Désire De Oliveira, a pioneering Civil Blaster and Managing Director of Laduma Blasting in South Africa, has worked in one of the most male-dominated industries of all – construction and mining. And all she wanted to really do was hone her skills as a French pastry chef.



In her 65 years, Désire De Oliveira has never stopped moving, running her own financial accountancy business for 30 years, raising four kids, qualifying as a French pastry chef, and starting the Seaside Lodge B&amp;B in Salt Rock in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province in 2006.



Seaside Lodge B&amp;B remains consistently booked and was one of the accommodation businesses that survived Covid-19.



She’s also the first woman of color in KwaZulu-Natal to be a certified Opencast blaster (mining) and a certified Civil blaster. To put it simply: blasting is where rock gets blown into pieces with small amounts of explosive – a trickier process than one might think.



“Every accountant will tell you, the smaller the gross profit, the bigger the margin – that’s the business you’re looking for,” De Oliveira says to FORBES AFRICA. So when the owner of Laduma Blasting wanted her to partner in the business, due to her knowledge of its operations after doing its books, she agreed to make it her sole focus for one year.



She intended to return to her first passion – baking – after the year was up.



She put up the capital and he put up the blasting knowledge. In her first six months, she brought in significant business. Eventually, De Oliveira took over the company entirely and decided to get qualified as a blaster, while having a licensed blaster on hand to learn from.



It was not an easy road, as industry professionals told her she would need at least 10 years’ experience to find jobs in the sector. In 2015, she received her Learner Civil blaster, by 2016, her Opencast blaster certificate for mining, and in 2021 she finished her Civil blaster requirements.



And she’s managed to get the jobs they said she could not.



“Though everything I have succeeded at seems a walk in the park, that is because I embrace life for what it is. I have no regrets. Every hardship seems to have been used as a challenge. Looking back now and joining the dots, because of my belligerent attitude to life, I’m a non-conformer, not a follower, am also not a pushover, and certainly not a dreamer. Everything I have done, has been done my way – there’s been no mentors. I also do not carry baggage, none at all, life is too short,” De Oliveira explains.



Three of her family members contracted Covid-19 in December 2020, including herself. Her husband Peter Rutsch died due to Covid-19 in January 2021.



“It was a big shock. I missed him because as much as we didn&#8217;t see each other, we were good. He encouraged me. He let me do my thing. He did his thing. Nobody pulled each other back.”



She battled for four months with long Covid. Laduma Blasting was closed for that time too, and she had to pick up the pieces and start work again.



De Oliveira has spent the last 40 years working on average 19 hours a day, 360 days a year, including seeing to the children, cooking and caring for the home.



Home maintenance and childcare is called ‘invisible labor’, and something an Oxfam analysis valued at $10.9 trillion per year globally.



De Oliveira did not have an easy life as a woman of color in apartheid South Africa; facing the double blow of racial discrimination in all sectors including work and patriarchal attitudes, as well as surviving sexual abuse at a young age.



“Like most previously disadvantaged South Africans having lived through apartheid, we came with no capital, were not properly educated, worked hard, but could not command decent salaries – the old adage still prevailed, black people being paid far less than their white counterparts – that’s only starting to change now,” she says.



She thinks every mother in her situation wished for a better education for their children. After the 1994 elections in South Africa, the possibility of a good education started to be a reality, except she and other people did not have the finances to access it.



Now, she has managed to give her children a good education.



“I think I&#8217;ve done that my whole life, working on my own and steering my own ship so I don&#8217;t live off other people. I&#8217;m independent. So, it worked well for me that I didn&#8217;t have anything.”



Despite having long Covid and asthma, De Oliveira is preparing to run the Comrades Marathon for the 13th time this year. And she’s even thinking of opening another business.

Desire De Oliveira, first women in KZN to have a blasting license

Blasting Through The Glass Ceiling In South Africa’s Mining and Construction Sectors

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Companies like Uber and Lyft can continue to treat their California-based drivers as independent contractors, a state appeals court ruled on Monday, mostly upholding a ballot measure called Proposition 22 that carved out special exceptions for ride hailing and delivery services from a 2019 California labor law that would have forced them to provide benefits to their drivers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



The San Francisco Appeal Court’s ruling overturned a 2021 lower court verdict that deemed Proposition 22 as unenforceable and unconstitutional under California law.



Appellate court’s decision means that drivers working for app-based ride hailing and delivery platforms like Uber, Lyft and Postmates will not be entitled to benefits like paid sick leave and health insurance from the companies.



The companies, however, will not be able to stop their drivers from joining a labor union to collectively bargain for better pay and benefits, the court ruled.



Monday’s ruling could still be appealed to the California Supreme Court.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



Reacting to the verdict, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, the leader of the California Labor Federation,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/CaliforniaLabor/status/1635421272795643904" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>: “Today the Appeals Court chose to stand with powerful corporations over working people, allowing companies to buy their way out of our state’s labor laws and undermine our state constitution. Our system is broken. It would be an understatement to say we are disappointed by this decision.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



In 2019, California lawmakers passed a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_independentcontractor.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">law</a>—then known as Assembly Bill 5—which placed limits on companies treating workers as independent contractors over employees. Under this law drivers working for platforms such as Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, Postmates and others would be classified as employees and entitled to benefits. The app-based companies opposed this law and backed a ballot measure in the November 2020 elections that would grant them special exemption from the law, pouring $204 million in funding to back it. The measure, known as Proposition 22, offered some benefits to the drivers including a minimum wage and a healthcare stipend if they averaged more than 25 hours of work a week. The measure&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/11/04/uber-lyft-drivers-in-california-to-remain-independent-contractors-after-prop-22-victory/?sh=cb172a3677ab">passed</a>&nbsp;with 58% of votes in its favor, delivering a major victory for the company. In 2021, the Service Employees International Union and three drivers&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/12/gig-workers-seiu-file-lawsuit-alleging-prop-22-is-unconstitutional/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALOvrCaQyr1EporszS-F1FtFlgBgm5Ws_Bk2av6G3Fqo7ISDu3JN9WSqkwWAsHjYXE7QRB7J3dA1hoGjwmu2YvOI2x7zl5oJFvh32_s-Fl6L8DLJ9j1Jfy90MepTHQlnW1NUUYB8dUcFgHvrFhNNFfTIySPhjPY7cJbKVbaKaWEp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sued</a>&nbsp;to overturn the measure, calling it unconstitutional.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/13/california-uber-lyft-proposition-22-contractors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uber, Lyft can treat drivers as contractors, California court says</a>(Washington Post)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Top Earning Tech Companies

Uber And Lyft Can Treat Drivers As Independent Contractors, California Court Rules

From soap operas to sipping (and selling) wine, Mbalenhle Mavimbela rose to popularity in South Africa in 2020 with streaming platform Showmax airing the telenovela, The Wife, based on Dudu Busani-Dube’s book series Hlomu the Wife. Mavimbela, who plays the lead as Hlomu, chats to FORBES AFRICA about how she was never prepared for the reception and fandom the show gave her, and also her role as a spirited entrepreneur off-screen:



Q. The Wife has been received well and has everyone hooked every Thursday. How has your own life changed since its inception?



A. This was literally my breakout role, also [in] just realizing that this role [brought] more of a healing process for South Africans, both men and women. It has changed my life but also clearly the lives of others too. And it’s just insane how I impacted so many people, people even older than me… When they see me, they remind me that ‘hey, you’re powerful, we see you, we love your vulnerability’. 



Q. From entertainment to business… You are also the founder and CEO of a South African wine brand, Moments. What made you venture into wine?



A. [When it came to] venturing into business… firstly, I just thought about how I could use the platform I have right now because I’ve always been business-minded; I’ve always loved business. Wine was the first drink I had when I started drinking alcohol. So it’s always been the drink of choice. But I have always had an idea at the back of my head, just waiting for me to start. I wasn’t overly obsessed with wine, but I just knew that I have to have my own wine. I wanted a story or something that everyone could relate to.



Q. If your younger self could see you now, what would she say? 



A. My younger self would say ‘this is only the beginning, Mbalenhle, I am proud that you trusted us to do what you are doing right now and I want you continue to show what greatness is through your life…’ [And If I could ever offer advice to anyone, it would be] that the little voice [in your head] that does not want you to start something, ignore that; what little voice that thinks you’re not good enough to succeed, quieten that voice and go for everything that this world has to offer.

mail123

Something To Wine About: ‘I wasn’t overly obsessed with wine, but I just knew that I have to have my own’

With star backers like Leonardo DiCaprio and a planet-friendly mission, neobank Aspiration reached a valuation of $2.3 billion in 2021. Then growth stalled and its SPAC deal was delayed. Now it&#8217;s hawking its services in the dubious carbon credits business.



Ona Thursday in mid-October 2022, employees at Marina Del Rey, California-based <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/aspiration/">Aspiration</a> gathered virtually for a company-wide meeting. The nine-year-old business, which offered everything from a debit card for consumers to environmental sustainability services, had an important announcement to make. Of the 400 employees summoned, there was one glaring absence from the invitation list: its chief executive and cofounder, Andrei Cherny.



Cherny’s cofounder, Joe Sanberg, took the virtual floor, declaring that the startup’s chief sustainability officer, Olivia Albrecht, was now its chief executive officer. Sanberg, an unfamiliar face to many employees, failed to make any mention of Cherny, who had led the startup since its inception and had been well-liked. Not only wasn’t Cherny invited to the meeting, but his email and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/slack-technologies">Slack</a>&nbsp;access had been terminated. Many raised their hands to ask the obvious questions, yet the leadership team ended the call without taking a single inquiry.



