New York, December 17, 2014- The Ebola outbreak put West Africa front and center in the news cycle. In the midst of the “Ebola panic,” the new children’s app, Dentist Bird: A West African Folktale, puts a different, happier, story from West Africa into the hands of young children. It invites children to explore the sights and sounds of Liberia’s rainforest while helping one clever bird cure a crocodile of his terrible toothache. Watch App Trailer.

Dentist Bird is available on the AppStore and Google Play for $1.99.  #ReadforLiberia. 100% of all sales will be donated to the We-Care Foundation’s efforts to keep children reading and learning amidst the Ebola outbreak. Schools in Liberia have been closed since July.  Learn more.  

Based on a Liberian folktale How Plover Bird Came to Clean Crocodile’s Teeth retold by Michael Richards and illustrated by Liberian painter David Wolobah, Dentist Bird features music by Emmy-nominated Dora the Explorer composer, Steve Sandberg.

The first in a series of global folktale-inspired apps from app publisher Literary Safari, Dentist Bird harnesses the power of storytelling and gaming to expose children to diverse countries and cultures—starting with Liberia. “During the ‘Ebola panic,’ kids were stigmatized in schools just because they were of African origin. Africa is not a country and Liberia is not a virus. #weneeddiversebooks. Early exposure to diverse folktales can foster an appreciation of the universal ideals and values that connect us all and increase respect of cultural and ethnic differences,” says Sandhya Nankani, founder of Literary Safari.

Literary Safari is partnering with The Rumie Initiative and #eduoverebola to provide the app on tablets being sent to Liberia for use in an education program for children orphaned from Ebola.

App Features:

Read: An interactive West African folktale with embedded gameplay

Play: A story-inspired game set in Liberia’s rich rainforest

Learn: For ages 4+, fun geography and science activities based on the folktale

Plus: Common Core aligned K-3 teacher’s guide, parent’s guide for reading and playing together 

Quick Links:

Dentist Bird on iTunes  | Dentist Bird on Google Play  | www.dentistbird.com

Twitter |  Facebook | Featured in Moms with Apps | Praise from Teachers with Apps

About the Publisher: Literary Safari (www.literarysafari.com) curates, develops, and publishes print and interactive content that support child and adult literacy. It is deeply committed to projects that celebrate authentic voices, textual diversity, multicultural literature, and real-world learning. Dentist Bird is its first app. Contact: sandhya@literarysafari.com, 347.560.9712

Follow Erika Amoako-Agyei: Erika Amoako-Agyei is an intercultural business consultant with regional expertise on the sub-region of Africa. She works with global managers, students and companies expanding into Africa.

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LinkedIn: contact Erika on LinkedIn
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President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has sacked his vice-president, Joice Mujuru, after accusing her of corruption and plotting to kill him.

Mr Mugabe also dismissed seven government ministers in connection with the alleged plot, a statement said.

Mrs Mujuru, once seen as a possible future leader of Zimbabwe, has denied plotting against the president.

State media and Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, have conducted a campaign against her for months.

"President RG Mugabe has exercised his executive powers to release the Honourable Joice Mujuru… with immediate effect," said a statement issued by chief secretary to the cabinet Misheck Sibanda.

Mrs Mujuru's conduct had been "inconsistent with the expected standard", it said.

'Web of lies'The ministers whose sacking was announced on Tuesday included State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa - another long-time ally of Mr Mugabe - and Energy Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire, who was seen as close to Mrs Mujuru.

There was no immediate word on replacements.The sackings come a week after Mr Mugabe denounced his vice-president at a party congress and removed her from her post in the ruling party, Zanu-PF.

Mrs Mujuru responded on Tuesday by saying her loyalty to Mr Mugabe was "unquestionable" and it was "repugnant" and "ridiculous" to suggest she had plotted to kill him or wanted to remove him from office.

She said Zimbabwe's state media had "continued to publish malicious untruths" about her and that she had "become the fly in a web of lies whose final objective is the destruction of Zanu-PF".

'Treachery'Her accusers, she said, had produced "not a single iota of evidence" against her.

Grace Mugabe has conducted a three-month campaign against Mrs Mujuru
Mr Mugabe, 90, has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. He is due to stand for election again in 2018.

Mrs Mujuru fought alongside him in the 1970s guerrilla war against white-minority rule and had been thought a possible successor as president.

But correspondents say her career ran into trouble when Mr Mugabe's wife entered politics earlier this year.


Analysis - By Brian Hungwe, BBC News, Harare


Mrs Mujuru's sacking was not a huge surprise. She has been under siege for the past three months and her relationship with Mr Mugabe had broken down.

Grace Mugabe has been spewing vitriol at public rallies, telling the vice-president to resign or apologise. Mrs Mujuru has dug in despite the gravity of the allegations.

Now her sacking is official, the public eagerly await her next move.

She appears ready to face the consequences of the situation - but her options are limited. She is damned if she leaves the party, damned if she stays.

