Africa

Rising violence across Africa against Chinese facilities and workers

Philip Cho — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:30:52 -0700

Description

Nine Chinese workers of the China National Petroleum Corporation were kidnapped near Darfur in the Southern Kordofan State. The CNPC leads a consortium of oil companies, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, which includes India’s ONGC, Malaysia’s Petronas, and Sudan’s Sudapet. Four Indian oil workers were kidnapped in May.

This follows a disturbing trend of rising violence across Africa against Chinese facilities and workers. China maintains few military forces on the continent and primary depends on local government and private security firms for protection.

Source

Africa will be a Central Testing Ground for China’s Dual-Purpose Military Industry

Philip Cho — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:40:41 -0700

Description

Africa will be a Central Testing Ground for China’s Dual-Purpose Military Industry

Recent Pentagon and RAND reports have pointed out China’s trend toward integrating the military with commercial enterprises to boost production and innovation in dual-use technologies. Especially in information technology, “national champion” companies such as Huawei, Datang, Zhongxing, and Julong are storefront facades for the Chinese defense industry. For example, Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, was the former director of the People’s Liberation Army Information Engineering Academy. The company remains joined at the hip with the military both financially and in research and development. Analysts have focused on the Chinese military as partner and consumer of the nation’s high-tech enterprises. However, little attention has been paid to other potential markets and future testing grounds for dual-use technologies.

Africa will be critical for China to achieve its goal of creating a vibrant military-industrial complex. Rather than weapons, China’s greatest opportunity in Africa is the growing need for technologies of surveillance and control of its people. Dual-purpose medical, biometric, telecommunications, and weather monitoring technology that can be used to track migrations and congregations of people across Africa will provide a fertile testing ground and market for China’s developing commercial military.

As giants such as Microsoft look to gain a foothold in the continent’s rapidly growing IT market, the Chinese, on the ground and in the skies, have already been building Africa’s IT infrastructure from cell phones to satellites. In 1998, for example, Huawei began undercutting better known competitors such as Nokia and Ericsson to become the largest supplier in sub Saharan countries of CDMA and NGN products. In 2007 alone, Huawei’s sales in Africa topped 11.5 billion, a jump of 62% of all international revenue compared to 2006.

China’s Need to Protect Its Interests in Africa Against Rising Local Violence and Perceived Threats from the US

To protect their commercial and political interests, China will provide increasingly more sophisticated surveillance and control technologies to Africa. This will be necessary to check threats from both rising violence against Chinese companies on the continent and US plans, which the Chinese perceive as aimed at containing their influence. China does not maintain a significant military presence in Africa, but relies on its close relationship with individual leaders and governments, often through military advisors and private security firms. Both the Chinese and their African allies have a common interest in controlling anti-government forces, which are increasingly hostile to China’s rapid growth in Africa. In the past, China has pursued a divide and conquer strategy of supplying their individual allies with weapons, rather than supporting regional security efforts. However, military solutions are not adequate for China and their allies to achieve an even more important goal of pursuing commercial development and reaping profit from ripening African economies.

Violence against Chinese interests in Africa is on the rise. In April, 2007, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist group in Eastern Ethiopia, attacked a China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation oil field, killing 70 employees, including 9 Chinese, and kidnapping 7 other Chinese workers. In Nigeria, gunmen kidnapped 5 Chinese technicians working for the Sichuan Telecommunications Company followed by 3 more in May, 2008 working for the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Corporation. In December, the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement attacked a China National Petroleum Corporation facility in the Heglig area of Western Kordofan. More recently in March, 2008, 500 Zambian miners rioted and attacked their Chinese managers at a Chambishi copper smelter. The common outcry, as with other incidences all over Africa, was for better working conditions and a general expulsion of what Zambian opposition leader, Michael Sata, called “the Chinese invaders.”

Recent US military actions directly threaten China’s tenuous hold on Africa. In the 1990’s, the US moved the 7th fleet logistical command from Subic Bay in the Philippines to Singapore’s Changi Naval Base. This allows the US to control the Malacca Strait, the jugular of China’s link to the African continent and the portal to the South China Sea. China imports 95% of its oil by sea of which 80% are transported through the Malacca Strait. Through the South China Sea passes two-thirds of the world’s trade in liquefied natural gas and by 2020, China is expected to import more than 30 million tons per year. In 2007, the US also announced the creation of Africom, a unified military command for Africa, making the region strategically equal to the Pacific Rim, Middle East, Latin America, North America, and Europe.

