mauritius (Port Louis).
46/ Mozambique (Maputo).
47/ Namibia (Windhoek).
48/ Rwanda (Kigali).
49/ Seychelles (Victoria).
50/ South Africa (Pretoria).
51/ Swaziland (Mbabane).
52/ Tanzania (Dodoma).
53/ Zambia (Lusaka).
54/ Zimbabwe (Harare)
Tom Smith, Wednesday, 14th October 2009.
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