Africa News blog
African business, politics and lifestyle
Update on the refugee camp that now lives in the sky
Screen grab of the introduction to the online game "The City That Shouldn't Exist"
A few months ago I wrote a story about a controversial online game posted on Facebook called the “The City That Shouldn’t Exist” that was consequently pulled off the Web days after its launch amid claims it objectified refugees and lacked sensitivity.
The game developed by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) with funding from ECHO, the European Commission’s humanitarian agency, and designed to raise awareness of Dadaab refugee camp on the Kenyan-Somali border, is now back online but with some noticeable changes.
Some features have been removed such as Mr. ECHO’s lover calling him “my hero” as he leaps out of bed on hearing an emergency siren go off. That was deemed too cheesy. You can still rescue or “drag and drop” your refugees as you do your supplies but instead of them walking towards a pile of bones, now they just walk towards a hole.
“My refugees were dying like flies because I couldn’t work out how to drag’n'drop supplies. Haven’t felt so stressed since I worked for ECHO!” posted Marianne Farrar-Hockley on the Facebook page hosting the game.
from MacroScope:
Social media for the Arab jobless
In the realm of long-term economic things to worry about, there is not much that can rival youth unemployment in the greater Middle East and North Africa. Some years ago, for example, the World Bank estimated that the region's population rise was such that jobs needed to grow by some 3.5 percent per year if unemployment along the lines of one-in-four was to be avoided over the next couple of decades. There has been nothing of great note to change this forecast.
The International Monetary Fund has just weighed into the issue with a post on the subject and some startling figures on the depth of the problem. As author Masood Ahmed writes:
Simply put, the region is facing unparalleled demographic pressures. Population growth over the past two generations has been among the fastest in the world: the region’s work force is projected to reach 185 million in 2020, 80 percent higher than in 2000. And the region is one of the most youthful in the world—with about 60 percent of the population less than 25 years old.
The IMF says the best way it can help is to help governments in the region devise policies for macroeconomic stability and strong, sustainable growth that is essential to creating jobs.
But it also reckons that it need to talk to the people it is worried about -- the region's youth. So it has begun a series of roundtable meetings with what it sees as the next generation of leaders from the region's most prestigious universities.
Slightly more unusually, however, it has also turned to social media. Imfyouthdialog.org is a social networking site designed to get young people from the greater Middle East and North Africa taking about their problems.
It has 283 members so far, but to look at the IMF's figures a potential audience of many, many millions more.
As If!!! Insensitive Aid worker stuff as usual from the “developed”. Clearly one has missed the point on the whole “humanitarian(ism)” rhyme and reason. Hope they find their peace … there in also will there be peace in many parts of the world experiencing conflict. We pray for Somalia.