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



Art amassed by late Microsoft co-founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/paul-allen/">Paul Allen</a>&nbsp;brought in more than $1 billion at Christie’s Wednesday evening, setting the record for the most valuable single-owner art collection ever sold at auction only one day into a two-day sale–here’s which pieces have fetched the most.



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



“<a href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6397099?ldp_breadcrumb=back&amp;intObjectID=6397099&amp;from=salessummary&amp;lid=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version)</a>” by Georges Seurat was the most valuable artwork sold during the sale so far, fetching $149.24 million including fees, nearly five times higher than the 19th-century artist’s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.artnet.com/artists/georges-seurat/paysage-lile-de-la-grande-jatte-WIIl38TNjnNZTxrX3LNO4A2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previous auction record</a>.



Paul Cézanne’s “<a href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6397105?ldp_breadcrumb=back&amp;intObjectID=6397105&amp;from=salessummary&amp;lid=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">La Montagne Sainte-Victoire</a>” sold for $137.8 million, nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/may/12/michaelellison" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">doubling</a>&nbsp;the artist’s auction record.



“<a href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6397113?ldp_breadcrumb=back&amp;intObjectID=6397113&amp;from=salessummary&amp;lid=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Verger avec cyprès</a>” by Vincent Van Gogh also broke the artist’s previous record, selling for $117.2 million.



“<a href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6397102?ldp_breadcrumb=back&amp;intObjectID=6397102&amp;from=salessummary&amp;lid=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Maternité II</a>” by Paul Gauguin realized $105.7 million, just over three times the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-13291614" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previous</a>&nbsp;record for the most valuable work by Gaugin to sell at auction.



“<a href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6397108?ldp_breadcrumb=back&amp;intObjectID=6397108&amp;from=salessummary&amp;lid=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Birch Forest</a>” by Gustav Klimt fetched $104.6 million and broke the artist’s previous auction record, the $59 million his “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-art-auction-klimt/klimt-painting-sells-for-59-million-at-record-breaking-london-auction-idUSKBN16922C" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bauerngarten</a>” fetched in 2017.



Lucian Freud also set a new artist record, with his “<a href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6397125?ldp_breadcrumb=back&amp;intObjectID=6397125&amp;from=salessummary&amp;lid=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau)</a>” selling for $86.2 million.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Another&nbsp;<a href="https://www.christies.com/en/auction/visionary-the-paul-g-allen-collection-part-ii-30033/?page=1&amp;sortby=highestimate_desc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">95 artworks</a>&nbsp;from Allen’s collection will go to auction on Thursday during a day sale. The pieces on sale are estimated to fetch lower prices than those that sold Wednesday, with the most expensive–a sculpture by Claes Oldenburg, “<a href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6397176?ldp_breadcrumb=back&amp;intObjectID=6397176&amp;from=salessummary&amp;lid=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Typewriter Eraser, Scale X</a>”— expected to sell for as much as $7 million. All of Allen’s estate proceeds will go to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.



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



$922.2 million. That was the previous record for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/05/16/real-estate-mogul-harry-macklowe-and-ex-wife-lindas-art-collection-fetches-record-breaking-9222-million/">most valuable art collection</a>&nbsp;sold at auction. It was set just six months ago in May when Manhattan real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his former wife Linda sold their art collection after their high-profile divorce.



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



Some 20 artists’ auction records were broken Wednesday night alone, or one-third of the artists featured in the sale. Artwork by Jasper Johns, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Steichen, Jan Breughel the Younger, Thomas Hart Benton, Max Ernst, Sam Francis and Diego Rivera were among the artists whose pieces fetched higher prices than at any other auction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



We estimated Allen was worth<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/paul-allen/?sh=5f8b34e54417">&nbsp;$20.3 billion</a>&nbsp;in 2018, the year he died. He cofounded Microsoft in 1975 with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2019/06/28/bill-gates-amazing-tribute-to-paul-allenwith-rare-photos-from-his-private-collection/?sh=d96715af206c">his childhood friend</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/">Bill Gates</a>. After his death, responsibility for his foundation went to his sister,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabellord/2022/11/04/inside-paul-allens-billion-dollar-art-auction/?sh=7685814014f9">Jody</a>, who has been gradually selling off his estate.



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



Allen didn’t start collecting art until the early 1990s, after he visited the Tate Modern in London and realized he too could own world-class artwork, according to Deborah Gunn, who was associate director of art finance at Vulcan, Allen’s investment management company. Allen’s taste was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabellord/2022/11/04/inside-paul-allens-billion-dollar-art-auction/?sh=c59fec214f99">varied</a>&nbsp;and his collection spans more than 500 years of art history, from Botticelli to McArthur Binion. He was particularly drawn to pointillism and Jasper Johns’ “numbers” series, which he said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabellord/2022/11/04/inside-paul-allens-billion-dollar-art-auction/?sh=c59fec214f99">reminded him of coding</a>. Allen also enjoyed landscapes and scenes of Venice, of which the auction includes eight.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



The full size of the art collection Allen put together during his lifetime. A notoriously secretive collector, Allen did not publicize his art when he was alive, and even this auction of more than 150 pieces isn’t the full picture, according to Christie’s. Allen owned artwork that would be worth&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/paul-allens-collection-art-detective-2200744" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an additional $500 million</a>, an investigation from Artnet found.



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



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabellord/2022/11/04/inside-paul-allens-billion-dollar-art-auction/?sh=65decdc414f9">Inside Paul Allen’s Billion-Dollar Art Auction</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2022/08/26/billion-dollar-collection-of-microsoft-cofounder-paul-allen-going-on-sale-it-could-be-the-biggest-art-auction-ever/?sh=118ee14e5052">Billion-Dollar Art Collection Of Microsoft Cofounder Paul Allen Going On Sale—It Could Be The Biggest Art Auction Ever</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/11/09/here-are-the-10-biggest-us-billionaire-art-purchases-will-paul-allens-collection-make-the-list/?sh=1a3e25fe23b0">Here Are The 10 Biggest U.S. Billionaire Art Purchases. Will Paul Allen’s Collection Make The List?</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff

Christie’s Presents Highlights from the Visionary: Collection of Paul Allen in London

Most Expensive Art Auction Ever: Paul Allen’s Collection Fetches Record $1.5 Billion

“By 2050, this number is expected to double, making young people (15-34) more than two-thirds of the continent&#8217;s population. This has produced a great deal of moral panic, but very little in terms of reimagining what is required to ensure young people are included in the decision-making processes for their futures.”



The United Nations (UN) says that on November 15 2022, the world’s population will reach 8 billion, a milestone in human development.



It adds: “While it took the global population 12 years to grow from 7 to 8 billion, it will take approximately 15 years — until 2037 — for it to reach 9 billion, a sign that the overall growth rate of the global population is slowing.”



Kathleen Mogelgaard, President and CEO of the Population Institute, says that the world’s population will level off at around 10.4 billion in the 2080s.



In a video on the website of Population Institute, she says this is equivalent to about “250 New York Citys”.



Population growth has significant implications for society, she explains; we’ll need more of everything, with population growth placing stress on food security, infrastructure, housing, freshwater availability, the environment, as well as transportation and governance.



Dr Nkechi Owoo, a health and demographic economist and lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, says to FORBES AFRICA that there are existing concerns about the global supply chain processes taking a toll on the environment, and with rising populations and increasing demands for materials, the goal of environmental sustainability may become more challenging to accomplish.



“Food losses, more common in developing countries, also represent waste of environmental resources since ultimately food that is produced is not consumed. Post-harvest losses are a noted challenge in already food insecure parts of sub-Saharan Africa, suggesting the need for better storage and preservation of food through agro-processing, for instance,” explains Owoo.



She says local food sourcing is also important, and while the goal may be increased food production, reduction in food loss is also reduction in food insecurity, and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions.



Mogelgaard adds in the video that worldwide, the population growth rate is slowing down, but there are places where rapid growth continues, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Egypt, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines.



She adds that areas with rapid population growth overlap with areas that are experiencing gender inequity. Mogelgaard links this to a lack of reproductive autonomy, which is the ability to determine when, whether and with whom to become a parent, to have access and means to actualize those options, she explains.



“Hundreds of millions of women and girls around the world lack reproductive autonomy. As a result, it is estimated that almost one half of pregnancies worldwide are unintended,” says Mogelgaard.



Owoo says reproductive autonomy is not the sole preserve of women in Africa, where husbands, mothers-in-law and other community members sometimes have a say.



She says reproductive autonomy cannot be pursued in isolation from other factors such as poverty, predominantly agrarian economic structures, cultural norms and the absence of social security, lack of laws and sanctions for intimate partner violence.



Owoo says in order for reproductive autonomy to be effective, it must go hand in hand with a larger education and sensitization of forces beyond the woman herself – and that underlying structural and cultural factors cannot be ignored.



In Ghana, she says the female labor participation rate is one of the highest on the continent, specifying that they are hard-working and enterprising, but often engaged in the informal, low-productivity sector. She explains that the reason for this is the flexibility that these positions offer, so they can still fulfil domestic and childcare work.