“Everyone was shocked,” says a former Aspiration employee. “People are still uncertain and concerned about what their future looks like.” In successive meetings over the next few months, the startup, whose website states it’s “committed to transparency,” never addressed Cherny’s abrupt departure.



“Aspiration remains grateful for the achievements of our founding leadership team,” an Aspiration spokesperson said in a statement. “They built a leading climate action platform that uses the tools of finance to tackle our planet’s biggest problems.”



Based on conversations with nearly a dozen former Aspiration employees,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;learned that a rift developed between CEO Cherny, 47, who owns 10% of the startup, and cofounder Sanberg, 43, who owns roughly 35%. By October, the market for tech stocks had already collapsed, and Cherny had failed in his efforts to take the once-promising fintech public. Although Cherny had been discussing his resignation with Sanberg and the rest of the board for months, the board decided to exclude him from the announcement. They promoted Albrecht, who previously led ESG (Environmental, Societal and Governance) strategy at asset manager PIMCO, and embarked on a restructuring, deemphasizing its consumer-banking focus and shifting toward a company selling carbon credits to corporations.



Aspiration’s upheaval is a stark departure from the situation just ten months prior, when Cherny and the company were riding the euphoria that helped fintech rake in a record $140 billion in investments in 2021, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/fintech-trends-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CB Insights</a>. Aspiration had raised nearly $600 million from a dazzling list of investors that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Drake, Cindy Crawford,&nbsp;Iron&nbsp;Man&nbsp;Robert Downey Jr. and billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/steve-ballmer">Steve Ballmer</a>. After all, fintech was red-hot, and the unicorn’s tree-hugging mission promised to plant a tree with Aspiration debit card purchases.



In mid-2021, Cherny had struck a deal to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that would bring in more than $400 million in fresh capital and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839610/000121390021043564/ea146087ex99-1_interprivate3.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">value Aspiration at $2.3 billion</a>, creating a tidy gain for its backers.



But as the stock market tanked in 2022, SPACs fell swiftly out of favor. Eventually 180 of them were canceled, says Julian Klymochko, who runs asset management firm Accelerate, which invests in SPACs. Meanwhile, growth at Aspiration’s digital bank stalled. Monthly downloads of its app shrunk from 300,000 in August 2021 to 30,000 a year later, according to mobile analytics firm Apptopia&nbsp;(see chart, below).



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-decimated-downloads">DECIMATED DOWNLOADS</h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-aspiration-s-app-downloads-plummeted-as-the-fintech-market-cratered-and-the-company-shifted-focus-from-consumer-banking-to-selling-carbon-credits-to-businesses">Aspiration’s app downloads plummeted as the fintech market cratered and the company shifted focus from consumer banking to selling carbon credits to businesses.</h4>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Under Cherny’s leadership, Aspiration had begun to shift its business model toward a niche of the environmental sustainability industry called carbon credits, or carbon offsets. The basic idea: Any company can mitigate the damage its business does to the environment by funding initiatives that will remove carbon from the atmosphere, such as planting trees. Since early 2020, one of the trademark features of Aspiration’s digital bank has been that you can round up purchases to the nearest dollar and donate to tree-planting organizations. Aspiration apparently decided that planting trees could be the basis for its new business model of selling carbon credits to large companies.



“We are very much focused on delivering profitable, scalable businesses to our shareholders,” says CEO Albrecht, 40. “As we&#8217;ve looked at our ability to have an impact and create value for shareholders, the carbon business and carbon assets are very attractive for us.”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aspiration.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aspiration’s website</a>&nbsp;has been revamped—it now leads with “Empowering business to change climate change” and advertises a mission to plant one billion trees by 2030.



In 2021, Aspiration’s carbon credits sales brought in&nbsp;<a href="https://assets.ctfassets.net/ejg6grzpbbxj/6CPjR0sfLq8XVq02eo0JUK/cd95b54cf9196c8c4cd6280e4d752718/Aspiration_4Q21_Earnings_Release__02-17-22_.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$56 million</a>&nbsp;in revenue compared with $29 million from digital banking (another $14 million came from “consumer sustainability services” like the roundup feature for planting trees). But just as the California fintech is doubling down on this new mission, the future of carbon credits is in question, with experts saying carbon credits’ environmental impact has been grossly overestimated. There’s a “crisis in quality” in carbon offsets, says Barbara Haya, director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, who has been studying offsets for over two decades. “The market is in a huge amount of flux, and anyone who enters has to weather this sense that we don’t know what direction things are going.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Andrei Cherny’s path&nbsp;to becoming a tech entrepreneur defies convention. He majored in government at Harvard and got a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 2003. He then served as White House aide to President Bill Clinton and wrote speeches for Al Gore and John Kerry. Cherny’s next stop was the U.S. Navy as a reserve intelligence officer for eight years until 2011. He also was part of the team that helped Elizabeth Warren launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in 2010.



In 2013, he cofounded Aspiration with Joe Sanberg, who has said he&nbsp;<a href="https://jewishjournal.com/cover_story/182589/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">worked on Wall Street</a>&nbsp;for seven years at Tiger Global and Blackstone but who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fireside-chat-aspiration-co-founder-chair-board-joseph-lustrino/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">left finance</a>&nbsp;“to pursue what really speaks to my heart, which is to change the world.”



Aspiration took a novel approach to creating a digital-first, branchless bank by appealing to environmentally conscious consumers. It offered features like a “sustainability score” that shows customers how climate-friendly their purchases are. With help from subadvisor UBS, it created its own mutual fund for climate-conscious consumers called Aspiration Redwood, though the fund, which has accumulated only $132 million in assets, has high fees and lackluster performance, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/redwx/performance" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Morningstar</a>. Like other neobanks, Aspiration is not a licensed bank. But it registered as a broker-dealer so it could earn interest income on customers’ deposits, as opposed to relying only on interchange, the fees merchants pay when consumers swipe their debit and credit cards. Many neobanks have found they&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2023/02/08/merger-or-perish-25-struggling-fintech-startups">can’t survive on interchange</a>&nbsp;alone.



After the pandemic hit and fintech startups saw a surge in adoption from Americans stuck at home, Aspiration grew from roughly 1.5 million customers in early 2020 to five million “purpose-driven members” in the summer of 2021. But those user numbers weren’t quite what they appeared to be. Like other tech startups eager to tout growth above all, Aspiration was referring to the total number of registered emails it had, regardless of whether the customers ever used the product. As of June 2021, it had just 592,148 funded accounts.



Meanwhile, the startup spent extravagantly on marketing to hit aggressive growth targets. In its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839610/000121390021043566/ea146087ex99-2_interprivate3.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pitch to go public</a>, Aspiration planned to spend $149 million on marketing in 2021, even though it expected to take in just $98 million in revenue.



Questions arose around its environmental impact claims. Though Cherny had said Aspiration’s partners had planted over 35 million trees, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-celebrity-backed-green-fintech-company-that-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pro-Publica article</a>&nbsp;revealed that only about 16 million had been put in the ground. The other 19 million had been funded but not yet planted. “The Aspiration community has supported the planting of more than 35 million trees, an amazing accomplishment we’re really proud of,” Cherny said in response to the criticism. (Today, Aspiration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aspiration-plants-101-million-trees-with-eden-reforestation-projects-301735489.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">says</a>&nbsp;it has planted more than 100 million trees.)



In October 2021, just as fintech stock valuations were peaking, the company launched Aspiration Zero, a credit card&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211014005303/en/Groundbreaking-Aspiration-Zero-Launches-Today-First-of-its-Kind-Credit-Card-Built-to-Fight-the-Climate-Crisis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claiming</a>&nbsp;it could “offset the average person’s entire carbon footprint just by using it once a day.” Two months later, it&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.blueapron.com/press-releases/2021/12-15-2021-220513199" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that meal delivery service Blue Apron would launch a Blue Apron Aspiration Zero card.



In early 2022, Aspiration started seeing declines in the number of transactions customers were making and the amount of money they were keeping in their accounts, says a former employee. New-user growth slowed dramatically as interest rates rose and the company pulled back on marketing. To make matters worse, the Aspiration Zero card was plagued by technical issues and problems with its partner bank. By December 2022, the card had fewer than 10,000 users, says a former employee. The deal with Blue Apron was called off completely, and today Aspiration Zero is no longer accepting new applications. Asked whether it will come back online, Albrecht says, “We are taking a deep dive and taking a look at the underlying profitability and the underlying quality of all products.”



In December 2022, Aspiration laid off roughly 100 employees, and shortly afterward, Albrecht announced that the company would be focusing on selling carbon credits to corporations. All consumer marketing would be paused, and new features that had been planned for Aspiration’s digital banking business were put on hold, according to a former employee.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Given the intense competition&nbsp;and rising costs that digital bank startups face–plus the dormant market for funding these ventures–it’s no wonder Aspiration has chosen carbon credits as its new raison d&#8217;être. According to McKinsey and environmental research organization Ecosystem Marketplace, the voluntary carbon credits market could grow to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/sustainability/our%20insights/a%20blueprint%20for%20scaling%20voluntary%20carbon%20markets%20to%20meet%20the%20climate%20challenge/a-blueprint-for-scaling-voluntary-carbon-markets-to-meet-the-climate-challenge.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 billion in 2030</a>, up from nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/the-art-of-integrity-state-of-the-voluntary-carbon-markets-q3-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$2 billion in 2021</a>. Over 30% of the world’s largest publicly traded companies&nbsp;<a href="https://ca1-nzt.edcdn.com/Net-Zero-Tracker/Net-Zero-Stocktake-Report-2022.pdf?v=1655074300" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have net zero targets</a>–goals to balance their emissions with an equal set of carbon-absorbing initiatives–up from only 20% in 2020.



