Ebola Powerful Pictures

These are powerful images that I have seen with EBOLA.

Africa in my eyes

My take on Africa and the perception that America has of Africa. I think that Africa is a beautiful place with a lot of natural resources to offer,  but I think that Africa has come along way in a small amount of time. Every since Africa was robbed for all of its biggest, strongest and smartest people (Slavery) really took a toll on Africa because people that were left in Africa had no idea they were going to survive without their loved ones. Another thing is that the only time people think about going to Africa is for a mission trip you often don’t hear about people going on honeymoons or trips to Africa. 

I think that Africa has a lot to offer I wish that everyone had a chance to go there and experience this culture. My plan for the future is to go to Africa and see the place that humans beings were form and soak in all of that culture. Being an African American it it is important to expiernce that culture and see the other part of Africa that isn't talked about on social media or that we see save the children commercials. Hopefully one day Africa can TRULY recover from the the slave trade that stripped dry.

30k Lions Left in Africa

This story is about how lions in Africa are on the verge of being extinct and the people that used to kill the lions are actually the ones savings the lions now. This story is from CNN it caught my attention because when I think about Africa I think about Lions, "Sixty years ago, there were probably half a million lions in Africa. Today, there are less than 30,000 lions in all of Africa,” this is a huge drop off of course and I think that it is awesome that people want to stand up for lions and they are one of the most important things in the continent. “The lion is iconic. If there are no lions left in Africa, it will have a significant effect. ... We could lose a lot more than just the lion.”

People protecting lions can make $100 a month they also get free training on how to protect lions. They said that they must change a culture because people wanted to kill lions and that it brought great pride when they killed a lion and now since there are so few left on the continent that they will not be able to sustain one of their most prized animals, the king of the jungle. It is still apart of their culture to hunt lions, but the guardian tries to intervene if he catches wind of a lion hunt.

Cool Video

WumDrop

I think that this was an interesting story that I found on the internet it is about a delivery app ‘WumDrop which just launched in Johannesburg. The app started out as just a website called wum-wum and it was just a service that helped people get baby diapers. Today the app has turned into a full service app that is in the android app store and also has a website. 

I think that this is really interesting because of the way that Uber has become some popular in the United States. More visibly in Cedar Rapids I think that Uber is making people money there is a guy at my job now that is an Uber driver and he has made 500 dollars in the last 6 days. I think that is pretty good money. Moving forward in todays society people need fast and cost efficient people will pay for those things and Uber is really making a lot of money because of this. 

Oscar Pistorius

Fast Facts

Birth date: November 22, 1986

Birth place: Johannesburg, South Africa

Birth name: Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius

Father: Henke Pistorius, a businessman

Mother: Sheila Pistorius

Education: Attended the University of Pretoria.

"Oscar Pistorius, the "Blade Runner," is a South African sprint runner who became the first amputee to compete in the Olympics in 2012." 

 

I think that Oscar Pistorius, eventhough he murdered his girlfriend I think he can still be looked at in a positive light about inspiring others who have birth defects. Birth defect - he was born without bones in his lower leg. He would have never have been able to walk on them - so amputation at the knee was done to make it possible for him to use prosthetic limbs. I think kids that are faced with issues they can not control need heros like Pistorius prior to him killing his girlfriend. Because the tragic event happened when you say Pistorius's name the first thing that people are going to think about is him killing his girlfriend. 

The track star didn't get life in prison for murdering his girlfriend he said it was an accident, but I am not sure how you shoot someone multiple times on accident. I feel bad for her family, but kids that are born without legs don't have to give up on there dreams becasue of this man. I hope that his story can be used to inspire people and hopefully overshadow some of the warranted negative attention around him. 

Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda is a 2004 film that shows consumers what was going on in the spring of 1994 in Rwanda. The main point of the movie is to bring attention to the brave actions of one man Paul, or Don Cheadle who risked his life protecting those being killed, Paul was a hotel manager that courageously risked his life to help people. The thing to get from this is that this genocide had been going on for a long time because there was a long time hatred for the Tutsi by the Hutus because the Tusti were favored by the countrymen that colonized them, the Belgiuns. After they left, the Hutus, which outnumbered the Tutsi, took over and started killing the Tutsi.