Private Chinese Security Firms will Expand Their Business in Africa

China’s hold on Africa is thus becoming increasingly unstable. China has no ability to challenge the US at sea, even with a new nuclear submarine base at Hainan island. An increased Chinese military presence in Africa would be unprecedented and would possibly result in an arms escalation in the region, not to mention incite greater local resentment and violence against the Chinese. China’s best option remains to strengthen ties with current regimes.

Surveillance and control technologies will be the newest in the arsenal of methods to assist in achieving a pro-Chinese, pro-business, and functionally stable political climate. China is the logical supplier of such technologies to African leaders and has already provided equipment to the Sudanese government to monitor opposition. Many US companies such as Cisco Systems are legally barred from exporting such technology.

In the near future, China will begin exporting to Africa mini versions of its Golden Shield system, a nationwide high-tech surveillance network linking everything from CCTV, cell-phones, and national identity cards. Several leading companies have already emerged such as Shenzhen based, China Security and Surveillance Technology, which has developed CCTV software to alert police of unusually large gatherings of people. Building on American technology, Guangzhou based Pixel Solutions produces high-tech national ID cards and face-recognition software for governments and businesses. Chinese companies like these can be expected to lead the charge into 21st century Africa to help ensure “peaceful stability and protection” against anti-government forces labeled as “terrorists.”

Signals

Cellphone banking enables distributed financial systems

Chisa Umemiya — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:25:43 -0700

Description

pre-paid cellphones being used to move money into rural African communities without banking systems - phones are credited in cities (by migrant workers) and debited in villages with money passed to family i.e., prepaid phone minutes = currency

Africa: Science & Technology

Source

New Scientist interview an anthropologist from Nokia

Cybertracker

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:07:29 -0700

Description

One of my favorite examples suggesting the possible revival of amateur science is CyberTracker, "a software program that allows conservationists to record their observations in the field on handheld computers linked to global positioning system, or GPS, units." Scientists and trackers recently used the system to research the impact on an Ebola outbreak on the gorilla population in the Congo, and have also used it to study other animals. As Wired News reported in 2004,

To [Louis] Liebenberg -- the South African founder of CyberTracker Conservation -- these findings not only illustrate the device's ability to enhance scientists' monitoring and interpretation of changes in ecosystems, but they also support the idea that illiterate trackers are just as capable of doing science as researchers with Ph.D.s.

The CyberTracker is just one of many high-tech gadgets available to conservationists, who increasingly turn to tools such as DNA analysis and satellite imagery to gain a more detailed understanding of nature.

Liebenberg came up with the idea of the CyberTracker while hunting with the indigenous Bushmen trackers of the Kalahari Desert. Fascinated with tracking since childhood, Liebenberg, an author and scientist, developed the theory that the ancient hunter-gatherer practice represents nothing less than the origins of science.

Tracking an animal requires a process of making observations and testing hypotheses that is akin to scientific reasoning, he explained.

Once necessary for survival, however, it is now a dying art. Today, Liebenberg said, he knows of only about six older Bushmen who remain subsistence hunters. Most youngsters now attend school, unlike their illiterate elders, but seldom learn the skills and encyclopedic knowledge necessary for tracking.

If a way could be found to put the Bushmen's ancient knowledge to use for conservation purposes, he realized, both nature and the struggling Bushman communities would benefit. In 1996, Liebenberg and computer scientist Lindsay Steventon released the first CyberTracker model, with the aim of turning tracking into a modern profession.

That year, trackers Karel Benadie and James Minye used the CyberTracker to study the endangered black rhino in the Karoo National Park in South Africa, gathering data on the animals' eating patterns and vulnerability to poaching. In 1999, Liebenberg, Steventon and the two illiterate trackers published the findings in the academic journal Pachyderm.

Part of what's interesting here is that CyberTracker shows how handheld computing, GPS, and wireless can be used to improve scientific fieldwork. But the other thing that's intriguing about the project is that it explicitly recognizes the skills and knowledge that native peoples have about local flora and fauna. Native guides and assistants have long been critical to the success of scientific fieldwork, but often have been written out of the official histories.

Africa: Science & Technology

Source

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/01/61919
http://www.cybertracker.co.za/
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2745545

Overcoming "scientific apartheid"

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:38:05 -0700

Description

SciDev.Net reports on an April address by Bibliotheca Alexandrina Ismail Serageldin warning that "the world risks "scientific apartheid" between rich and poor countries unless research and technology is better used to benefit the poor."

He warned that science seems to be benefiting the rich, with not enough focus on solving the problems of the poor. "We need a little more than knowledge... we need wisdom," he said.

