HWC 14-15

This article announced Zimbabwe's bid to host an African soccer tournament called the Nations Cup in 2017. The ability of Zimbabwe to hold such a tournament shows how much the country has advanced economically since its early independence days. This relates to our studies about Africa, because it shows Zimbabwe's progress until the now.

This article is about how Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe plan to host the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. Zimbabwe is considering using finances from Zambia or another South African nation. This article relates to our reading because it shows how Robert Mugabe is using finances incorrectly and also tells about another failure of Zimbabwe which was about the 2000 Nations Cup which failed in Zimbabwe because they failed to follow schedule. 

A suicide car bomber killed twelve people in an attempt to eliminate members of the African Union. The bomber packed the car with explosives and rammed into the African Union convoy travelling southwest of Mogadishu. The attack is believed to be the responsibility of al-Shabab in an attempt to avenge the death of its leader, Godane. Civilians in a neighboring minibus held twelve deaths and twenty seven wounded.

The President if Zimbabwe, Mugabe, makes another trip to China in an attempt to attract investment for Zimbabwe's sinking economy. It is a possibility that China will help Zimbabwe partly because of the president's long time friendship.

This article was focused around the DRC president's quick speech given to the UN on terrorism and Ebola affecting global development and of course the development of his own nation. He stressed the DRC's policy of peace keeping and how the situation against terrorism is not in their favor right now. This article basically reinforced everything I just learned about the DRC including their terrorism and Ebola problems.

This article describes how a German-American journalist was released from the Somali Pirates after negotiators agreed upon $1.6 million ransom. This explains the serious terrorist actions happening in Somalia right now.

This article basically highlighted that South Africa will be donating about 24 million dollars for Ebola-affected countries. South Africa has already committed 3 million dollars to the fund, and wishes to finish the donation as soon as possible.

Rescue workers identified 62 of the 84 South Africans killed in the Nigeria building collapse. The building is a guesthouse of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) at Ikotun in Lagos. The collapse is currently being thought of as an accident.

This article focuses on South Africa's closed business ties China and has previously denied Dalai Lama's entry into the country for a Nobel Prize Initiative. The current predicaments brought outrage ton the international community.

This article shows how the British oil company Soco is exploiting Africa's oldest national park to search for oil and how they committed illicit acts along the way. Among these acts are paying a park ranger to spy on the National Park's chief warden, attacking park rangers that oppose Soco, and intimidating people with fear and violence to let them proceed with their work. These people are "vampires" as described in the CNN article--foreign people who exploit African resources.

This article shows that although Zimbabwe land redistribution was not corrupt like many believed it to be, much more work still needs to be done to evenly and fairly distribute all of Zimbabwe's arable land. Many of Zimbabwe's indigenous people do not have land, and it is not their fault or their children's fault that they do not have as much land as other indigenous people. This shows that even though land redistribution may have failed during its first effort, that doesn't mean that the Zimbabwe government should give up on trying to fix its land situation.

This article describes how civic groups are trying to ban the export of black granite from Zimbabwe. They believe that the local communities do not benefit from the exploitation of the mineral.Black granite rakes in millions of dollars in export earnings mainly from South Africa, Australia, Belgium and other major markets. Activists have, however, condemned the exploitation of the mineral that has left communities in the mining areas wallowing in poverty with environmental decay takes its toll.

While the annual inflation rate in Zimbabwe is positive this year, it is not positive by much. Experts say that it is likely to stabilize soon, and there is a better chance of this is rain is good in the coming season. This relates to the activities because high inflation was one of the biggest reasons why the land reform program failed. As the rate decreases, it is possible that land reform may fare better in Zimbabwe.

This article explained how twelve civilians were killed in a suicide attack on the African Union troops fighting a continuous war against terrorism in Somalia. This article really explains how civilians are the ones paying the price for these brutal attacks.

This article highlights that besides the war, famine is also a huge issue in Somalia right now. The article blames the poverty cause by the drought on Somalia's unstable government which has not been stable for many years now. This article actually brought famine to my attention as another major predicament facing Somalia currently.

A German-American journalist who taken more than two years ago while in Somalia was freed by his captors on Tuesday. The journalist had been released after a ransom was paid. This relates to Somalia, because it deals with the terror and pirates in Somalia.

This article is about war-torn areas in general, although they do mention the DRC specifically through their population displacement and the effects of war on women. This article was pretty short, but it really supplied the message that Africa is still dealing with the past and current effects of war and will continue to be for some time to come.

This article states that the Prime Minister declared recently that the Ebola Outbreak is soon to be over with. The article goes on to explain that they have had experience in fighting Ebola in the past and their medical caretakers are performing extremely well. This article relates to the DRC's past run ins with Ebola and how they wil overcome it before other contries.

This article explains the recent deal just made between Zimbabwe and Russia which states that Russia will supply the investment funds for the largest platinum mine in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe expects the mine to create 8,000 jobs and it will be a smart move for the nation. This article is important because it shows that the African nations are trying to get out of their debt.

This news article is another on Zimbabwe's massive debt, but this time the debt lies with China. They recently paid China $180 million of a loan taken years ago to keep China on their side. This article seems a little odd to me since they also owe the IMF around the same amount, but China was paid first. Its now obvious of Zimbabwe's financial problems.

This article described Zimbabwe's financial situation which is that they owe the International Monetary Fund (IMF) $142 million and they can not loan Zimbabwe anymore money until the current debt is paid of. This really opened my eyes to how serious the debt of African nations is.