"Yellow Vest" ? The Majority of French People Are Among the Richest 10% in the World

THOUSANDS OF YELLOW VESTS (GILETS JAUNES) PROTESTS IN PARIS CALLING FOR LOWER FUEL TAXES, REINTRODUCTION OF THE SOLIDARITY TAX ON WEALTH, A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE, AND EMMANUEL MACRON'S RESIGNATION AS PRESIDENT OF FRANCE, 09 FEBRUARY 2019. BY NORBU GYACHUNG, CC BY-SA 4.0. VIA WIKI COMMONS.

" Yellow Vest " ? The Majority of French People Are Among the Richest 10% in the World

In France, the concern for inequality makes poverty invisible. For example, the organization Oxfam, whose name is related to the famine ( Ox ford Committee for Fam ine Relief), focused his campaign on the rich. The media gave the names of billionaires who would own as much as half of humanity but did not say a word about the poor. Yet, naming poor people increases their sympathy for them and promotes altruistic decision, as many studiesshow.

The invisibility of the poor could be explained by the current context. After long months of saying that yellow jackets "suffer", that they are "in distress" and can not "make ends meet" or "fill their fridge", can we still talk about those who live on $ 1.90 a day?

There is certainly good news: the proportion of the world's poor has fallen drastically. Forty years ago, it was over 40%. Today, only 10% of the world's population lives on $ 1.90 a day. Half of these people live in Africa.

So, imagine that you have 100 euros to give. You can give them to Christian, one of my students, born in Burkina Faso: he will send them to his family who live with $ 1.90 a day, as nearly half of Burkinabe. But you can also give them to Eric, father and driver, who earns a little more than 54 euros per day, the value of the daily smic.

How are you going to spend those 100 euros?

These Abandoned Buildings Are the Last Remnants of Liberia’s Founding History

THE HOUSE OF WINSTON TUBMAN LIES IN RUIN IN LIBERIA. IMAGE GLENNA GORDON.

These Abandoned Buildings Are the Last Remnants of Liberia’s Founding History

In the front parlor of a dilapidated mansion with a god’s-eye view of the Atlantic a group of young men huddle around a light fixture that washed in from the sea and is covered in barnacles. They chip away at it with a hammer and a machete to open it and see if it can be made to work. They are not having much luck, a commodity that is in short supply around here. The building has no electricity or running water. Wind pushes through broken windows. There are holes in the roof. Rainwater has collected in puddles on the grand marble staircase and throughout the house, a faded yellow modernist structure on the edge of a cliff in the sleepy city of Harper in southeastern Liberia about 15 miles from the border of Ivory Coast.

The short iron fence that surrounds the regal mansion, known locally as “the palace,” bears a monogram—“WVST,” for William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman, Liberia’s longest-serving president, known for his 27 years of autocratic rule beginning in 1944. But the home of the man called “the father of modern Liberia” because he opened the nation to foreign investment and industry is now in ruins and occupied by squatters, a symbol of how decades of political turmoil have shaken up the old order established by freed American slaves.

How The Colonial Past of Botanical Gardens Can Be Put to Good Use

THE ASWAN BOTANICAL GARDEN, ALSO KNOWN AS KITCHENER’S ISLAND OR EL NABATAT ISLAND, IS EGYPT’S WORLD CLASS BOTANICAL GARDEN THAT IS LOCATED ON AN ISLAND IN THE NILE RIVER AT ASWAN. VIA

How The Colonial Past of Botanical Gardens Can Be Put to Good Use

By Brett M Bennett, Associate Professor of History, University of Johannesburg. First published on The Conversation Africa.

Botanical gardens play an important role in shaping national attitudes and encouraging better human connectedness to nature.

They offer education and research opportunities that are critical to plant conservation. Visiting a garden can relieve stress and help give people a sense of place that extends to the wider region.

Scholars from a variety of disciplines have been working to understand the histories, impact and meanings of gardens to improve conservation outcomes and to build strong communities.

Melania Trump Honors Africa's Colonial Past While Ignoring Devastating Cuts To African Women's Health

Melania Trump Honors Africa's Colonial Past While Ignoring Devastating Cuts To African Women's Health

Two people were in the global news in Africa yesterday -- Melania Trump in her colonial hat rolling around Kenya -- and Dr. Denis Mukwege, with his Nobel Peace Prize, co-shared with Nadia Murad.

I spent my time writing Friday about the revered Dr. Mukewege, who I’ve followed for over a decade. One wonders just how much funding Trump has cut to the women in the Congo and across Africa. It's billions.

Regarding Melania Trump, to roll into Africa looking like she just stepped out of the colonial masters period is just too much. I'm tired of her making statements with clothes and then professing that we are attacking her and not listening to her voice.

In Burkina Faso, French President Macron Addresses Restitution Of African Heritage From Museums

In Burkina Faso, French President Macron Addresses Restitution Of African Heritage From Museums

In a speech delivered on a visit to the West African republic of Burkina Faso, French president Emmanuel Macron has promised to make the restitution of French-owned African heritage a priority over the next five years.  Saying that he wants “the conditions to be met for the temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa”, Macron also spoke to the audience of about 800 students at the University of Ouagadougou about his desire to promote the mobility of talented people between Europe and Africa.

Notably, Macron's comments are at odds with a formal request made in March 2017 to then French President François Hollande, writes artnet News. Lawmakers and civil society groups from Benin wrote an open letter asking for the return of a host of "colonial treasures"