Serageldin called for developed countries to put five per cent of their research and development budgets towards addressing the problems of the poor. He said that even if the research were conducted in Northern universities, this would still contribute greatly.

"Different regions need to address different problems, but all will require the best of science," he said....

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, said that the world needs to run on two scientific tracks: putting existing technologies into practice for the poor, whilst simultaneously developing new technologies to address problems.

Addressing the conference by video message on 13 April, he outlined the need for "RDD&D" — research, development, demonstration and diffusion of technology to those who need them most.

What's interesting about this is that it's one of a growing number of calls to develop more thoughtful, locally-oriented, or development-focused approaches to doing research. A growing number of ambitious scientists in the developing world are less interested in emulating the Western model of R&D than in developing their own.

Source

http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/world-risks-scientific-apartheid-says-top-african-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&ut...

Wellcome Trust funding scientists' training in Africa

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:20:48 -0700

Description

SciDev.Net reports on a new Wellcome Trust project to support training of young African scientists, with the aim of improving their professional skills and research abilities:

The focus will be on assisting young researchers who are completing or have recently completed their PhDs. They will receive training, for example in writing research proposals and how to structure and organise research.

"These researchers are starting to take their first steps towards actually leading and developing research. That's where they need a lot of help and support," said [Wellcome Trust international activities director Jimmy] Whitworth.

The aim of the funding is to build up a pool of local researchers capable and sufficiently equipped to tackle critical problems in their countries, such as malaria and HIV. By funding training and support, the trust hopes to encourage talented researchers to stay and work in Africa.

A generation ago programs for graduate and postdoctoral training for scientists in the developing world were aimed at luring them to the West; but today, they're increasingly likely to be designed to help award-winners develop the skills necessary to build institutions and careers in their home countries.

Source

http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/us-40-million-funding-boost-for-african-researcher.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&ut...

Mobile Phone Ingenuity in Africa

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:31:05 -0700

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Afrigadget/~3/270812978/

AfriGadget talks about the work of Nokia ethnographer Jan Chipchase:

One of the consistent themes of Jan's message is that it in each country he visits there is a booming market of hackers and mobile phone mechanics who are doing all kinds of interesting things. They are taking the designs of the West and applying them to their lives, modifying them and making them work for their local needs. From Accra to Nairobi, there is always a "cell phone alley" for you to buy, repair or customize your mobile phone.

Africa: Science & Technology

Powering African Schools with Playground Toys

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:37:14 -0700

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Afrigadget/~3/255552375/

Afrigadget reports on a project to develop playground equipment that generates electricity "that can be used to power school classrooms in Africa."

As BBC quotes him,

"The current need for electricity in sub-Saharan Africa is staggering. Without power development is extremely difficult. The potential for this product is huge and the design could be of benefit to numerous communities in Africa and beyond."

Afrigadget adds,
The idea came about after travels to East Africa, where he taught at a school and was inspired by the students. Daniel developed the see-saw power design as part of his final year at Coventry University. He has calculated that five to 10 minutes use on the see-saw could generate enough electricity to light a classroom for an evening.

Africa: Science & Technology

Cheap solar cellphone charger

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:54:16 -0800

Description

Afrigadget reports on the development of an inexpensive solar cellphone charger as one solution to the "challenge of mobile phone charging in off grid Africa." The cost of such chargers is falling from around $100 two years ago, to $20 today. An inexpensive charger "is not only quite handy to have, but it is empowering and well suited for off-grid rural areas in Africa, California or anywhere with sunlight for that matter."

Ken Banks of Kinwankja.net elaborates:

In some rural areas, where the lack of reliable mains power might be the difference between making it worth owning a mobile or not, a small solar panel such as this could be a deal clincher. Of course, solar energy has been touted as a solution for charging mobile devices for years now, but what's interesting about this is the cost. Suddenly, it actually seems possible. And by possible, what I really mean is affordable.

My basic, no-frills ZTE phone comes in at around $22 new, putting most rival entry level handsets in the shade. And the solar panel to charge it? Add another $20. So, suddenly, for about $42 we have a works-out-of-the- box rural mobile solution. (Just one short year ago the handset alone would have come in at around that). What's more, the owner of the solar charger could earn a little extra income running a small charging business on the side. Maybe one day these panels will come as standard in Village Phone programs around the world, if they're not already.

Source

http://www.blogspot.kiwanja.net/2008/02/shedding-light-on-charging-challenge.html
http://www.afrigadget.com/2008/03/03/affordable-solar-charger-for-mobile-phones/

American software companies invest in African IT

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:54:02 -0800

Description

In a 2005 article, Gregg Zachary asks "Could Africa become the next India?" The stimulus could be a combination of home-grown talent, improvements in education (both formal and informal), and investment by companies like Microsoft and Sun.

