This is the image of earth at night, via Google’s Earth’s Earth light. You can take a closer look at the whole world here.
Africa is very dark. No lights if you take a look at this image. Europe, and US are very bright. Japan is the brightest. India and east China are coming on up.
But as a continent Africa is the darkest. There are a few areas though; edges of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco seem bright. It also looks like the cities in Egypt are situated by the nile river, or for some reason they have many lights there.
Dubai, LA, Vegas, Tokyo, NYC and Paris seem are very bright cities. From African countries it looks like Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Cairo are the brightest, it seems.
Anyways Africa is the Dark Continent! both literally and figuratively!
Published by May 30th, 2008 in African, Current Issues and Thoughts.
I will come back once again since I...
The Ocean is dark
Africa is blue
Do we know what time of the night in each zone? That should be factored in I guess….
“….both literally and figuratively”? Please, clarify.
Blue and grey is the new dark. Africa is the blue continent, grey in some parts…
I don’t think the time zone has any effect…this is not an image that was taken at once…but images that were taken at different times, maybe months apart, that have been digitally put together…and I guess both literally and figuratively …Africa is still in the dark…
Literally as there is an almost complete darkness on the entire continent…and figuratively as we r still the continent with the most number of third world countries in it…What do u say Grand Ma
Infact,One of South Africa’s leading investment Bankers,Euvin Naidoo,talks about this same image in a very inspirational talk at TED.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/154
I guess it depends on how you look at it.
Okay,we know that there is electric power issue there. But looking at the image one may also think it means …Africans go to bed early, do not work 24*7..or that there arenot that many night activity,..outdoors anyways.I love this editing button by the way.Long live second chances.
SpaceFog Thanks 4 the link…
“…Africans go to bed early, do not work 24*7..or that there arenot that many night activity,..outdoors anyways” Hana, are you trying to be funny? The picture shows African, Ethiopia, very sad existence and we should be outraged by it, not laugh at it
LOL Hana. I hope ur being sarcastic.
BUT Maybe we should learn from the West and work a little more than we do. African youth need to step up and stop waisting their whole day inside cafes! Thats all most Ethiopian youth do and it’s sad.
Can we try to to be a little innovative instead of dreaming about the West? What Africans need is LESS SLEEP, LESS TALK, and MORE WORK. Don’t tell me there are no jobs in Africa, because you can create one if you are willing too!
Totit,
KK,if you said so. I just found it a very defeated statement and felt uneasy. It’s a God given continent so, let’s embrace and value it.
I dont think it helps to see the entire continent in one light,dark or bright.Becuase Africa is both, and as time goes by we will see more light and less dark.But only if we stop being cynic and do our part.
Wit,what in the world is this supposed to mean? I think it is always easy to preach than to practice what you preach.i really can’t imagine how that mind of yours analyze things…but to base judgements WITHOUT ALL THE FACTS is called IGNORANCE in my book.
indante aynet fitur bihon noro i would say “those who think they know it all upset those of us who do” but thank God i am not!!
OMG, so are we praying for light pollution now? This is why I can no longer engage in any development dialog with fellow africans, not especially etio, but it is assumed we must imitate the wasteful, ecologically devastating, and exploitative industrial revolution seen in europe and asia. The question seems to be how shall we pollute our air, water and night sky in our quest to gain little improved living standards, unsustainable economies, and far reaching inequality. Nyalasmoke the world needs you. And I don’t hug trees.
datdude
I think you are thinking loud. make up your mind. You are looking for debates where there is no debate. Nobody said anything about environment here.
Datdude tree huggers are cool,:, it is tree cutters which are foul, especially when they replace it with ugly concrete of a building they are the defenders and protectors of trees and the environment by extension,without them the enviroment would be in even a greater mess, and when take away the stereotypical image of the tree hugger muesli eating sandal wearing veggie mostly they are dedicated in their convictions, lots of tree huggers here lol…
I second this…
Why don’t we stir the discussion to how we can develop Africa?.For a start reversing the brain drain would go a long way to help take the continent out of its misery. Africa’s educated elite is here in the west busying blaming those striving in the continent for its continued backwardness .But more than anybody else the elite failed Africa, and big time.And thus the urge to criticize everyone but the one responsible
Wurgatu, I did not say I know it all and nothing I said is out of ignorace. I just believe that if we work harder, anything is possible!
*please stop using special characters — in your nick. it creates issues in the database. Thanks Nolawi
…what is wrong with the dark?….
¨Why don’t we stir the discussion to how we can develop Africa?¨
Walid,you reminded me of my favourite saying….Africa is not one Country.You just don´t up and discuss that huge question.How about we start with something more down to earth …if we want to make Africa a bling bling continent in the next google night time images,we should start with Ethiopia.I hear that in Addis there is an electric power ration every other day except weekends ,that´s not to mention places where there is no electric power at all.This is outragious(Hi Baheilu ).I wish i knew the explanation …it is not like we are not taking loans from the World Bank everyother God Knows when.Anybody know what it takes to light a whole country? Seriously
Sister Hana, you are missing the meaning of the picture, it is a metaphor how backward African (Ethiopia) is not as you put it “bling bling”. The pictures tell us light or electricity is a symbol of development not a fashion statement (Hi Hana).
Yes, you are right, in year 2000 (EC) thanks to tplf (OH, I forgot Bernos doesn’t allow Ethiopian political discussion) the whole country is in darkens. A few months ago the government was bragging about exporting power to neighboring country now they can’t even provide enough electricity to “the capital city of Africa”, very sad.
