Overview: April 13th till 19th, 2019
Limited access to internet increases people’s vulnerability to misinformation and fake images in many African countries, like Malawi. South Africans might have come to the conclusion that there has been a recent ‘wave of protests’ by poor people, but actually this is nothing new. One month after Cyclone Idai the released numbers describing the devastation are truly distressing. To finish this week’s “Top of the Blogs” we also take a look at Trump’s latest immigration plans targeting specific African countries and feature an interview with the DRC’s “president-elect” Martin Fayulu.
High Cost of Internet vs. Fake Images
Pictures do not lie – unfortunately this is no longer strictly true. We are now living in a time of mass information manipulation, mass distribution and redistribution of information. New telecommunication technologies are the reason why all of this is possible yet the high cost of data might be compounding the spread of misinformation.
How portrayal of protest in South Africa denigrates poor people
Poor people in South Africa often feel that the only way they can be heard is to protest. Recently it seems that not even this gets them a hearing. The effect is, not for the first time, to denigrate poor people by offering a distorted picture of their lives and to keep alive spurious claims about protest which hail back to the era when the apartheid system governed the country.
One month later: Cyclone Idai’s devastation by the numbers
One month ago, Cyclone Idai crashed into Mozambique. The storm was so powerful that it drove into neighbouring landlocked Zimbabwe and Malawi. The flood waters are receding and the scale of the devastation is becoming clear. One month after the storm the death toll is now above one thousand with damages estimated at $2 billion.
“One day Congo will explode”: What now for the DRC’s “president-elect”?
According to election observer data 62-year-old businessman and politician Martin Fayulu won the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) less than four months ago. And yet he is not president. Still, he is widely believed to have been the true victor of the DRC’s 2018 elections. African Arguments spoke to him about his next steps.
Trump’s latest immigration plan targets African countries whose citizens overstay visas
Trump’s administration is considering a new immigration measure to impose visa restrictions on countries whose citizens have a track record of overstaying beyond the validity of their short-term US visas. As it turns out, several African countries whose nationals have high rates of overstaying their visas - including Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - could be on the receiving end if the measure is seen through.