Faced with the daunting challenges of poverty, underdeveloped infrastructure, disease and civil war, few might consider the continent a budding technology hotspot. Yet over the last decade Microsoft Corp. has been investing money and resources to foster growth in the region and its efforts are starting to pay off.

"Obviously there is a significant gap between Africa and more developed countries, but I must admit it's one of the fastest growing regions in the world," said Jean-Philippe Courtois, chief executive officer for Microsoft in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The continent is made up of relatively young countries -- in some, over half the population is between 25 and 30 years old -- and its leaders are looking to IT to narrow the development gap, Courtois said.

While Africa is nowhere near supplanting India as an outsourcing location, or China as a consumer market, five to 10 years from now that may start to change as governments in the region focus on hemming up the digital divide.

Interestingly, Microsoft and Sun are both doing work in Africa, and see it as both a potential future market and source of cheap programming labor, but are pursuing those opportunities in different ways:

From South Africa to Kenya, and along the Ivory Coast, the software titan [Microsoft] has been investing millions of dollars in offices, training centers, education programs and e-government projects to help bring developing communities into the digital age....

Rival Sun Microsystems Inc. also has a presence on the continent, with one office in South Africa serving the sub-Saharan region and another office in Egypt. Sun is not as active as Microsoft in partnering with African governments, as its focus is investing in the software developer market and promoting its Java programming language, according to Dumisani Mtoba, senior systems engineer at Sun's South Africa office.

"We are working to gain exposure and there is a growing Java ecosystem in the region, which delights us," Mtoba said.

The African market has grown significantly over the last few years, and there is a lot of interest in software development, according to Mtoba. Sun's challenge is to make sure that local developers are taught Java since they usually continue to program in the language they learn in school, Mtoba said.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is able to gain exposure for its .Net programming language through its broad work with governments and investment in training centers.

Sun has one center for Java training in a South African university, but its activities have been mainly focused on reaching the developer community.

Source

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2418/050201africa/

Entrepreneurial responses to cellphone charging problems in Africa

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:31:18 -0800

Description

Ken Banks writes on what happens when cell phones become ubiquitous in areas with terrible and unreliable electric power.

Users in many African countries - and not just those in rural areas - face similar problems [involving access to electricity]. In Uganda, this "charging challenge" is being met head-on by a growing band of local entrepreneurs and business people.

Rural users are able to charge their phones from a car battery (top), charged up by a local entrepreneur when power is available, or charged in a nearby town with better supply and transported back. In urban areas, where grid power is generally more reliable, kiosks (below) dotted around local markets provide charging services to passing customers.

The spread of mobile technology in developing countries has opened up income-generating opportunities on a massive scale. But what is most interesting is how local entrepreneurs have taken advantage of this growth using their own skills and ingenuity. According to the Uganda Communications Commission, the telecoms sector there provides direct employment to a little over 6,000 people. Indirect employment - which includes mobile charging entrepreneurs, airtime vendors, accessories sales-people and mobile repair shops - comes to a staggering 350,000.

Boda Phone, Kampala, Uganda: "I met this phone operator off Kampala Road this afternoon, who was riding round on this bike. Luckily he was a fellow Liverpool supporter so we hit it off straight away – and he let me take a photo of his BodaPhone setup. Pretty neat, and with a spare ba

Source

http://www.blogspot.kiwanja.net/2008/02/charging-challenge.html
http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/09/10/the-bodaphone-in-uganda/

Innovations in water transport in rural Africa

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:06:59 -0800

Description

Wheel & Water is a nonprofit developing transportation systems for rural Africans.

Throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, rural women spend an inordinate amount of time and energy, every day, fetching and carrying water and firewood.

While there is little possibility of providing piped water and electricity to most rural communities in the near future, basic Human and Animal Powered Vehicles – or HAPV’s (see HAPV MODELS) – could make this task far quicker and easier. These include the water-wheel, the pannier, custom-built vehicles, or multipurpose carts such as the “HAPPY”.

Rugged in construction and ingenious in design, the “HAPPY” is a high-tech model of an ancient, yet proven concept, the donkey cart. This versatile vehicle is fitted with seats to carry up to four adults, or several children. The space below the seats allows for the transportation of standardized water containers and beverage crates....