“It is not unheard of for a woman to quit her formal sector job – and move into the informal sector – once she gives birth. This is a worrying situation as it has implications for her earnings, the household&#8217;s welfare, and overall contribution to national growth.”



Women need more support with the provision of basic technologies like access to public taps, modern cooking stoves, as well as affordable childcare, child-friendly workplaces, extended maternity leave, and concretely quantifying the contributions they make to households and the nation, she stipulates.



Owoo also says that African women need more laws that criminalize intimate partner violence, rather than relegating it to a “personal issue”.



The 8 billion milestone serves as an important wake-up call to understand how human population interacts with the global systems that sustain the planet, Mogelgaard explains. She says it gives us an opportunity to understand how people are living, what they need, and how we can work collectively for a flourishing future.



“The largest generation in human history is coming of age right now. The decisions these young people make and the opportunities, services and rights they can claim will play an enormous role in shaping our future beyond 8 billion.”



Dr Nosipho Mngomezulu, a lecturer in anthropology at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, says Africa is a continent governed by gerontocracies, while the youth population continues to grow. She says scholarship in this area has been focused on the “youth bulge” where almost 60% of the population in 2019 was under 25.



“By 2050, this number is expected to double, making young people (15-34) more than two-thirds of the continent&#8217;s population. This has produced a great deal of moral panic, but very little in terms of reimagining what is required to ensure young people are included in the decision-making processes for their futures,” Mngomezulu says to FORBES AFRICA.



Owoo says youth unemployment is a major issue worldwide, described as “generation jobless”. She says one reason is the absence of technical training relevant to industry, and another is the lack of structural transformation of countries’ economies.



“A major advantage of a youthful population is the access to available labor supply to increase productive activities. However, without the skills and resources that the youth need to engage in the labor market, and without opportunities for gainful employment, these benefits will not be attained,” Owoo outlines.



Without employment, there is likely a greater exploitation of the environment for personal survival, an increase in criminal activity and vices, and civil instability, Owoo says.



Mngomezulu, who finds population research deeply fascinating, explains that ‘generation’ is exceedingly complex on the continent, replete with moral panic and cultural axioms about the status of young people in relation to elders. She says the ‘youth bulge’ needs to be taken more seriously by policy-makers, creating contexts where young people are closely engaged in democratic political processes.



“We have seen the rise of youth-led movements across the continent, a trend I think will continue as the climate and economic crises exacerbate. We urgently need to be building political and social cultures that take young people seriously as more than consumers and hapless recipients of aid, but rather pay more attention to young people as agents, as political actors who will not only shape the future of the continent, but are already reshaping this future in the present,” Mngomezulu concludes.

Prague

World Population Set To Hit 8 Billion On November 15: What Does It Mean For Africa

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



The controversial former boss of FIFA decried the organization awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar as a “bad choice” Tuesday, citing human rights issues in the country, adding to a growing chorus of criticism before the tournament kicks off later this month.



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



“Qatar is a mistake,” former FIFA president Sepp Blatter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/qatar-is-mistake-says-former-fifa-president-sepp-blatter-2022-11-08/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Swiss newspaper&nbsp;Tages-Anzeiger, according to Reuters, saying the Middle Eastern country roughly the same size and population as Connecticut is “too small” for the event, noting the selection did not take “social considerations and human rights” into account, according to Reuters’ translation.



The upcoming World Cup has been a hot-button issue since FIFA selected the host under Blatter’s watch in 2012, chief among the issues Qatar’s treatment of workers constructing stadiums for the event.



Rights groups including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/03/no-dignity-and-pride-world-cup-labor-abuses" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human Rights Watch</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/qatar-world-cup-of-shame/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amnesty International</a>&nbsp;have denounced the ”appalling living conditions” for workers bordering on “modern slavery,” and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">thousands of worker deaths</a>have been associated with the massive construction project.



Also causing a stir are the country’s stance on social issues: Homosexuality&nbsp;<a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/qatar/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">is a crime</a>&nbsp;in Qatar, and women have<a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/qatar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;limited rights</a>, needing a male guardian’s approval to drive or leave the country.



Though organizers&nbsp;<a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/at-qatars-world-cup-lgbtq-fans-are-supposedly-welcome-but-still-afraid-163049856.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have assured</a>&nbsp;LGBT fans they won’t face discrimination, the outcry escalated Monday after a Qatari World Cup ambassador&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-entertainment-soccer-sports-qatar-ed44b144cd5f1373a6d09efd7f979d0f?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;gay people have “damage in the mind.”



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



Drama has also followed this World Cup inside of the stadium: This will be the first such tournament to take place in winter due to Qatar’s extreme summer heat, and the fan experience will be modified as well – public drunkenness is a crime in the country, and World Cup venues&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/2022-world-cup-in-qatar-to-have-sobering-up-areas-for-drunken-fans/#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20nation%20has%20relaxed,be%20released%20with%20a%20warning." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">will feature</a>areas for inebriated fans to sober up to avoid jail time.&nbsp;FIFA selected Qatar to host this year’s World Cup 10 years ago under the watch of Blatter, who was banned from FIFA in 2015 after the Department of Justice&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-corporate-executives-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">went public</a>with allegations of widespread corruption at the organization. Last year, U.S. prosecutors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/sports/soccer/qatar-and-russia-bribery-world-cup-fifa.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">accused</a>&nbsp;FIFA officials of accepting bribes to award Qatar the tournament.



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



“Qatar’s reforms are too little, too late and have major gaps,” Minky Worden, Human Rights Watch’s director of global initiatives, said in a statement last week about the country’s recent efforts to ease concerns about worker conditions.&nbsp;



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



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-qatar-is-a-controversial-venue-for-2022-world-cup/2022/10/19/d5f11b50-4fa2-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Why Qatar Is a Controversial Venue for 2022 World Cup</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/samindrakunti/2022/10/31/qatar-world-cup-comes-with-human-rights-abuses-and-controversy/?sh=7b51ec851657">Qatar World Cup Comes With Human Rights Abuses And Controversy</a>(Forbes)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

Iranian football team introduces World Cup Jersey

‘Qatar Is A Mistake,’ Ex-FIFA Head Says: Here’s Why The 2022 World Cup Is Mired In Controversy￼

Afropolitan is aiming to create a digital nation bringing together the best of Africa.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“It doesn’t matter how much you raise, we cannot entrepreneur our way out of these problems. We actually have to do the hard work of fixing these governance issues and letting the other sectors thrive.”</blockquote>



The bitcoin blockchain has evolved into numerous applications providing multiple opportunities for entrepreneurs not afraid to chart the unknown path.



Nigerian tech entrepreneurs Echeme Emole and Chika Uwazie, raised in the diaspora, are two such coming up with an innovative idea for cryptocurrencies.



Looking to build “a new digital nation” for Africans, they have managed to convince a group of investors to back their idea to the tune of $2.1 million.



“The way to think about it is that it is a country that firstly starts off as an online community but materializes into a physical one after reaching critical mass. For us, the reason for building a new country is that we are saying, the nation-state experiment has not worked for us collectively as black people and through this [platform], we can build a country that we choose,” begins Emole.



“So, the subsequence of the old system is that we have leaders, money and institutions we can’t trust. We want to go back to first principles and build a new country, one [where] we can re-draw colonial borders without historical constraints or political baggage. This is a country where people from Africa, African-Americans, Afro-Latinos and the diaspora in total can exist&#8230;”



In order words, they opine that without addressing the issues of bad governance and broken systems at the core of the African startup ecosystem, nothing meaningful can be achieved by the remarkable talent on the continent.



As Emole succinctly puts it: “It doesn’t matter how much you raise, we cannot entrepreneur our way out of these problems. We actually have to do the hard work of fixing these governance issues and letting the other sectors thrive.”



Now the co-founder of Afropolitan, an event and community building platform, Emole had pivoted from law to fintech as an executive for Nigerian unicorn Flutterwave before helping orchestrate one of the biggest exoduses of the African diaspora into Africa through the Year of the Return initiative that saw over a million people flock to Ghana and Africa’s shores with a direct benefit of over $2 billion in economic activity.



On the other hand, Uwazie had an entrepreneurial career in recruitment and HR that culminated in her joining the prestigious ‘500 startups program’ and becoming CEO of HR tech firm Talentbase in Nigeria.



After Covid hit, both Emole and Uwazie found themselves, as many did, working remotely and using social media to continue driving engagement and making an impact.



It was Uwazie who first told Emole that Afropolitan can be more than a community-building platform.



“I had a deep respect for Chika but it wasn’t planned for us to work together. It started in December 2021 where I had this idea and ran it past Chika and we both started working on it organically,” says Emole.



The two are co-founders of Afropolitan, a community-as-a-service company with a vision to build a network that brings together the best of Africa.



