Leaders Pay Respects

This is an article that had great value behind it. It came from the website aljazeera. The article is about the death of Nelson Mandela and its explanation of some of the world leaders coming to pay their respects to the iconic African. In this gathering of leaders a couple things occurred. This includes moments of promise, and moments of sadness. Of course people mourned the death of the icon that was in prison for twenty seven. According to Obama, Madiba (Mandela's clan name) was a persistent leader that triumphed through shrewd times and stood strong through everything. He was compared to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi.
The glimmer that was promise gave Americans and Cubans a sense of relief when Barrack Obama shook Raul Castro's hand as he walked up to the podium with a huge smile on his face. The US and Cuba haven't been on the best of terms since the cold war conflict. This handshake represents a promising future together because they could come together and put all differences beside them to mourn an international icon. There were many moments of sadness considering it was a funeral, however something else came up. Jacob Zuma went up to the podium to make a speech and was booed the length of the speech. People cleared the stadium so they wouldn't hear him say his condolences to the fallen Nelson Mandela. Mandela was simply a man of peace and left all of his segregated thoughts behind him in jail.
A man who's life is as iconic as Mandela deserves major leaders present. Not only to mourn, but to take in what he did to change South Africa when he was president, when he was in prison, and when he was a free man. The story of one's life may change anyone whether the person be close or and icon like Mandela. Many are sad to see Mandela go, but even more feel influenced by his life and want to life in spite of him. I guarantee that every South African president from here will look at what Mandela did and make sure that they would attempt to meet his level of wisdom and diligence.

French ivolvement

Thanks to CNN, I found this article that explains the death of two French soldiers that died in Bangui, Central African Republic in attempts to establish peace between Muslim and Christian conflict via French military intervention. The French president Francois Hollande learned of the death of the two men and saw it as a depressing matter. "they lost their lives to save others". Hollande was planning to visit Bangui to pay respects to those that died in action, however his visit was delayed due to the death of icon Nelson Mandela; Hollande then payed his respects to Mandela. The two men that died were said to be paratroopers in the 1920's.
The United States and some European countries agreed to send some troops out labeled as "peacekeepers".  This could be a relation with Africa dating back to their involvement in the crusades. Since the French are there to simply keep the peace between conflicting people of Muslim and Christian backgrounds. This sort of fighting has been happening since Central African Republic established its independence and is the main reason why other countries like the US are sending "peacekeepers", so the fighting of religious conflict can be initially resolved.
I found this article unsettling if anything. It stood out to me because I never saw many articles about French military involvement. This is similar to the situation that is currently going on in the middle east, but clearly in an African country. I don't believe this matter can be resolved in a manner of conflict. And that is the reason why French forces are attempting to get high people of the Muslim and Christian religion in the country to come together and try to reach an agreement on keeping calm and peaceful as the article says. This has happened before in history, but in a different location; how well will this plan work out? Will it assure peace to not only the people of Central African Republic, but to the French and peacekeeping military? Only time will tell if the peace will be established. Hopefully this is won't turn into an article of more deaths coming from Central African Republic.

Underwater Extravaganza

Thanks to the BBC website, I found a great article in which I found great interest. This website gives a great insight on not only African news, but its culture, economy, politics, and entertainment. In this website I found the article "An Underwater Hotel Opens In Africa". This gained my interest mainly because it is a place to travel in Africa which may be complex to find in some areas. This article explains of an underwater hotel that was recently built in Tanzania's Zanzibar Archipelago on Pemba Island. This hotel is basically a condo in the middle of the ocean that goes up to four meters below the water. The downstairs portion is the bedroom with windows where you would see sea life through the glass. For example, a trumpet fish named Nick and the area is notorious for spotting squid and octopi. Along with the room, upstairs the visitors may jump off of their front porch to swim in the ocean. Upstairs also includes the bathroom of the hotel and lounge area. On the roof of the hotel is a pair of beach chairs to watch the stars at night or catch some melanin to get a nice tan for your skin or to simply enjoy the sun.

I found this article particularly interesting because of how unique it was to the website itself. On the website I linked before I saw stories of attacks, sickness, and disaster. When I simply scrolled down I came across an underwater paradise that was built. Not many people see Africa as a travel destination because of dangerous wildlife, sicknesses, and killings in Africa. I also wanted to add that not many hotels would have an underwater room; this mainly, is a reason as to why I would choose to go to a hotel like this. Maybe building this hotel would bring more of an attraction if promoted. The purpose of this blog is to gain a positive outlook on traveling to Africa.