Green Options

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A South African company called Moladi is promoting their system for quickly building homes. Using their system, the exterior walls for a single-family dwelling can be built in a matter of just a day or two, and it can be done using unskilled labor. But, while their goals are admirable, it’s a question whether or not this is a really green method of building.

The system uses lightweight formwork panels, much like those used for poured concrete walls. Once erected, the forms are filled with mortar (concrete without stone) which can be hand-mixed and hand-placed, or which can be mechanically mixed and pumped into place. Typically, the formwork can be removed the day after the mortar is poured. The result is a smooth finish material, little more than a roof is needed to complete the building.

On the downside, this material uses 250 kilograms of portland cement per cubic meter (about 420 pounds per cubic yard), making it fundamentally the same as a concrete building with an enormous carbon footprint stemming from the extensive use of cement in these buildings.

Scientists in South Africa are testing a genetically engineered tobacco plant which detects the presence of nitrogen-dioxide, a marker for landmines, to turn red, in the hope that it may eventually be used to clear mine fields in post-conflict zones around the globe.

The team is part of a joint initiative of University of Stellenbosch and the Danish biotechnology firm, Aresa, which has developed the “RedDetect” bio-sensor technology in a weed called Thales Cress.

The weed changes color from green to autumnal red when it detects nitrogen dioxide leaching from mines buried in the soil.

Because the weed is too small to be seen from a safe distance, the scientists went looking for a more viable alternative, and landed on the tobacco plant, which grows easily in most parts of the world, with a little help from genetic engineering.

Certainly it may not have helped in the furore that followed a UN CITES decision to allow Chinese access to Africa’s ivory that two Chinese women were caught in Kenya, a country opposed to the deal, trying to smuggle more that 36 pieces of ivory worth millions of dollars.

Stinking or controversial as it may have been, China now has the wonderful opportunity to stock “legally obtained” African ivory in the mix of those acquired illegally in a superbly coordinated international ring that continues to deplete Africa of its wildlife resources.

Chinese nationals have been implicated in illegal ivory seizures in more than 20 African nations in the last few years.

What’s worse, the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a 173-nation agreement charged with ensuring a sustainable international trade in wild animals and plants, has sanctioned it all.

On Friday, 27 June 2008, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, also known as Comrade by his camaraderie of marauding thugs roaming about the breadth of Zimbabwe, will preside over his own election, uh again, as president of Zimbabwe.

Declared a sham, even a mock of an election, by the common voice of the international community and his neighbors in southern Africa alike, that has not stopped Mugabe’s men, or freedom fighters as he calls them, from baying for the blood of whomever Zimbabwean cannot correctly pronounce “Zanu-PF”, his machine to run roughshod over his hapless countrymen.

His perennial rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, having backed out of the presidential run-off, the 84 year old despot kicked a soccer ball high up into the air at a sports stadium this week as a show of virility to those who still doubt his undying resolve to cling on to power no matter what - and “only God can remove me from the presidency of Zimbabwe”.

Now that formally leaves Mugabe only at the mercy of zealous cartoonists who love to caricature him as a gorilla. And for good reasons. If looks alone was the reason for this, one could say they have been overdoing themselves but the man’s intimidating appearance, extreme strength, and chest-beating displays mimic the hairy animal to a great detail, and he loves it that way.

It warms my heart when I come across a company that touches all aspects of the triple bottom line - financial, social and environmental. It really gets my blood pumping when that company produces yummy yarns.

Created by Nadine Storyk Curtis, Be Sweet is one such company that has all those lines covered. While living in South Africa, Curtis became enamored with the local craftspeople and wanted to share in their creativity and resourcefulness.

Working with a rural South African community, Be Sweet offers over 15 different yarns that are hand spun and dyed by women who work within a job creation program. All of Be Sweet’s yarns are made from natural fibers and most are created from using leftover yarn tid-bits and environmentally friendly fibers like bamboo.

To most African communities, facing the knife is akin to being a “real man”. Male circumcision is an important rite of passage that moves the young man that undergoes it a notch higher towards marriage and earns him a respectable position in society. But to a few African tribes, like the Zulu warrior nation in South Africa and the Luo in Kenya, male circumcision is not in the books. But this may soon change.

Recent extensive medical research and studies on the prevalence of HIV/Aids in Africa indicate that male circumcision could help reduce the spread of the disease on the continent and elsewhere. A massive roll out of free male circumcision programs in Swaziland, Rwanda, Zambia and Kenya is underway and experts hope results will reflect the 60% reduction in new infection rates documented in the studies.

South Africa has hosted major international sporting events in the past, so I do not know why people write negative comments about the 2010 FIFA World Cup to come.

Since South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, the country has fruitfully hosted major sporting events. For example…

Solar thermal energy plants focus the glare of the Sun’s rays on a central location to create heat, which is then turned into electricity. Various methods exist to concentrate the solar radiation, including parabolic troughs, power towers with mirrors that track the Sun (heliostats), parabolic dishes, and Fresnel reflectors. See a history of solar thermal energy.

For comparison with solar photovoltaics, see the world’s 13 biggest photovoltaic solar energy projects.

Is our educational system really working to promote positive progress?

The problems we are faced with today are the results of unethical leadership. Our business and political leaders have had the best education, yet many would sacrifice human wellbeing end the environment for the love of money.

Growing up in Soweto, near Johannesburg, South Africa has taught me to value “ubuntu,” or “I am because we are.”

Cida University is the first virtually free university in South Africa. Located in downtown Johannesburg, it serves young people from previously disadvantage backgrounds, but who are academically deserving. It offers a Bachelor of Business Administration and students can learn skills like bio-intensive farming.

This university has a special program, called the Nelson Mandela extranet. In this program, Students go back to their communities and teach them about HIV/AIDS , bio-intensive farming, and money management. Remembering your ancestors and going back to the community to raise the consciousness level of the society is a fundamental principle of ethical leadership.

Public transportation in Africa can be fun and comical; even depressing or horrible, depending on how you look at it. Consider this: you are a backpacker traveling deep somewhere in the Kenyan rift valley in a 1975 Leyland bus or British Bulldog as they are known here. It is your first time in Africa and everything seems a memorable adventure to take back home. As the bus throttles uphill, belching black smoke in its wake, it gives loud engine rants that sound like Armageddon has arrived, at the top speed of 25 miles an hour.

They disregard sitting capacity here and the bus is never full until the last passenger tilts with it while hanging precariously on the door rails. And there will still be enough room for another one! The foul-mouthed crew had packed passengers at the previous stop like sardines on a hot afternoon with temperatures running to nearly 40° C (104° F) and one must endure the sticky sweat of the person sitting next to you.

That person most probably will be a rotund lady with a basket-full of damp clothes and groceries as well as sun-dried fish and a live chicken for soup on one hand. On the other will be a six-month old baby with his mouth holding on to his mother’s teat, and a two year old wailing profusely and tagging along.

The bus window next to your seat won’t open and your legs won’t fit the spacing forcing you to put your leg astride to expose your feet on the aisle, also packed with all sorts of goods, from a sack of charcoal to sticks of sugarcane. You feel like a caged animal. Sounds familiar?