I don’t were we are heading.
Wit,i now clearly understand what you are trying to say.sorry for jumping in to conclusion first.
This image may be revealing population density per square mile than anything else.
No secret, much of Africa is under populated. Areas where you see Africa relatively lit up, South, Lake region, several west and north locations, are know for having high density as measured by population per square mile–Rwanda’s conflict, many say, has a lot to do with high population density, even though as you can see on this image, Rwanda is a bright spot.
It doesn’t show population density…Anonx
Ethiopia is at rank 130, 70 pop per km square
United States is at rank 180, 31 pop/square km
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density
Our post-graduate teacher from Norway made fun of this picture 5 years back when i was in school. As you all know, there is no power in Addis and other cities atleast two or three times a week. and the teacher bluffed that they took this picture when there was power outage in addis ababa.
Hidaya, (or should I say one who sits under lotus tree
not again right?)
thanks for the comment, I raise the issue of environment not because its ‘in’ or to sound intelligent. Rather, i’ve had the pleasure/displeasure of living in both a green and man made environment. When you experience these two worlds, for me the goal is clear, we have to constantly work towards a greener, less consumptive life. That seems to match our biological make up. Unfortunately, the dialog in ethiopia/most of africa starts with the assumption we have to develop, and in the last 100 years or so, that means buildings, pollutions, and eviro. degradation. I know we all love our electronics, but if we forget we live in a natural world (not above) the next reminder we get will be tragic and without remedy. Ahhh, to play the part of doomsayer lol
For those who want to emulate America’s electrical development, please read cadillac desert. It is one of many works that has convinced me of the superiority of conservationist thought. Long live the darkness of the dark continent.
datdude I am absolutely with you bro!!! development in the image of the west will never be possible for the third world, simply because there is not enough resources on the planet to sustain that type of growth. Besides as resource dwindles the powerful economic interests of the world will be even less inclined to share it and of course there will be more violence to secure it that will pale Iraq by comparison.
But the advantage for us is that we don’t have to go through the various phases of development as the West. We can always come in at an advance stage and adopt technologies and philosophies that are more sustainable and have far reaching benefits to the masses. For instance I think wireless telephony/communication instead of land lines is one good example. Embracing open source over proprietary is another.
Ethiopia’s massive damn at gilgel gebe is one such misguided attempts at development which does more harm than good. Ethio govt with the support of World bank and others are pouring tens of millions of dollars building it. But I wonder how carefully they considered the short and long term damages to the ecosystem up and down the stream and the surrounding. What is the fate of the tens of thousands that were dislocated either because their habitat is flooded if there were up the river or if the stream that them and their ancestors depended on for several generation just dries overnight. The transmission lines usually passes through villages and towns that will never be supplied with electricity, rather it is sold to our next door neighbors for foreign currency. All that is done in the misguided drive towards development and they know that the damn will be useless after 60 or so year. Development for the sake of development without regards who and what it affected will be our continued demise.
Esti I will check out Cadillac desert. Thanx
nyalasmoke,
You won’t believe the disappointing feedback I get from many of our people when I hesitate towards embracing such gigantic projects as building dams, (especially when its funded through foreign debt????). This seems to be an african problem, a friend of mine (from Central africa) is also neutral to such thought, even though he works in natural resource management, and has a phd! Maybe it is not good to be rabid about a philosophy, but rather use tact?
An even more gigantic dam project is actually on the way in the Congo, funded by the West and China, and this project immediately puts in danger exponentially more people, wildlife and habitats. The benefit as you said is that foreign currency. However, the local population that is displaced actually is passed over in receiving even minimal benefits.
BTW can you explain what you mean by open source vs. proprietary? Is that like linux vs. microsoft? How does this apply to an african state?
Enjoy cadillac desert and let me know when the revolution comes. buona noches
Datdude I just stopped myself from chanting, but probably have to go a long way to get a lotus tree is London…lol
I agree I think that was my way of saying I am a tree hugger myself and not because it is the “issue” of our times, there is something akin to hatred I feel for developers of nasty grey buildings that make them millions while they graze every little tree and green or what is left of it to the ground, so we get additional airports we don’t need and sometimes our government even says we need skyscrapers in London the ugliest idead they ever had they don’t say why either why since no one really wants them and for that more nature will be grazed to the ground, hopefully campaigners wont let them…
datdude I have heard some “radical” environmentalists like Derrik Jenssen (google him or check his videos on youtube. and check his book “Endgame”)he would argue that tact has no place in this discourse. Even though I dont support this myself, he advocates that environmentalists have to stop being nice and start taking some serious actions, even to the point of using violence. He says blow up some dams if u have to. He equates it to the struggle of the founding fathers as they fought to liberate themselves from the British oppression or later the anti-slavery movement or any other so called “righteous” movement to do what is “right.” In this case it would be to save the entire planet instead of a mere plot on the surface of the earth, or a fraction of a small subset of living things on the planet.
Open source is the philosophy of using and sharing any knowledge/creativity freely and openly for the common good instead of the old model of proprietary ownership where small group of corporations/institutions/govt control and dictate how and what information u can use.
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets
I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter
updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.
There are some interesting deadlines in this article however I don’t know if I see all of them middle to heart. There’s some validity but I will take maintain opinion till I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we would like more! Added to FeedBurner as well
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