🔅 A King is Dead
HIV's New Frontier & The World's Biggest Dam
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Spotlight Stories
The Great Inga Hydropower Hustle: Five Banks, One Big Dream
Five development banks walk into a bar... I mean, a meeting room, determined to finally make the world's biggest electricity project happen. We're talking about the Grand Inga hydropower complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a project so ambitious, it makes your office's plan to go paperless look like child's play.
This dream team includes South African state banks, pan-African institutions, and even the finance arm of the BRICS nations.
If built to full capacity, this bad boy could generate up to 40 gigawatts of power, dethroning China's Three Gorges Dam as the world's largest electricity plant.
HOWEVER, the project's estimated cost could top $80 billion. That's enough to make even Jeff Bezos do a double-take. No wonder it's been limited to just two dams with 1.8 gigawatts of capacity for the past 40 years.
The banks are backed by the presidents of South Africa and Congo, with South Africa promising to buy some of the power.
Of course, this isn't the first rodeo for Grand Inga. It's seen more false starts than a nervous sprinter at the Olympics. Just two months ago, Congo signed a deal with a Nigerian company, which replaced an Australian billionaire's plan, which had replaced a Spanish-Chinese consortium…
The development banks know they can't go it alone. So, will Grand Inga finally become a reality? Only time will tell, but we seem to be inching forward.
Toumani Diabaté: The Kora King Who Rocked the World
Toumani Diabaté, the undisputed master of the kora (that's a 21-stringed West African harp for those not in the know), has strummed his last string at the age of 58. This Malian musician wasn't just any old player – he was to the kora what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar, minus the pyrotechnics.
Born into a family of griots (traditional West African musicians and storytellers), Toumani could trace his lineage back 71 generations. That's right, while most of us struggle to name our great-grandparents, Toumani's family tree went back to the Mande empire.
Despite coming from musical royalty, Toumani insisted he was self-taught. "I taught myself," he once said, "listening to my father and grandfather and different musicians.
Toumani's playing was a time-traveling mixtape, blending ancient tunes with his own compositions inspired by everyone from other African artists to Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, and Pink Floyd.
His collaborations read like a "Who's Who" of world music. He jammed with everyone from Ali Farka Touré to Björk, proving that the kora could hold its own anywhere.
In the end, Toumani Diabaté did for the kora what Ravi Shankar did for the sitar – he made it cool on a global scale.
HIV's New Frontier: When Sub-Saharan Africa Is No Longer the Epicenter
For the first time in the history of the HIV pandemic, more new infections are occurring outside sub-Saharan Africa than within it.Â
Let's start with some good news: sub-Saharan African countries have been doing a fantastic job when it comes to tackling HIV. They've managed to reduce new infections by 56% since 2010.
Now the not-so-good news. While Africa's been acing its HIV prevention strategy, the rest of the world seems to be struggling. Eastern Europe, central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa are seeing rising case numbers.
UNAids says we're at a crossroads in our fight against HIV. Here are the challenges:
1. Human Rights Backlash: In many countries, marginalized groups are finding it harder to access care.
2. Funding Shortfalls: Many low-income countries are "choking on debt," which reduces domestic health spending.
3. New Drug Disparity: Game-changing new drugs that only need to be taken every few months might only be available in richer countries.
UNAids Executive Director Winnie Byanyima is calling for action on multiple fronts:
1. Protect human rights for everyone.
2. Decriminalize marginalized groups.
3. Fight stigma and discrimination.
4. Provide universal and free secondary education.
5. Share new technologies with developing countries ASAP.
6. Restructure debt to free up resources.
7. Boost aid.
In conclusion, while we've made significant progress, ending AIDS by 2030 is going to take a lot. It's going to take concrete action, policy changes, and a whole lot of global cooperation.
Food for Thought
“Earth is the queen of beds."
— Namibian Proverb