Darwin’s Nightmare is a 2004 Austrian-French-Belgian documentary film written and directed by Hubert Sauper, dealing with the environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around Lake Victoria in Tanzania. It premiered at the 2004 Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The film opens with a Soviet made Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane landing on Mwanza airfield in Tanzania, near Lake Victoria. The plane came from Europe to ship back processed fillets of Nile Perch, a species of fish introduced into Lake Victoria that has caused the extinction of hundreds of endemic species.

Through interviews with the Russian and Ukrainian plane crew, local factory owners, guards, prostitutes, fishermen and other villagers, the film discusses the effects of the introduction of the Nile perch to Lake Victoria, how it has affected the ecosystem and economy of the region. The film also dwells at length on the dichotomy between European aid which is being funneled into Africa on the one hand, and the unending flow of munitions and weapons from European arms dealers on the other.

Arms and munitions are often flown in on the same planes which transport the Nile perch fillets to European consumers, feeding the very conflicts which the aid was sent to remedy. As Dima, the radio engineer of the plane crew, says later on in the film: the children of Angola receive guns for Christmas, the children of Europe receive grapes. The appalling living and working conditions of the indigenous people, in which basic sanitation is completely absent and many children turn to drugs and prostitution, is covered in great depth; because the Nile perch is fished and processed for export, all the prime fillets are sold to European supermarkets, leaving the local people to survive on the festering carcasses of the gutted fish.

 From the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2010 data based on murders per 100,000 population. ____________________________________________________________________

1. Honduras - 82.1

2. El Salvador - 66

3. Ivory Coast - 56.9

4. Jamaica - 52.1

5. Venezuela - 49

6. Belize - 41.7

7. Guatemala - 41.4

8. St. Kitts and Nevis - 38.2

9. Zambia - 38

10. Uganda - 36.3

…

103. United States - 5

150. Canada - 1.8

For a monthly fee of $50,000 plus expenses, the U.S. agency offered a tantalizing prospect to the Rwandan government: a burnished image, a sophisticated media campaign – and a chance at “drowning out” those pesky opposition voices on the Web.

It was 2009, and the authoritarian regime in Rwanda was facing mounting criticism of its human-rights record. It was accused of censoring the media, suppressing freedom, shutting down newspapers and creating a climate of fear. So it turned to a public-relations agency, Racepoint Group, that had already polished the image of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

The contracts reveal the increasingly high-tech tactics of the publicity war between African strongmen and their foreign critics – a war in which many governments are becoming more aggressive and sophisticated in their efforts to deflect attention from their human-rights abuses.

Here are some other examples,

Equatorial Guinea ($60,000 a month)

This oil-rich country with one of Africa’s worst records for corruption and human-rights abuses, hired a U.S. consultant, Qorvis Communications, for $60,000 a month in 2010 and 2011 to massage its public image. Its long-time ruler, Teodoro Obiang, who seized power in a military coup, enjoys an estimated fortune of $600-million in a nation where most people survive on less than a dollar a day. He has ruled Equatorial Guinea for 32 years.

Angola ($675,000 annually)

Another repressive oil-rich country, Angola, signed an agreement in 2008 with a U.S. company, Samuels International Associates Inc., to improve its global image and “facilitate” its meetings with senior U.S. officials for an annual fee of $675,000. Its autocratic president, José Eduardo dos Santos, has ruled Angola for 32 years.

Ethiopia ($2.5-million)

Known for arresting hundreds of opposition politicians and repressing the media, the Ethiopian leader, Meles Zenawi, spent more than $2.5-million on three U.S. lobbying firms in 2007 and 2008. Its elections have been widely criticized as unfair and undemocratic, but it is a major recipient of Western aid. Mr. Zenawi, has ruled Ethiopia for 21 years.

Senegal ($150,000 plus a monthly $50,000 fee)

When Senegal’s president, Abdoulaye Wade, decided last year that he wanted a third term in office, despite a constitutional ban, he signed a contract in October with a U.S. law firm, McKenna Long & Aldridge, promising to pay $150,000 plus a monthly $50,000 fee for the company to prepare a research paper on the third-term question and to “share” the research with U.S. and Senegalese officials. Mr. Wade has ruled Senegal for 12 years.

From The Globe and Mail

Much of Africa, Somalia in particular, has had a tough time since independence in the 1960s, becoming synonymous with staggering levels of misery and leading many people to simply shrug and mutter “here we go again” when they hear of a new drought or a new war. But this current crisis in Somalia is on a different order of magnitude than the typical calamity, if there is such a thing. Tens of thousands of people have already died, and as many as 750,000 could starve to death in the next few months.

But support — meaning dollars — has been frustratingly scant. While many more lives are at stake in Somalia’s crisis, other recent disasters pulled in far more money. For instance, Save the Children U.S. has raised a little more than $5 million in private donations for the Horn of Africa crisis, which includes Somalia and the drought-inflicted areas of Kenya and Ethiopia. That contrasts with what Save the Children raised in 2004 for the Indonesian tsunami ($55.4 million) and the earthquake in Japan earlier this year ($22.8 million) — and Japan is a very rich country.

“Americans are incredibly generous when they understand that children are in desperate need,” said Carolyn Miles, president of Save the Children. “If they knew millions of children were facing death in Somalia, I believe they would give. Unfortunately, all American’s see is a hostile land of militias, warlords and 21st-century pirates.”

If you had $10 to donate towards a human development initiative, would you rather have it go to buy some rice, or some concrete?

 The energy sector is the lifeline in the development of any nation and therefore access to reliable and affordable energy supply on a sustainable basis, particularly by industry, agriculture, and the commercial sectors, is an important catalyst for achieving high economic growth and poverty reduction. For the West African state of  Sierra Leone’s less than 10% of total population has access to electricity, compared to 49% in Ghana, 46% in Nigeria, 96% in North Africa, 73% in Asia, 99% in China and a 76%  global average.

For Sierra Leone the biggest single challenge is making the transition away from costly emergency electricity generation. Right now petroleum imports, the bulk of which are for electricity generation, account for 26% of total imports in Sierra Leone.  The most obvious answer to this problem is the investment in hydroelectric capability.   The Bumbuna Dam project of 2009 was a significant initial step; finished in 2009 it now produces 50MWh of electricity, sending regular electricity to most parts of Freetown.

While it is not the primary sort of investment most people think of when it comes encouraging human development, this effort towards hydro-electric infrastructure has dramatically improved life for thousands of people; returning life to a young generation of entrepreneurs.

Akimatu Turay is a perfect example of how the hydro-electric project is impacting the  nations citizens. Turay runs a streetside stall selling biscuits, sweets, and cigarettes under a large multicolored umbrella. Two bare bulbs strung from a nearby building light up his wares. For 25 cents, he will charge your mobile phone.  

Turay says since the powerplant was switched on, he has seen many changes. Business is much better. In the past, when there was very little light, he had to use a generator which cost him a lot of money. The lights still go off every now and again, but the money he saves on diesel, he says, he invests into his business.

Turay says his two lightbulbs are essential for attracting customers. And with an average income of $7 a day just from charging mobile phones, he is pleased with the new power.