16 October 2021
Poverty/South Africa: Poverty is systemic and multi-layered and the poverty cycle begins early in life: children, already, face “barriers (that) are likely to keep them trapped in a vicious cycle of disadvantage for the rest of their lives”. What is needed is “collaboration across different sectors to better address the complex and multiple needs of children growing up in poverty”. Communities of practice bring together researchers and practitioners, service agencies and service users, an approach called “collective impact”. The article’s authors are doing research into these communities of practice and their impact.
https://theconversation.com/what-can-be-done-to-tackle-the-systemic-causes-of-poverty-in-south-africa-169866
15 October 2021
Malaria: Malaria (which kills over 400,000 every year, 94% of them in Africa) “prevails in areas with poor drainage, poor housing, lack of access to protective measures and weak health systems.” Instead of short term, repetitive interventions based on drugs and insecticides, it would make more sense to focus on long-term, sustainable solutions and invest in “building improved houses, environmental management by draining swamps where mosquitoes breed, separating humans and domestic animals and strengthening health systems” – the measures that have proven successful in eradicating malaria in Italy or the US.
https://theconversation.com/ending-malaria-in-africa-needs-to-focus-on-poverty-quick-fixes-wont-cut-it-169205
South Africa: The veterans of the disbanded ANC military wing feel “betrayed” and left out in the cold and demand $280,000 per person for housing and medical insurance for their families. Negotiations with the minister in the presidency, the defence minister and her deputy yesterday (Thursday) night having broken down, the two ministers and the deputy were taken hostage by the veterans. They were later freed by the special task force. More than 50 were arrested.
BBC Africa Live 15 October 2021. 8:23
Abdulrazak Gurnah: Two The Conversation articles and part of a The Conversation podcast on this year’s Literature Nobel prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah, originally from Zanzibar.
https://theconversation.com/why-the-work-of-abdulrazak-gurnah-the-champion-of-heartbreak-stands-out-for-me-169570
https://theconversation.com/abdulrazak-gurnah-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-nobel-prize-winning-author-169484
https://theconversation.com/explaining-the-2021-nobel-prizes-how-touch-works-a-better-way-to-make-medicine-and-the-fiction-of-abdulrazak-gurnah-podcast-169857 (31’07”-41’00”)
eSwatini: Fundile Maphanga and Christopher Vandome, two Chatham House scholars who believe that the king is on a collision course with his people (the June bloodbath has made this obvious to everyone), have in August (https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/08/eswatini-monarchy-must-address-demands-democratic-reform) suggested that Lesotho or Buthan could be examples for “reforms that would allow eSwatini to retain distinctive cultural institutions and practices, while the monarchy relinquishes executive powers within its political system.”
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/a-shangri-la-in-the-himalayas-could-show-king-mswati-the-way