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Development
POVERTY ALLEVIATION The Potato Revolution 8mins. 20secs. 6

A Nigerian NGO plans to replicate a small economic miracle from Cameroon.
Income 14secs. 14
Nearly half of all Americans families earn as much as five million naira yearly.

Border-Jumping to Better Life 46secs. 14 Zimbabweans are sneaking into South Africa in search
of a better life.
Beekeepers 24secs. 14 Beekeeping is a popular pastime in rural Zimbabwe.

HEALTH & NUTRITION The War Over Hormones 3mins. 29secs. 8
North America and Europe may be on the verge of a trade war over the quality of beef imports.
Nutrition 22secs. 13 The world may lose one-fourth of its fish supplies..
Health Insurance Tax Cornered by the Rich 1min. 23secs. 5
The rich in America get best healthcare at tax-payers' expense.

LIVING Habitat 9secs. 13
Wetlands directly support a large global population.
Refugee Problems Threaten Southern African Stability 4mins. 17secs. 9 The burden of refugees on African countries is becoming too great

A Weighty Colonial Legacy 1min. 28secs. 10 Nairobi was built to withstand a harsh winter.

GOVERNANCE Economic Austerity Causes Unrest in Nicaragua 1min. 30secs. 4
Student's unrest almost topples the government in Nicaragua. Development & Conservation Quotations
On Democracy 1min. 37secs. 11
The empowerment of women is important to the success of democracy in Nigeria.

EDUCATION African Students in the UK and U. S. A. 29secs. 14
How many Africans in the USA are studying?
EVENT June 16, 1999: Day of the African Child 1min. 6secs. 4
Transition to civil rule programme may affect this
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Environment EVENTS
World Environment Day June 5 th 1min. 12secs. 3 Our one and only earth. Just save it!

WILDLIFE The Elephant's Long Nose for Danger 1min. 50secs. 3
Elephants have a surprising ability to sense danger and avoid it. "Paper Park" 18secs. 18
How would you describe a "paper park?"
Mountain Gorilla Protection Suffers a Setback 1min. 29secs. 6 The murder of tourists in Bwindi may affect conservation work there.

WETLANDS The Wetlands of the World 33secs. 14
The world's largest wetland area is in South America. War in Yugoslavia: The Other Casualty 1min. 20secs. 4
Yugoslavia, next war is to save its war-damaged environment. World Oceans Day '99 1min. 7secs. 5
New research reveals effects on oceans of rising sea temperature.
LIVING Riding the Tiger in Cambodia 2mins. 57secs. 10
Visit a family that is sitting on top of a land mine waiting to explode
CONSERVATION Conservation & Development Quotations
On the Environment 18secs. 11 An environmental problem delayed is a problem made worse.

Children's Section PEOPLE
The Story of the Century 56secs. 12 20,000 British schoolchildren narrate the history of their towns on stage.
Which Bird Lives Longest? 41secs. 13
Some birds live longer than human beings.

WILDLIFE Why Waterbuck Helped Crocodile 4mins. 12
For saving Crocodile's life, Waterbuck is assured of safety
from Crocodile's snappers

Glossary 15
Acronyms 15 2
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News World Environment Day June 5 th 1min. 12secs.
To mark the World Environment Day [WED], on June 5, 1999, the United Nations Environment Pro-gramme, UNEP, has called for a united effort by everyone to save the earth and protect future life on the
planet.
"Each and everyone of us [must] demonstrate our commitment to protecting the environment and to
preventing further damage to our one and only earth," UNEP said in a press release.

The theme this year is 'Our Earth -Our Future -Just Save it! ' It will be marked in Nigeria with symposia and essay competitions. There will also be the high profile tree-planting campaigns by government officials.

The World Environment Day has become a people's event world-wide. It is marked yearly by a variety of events such as rallies, public speeches, parades, debates and clean-up campaigns. The events raise awareness
of environmental abuse, and encourage people and governments to change their behaviour and laws that damage the environment.
Obasi Ogbonnaya/ UNEP
The Elephant's Long Nose for Danger 1min. 50secs. Elephants foraging for food in their natural habitat know where their lives are in danger from poachers, and
avoid them both in the daytime and at night. But this is not as straight-forward as it sounds.
An experiment to track the movement of elephants, by Save the Elephants, a conservation charity, has revealed that the animals do not just wander in search of food, but plan their movements with guerrilla-like
precision.
"They sprint from the safety of one game reserve to another under cover of darkness -spending as little
time as possible in the poacher-infested areas in between," revealed Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Chairman of Save the Elephants.

