5min chapter

Tai Asks Why cover image

Can our generation make Earth Day cool again? (Bonus from What On Earth)

Tai Asks Why

CHAPTER

Exploring Earth Day visions and recent climate news stories

Exploring the future vision for Earth Day, emphasizing extended celebrations and inclusive civic engagement. Discussion includes plans for Earth Day 2024, showcasing community engagement in events like the Farmworker March, alongside updates on climate news stories like the Highway 413 construction proposal and the birth of cloned black-footed ferret babies.

00:00
Speaker 1
When people don't recognize things in this way, they can't descend without meaning and they omit the very important fact that for the better part of the last 60 years in the post-colonial period, African countries have been the captives of their own sheep and the masters of their own feet. The point I was trying to make in that particular piece was to then sort of drive on this point and to ask us to pay greater attention to the agency of African countries and not to assume that because so many countries, Western countries, Middle East countries, Gulf countries, that these countries are increasingly interested in Africa, then means that it's scrambled for Africa. So, I had a question, there's no scramble. You scramble for something that is enough in animate agentless. In the latter part of the 19th century, we're talking about the conference in Berlin and all of that, we didn't have Africa. We would have it now. But once you have this static framework that is not flexible enough to accommodate new data and new development, you are stuck in your conceptual rocks, you fail to see all the dynamism and all the ways in which different African countries sometimes are playing the great powers against one another to advance their own interest. In my own book, that is called Diplomacy. It is not interference.
Speaker 2
But to pick up on that, though the power brokers in each country will make their own decisions, there is clearly much at stake and also much to be gained by foreign actors in terms of their investments in the region and interventions in any crises. But the French, for example, are now no longer welcome in large parts of Central Africa. Is it even more detrimental if Western nations simply turn away? Yeah.
Speaker 1
I swear the earlier question about the progress of democracy in African countries comes into play. You are absolutely right that there is a trade against the Libra International order, as we've always understood it. And if nobody knew that, it came out most vividly in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine when the United States and the Western Allies tried to corral all the African countries in one direction. And many of them said, no, we're not going to do that. Some of them voted, of course, for the UN resolution. Many abstained surprisingly. And it was the first moment that in Washington, in London, people thought, okay, there's something out cooking out there, something brewing that would not pay sufficient attention to. And how to what is going on is a deliberate attempt by Russia, by China to undermine not just the Libra International order. That is the ultimate goal, but to defend the idea of Libra democracy. So China is building so-called leadership schools in Africa, where it's trying to train African leaders in the Maoist way, putting has been out there selling himself as a figure of resistance to the West and confirmation of standing proof that authoritarianism works. This is why it's never been more important to strengthen Libra democracy. The more Libra democracy struggles, the more these malign actors and nefarious agents are able to point attention and say, see, I told you, it doesn't work. I give you something different, charismatic authoritarianism. It's a war, it's a top-down, nobody is able to disagree, and it gives you, it's put food on your table, it gives you jobs. It's a false promise, right? Because in many African countries, where we've experienced military dictatorship and other forms of authoritarianism, we know that that is the road to slavery, that it does not work. So we have a common interest there in strengthening Libra democracy, not just because we want to repudiate its adversaries outside the continent, but also because we want to be able to show that the only path to economic prosperity and dignity for Africans is through the ballot, free speech, free press, free economies and institutions that reflect the wishes of the people at
Speaker 5
all times. I'm Oz Kataji, and thanks for
Speaker 2
listening to this episode of This is Not a Drill. In light of what we've heard, on many in the West, misunderstanding or ignoring such problems, I'll leave the final word to Dalia Abdulmanaim.
Speaker 3
If you live in the West, you can access your leader, your political leaders, your parliamentary members, your congress folk. Actually, I don't have that privilege. The only weapon I have is doing these interviews, posting, tweeting, writing. It's the only thing I can do, and trying to amplify Sudanese, the ones who are studying Sudan and helping those. So just raise the alarm on Sudan, because it's 10 million people have been displaced. I'm technically a refugee because I cross borders, but I'm luckier than most, far luckier than most. In his dire, it's just beyond horrific, nothing is being done. It's being ignored
Speaker 5
and forgotten. This is Not a Drill, written and presented by Oz
Speaker 2
Kataji, produced by Robin Leiber, art by Jim Parrot in music by Paul Hartnell. Through predator is Andrew Harrison, an executive producer of Martin Boytosh. This is Not a Drill, is a Pubmaster's production.

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