Most of Aspiration’s credits come from tree-planting reforestation projects. It has contracted with nonprofit partners like Eden Reforestation to plant trees in countries like Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique and Indonesia. New trees can take from five to seven years to grow and start absorbing carbon, and they can’t be sold as credits until then. To bridge that gap, Aspiration also buys and sells access to mature projects that are already sucking up greenhouse gasses, including reforestation offsets, ocean-kelp offsets and soil-transformation offsets. In terms of competitive moats around Aspiration’s tree-planting business model, it&#8217;s difficult to determine if one exists.



Albrecht says that Aspiration only deals in “high-quality, high-impact carbon credits,” though their quality is hard to assess, given limited transparency into their projects. She also says Aspiration transacts only in credits that are registered under one of the major independent carbon standards agencies, such as Verra and Gold Standard. Aspiration also created its own “Aspiration Standard” that involves independent reviews, and it says only 20% of registry-issued credits meet that hurdle.



Despite rosy long-term forecasts, success in the carbon credits business will be challenging for Aspiration. Carbon offsets are a nascent market—it’s a Wild West with many projects of dubious legitimacy.



Some credits, for example, are based on “avoidance,” where someone pays a government or landowner to promise not to cut a forest down. New Hampshire-based Lyme Timber once sold carbon credits from land that was already protected by the state of Tennessee,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-17/timber-ceo-wants-to-reform-flawed-carbon-offset-market?sref=BQ0oui0v" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg reported</a>&nbsp;last year. Some of these credits were then purchased by Chevron, letting the oil giant write off emissions based on trees that would have never been cut down in the first place. (<a href="https://www.lymetimber.com/bloomberg-article-on-lyme/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lyme Timber later wrote</a>&nbsp;that the rules for carbon credits have changed such that this would no longer be possible.)



“We’re all coming to the same conclusion that the majority of offsets on the market are not genuine,” says Elias Ayrey, head scientist at carbon-credit ratings agency Renoster. Amy Francetic, cofounder of climate solutions investment firm Buoyant Ventures, won’t invest in carbon-credit startups until there’s more certainty in the market. “The rush of capital–especially from big polluters–into the space as a means of satisfying shareholder, customer and employee concerns about their emissions and polluting activities, and looking at that as kind of a Band-Aid on their situation is really troubling,” she says.



According to Quantum Commodity Intelligence, the uncertainty surrounding the quality of offsets and negative media attention have recently caused monthly trading volume for voluntary carbon credits to plummet, down 78% in the last two months on CBL Markets, a global trading platform for environmental commodities.



While Aspiration’s enterprise carbon-offsets business doesn’t involve secondary market trading, it’s unclear if its business has been affected by the recent downturn. According to its most recent financial disclosures, Aspiration had accumulated more than $300 million in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839610/000119312522042546/d204847ds4.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">net losses</a>&nbsp;for 2019, 2020 and the nine months ending September 30, 2021. A former employee says Aspiration had more than $200 million in revenues in 2022, with 75% or more coming from its sustainability business, though it remains unprofitable.



It’s difficult to assess the staying power and profitability of Aspiration’s carbon-credits revenue. In the fall of 2021, for example, Aspiration landed a multiyear deal with the L.A. Clippers for them to buy carbon credits from the startup. There were major strings attached: Aspiration simultaneously agreed to buy a big sponsorship from the Clippers to display its brand in the arena. People familiar with the deal say Aspiration either broke even or lost money on it.



Among startups, perhaps especially those in which planting trees is a core competency, hope springs eternal. Aspiration has not yet given up on the SPAC merger it first promised investors in August 2021. The IPO deal deadline has been delayed twice, first to December 31, 2022, and more recently to March 31, 2023. Stay tuned.



 By Jeff Kauflin and Emily Mason, Forbes Staff<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/"></a>

A smartphone displays the S&P 500 market value on the stock

A Floundering Fintech’s Risky Reboot

Africa is now reclaiming its own stories, and harnessing generations of storytelling craft to reconfigure the ways in which it is represented and perceived.



By Alastair Hagger



Anansi the spider was jealous. When it learned that every story ever told belonged to the sky god Nyame, it longed to have these tales for itself. But Nyame told the spider the stories could never be sold; the price was too high. “Bring me the great python, the mighty leopard, and the ferocious hornets,” laughed Nyame. “In exchange for these gifts, all the stories of the world will be yours.”



Anansi would not be denied, and used its wits and creativity to deliver the sky god its formidable trophies. Now the stories belonged to Anansi. And to Africa.



For centuries the West has understood that to control the narrative was to control history, and to control history was to shape perception. It also learned that if storytelling could sell ideologies, it could also peddle goods and services. We live in the Age of Story. Every brand, every political manifesto, is built on a narrative architecture. Now Africa is reclaiming its own stories, and harnessing generations of storytelling craft to reconfigure the ways in which it is represented and perceived.



Ras Mutabaruka is founder of The African Perspective, “a Pan-African media platform that tells African stories from an African perspective with a mission to re-brand Africa”. As a Rwanda immigrant to Canada who had grown up without a radio or television, he quickly understood that Western representations of Africa were a distortion of what he had known.



“TAP came from that moment of sheer frustration,” he says. “At university I found myself complaining about the BBC and CNN, so I asked myself, ‘You’re a natural storyteller.



Why don’t you tell people about the Africa they don’t know?’ Telling nuanced stories from an African perspective sounded like a crazy idea. If you look for example at the way the climate crisis is reported, Africa is just the victim. But Africa is also the solution; 40% of the world’s solar capabilities are in Africa. These are editorial and creative decisions about what gets written – and what gets done.” The stories can be delivered in ways unique to each of the myriad cultures and peoples of the continent, but he says there are narrative pillars identifiable in many of Africa’s storytelling traditions. “It’s oral, it’s an occasion, it’s communal. In most of these cultures there are specific people selected to be the storyteller. And they tell parables, without the Western directness. There are different ways to pass on that message.”



The reclamation of African storytelling modes requires an understanding of how such modalities have been recorded and understood in Western analysis.



Matthew H. Brown is Associate Professor of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, where the late Harold Scheub taught for over 40 years and developed an international reputation as an authority on the documentation of African oral traditions and folklore.



“Even though he was considered a major figure in understanding African storytelling, it wasn’t necessarily the case that his method was adopted by everyone,” says Brown. “But his basic argument is that storytelling is about change. To tell stories is to grapple with transformations of some kind, that people go through rites of passage. Many of the characters in these stories are solitary creatures, who are then re-incorporated back into their community.



There’s a useful way to comment on how humans organize themselves by taking this animal perspective.” How, then, does this solitary cypher retrieve its heritage, and the allegorical power inherent in these traditions, in order to reshape the ways Africa is both commercially and politically portrayed?



“To decolonize that set of politics is tricky,” he says, “because it’s about showing that Africa is unique and different and has its own way of knowing, but without replicating this colonial idea that Africans are fundamentally different. There’s a modern world that Africans know could not have been produced without them. 



The storytelling paradigms, at least in that kind of media, keep holding them at arm’s length from having access to it.”



The potential to bridge this gap will flower from knowledge – repositories of African thinking accessible to those to whom it truly belongs. Sylvia Arthur is Founder of the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora, “a decolonised research library, archive, writing residency and research institute” based in Accra, Ghana.



“African stories have rarely been told by Africans themselves and have been limited in their scope, primarily to serve a political purpose,” says Arthur. “The performance and experience of storytelling is key in African modes. It’s about moving the reader or the listener to feel as well as think, to act and not just be passive. It is communal, participatory, interactive, and engaging – a way to mobilize.



She believes this mobilization must lead to ownership, of both the cultural capital and the means of production. “The single story narrative will continue to plague African storytelling in the Western context,” Arthur says. “The simple solution is to own more publishing houses, film and music production companies, online platforms. Technology allows for mass communication, but storytelling in its purest form is still, fundamentally, an intimate means of communicating – and this is one challenge that African storytellers will need to take on in order to maintain the authenticity of the form. Technology can mediate, but it can also obfuscate and alienate. Striking the right balance is essential.”



Once Anansi has overcome the python, the leopard and the hornets, what does it do with the hard-fought stewardship of the stories it coveted for so long?



“The transfer and custodianship of cultural knowledge has traditionally been the domain of academic institutions,” Arthur says. “But we are an institution with an African and activist bent. We straddle the line between academia and popular culture by making this kind of knowledge attractive and accessible. The key is in finding how best to package this cultural knowledge, and taking it directly to the audience – rather than expecting them to come to you.”

Untitled

Re-Telling The African Story: How The Continent Is Reclaiming Its Own

<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://policies.google.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a>TOPLINE</h2>



Effective altruism, which started as a small movement at Oxford University over a decade ago, is an influential and controversial philosophy backed by billionaires—including Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, his wife Cari Tuna, Elon Musk —and notorious ex-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, and focuses on maximizing the impact of charitable giving.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<a href="https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Effective altruism</a> is a philosophy that, as described by the New Yorker, seeks to “ to do good in the most clear-sighted, ambitious, and unsentimental way possible,” and is implicitly critical of big charities that don’t have a measurable impact on problems.