Earlier experiments using the radio-tracking method had failed to notice this sophisticated behaviour of elephants. But this study was the first of its type to use the satellite-based global positioning system [GPS]
to track the animal's position at any time. The experiment involved tagging 14 African elephants with special radio collars and monitoring their movements for several months.

The data collected were decoded once every few months. This is unlike radio tracking that involves following the animals around in a vehicle and noting their positions by hand.
Elephants had been known to love to wander. But this pattern of midnight dashes across dangerous zones was not known. Now scientists are trying to find out what, in the elephant's repertoire of communication
signals, is responsible for this degree of awareness of danger. The Economist

War in Yugoslavia: The Other Casualty 1min. 20secs. An alarm has been raised concerning the discharge of unidentified toxic substances into the lower reaches
of the famous Danube River. Little attention has been paid to this latest victim of the Kosovo crisis, 3
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because of the graphic images of the war in Yugoslavia and the human tragedy that has resulted from it.
Reports have blamed the discharge of pollutants into the river on the war. But only one report of an oil slick has been identified and communicated to an early warning outpost on the Danube.

Environmentalists warn that the release of toxic substances into the river will have grave consequences for the people of the region.
"The scale of human tragedy in Yugoslavia is already enormous, and any long-term damage in Yugoslavia and the surrounding Balkan countries will only increase problems in the region," said Philip Weller, WWF's
conservation programme director in the region.
The lower Danube is a source of drinking water for up to 10 million people in a few countries including Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania.
WWF
June 16, 1999: Day of the African Child 1min. 6secs.
The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, has chosen a theme for this year's Day of the African Child that comes up on June 16 th 1999. It is "Peace Education." Although the theme is known, the

spokesman for UNICEF's office in Nigeria said that the organisation had no specific plans for commemo-rating it in Nigeria.

"The day is a government event. UNICEF merely provides the theme and some supporting materials," the information officer said.
UNICEF's materials for distribution to the press and other organisations that may want to mark the day with an event is being developed. However, Nigeria's Transition to civil rule programme culminating in the
handing over ceremony on May 29, 1999 may affect plans to mark the Day of the African Child this year. Already, UNICEF Nigeria is looking at the possibility of a shift in the date of the event.
Obasi Ogbonnaya
Economic Austerity Causes Unrest in Nicaragua 1min. 30secs.
High fuel price and cost of education can be testy development issues for any nation, as Nicaragua found out recently. The Latin American nation has just survived a six-day national strike by transport workers

protesting the impact of the structural adjustment programme [SAP] introduced on the advice of interna-tional donors. The strike almost brought down the government of President Arnoldo Aleman, which is
shopping for foreign aid and debt relief.
The strike ended May 4, 1999, following an agreement between the government and bus and taxi drivers.
"Nicaragua has demonstrated that dialogue is worth more than any conflict," Aleman said, relishing the deal that brought the strike to an end.

The deal allowed the government to continue its financial austerity programme in exchange for reducing the cost of fuel from US$ 1.50 to US$ 1.35. The 10,000 striking road transport workers had asked for a pump
price of US$ 1.00 per gallon. 4
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The strike which left two people dead and several hundreds injured was the culmination of a month of escalating violence that began with students' demand for increased funding for universities in the 1999
budget. One person was killed when police dislodged students' from occupying the country's central bank.
Agitprop
World Oceans Day '99 1min. 7secs.
As June 8 th approaches, when the world remembers the significance to human beings of the ocean and its resources, new research has revealed evidence that rising temperature is having a dangerous effect on sea

life.
Scientists have found that the declining catch of salmons in the North West Pacific Sea is a result of the
rising sea temperature and not due to over-fishing. Other sea life including seabirds, corals and algae are also declining.

This finding comes just in time to prevent escalating tensions between Canadian and American citizens. North Sea fishermen from both countries have engaged in bitter disputes over the decline, accusing each
other of over fishing.
Video news releases about the new scientific finding would be produce by two international development and conservation organisations -World Wide Fund for Nature [WWF] and Television Trust for the
Environment [TVE] for distribution worldwide.
Obasi Ogbonnaya/ TVE

Health Insurance Tax Cornered by the Rich 1min. 23secs. How do you ensure that a government subsidised health insurance scheme helps the poorer members of
society more than the rich? That is the big question facing the United States of America today. This follows
the discovery that a national health scheme, which gives tax incentives to employers who provide health insurance to their employees, has been of more benefit to Americans who can afford to pay for health.