“We are building the next Facebook but this time instead of an online passive community there will be a country with shared purpose and shared value and a common currency and this allows us to capture the value we create at scale in a very seamless way,” says Uwazie.



Their idea is based on what is referred to as ‘a country in the cloud’ – as in an article published by the former CTO of Coinbase, Balaji Srinivasan, who they say also happens to be one of the investors in the new venture. His idea hinges on building a cloud ecosystem first – rather than starting with physical territory – in building a new nation.



But the question remains, is there a need to build a new digital nation based on cryptocurrency? Emole certainly believes so.



“Flutterwave gave me some insights and data as to how bad things were on the continent. It’s like $5 billion of venture capital has gone into the African tech ecosystem in the past year, but the reality is people are actually very poor so it doesn’t matter how shiny your apps are because if people cannot afford to spend money on it, then what is it for?”



Without fixing the deep-seated governance issues that have caused a lot of startups to fail in Africa, Afropolitan believes that entrepreneurship will not thrive.



“Picture a house that has a weak foundation and the owners want to fix this house but instead of fixing the foundation they say ‘we are going to fix the lights, and the fans and walls’. What eventually happens is that the foundation collapses. So, we are saying instead of fixing this weak foundation we are going to build an entirely new one. The foundation represents the governance. We now live in a time where we don’t have to go through this journey alone. The diaspora sends some $70 billion worth of remittances each year so, we are saying can we build a network that allows us to build abundance on top of it,” says Emole.

Untitled design (18)

The Nigerian Techpreneurs Wanting To Build A New Country

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



As hundreds of world leaders descend on Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, officials are calling on rich nations to do more to stop climate change, issuing strong warnings from the first day of the summit.



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



During the opening of the climate summit on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told world leaders that the Earth is on “a highway to climate hell with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/cop27-climate-summit-un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">our foot on the accelerator</a>.”



Guterres said the world is “in the fight of our lives, and we are losing,” adding that the Earth is fast approaching tipping points that “will&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/cop27-climate-summit-un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">make climate chaos irreversible</a>.”



During a Monday speech, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said world leaders have “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-leaders-have-climate-credibility-problem-former-us-vice-president-al-gore-2022-11-07/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a credibility problem</a>” when it comes to addressing climate change, saying “We’re talking and we’re starting to act, but we’re not doing enough.”



Gore slammed wealthy nations where leaders say sustainability is important while they attempt to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-leaders-have-climate-credibility-problem-former-us-vice-president-al-gore-2022-11-07/'" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">take advantage of</a>&nbsp;gas resources in Africa, saying, “We have to move beyond the era of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-leaders-have-climate-credibility-problem-former-us-vice-president-al-gore-2022-11-07/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fossil fuel colonialism</a>.”



French President Emmanuel Macron called on wealthy countries outside of Europe—like the U.S. and China—to<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cop27-latest-germany-scholz-accused-112150105.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;“step up” and pay “their share”</a>&nbsp;to help poorer nations of the world deal with climate change, he told reporters Monday, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cop27-latest-germany-scholz-accused-112150105.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



At this year’s summit, one of the most contentious issues up for debate is the implementation of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1132796190/faq-whats-at-stake-at-the-cop27-global-climate-negotiations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a “loss and damage” fund</a>&nbsp;to help poorer countries recover from catastrophic effects of climate change, like typhoons and droughts. Developing countries argue that, despite putting out fewer greenhouse gas emissions than other countries, they are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/loss-and-damage-issue-keeps-us-cop27-negotiators-wrangling-late-into-the-night" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more vulnerable</a>to the effects of climate change and should be compensated. Wealthy countries have agreed to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1132796190/faq-whats-at-stake-at-the-cop27-global-climate-negotiations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discuss the proposition</a>.



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



A study released by Oxfam on the opening day of the summit found that billionaires release&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/07/world/billionaires-greenhouse-gases-climate-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a million times more greenhouse</a>&nbsp;gases than the average person. The study, based on 125 of the wealthiest billionaires, found that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/07/world/billionaires-greenhouse-gases-climate-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">70%</a>&nbsp;of those emissions are tied to the billionaires’ investment portfolios.&nbsp;



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



COP27 began November 6, 2022, and will last until November 18, 2022. During the 2015 meeting, countries signed the Paris Agreement and agreed to slash emissions in order to keep catastrophic effects of climate change at bay. However, the majority of nations have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/10/26/greenhouse-gas-emissions-will-rise-10-when-they-urgently-need-to-drop-un-warns/?sh=4383b7057ebd">fallen far behind</a>their promises.&nbsp;



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



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/cop27-climate-summit-un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World is on ‘highway to climate hell’, UN chief warns at Cop27 summit</a>(The Guardian)



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-leaders-have-climate-credibility-problem-former-us-vice-president-al-gore-2022-11-07/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global leaders have a climate credibility problem &#8211; former U.S. Vice President Al Gore</a>&nbsp;(Reuters)



<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cop27-latest-germany-scholz-accused-112150105.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">COP27 Latest: Germany’s Scholz Accused of ‘Energy Colonialism’</a>(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/07/world/billionaires-greenhouse-gases-climate-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Billionaires emit a million times more greenhouse gases than the average person, study finds</a>&nbsp;(CNN)



By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff

COP27 Climate Conference: Opening Ceremony And High-Level Summit

‘Highway To Climate Hell’: Officials Issue Stern Warnings At COP27 Summit

Funmi Adewara, the founder-CEO of Mobihealth International, is changing the narrative of Africa’s ailing healthcare sector, so critical in these times.



DR FUNMI ADEWARA VIVIDLY REMEMBERS the first time she had a near-death experience in Kaduna State in Northern Nigeria.



At the time, her mother who had five children to care for, was employed as a nurse in the state hospital. On that fateful day, Adewara, who at the time was only 10 years old, had been in and out of hospital for her ailment for some time, but things took a turn for the worse and she needed immediate medical intervention.



“I was gravely ill and I was confronted by the fact that at that time the doctors were on strike and my life hung on the line,” recalls Adewara. Luckily, her mother’s position as a nurse in the hospital meant that she was able to pull some strings and get a doctor and colleagues to come in during the strike to the hospital to save her daughter’s life. From that experience on, Adewara’s fate in the medical profession was sealed.



“I was privileged to see the very dire situation of the health system in Nigeria. I would see doctors overworked and I remember very well the smell of the hospital corridors and multiple surgeries that I had to have as a young child. Sometimes when I was in admission, I would hear the wailing and crying of mothers who lost their children, or family members and that experience challenged me and fueled my passion to study medicine because I wanted to be able to help those who were vulnerable in the community,” says Adewara in an interview with FORBES AFRICA.



Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is facing a health crisis.



“When you have the president of your country spending some 200 days in the UK for medical reasons it begs the question; if the President of our country does not trust the medical system in Nigeria, why should the citizens, let alone Nigerian doctors, also care?” asks Philip Amosu, a Nigerian neurosurgeon who currently works in the United States.



Official figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates Nigeria’s doctor-to-population ratio at 0.3 per 1,000 persons. For a population of nearly 200 million, Adewara thinks this is inadequate and unacceptable.



“I was aware that more than half of doctors in Nigeria are outside the country. Nigeria has over 35,000 Nigerian doctors spread across the world and we only have 74,000 registered doctors and half of us are outside the country. With a population of about 200 million, if you compare that to the US who have about 1.5 million registered doctors, you realize how dire the situation is. So, I was looking for a way to make a difference,” avers Adewara.



Her solution? Mobihealth, a telemedicine and digital health service provider transforming the way patients access and receive care. Adewara is one of the thousands of doctors who left Nigeria in search of greener pastures. But that decision never quite sat well with her.



“Nigeria has a huge shortage of doctors and many counterfeit medicines. When I finished my youth service, it was always my dream to leave the country in search of greener pastures and to gain international experience and expertise to help me come back and give back to Africa.”



She joined the NHS in the UK after passing her exams as a stroke physician but her reputation as a leading medical practitioner in Nigeria meant that she was still providing consultation services to people back home.



“I was aware that more than half of doctors in Nigeria are outside the country. Nigeria has over 35,000 Nigerian doctors spread across the world and we only have 74,000 registered doctors and half of us are outside the country. With a population of about 200 million, if you compare that to the US who have about 1.5 million registered doctors, you realize how dire the situation is. So, I was looking for a way to make a difference,” avers Adewara.



Her solution? Mobihealth, a telemedicine and digital health service provider transforming the way patients access and receive care. Adewara is one of the thousands of doctors who left Nigeria in search of greener pastures. But that decision never quite sat well with her.



“Nigeria has a huge shortage of doctors and many counterfeit medicines. When I finished my youth service, it was always my dream to leave the country in search of greener pastures and to gain international experience and expertise to help me come back and give back to Africa.”



She joined the NHS in the UK after passing her exams as a stroke physician but her reputation as a leading medical practitioner in Nigeria meant that she was still providing consultation services to people back home.