The movement generally encourages donors to work on problems few people have tried to solve, as opposed to a huge issue like climate change that has the attention of many groups, because the impact of individuals and teams on a problem are greater when fewer groups are involved.



The term effective altruism was coined in 2011 when a group of Oxford philosophers, including Toby Ord and William MacAskill, started The Centre For Effective Altruism—an umbrella company encompassing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Giving What We Can</a>, which helps people compare charities’ effectiveness, and&nbsp;<a href="https://80000hours.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">80,000 Hours</a>, an organization co-founded founded by MacAskill to help people find impactful careers.



The Centre for Effective Altruism and nine other companies are now federated under the&nbsp;<a href="https://ev.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Effective Ventures Group</a>, but organizations don’t have to be part of the group to be effective altruists—Moskovitz and Tuna, the biggest estimated donors to effective altruism,&nbsp;<a href="https://80000hours.org/2021/07/effective-altruism-growing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to 80,000 Hours, have their own charity called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.openphilanthropy.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Open Philanthropy</a>.



Effective altruists claim a measurable impact on global problems, collectively giving $1 billion to support charities fighting malaria, helping prevent roughly 150,000 deaths, and campaigning with The Open Wing Alliance to get more than 2,000 companies to agree to purchase eggs from cage-free chickens.



Key Background



As effective altruism grew, it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/8/8/23150496/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-dustin-moskovitz-billionaire-philanthropy-crytocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attracted</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/17/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">uber-rich</a>&nbsp;converts. MacAskill&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/17/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recruited</a>&nbsp;disgraced crypto tycoon Bankman-Fried to effective altruism in 2012; less than 10 years later, his crypto exchange FTX was valued at $18 billion, and he said he planned to give most of his share (roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2021/07/20/bitcoin-exchange-led-by-worlds-richest-crypto-billionaire-raises-record-900-million/?sh=1c1442164e33">$16.2 billion</a>&nbsp;at one point) away to fund effective altruism projects,&nbsp;<a href="https://80000hours.org/2021/07/effective-altruism-growing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to MacAskill’s 80,000 Hours. The integration of effective altruism and wealthy Silicon Valley techies established&nbsp;<a href="https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AI safety</a>&nbsp;as one of effective altruism’s most talked-about projects. Brainstorming regulations to prevent AI from threatening humans and other projects dedicated to protecting humanity from long-term threats—and potential extinction—are associated with longtermism, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/8/8/23150496/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-dustin-moskovitz-billionaire-philanthropy-crytocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">growing</a>&nbsp;view within effective altruism that focuses more on solving threats to humanity’s future than its present problems.



Tangent



Longtermists, to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23298870/effective-altruism-longtermism-will-macaskill-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">varying degrees</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qZyshHCNkjs3TvSem/longtermism" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">believe</a>&nbsp;effective altruists should consider the well-being of future generations when they determine which causes to pursue. Weak longtermists believe the well-being of future generations should be considered in problem-solving, but usually don’t prioritize it above all other moral considerations like alleviating suffering for current generations. Strong longtermists prioritize the well-being of future generations over the well-being of people alive today,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220805-what-is-longtermism-and-why-does-it-matter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reasoning</a>&nbsp;effective altruists will make the biggest impact by solving long-term problems because exponentially more people will live in the future than live now. Strong longtermists consider the well-being of people living&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23298870/effective-altruism-longtermism-will-macaskill-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">thousands and millions</a>&nbsp;of years from now, not just in the next couple of generations, and tend to be concerned with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hachettebooks.com/titles/toby-ord/the-precipice/9780316484923/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potential extinction threats</a>&nbsp;that would prevent future people from coming into existence. Longtermists, including&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1554335028313718784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1554335028313718784%7Ctwgr%5E09b56d1a4bac0a7f2cb3534e910d84dca76a1ea4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffuture-perfect%2F23298870%2Feffective-altruism-longtermism-will-macaskill-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/8/8/23150496/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-dustin-moskovitz-billionaire-philanthropy-crytocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bankman-Fried</a>, shifted some of effective altruism’s resources to longtermist projects like space colonization and AI regulation—Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-09/twitter-deal-collapse-makes-musk-a-hot-ticket-at-sun-valley?sref=fqqmZ8gi&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">famously described</a>&nbsp;colonizing Mars as a “civilian life insurance” policy for when the sun dies out—instead of pouring money into current problems like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">malaria</a>&nbsp;or factory farming,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/17/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;one of Bankman-Fried’s original interests.



Contra



Before Bankman-Fried’s fall from grace and the vaporization of billions of dollars set to fund effective altruism projects, critics of the movement&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23298870/effective-altruism-longtermism-will-macaskill-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">primarily</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/8/8/23150496/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-dustin-moskovitz-billionaire-philanthropy-crytocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">took</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23500014/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">aim</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23569519/effective-altrusim-sam-bankman-fried-will-macaskill-ea-risk-decentralization-philanthropy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">at</a>&nbsp;longtermism,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23298870/effective-altruism-longtermism-will-macaskill-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arguing</a>&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/05/longtermism-philanthropy-altruism-risks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unethical</a>&nbsp;to divert funds from people suffering in the present to solve hypothetical problems occuring in an uncertain future. Further, critics argue, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23569519/effective-altrusim-sam-bankman-fried-will-macaskill-ea-risk-decentralization-philanthropy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">small group</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://rethinkpriorities.org/ea-survey" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">predominantly white men</a>&nbsp;should not get to take action to implement a&nbsp;utopian vision without&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/08/20/understanding-longtermism-why-this-suddenly-influential-philosophy-is-so/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consulting</a>&nbsp;less represented groups. After FTX’s collapse,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/books/review/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-crypto.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">critics</a>&nbsp;blasted effective altruism itself for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/business/ftx-effective-altruism.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lending</a>&nbsp;Bankman-Fried&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/17/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">legitimacy</a>, despite&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23500014/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">red flags</a>&nbsp;indicating his business practices were less than savory.



Chief Critics



Carla Zoe Cremer, a doctoral student at the University of Oxford and a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23569519/effective-altrusim-sam-bankman-fried-will-macaskill-ea-risk-decentralization-philanthropy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">used to be</a>&nbsp;an effective activist—she was even interviewed to work for Alameda Research in 2018. Lately, she’s emerged as one of the biggest critics and would-be&nbsp;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3995225" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reformers</a>&nbsp;of the effective altruism movement and its leaders. In a January&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23569519/effective-altrusim-sam-bankman-fried-will-macaskill-ea-risk-decentralization-philanthropy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">article</a>&nbsp;written for Vox, Cremer alleges that MacAskill and other influential leaders, like Bankman-Fried, wield too much power over people within the community; some altruists are afraid to question the system for fear their funding will be cut, Cremer claims, which allows leaders and influential donors to move projects in risky directions with almost no oversight. Cremer claims she fruitlessly urged MacAskill to implement stronger institutional measures imposing checks on big donors and insulating the movement from undue risk in February 2022—almost a year before the FTX disaster decimated one of effective altruism’s most lucrative sources of funding. Now, Cremer advocates that effective altruists should contribute to society by using their vast network of organizations to experiment with new and more effective forms of institutional decision making.



Further Reading



<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23298870/effective-altruism-longtermism-will-macaskill-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Effective altruism’s most controversial idea</a>&nbsp;(Vox)



<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23569519/effective-altrusim-sam-bankman-fried-will-macaskill-ea-risk-decentralization-philanthropy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How effective altruists ignored risk</a>&nbsp;(Vox)



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/17/effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The do-gooder movement that shielded Sam Bankman-Fried from scrutiny</a> (WaPo)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywashburn/"></a>



By Emily Washburn, Forbes Staff

Elon

What To Know About Effective Altruism—Championed By Musk, Bankman-Fried And Silicon Valley Giants

With pounding hearts but eyes firmly on target, record numbers of women are learning to use firearms in crime-riddled South Africa. Training starts with the legalities of owning a firearm, which to most, is probably the most effective tool to disarm attackers, and also an introduction to the sport of shooting.



By Paula Slier – Additional reporting by Khaka Ngcof



– *Surname removed to protect privacy



Sitting on a carpet, I’m overwhelmed with a feeling of foreboding. A Kalashnikov rifle is pointed at me by a masked man smoking a cigarette. Behind him, three armed fighters chatter anxiously, casting looks in my direction. The far-off spurts of gunfire light up the night sky. I’m in a remote village in Afghanistan waiting for an interview that might or might not happen.



I chide myself, not for the first time, for coming here alone. If this tip-off proves false, I’m at the mercy of these men. The thought crosses my mind that I could grab the AK47 and…. then what? I’ve never held one of those guns, let alone shoot with it.



Which is why, a few weeks later, I find myself at a shooting range in South Africa. Despite the tip-off being correct, I am making good on a promise to myself that if I got out of that village alive, I would take control of my safety and no longer leave it to fate – or the goodwill of others. It’s fitting I’ve chosen to sign up in South Africa.



While a long way from Afghanistan, the statistics here are amongst the worst in the world which explains why record numbers of people, women in particular, are learning how to use firearms. Most want to be able to shoot for their own safety and that of their families.



From July to September last year, 13,000 women were victims of assault and [over 10,000] rape cases were opened by the police – “a needle in the haystack,” says Lynette Oxley, founder of Gun Owners SA (GOSA) Girls On Fire.



“Statistics show that only one out of six rapes actually gets reported. The police and the broader society are part of the problem. From interviews I’ve conducted over the past three weeks, 13,701 women were victims of assault, nearly 1,000 were murdered and 1,277 were victims of attempted murder.