A study published in a US journal, Health Affairs, revealed that more than three quarters of over US$ 100 billion spent by the government on the programme last year went to Americans who are well-off financially.
About one-quarter of that subsidy went to Americans who earn more than US$ 100,000 [= N= 10 million] yearly. Meanwhile, nearly one in five Americans is without any health insurance whatsoever.

"With more than 43 million uninsured persons in the United States, it is important to ask ourselves whether it is appropriate that three-quarters of the federal health benefits tax expenditures are going to about one-third
of the population with the highest incomes," said John Sheils, who conducted the study. Daily Health Care News/ Agitprop

Mountain Gorilla Protection Suffers a Setback 1min. 29secs. Tourism, a major source of funds for protecting the vanishing mountain gorillas in Uganda, has suffered a
major setback following the murder of eight tourists last March in that country.
The eight tourists were killed along with a guard identified as Mr. Paul Wagabe, when rebels suspected to
be Rwandan Hutus attacked a conservation outpost in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The tour- 5
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ists included two Americans, four Britons and two New Zealanders. There were also at least four Ugan-dans killed by the rebels.
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is famous because it is home to about half of the world's remaining 620
mountain gorillas. It is also the centre of activity for the three decades old International Gorilla Conserva-tion Programme run by the African Wildlife Foundation [AWF]. Sir Michael Wright, President of AWF

lamented the incident.
"We are very concerned about those whose lives are in jeopardy, not to mention the welfare of the
gorillas," he said in an interview.

The remaining mountain gorilla population lives in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo -all of which are embroiled in civil wars. But until recently, Bwindi was the only park where mountain
gorilla tourism was unaffected by the war.
African Wildlife Foundation Features

The Potato Revolution 5mins. 57secs. For several days every month, truckloads of potatoes are moved from scores of small villages, at the foot
of the southwestern highlands of Bamenda in Cameroon. Their destinations include several cities in and
outside the country, reaching as far as to Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad and the Central African Republic. This is something new to these Bamenda villagers. And it has changed their lives drastically for

the better.
The key agent of this miracle is the Irish potato, good for breakfast when fried with eggs. The Centre for
International Potato Research [CIPR], a research organisation, started the economic miracle. CIPR has been in Bamenda for seven years, using the Irish Potato to transform people's lives.

Just across the border, this economic transformation has caught the attention of Development in Nigeria [DIN], a grassroots group that plans to re-create the potato miracle in the lives of Becheve villagers at
Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State, where the climate is similar to the Bamenda Highlands.
Mrs. Caroline Ifeka, Executive Director of Development in Nigeria [DIN] visited CIPR recently, to ob-serve its work.

"I returned home from Cameroon enthusiastically," Ifeka said in an interview, "having seen the economic miracle brought about by CIPR which works with farmers to promote the scientific cultivation of new
varieties of potato."
Among the things that Ifeka noted were that the new CIPR varieties are very high yielding. One hundred
kilograms planted will yield 1000kg of high quality potatoes. Several subsistence farmers from about 100 villages in Bamenda have taken to the crop and are rotating them with temperate vegetables like cabbages,

onions and carrots. She observed that the farmers who grow seed potato tubers for planting make more money than those who grow them for food.

"It has brought about an economic revolution," she said. "People there have moved into a much more comfortable type of existence. And it is by sheer hard work. The problem there of unemployed youth -young
men with little education -has been solved. They are on the land, farming!" 6
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As a first step, Ifeka has visited the National Root Crops Research Institute [NRCRI] in Vom near Jos, Plateau State, where a major research project is also focused on the Irish potato. Jos grows the most Irish
potatoes in Nigeria and has a temperate climate.
"We noticed several things. One is that the climate in Jos is much dryer than at the ranch and in Bamenda.
I think that they have a real problem with lack of water and have to irrigate, whereas we can have two harvests a year at the ranch based entirely upon the rainy season. I also think that CIPR has produced a

higher yielding variety than that grown in the Jos area. And CIPR works more closely with farmers in the post harvest distribution," she said.

