⁣The Diamond Empire
1 Feb 1994


⁣SEASON 1994: EPISODE 9


Second only to Christmas, Valentine’s Day is the holiday when diamonds are most often given as the ultimate token of love. Central to the diamond’s role as a romantic symbol is the belief that diamonds are one of the rarest, most precious gifts for a loved one. But it’s only a myth–diamonds are found in plentiful supply. FRONTLINE examines how the great myth about the scarcity of diamonds and their inflated value was created and maintained over the decades by the diamond cartel. This report chronicles how one family, the Oppenheimers of South Africa, gained control of the supply, marketing, and pricing of the world’s diamonds.

News Review, Monday 10 May, 2021

Fusion power is the "Holy Grail" of energy, and the first country to successful deploy fusion power at scale will upend the economic order of the world.

In under two decades, China's nuclear power industry went from functionally zero, to at least fifteen years ahead of the United States in most metrics. China now leads the global field in research, and in the number and types of reactors currently under construction. China's supply chain dominance also ensures that virtually all the components and parts are domestically sourced.

Last month, a Shanghai company announced a successful test of their newest fusion reactor, and created plasma for the first time. Their reactor is much smaller than Western types, and can be built in under 4 years, instead of 30, and for just 5% of the cost of European or American designs.

China's national plans call for rollouts of fusion reactor prototypes by 2035, and economy-wide installations by 2050. If China meets these targets, while the United States and Europe are still racing to catch up, the industrial and economic advantages to China may be irreversible and permanent.

Resources and links:

Power Technology, The US is 15 years behind China in nuclear power - report
https://www.power-technology.c....om/news/the-us-is-15

How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power?
https://itif.org/publications/....2024/06/17/how-innov

SCMP, How China’s huge industrial supply chain may lead to ‘artificial sun’ via nuclear fusion
https://www.scmp.com/news/chin....a/science/article/32

Company website, Energy Singularity
https://www.energysingularity.cn/en/technology/

China’s Energy Singularity produces first net energy positive fusion reaction
https://www.intellinews.com/ch....ina-s-energy-singula

Oil Price, China Has Just Gained First-Mover Advantage In Nuclear Fusion
https://oilprice.com/Alternati....ve-Energy/Nuclear-Po

Investopedia, First Mover Advantage
https://www.investopedia.com/t....erms/f/firstmover.as

Closing scene, The Bund, Shanghai

Film by Sorious Samura and Clive Patterson

How political corruption is turning the country's spiralling youth unemployment into a threat to society.

You can witness the same scene at dawn every morning in Kenya's capital, Nairobi: thousands of young people in search of work are streaming out from the city's slums towards its industrial areas.

Most of them are neatly if simply dressed, many of them are full of optimism, but the vast majority are destined to be disappointed. Those that can afford it will try and cram onto a bus in an attempt to beat the crowds, the rest will weave their way on foot through the heavy morning commuter traffic. But when they arrive, the situation for all of them will invariably be the same as it was on the previous day and the day before that and on all the other preceding days.

They will spend an hour or so packed in their hundreds along the pavements and parking lots outside a factory, warehouse or office block, certificates of education and references from previous employers ready to hand, waiting patiently for something to happen.

The usual rumours pass from person to person, this company is said to need people with computer skills, that one needs fork lift truck drivers or perhaps some just some day laborers. But then a supervisor will step from the building and shout out that he can offer a day's work for four people with experience of working a lathe or two with secretarial skills.

Many step forward, a lucky few are selected at random and make their way inside, then the doors of the building close and the rest drift off to take up station at the next place or to make their long way back home - hopes dashed yet again.

A national disaster in the making?

George, a Kenyan in his early twenties, has graduated from university in December 2012 with a diploma in electrical engineering but so far he has been unable to find work.

"The chance I'm going to be chosen today is limited," he says. "I'm just gambling. You can stand here for as long as half a day, because you never know the time that you can be picked."