There were 558 children killed and 1,895 who were victims of assault.”



However, stresses Oxley, this is not just a South African, but a global, problem.



“We have changed our focus from activism to action as predators will always be predators and standing on street corners [with posters] hoping to change people’s minds around gender-based violence just doesn’t work.”



GOSA focuses on firearm litigation, political and public outreach programs and empowering women. Oxley, who started shooting when she was 18 years old, was the first female South African instructor of the International Defence Pistol Association. She drew up GOSA’s training modules.



“A reporter told me that I would never get involved in the gun lobby because it was only white men,” she laughs. That was the catalyst that led to her establishing the organization.



“I feel very strongly that as a woman I do not need to stand back and sit in the background. Women are warriors; we don’t need to be second-class citizens.”



Girls and women from 11-to-85-years-old have benefited from the organization.



“There are some very sad, sad stories out there,” sighs Oxley.



“If you have to fight back, a firearm is probably your most effective tool, especially with a stronger and bigger attacker. It basically equalizes the playing field. You’re not going to be able to karate-chop a guy who is tough. Firearms are stoppages, you need to know how to at least pick the stoppage without even thinking about it.”



Training starts with the legalities of owning a firearm and progresses to situational awareness that includes tips like: don’t sit on your Facebook page while you’re stuck in traffic, look around, be aware of what’s going on; do not look like a victim because then you’re going to be chosen as one.



Many of the women who’ve completed Oxley’s training are now fully-fledged gun range officers, like Nthabiseng*. She survived being repeatedly raped at gunpoint by both her neighbor and a former friend.



Her initial reaction to learning how to fire a gun was understandably to stay as far away as possible!



“But then I just thought let me give it a try and see if I can finally close this chapter and get over my fear,” she confides. 



“And when I went, I found quite a lot of women who were not only learning how to handle a gun but empowering themselves at the same time. It’s a kind of therapy. The idea is not to go and kill whoever is bothering you. You’re just trying to disarm them. It’s more about learning how to defend yourself!”



That first day was very emotional for Nthabiseng because it brought back the nightmares of what she’d endured.



“As I held the gun I remembered what it was like being on the other side of it and how much was taken from me. I’d seen my life flash by at the hands of men I trusted. I blamed not only the person holding the gun, but the gun as well. You soon realize that in the right hands, this piece of metal can have very different results.”



For many women, learning how to handle a weapon is not just about self-defence; it’s an introduction to the sport of shooting that is growing quickly around the globe.



In 2025, South Africa will, for the first time in over two decades, host the World Championship of the International Practical Shooting Confederation under the auspices of its South African chapter, the South African Practical Shooting Association (SAPSA). Zimbabwe and Kenya boast professional teams, despite the relative high cost of the sport.



A competitive shooter with the SAPSA, Martin Janse van Rensburg, meets me at a gun range outside Johannesburg.



Four years ago, he set up a non-profit, MF Arms, to help men and women feel more confident and comfortable around firearms.



“For many women,” says van Rensburg, “the idea of getting a gun is scary. In a perfect world, every law-abiding citizen would be armed. You’re never going to get rid of illegal guns, but at least in this way, with responsible firearm owners, society would be a lot safer.”



Almost 70% of van Rensburg’s clientele is female and like me, most have never held a gun in their life.



As I pick up a pistol, with a pounding heart and sweaty palm, I’m convinced I can’t do this.



But half an hour later and not only have I become more used to gripping a gun, I’ve also learned how to load it and aim at a target.



The recoil frightens me and takes a while to get used to.



“Women have to take things into their own hands and become their own first responders,” van Rensburg insists. “It’s about becoming aware of your surroundings and then choosing how to best protect yourself. Many women prefer learning hand-to-hand combat to shooting because they’re intimidated by a gun. So I train them how to get out of a grip and neutralize a partner. We repeat it over and over. Repetition is important. Technique overcomes power. A small woman can overcome a big man.”



Using a knife is also an option and is more effective than hand-to-hand combat. There are many ways of concealing a weapon and for a city girl dressed in a corporate suit, a small knife hanging from her necklace underneath her blouse, can be very effective.



“Your first choice is always a firearm, but you must know that the second you pull it, you are prepared to use it. You can’t use it just as a threat. You need to know what you can and cannot do with it.”



Van Rensburg encourages all his clients to practice at least once a month at a shooting range so they don’t forget the skill. He has seen how, for some women, what started off as a way to defend themselves, soon becomes a passion for the sport.



“It’s a safe, controlled environment where one competes against shooters of different levels. You compete on speed, accuracy, and power. You become more proficient in using a gun and that selfconfidence rolls over into your life. It’s also not a very physical sport which is something women like,” he says.



Sharmaine Lombard, a gun range officer in training, admits that when she first picked up a gun she was “deathly afraid, I can speak to the girl who is quivering in her boots because she’s thinking this is a real gun, with real ammo, and she’s having scary thoughts of what she can do with it”.



Lombard’s husband introduced her to shooting, and she quickly became hooked, especially after growing up in an abusive home.



“There’s this whole mental metamorphosis you undergo from the moment you start. The things you learn even before you get to the firearm part is amazing. The biggest lesson is that as women, we don’t have to take crap or be in an abusive situation. We can take care of ourselves – and nothing is more empowering than that!”



As for me, I’m due for my second session with van Rensburg. Firing a gun hasn’t come naturally to me and I sense the journey is going to be a long one. While there is definitely something liberating about taking control of one’s personal safety, don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself.

Women And Guns In South Africa: Fear, Fury And Fire

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



As fears grow over a wobbly economy, talk of the yield curve—especially when it becomes inverted—grows, because it has often been seen as a chief predictor of a recession.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Key terms:&nbsp;Interest rates are the percentage a lender will charge a borrower for the amount borrowed, while a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/what-is-a-bond/">bond</a>&nbsp;is a loan instrument issued by a government or a company (both public and private) to a lender.



Bonds can be used when a government needs to fund roads, schools and other infrastructure, or when a company wants to grow its business by buying property, research and hiring new staff.



Federal government bonds—simply called Treasurys—are virtually guaranteed to be paid back after a certain period of time at a fixed interest rate (unless the U.S. defaults); they usually promise the investor a higher rate the longer they take to pay back.



The yield curve measures interest rates of bonds over a range of time before they are paid back, which can range from a single month to 30 years and is tracked daily by the&nbsp;<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financing-the-government/interest-rate-statistics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. Department of Treasury</a>.



A normal yield curve shows yields of short-term bonds (two to five years) through long-term bonds (between 10 to 30 years) and shows an upward slope showing a higher yield over time, signaling confidence in government or corporate bonds are strong investments likely to pay off over time.



A flat curve is when all bond rates are similar across companies and governments alike and show no difference, suggesting longer-term bonds may not yield more over time.



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-the-inverted-yield-curve-says-about-the-next-recession/2022/12/06/5367ddb8-755e-11ed-a199-927b334b939f_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">inverted yield curve</a>&nbsp;shows that investors aren’t sure of the long-term profitability of a company’s or government’s ability to pay a debt in a certain fixed time, may be demanding more money for short-term bonds, or are willing to accept lower rates for long-term bonds, out of concern for what’s coming in the future.



Investors often use the yield curve to&nbsp;<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/T10Y3M" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">track&nbsp;</a>where the economy is headed and make predictions about where to invest their money: if there is a flat curve, investors may put their money in reliable areas like consumer staples as opposed to luxury goods companies.



While the inverted yield curve does not serve as a forecast for a recession, it’s certainly an indicator tied to recessions, but investors should look at the economy as a whole including other factors such as inflation, job reports and wage growth before reaching the conclusion that we are in a recession.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



The yield curve inversion became more intense after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled the Fed would hike <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/yield-curve-inversion-bonds-a483aaed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interest rates</a> higher than it previously expected to deal with inflation, driving fears the spike could slow the economy and trigger a recession. We have been experiencing a yield curve inversion since <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmoore/2022/10/19/recession-alarm-just-sounded-by-yield-curve-indicator-with-stellar-track-record/?sh=71b54d309fee">October</a>, when 3-month rates rose above 10-year treasury bonds. Previously, the last inversion was in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/12/31/2019s-yield-curve-inversion-means-a-recession-could-hit-in-2020/?sh=73e689a14229">May 2019</a> when U.S. 3-year treasury bonds were higher than the 10-year treasury bonds and lasted until October that same year. Then in 2020 the U.S. entered a recession due to the Covid-19 pandemic, lasting just <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/recession-ended-april-2020-making-it-shortest-record-2021-07-19/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two months</a> (the shortest on record).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



&#8220;If you lock your money up for a longer period of time, you almost always get a higher interest rate,&#8221; Duke University finance professor Campbell Harvey told ABC News. &#8220;However, today, things are backwards &#8211; 10-year interest rates are far below short-term rates. This is known as an &#8216;inverted yield curve.&#8217; In the past 50 years, we have seen seven inverted interest rate curves. Each one was followed by a recession.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



In 1986, Harvey published a dissertation that linked inverted yield curves to recessions after closely studying four major economic downturns from the 1960s to the 1980s. All nine recessions since 1955 have been preceded by an inverted yield curve according to <a href="https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/el2018-07.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> from the San Francisco Fed—except in one case. The time between an inverted yield curve and a recession has ranged from six to 24 months. As soon as the yield curve begins to invert, economists and investors begin to turn their heads.



