Africa & Coffee Articles V

Posted by Go Vols on Tuesday, November 23, 2010
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Another installment of things that interest me!

Africa:
  • NYTimes: In the Footsteps of the Museum's Gorillas (11/21/10) - Lucy found this interesting article linking the American Museum of Natrual History in New York to the Virunga Mountains in East Africa.  Apparently the scenes in the Hall of African Mammals are depictions of actual places from the 1920s and a curator from the museum is returning to the site where the gorillas scene originated.  Below is a picture from one of our visits to the Virungas last year with the same mountains from the museum behind us.  
  • WSJ: Banks Exit From Embassy Business (11/20/10) - Embassy banking is big business in Africa with so much aid money needing a home until it can be spent (or siphoned off to the government!).  Apparently in the U.S., the banking regulations have gotten so hairy with anti-money laundering rules that major banks are just walking away from embassy business.
  • WSJ: Putting Cap on Bad Juju Conjures Up a Good Business (11/19/10) - Welcome to Africa!  You should read this article if you want to begin to understand how challenging it is to get things done here.  Also, the effects of this ride on Lucy's juju are currently unknown (but her driver is ready for the long winter!).

  • NYTimes: 50 Years of Chimpanzees (11/15/10) - Jane Goodall has been traveling to the Gombe Stream Reserve in western Tanzania to study chimpanzees for 50 years.  We'd like to get out there but it is about 800 miles due west of us and would take about 20 hours for us to get there (Rwanda is closer).
  • WSJ: Where the Wild Things Are (11/13/10) - There are many places in Africa where you can sleep out in the open bush with little to no protection from nature.  The supervision of the guides tends to stop at don't take any food in your tent since people are known to be eaten by lions smelling other food.  Not quite that extreme, but this weekend we rented a house on the beach south of Dar with some friends and there were vervet monkeys everywhere.  This picture was taken from the balcony of our house
  • NYTimes: For Some Bushman, a Homeland Worth the Fight (11/4/10) - Tourism and mineral exploration in Africa have often taken priority over the desires of the local population. As traditional lands are adapted to be more profitable, many of the local inhabitants are removed against their will and left without any education or training necessary to survive in the modern worked. With limited opportunity, masai like those in the picture below can be found in every major city in Kenya and Tanzania where they typically work as "askaris" or security guards. Once they leave the ranch, they are rarely allowed back.
  • BBC: Zimbabwean Eaten by Lions While Having a Shower (11/4/10) - We deal with this possibility everyday, assuming you are willing to substitute the lions for giant flying cockroaches and really really big millipedes. Comes with the territory of living in Africa.
  • Foreign Policy: Don't Try This Abroad (10/26/10) - People really didn't care for Kristof's methodology supporting D.I.Y. Aid (below).  This is an excellent rebuttal and brings up many of the issues I deal with everyday.  The issue at the top of my list continues to be whether the local population is demanding the project because they see the benefit or projects just show up and impose their will upon the local population.  How does the supply of aid projects compare to the demand of the local population?  I highly recommend reading this article if you are interested in getting some more insight into the challenges of international development.
  • NYTimes: D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution (10/20/10) - A Kristof article in the NYTimes Magazine that covers some entrepreneurial success stories. It is a little hokey since relying on isolated cases but the thought is there (Kristof can be a broken record at times but at least he is paying attention and exposing new people to the issues).  Apparently the thought isn't enough for some of those in the developing world as pointed out in this article (Christian Science Monitor: Why Kristof's endorsement of 'D.I.Y. Aid' Is Poorly Informed).  It is true that Kristof seems to focus on great success stories that do not necessarily scale very well but if we can't celebrate our victories why are we here? The debate continues over what successful aid looks like.  How can you really anticipate factors like impact, sustainability, and cost?  On a related, or unrelated, note, Lucy and I (see Lucy and our friend Dave in the picture below) have been to the Hotel Ihusi in Goma (cited in the CSM article above; also apparently the people on TripAdvisor forgot they were actually staying in a hotel in the DRC...).  It is built entirely for aid workers as everything there is priced in dollars and extremely expensive ($6 African beers are not normal).  Mmmm...Congo...
  • NYTimes: President Kagame's Win in Rwanda (8/11/10) - Kagame's taking 93% of the vote in Rwanda did not go unnoticed. Editorial covers pre-election events that might lead one to question the status of democracy in Rwanda. As you can see, His Excellency Paul Kagame is going for the whole Obama look. As for the "The Journey Continues," I am not really sure if a journey is actually planned  but there were T-Shirts for sale with pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, and Paul Kagame...
    • Chart on African Leaders: Interesting comparison of rulers in Africa from the absurd to Paul Kagame in Rwanda. If you'd like a quick overview of how crazy some of these guys are definitely check this out.

