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tv   Global 3000  PBS  January 21, 2015 12:30am-1:01am PST

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>> hello, it's time for your update on the issues that shape our global agenda. welcome to "global 3000." i'm michaela kuefner and here's what we have coming up for you during the next half hour. how a west african inventor turned electronic junk into a 3d printer . meet the kenyan boy who came up with an effective way to keep lions out of his village and the struggles indigenous peoples face criminal paraguay. -- phase in paraguay. for millions of africans the internet has opened up a new world of opportunities. just like for all the rest of us -- except that far fewer
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africans actually have access -- only 16%, which is the lowest rate worldwide. but in places where people are connected, creative minds are joining forces to work on new software applications and hardware solutions. internet access is driving all sorts of innovative developments in south africa, nigeria, tanzania, uganda and kenya in particular. we look at what's cooking in africa's i-hubs. >> the ihub in nairobi - a creative workplace. young i.t. entrepreneurs, programmers, designers and technology fans exchange ideas here. >> hi, my name is juliette wanyiri and i'm currently the lead of gearbox, which is the maker space which we are excited to set up in nairobi. and the need for this is that there is a growing hardware community in kenya. >> and at gearbox they can run riot.
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they work with mini computer modules such as raspberry pi. properly combined and programmed, these small computers can control almost anything from a distance. >> if we have a product in africa, it should come from africa. i'm definitely excited to see how things go. and being here i have realized that a lot of people's ventures depend on the internet and so we will helping their ventures run better and so we will also do some final mail solutions. >> tanzania is still far from having comprehensive internet coverage. only in dar es salaam is it more or less reliable. the women from apps and girls are fighting their way into the digital world, as carolyne ekyarisiima explains. >> for secondary schools we go
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there at least weekly. together with my team, because i always call for girls, who are willing to volunteer to train the girls. so we go there and introduce them to coding. >> in teams, secondary school girls get to know new programmes and fledgling businesswomen learn how to program websites themselves. >> some of us are shy when we are with males. and all our competitions, like the hackathons winners used to be men. once you are a woman or a girl and you are sharing together, you don't have this feeling he is the most matter, oh, he is competing with me. no. we are all the same and we are doing one thing. >> the small country of rwanda wants to become the silicon valley of africa. its economic growth is running at more than 6%. kigali is the first city in africa to have high-speed wireless internet, ideal conditions for creative spirits.
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>> my name is clarisse iribagiza, and i run a software company that focuses on building mobile applications. we've been doing this for three years now. >> especially in rural areas without internet access, much business has to be done on the telephone. iribagiza's company ensures that old pre-smart cellphones can connect to the internet. >> our passion really is to focus on building home-grown solutions that are built around the community, get feedback - - improve the solutions and just have a whole army of developers. people who really understand what the problems are and just helping us build these solutions. if you want to be challenged and solve problems that you never ever maybe thought would be there, this is the place that you definitely love to come!" >> so programmers of the world, why wait? it's off to africa.
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>> many of the key materials needed for the components that drive the internet age come from africa. and while fewer africans have access to computers than in most other regions in the world, much of the world's hardware lands back on their doorstep in the form of electronic waste -- often toxic. that's because companies don't like spending money on recycling. and that's created a market for dumping old hardware in developing countries to the tune of 50 million tons per year. that's seven kilograms per head. recently a young inventor from togo made headlines for designing his own 3d printer solely by using old parts from the electronic junk yard round the corner. this raises the question of what else he might have invented by now if he had access to some more substantial resources. but first, the printer.
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>> afate gnikou is out shopping. on the many rubbish dumps in togo's capital lomé, he finds just what he's looking for. at 34, he's invented africa's first 3d printer made entirely of electronic trash. >> we were inspired to make a printer nearer to our reality, using materials that were available all around us. >> today afate is looking for gear wheels. he finds them in an old printer. most of the components that end up here in the dump are old electronic equipment from europe. thousands of tons of electronic scrap end up in west africa every year and pollute the environment. that's cheaper than disposing of electronic components properly in the countries they come from. >> to be honest, we only noticed later that with our project we were also participating in the fight against pollution and
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e-waste in our country by giving it a new chance. >> for all the components afate gnikou takes with him today, he pays the equivalent of a few cents. here everything is priced by weight. the kilo price is always negotiable. for the nigerian traders it's worth it. in his workshop, he carries out the final adjustments. you spent under 100 euros for all his printer components. many people thought he was crazy at first and said nobody could make a high-tech 3d printer from scrap. and it was a long way for afate, who got his degree in geography. >> it took six months in all. it was a lot of work. i had to keep trying things out to see what components fit and if something didn't work, i needed another replacement part or had to make something myself.