A small plot of CIPR seed potatoes has been planted by DIN and Becheve village women's groups. They have also built a standard seed potato store based on specific guidelines. More plots would be planted in
August, Ifeka said. The women's groups are enthusiastic. Each village wants to have its own seed potato project.

Ifeka is optimistic that the project will improve the villagers' standard of living just as it has in Bamenda where farmers have gone from living in mud-wall, thatch-roof houses 20 years ago, to better quality
homes. Most of their children are in school, and they enjoy three square meals daily. This modest standard of living is unavailable up the ranch at the moment. DIN's potato project would start with a survey of
household cash income, and an assessment done of its impact on household and gender cash incomes after
12 months.

In addition to financial benefits, the project would help prevent damage to the environment and improve the villagers' diet. Trade in bush meat is the main source of household income at the ranch, and hunting is
done by burning bushes to flush out the animals. The hotel up the ranch is a ready market. But DIN
believes that villagers down hill will also buy the potatoes. Farmers and traders are expected to come from as far as Udi in Enugu State and Makurdi in Benue State, to buy seed tubers.

Given these bright spots, Ifeka is quite confident that a potato revolution is imminent in southeastern Nigeria. However, there is a major constraint. CIPR seed potatoes can only go through three planting
cycles lasting for about two years altogether. After the third harvesting, the old tubers would be flushed out and DIN would return to CIPR to buy a fresh batch of seed tubers.
Obasi Ogbonnaya
The War over Hormones 3mins. 29secs.
The use of hormones for cattle breeding could lead to a major trade war between the United States of America and the European Union [E. U.]. At issue is the uncertainty about the effects on human health of

beef from hormone-treated cattle. The European Union has banned the use of such drugs, as well as importation of hormone-treated beef. But it is still common practice in the U. S. and Canada, which feel
that there is no conclusive proof to justify such a ban. The U. S. has, therefore accused the E. U. of trade
protectionism.

About six sex hormones are used in various combinations to treat beef cattle in America to make them put on lean meat faster than untreated cattle. The controversy centres on three of them, namely: estradiol-17
beta, testosterone and progesterone, which occur naturally in both cattle and human beings.
Both the EU and U. S. agree that the drugs can cause cancer in people if they are taken in quantities that are 7
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higher than occur naturally in human beings. The EU believes that this is already the case. American
farmers are accused of flouting the rules of application of the drugs, leading to overdose in the animals and the beef they produce.

"There is ample evidence linking estradiol-17-beta to breast cancer," said Johanna Fink-Gremmels, a professor of veterinary medicine who also heads the European Union's scientific working group on sex
hormones and meat.
Although similar studies have not been done for the other hormones, the EU believes that they all cause cancer the same way, by attacking the inner core of the cells, called the DNA. They claim that drugs that
behave in this manner have no definite safe level of consumption.
Disagreements of this nature are judged by the World Trade Organisation [WTO] that, in this case, sup-ports the north-American position that their hormone-treated beef are safe for consumption in Europe.

"When they are properly implanted under the skin of the ear of the animal, such hormones are considered
safe," said the US Food and Drug Administration [FDA].

The hormones are also considered safe by JECFA a joint committee of the World Health Organisation [WHO] and the Food and Agricultural Organisation [FAO], which looks at the human-health effects of
veterinary drugs and recommends the international standards the WTO uses. JECFA believes that estradiol-17-
beta causes cancer by reacting with a protein-based substances in sensitive cells, and not by attacking the cell DNAs.

"Such protein-related effects can be quantified, and safe levels of consumption established." JECFA said, claiming that it has done just that with estradiol-17-beta. There is now a stalemate in the war, while both
parties await the results of further studies to give conclusive evidence of the effects of hormone-treated beef on
consumers. The Economist.

Refugee Problems Threaten Southern African Stability 3mins. 53secs. The off and on civil war in Angola, and numerous other cases of political unrest in southern Africa have
caused the displacement of millions of people, making Africa the continent with the largest number of refugees in the world.

Africa has over six million refugees, the majority of who were displaced from countries in central Africa and the Great Lakes Region to the southeast. Caring for them has placed a great demand on the meagre
resources of their host countries and, in some cases, strained relations with their home states.
Over 600,000 people have been displaced from Angola alone since the civil war flared up again in April
1998. The displaced persons fled to Namibia, Zambia and Malawi. Experts believe that the number is bound to increase as the war rages on.

