by Ruth Aine - 28 October 2013

We all want to make this world a better place. Our aim is to see us leave behind a life that is better than what we had for our children, that is why we work so hard.  We want to achieve financial independence for ourselves, yet we also want to see a world free of poverty. Poverty is a source of pain to some and to the majority of us: it is a fact that we are shameful about. What is interesting though is that we can live with it. We can ‘stomach it’. We congratulate ourselves with our success at ‘winning the competition’.  But is it really a competition? We are happy to talk about it and not do much about it because after all: it is not us that are living below the $2 mark every day.

by Ruth Aine - 15 October 2013

The One Young World summit just came to a close in Johannesburg, South Africa, and I was honored to have been part of it. The summit was happening for the 4th time, having taken place in London, Zurich and Pittsburg before.  The summit does one thing: inspire young leaders aged 18- 30 to lead and not just lead, but be responsible by leading for the better. The young leaders were given talks by many prominent world leaders that included Kofi Annan, Richard Branson, Prof Muhammad Yunus, Arianna Huffington and Emmanuel Jal to mention but a few. 

by Ruth Aine - 30 September 2013

Africa’s backbone is agriculture. It is our greatest resource. It is to Africa as industrialization was to Europe in the 1800s during the Industrial revolution. While this is my opinion, and I know that we are all entitled to our opinions, but I think that we have a dire situation at hand.

by Ruth Aine - 19 September 2013

The future of the environment is one that keeps so many awake at night. In a few weeks’ time leaders will be gathering in Warsaw Poland for yet another United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to deliberate and talk about how best we can preserve, conserve, and protect the environment. The developed countries will aid the developing countries in formulating legislation on these issues.

by Ruth Aine - 08 September 2013

In 2009, the World Bank published an article which said something quite disheartening that in Africa, poverty has a female face. I don’t know about you but that just sounds WRONG. But then again, that is reality. These words were said in light of the global economic crisis and its impact on the world. Back then, research said that the global economic crisis will have a major effect on women. Girls, more than boys would suffer in areas such as education and infant mortality. The picture painted was about an 18 year old girl who lives in a rural area. She is a school-drop out and single, but about to be married off to a man that would probably be twice her age. In other 20 or so years, she will be the mother of 6-7 children.

by Ruth Aine - 30 August 2013

Every time that I think about Africa, I think diversity, I think culture, I think pride. There are so many things that are beautiful about this continent and our culture and languages are some of those things. Every time that I travel outside of Africa, I am asked how many languages I speak: and I tell them, I fluently speak about 4 languages. Now to someone who has known and spoken English all their life, that is a lot of languages. But this is the reason why: I speak my native mother tongue, and because I moved to the city, I speak the native language of people that were born in the city because I have to be able to buy food and get around. I speak English because it is the official language of the country that I come from and I speak another language that I had to learn out of necessity but also as a challenge. When I go to Kenya I can understand and use some Swahili but not confidently. This is what is unique about this continent. However the great question remains: how can we harness all of this to build a continent that our children and children’s children will be proud of?

by Ruth Aine - 24 August 2013

Integration is something that we have grown accustomed to hearing. If it is not on the Common Market of Easter and the Southern Africa [COMESA] front, it is the Southern African Development Community [SADC] and the East African Community [EAC]. And we all know that one of Africa’s most important rulers at one time Colonel Muammar Ghadaffi believed in the unity of Africa, hence the African Union.

by Ruth Aine - 16 August 2013

This week saw the marking of the International Youth Day. It was instituted to help raise awareness of what the youth are going through in this day and age. The theme of this year’s day was Youth Migration: Moving Development Forward and as a result special attention was paid to migration and whether it actually brings about development.

by Ruth Aine - 09 August 2013

A while ago, one of our guest editors looked at Innovation in Africa. Dr Olugbenga Adesida said that it has become fashionable to be a part of this new economy of Africa. Africa is leading in the world mobile app rankings. And this is true. Over the last decade Africa has witnessed exponential growth in the use of mobile telephones. And, the booming mobile market has given Africa an edge and the continent today has become a creative hub for new products in mobile banking, commerce, education and health.

by Ruth Aine - 31 July 2013

One of the recent things that have taken Africa by storm is its discovery of oil and gas resources in the most recent past. Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya are some of the most preferred destinations for oil exploitation on the continent at the moment. West Africa’s reserves were part of the earlier discoveries and with the example set by the states in that part of the continent paints a grim picture for us all.