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it took a lot of fiddling around, but it works. >> today he's making a small drinking cup for his niece. on his laptop, afate gnikou designs the object he wants to print. after that, it's all automatic. the laptop transfers the data to the home-made printer. and it gets going. on top, the plastic comes from a spool, then it's melted and moulded into the proper shape. the entire process takes almost an hour in real time. then the multi-purpose plastic cup is ready. afate's friend djemaah allahare has arrived.
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he's studying computer science and helped construct the printer. >> it's true that i had the idea for the printer. but i must say it wouldn't have been possible without the community here. >> the community is a group of togolese technology enthusiasts who support each other's projects. anyone willing to share knowledge with the others can join. in addition to afate's 3d printer, they've developed smartphone apps together and built cheap computers from electronic scrap. once a year, businesswoman henriette bodjollé organises a forum for young entrepreneurs. she's enthusiastic about afate gnikou's printer, but she's aware of the difficulties young togolese face. >> things are a bit difficult for young people who have good ideas and want to start up something. there are financial
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difficulties. the young people don't know how to begin, and where to go for orientation. >> despite that, afate gnikou is optimistic that he can also earn money with his 3d printer. he'll soon be going to new york to present his invention at a trade fair. his friends are already working on a case to carry it in -- of course, they're making it themselves. >> so, afate gnikou is taking his printer to the us, but he also has his own ideas on where to put all that e-waste that is being dumped on africa. he would like to send it to mars -- an off-the-wall idea that earned him a merit in a nasa competition for ideas addressing global problems. although afate's concept for using his 3d printer to prepare the colonization of mars clearly
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need some fine tuning, it is yet more proof that he is a man with a vision. >> computer trash -- a big problem! a lot of them finish their life in africa -- togo or ghana. then, a mans got an idea. he will transform old pcs into a 3d-printer. he will call it the wafate-3d-printer. then at the international space app challenge two fac-club meet. woelah from togo and fac-club from france. together they got another idea. all this computer trash will be put in a container. and all these container will be put into a rocket. with five wafate equipped with robotic arms and caterpillar, with solar panel and alien. so wafate on mars.
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>> or is he an artist after all? we can't quite decide. future generation printers are one thing, but sometimes serious problems can be resolved with simple and effective solutions. in our "global brain" series, we feature inspiring strokes of genius. and this time we're going to introduce you to a boy in kenya who at the tender age of 11 stunned his teachers, parents and neighbors by coming up with a clever, but simple way of keeping lions out of their village. >> the simplest solutions have many shapes and sizes. in this case it's made of lots of led lights that shine in different places and above all, that flash. >> i knew that the lions are
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afraid of something which can move, because when walks out with a torch, the lions will not come, because they will think there's a person coming for them when the light is flashing. >> at nightfall, lions would come to the family's farm on the outskirts of nairobi. since richard was nine, he's helped his father herd their cattle and goats. and like all maasai he was angry that the lions were taking away their god-given livestock. >> we heard it from the house, and anyway we had to came here and then we chased it, but it killed one cow. >> the lions kill the livestock. the maasai kill the lions. it can't go on like this, richard thought, and took action. he bought a solar cell, car battery, wire, electric torches, a small pulse generator and a switch.
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the neighbors looked on in surprise and thought he was crazy. >> this particular boma is just four meters from the park boundary. so i think when this idea was invented, we were shocked to know that this boma doesn't report any conflict from the predation at night, just because of the flashing light idea. >> suddenly they all wanted richard to help them scare away lions. he's already equipped six neighboring farms with his invention. >> i don't take money because it was a gift from god, and i don't want to use it for money. i just want to help people from my area. >> he helped everyone -- people, cattle and lions, and now all kenya knows what richard already knew. >> they told me that i'm a genius boy. >> as a reward, he's been given a scholarship to nairobi's most expensive private school. the moment when richard saw the light has really paid off. >> i have a few feeling we will
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hear from richard again to if you knew there were plans afoot to take over the land you and your neighbors lived on to create fields for farming, what would you do? would you stay put and prepare for battle against the powerful industrial lobby? or would you agree as a group to sell the land and resettle the entire community somewhere else? for the aché indigenous people of paraguay, their homeland is composed of the last remaining parts of the once vast atlantic forest. bit by bit it has had to give way to pastures, cropland and urban centres. the question of what to do weighs heavily on this small community. >> the song of the rainforest.