Fitted with a solar panel that charges a 12 volt battery under the driver’s seat, the “HAPPY” becomes an independent, sustainable source of energy that powers cell phone connectivity, front and rear emergency lights and a small neon tube at night. Add a water filtration system, and the “HAPPY” doubles as a multifunctional mobile business unit, that can empower an entrepreneurial owner, to generate income from it as a fresh water outlet, a mobile phone kiosk or a spaza shop – even after dark.

[img_assist|nid=2000|title=HAPV (Human-Animal Powered Vehicle)|desc="[T]he “HAPPY” is a high-tech model of an ancient, yet proven concept, the donkey cart. This versatile vehicle is fitted with seats to carry up to four adults, or several children. The space below the seats allows for the transportation of standardized wa|link=popup|align=left|width=400|height=306]

Three things are interesting about this project. First is its combination of high and low tech: we now live in a world in which having a donkey cart pulling a mobile cell phone charging station seems like a viable idea. Another is the effort it puts into folding many different functionalities-- or potential functionalities-- into a single multipurpose platform (achieved in part through DIY standardization). Finally, note the role of the cellphone as an indirect driver of technological innovation: cellphones have created a demand for electric power in environments that demand highly innovative, small-scale solutions.

Source

http://wheelandwater.co.za/default.htm
http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/10/08/hapv-human-and-animal-powered-vehicle-in-south-africa/

Informal standardization in African DIY

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:53:09 -0800

Description

AfriGadget reports on informal standardization practices among African machinists and fabricators:

One of the things that I find most interesting in my travels around Africa is the similar uses of technology to meet the varied demands of different types of mechanics and workers. The particular case I’ve been thinking over is the use of a simple frame and different engines to meet a specific need.

Many of the same components are used from one machine to the next. The fabricators know that each machine has a different use, but that the parts used to make them unique are not that many....

The machinery setup is a good example of low-cost fabrication using a modular setup. All of the local fabricators tend to use the same frame setup so that they can mix and match with each others work.

This is significant because we're starting to see stories of African inventors doing interesting things, and observations like this remind us that most inventive activity involves independent but not completely solitary inventors: successful inventors tend to be members of communities of practice, who share ideas and technical skills, and have to work together. They compete, but they also have to cooperate.

Source

http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/11/08/africas-modular-machines/

Wind-powered cellphone stations spread in Africa

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:45:59 -0800

Description

Bergey Windpower notes the growing use of wind power in cell phone stations.

Safaricom (www.safaricom.com), headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, is the largest cell phone provider and the most profitable company in East Africa. As they have moved to extend their service range to the rural areas of Kenya they have encountered more and more sites for their base stations where no utility power is available. The normal practice at such sites is to use two diesel generators, one operating all the time and another serving as back-up. But, diesel power is far from ideal. Supplying fuel in areas where the roads are very poor and armed escorts are sometimes required is very expensive. Also, the diesel generators are under-loaded so they are not operating very efficiently and they require more frequent maintenance.

In 2005 Safaricom contracted with Winafrique Technologies in Nairobi to design and supply pilot wind/diesel hybrid systems at three very remote base stations. The systems consisted of a Bergey 7.5 kW turbine on a 24 m (80 ft) SSV tower, sealed batteries, and an inverter. These sites were installed and monitored for one year. The results showed excellent reliability and diesel fuel savings of 70-95%. Based on these positive results, Safaricom has contracted for six more sites, and has many other wind/diesel sites in the planning stage.

They go on to describe its use in a remote town, Laisamis:

Even though Laisamis is very remote and the household income is very low, the new Safaricom base station is already handling thousands of calls a day. In fact, the lack of electricity to charge local cell phones has emerged as a barrier and Safaricom will soon add a battery charging station to their base station facility. That too will be powered by the wind. Cell phones allow children to talk to parents who have gone to work in the major cities, law enforcement to spread the word on cattle thefts, and clinicians to seek the advice of doctors.

UPDATE, September 2007: Safaricom will have over 25 sites with Bergey 7.5 kW turbines installed by the end of 2007.

AfriGadget comments that "Hybrid systems that utilize renewable energy such as wind and solar are making it possible to extend wireless service in remote areas that are not connected to grid power." More recently, the systems have been adopted in Namibia.

Source

http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/12/05/more-wind-powered-cell-phone-base-stations-in-africa/
http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/07/02/wind-powered-cell-phone-base-stations/
http://www.bergey.com/Examples/Laisamis.html

The Bamboo Bike project

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:24:55 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.afrigadget.com/2008/02/06/the-bamboo-bike-project/

AfriGadget reports:

The Bamboo Bike, an endeavour that aims at building bicycles in a sustainable fashion using bamboo as the primary construction material, is a joint project run by Craig Calfree of Calfree Design, a high tech bicycle design firm based in California and The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

The bicycle is the primary mode of transport in Africa and it is used for everything from personal transportation to moving medicine and the sick to hospital. Sadly, the design used in most of Africa has not changed for the last 40 years to take into account the different ways in which the bicycle is used. In fact, most bikes in use in most of Africa today are based on a colonial British design tailored to individuals travelling short distances on smooth roads.