“People used to ask me for second opinions because they probably didn’t believe what their doctors were saying and it was coming quite often. I had a case where a child was misdiagnosed and died. Ihad an uncle who suddenly died because he was not aware he had high blood pressure and he got to the hospital, there were no doctors in sight. So, things like that is what spurred me to look for an innovative way to make an impact,” says Adewara.



“When I started, telemedicine was not popular. I remember when I was trying to mobilize the doctors and whenever I got into a room and asked if anyone knew about telemedicine, it was immediately less than one percent of the audience. It is very interesting to see where we are four years on.



“The first challenge was technology. I was looking for a solution that wasn’t just going to be a cut-and-paste from the West. We have our peculiar problems and challenges in Africa and unless you understand that, you will not be able to make an impact,” says Adewara.



She created a solution that spoke to the real challenges on the ground and addressed issues like the lack of health insurance to millions of patients in Nigeria.



“The solutions that already existed on the market were too pricey and I couldn’t find the perfect match and the viability of it in Africa. You are speaking about a continent where 95% don’t have access to health insurance and it is a problem that leads people into poverty,” says Adewara.



The challenge was that most of the solutions that already existed on the market from a telemedicine perspective did not see a compelling reason to expand their offerings to Africa. The only



According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerians spent a staggering $39.66 billion on foreign education and healthcare-related services between 2010 and 2020. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) asserts that over $1 billion was spent by Nigerians yearly on medicare abroad, leading to an adverse effect on the nation’s health system. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 24% of the global burden of disease is in Africa with only 3% access to health workers.



This makes Adewara’s Mobihealth a much-needed reprieve for those needing urgent access to quality medical professionals.



“Because I was already consulting with people on the phone, I saw this as an opportunity to use technology to make a difference. I did my research and found out that Africa is one of the fastest-growing markets in mobile technology adoption. So, why can’t we use that to create a solution where people can access these diaspora doctors and be able to get instant care and that was what led to founding Mobihealth,” says Adewara.



With a background in bioscience enterprise from Cambridge University, she had the know-how to bring scientific innovation at scale to the masses and that is what Mobihealth is all about.



But it has not been an easy journey to get the fledgling startup off the ground. solution for Adewara was to create her own solution. After its beta test, Mobihealth was launched commercially in 2019 and deployed immediately to support the Covid-19 response.



“People were scared to go to the testing centers and we used the platform to deliver contactless Covid tests. We would screen them on the



platform and provide remote consultation and we would dispatch our drivers who deliver the test contactless. We also have a video call to discuss with the client and with that intervention we reduced the turnover time for results to 24 hours instead of three to four days. And this was published in the ‘International Medical Journal’,” says Adewara.



Nigeria’s healthcare budget is less than 5%, according to Adewara. This means that more than 70% of the population have no access to healthcare and that, compounded with the critical issue of shortage of doctors, means there has to be more innovative solutions to reach those in vulnerable conditions.



Her solution has currently been deployed to seven states and in remote areas where there are no doctors, Mobihealth provides computers that enable patients to immediately see and speak to overseas doctors in their local language.



And her solution could not have come at a better time. Over the past few weeks alone, Adewara asserts that over 200 Nigerian doctors have been registered in the UK, with Nigerians topping the list of migrant NHS nurses in the UK.



Not much has changed in the Nigerian healthcare sector since Adewara left some 15 years ago and with the WHO’s estimation that it will take about 10 decades, even if all things were right to get to the doctors-to-population ratio, her work is more vital than ever.

Screenshot 2022-11-07 at 19.27.27

Doctor’s Orders: The Nigerian Changing The Narrative Of Healthcare 

gettyimages-1176382466-594×594

Meta Reportedly Preparing ‘Large-Scale’ Job Cuts—Here Are The Biggest U.S. Layoffs This Year￼

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



Twitter owner Elon Musk&#8217;s plan to right the social media company&#8217;s financial ship while also loosening its content moderation rules could face early headwinds, with several large companies taking a pause on Twitter ads until they have a fuller view of how the platform will look under his leadership.



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



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/general-mills-audi-and-pfizer-join-growing-list-of-companies-pausing-twitter-ads-11667507765?mod=e2tw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;reported Thursday that&nbsp;General Mills,&nbsp;Pfizer,&nbsp;Audi,&nbsp;Volkswagen&nbsp;and&nbsp;Mondelez International Inc.—the maker of Oreos—stopped advertising on Twitter after Musk took over the company, in part due to concerns about how Twitter will moderate content.



Automakers <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/10/28/gm-ford-say-they-arent-running-twitter-ads-as-they-assess-changes-under-elon-musk/?sh=4add17cb2a19">Ford and General Motors</a> told Forbes last week they will not be buying ad space on Twitter until they better understand the platform&#8217;s future.



Advertising company&nbsp;Interpublic Group, whose clients include CVS and Nintendo, has reportedly recommended its clients temporarily stop buying Twitter ads.



Havas Media—another advertising firm—is also telling clients it&#8217;s best to pause their Twitter advertising, according to the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal.



Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.<img decoding="async" src="https://img.connatix.com/pid-546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/1.png" alt=""><img decoding="async" src="https://img.connatix.com/pid-546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/e8869d3f-0f3e-474a-a43d-be85f87597b4/503f2716-39c0-415a-ac69-97efb2dba3ab.jpg?crop=601:338,smart&amp;width=601&amp;height=338&amp;format=jpeg&amp;quality=60&amp;fit=crop" alt="Content Creation Trends We’ll See At Qatar 2022 World Cup"><img decoding="async" hidden="" style="display: none !important;" src="https://img.connatix.com/pid-546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/e8869d3f-0f3e-474a-a43d-be85f87597b4/265a37fc-e32d-49f2-a72a-7be0fca8c190.jpg?crop=601:338,smart&amp;width=601&amp;height=338&amp;format=jpeg&amp;quality=60&amp;fit=crop" alt="EU Approves First Monoclonal Antibody To Prevent RSV In All Children As U.S. Cases Surge"><img decoding="async" hidden="" style="display: none !important;" src="https://img.connatix.com/pid-546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/e8869d3f-0f3e-474a-a43d-be85f87597b4/774d7702-a4c5-44d5-8150-120fec26ef25.jpg?crop=601:338,smart&amp;width=601&amp;height=338&amp;format=jpeg&amp;quality=60&amp;fit=crop" alt="Prague Airport Supports National Brands With A Greener Kind Of Store"><img decoding="async" hidden="" style="display: none !important;" src="https://img.connatix.com/pid-546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/e8869d3f-0f3e-474a-a43d-be85f87597b4/4c9d5bd1-cf9e-416a-9926-16fca90d702e.jpg?crop=601:338,smart&amp;width=601&amp;height=338&amp;format=jpeg&amp;quality=60&amp;fit=crop" alt="Baseball Salary Records Likely To Fall In Enormous Free-Agent Market"><img decoding="async" hidden="" style="display: none !important;" src="https://img.connatix.com/pid-546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/e8869d3f-0f3e-474a-a43d-be85f87597b4/61c50748-a2c1-489a-a606-357b50c448b5.jpg?crop=601:338,smart&amp;width=601&amp;height=338&amp;format=jpeg&amp;quality=60&amp;fit=crop" alt="The Russian Army Appears To Be Pulling Out Of Kherson">



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



Musk recently told investors he wants to triple the number of daily users who see ads on Twitter, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/20/musk-twitter-acquisition-staff-cuts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Washington Post</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Musk is reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/03/musk-plans-to-layoff-50-of-twitters-workforce-ahead-of-verification-fee-roll-out-next-week-reports-say/?sh=2e3f18517adb">planning to fire 50%</a>&nbsp;of Twitter&#8217;s roughly 7,500-person staff starting Friday, prompting concerns the cuts could impact content moderation and security on the website. He&#8217;s already fired several top executives, including some who worked with advertisers.



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



Possibly seeking to ease concerns about the platform’s direction, Musk tweeted an open letter to advertisers last week promising Twitter would not become a “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/10/27/musk-says-twitter-cannot-become-a-free-for-all-hellscape-ahead-of-purchase/?sh=6e22835178c3">free-for-all hellscape</a>, where anything can be said with no consequences” under his leadership. He also said each user would be able to &#8220;choose your desired experience according to your preferences.&#8221;&nbsp;



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



Musk claimed he wanted to buy Twitter for the good of humanity since he believes it is a &#8220;digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.&#8221; He suggested before purchasing the company he would cut down moderation sensitivity to allow all speech protected by law, and would allow polarizing banned figures back onto the platform, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/10/05/trumps-return-potential-layoffs-what-to-watch-for-as-musk-u-turns-again-to-buy-twitter/?sh=6b366642b312">former President Donald Trump</a>. A spike in hate speech was reported immediately after Musk took over as Twitter owner late last week as some users appeared intent on testing the new owner’s boundaries, with the Network Contagion Research Institiute&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ncri_io/status/1586007698910646272?s=20&amp;t=M_Hbs0nAqupr_VYEj64uSg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">finding</a>&nbsp;use of the n-word rose more than 500% over the course of 12 hours, while reports of antisemitic, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ language have been rampant. Banned accounts, including Trump&#8217;s, will remain in limbo for at least the next few weeks, Musk told civil rights leaders Wednesday. The billionaire said Twitter will create a &#8220;content moderation council&#8221; that will determine a &#8220;clear process&#8221; for allowing banned users back on the platform. The council &#8220;will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence,&#8221; Musk said.



