Mandatory Respect for the Flag

In an effort to increase patriotism in Egypt among the youth, specifically the students, the Egyptian education minister has required "students to respect the Egyptian flag or risk jail time" (Michaelson, the guardian). According to the article, respect for the flag is shown by saluting the flag. Desecrating the flag had already been criminalized in 2014 by the former President, but this new order explicitly calls out students.

Students, in recent history with the 2011 revolution, demonstrated how powerful their voices are in standing up for democracy. In fact, Ruth Michaelson states in her article that "universities were considered sites of protest after the 2011 revolution, which swept autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power" (Michaelson, the guardian). Many young people have been detained since this policy has been enacted, and the total of detainees is 40,000.

Egyptian students, and all students for that matter, are capable of creating so much positive change. The Egyptian government recognizes that which is evident by their "decision to remove teaching about the popular uprisings of 2011 and 2013 from the Egyptian curriculum prior to this academic year" (Michaelson, the guardian).

This article's title grabbed my attention not only because we, the U.S., are in the middle of a political dialogue concerning our own flag, but because students are risking their freedoms and financial gains, in order to stand up for what they believe in.
 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/25/egyptian-students-respect-flag-risk-prison

Chocolate from Ghana

Tim Gossling from the gaurdian wanted to answer the question asked by Anna Jones "why can't the chocolate be made in Africa?" (Tim Gossling, the guardian). He found a cocoa processing company in Ghana that makes additive free chocolate. The only problem is that what ex-colonies can export is very limited to only "primary produce" as Gossling puts it. Also, those products must be tariff free.

Post Brexit there may be more opportunity for Ghana to expand their chocolate brand beyond the local market because the UK will be able to renegotiate and create new deals. Hopefully if any deals are made they will help to boost not only Ghana's economy, but other African countries' economies as well. The added benefit of exporting this chocolate from Ghana is "the ecological bonus in that chocolate bars require much less transportation space than the beans that make them" (Tim Gossling, the guardian). In summation, by exporting chocolate from Ghana there will be an increased chance for improving the Ghana economy slightly, bettering the environment, and chocolate tastes so good.

 
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/20/is-chocolate-made-in-africa-i-should-cocoa

The Admirable Women of Somaliland

Climate change is fueling humanitarian crises all over the world from Texas to Sierra Leone and people are coming together to help each other recover, but in Somaliland women are leading the charge.

Somaliland is located in northwest Somalia and is a "self-declared independent state" (Holly Miller, the guardian), which is suffering from the effects of a severe drought, like other East African countries. The drought in Somaliland has crippled many villages. As a result, women are emerging as leaders in a traditionally patriarchal society. Women are doing all they can to protect and provide for their community.

Women have come together in Gorgeysha, a small village, to form a coalition. Many of these women are illiterate and have been denied the right to education, and yet that has not stopped them from combining their effort and resources to not only care for themselves, but migrants too that have come from all over the region in desperate search for help.



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/08/somaliands-women-show-kindness-and-leadership-in-the-face-of-a-humanitarian-crisis  

U.S. Warning to South Sudan

South Sudan is in desperate need of help and the civil war is not getting any better. Mark Green, the administrator for the Agency for International Development, has expressed that the United States policy towards South Sudan will be reevaluated. The article stated that Green did not elaborate on what he consequences of this review could be, but Green did say that "we (the U.S) support the people of South Sudan" (Carol Morello, The Washington Post). Since the outbreak of civil war between the government and opposition forces, civilians have suffered the most.

Millions of citizens have been displaced and are extremely food insecure. Soldiers from all sides loot homes and villages and make it extremely difficult for any humanitarian aid to reach the Sudanese people. According to the article, the U.S. has given South Sudan and it's neighbors "almost $730 million" (Carol Morello, The Washington Post) this year alone. Despite of that, "Africa's worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide" (Carol Morello, The Washington Post) persists with no end in sight.








Link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/us-warns-south-sudan-continued-chaos-is-not-acceptable-aid-may-be-pulled/2017/09/02/a9b228bd-312f-4aed-8f4c-e3129442d568_story.html?utm_term=.9514e37c364b