While making bike frames based on bamboo is not a new idea, most bamboo frame designs simply use bamboo for construction material in a traditional bike frame design. Leveraging the unique properties of bamboo such as its strength and flexibility to meet the specific needs of populations local to various parts of Africa is one of the primary rationale behind the Bamboo Bike project.

China-Africa become intertwined technologically

Jason Li — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:02:04 -0800

Description

"Agricultural cooperation between China and Africa, which dates back to 40 years ago, has seen further development in 2007 with the impetus given by the China- Africa Cooperation Forum Beijing Summit held in November last year... Many agricultural enterprises, which emerged through the provision of soft loans and favourable policies, have taken charge of various farming projects across the African continent.Suddenly, farms are springing up like mushrooms all over the continent, especially in countries such as Zambia, Gabon, Tanzania, Guinea, Ghana, Niger and Cameroon, where the Chinese companies were very active.

And then from a Taipei Times article, 'Browning' the technology of Africa:
"Africa also offers a testing ground for Asian-designed technologies that are not yet ready for US or European markets."

...Africans genuinely need foreign technology, and the Chinese, in particular, are pushing hard -- even flamboyantly -- to fill the gap. This year, Nigeria's government bought a Chinese-made satellite and even paid the Chinese to launch it into space in May. China was so eager to provide space technology to Africa's most populous country that it beat out 21 other bidders for a contract worth US$300 million.

China's technology inroads are usually less dramatic, but no less telling. In African medicine, Chinese herbs and pharmaceuticals are quietly gaining share. For example, the Chinese-made anti-malarial drug artesunate has become part of the standard treatment within just a few years.

Likewise, Chinese mastery over ultra-small, cheap "micro-hydro" dams, which can generate tiny amounts of electricity from mere trickles of water, appeals to power-short, river-rich Africans. Tens of thousands of micro-hydro systems operate in China, and nearly none in Africa."

Though it's currently mostly a one-way relationship, will it one day become more than that?

China: Science & Technology

Source

http://farastaff.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-impetus-to-china-africa.html
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/12/27/2003394332

Malwaian Sugar and Yeast Power Generator

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:31:41 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/11/29/malawian-invents-a-power-source-made-for-africa/

Afrigadget reports on:

a prototype power source made specifically for Africa. It generates power using sugar and yeast for up to 8 hours at a time.

Mobile phones are big in Africa, however it’s a real challenge to power them. How about night time electrical lighting, rather than paraffin lamps. Of course, in Africa we can think of all types of applications that this device could be used for.

The generator was invented by Malawian Dr. Cedrick Ngalande.

China to expand nuclear power capabilities

Philip Cho — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 06:40:20 -0800

Description

China currently has 6 nuclear power plants with 11 reactor units in commercial operation having a total capacity of 9068 MW, 600MW of which come from pressurized water reactors. Eight more reactor units having a total capacity of 7900MW are under construction. According to the government’s nuclear power development plan, this capacity will expand to 24,968MW by 2015, and 44,968MW by 2020. To meet these goals, China has already explored 13 locations for new nuclear stations. (see attached table)

Much of the technology will come from Russia, the US, and France. In 2007, Russia’s Atomstroyexport agreed to build two AES-91 reactor units at the Tianwan plant. Westinghouse will build four AP100 third-generation reactors. France’s Areva will build two pressurized-water reactors in Taishan.

In addition, on November 21st, 2006 China joined the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Program (ITER) to pursue fusion technology. China will invest approximately 10 billion euros in the project, which involves the EU, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US. The China National Nuclear Corporation Southwest Institute for Physics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Plasma Physics will be the two main institutes participating.

As much of the world increasingly turns to nuclear power, one can expect the same geopolitical and economic pressures driving oil over 100 USD a barrel to bear on uranium. This will shift the calculus of energy relations to involve both familiar suppliers such as Niger and Algeria but also possible new ones such as Mongolia, Australia, and even China itself. The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has set up the China Nuclear International Uranium Corporation to acquire uranium resources around the world. The concentration of nuclear facilities in China’s coastal provinces will also compel a re-evaluation of strategies for domestic energy development and consumption.