By Anthony Tellez, Forbes Staff

Business fund investor planning for investment in crisis

What To Know About The Yield Curve—And Why It May Predict A Recession

By Colin Iles



I was recently asked to comment on how the opportunities for women leaders have changed since I started work. And then, I was asked to share some thoughts about what changes we can expect over the next decade.



To the first question, my answer was simple. Not much. According to the World Economic Forum, only 15% of the Fortune 500 are run by women. In South Africa where I’m located, this drops to only 7% for Johannesburg Stock Exchangelisted companies.



And that’s despite billions being spent on diversity training, new hiring models and anti-bias algorithms.



Having lived through and led many cultural change programs, I’m not surprised. It is ridiculously hard to try and change human behavior.



And HR-led diversity initiatives are trying to fix behaviors that have become systemic and entrenched over decades. I don’t know if these behaviors were created by genetics or the persistent pre-teen brainwashing about what our respective roles in society should be.



I do know that unwinding behaviors, that have developed with 20-plus years of application prior to even entering the workforce, is always going to be a tough ask for any HR team, no matter how right, how passionate, and how resourced.



Depressing as this may be, I am still incredibly upbeat about the possibilities opening up for female leaders to do incredible things over the next decade.



But this change will not come because the incumbent male leaders have an epiphany about the benefits of diversity. It will be driven by organizations changing in a way that aligns better to diversified leadership.



And the good news is this transformation has already started.



Over the last decade, we have seen more and more examples of companies that focus on “doing good”, outperforming their profit-at-all-cost competitors. Case study after case study has shown how purpose-led companies have happier customers, more engaged employees and better support from their investors.



Patagonia, as one example, has cemented its place as a premium outdoor brand by focusing on using business to save the planet.



Thousands of other companies are now seeking accreditation from organizations like the US Based B-Corp, to showcase how they are using business to benefit people, communities and the planet.n(If you know Ben &amp; Jerry’s or Lemonade, they are both registered B-Corps.) 



And listed companies are also facing more pressure from institutional investors to apply the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals. BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink has written regularly about how he is more likely to invest in businesses that make “a positive contribution to society”.



So the shift from “for-profit” looks to have momentum. This will obviously challenge those incumbents that have a symbiotic relationship between the CEO’s bonuses and shareholder returns, as purposeful organizations have more complex and ambiguous environments to manage.



This might mean taking the hard decisions not to operate in oppressive jurisdictions, accelerating the switch to renewables or doubling junior pay.



Bad for bonuses. Good for the planet.



Managing these trade-offs will require conviction, courage and curiosity, because there is no playbook for this new model.



And that is precisely why the opportunity for female leaders is better than ever before.



This new-styled leadership model is not male-dominated and females are already trailblazing in these somewhat unchartered waters.



Take Indra Nooyi for example. As PepsiCo’s CEO prior to 2018, she introduced “performance with purpose”, sold off a profitable set of food brands that didn’t align with her vision and made significant inroads in rebalancing the portfolio towards healthier, more sustainable food and drink offerings.



Transformation stories from leaders like Nooyi demonstrate why purpose is a more powerful motivator than profit, and how curious and courageous female leaders can drive transformation programs that benefit society as a whole. So, there is real opportunity for women in this new leadership paradigm. And we, as in society as a whole, really need them now to help transform business into a force for good, that can improve lives and save our planet.



This requires radical change. And diversity will be a critical step in achieving this.



The writer curates thought leadership events that help executive teams transform their organizations; visit coliniles.com

Working Late. Young woman, architect working late in office

Business Models Are Changing. Why It’s Good For Women

Flora Duffy, gold medallist in the women’s triathlon at the last Olympics in Tokyo, is determined to repeat the feat again next year. 



The mountains that surround Stellenbosch are a veritable paradise for sportspeople, offering the perfect challenge for both serious and recreational trainers.



And there is no shortage of takers. Any day, and throughout the daylight hours, the roads around the town heading up either the Drakenstein, Jonkershoek, Simonsberg or Stellenbosch mountains are filled with cyclists and runners.



For part of the year, among their number is Flora Duffy, gold medallist in the women’s triathlon at the last Olympics in Tokyo and determined to repeat the feat again next year.



The name of the 35-year-old might not immediately jump out at followers of South African sport and there is a good reason why.



Duffy hails from Bermuda, as far as you can get from the Cape winelands on the tip of the southern African continent. The tiny island lies some 1,000km off the US into the Atlantic and is a British overseas territory, renowned more for its pink beaches and the semi-formal knee length short pants.



She is royalty on the island; their only ever gold medallist and most famous sports person.



She ran to glory in the rain, having swum churning seas, and cycled in the wet before surging away from the field in Tokyo for a triumph that was decades in the making. Duffy has been an aspiring triathlete from before her 10th birthday and was competing at her fourth Olympics, having first gone to Beijing in 2008 at the age of 21.



She had paid her dues on the international triathlon circuit, winning the first of four world championships in 2016, and meeting fellow triathlete, South African Dan Hugo, who had success also on the world tour. The two married in 2017, and he has since become her coach and manager and hence the Stellenbosch connection.



“Stellenbosch has played a very big role in my preparations every single year. This is my 10th summer here,” Duffy tells FORBES AFRICA at her home in the quiet suburbs, where she starts her pre-season training which this year is very much focused on the defence of her Olympic title in just over 12 months’ time.



“A lot of people locally have really helped me, whether it&#8217;s to train with me or to help with a bit of coaching medically. Yeah, I have a really great team here. So when I come back in December/January, I can slot right back in and I have this community that&#8217;s very supportive.



“And yeah, there were are crucial people that have played important roles on my journey, building up towards Tokyo. So when I came back here, after Tokyo, there was some very meaningful people that I wanted to show the medal to and celebrate with,” says Duffy, engaging, affable and welcoming when FORBES AFRICA comes to visit.



The Olympic medal might have been a dream from early but Duffy admits the reaction to it – particularly on her island – was way more than she anticipated.



“I couldn&#8217;t believe how much. I planned so much about the race in Tokyo and performing my best to win. I never thought about the after and what it would mean to so many people in Bermuda, I just did not think of that all through,” he explains.



“So my world felt like it changed in an instant. And it was incredible to see the response and see how meaningful and how impactful winning Bermuda’s first-ever gold medal was to everyone back home. It was incredibly special and it felt like it was more than just this sport. And I think that&#8217;s a really powerful place to be.



“In some ways, being Olympic champion does change your life. But then I think my daily life is still the same thing. At the beginning of the season, I&#8217;m quite unfit. I turn up to training and I get hammered in the pool. And I&#8217;m like, ‘oh yeah, I am the Olympic champion but I&#8217;m also just a normal human in a way’.”



But Duffy wants to be anything but normal come July next year in Paris when she defends her gold.



“After winning in Tokyo, the start of the 2022 season was pretty tricky for me because I think for the first time I was sort of hit with, ‘well, why am I doing this? What now, I&#8217;ve achieved my biggest goal?’ And here I’m still training. So I really had to rethink it and kind of reframe why I&#8217;m still doing it.



“But then there&#8217;s this other part of me that obviously loves the Olympics, I&#8217;m still doing well, I&#8217;m still enjoying it for the most part. And being in Tokyo, everything went perfectly from a race point of view. But I didn&#8217;t have my friends, my family, my sponsors, that sort of Olympic experience, because of all the COVID protocols that were in place,” Duffy adds.



“So that&#8217;s really a big motivation, to go back to Paris and to have everyone there, almost regardless of the outcome, just to see it as sort of a celebration of my career, getting to race at the Olympics, as a defending champion in front of everybody.”

IMG_5443

From Being Bermuda’s First-Ever Olympic Triathlete Champion To Celebrating Success In A South African Wine Town

75| FORMER JUDGE OF THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AND PRESIDING JUDGE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC) AT THE HAGUE| KENYA



By Marie Shabaya



A trailblazer in many respects, the esteemed Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch carries her title with grace. After a long judicial career that spanned over four decades, she has now taken on a new set of challenges including a career in high-level mediation running in parallel with an assignment to reform the judiciary of South Sudan; Africa’s youngest nation.



“I remember that I wasn’t terribly convinced [to take on this role]…I had never been to Juba. I had never been to South Sudan. I knew it was going to be challenging. This is a country that has been in conflict for a long time and this is a government in transition,” she explains.



For much of her career, the Lady Justice has been presiding over some of the continent’s most definitive legal decisions, particularly during her nineyear term as a judge on the bench at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. In order to serve one of the highest benches in the world, candidates must be nominated by their governments. 



For the Lady Justice, her appointment was a matter of fate.



“As if fate would have it, the candidate who had been nominated [for the role]…his name had been sent to The Hague and also to New York and nominations had been closed. Come September of the same year, nominations were open [again] because Asia Pacific had not sent names. It was during that brief opening that things happened. The original candidate [from Kenya] whose name had been sent was withdrawn and my name was substituted.”



As a presiding judge at the ICC, the Lady Justice was assigned to cases related to war crimes in Darfur, the post-election civil war in the Ivory Coast, and the case of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi; son of the late Muammar al Gaddafi of Libya. Off the bench, the Lady Justice has served on a number of pivotal committees including an appointment as the First Chairperson of the Committee of African Union Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child as well as being the Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child from 2003 to 2009.



Now in her seventh decade, the work continues. A life-long love of learning and curiosity keeps her going, she admits. It has also supported the longevity of her career in the law and allowed to serve on a diversity of cases and assignments.



