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NewsAfrica's problems are global and affect us all, says Ella Pamfilova01.01.70
MOSCOW, 24 October - RIA Novosti. Africa's current problems are global insofar as they affect us all, said Ella Pamfilova (co-ordinator of the National Working Group for the ‘Civil Eight-2006’ project) last Tuesday at the international Round Table ‘NPO: African Partnership Forum and Agenda for Africa Development’. ‘Africa's problems are global insofar as they affect us all - even those who live far from the African continent’ declared Pamfilova. ‘The problems now bearing upon Africa are of equal concern to many other countries’, she added. According to a spokesman for the centre of scientific and industrial research (CSIR), Ester Nyiru, one of Africa's main problems is the widening gulf between rich and poor in African countries, the threat to the African continent of the AIDS epidemic, growing unemployment among the young, and the problem of energy resources. ‘Africa's energy resources are not owned by Africans, but by major international companies’, Nyiru maintained. The demand for energy resources in the modern world is continually increasing - which in turn is directly affecting the Earth's climate. ‘We are in a difficult position. It is now essential to make the most of alternative energy sources, such as solar, tidal and wind power’ she urged. Present-day African countries are not using alternative power supplies since international combines do not encourage the switch; indeed, the use of such technologies may damage their business. According to Nyiru, people even today use wood for heating in many farming areas of Africa, a practice which ‘in turn causes massive deforestation’. |
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