China National Nuclear Corporation:
http://www.cnnc.com.cn/

ITER China:
http://www.iter.org.cn/
http://www.iterchina.org.cn/

China’s “National Plan for Medium and Long-term Nuclear Power Development (2005~2020)”
http://www.gov.cn/gzdt/2007-11/02/content_793797.htm
http://www.ccchina.gov.cn/WebSite/CCChina/UpFile/2007/2007112145723883.pdf

Signals

China extends soft power through space

Philip Cho — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:16:05 -0800

Description

China’s space industry is becoming an increasingly important means of extending soft power throughout the developing world. Like the ostensible civilizing missions of 19th century colonial powers over the savage, China’s push to link countries in Africa and South America to the digital age will consolidate its political influence and access to natural resources and markets in the developing world.

Satellite telecommunications is the cornerstone of China’s broad ambitions in building Africa. The Chinese Academy of Science and the Great Wall Industry Corporation built and launched for Nigeria the Nigcomsat-1, the first transcontinental communications satellite under the control of a sub-Saharan nation. The $450 million USD satellite was financed by the Nigerian government with $250 million USD investment from the Sudanese Elrased Electronic Trading and Investment Company Ltd. Prior to this, the Chinese government had pledged $66 million USD to develop Ghana’s telecommunications infrastructure.

In addition, China and Brazil freely provide African countries satellite images through the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program (CBERS). As leading regional trading partners, China and Brazil have sought to strengthen ties through space activities. CBERS is a successful long term cooperative program between the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE). Along with the US Landsat, French Spot, and Indian Resource Sat, it is one of the major satellite systems specialized to monitor the Earth’s environment, resources, forests, geology and hydrology. The China (%70 investment) and Brazil (%30 investment) treaty signed in 1988 has so far resulted in the launch of three satellites: CBERS-1 (Oct.1999), CBERS-2 (March 2002) and CBERS-2B (Sept. 2007) with two more satellites projected in 2010 and 2013. China reinvests the amount received from Brazil through the importation of Brazilian products. China and Venezuela will also soon launch a military and telecommunications satellite, dubbed after the revolutionary Simon Bolivar. In addition, China will train 90 Venezuelan technicians, 30 of whom will study in China. This follows Venezuela’s purchase of three Chinese military radars. On November 6th, 2007, China Development Bank signed an agreement with the Venezuelan government to create a USD 6 billion investment fund, 4 billion of which China will provide. In response, President Hugo Chavez has pledged to double oil exports to China, reaching 1 million barrels per day by 2010.

Capping these activities, China also hosts the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), a coalition of eight countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and China) to jointly develop space science, technology, and industry, especially in Earth observation, disaster prevention, environmental protection, and satellite navigation and communication.

China is strategically positioning itself at the center of satellite, telecommunications, and networking activities in the developing world, especially Africa and South America. The applications are far ranging from development of commerce, agriculture, and city planning to global monitoring of the environment and early warning of natural disasters. This will give China a global presence in the space industry across these regions. The most obvious and immediate benefits to China are access to natural resources and markets as well as political support of China’s policies toward Taiwan and Tibet. However, the long term effects are more subtle and pervasive.

Since the post-WWII time of Jay Forrester and the Club of Rome till now, the United States has been the dominant force in the development and maintenance of global models and data networks. These have fundamentally changed how people view the world and the meanings of globalization itself, pertaining to everything from changes in the environment, population, energy, agriculture and trade. In the coming two decades, China is the only other power with the reach, resources, and clear intent to rival the US in this often overlooked arena. The breakdown of the Galileo navigation system proves that the cosmopolitan vision (ala Ulrich Beck) of an EU balance to American hyper-power is untenable, at least in space. How long will it be before China extends its Beidou Satellite Navigation program from an Asia-Pacific regional system to one covering a patchwork of other critical areas through export and cooperative agreements with countries in South America, Africa, and the Middle East? A manned mission to the moon may capture the media’s attention but would have little significance to research, economic development and political power on Earth. On the other hand, China’s diplomatic and technological mission to bridge the digital divide in the developing world will give it a long lever from which to influence global environmental politics and other issues.

For information on the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program

www.cbers.inpe.br/en/index_en.htm

The China-Africa Cooperation Forum

www.china.org.cn/english/features/China-Africa/81869.htm

Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) link to Asia-Pacific Space Education Center

http://apsec.buaa.edu.cn/

Other interesting reading: Paul N. Edwards, “The World in a Machine: Origins and Impacts of Early Computerized Global Systems Models,” in Systems, Experts and Computers, Agatha Hughes and Thomas P. Hughes editors. 2000 The MIT Press.

