LyrArc Article Gist
Hilary Mantel describes a year spent teaching English and Shakespeare in Botswana when she was 25. Here she gives a description of a year teaching in a secondary school in Botswana, while living there with her geologist husband in 1978. This is an exceptional and vivid account of what it is like for someone with the rich imagination and empathy she posseses to reach out to African teenagers 12-15 who come to life in a classroom. It is a very human account of the potential and joy for these teenagers in a remote corner of Africa in her classroom, in the midst of apathy and cynicism about learning around them.

LyrArc Article Gist
Imagine a place that is rural, far from industrialization, and facing high levels of air pollution. In Gaborone, Botswana, the social prestige of driving cars and increasing car population is creating levels of air pollution from second hand older cars with poor emissions control. People driving cars see cyclists as coming from poor families and simply drive them off the road. 

See how cycling to work is being promoted as normal and dignified by a Swede who is the Ambassador of the EU to Botswana, and how many in the middle class and colleges are cycling to work to promote a return to older ways of doing things that make sense as healthier for the environment and for one's health.
 

 

LyrArc Article Gist
The current or former vice presidents or executive committee members at the top of the FIFA soccer organization who were arrested by Swiss authorites at the request of the U.S. Justice Department are from small countries such as Paraguay, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and two officials from the Cayrran Islands which most people have not heard of. Others are from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela in the central American region. This tells a lot about why the FIFA is in such a mess today. One nation, one vote means Trinidad counts for as much as England and Germany. There are 209 members with many being small nations such as Botswana. It is based in Zurich, was founded in 1904, and is subject to Swiss law. The result say critics is that there is very little change at the top, with Seth Blatter the FIFA head since 1998 in near complete control and very little prospect of change. He worked his way from secretary to president, and was previously employed by Swiss watchmaker Longines. Some critics describe the situation as reminiscent of medieval fiefdoms, and lacking the openness and transparency so essential in a body governing one of the most popular sports in the world....

LyrArc Article Gist
The electricity grid in Africa is being strained by electricity demands of mining companies. Power outages are costing African economies as much as 2% of their GDP according to World Bank estimates. Energy shortages in South Africa are creating blackouts in South Africa and neighboring countries Botswana and Zambia and affecting the mining industry in these countries. South Africa's energy company Eskom is petitioning regulators for a hike of 50% in electricity prices to reduce demand. Shortages of electricity have increased prices of platiinum and other metals in the commodities industry. Mining in South Africa produces 7% of GDP but consumes 17% of the electricity leaving less for domestic consumption and for industry. Eskopm was late in ordering new plants not taking action till 2004. For Africa the total electricity generating capacity of 63 gigawats supplies 770 million people about what Spain generates for 40 million people. And the expression energy poor means that this shortage in urban areas means the rural poor wil have no electricity for decades to come. And in places like energy rich Port Harcourt Nigeria electricity is inconsistent or in dire shortage. An accountant at a construction firm in Dakar, Senegal has to choose between paying his child's school fees or paying for electricity, chooses to pay for electricity as prices have gone up by 88% in 3 years. And rural areas of Africa have little hope of electricity. This is another sign of how adverse effects of huge energy consumption in places like China and the wasteful consumption in the USA affect global energy prices and in turn affect the poorest in Africa. In places where the voices will never be heard. How boom times in some Asian and westen economies can lead to choices like fuel guzzling vehicles and energy wasteful plants in China that reverberate across Africa....