lolAfrican Dictators.

By request...

For your pleasure, a lolCharlesTaylor.

Fun is a Secondary Objective

I realized in making my "Game of Life: Africa Edition" that it's not designed for the player to have fun, it's designed so others can laugh at you.

At certain points in the game, outcomes of random events are determined by drawing cards from a pile. At the end of the game, the winner is whoever has the most pwnage points.

• Names (http://www.babynameworld.com/african.asp)
○ Rain
○ Monsoon
○ Monday
○ Tuesday
○ Wednesday
○ Thursday
○ Friday
○ Saturday
○ Sunday
○ C-Section
○ Drought
○ Sun
○ Dwayne
○ Erik
○ Fola
○ Finn
○ Femi
○ Abeni
○ Aissa
○ Baako

• Puberty
○ Circumcised: Death from complications
§ Start over

○ Circumcised: Hurts like a mother
§ Move back two spaces

○ Physical ordeal: Slay a lion
§ + 50 pwnage points
§ Move forward one space

○ Physical Ordeal: Brutally mauled by a lion
§ - 50 Pwnage points
§ Move back one space

○ No physical ordeal or circumcision, your family lives in the city and is too progressive
§ Move forward two spaces

• Exams
○ Success! Your family is wealth enough to buy your way through the test. Perfect scores.
○ Failure! Go start selling sunglasses.
○ Success! Your studying pays off.
○ Success! Your schooling has served you well.
○ Success! You got lucky. Don't let it go to your head.

• Random
○ Realize that Rob was full of shit about the two lions. Move forward 2 spaces.
○ Get mauled by the same two lions. Move back three spaces.

• University

○ Become revolutionized and start a revolution.
§ + 150 pwnage points

○ Protest against corrupt government and be put in prison
§ Move back two spaces

○ Get hella smart, enter the government
§ Move forward three spaces

○ Sellout: Work for a corporation exploiting Africa and its resources
§ Move back one space

○ Flunk out
§ Move back 5 spaces

○ Start your own business
§ Move forward one space

○ Become disillusioned, bitter, and burnt out on academia
§ Move backwards one space

LOLBONOBO.

I made a lolbonobo.

HAAAA SAVENYA

Mehera's 20% Time

This is kind of late, but --

During my 20% time on Friday I went to C's art room and looked through her African Art book. I've chosen to study old Nigerian art as my project, so I flipped through the section on the Nok civilization. I found a picture of a head carved out of some sort of stone, and I made a mini-replica of it out of molding clay. I'm planning on making a plaster replica of it later, so making the mini one out of molding clay was the first step.

I think during the break I'll go to the library and see if I can find a book on African [particularly Nigerian] sculptures.

Rob's 20% Time

So now I have begun narrowing down the countries which are considered the most dangerous, and I ordered Robert Pelton's book, The World's Most Dangerous Places. Here is what I have decided to be the list of the top ten most dangerous countries. I will pick one city from each country, and will create either a travel manual or a slide presentation on each city, listing them as 10 places not to go in Africa. Here they are

Liberia

South Africa

Burundi

Somalia

Sierra Leone

Sudan

Zimbabwe

Angola

Nigeria

Ethiopia

When I get the book I'll plan on using it as my main reference, and then I will jump further into each of the countries, hopefully coming out with one very specific place not to go in each country.

Ariana's 20% Time

I researched lists of African films, and international film about Africa. Most of the ones I found aren't available, but I compiled a list of some that are.

Faraw! Mother of the Dunes
Haramuya
Tasuma
Monday’s Girls
Blood Diamond
Hotel Rwanda
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Black Hawk Down
The Constant Gardener
The Last King of Scotland
Sometimes in April
Tears of the Sun
Apocalypse Now
Battle of Algiers
Nowhere in Africa
Mama Africa: Growing Up Urban

What Mara Accomplished Today During 20% Time

I spent class researching Nigerian literature (as I've found the most noteworthy literature I might actually be able to find at a Borders or Barnes & Noble to be Nigerian). I compiled a list of eight books I might like to read; I may narrow it down by a few later, but it seems solid. Most are books described as having won awards or having received a lot of critical acclaim. If you want, I can post the actual list.

There.

Race and Elena's 20% time...

So. We looked up different species of endangered animals, and decided to focus on deforestation as a topic for our movie (causes, solutions, areas most affected in Sub-Saharan Africa, etc.). And we can include stuff about monkeys.

Oh, and we watched a bit of Blood Diamond.

Posting for me and Emily:
We learned pronouns and the possessives for those pronouns (like, if
the stem that agrees with the word for name is l-, you add the possessives to make
pronoun in question agree with the noun). We also made a noun list, and are going to know them by next week. And! We know how to count from one to 100. And we practiced saying numbers and the vocab and whatnot.

I researched a number of African dictators online and tried to find poetry by them. The only one I could find any poems by was the Ginuean leader Ahmed Sékou Touré. My next step will be to look for books that might have more poetry in them.

Summary

Found articles on cotton subsidies:

http://www.worldviewmagazine.com/issues/article.cfm?id=163&issue=39

http://www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/africa072505.cfm

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/archive-2005/wto_cotton_ruling

Cool Videos

Current Issues in Ghana

Here's some Oxfam things about the issues of mining vs. agriculture in Ghana, currently. It's interesting. Dave also has the full article from the Oxfam newsletter, if anyone is interested.