“By the time I retired from The Hague, I had served as magistrate and judge for a total of 44 years. Some opportunities will knock on your door but not all opportunities. Most opportunities you have to look out for,” she advises

50over50 images2

Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch: “I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO BE CHALLENGING. THIS IS A COUNTRY THAT HAS BEEN IN CONFLICT FOR A LONG TIME…”

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Kenya is experiencing a nationwide power blackout following a “system disturbance,” according to a statement Saturday from the nation’s lone electricity provider, as efforts to restore power continue—though the company has provided little information about the outage.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Kenya Power, which provides a bulk of its power through Kenya Electricity Generating Company, said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/KenyaPower_Care/status/1632042740035862530" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;Saturday it had “lost bulk power supply to various parts of the country due to a system disturbance.”



Power has been restored to some parts of Eldoret, Kisumu and Nakuru, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/KenyaPower_Care/status/1632064951056465925" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">added</a>, and said initial reports indicated a fault on the company’s high-voltage power transmission line caused the outage.



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/business/kenya/2023-03-03-ethiopia-saves-kenya-from-power-rationing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;by the Kenyan news agency The Star earlier this week suggests Kenya has faced a high demand amid a low supply of electricity over the last year, citing sources from Kenya Power.



The company noted it was working “to restore normalcy within the shortest time possible.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



This is not the first time Kenya has faced a nationwide blackout. Kenya Power attributed a “system disturbance” during a blackout in November, 10 months after another blackout was caused by a severed high-voltage transmission line connection between its capital, Nairobi, and a hydroelectric dam,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/system-disturbance-causes-power-outage-across-parts-kenya-distributor-2022-11-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according&nbsp;</a>to Reuters.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



56.2 million. That’s the estimated population of Kenya, <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population/KE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to the United Nations. The nation’s largest city, Nairobi, last reported an estimated population of 4.3 million people in 2019.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



South African President Cyril Ramphosa declared a nationwide “state of disaster” last month as that country also faces an electricity crisis, causing it to endure daily power outages of up to 10 hours,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/world/africa/south-africa-power-energy-crisis.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;New York Times.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kenya-hit-by-nationwide-power-outage-2023-03-04/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kenya Hit By Nationwide Power Outage</a> (Reuters)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/"></a>By Ty Roush, Forbes Staff

Silhouette Skyscrapers Against Orange Sky

This African Country Of Millions Is Without Power—Here’s What We Know

Startups are aiming to solve big problems for agriculture, including labor and water shortages, climate-driven headaches and declining bee populations, by deploying artificial intelligence, autonomous driving technology and robotics.



f the vast farms of the Midwest are America’s breadbasket, California is its produce department. But the country’s biggest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables is in trouble, threatened by shortages of farm labor and water and rising temperatures due to climate change.



To combat these challenges—if a growing number of startups have their way—California’s fields and orchards will soon be staffed by autonomous flying drones that pluck fruit and nuts from trees, electric self-driving tractors that monitor each row for weeds and crop health and pollinating bees that make their homes on the farm in robotic hives. These futuristic-sounding technologies aren’t decades away —they’re deployed in the field right now.



“That’s the only commercially available electric autonomous vehicle you can buy today,” says Praveen Penmetsa, CEO and cofounder of Monarch, pointing to one of his MK-V tractors as it does test loops through a faux orchard for onlookers at World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, last month. His Livermore, California-based startup, which has raised about $110 million and counts wine scion Carlos Mondavi as a cofounder, started selling its $89,000 self-driving tractors last year, which are outfitted with sensors to monitor crop health.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/6401141f3e8031931c058201/robot-farm-tech/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&amp;width=960" alt="robot_farm_tech" width="-216" height="-216"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Monarch Tractor&#8217;s electric, autonomous MK-V is equipped with technology found on self-driving cars.ZUMAPRESS/NEWSCOM</figcaption></figure></div>


“Whether it&#8217;s labor or water, or even fertilizers and pesticides, those are all resources that are very expensive. With our tractor, with the data we&#8217;re collecting, (farmers) can be more efficient with all those resources,” Penmetsa told&nbsp;Forbes. “Instead of one driver sitting on a tractor going up and down a row, that same driver can manage three or four tractors at a time and finish the operation faster.”



The urgency to solve long-term challenges for food production coincides with AI-enabled tech advances — the same underlying tech that has automated factories and wowed millions with its ability to generate fanciful text and images (as well as promises to make robotaxis and self-driving semis a reality in the years ahead). And while venture funding has cooled for many emerging technologies, AG tech remains a money magnet, vacuuming up $10.6 billion from investors in 988 deals last year, according to PitchBook.



California, led by its highly productive San Joaquin Valley farms, last year generated more than $51 billion of revenue from grapes, almonds, peaches, lettuce, carrots and other high-value crops, or 12% of total U.S. agricultural production by value, according to the <a href="https://data.ers.usda.gov/reports.aspx?ID=17844#P32c32cdfed1241fb81d9443323da4aac_28_251iT0R0x29" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">USDA</a>. That’s far ahead of states synonymous with farming like Iowa and Nebraska. But finding enough people to work the fields grows harder year after year, particularly with the drop in migrant farm labor resulting from stricter border controls. The problem was glaringly apparent at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when ripe crops were<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/04/06/lettuce-left-to-die-in-california-fields-as-produce-demand-withers-under-covid-19/?sh=2742e5286428"> left to fallow</a> in the field because there weren’t enough workers to harvest them, triggering shortages of some products at supermarkets.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Pretty much every year our members have been concerned about not being able to get enough people to do what they need to do or would like to be able to do.”
<cite>C. Bryan Little, director of labor affairs, California Farm Bureau Federation</cite></blockquote>



“The lack of products on grocery store shelves was not because farmers stopped growing crops and raising livestock to provide a food source for the country,” the American Farm Bureau Federation said in a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fb.org/focus-on-agriculture/labor-shortages-continue-to-impact-farmers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a>. “It was because every step of the supply chain lacked the labor needed to keep up with the demand.”



The problem is acute for California growers, who produce crops that are more labor-intense to harvest than the vast wheat and corn fields of the Midwest. “Pretty much every year our members have been concerned about not being able to get enough people to do what they need to do or would like to be able to do,” said C. Bryan Little, director of labor affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation. That’s also made them receptive to labor-saving technology, like the use of machines that shake almond and pistachio trees starting about 20 years ago.



“California is the world&#8217;s primary producer of almonds now, and it used to be if you&#8217;re growing almonds you needed a crew of like 30 people with long sticks and bags to walk through the orchard and knock the almonds off the trees and then pick them up off the ground now,” Little said. “Now two or three people can do the work of 30.”



Monarch’s tractor, which has been working in Mondavi-owned vineyards since 2020, costs about twice as much as a similar-size diesel tractor. Penmetsa says savings on fuel and labor mean it pays for itself in about two years—and in California, it even qualifies for incentives for non-polluting ag equipment of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov/2021-profiles-1/2021/4/27/farmer-heavy-duty-off-road-tractor-trade-up-projects-san-joaquin-valley" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">as much as 80%</a>. Its cameras and software allow for precise watering and use of fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in further cost savings for growers, he said.



Backed by $110 million in funding from farm equipment maker CNH Industrial and VCs, including Trimble Ventures, At One Ventures, Tri-Valley Ventures and Western Technology Investment, the company is also moving fast to get them into widespread use. It’s licensed the technology to CNH and has a deal with Foxconn to rapidly boost production of MK-Vs at its Lordstown, Ohio, plant.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



While Monarch and other makers of robotic tractors, including industry heavyweight John Deere, are focused on crop maintenance and monitoring, Tevel Aerobotics Technologies is using autonomous technology to help with the harvest. The Israeli startup, which recently opened U.S. operations in the San Joaquin Valley, offers small flying, autonomous robots equipped with camera vision and algorithms to identify ripe fruit, pick it with a high-suction arm and gently deposit it into a conveyor.



In a demonstration at the expo, eight of the company’s “Alphabots” are tethered to the automated conveyor, picking and depositing one piece of fruit (including apples, peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines) every 2.5 seconds. The speed isn’t remarkable, but the system is designed to be precise and work round the clock, in light or darkness, something humans can’t do.



“Especially in California, with the labor laws, you can’t have pickers work more than eight hours a day,” said Ittai Marom, general manager of Tevel’s U.S. operations, as he watched the buzzy bots plucking apples that were attached with magnets to faux trees under a tent at the expo. “Working 24/7 is a game-changer to the entire chain.”



The first unit went into operation last year at HMC Farms, a large-scale fruit grower in Kingsburg, California, and Tevel’s flying harvesters are also headed for orchards in Italy and Washington. The cost of the unit, which is still being modified, will be “less than $200,000,” Marom said.



It’s also not intended to replace human labor but “fills in when a grower doesn&#8217;t have enough workers on a certain day or when two different plots are ripe for picking, and he doesn&#8217;t have enough people working at night or working overtime,” he said.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



human labor isn’t the only shortage for farmers. The dwindling bee population essential for pollination is becoming an even more fundamental crisis, especially for California’s fruit and nut farms. The problem of colony collapse disorder, where worker bees abandon their hive and queen, is linked to harm from pesticides, loss of habitat, threats from other species and poor nutrition, according to the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder#why%20it%20is%20happening" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. EPA</a>.



“We&#8217;re losing the bees on the planet, about 35% of the bee colonies every year,” said Saar Safra, CEO and cofounder of Beewise, which has raised $120 million to build robotic hives that grow bees in a safe, climate-controlled environment. “Considering the fact that bees pollinate 75% of all the fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts on the planet, losing 35% a year puts us in a bind.”