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



Musk has also pointed to an enhanced Twitter Blue subscription service as a way of increasing revenue, but his proposal to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/01/twitter-will-sell-coveted-blue-checkmark-for-8-a-month-musk-says-but-benefits-still-unclear/?sh=7ca4d1755ac2">charge $8 a month</a>&nbsp;for users to acquire or keep a verified check mark has been widely panned. A&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;analysis found some 10.4 million users would have to buy into the subscription service to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2022/11/02/elon-musk-has-twitter-bills-to-pay-but-charging-for-a-blue-checkmark-wont-be-enough/?sh=771229157169">cover the company&#8217;s debts</a>—about 25 times more than the 400,000 accounts that have been verified for free.



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



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2022/11/02/elon-musk-has-twitter-bills-to-pay-but-charging-for-a-blue-checkmark-wont-be-enough/?sh=771229157169">Elon Musk Has Twitter Bills To Pay, But Charging For A Blue Checkmark Won’t Be Enough</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/general-mills-audi-and-pfizer-join-growing-list-of-companies-pausing-twitter-ads-11667507765?mod=e2tw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">General Mills, Audi and Pfizer Join Growing List of Companies Pausing Twitter Ads</a>&nbsp;(Wall Street Journal)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/10/28/gm-ford-say-they-arent-running-twitter-ads-as-they-assess-changes-under-elon-musk/?sh=4add17cb2a19">GM, Ford Say They Aren’t Running Twitter Ads As They Assess Changes Under Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/03/musk-plans-to-layoff-50-of-twitters-workforce-ahead-of-verification-fee-roll-out-next-week-reports-say/?sh=2e3f18517adb">Musk Plans To Layoff 50% Of Twitter’s Workforce Ahead Of Verification Fee Roll Out Next Week, Reports Say</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/10/27/musk-says-twitter-cannot-become-a-free-for-all-hellscape-ahead-of-purchase/?sh=6e22835178c3">Musk Says Twitter ‘Cannot Become A Free-For-All Hellscape’ Ahead Of Purchase</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/10/05/trumps-return-potential-layoffs-what-to-watch-for-as-musk-u-turns-again-to-buy-twitter/?sh=6b366642b312">Trump’s Return, Potential Layoffs: What To Watch For As Musk U-Turns (Again) To Buy Twitter</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/01/twitter-will-sell-coveted-blue-checkmark-for-8-a-month-musk-says-but-benefits-still-unclear/?sh=7ca4d1755ac2">Twitter Will Sell Coveted Blue Checkmark For $8 A Month, Musk Says—But Benefits Still Unclear</a> (Forbes)



By Nicholas Reimann, Forbes Staff

Twitter Losing Its Most Active Users

GM, Pfizer, Audi Pull Ads From Twitter After Musk Sale—Here Are The Other Companies Rethinking Their Ties

Ady Fleming on the music thriving in Rainbow Nation.



By Ross Holland



If you want to truly understand house music, just ask Adrian Fleming, the South African house DJ, music and event promoter and overall music enthusiast also known by his stage name, Ady Fleming.



Fleming has played in nightclubs and concert stages all over Johannesburg and across South Africa, his most notable performances being at the Rocking the Daisies music and lifestyle festival in Cape Town and at Deep Town Jozi, the monthly house party, in Johannesburg. He also plays at popular nightclubs such as And Club and ToyToy in Johannesburg.



He is riding the wave of what is a popular trend these days the world over.



According to Spotify, the period 2020 to 2022 saw Deep House South Africa showing a massive increase in streaming, both locally and internationally; the average year-on-year increase at 75% locally and 73% internationally.



This has seen Fleming expand his horizons with a roster of events and a possible international tour in the works, all whilst working on his new pet project Blun, a club event meant to explore the more dubby side of house music. Fleming has plans of splitting his brand into different avenues: a music agency, a record label and a music production company.



Fleming credits his love for music to his parents who weren’t professional musicians but had a great aptitude for it. Speaking to FORBES AFRICA, he happily recalls the days when he was asked to dance at family gatherings.



“I was a kid who just loved to dance at family functions… house music just gave me that feeling.”



He was in his teens when he had his first encounter with someone mixing music in front of a live audience, and says “it was quite cool”.



He soon learned to spin records from a childhood friend who was a DJ on weekends, and he chose house music, crediting pioneers such as Vinny DaVinci and Oskido who made the new sounds popular in South Africa in the early 2000s.



“We could easily resonate with house music because it had touches of soul, hip-hop, disco… it felt like home,” Fleming states.



At 16, Fleming formed a group comprising of adolescent DJs who played sets in the 2000s in and around Johannesburg South.



Along with other collaborations in the works, his new brand is taking form and Fleming has a busy year coming up. But he takes it all in his stride.



“Music takes time,” he adds in closing. For this particular South African house DJ, the beat goes on, and on.

Screenshot 2022-11-02 at 08.28.15

‘Music That Feels Like Home’: South African DJ On The Growth Of House Music

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



Deaths directly linked to alcohol rose sharply during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db448.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accelerating a decades-long trend and underscoring the far-reaching impact the outbreak has had on society.



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



The U.S. death rate directly linked to alcohol use jumped 26% between 2019 and 2020, according to the new government data.&nbsp;



Issues wholly attributed to drinking like alcoholic liver disease, alcohol poisoning or alcohol killed more than 49,000 in the first year of the pandemic, the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db448-tables.pdf#1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> showed, up from around 39,000 in 2019.



Ultimately, alcohol caused 13 deaths for every 100,000 people in 2020, up from 10.4 per 100,000 in 2019 and the highest rate the CDC has recorded in decades.&nbsp;



Men aged 55 to 64 died from alcohol use at a rate of nearly 60 per 100,000 people in 2020, the highest out of any group, and overall alcohol-related deaths were two and a half times as common among men than women.&nbsp;



Death rates from alcohol increased the most among younger people, however, with the largest jumps for men under 45 and women aged 25 to 44.&nbsp;



Alcohol-related deaths jumped 50% in men under the age of 25 and around 45% for men ages 25 to 44, the report found, with a 34% increase for women aged 25 to 34 and 42% for women aged 35 to 44.



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



The report only considers deaths directly attributable to excessive alcohol consumption. As such, it provides an incomplete picture of the health impact of alcohol consumption, which has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">well documented links</a>&nbsp;to a variety of issues including cancer, mental health problems and cardiovascular disease. Another report&nbsp;<a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2798004#:~:text=Results%20During%20the%202015%2D2019,attributable%20to%20excessive%20alcohol%20consumption." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a>&nbsp;this week in&nbsp;JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined the broader range of deaths associated with alcohol consumption in the U.S. for the five years prior to the pandemic (2015-2019). The study, conducted by researchers at the CDC and Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, concluded that alcohol use drove an estimated 695,000 deaths each year in adults aged 20 to 64 years. The figure, which accounted for a broad range of issues including cancers, heart disease and injuries resulting from alcohol use, would attribute roughly 1 in 8 deaths to alcohol use during that time. Among younger adults aged 20 to 49 years, this rose to roughly 1 in 5 total deaths.



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



The research underscores the broader health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic beyond the virus itself and highlights the growing problem of excessive alcohol use for younger Americans. Drinking, and the number of alcohol-related deaths, has been steadily rising for decades in the U.S. (deaths rose by at most 7% a year, according to the CDC data) but the pandemic appears to have accelerated the process. An uptick in drinking has been well-<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/22/health/pandemic-drinking-problem-wellness/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">documented</a>&nbsp;as a consequence of the numerous social pressures that comes with the pandemic, for example through the shift to working from home, mandatory isolation or the loss of social support networks.&nbsp;



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



3 million. That’s how many deaths each year result from the harmful use of alcohol,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the World Health Organization. This represents more than 5% of all deaths, the agency said, though this rate is far higher among younger people. Alcohol contributes to a number of other social and health issues beyond death and the WHO said it was responsible for more than 5% of the global burden of disease and injury.&nbsp;



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



<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/22/health/pandemic-drinking-problem-wellness/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The pandemic may have created a nation of problem drinkers – and many are women</a>&nbsp;(CNN)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2021/09/22/new-study-reveals-almost-one-in-five-americans-drinking-heavily-during-pandemic/?sh=29fea2753949">New Study Reveals Almost One In Five Americans Drinking Heavily During Pandemic</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katedingwall/2021/10/29/the-no-alcohol-industry-boomed-over-the-pandemic-wheres-it-going-next/?sh=2af604d3daf2">The No-Alcohol Industry Boomed Over the Pandemic. Where’s It Going Next?</a> (Forbes)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Close-up of hand holding wine glass, at late dinner

Deaths From Alcohol—On The Rise For Decades—Soared During Covid Pandemic, CDC Says

The 12th annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture took place in Cape Town, on October 7, the Archbishop’s birthday. Amina J Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), spoke at the in-person event, themed ‘A Vision for Hope and Healing’. Key in establishing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she has worked as Special Advisor to the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and was formerly Nigeria’s Minister of Environment. She elaborated that while more people are in poverty, denied basic rights, with the climate crisis crossing all borders, social cohesion fraying, inequalities, increasing xenophobia, nationalism and hate speech, it doesn’t have to be this way. The planet has irreplaceable resources and renewable energy, she said, and we’ve never been so connected by technology, living as long, or with as many women in positions of power. More in this interview with FORBES AFRICA:



Q: You spoke a bit about the fourth industrial revolution at the lecture, and you also spoke about decolonizing hundreds of years of education meant for other people. What do you imagine that to look like?