Zambia now hosts about 200,000 refugees from Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] and Rwanda. Congolese refugees are pouring into Tanzania which, itself, has been battered by economic
hardship and a crippling debt burden. At the last count, there were over 50,000 refugees in Western Tanzania alone. 8
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Malawi, among the poorest nations of the world, is home to about 1000 refugees from Somalia, Rwanda,
Burundi and DRC. It once had over one million refugees during the Mozambican civil war that ended about 20 years ago. Botswana has just received about 3,000 Namibians who crossed the border from the

Caprivi Strip following a separatist revolt in the swampy area.
Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are hosting a number of refugees from Angola, DRC
and the Great Lakes region.

In almost all cases, the refugees suffer from neglect or victimisation. More than 10 refugees were killed in South Africa in 1998, because they are often blamed for the escalation of crime in society. Meanwhile,
Angola has accused Zambia of supporting the faction that is fighting to overthrow the government, but
Zambia denies it.

Lucius Chikuni, Commissioner of Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Rehabilitation in Malawi explained that southern African States are having difficulty coping with the refugee problem because they are also
faced with a host of other problems of their own.
"Most of these problems are economic, over-population and insatiable social service demands on govern-ments," Chikuni said at a recent United Nations High Commission on Refugees [UNHCR] symposium in
South Africa. These problems dwarf their humanitarian concerns for the plight of the refugees among them.
A major problem with caring for the refugees is the presence of armed individuals among them, who use the camps to pursue their own political agenda. It is alleged that the armed groups receive support from
their host country. Their alleged presence therefore makes the camps legitimate military targets.
This has made the experts to call on the international community to deal with the refugee problem at
source.

"It has become imperative that serious policy action to remove or reduce the root causes [of refugees] must be mobilised by regional and international communities," said Phyllis Johnson, the Executive Director
of the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre [SARDC].
NewslinkAfrica

Special Features A Weighty Colonial Legacy 1min. 28secs.
A British colonial administrator posted to Nairobi early this century, had a bright idea for the development
of the East African town. The idea would print his name indelibly in the sands of time, he believed.

His great idea was to develop a set of by-laws for Nairobi. How did he go about it?
He wrote a letter to his hometown of Blackburn in Lancashire, U. K. and asked for a copy of Blackburn's
by-laws to be sent down to him. And when he received it, he gave it to his typist.

"Copy these out just as they are," he directed, adding "but wherever you see the word 'Blackburn', type 'Nairobi'." Within a few hours that it took the typist to complete the assignment, Nairobi had its first set of
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Apparently nobody found any serious fault with the regulations, although Nairobi is only 200 kilometres from the equator and its temperature rarely falls below 15 degrees Centigrade, while Blackburn endures
harsher winters.
It was only in the 1970s that it was pointed out to Kenya's government authorities that Nairobi's roofs were being built to withstand the weight of nine inches of snow!
Intermediate Technology
Riding the Tiger in Cambodia 2mins. 57secs. How would you like to live right in the middle of a field of landmines? A group of tourists who
wanted to see for themselves visited Cambodia and one of the recorded this observation of a family that lived and worked in one such field.

"He was a solitary figure slowly making his way up and down the rows of vegetables. Occasionally he stopped to turn a leaf or examine the progress of his crop a little closer. His movement was slow, perhaps
because of the heat of the day. But primarily because he had only one leg and relied on his shaky wooden crutch to move him along. His other leg had been removed at his hip and as his vegetable garden was along
a highway in the North West of Cambodia, strewn with landmines, one could only assume that he was the victim of a landmine accident.
"Brightly coloured red and white ribbons which surrounded his house, his vegetable rows, his path to the water pump and his access to the highway, confirmed that he lived in an area clearly demarcated as
dangerous. The simply stated signs, 'Beware of Mines', hung on every fence post, every tree and on small
sticks around the base of his house.

"As we watched, a young girl came skipping towards him from the fields behind the house, pulling behind her a worn-out, hungry oxen. The amputee leaned towards the girl to steady himself and together moved
towards the house where a thin woman was waiting for them. It was such an innocent, yet sinister domestic
scene -like riding on the back of a tiger in the wild. It was hard to believe that all around them were time bombs, also known as anti-personnel mines, waiting to explode. These were the legacy of years of wars

over contested land.
"Nowhere was safe for this family -just stepping outside their house was a risk in itself. As we moved
along the highway we found it is not just fields that were mined, but rivers, bridges, schools, temples, ponds and side roads.