Hutu: a member of a Bantu-speaking people forming the majority population in Rwanda and Burundi. They are traditionally a farming people and were historically dominated by the Tutsi people; the antagonism between the peoples led in 1994 to large-scale ethnic violence, especially in Rwanda.

Tutsi: The Tutsi or Abatutsi or Imfura, are an ethnic group inhabiting the African Great Lakes region. Historically, they were often referred to as the Watutsi, Watusi, Wahuma or the Wahima.

NO CHRISTMAS

Sierra Leone which is a country in Africa is concealing christmas this year because they do not want to spread the Ebola virus. “Sierra Leone said Friday it was banning any public Christmas celebrations as the spiraling caseload of Ebola infections continues to spread alarm.” This was from the Global Post. They said they are doing this to help everyone, which I do understand I just feel bad for the kids that were expecting christmas to be a positive moment in such a sad time. Something else that stood out to me when I was reading this article was the idea that they should stay at home and reflect on Ebola. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday there were 17,942 cases of the tropical fever across eight countries as of December 7, resulting in 6,388 deaths — almost all in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Christianity makes up a quarter of a population so people will definitely be impacted by the decision to cancel christmas. Already at this time in Sierra Leone they have shut down bars and most public places. 

SOURCE

African Elephant

The African Elephant Weighing up to 6000 kg (6.6 tons) and measuring up to 3.3 m (10 ft.). The worlds largest land Animal I think that it is relevant because there were an estimated 1.3 million African elephants. 10 years later It is estimated that between 434,000 and 684,000 African elephants now remain. These numbers are not 100%, but I found them on http://www.bloodyivory.org/stop-the-ivory-trade 

I think that the Ivory trade is something that a lot of people overlooked at one point, but it almost made a whole species extinct because people thought this was an easy way to get rich. The tusk on African Elephant is made of Ivory, “a hard creamy-white substance composing the main part of the tusks of an elephant, walrus, or narwhal, often (especially formerly) used to make ornaments and other articles.” These are worth a lot of money.

Some steps that have been taken to help prevent the extinction of this Animal are having consumers do the research about where Ivory comes from, which is dead Elephants it is said that many people believed that Ivory fell of of these elephants like teeth fall out. That is wrong it is a much more violent process and the Elephants must died when they are taking their Ivory off of them. In 1989, a worldwide ban on ivory trade was approved by CITES. This is helping further the existence of these rare Animals

Rumble In The Jungle

• The Rumble in The Jungle

The Rumble in the Jungle was a boxing match between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. This fight was held in Kinshasa, Zaire [now the Democratic Republic of the Congo]. The fight was held here because the promoter Don King, didn’t have enough money to have it in the states so he talked to President Mobutu [of Zaire] and got the fight moved to Africa. The president was okay with this because he wanted to create publicity for his country and maybe turn it into a tourist resort. 

•  The Fight

The fight was dubbed by some the greatest sporting event ever. I am not sure about this, but it was bigger then about sports this was just four years after Ali was reinstated back to boxing because he didn’t join the military which is a fascinating story. Foreman was suppose to win Ali was 32 years old and Foreman was 24. Ali played possum and let Foreman exert all of his energy trying to knock out Ali and by the 8th round he finally knocked out Ali. This fight was very important to the African people because they had never seen stars that looked like them at this level with the whole world watching them.

Hakeem Olajuwon

I enjoy the NBA and all of sports really, but I wanted my first Blog to be about Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon; who is one of the greatest players to ever play in the NBA.  Olajuwon was Born on January 21, 1963, in Lagos, Nigeria. He is the best player ever born in Africa to play in the NBA. You can tell by the way that most people play in the NBA today that he was one of the most influential people in the history of Basketball. In Africa the main sport is soccer and this is what Olajuwon played until he was 15, which is when he started playing basketball. Olajuwon eventually moved on to bigger and better things, but watch for yourself he was truly amazing.

http://streetball.com/photo/hakeem-olajuwon-nigeria

Even today in 2014 Olajuwon chosen as the NBA's ambassador to Africa by the league this honor is something that Olajuwon said that he is going to cherish. He is going to work to provide young African basketball players an opportunity to improve their lives. This is the main thing that I respect about him, of course he was an amazing basketball player his heart and compassion is what separates him from everyone else. Olajuwon had class and he truly cared about his teammates and he never forgot where he came from I think that is an important lesson that anyone can take accept.