A: I think it starts first of all for from where we create access to education, and the curriculum that we put in place for it. And we talk about the scientific basis that we find we must have in early childcare. I think early childcare is not in a classroom, but very much in Africa today, it needs to start with adult literacy and mothers because as African women, and in our cultures – our children are with us until they’re three, attached at the hip, if you would.



So I think that we need to find creative ways of bringing education into the home, and not taking kids to institutions at that early age. So early childhood education, for me, is one transformation that happens together with a mother [for] that bonding in the community, where we say that Africa is brought up by a village and not by a couple of people. So, really bringing that community learning into early child care.



Then, building on that, the primary and secondary education that we need. One that really looks at that intrinsic value of education to a person, a person&#8217;s identity from their cultures, their religion, the good practices – so we don&#8217;t throw the baby out with the bathwater – we&#8217;re always referring to harmful cultural practices, and we never look at it from the positive side. And that we move on from things that we did not know were so harmful because they were so cultural, or so male-vested. And we need to move on. But there are some good things there.



And then really, to begin to build the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy, by putting the digital in front so that we&#8217;re not waiting until ‘oh, Africa is ready, or Africa has the resources right at the beginning’. Our ambition is for each child, as a global citizen, and not just an African citizen, but to bring that whole technology and learning into an environment. What I&#8217;m trying to say is that as we learn to have pride and independence of one&#8217;s being, how that contributes from the inside out. So you&#8217;re not just looking at capacities and skills to connect to the outside world without understanding anything about who you are, and the part that you play in your own ecosystem.



I do this because I was part of an education system that did this, although I have to say that we had a broader education. But as years have gone on, that curriculum has become loaded. It has lost its core. And I think people are struggling with who they are, and who they are is such a contradiction to people who want us to join this global family. And I think that we are richer for it if we identify with what we really are. The question of diversity for me is far deeper than the narrow, silo approach that we are seeing on diversity now.



The diversity piece has lost its meaning, because we&#8217;ve sort of pigeonholed different parts of our society that are different, and will choose to live differently. And what we need to see is healthy respect, and that these are the threads of our human fabric. And as such, each thread matters, each thread makes the fabric stronger, not weaker. So the less threads we have, that we leave behind, the weaker that fabric. And I think if you say that to people, then they see themselves in the fabric. It&#8217;s not you against us. And that&#8217;s what really draws me to the Arch [Desmond Tutu]. Because I think he really taught us how to respect what&#8217;s behind our skin. It&#8217;s us, it&#8217;s human beings. And as you&#8217;re born, you&#8217;re incredibly free of everything, and depending where you land, is what shapes you.



Q: You spoke about this at the lecture with your vision for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in light of all of the global and local conflicts. You termed it the ‘world in crisis’, how do you think Africa can move forward?



A: I think essentially, we&#8217;ve got to have a few conversations with ourselves. And there has to be a huge amount of courage that what you&#8217;re doing is shaping the future. I mean, concretely, shaping that future for your people with what you know is the right thing. And this is our leaders, and I&#8217;m saying leaders at different levels, because the leaders that we point to and look to as inspirations and heroes, they&#8217;re all gone now. And I don&#8217;t know who we point to, to replace them. Because today, we&#8217;re so critical of the person, we&#8217;re so judgmental of the person, and we miss the message that that person carries.



I think people like the Arch and Madiba [Nelson Mandela] always recognized their failings. And so people didn&#8217;t have a chance to throw any stones at them. What came out was ‘okay, I&#8217;m not perfect, I&#8217;m not God, but these are the things that I believe in, these are the things that I will fight for’. So as human beings, what we look to is what they stood for. And I&#8217;m not sure today that we give so much grace to leaders. And I think that we have to think and listen to what the leader is saying and doing, rather than judge what&#8217;s in the closet. Everybody&#8217;s got a closet, and some worse than others. But if that person takes a good message that does no harm, that brings people together, that forwards Africa, we need to find that community.



We have a responsibility as followers to get behind them to do the right thing. So conversation, really serious conversation. Whether it happens in the African Union [AU], and I have to tell you that in the AU, when leaders try to get together to have a closed-door meeting, the international community wants to be in on it. Even I, as an African, say to people, ‘oo, I&#8217;m the United Nations’. That&#8217;s their conversation they need to have. I can have a private one as well, as a brother or sister conversation to them. But in this piece here, give them space, because every one of them has baggage, and that baggage is colonial. And many of them are tied to it inextricably, and it&#8217;s hard.



So what common ground can they come together on to move us forward? And I think that the fact that we&#8217;re seeing no solidarity with Africa right now has actually empowered a conversation. I think the United Nations has been helpful for a sanguine Economic Commission for Africa that did a lot of work with the Minister of Finance. So they were able to take the issues in an international arena and argue them, and it&#8217;s quite difficult for our people to do that because essentially, they&#8217;re in their own bubble, fighting the day-to-day challenges of broken democracies and an incredibly different set of difficult situations, conflict, etc.



Q: At the lecture, you were also speaking about the need for self-determination; what does Africa need to do for that?



A: I think we&#8217;ve been told what to do and what&#8217;s good for us. And we have to come back and determine what is good for us. That&#8217;s why I said for education, it&#8217;s really important we think about that. And we think about what skills are going to put a kid, from when they get into school for 15 years, to the workplace? Is it the skills of tomorrow?



Then you hear what&#8217;s going on in South Africa with AI, and you&#8217;re thinking, ‘okay, what is the transition going to look like? How do we build that capacity? How do we look at the financial architecture, which was really built for another era, and not for our development – [what about] access courses or even profiting from the natural resources that we have, so that we can build?’ And so it&#8217;s going to be complex, because we are many, and our issues are very complex.



We need to think, ‘what is the low hanging fruit for a politician that is bound by a four or five-year cycle of democracy and elective office, to one that is longer?’ Longer term means you need institutional memory; that means that the services the institutions need to be able to carry us through these different cycles of elections.



The policy somersaults that we are feeling right now, I guess they feel them in the United Kingdom, they feel them in countries in Europe now that are going so far right from being so far left. So, it’s important, and then I think that, the more we educate people, the better constituencies we have for engaging. You can&#8217;t engage with one person, one vote, when there is quite frankly, a lack of education as to understanding why the vote, and what&#8217;s my vote worth? Is it $5? Or is it educational reform, and health services, and things that are my rights, that&#8217;s what my vote is. So it&#8217;s a little bit of a journey, as you know, the long road to freedom – the road is still being tracked.



Q: Is there anything else you&#8217;d like to anecdotally share on the issues you spoke about either in the lecture or about achieving the SDGs?



A: There are so many. Climate for me is the biggest challenge that we have, and opportunity. So when a farmer says to me that this is not about a flood, or temperatures, it&#8217;s about ‘I wake up in the morning



and my crop is gone because of a dust storm, and that dust storm has come because of drought, and my farm is gone, my livelihood is gone’. And then the livelihoods of all these Maasai women and men that I met, their livelihoods, their cattle have died. You see the carcasses on the road. And we don&#8217;t want to talk about that much. But that&#8217;s assets that have just been taken away. And so when Kenya is dealing with that, they&#8217;re saying, ‘okay, right now, the private sector is coming in, and we&#8217;re asking them to put a fund together, so they buy the cattle before they die’. So there are resources for that community, for the hard times, and they can replenish stock. Then we have put things together that will help us to build back with a level of resilience.



Those are real stories. They are real situations that have to sometimes find their way into the media, into the headlines. Not so much the misery of it, but the way that we can prevent it and then link that to the 1.5 degrees. I think there&#8217;s a disconnect between science, the 1.5 degrees and the reality on the ground. We need to link it, we need to say a third of Pakistan is underwater, because we&#8217;ve just had floods that are melting glaciers, and we can tie that to China, and it&#8217;s industrial pollution. We can do all this. So how do you tell the story?