    Coffee Articles:
    • WSJ: Starbucks to Open China Coffee Farm, Securing Global Supply (11/14/10) - Starbucks is partnering with the Chinese to spur large scale coffee farming in the southwest province of Yunnan.  There has been a major crunch on global coffee supplies this year, driving prices up to 15-year highs.  Below is a picture of me with one of our female farmer groups in a field of coffee trees in southern Tanzania (Note: Ansel Adams did not take this picture).  Trees like these have been there for decades in most cases where in China they will be more or less starting from scratch (trees take about three years to become productive).
    • WSJ: Coffee Price Take Off (10/21/10) - Worldwide coffee prices continue to surge, actually making it more difficult for the small-holder farmers TechnoServe is supporting to increase their incomes over market values
    • WSJ: The Single-Serve Push (10/14/10) - Single-serve coffee products are a very high-margin business for many coffee companies. I still don't drink coffee so the "Brew Bot" is beyond my realm of expertise.
    Other:
    • WSJ: Water and Fire in Iceland (11/18/10) - Debt crisis and volcanoes in one!  Iceland!  Did you know the word geyser is derived from an Icelandic spring named Geysir near the town of Haukadular that intermittently shoots water into the air?  The word itself is derived from the Icelandic verb geysa ("to gush") which comes from Old Norse.  Below is a picture of "Litli-Geysir" from my visit (the main Geysir doesn't erupt all that often anymore).
    • Memphis Commercial Appeal: Historic Offering (11/10/10) - My uncle Jon and some other people in the community where my parents grew up have diligently documented the history of nearby communities.  The project has been nearly a full-time job and resulted in the recent release of "An Illustrated History of the People and Towns of Northeast Shelby County and South Central Tipton County" at a recent event in Memorial Hall of Richland Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (where my parents were married).  The article includes pictures of my grandmother, uncle, mother, and second cousin.  Lee, Kristen, Thomas, and Lizzie also attended from Atlanta.
    • NYTimes: Cotton Clothing Price Tags to Rise (11/2/10) - When cotton prices go up, the cost of clothing eventually does as well. Memphis used to be the center of the cotton universe (it still has the three largest cotton traders in the world), and my family's land continues to grow cotton year after year.
    • The Atlantic: For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance (10/29/10) - Airport security measures are constantly being changed and thankfully to date have been effective. How far is too far? Which efforts are actually effective and which are simply to convince people that we doing all we can?  This has been in the news a lot before holiday travel kicks off and this article pretty much sums up the issues.
    • WSJ: After 181 Years, Local Beer Stops Playing Hard to Get (10/21/10) - Yuengling is finally expanding its reach after buying a former Coors brewery in Memphis. Yuengling is a highlight when in the Mid-Atlantic (No offense Natty Bo!) and hopefully it will become more widely available in the south. Note this brewery in Memphis used to be the chief source of Zima!, which sadly met its end in 2008 (except in Japan...weird).
    • Dartmouth College (7/17/10) - Mayor Bloomberg spoke at Dartmouth as a part of the Presidential Lecture Series.  I learned that he has flat feet (like my father) and is an Eagle Scout (like Lee and me). Video is below and discusses many topics important to me!

    • NYTimes: Three Easy Upgrades for Late Adaptors (6/2/10) - Lucy's mom sent me this article back in the summer, and I am just seeing it now but it has excellent advice. I happen to install pretty much what is described in Project 2 for my dad this summer and it is incredible. Roku is not as quite as revolutionary as DVR, but puts a movie rental store in the palm of your hand (free with Netflix). Avatar on Blu-ray arrived from Netflix right before I left and the picture blew me away.
    • NYTimes: Blacks in Memphis Lost Decades of Economic Gains (5/30/10) - The recession has affected everyone, but it has been devastating to emerging middle class blacks in Memphis. Consumer education is obviously an issue, but amazing to think lenders actually get away with some of these practices.

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