The renewAfrica Initiative was presented to Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal. By the end of the meeting, which saw the participation of CEOs and high-level representatives of 18 of the most important international companies and organisations active in the renewable energy sector, EVP Timmermans appreciated that the Initiative is in line with the green ambitions of the European Commission and welcomed the work of renewAfrica so far as a positive contribution to the EU’s Comprehensive Strategy with Africa.
The renewAfrica Initiative has been structured to implement PPPs, so to create a level playing field for European industry and investors. In this regard, the Initiative will contribute to add value to existing European financial instruments, so to mobilise the scale of public and private capital necessary to the creation of a pipeline of sustainable and bankable renewable energy projects in Africa. renewAfrica stems from the need of an EU-led programme that should offer end-to-end support along the entire project cycle, assist with high-level policy dialogue, provide technical assistance to national governments, and offer financial de-risking and capacity building measures. For the programme to be fully effective, it should avoid limitations in terms of the supported technology, geographical area and size of the project, thus mobilising private capital and unlocking bankable renewable energy projects across Africa. renewAfrica’s task forces have elaborated a proposal, identifying possible pilot countries, outlining a set of technical assistance services, and elaborating a financial package to cover the major investments risks. The Initiative has now reached the point where it can contribute to the EU green diplomacy objectives in Africa.
The renewAfrica Initiative presented to EVP Timmermans
Rove Hotels unveils the only on-site hotel at Expo 2020 Dubai
With Expo 2020 Dubai now less than a year away, the eyes of the world are back on this much-awaited event as it gears up to help shape the future. A homegrown hotel brand that can be found at the heart of communities across Dubai – Rove Hotels made the very special announcement that it will be the only hotel at Expo 2020 Dubai, which will be taking place from 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022.
A gateway to inspiring experiences of culture, innovation and human excellence at Expo 2020, the Rove Expo 2020 hotel – part of the Rove brand – will feature 312 king, twin and accessible Rover Rooms, as well as 19 Rover suites. Furthermore, the only hotel at Expo 2020 will boast several F&B outlets, including The Daily, a grab&go Rove Café and The Bar, along with a rooftop swimming pool and sundeck overlooking the Al Wasl Plaza, 100% sustainable in-room amenities, a 24-hour gym, prayer rooms, and more.
Marjan Faraidooni, Chief Pavilions and Exhibitions Officer at Expo 2020 Dubai, said, “This is a significant step forward in the development of the Expo 2020 site. An on-site hotel is a great addition to the world-class facilties we are creating to welcome people from all around the world to experience this once-in-a-lifetime event.”
COVID-19 spurs health innovation in Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic has galvanized the development of more than 120 health technology innovations that have been piloted or adopted in Africa, a new World Health Organization (WHO) analysis finds.
The study of 1000 new or modifications of existing technologies that have been developed worldwide to target different areas of the COVID-19 response finds that Africa accounts for 12.8% of the innovations. The response areas include surveillance, contact tracing, community engagement, treatment, laboratory systems and infection, prevention and control.
In Africa, 57.8% of the technologies were ICT-driven, 25% were based on 3D printing and 10.9% were robotics. The ICT-based innovations include WhatsApp Chatbots in South Africa, self-diagnostic tools in Angola, contact tracing apps in Ghana and mobile health information tools in Nigeria. The countries with the most innovations were South Africa (13%), Kenya (10%), Nigeria (8%) and Rwanda (6%).
“COVID-19 is one of the most serious health challenges in a generation, but it is also an opportunity to drive forward innovation, ingenuity and entrepreneurship in life-saving health technologies,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “It’s great to see the youthful energy of the continent fired up to fight COVID-19. Solar-powered automatic handwashing tools, mobile applications that build on Africa’s rapidly growing connectivity. These home-grown innovations are uniquely adapted to the African context.”
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization the more developed an economy is the more it innovates and vice versa, but some economies break this pattern by performing better or worse than predicted. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the largest number of economies performing above expectations for their level of development. While this is encouraging, investment is vital to further spark innovation on the continent. A study by the World Bank group reports that African countries, at around 0.01% per capita, invest far less in innovation than developed countries and the continent is not living up to its potential.
UNREAL TO REAL
The human world is currently wallowing in a reality, which is fragile as well as suicidal. The mode of collective human existence that obtains all over the world assumes many things that are not real, i.e. unreal. For a start, the system behaves as if the planetary resources that have made existence tolerable, if not comfortable to the dominant species will still be available for posterity. Obviously, this is a very unrealistic assumption and it is such faulty models that are at the heart of the current global problematic. On the other hand, the parasitic ruling elites of the global order (instead of being creative), it seems, would like to pursue the same old path that only leads to planetary destruction, not excluding human lives itself!