"But why does this man stay in such a dangerous environment where his life could be ended with just one wrong step?
"The answer is simple. Who would employ a one-legged farmer, and with what resources can he move his family to safer ground?
"Nearly six million mines lay under the ground in Cambodia. Experts say it might take 25 years to clear
them all. Meanwhile, hundreds more farmers, soldiers, women, children and animals fall victim to this deadly, indiscriminate weapon every year."

World Council of Churches.
Conservation & Development Quotes 10
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On the Environment 18secs.
"Waste and pollution destroy the foundation for long term, sustainable growth. Land that erodes today cannot support a life of progress tomorrow. Water resources poisoned or despoiled for quick gains cannot

be easily revived to yield steady, lasting returns…" Barber Conable, former World Bank Director General.

On Democracy 1min. 37secs. "A lot of women are in abject poverty. They are now breadwinners in their homes. They take care of their
children, they take care of their husbands and extended family too. It is so tedious on them; they really can't cope, and that is why you have a lot of them begging from house to house… They are not organised,
they are not educated, and they don't have even any means… any income-generating activity.
"The problem is that now in Nigeria we have this economic problem. But it is harder on those in the grassroots area and more especially in Kano. For some, their husbands cannot feed them anymore and
they don't have jobs. Because a mother is closer to the children, she cannot tell the children that she does not have. Mothers have to look for means and ways of getting food for the children.

"So, you have women now doing petty trading, any little thing they can lay their hands at. Now that the country is in a transition to civil rule and we want to democratise it, the women need to have some little bit
of money; otherwise we can't really plant any good democracy." Laila Buhari, member, National Federation of Women Lawyers [FIDA], Kano.

Children's Section The Story of the Century 56secs.
More than 20,000 schoolchildren have taken the spotlight in the United Kingdom [U. K.], in a grand re-enactment
of the oral tradition of story telling, spiced with some theatre. Schoolchildren from about 200 educational authorities, in as many towns in the U. K., are performing their town's story in a television

programme titled "Our Town Story." Each performance is staged in a 500-seater theatre in London's Millennium Dome, as children present the history of their hometown in theatre.

Performed on this scale, "Our Town Story" is novel. But there is a programme by the same name, on television in Stirling, a town in Scotland. And in recognition of Stirling's foresight, the town got the honour
of being the first to perform its story at the Millennium Dome. London Press Service

Why Waterbuck Helped Crocodile 4mins. Long ago, after the coming of man who brought hunting to the Earth, all the animals were afraid of Lion. He
was the greatest hunter of all; even man was afraid of his strength and skills.
In these early days, Waterbuck lived in small herds and mixed with the other animals of the plains. When
Lion was hunting, Waterbuck, like the other animals, would flee from him; none but mighty Elephant could hope to defend himself against such strength and ferocity. Lion was very fast and hunted together in prides.

So many animals, great and small, fell to the King of Beasts.
One day Waterbuck had to flee for his life when Lion attacked his herd. But after a long chase Waterbuck
was lucky enough to escape. He had run such a long way, he had left the plains behind and saw for the first 11
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time a vast area of swamps and forests. Wandering through the reed beds and huge forests of waterberry and fig trees, Waterbuck decided that this would be a good place to live; lots of food, plenty of water and,
most important of all, plenty of cover to hide from Lion.
Suddenly, Waterbuck heard wails and cries for help. Near the water's edge a huge crocodile had been trapped beneath a fallen branch and was unable to move. Seeing waterbuck he called, "Please help me, I
beg you. As you can see I am trapped and will surely die from starvation."
Now, Waterbuck knew all about the sly, cunning Crocodile who was as feared a hunter of the waters as
Lion was of the plains. Waterbuck felt pity for Crocodile and decided to help, but first he said, "For all your strength, O Great Scaly One, you will surely die should I walk away, yet I will save you provided you

agree to one condition."
Name what you will, O Merciful One; for the gift of my life I am bound to honour your desire," pleaded
Crocodile.

"In return for your life you will allow me to enter the water at will, whether to cool off in the summer heat or to escape from my enemies. You, Crocodile, must leave me in peace in your domain."

To this Crocodile gladly agreed, and Waterbuck set about freeing the huge reptile. Although the branch was thick and a great weight, Waterbuck managed to use his horns as a lever to pry the log up, allowing
Crocodile to slither free.
As Crocodile was about to swim off Waterbuck said, "Remember your promise, Scaly One; I have
proven my great strength to you. All would not go well with you should you break your word." Crocodile vowed to keep his word and swam off, thanking Waterbuck for his kindness.