Signals

Do scientific diasporas work?

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:46:08 -0700

Description

Scientific diasporas are hot. Foreign-trained expatriate scientists, the argument goes, were central to the growth of Korea and other Asian tigers as scientific and technological powers in the 1980s and 1990s; are helping drive scientific and entrepreneurial activity in Indian and China; and can help develop scientific communities in Latin America and Asia. Indeed, Jacques and Anne Marie Gaillard argued in 2003, there had emerged "a consensus" that while "Africa’s relative capacity to contribute to world science drastically decreased during the 1990s... the 'African scientific diaspora' will substitute for the shortcomings and weaknesses of national scientific communities in the African continent." However, they argue that it may not.

Supporters see the scientific diaspora as a way of remotely mobilising African scientists and technologists all over the world to derive a number of benefits for their home countries. This includes access to scientific information and expertise through extensive social, technical and professional networks, increased training opportunities, and the development of collaborative projects between expatriate and home-based scientists.

However, the record of using scientific diasporas is uneven. Efforts by the Colombia to build connections between domestic and expatriate scientists have come to very little, despite a decade of effort. The authors note that "slightly less than half of the scientific community are at home." Consequently, "potential scientific exchange and collaborative work (even virtual) with the diaspora is inevitably difficult."

Other challenges abound. A country with a poorly-developed national scientific community is less likely to successfully tap its expatriates: China and Korea succeeded in mobilizing its diaspora and attracting talent back home not because they were backward, but because they weren't. in most African countries, in contrast, "science and technology systems are, in general, insufficiently developed to offer even a minimal level of interaction between their highly-qualified expatriates and national scientific communities."

"Serious limitations in the diaspora model that suggest it should not be seen as the principal panacea for African science."

More broadly, it would be worth looking at the impact of diasporas not just on scientific communities in the developing world, but in the developed as well. Perhaps the United States, Great Britain, and Japan are the biggest winners in the global diaspora-tapping race?

Jacques Gaillard & Anne Marie Gaillard, "Can the scientific diaspora save African science?" scidev.net (22 May 2003), online at http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readopinions&itemid=153&language=1

Signals

Rethinking diaspora strategies

GlobalEurope Anticipation Bulletin on the future of international academic degrees

New potential for sub-Saharan science

Mobile Phones and Economic Growth in the Developing World

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:10:30 -0700

Description

Mobile phones have the potential to spur economic growth, especially entrepreneurial business, in the Developing World.

Since 1979 the mobile phone has played a significant role in economic development in the West. However, the poorest countries of the global south are only now beginning to experience significant diffusion of mobile phone services. The potential for mobile phones to transform the economies of developing nations is exemplified by the Grameen Phone Company of Bangladesh, which has used micro-credit financing to rapidly and widely deploy a network of shared mobile phones rented by individual village entrepreneurs.

Over the next two decades, mobile telephone networks will reshape the African continent as countries that never had extensive telephone networks leap-frog into the wireless age. One recent study claims that a 10 percent increase in mobile phone density boosts GDP growth by 0.6 percent. Africa currently has just 8 mobile lines per 100 persons, but this has increased from just 3 per 100 in 2001. Over the next two decades, mobile phone networks may blossom in countries that never had extensive fixed-line networks. Thus will these countries "leap-frog" into the wireless age."

This will be enabled by:

Early indicators include:

"According to a New York Times article, from 1999 to 2004 mobile subscriptions in Africa jumped from 7.5 million to 76.8 million. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/25/international/africa/25africa.html?%20ei=5088&en=cad54d043ab15f30&ex=1282622400&partner=rssny]
Vodafone releases a report arguing for the benefits of mobile telephony in Africa, linking it to GDP growth and foreign investment. [http://www.vodafone.com/africa]"

What to watch:

The selling of cell phone minutes through SMS as a form of micro-lending.

Signals

Mubarak Abdullahi’s home-made helicopter

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:33:57 -0700

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/10/22/mubarak-abdullahis-home-made-helicopter-takes-nigerias-kano-plains-by-storm/

AfriGadget reports on another example of African inventors:

Yahoo! News (among other sources) carries a story from October 21st about Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi of the Kano Plains of Nigeria who has built a working helicopter over the last 8 months using scrap aluminum and parts from a Honda Civic, an old Toyota and from the remains of a crashed Boeing 747.

This inventor has had no formal training in flying and his helicopter has never flown higher than 7 feet of the ground. In an interview, he talks about how the machine works:

“You start it, allow it to run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the propeller on top begins to spin. The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rmp you press the joystick and it takes off,”