I listened to an elder just three days ago, and his eyesight had gone. And all he said was ‘we&#8217;re very grateful for what you&#8217;ve been able to give us here, but there&#8217;s a lot of people you can&#8217;t see that haven&#8217;t been able to get to this’. And the first thing he said was women and people with disabilities. And it just made me think, ‘wow, this person right now is not talking about can we have more for me and my tribe’, which is what generally gets into a story, he’s been very specific about the people that are being left behind, that we don&#8217;t see.



I think he&#8217;s given me fodder for my advocacy. Because when I go back into those sterile rooms, that somehow craft language that I don&#8217;t understand, and many people don&#8217;t understand, we can break it down. And this is where I think the partnership with the media is so important. This is a new partnership that we need to have.

Batet Receives Un Deputy Secretary-general, Amina J. Mohammed

‘What We Need To See Is Healthy Respect, And These Are The Threads Of Our Human Fabric’: Amina J Mohammed On Diversity, SDGs, Climate Change and Africa Moving Forward

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



Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk plans to layoff nearly half of Twitter’s workforce by the end of this week in an effort to cut costs, according to several reports, as the billionaire also seeks to boost the social media platform’s ability to monetize its user base by charging for verification badges as early as next week.



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



Musk reportedly plans to lay off around 3,700 of Twitter’s 7,500 workers by Friday, various outlets including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/musk-plans-to-eliminate-half-of-twitter-jobs-in-cost-cut-drive?sref=CSMHWBLp#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9164ab3f-39b7-45a4-ac25-8bf5a1c7f7df" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Financial Times</a>reported, citing sources at the company.



Remaining staffers will be expected to return to in-office work starting Monday as Musk also plans to scrap Twitter’s remote work policy which allowed employees to work from anywhere.



According to Bloomberg, the exact extent and terms of the layoffs are still not final but one of the plans involves offering 60 days worth of severance pay to the laid off workers.



In a separate report citing sources, Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/musk-to-begin-charging-for-twitter-verification-as-soon-as-monday?sref=CSMHWBLp#xj4y7vzkg&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that Twitter may roll out its updated $8-per-month subscription plan—which includes the verification badge as a perk—as early as Monday.



The Bloomberg report also notes that Twitter’s edit feature, which is currently paywalled behind a Twitter Blue subscription, will be made free to all users.



<img decoding="async" src="https://img.connatix.com/pid-546f0bce-b219-41ac-b691-07d0ec3e3fe1/e8869d3f-0f3e-474a-a43d-be85f87597b4/846fbb20-336e-4ec3-aac8-808f62976673.jpg?crop=601:410,smart&amp;width=601&amp;height=410&amp;format=jpeg&amp;quality=60&amp;fit=crop" alt="Bracing For A Recession, Twitter Cutting Costs And Moving To Subscription Based Model">



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



Musk’s plan to charge $8 a month for a verification badge has drawn criticism from several quarters including political leaders. On Wednesday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1587976944976535555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>: “One guy’s business plan for a $44 billion over-leveraged purchase is apparently to run around and individually ask people for $8. Remember that next time you question yourself or your qualifications.”



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



The planned layoffs and decision to charge a monthly fee for verification badges comes as Twitter faces potential backlash from advertisers concerned about looser content moderation under Musk’s leadership. Musk, who fashions himself as a “free speech absolutist” has also expressed his desire to wean Twitter off its dependence on ads which make up 90% of its total revenue. Despite this, Musk has only vaguely outlined other perks for the revamped Twitter Blue subscription outside of a verified badge. On Tuesday, he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/01/twitter-will-sell-coveted-blue-checkmark-for-8-a-month-musk-says-but-benefits-still-unclear/?sh=5a0e1e095ac2">said</a>&nbsp;subscribers will see fewer ads, have the ability to share longer videos or audio clips and receive “priority in replies, mentions &amp; search.” As he tries to build alternate revenue sources, the billionaire has also tried to woo advertisers to remain on the platform by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/10/27/musk-says-twitter-cannot-become-a-free-for-all-hellscape-ahead-of-purchase/?sh=5aefef2f78c3">promising</a>&nbsp;he will not allow it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.” Advertising giants, however, remain skeptical and are reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ad-giants-advise-brands-to-pause-spending-on-elon-musks-twitter-11667333021?mod=djemalertNEWS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">urging brands</a>&nbsp;to pause ad spends on Twitter until content moderation concerns are addressed. Musk on Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587899771091566595" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted out a poll</a>&nbsp;from his account asking if advertisers should support “freedom of speech or Political ‘correctness,’” implying that companies pulling ads from Twitter over content moderation concerns are opposed to free speech or are only doing so because of political correctness.



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



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/musk-plans-to-eliminate-half-of-twitter-jobs-in-cost-cut-drive?sref=CSMHWBLp#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk Plans to Eliminate Half of Twitter Jobs to Cut Costs</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9164ab3f-39b7-45a4-ac25-8bf5a1c7f7df" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elon Musk plans to cut up to half of Twitter workforce</a>&nbsp;(Financial Times)



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/musk-to-begin-charging-for-twitter-verification-as-soon-as-monday?sref=CSMHWBLp#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elon Musk Aims to Start Charging for Twitter Verification Next Week</a>(Bloomberg)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Elon Musk And Twitter Logo Illustration

Musk Plans To Layoff 50% Of Twitter’s Workforce Ahead Of Verification Fee Roll Out Next Week, Reports Say

BY TSHILIDZI MARWALA



AS ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) breaks frontiers anew, it stands to reason that the very nature of conflict will undergo a seismic change too. We are already starting to see a manifestation of this. Last year, for example, an Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by an assassin. What was intriguing is that this assassination occurred from a computer screen at an undisclosed location more than 1,000 miles away through an AI system. This was a high-tech, computerized sharpshooter, which featured AI and multiple-camera eyes, operated via satellite and capable of firing 600 rounds a minute. The New York Times referred to it as a “straight-out-of-science-fiction story”.



Though it sounds somewhat fantastic, it is a development we must take seriously. The very nature of conflict has undergone a paradigm shift of its own. The United Nations (UN) stated a couple of years ago that this is a new era of conflict as “conflicts now tend to be less deadly and often waged between domestic groups rather than states”. Yet, as we watch Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to unfold, we cannot dismiss the threat of greater interstate conflict in the future, particularly cognizant of the changing global dynamics. There is a multitude of levels to this – we could see AI weaponized or the manifestation of a war over who will emerge as the first AI superpower or as my colleagues Eyasu Habtermarian and Monica Lagazio and I proposed in 2007, AI could be used to predict militarized interstate disputes, with the implication that it is not all as dire as it seems. The crux of the matter is that technology will determine how wars will be fought, and we have to respond now. As Carayannis and Draper concluded in a journal article this year: “Artificial superintelligence emerging in a world where war is still normalised constitutes a catastrophic existential risk.”



The question perhaps becomes, how do we mitigate the risk factors? One argument made is that there should be a call for greater mediation tactics. For example, states could establish a Universal Global Peace Treaty to constrain the risk of AI warfare. In 2014, the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) discussed lethal autonomous weapons systems for the first time but failed to garner consensus on the issue. In 2018, the #CyberMediation initiative was developed to determine the impact of technology on mediation, including their benefit and risks, to create a platform for collaboration between technology companies, mediators and policymakers. Another argument is that there needs to be an adequate prediction of the possibility of conflict between states. For example, Habtermarian, Lagazio and I found that neural networks, or a series of algorithms that recognize patterns, have already been implemented to predict militarized interstate disputes. Yet, Support Vector Machines (SVMs), which use a classification system for algorithms, proved to be more effective as a prediction technique. It is apparent that much more can be gained from tapping into the potential of AI.



For example, through Natural Language Processing, which analyses languages, we can follow debates on social media channels to better understand the dynamics in specific regions and the impact this could have on the international community. There also needs to be a push toward achieving the tenets set out by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as these underlying factors are often drivers of conflict. Better tracking systems through satellites or drones could give us a clearer picture of resource challenges at a state level. Moreover, there is scope to utilize AI at a decision-making level. As I have written extensively, machines represent “the ideal concept of intelligence” and thus should be used in decision-making as it exemplifies rationality. These are strategies we need to adopt at a global level to ensure that we center human good over all else.



The takeaway is that the subversion from how AI can escalate global conflicts to how AI can prevent global conflicts is important in this endeavor. To paraphrase the UN, the concern has to be on exploring these emerging technologies so that they can be deployed to de-escalate violence and increase international stability. The 19th-century English author H G Wells once said, “If we don’t end war, war will end us.” As technology becomes more entrenched in our lives, this should be our attitude towards the use of AI in conflict. The aim is not to best each other with intelligent weaponry but rather to ensure that deadly and often senseless conflict is avoided. To lean into the words of World Economic Forum (WEF) Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab, this is how we prioritize the promise of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) over the peril.



– The writer is the outgoing Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg and on March 1, 2023, will become Rector of the United Nations University

Artificial Intelligence, technology

South African Academic On AI And Interstate Conflict: Why Emerging Technologies Should Be Deployed To De-Escalate Violence 

Ghana’s plethora of economic battles include the depreciating cedi, the ongoing IMF negotiations, cuts in government expenditure and salaries to free up funding, and businesses closing doors.



