Air Pollution in Africa

Air pollution in Africa is increasing and causing problems. Such problems include killing vegetations, corroding buildings, health threats, and it is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It is a major issue for the industrial cities. Three major sources of air pollution in Africa is energy generation, industry, and transportation. The chemical emissions from these sources pollutes the air.

Indoor pollution is becoming a major concern, because of the health impact it can have on women and children. Some of the health concerns for women and children are lower respiratory infections in young children, and chronic bronchitis and emphsema in women. Lung cancer can also develop from coal smoke. These are just a few of the health concerns there are others. Many of the households in Africa rely on woody biomasses for energy, so this is were the concern for indoor pollution comes from. These biomass fuels are being burned on open stoves in poorly ventilated conditions which causes indoor pollution. More than 200 different chemicals can be found in the smoke from the open stoves. 1.6 million people are killed yearly from indoor pollution.

The way that transportation is affecting the air is due to the use of older used vehicles and the improper maintenance of vehicles. Leaded fuel is another contributor because alot the the vehicles run off of leaded gasoline. Public transportation in Sub-Saharan Africa not affordable to many residents. Walking is a major transportation source which causes them to inhale that polluted air for hours at a time. Switching to unleaded gasoline would eliminate part of the affect transporation has on the air pollution in the Continent.

The Bleeding of the Stone

I must admit, this book wasn't one of my favorites to read. Not saying it wasn't a good book, but I just didn't like it. I guess because I was expecting it to follow the flow of the other books we've read so far this semester. After class Tuesday I guess there was some what of a connection with this book to the class. One being from a religious aspect, with the Muslims and the Islamic traditions. I have taken a Religion class and we learned about the Islam religion. So some of the things that were happening weren't as difficult for me to understand.
After reading this book, one word that I will likely remember is Waddan. Half way through the book I was really interested to learn what a Waddan was. I could have read over it the first time, but I couldn't figure out why they wanted the Waddan so bad. I later found out it was because they were suppose to have magical powers. So that made alot more since as to why cain was after it. Overall it was interesting to read about apart of Africa from a different aspect.

Waiting for an Angel

This was a good book written by Helon Habila. It was cool to read book about the way things were for the african generation in the 90's. At first it was kind of difficult to keep track of what was going on because there were different narraraters. Once I put it all together the book made alot more sense. It was interesting to read how far the African generation had come from the colonial times. From reading the book I realized that times were still hard for them, but it was some what of a progress from where they were.

One character that I will not forget is Bola. Reading about his story was really touching. I could only imagine how it feels to lose your mother, father, and sister in a terrible accident. That was enough to make anyone go insane. A tragedy like that can really take a tole on the psychologically, that a hard blow all at once. You knew something was wrong when he was arrested, because the police beat him until they realized he wasn't all there. In a way I think Bola's situation took a tole on Lomba.

I also thought that Lomba and Alice had a very intersting relationship. In the beginning I thought they really had something, but once I read the part were Lomba went to her home and was introduced to her boyfriend I thought that was kind of crazy. I kind of wonder if what happen between them could have had something to do with him dropping out of school. It's hard for me to put into words the kind of person Alice was judging the reading. I kind of wished it could have worked out for them, but everything does happen for a reason. Overall I enjoyed this book and think that Helon Habila is a wonderful writer.

Oil....In Africa

This was a very interesting article to read. You would think that oil would be a natural resouce tha would help Africa, instead it turned out to be everything but good for the country. It was crazy to read how Nigeria has been corrupted by oil. The oil industrys came in and took over, not even taking into consideration of the living conditions of the people. The oil industry took a devastaing toll over the people, because before they came atleast they could survive. Now its hard for them to even get food. When I read that the government documented 6,817 oil spills between 1976-2001, I couldn't believe it that is alot of oil spills. It seems that Africa has never been in control of their natural resources. First the Europeans now the oil boom has corrupted the country.

When I read about how oil has corrupted the country, all I can think about is Selfishness. It's like no one cares about the people suffering from the oil industry all they care about is attaining wealth. In Nigeria, I believe the people had no choice if they wanted to survive they had to turn to the corruption of the oil industry to live. Life has they knew it was taken away other ways of survival had to kick into play. My hope is that one day Africa's natural resouces will work in their favor and help the country to become prosperous.