Lagos Shanty Mainland Towers: Super Nigeria!
Lagos, Nigeria
Super Highway
Shanty Towers
3rd Mainland Bridge
via smarterplanet:
Feast Salons: Soho House - The Feast Conference
Speaker: Steven Daniels, Researcher, IBM
Steve’s research focuses on how people create, adapt and use technology in resource-constrained environments, currently as a researcher at IBM. Prior to joining IBM, Steve published the book Making Do: Innovation in Kenya’s Informal Economy about development and industry centered around co-creation with local makers. On the web: IBM African Innovation
Libya’s Foreign Minister Koussa announced that military operations will end, as Western forces prepare to enact a no-fly zone. The announcement came shortly after the U.K. said it would send fighter jets to Mediterranean bases. This was reported several hours ago by the AFP news service.
Gaddaffi, Ghadafi, Khaddafi, Kadafi, THE COLONEL continues to sound bellicose, though, and not necessarily in agreement with his foreign minister.
Also, the Al Jazeera news article (referenced above) quoted sources advising that the announcement should be viewed somewhat tentatively. The actual content of the statement issued by Libya’s foreign minister was “carefully crafted, almost forensic”.
Zimbabwe could be in line for a windfall of up to $10bn (£6.19bn) from China.
But such an investment would be likely to heighten concerns about president Robert Mugabe’s increasingly warm relationship with China, which has been accused of turning a blind eye to human rights violations across Africa.
The sum would dwarf Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product, expected to be about $6bn (£3.72bn) this year… Zimbabwe also has the world’s second biggest platinum reserves and hugely controversial deposits of alluvial diamonds…
China said recently its two-way trade with Africa had increased by nearly 45% in a year to hit a record $114.8bn (£75bn).
Chinese investors have snapped up commercial and residential properties in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, over the past few years.
The influx of cheap Chinese goods, known locally as “zhing-zhong”, has caused widespread annoyance.
William Bango, a veteran former journalist, said: “China is just taking advantage of a basket case. If you’re a donor’s burden, you have all kinds of thieves and crooks and people bringing you all kinds of trinkets. Once we restore this society to normalcy, with all standards maintained, China will fall away.”