Ghana’s economic prospects have been a mixed bag of emotions in recent years. Lauded globally for its handling of the marauding Covid-19 virus which saw fewer fatalities in contrast to the rest of the world, Ghana’s economy bounced back in a remarkable feat reaching 5.4% growth in 2021, a stark contrast from the 0.5% it recorded in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.



Not only that, the last quarter of 2021 saw a further growth of 7% and once again, President Nana Akufo-Addo’s economic management was celebrated globally amidst a background that saw decimated economies all over Africa.



But earlier this year, despite Ghana’s position as the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer, its currency was adjudicated the worst performing currency (cedi) slumping to a more than 45% loss, the worst among over 140 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. To make matters worse, inflation, which currently stands at an unbelievable 34% according to the Bank of Ghana has all but eaten away people’s incomes with millions of Ghanaians struggling to make ends meet.



“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so,” said the president in a televised address to the nation on Sunday, October 30, admitting to a fragile economy.



“I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time. But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedevilled our economy.”



The situation is so dire that calls for the country’s finance minister, Ken Ofori-Attah, to step down has intensified, inviting reactions from various political observers.



“Against all the clear public wails of the majority of your people, you continue to hold on to a job you’ve woefully failed at and leading a process you don’t believe in [going to the International Monetary Fund] after failing to properly introduce a new tax line, e-levy and borrowing us out of the international financial market,” comments Nana Aba, a leading political broadcaster in Ghana.



How bad is the crisis?



According to the president, Ghana has the highest inflation in the past 40 years, the steepest depreciation in the cedi to the US dollar over the past 30 years, the highest rise in cost of living over a generation, the fastest rise in interest rates for over 20 years, the highest rise in government borrowing in over 50 years and the greatest threat of unemployment in peace time; with over a hundred million people being pushed into extreme poverty.



And invariably, this has also had a knock-on effect on businesses in Ghana.



“With the current global and domestic economic crisis, the cost of ingredients has sky rocketed far beyond our imagination. Current food prices unfortunately no longer make sense for us to sell based on the business model under which we operate. We refuse to drop the standard of ingredients and as such on November 1, we made the difficult decision to close our doors,” says Frank Apaloo, the owner of a restaurant in Ghana.



Like him, many startups that started delivery services as a means to survive during the Covid lockdown are now shutting down due to the economic downturn.



The country’s hope for a turnaround lies in the ongoing negotiations with the IMF to seek financial support, which only began in July this year after foreign investors dumped its debt and protests erupted on the streets of Accra, according to Reuters.



President Akufo-Addo believes that talks are at advanced stage and going well and the loan facility is estimated to close by the end of the year.



In the meantime, he is hoping that addressing the nation regularly on television – what has become popularly known ‘as my fellow Ghanaians’ – along with a 30% cut in discretionary expenditure and 30% cut in the salaries of the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and political office holders, will be enough to stem the growing unrest reportedly slowly bubbling under the surface of the country’s deteriorating economy.

Ghanaian Cedi Banknotes

Ghana’s Woeful Economic Crisis: The Challenges Ahead

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



A textless meme of a dog in a T-shirt tweeted by the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk sent one of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies up 12% Tuesday, the latest instance of tongue-in-cheek social media activity causing big money moves.



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



Musk’s&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587297730631696384?s=20&amp;t=LyxmZux9A7OErRktrr3ddw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>&nbsp;of a Shiba Inu adorned with a Twitter logo instantly went viral, picking up nearly 600,000 likes.



The image is an apparent reference to&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/elon-musk-texts-discovery-twitter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>&nbsp;Musk will heavily incorporate dogecoin, a coin with a Shiba Inu’s face on it, on Twitter.



Dogecoin rose to a six-month high of $0.14, and is up a whopping 131% over the last month, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/traded-assets/">Forbes’ tracker of digital assets</a>.



Also gaining was the cryptocurrency Shiba Inu, which rose 8% Tuesday.



Outside from the canine tokens, the crypto market broadly rose, with bitcoin and Ethereum gaining 2.6% and 5%, respectively.



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



$10.2 billion. That’s how much in market capitalization dogecoin has gained since October 4, the day Musk’s intent to close the Twitter deal went public. Its $19.1 billion market cap is roughly the same as Hewlett Packard.



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



Dogecoin briefly reached a market cap of about $70 billion last year when it peaked near $0.70 before quickly losing its luster, falling to as low as $0.05. Much of dogecoin’s surge came as Musk relentlessly touted the coin. This year has been bleak for crypto, with bitcoin down 57% year-to-date, compared to a 19% loss for the S&amp;P 500. Doge’s rise and fall mirrored that of several other meme assets, including stocks like AMC, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond and GameStop.&nbsp;



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



The potential dogecoin adoption is one of many changes to his new social network teased by Musk on his Twitter account, with the billionaire also putting out feelers for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/31/vine-20-twitter-reportedly-working-to-bring-back-video-service-after-musk-poll/?sh=1a725f763f42">return of</a>&nbsp;the short-form video service Vine and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/10/31/a-verified-badge-on-twitter-may-cost-users-20-a-month-report-says/">monthly fee</a>&nbsp;for users to retain their verified badges.



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



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/28/crypto-markets-gain-nearly-100-billion-after-elon-musks-twitter-deal-boosts-dogecoin/?sh=3e486d062540">Crypto Markets Gain Nearly $100 Billion After Elon Musk&#8217;s Twitter Deal Boosts Dogecoin</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

Tag: Featured

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Most Expensive Art Auction Ever: Paul Allen’s Collection Fetches Record $1.5 Billion

World Population Set To Hit 8 Billion On November 15: What Does It Mean For Africa

‘Qatar Is A Mistake,’ Ex-FIFA Head Says: Here’s Why The 2022 World Cup Is Mired In Controversy

The Nigerian Techpreneurs Wanting To Build A New Country

‘Highway To Climate Hell’: Officials Issue Stern Warnings At COP27 Summit

Doctor’s Orders: The Nigerian Changing The Narrative Of Healthcare

Meta Reportedly Preparing ‘Large-Scale’ Job Cuts—Here Are The Biggest U.S. Layoffs This Year

GM, Pfizer, Audi Pull Ads From Twitter After Musk Sale—Here Are The Other Companies Rethinking Their Ties

‘Music That Feels Like Home’: South African DJ On The Growth Of House Music

Deaths From Alcohol—On The Rise For Decades—Soared During Covid Pandemic, CDC Says

‘What We Need To See Is Healthy Respect, And These Are The Threads Of Our Human Fabric’: Amina J Mohammed On Diversity, SDGs, Climate Change and Africa Moving Forward

Musk Plans To Layoff 50% Of Twitter’s Workforce Ahead Of Verification Fee Roll Out Next Week, Reports Say

South African Academic On AI And Interstate Conflict: Why Emerging Technologies Should Be Deployed To De-Escalate Violence

Ghana’s Woeful Economic Crisis: The Challenges Ahead

Musk Meme Fuels $2 Billion Gain For Dogecoin

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Most Expensive Art Auction Ever: Paul Allen’s Collection Fetches Record $1.5 Billion

World Population Set To Hit 8 Billion On November 15: What Does It Mean For Africa

‘Qatar Is A Mistake,’ Ex-FIFA Head Says: Here’s Why The 2022 World Cup Is Mired In Controversy￼

The Nigerian Techpreneurs Wanting To Build A New Country

‘Highway To Climate Hell’: Officials Issue Stern Warnings At COP27 Summit

Doctor’s Orders: The Nigerian Changing The Narrative Of Healthcare

Meta Reportedly Preparing ‘Large-Scale’ Job Cuts—Here Are The Biggest U.S. Layoffs This Year￼

GM, Pfizer, Audi Pull Ads From Twitter After Musk Sale—Here Are The Other Companies Rethinking Their Ties

‘Music That Feels Like Home’: South African DJ On The Growth Of House Music

Deaths From Alcohol—On The Rise For Decades—Soared During Covid Pandemic, CDC Says

‘What We Need To See Is Healthy Respect, And These Are The Threads Of Our Human Fabric’: Amina J Mohammed On Diversity, SDGs, Climate Change and Africa Moving Forward

Musk Plans To Layoff 50% Of Twitter’s Workforce Ahead Of Verification Fee Roll Out Next Week, Reports Say

South African Academic On AI And Interstate Conflict: Why Emerging Technologies Should Be Deployed To De-Escalate Violence

Ghana’s Woeful Economic Crisis: The Challenges Ahead

Musk Meme Fuels $2 Billion Gain For Dogecoin￼

‘Qatar Is A Mistake,’ Ex-FIFA Head Says: Here’s Why The 2022 World Cup Is Mired In Controversy

Meta Reportedly Preparing ‘Large-Scale’ Job Cuts—Here Are The Biggest U.S. Layoffs This Year

Musk Meme Fuels $2 Billion Gain For Dogecoin