To this day when Lion chases Waterbuck he runs to the safety of water (most members of the cat family hate getting wet and do not chase prey into deep water). Waterbuck knows he is safe from attack by
Crocodile, thanks to his act of kindness, and perhaps Crocodile is just a little bit scared of the strength of waterbuck.
When Hippo was Hairy.
Which Bird Lives Longest? 41secs.
This is a difficult question to answer because it is difficult to know the age of birds living in the wild. But there are records of the age of birds living in captivity, in zoos or people's homes. And from these, we

know that birds can live to be more than 80 years old.
The bird with the longest recorded age was a type of parrot called a Sulpher-crested Cockatoo. It was
nicknamed 'Cocky' by the family that kept it in captivity from 1902 until its death in 1982. Chongololo.

Useful Quickfacts Nutrition 22secs.
More than one quarter of the world's fish yields during the last 10 years came from freshwater fisheries and aqua-culture. This is significant because fish is a major source of protein for the poor and freshwater
resources are fast disappearing globally due to the activities of developers. 12
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WWF
Habitat 9secs. About one tenth of the world's population of over 5 billion people live, close to, and depend on freshwater
resources. WWF.
The Wetlands of the World 33secs.
The five major wetlands of the world are the Pantanal in Latin America, the Congo/ Zaire Basin in Central Africa, Easter Australia, the Mekong River in Southeast Asia and the Yangtze River Basin in China. The

largest and most intact of them, the Pantanal, is shared by three nations, namely: Brazil, Bolivia and Para-guay. Nigeria's Niger Delta is said to be the third largest mangrove swamp in the world.
WWF.
Income 14secs. Did you know that about 90 million working citizens of the United States of America earn as much as
US$ 50,000 every year. This is the equivalent of five million naira a year. Agitprop

"Paper Park" 18secs. Question: What are "paper parks?"
Answer: These are legally established, protected nature and wildlife reserves but which lack the resources or political will to ensure that they are adequately managed.
WWF.
African Students in the UK and U. S. A. 29secs. Statistics provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation [UNESCO]
and its High Commission on Refugees [UNHCR] show that about 11,000 Africans study in the United
Kingdom. Most of them are from Kenya and Nigeria.

African students in the United States are more than twice those in the UK, and nearly 40 percent of them are from East African countries.
NewslinkAfrica.
Border-Jumping to Better Life 46secs. Unemployment in Zimbabwe appears to have reached crisis proportions, Zimbabweans are leaving for
South Africa in droves and by hook or crook. At least 18 Zimbabweans died in unventilated containers recently as they tried to cross to South Africa through Botswana.

The South African High Commission in Harare protested its innocence of any complicity, and revealed that it had issued more than 136,000 visas to Zimbabwean citizens during the first nine months of 1998. Further
information showed that between 1996 and 1997 200,000 Zimbabweans who entered South Africa on trading missions vanished in the country and never returned home.
NewslinkAfrica
Beekeepers 24secs. Beekeeping is popular with rural Zimbabweans. There are more than 6,000 rural beekeepers in Zimba-bwe.
They used to keep bees for food and entertainment. Now, thanks to new methods for extracting and
packaging their honey, they earn additional income by marketing the honey to major retail stores in the 13
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cities.
Intermediate Technology

Glossary
CANCER: A disorderly growth or tumour of cells which invade adjacent tissues and
spread by the blood vessels to other parts of the body.

HORMONE: An internal secretion that on reaching some part of a plant or animal body exercises a specific physiological function.

Acronyms
AWF: African Wildlife Foundation CIPR: Centre for International Potato Research
DNA: Deoxyribonucleic Acids DRC: Democratic Republic of Congo
EU: European Union
FAO: Food and Agricultural Organisation GPS: Global Positioning System

FDA: Food and Drug Administration JECFA: Joint Committee of the WHO and FAO
on the Human-Health Effects of Veterinary Drugs
NGO: Non-Government Organisation NRCRI: National Root Crops Research Institute

SARDC: Southern African Research and Documentation Centre UNESCO: United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNHCR: United Nation High Commission on Refugees
UK: United Kingdom USA: United States of America

WHO: World Health Organisation WTO: World Trade Organisation 14
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