It is a story that is all too common. Joblessness among all people of working age is a serious problem in Kenya, but among young people, it is a catastrophe. The country has one of the largest youth populations in Africa, but roughly 70 percent of its working age youth - almost 10 million people - are unemployed, although a surprising number are very well educated and possess the kinds of skills a healthy economy really should be able to put to use.

In a country where almost 80 percent of the population is under the age of 35 some have labelled it a national disaster in the making, that may have serious social consequences and lead to civil unrest.

For a country that is still recovering from the scars of the widespread community violence that followed the 2007 election and which is still reeling from the aftermath of the al-Shabab Westgate mall terrorist attack in September 2013, it is a hint worth taking seriously.

Dr Alex Ezeh of the African Population and Health Research Centre in Nairobi put the significance of this youth population 'bulge' in context.

"It is a demographic event," he says. "It's something that many countries go through at different stages as they move from very high fertility and mortality to very low mortality, it creates this reservoir of people." But this, as he explained, can have positive and negative consequences.

"Generally, what makes it a good thing is our ability to harness the economic potential of such a large proportion of young people going into the labour market … There is a side of it, the more negative part of it, which is, if there are no jobs and no opportunities to engage, then you have a lot of young people understanding what is going on but they're disenfranchised politically, economically, and in many other ways, and this creates a lot of political instability."

The stark reality for the young people from the huge slums at Kibera and Mathare and elsewhere around Kenya's capital is that life without a job is extremely difficult. With no regular income many of them have to turn to crime to make a living. And even if they do not, they are often suspected of involvement in crime, which in turn leads to deadly entanglements with Kenya's notoriously trigger-happy police.

A generation pushed to the edge

When asked who should be doing what about Kenya's youth unemployment, the answer is clear. Successive governments in Kenya have done little to alleviate the plight of the jobless and should be doing more.


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At Bethlehem Baptist Church in Anacostia, Washington, DC., Stokely Carmichael leads a discussion on ways to organize people. He stresses the responsibility of each person to organize people to achieve goal. He explains the power possible when people are properly organized.

Featured Speaker: Harriet A. Washington, Medical Ethicist, Award-Winning Medical Writer and Editor.

This video clip was recorded on March 07, 2017 during the “Women's History Month 2017: Women of Vision” Event, featuring Harriet A. Washington (Award-Winning Author of “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present”; “Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself–And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future”; and “Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We “Catch” Mental Illness”), at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 East Warren Avenue, Detroit, MI.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.thewright.org/index.....php/component/itsoc
http://www.greatertalent.com/harrietwashington/
http://nyam.org/events/event/i....nfectious-madness-we
https://www.c-span.org/video/?....313990-11/open-phone
https://www.c-span.org/video/?....305728-1/deadly-mono
https://www.c-span.org/video/?....313990-5/panel-discu
https://www.c-span.org/video/?....328703-4/harriet-was
https://www.amazon.com/Harriet....-A.-Washington/e/B00
https://www.commentarymagazine.....com/articles/medica
https://www.democracynow.org/2....011/10/31/deadly_mon

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Construction of An Earth Library in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Using locally sourced materials and labour.

The Hadzabe tribe of Northern Tanzania, Africa are a unique hunter gatherer tribe found near Lake Eyasi, The Great Rift Valley. This video is a introduction and insight into the their language.

On February 9, 2000 - Ponoko Rashidi speaks with Dr Edward Bynum and Dr. Clinton Crawford at Medgar Evers College as part of the Black History Month Event Series.

This ‘For The People’ program, with Dr. Yosef ben Jochannan, was originally broadcast in 1983 on South Carolina’s public television channel, SCETV. Dr. ben-Jochannan was speaking on how Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism symbolism originated in Egypt, an AFRICAN NATION…not a nation in the Middle East.THE HMRChttps://aubreylewis2.com/2020/06/