Who is to defend planetary life and life support systems against these well armed, in more ways than one, vicious destroyers? Why do they want to destroy non-replaceable species and the ecosystems that sustain them? These are questions that are not as profound as the followings. What is life all about? What is the very purpose of human society? Enduring and intractable as these queries are, any healthy human being, without trying to be unduly philosophical, still has some inkling about the worth of life. To the majority of humans these inquiries are part of the human spirit and the essence of life, whether one believes in creation or evolution. As a result, the large majority of humanity considers life as sacrosanct, but there are very few individuals who think life is only a means, a mere tool and not an end onto itself! Crass idiots from the ruling elites are increasingly inclined to think that life is something that can potentially be borne of capital and its cohort-the technosphere! Therefore, it is very difficult to debate/discuss spiritual, philosophical, etc., issues with these pathetically demented souls. Therein lies one of the thorny problems of the prevailing world order!
Organized by these callous manipulators and their self-destructive ideology, late modernity is spiraling towards its demise. We admit, life has always been a challenge, since time immemorial. Those concerned with the well being of humanity have always exerted their energy to acquire knowledge and wisdom to help pacify the struggle for survival. Once this was achieved, (at least to a large extent) the parasites/psychopaths moved in to dismantle long established human communities based on shared values that allowed healthy societies to emerge and flourish. The immense achievements that were made possible by the sweats, tears and blood of humane souls have been undermined and hijacked by the selfish breathing beasts of capital! This incursion is more pronounced in the sphere of social existence. Unless the ambition of capital and its wagging tail that goes by the name technosphere is severely constrained, there won’t be much hope about harmonious collective existence. Luckily, some anti-systemic articulators, without the usual mind cluttering biases of the establishment, are coming to the fore. Brian Davey is one of those anti-systemic sensitive souls with formidable analytical prowess who has been diligently deconstructing; we might say rather successfully, the inner workings of the existing predatorily inclined global order. See his articles on page 36 & 37. We have tried to serialize a portion of his revealing book ‘Credo: Economic Beliefs in a World in Crisis’ in the recent past.
In our modern world system, systemic thinking is discouraged in favor of ‘specialist’s tinkering’. After all, when someone is initiated to think holistically/universally, one is bound to put things together in a realistic manner. The proverbial phrase ‘connecting the dots’, is used to reveal what is made intentionally obscure and fragmented. Since clarity reveals the 500 lbs. gorilla in the room, with all its glories or shall we say with all its goriest, the unreal narratives that used to dominate discourse eventually give way to the hidden gem- reality! Consequently, reflections and critical introspections about general human predicament end up becoming daily routines of the initiated. Of course, the institutions of the status quo (universities, etc.,) are there to produce capable specialists in the various vocations, so that these individuals will become, once again, cogs in the wheel, so to speak. By and large, these individual are absolute morons when it comes to most things outside of their narrow expertise/preoccupation. Reality is; our planet, water, air, viruses, iron, mountains, women, monkeys, trees, airplanes, tables, bombs, races, beers,…. We hope you got the point. Reality is the amalgam of everything, with no exception! It is not as circumscribed by capital and its human caricatures! Hence, all life and non-life forms need to be respected for what they are, period, nothing more nothing less! The hubris of psychopathic elements is to encourage fragmentation and disassociation within the human family and the reason is quite clear. Once a person’s psyche is closed to reasoning and enlightenment, on the account of systemic disassociation/alienation, he/she becomes a mere pawn in the hands of the powerful!
Morally bankrupt system that is only interested in the now and now, continues to promote a culture of gangsterism rather than a creed of communal renewal, i.e., community based problem solving. One of the nightmare scenarios for the world system rulers is when individuals come together to articulate problems with a view to finding potential solutions within the framework of essential humanity, i.e. addressing everything under the sky; racism, inequality, sustainability, etc. It is not for idle reason ‘surveillance capitalism’ is now all the rage in the circle of global dominant interests. Note; it is not ‘physical distancing’ but social distancing, with all its insinuations that is asked of the global sheeple (human mass) on the account of the declared pandemic. Take notice; tech is now put on a pedestal higher than the almighty!
“They will also tell you how far along we are along the depletion curve; the optimists among them will even claim that there is nothing to worry about, because we have two or three decades of production left at the current level. It is to be expected that we will run out of fossil fuels before we run out of optimists, who are, along with fools and madmen, a renewable resource.” Dmitry Orlov. Good Day!
