Kristins Seminarfach Blog

By 2020, it is predicted that Africa will be facing a cancer epidemic. Efforts are being made to transform cancer care before it is too late.

• hospital in Ghana’s second city just one nurse sitting at a wooden desk.
• For the safety of staff, she was separated from them by several heavy, lead doors while she had the radioactive treatment.
•  This hospital is one of just two with cancer centres, and between them they serve a country with a population of 23 million.
• For this treatment the patient must stay alone in this room for 50 consecutive hours.
• just five cancer specialists in the whole country
• there is the belief that cancer always leads to death
• women are afraid to have mastectomies in case their in-laws persuade their husbands to leave them

Together with Birte

The long way from Meyer Werft in Papenburg to the Taganjikasee

In 1913 a ship was built in Papenburg on the Ems and transported to Africa: 900 km over land!
It’s the year 1913 and Emperor Wilhelm II has orderd a passenger ship fot the Taganjikasea- 67 meters long, 10 meter wide and a weigth of 800 tons. But it can’t be transported like a normal ship. It has to be diveded completely and packed into 5000 boxes. Each of them containes 8m³.

Starting with a train they travel to Hamburg then a steamship transports those boxes to Daressalam in Africa, then they’re carried by trains, 1200 km through the continent( which still today takes 1 week), to Deutsch Ostafrica and finally packed on the shoulders of thounsands of African inhabitants and brought 300 kilometers further to the sea.

Arrived there, almost 300 people  were ordered to rebuilt the passegner ship under the leading of two ingeneers from the Meyer Werft. Finally on the 5th February 1915 it started running and works still today, also after having foundered two times.

Sources:

• http://www.traditionsverband.de/magazin/ggoetzen.html
• http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Liemba

During the next weeks in which our main topic consists in Africa, especially the Spiegel Special of this continent, I will concentrate on one special country, which’s name is Uganda.
First I’ll give you some general facts about this country:

Uganda lies in the East of Africa and is surrounded in   the North by Sudan, in the East by Kenia, in the South by Tanzania and Rwanda and in the West by the democratic Republic of the Congo.

Capital: Kampala

Official languages: English, Swahili, Luganda

Government: Democratic republic

Independence: from the United Kingdom - Republic October 9,1962 Population: 27,616,000

Area: 236,040 km²

Major ethnic and Linguistic Groups: African tribes(Baganda, Ankole, Basoga, Iteso, other) - 91%
Now: A short Overview

•  Colonial times: 1894 The United Kingdom ruled it as a protectorate which took shape with the name Uganda in 1914.
  See more on Lela’s Blog
   
• Independence: 1962 Milton Obote was the first Prime Minister
  Read more on Birte’s Blog
   
• Remarkable statesmen: Milton Obote, Idi Amin, Tito Okello, Yoweri Museweni
   
• Development:
  Uganda possesses a great amount of natural resources an raw- materials, such as mineral, copper, cobalt, crude oil and natural gas. Therefor already Winston Churchill named it the “Pearls of Africa”.  The agriculture presents 80% of the economy, especially the export of coffee.
  After the civil war in 1986 the economy has to rehabilitate, in fact, by many investions in this sector and a reorganization of the infra-structure in the 90’s, the economy began to grow again.
  • Poverty: Uganda is one of the examples for major process of reducing poverty, having halved it in the last 15 yearsnot only in the urban areas but also in the rural ones. The povertyrate fell from 56% in 1990 to 31% in 2005, but still they represent one if the poorest states in the whole world. Uganda negotiated with Germany and they made available 56 Mio. Euro for development coorporation in the period of 2007-2009. Currently they want to finish the violent conflict in the north which has been going on the last 20 yaers.
    According to that appeared an interesting article in the BBC news:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7252774.stm   ”A final peace deal will be signed soon and the localrebels have agreed to let courts deal with alleged war crimes”…

After this short introduction of Uganda, I will follow all information given about it in the articles of the Spiegel Special. Beginning with “Afrikas Fluch” (P. 11-21) it will hopefully become more every week.

________________

Besides that information I found an interesting article in the ON some days ago. I hope
that I can update the current news a soon as I get to know new ones 

1.  At the moment Horst Köhler is making a trip through East Africa. His Motto is ” Wege zu Frieden und Versöhnung” .    Article