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♪ josé cuategui learned it when he was still a child and the aché community's way of life was completely different. >> since there's been less and less forest, there are no more animals, no honey, which we used to collect, or fruit. i'm really very sad. those times are gone. now we live in another world. my heart aches so much because this world has ceased to exist. >> his world was the atlantic rainforest in paraguay, an ecosystem little of which remains -- 13% of its original area. just 500 hectares of forest remain for the indigenous community country. the aché have long been unable to live as hunters and gatherers.
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they've begun to plant yerba maté again. their ancestors used it and made tea from it. hector rivarola shows them where it grows best. he works for the world wide fund for nature. the engineer knows his stuff when it comes to land and forest management. the nutrients in the forest floor are depleted. the yerba maté plants help it regenerate. for paraguayans, yerba maté is special. maté tea is drunk throughout the country, and it's hoped these plants will earn the aché some money. 40 families live in the community of puerto barra, and it's growing. they earn a livelihood mainly from raising livestock and farming maize.
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the aché have accepted the fact that they've had to clear a bit of forest to do so. for them it's a question of survival,. >> we can provide for our people with this farming, make sure they have food, health care and education. that way we can plan for the community. >> others have left the community and sold their land to big agricultural conglomerates. they're surrounded by soybean plantations. >> the indigenous people feel the agribusinesses are putting them under a lot of pressure. each time they take in more land, clear the forest as fast as possible to obtain land for plantations and offer more and more money to get hold of
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property. about 400 kilometres farther north in the atlantic rainforest region we find one of the few reserves with an intact ecosystem, and it's rich in flora and fauna. the aché still own a good 4600 hectares of forest, and they live from it. palm hearts, a rare delicacy, aren't the only thing the forest gives them. >> we find many things to eat here. palm hearts, animals to hunt, and lots of honey. >> about twice a week the men go hunting. they know exactly which animals they're allowed to kill and when. they've done this for centuries.
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>> the forest is very important to us. later we'll show our children that their grandparents once lived here and how they lived. >> the environmental protectionists from the wwf have only recently been in contact with the community. right now the men are hunting an armadillo. it's hard work flushing it out of its burrow. it can take hours. the aché still live traditionally here and the conservationists want to help them preserve that way of life. >> it's very hard work. we have to get close to them and explain in a very sensitive way. some of them have lost their land and gone to the cities, to
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the outskirts where there's a great deal of poverty. especially in asunción and ciudad del este they feel excluded, displaced and unprotected. >> so that the aché can continue to live from their forest, the wwf plans to certify it, ensuring which trees are preserved and which they can fell to earn money instead of selling the forest to the large soya corporations. >> this desire people have to clear more and more forest without doing anything for the environment makes me furious. in this country we have a political agenda that strongly supports industry's increasing exploitation of natural resources. the people with money want more and more, and the poor are getting poorer. the aché want to defend their
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forest from the large-scale soya producers. >> but it will actually be their children who decide if they succeed in the future as well. >> and now it's time to tempt your taste buds with another global snack. those no fuss foods that feed people on the go around the globe. and today we're in india's business capital mumbai to try a spicy local staple. >> juhu beach, mumbai's most popular place to go swimming or do anything else that's fun in the fresh air. from cotton candy to roast corn on the cob, the choice of fast food is enormous.
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but the most popular snack is pav bhaji, fried bread with vegetables in tomato sauce. you can get the best pav bhaji where the legendary hero rama proudly shows himself with his weapons -- at the shri rama snack bar. the heroes behind the pots and pans are uttam and his co-worker rajendra. they're stirring a very special mixture, made according to the house recipe. >> tomato, onion, bell peppers, cauliflower, green peas, potatoes.
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>> there are no tables, but there is a waiter. customers get good service. pav bhaji used to be poor people's food, eaten by workers in mumbai's textile mills at their lunch breaks. it's still relatively cheap, the equivalent of about a euro. but it's really tasty. >> it's very spicy and we often come here. it's holiday time and everyone likes pav bhaji. >> it's a famous dish of mumbai . >> the manager, sharma, originally comes from northern india. he's run the shri rama snack bar for more than 25 years. >> what's special about us is that the customers can watch how we prepare pav bhaji.
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i like it myself as well. but right now i'm testing to see if it tastes right. >> and it has to be -- because hungry beach-goers will be flocking to the snack bar dedicated to the hero rama until deep into the night. >> and don't forget to tell us about your favourite no fuss food. just send us an email and we'll spread the word. and that was "global 3000" for this week. do visit us online or on facebook. but for now from me and the whole global team. thanks for watching and bye-bye. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]
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