🔅 The Malaria Vaccine Race is On, Didier Drogba's Warns On Fake Agents, And Fighting For AI Rights
Plus, LGBT Jail Sentences in Ghana & Christian Groups Funding African Anti-LGBTQ & Anti-Abortion Causes
Photo of the day: Kwame Nkrumah Statue, Ghana
Markets:
🟢 Nigerian SE: 62,019.88 (+0.81%)
🔴 Johannesburg SE: 74,113.22 (-2.37%)
🟢 Ghana SE: 2,820.22 (-0.06%)
🔴 Nairobi SE: 108.81 (+0.75%)
🔴 US S&P 500: 4,414.73 (-0.72%)
🔴 Shanghai Composite: 3,205.57 (-0.54%)
Global Markets: The Battle of the Billionaires | Stock spotlight: If you’ve been following the epic battle between tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, then you know that things just got interesting. Facebook’s Meta stock jumped in anticipation of the launch of its new Threads app, the Twitter competitor that caused Musk to challenge Zuckerberg to a fight. Apparently, the world couldn’t wait to join in on the battle of the billionaires—Threads reportedly got 30+ million sign-ups in its first day. Let the games begin!
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
Brief & Bright: Africa's Top Five Highlights
💉 The Malaria Vaccine Race: A Complex Puzzle With Many Pieces | Malaria’s no joke—the mosquito-borne illness kills half a million people in Africa every year. But new vaccines have given us hope in the fight against the disease. In October 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the RTS,S vaccine, and this April, Ghana and Nigeria provisionally approved the Oxford-developed R21 malaria vaccine, which prevented 77 per cent of cases in phase 2 trials. It’s an impressive feat, but we’re not in the clear yet. With half a billion children living in Africa, it’ll take over 600 million to 800 million doses of the malaria vaccine to immunize them all. That’s a lot of shots, and with the cost estimated to be around $8 a dose, it’s gonna take a big chunk of change to get them all in arms. On top of that, Africa is already short on healthcare workers and is also dealing with an invasive new species of mosquito that could cause malaria outbreaks of unprecedented sizes. So, yeah, we’ve got our work cut out for us if we want to eradicate malaria - a complex puzzle with many pieces. To start, the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) announced this week that 12 countries in Africa would receive 18 million doses of malaria vaccine over the next two years, expanding access to the shots to nine new countries in the region.
⚽️ Didier Drogba's Warning: Don't Get Scammed by Fake Agents | Didier Drogba, the former Chelsea striker and one of the most successful African players in Premier League history, has a warning for African soccer players. Don’t fall for the promises of fake agents, who are all too eager to take your money in exchange for nothing. A survey of 263 African players by FIFPRO, the global soccer players union, found that more than 70% had been contacted by someone who promised to help them switch clubs. Often, they were offered trials or contracts that never materialised. In the worst cases, players found themselves stranded abroad without the money to get home. That’s why Drogba has teamed up with FIFPRO and the International Labour Organisation to launch a campaign warning players of the dangers of trusting fake agents. His message? “Your best agent is not the guy you may trust, the best agent you can have is your performances" As part of FIFA’s new regulations, every soccer agent must have a FIFA licence by October 2023. In the meantime, Drogba’s team has put together a pamphlet with practical advice, like how to identify a fake agent and a player’s rights as a foreign employee. “I don’t want you to be the next,” he said.
🇬🇭 Ghana's LGBT Jail Sentences: Three Years for Saying Who You Are | In Ghana, coming out could land you in prison. A proposed amendment to the anti-gay bill that would make identifying as LGBT punishable by a three-year prison sentence just got the thumbs up from Parliament. Plus, if you’re advocating for LGBT rights, you’re looking at a potential ten-year jail sentence. Even though gay sex is already illegal in Ghana, this new bill has been condemned by some who say it is an infringement on rights guaranteed in the constitution. Supporters, however, argue that it will help preserve Ghanaian values. One female MP who disagreed with the bill in Parliament was heckled into submission.
✝️ Christian Groups Investing Big in African Anti-LGBTQ+ and Anti-Abortion Causes | If you thought US Christian groups had a hard time accepting the LGBTQ+ community and access to safe abortion and contraception in the US, just wait until you hear about their global influence. A new investigation by openDemocracy reveals that these groups have sent more than $54 million to Africa since 2007 to fight against these rights. The Fellowship Foundation, the secretive religious group whose Ugandan associate wrote the “Kill the Gays” bill, is the biggest spender in Africa—they’ve sent over $20 million to Uganda alone. In total, 28 US organizations have sent $280 million around the world to influence laws, policies, and public opinion against sexual and reproductive rights. None of these groups have revealed who’s funding them or what they’re spending the money on.
🤖 A.I.'s Misrepresentation of Black Identity: The Artists Filling in the Gaps | Have you ever heard of A.I. bias? It’s real, and it’s been disproportionately affecting Black artists in their attempts to tell their stories. That’s why Linda Dounia, a Senegalese curator, has put together “In/Visible”, an online exhibition on Feral File that brings together work from Black artists who are pushing against A.I.’s shortcomings. “Black artists using A.I. today have to work harder than their white counterparts to get results that they feel accurately represent them,” Dounia said. “They achieved this with persistence and stubbornness, endlessly re-prompting, correcting distortions, and editing out stereotypes.” So, if you want to learn more about how A.I. has been failing to capture Black identity, and what Black artists are doing to fill in the gaps, check out “In/Visible”.
Food for Thought
“If you are building a house and a nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change the nail?”
— Rwandan Proverb.
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