His startup, with operations split between Oakland and Oshrat, Israel, has so far deployed 1,000 of its robotic hives, powered by integrated solar panels. The metallic boxes, containing 10 individual bee colonies (which can each have up to 100,000 bees), are equipped with cameras and AI-enabled software to monitor their needs and health and precision robotics to provide food, water and eliminate pests that threaten the bees.



“Basically it does 97% of what a beekeeper would do in the field for the bees the robot does automatically,” Safra said. “We put these in the field and the bees do their thing. They pollinate, collect pollen, they produce honey. And when they come back home, we make sure they don&#8217;t collapse. It&#8217;s not too warm. It&#8217;s not too cold. It’s a five-star hotel for bees.”



In fact, the company estimates that it’s reduced the annual colony collapse rate to just 8% from that 35% average.



Beewise’s robot hives are rented out to growers during pollination season for specific crops, and rotated to other farms as growing seasons progress. Safra declined to discuss financials but plans to expand production to 10,000 hives annually from 1,000 a year currently and sees potential to create a “multibillion-dollar business.”



“The bees are strategic for us. If we continue losing bees at a 35% rate in 20 years we&#8217;ll buy a tomato for $100 and eat it for Friday dinner and all celebrate around that tomato. That&#8217;s where we&#8217;re headed.”

Shortage Of Fruit Pickers Could Lead To Food Waste On British Farms

With Labor And Climate Challenges, Farmers Turn To Robot Beehives, Tractors And Fruit Pickers

To be the leader of Nigeria, Africa’s biggest and most populous nation, there are several political nuances to be borne in mind. Firstly, Nigeria with an estimated population of about 210 million people, is made up of tribes with over 500 languages. That means to assume power, one has to be able to have a wide base of support and in the past that support has shifted between the majority Christian South and the predominantly Muslim North.



In order words, if a southern (Christian) leader emerges, he strategically appoints a Northern (Muslim) Vice President and vice versa, in order to increase the amount of support needed to facilitate a peaceful rule.



So, when Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim political godfather and someone widely considered as instrumental in the fight for Nigeria’s democracy, decided to run for the country’s top political position under the All Progressives Congress Party (APC) by appointing another Muslim second in command, there was uproar across the political ecosystem in Nigeria.



Many believed that the strategic blunder would prove to be his undoing but against all odds, Tinubu has emerged victorious in the recently concluded election amassing 37% of the total votes with over 8.8 million votes. His closest competition, Atiku Abubakar under Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 29% of the votes with 6.9 million votes and the surprise entry of Peter Obi under the Labour Party coming in at third place with 25% of votes accounting for 6.1 million.



However, the win is currently being disputed by the opposing parties.



There were widespread reports of many Nigerians not being able to vote due to late starts and violence in several polling stations. Furthermore, the new innovative solution introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reportedly did not work. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which was meant as a solution to remove election rigging and provide transparency in the voting system, was allegedly not working across several polling stations.



In all, 93 million Nigerians were registered to vote and out of those, 87 million people collected their voting cards ahead of the elections. However, INEC reports the lowest voter turnout since 1999.



“So where did all the people who queued for hours to collect their voter cards go? Some spent over five hours in lines just so they could vote and you mean to tell me they went through all that problem only to not vote? Impossible. The problem was the disruptions at the polling stations,” says Tonye Bello, an MBA student in Lagos.



“Like many other elections, this election has many setbacks, ranging from the snatching of ballot boxes, stuffing of ballot papers to the inability of INEC staff to upload results at the polling units. This last reason has made many to doubt the independent electoral umpire,” says Paul Alaje, a Senior Economist and Partner with SPM Professionals.



Despite these concerns, there are also many who believe the results are not that far-fetched. Tinubu is not new to politics or governance for that matter. He brought widespread innovation and growth under his tenure as a two-term governor of Lagos State. Widely respected as a political strategist, he was instrumental in securing the Presidency for outgoing Muhammadu Buhari and one of the few leaders who have made friends across the Niger.



“The just-concluded presidential election was not without setback for Senator Tinubu even though he won the majority vote, he didn&#8217;t win the absolute majority as declared by INEC. This is because Senator Tinubu is a Muslim from the South who chose another Muslim as his Vice President from the North; this has affected the usual practice of Christian-Muslim, Muslim-Christian president and vice president in Nigeria,” says Alaje.



The Christian-Muslim population in Nigeria is almost 50% of the entire population. This was perhaps why it was not a surprise when Tinubu lost his strongest hold, Lagos State, a place that he has always won elections since 1999, to Peter Obi.



In any case, if the win is upheld by the Electoral Commission, Tinubu has his work cut out for him. He must immediately grapple with declining economic growth in Nigeria as well as insecurity across many parts of the country alongside unprecedented youth unemployment. The general opinion of Nigeria’s youth is that a younger president would have been preferred instead of the political old guards who are wealthy and as a result out of touch with the needs of the everyday Nigerian.



“As this announcement was made, many lovers and believers of Tinubu, as well as his party celebrated his win, however the critical stakeholders have kept mute till now. The Nigerian youth and business communities have not made any official comments regarding this victory. At best we can say, victory has been declared depending on each person&#8217;s perspectives and political affiliation,” says Alaje.



The coming weeks will be critical to see if this win is upheld or Nigerians are made to return to the polls for a second time.

Election In Nigeria

Tinubu Declared Winner In Africa’s Biggest Economy But Victory Disputed

By Tiana Cline



One of the most data-intensive industries is entertainment. Streaming services like Netflix or Apple TV are driven by data, collecting information about what you watch and for how long and using it to make personalized recommendations to keep you online. But that is only one side of how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is used.



Filmmakers today use data science to forecast box office success and, on the rare occasion, a TV show can be picked up before a pilot has been showed – all thanks to technology. 



But there is another part of the movies where data matters – visual effects (VFX). Even though computer generated images have been popular since the 1990s when films like Jurassic Park and Terminator were released, the amount of data generated today by production houses is unfathomable.



Gretchen Libby is an American visual effects artist who worked at Industrial Light &amp; Magic, the VFX company founded by Star Wars writer and director George Lucas. While she is known around the world for her work on award-winning films like Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Iron Man, and Avatar, she decided to join Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2020 as the director of visual computing to help those who create film and television content do so in the cloud.



Avatar: The Way of Water, most recently, was rendered in AWS. The movie was so computer-intense it couldn’t be stored in the production company’s data center. “Many of us who know about visual effects, computer-generated water is some of the hardest work [you can do],” said Libby at an Amazon’s re:Invent panel.



“My first meeting on Avatar was in 2013,” explains David Conley, an executive VFX producer of Wētā FX, to FORBES AFRICA Conley says that Avatar: The Way of Water pushed Wētā FX to the edges of what computers cand deliver.



“We got to the point where the requirements for rendering this movie were we needed to partner with someone. It has been a huge transition in the history of Wētā FX because we’ve had one of the largest data centers to render all the movies that we’ve been making over the last six years, seven years,” he adds. “And we make about 10 to 15 movies a year.”



With Avatar: The Way of Water, the render workload doubled. The VFX team went from shooting 24 to 48 frames per second, never mind the complexity of the water or other simulations. According to Jon Landau, the film’s producer, most of the scenes in the first Avatar film had two characters.



“Now we have five, 10, 12 characters with hundreds of background extras that need to be generated and rendered,” he says. While someone watching the movie will see a final shot that’s been rendered, behind the scenes, every single shot averages around 500 iterations. “All of those need to be rendered, one after the other… and [Wētā FX] outgrew their capacity to do that on the ground. And it’s not just their capacity – we blew the power grid!” laughs Landau.



GLOBAL PRODUCTION



There are, of course, security concerns that come with having such a big IP in the cloud. “We care very much about protecting our IP at all costs,” explains Landau. “There was a learning curve at the beginning for everybody to understand how to feed the machine and once we got there, the throughput transformed and we were able to – even in the later stages of the film – turn around iterations that really just upped the ante on everything.”



For Landau, the door of possibility has been opened for what the cloud can really do. “It is important to understand the artistry of requiring a project like this is wholly dependent on large amounts of teams coming together and providing lots of different iterations and solutions,” says Conley. “It requires a huge amount of compute power.”



Because Avatar: The Way of Water came together during the pandemic, cloud solved Wētā FX’s big data problem. “We couldn’t architecturally expand our data center because that may require infrastructure that would go to the city council and we all know what it’s like to deal with local government,” Conley says.



Cloud was the only solution – especially considering the stringent content security protocols Disney has on an IP like Avatar. “And I knew that a single frame of this getting out at the wrong time would be devastating not only to Wētā FX but to the project,” he adds. “It took about 14 months to get the first frame and then in eight months, we delivered 3.3 billion thread hours’ worth of content.”



“It’s hard to put in context… there were shots that are so complex, and I’m talking about a four second shot, not an hour-long shot, that would take two weeks to render.



The intense work was daunting and the difference when we went to the cloud was truly powerful,” says Landau. To make movies at a global scale with teams around the world requires combing big data together in a way that connects post-production with distribution and rendering. Through a cloud-based infrastructure, the Wētā FX team have found a way to bring all the entertainment expertise together from inception to script writing, shooting and using the metadata that’s captured on set to deliver final visual effects.



“And that’s what’s exciting for me, those are the next steps. We’re paying the future as opposed to reacting,” says Conley. “What we’ve done here is create a system that allows us to be able to expand the physical and capacity constraints that we want and it gives us the flexibility to move beyond the traditional mortars that restrict us in the post-production space.”

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