Her supporters may press her to join the opposition trenches. That could be dangerous, given the threats by Mr Mugabe of imminent arrest. The intelligence services are known to keep files of "dirt" for use against those who defect.

If she stays, she will be a diminished and disparaged figure, likely to demoralise those allies who would be prepared to leave with her.


Mrs Mugabe repeatedly accused Mrs Mujuru of plotting against her husband and Mr Mugabe told delegates at the party congress that he welcomed his wife's action to expose the alleged treachery.

Grace Mugabe, 49, once her husband's secretary, is now a senior party figure, having been appointed leader of Zanu-PF's women's wing last week.

Speculation is building that she may seek to succeed Mr Mugabe when he retires or dies.

Correspondents say another prominent figure expected to benefit from the political demise of Mrs Mujuru is the veteran Justice Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

• The Ebola epidemic in west Africa has led mining companies in the region to put expansion plans on hold, delaying the rollout of jobs meant for residents of the countries hardest hit by the virus.
• ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) has delayed a $1.7B expansion at its iron ore mine in Liberia, Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) has stopped work on a $20B iron ore mine in Guinea, and Sierra Leone-focused London Mining filed for bankruptcy last month after falling iron ore prices and Ebola concerns hampered its ability to attract financing.
• It wasn’t supposed to be like this: Guinea holds two-thirds of the world’s bauxite reserves as well as massive iron ore deposits, while Liberia and Sierra Leone boast troves of diamonds, gold and iron ore.
• Officials worry the pullback could set development back by a decade in a region that only recently escaped a cycle of war and political turmoil.

Source: Seeking Alpha


Follow Erika Amoako-Agyei: Erika Amoako-Agyei is an intercultural business consultant with regional expertise on the sub-region of Africa. She works with global managers, students and companies expanding into Africa.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Erika_Amoako
LinkedIn: contact Erika on LinkedIn
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The world has woken up to the devastating effects of Ebola in West Africa. International aid organisations have committed funding and resources to the region. The US has deployed a 4,000 strong military contingent to set up blood testing laboratories so that people infected with the Ebola virus can be distinguished from those with malaria or influenza. While it seemed for a long time that the international community was paying little attention to the crisis, the appearance of cases in Spain and the US, including the death of one Liberian man in Texas, brought home to many authorities the real risk of the disease spreading around the world.

Personal and financial insecurity

In West Africa, fear of infection has had a profound effect on the overloaded health systems and on daily life: people avoid physical contact, and families hit by the infection become socially isolated. In Liberia, the giant Firestone rubber plantation near Monrovia has seen at least 57 people—workers and their families living in and around the plantation—die of the disease. Surviving family members are entitled to only a $1,600 one-off payment (around 18 months’ wages), $300 for removing and disposing of the body, plus a bag of rice. They are ordered off the plantation. Orphaned children hanging around waiting to be paid feel the pressure to leave, though they have nowhere to go.

This is just one example of the social and financial impact that the Ebola outbreak has had on its victims and on businesses in the region. Of course, the workers suffer death, bereavement, isolation and an uncertain future, while businesses are only inconvenienced by the temporary manpower shortage and minimal payouts. Some of the bereaved have to move on before they can receive any benefits. President of the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia, Austin Natee, complained that the labour laws favour the company and there are no workers’ pensions. In the company’s defence, Firestone director Edmundo Garcia said that they had been praised by the U.S. Center for Disease Control for its quick and effective response to the outbreak, and that at no time has the company considered closing the plantation as thousands of people rely on them for their livelihoods.

Travel restrictions

Tourism inevitably declines following any outbreak of a contagious disease. In Sierra Leone, military and police roadblocks have been set up to restrict movement, which adversely affects the supply of food and other goods. The commercial banks have cut their opening hours and some hotels have been empty since the summer. Several African states have restricted or banned travel from countries affected by the Ebola outbreak, and some airlines, including Kenya Airways, Emirates and British Airways have suspended all flights. Most travel insurance policies don’t include restrictive clauses for Ebola. Health insurance payouts for Ebola are unlimited, and unless governments advise against travel to a country, insurance claims for Ebola are unlikely to be excluded. However, fear of the disease inevitably affects the numbers of people willing to travel to West Africa. Border closures and travel restrictions throughout the region severely limit the import and export of goods as well as depleting tourist income, and tightening escape routes put pressure on multinational companies to withdraw.

A bleak outlook

The deepening crisis was at the top of the agenda when the IMF and World Bank met in October 2014. Its ramifications go far beyond concerns over public health, with the threat of an economic catastrophe in West Africa that could affect an entire generation. The three worst affected West African countries—Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea—all have fragile economies that the World Bank estimated could be hit by a $36.2 billion deficit be the end of 2015 if the Ebola outbreak cannot be controlled. Liberia, whose economy was recovering after 11 years of civil war, is now almost paralysed by the crisis with a rising budget deficit that will inevitably lead to the halting of critical funding to infrastructure projects. Foreign investors need to be reassured that investment is still viable in West Africa, despite the evacuation of foreign staff and the partial shut-down of operations by several big mining companies, and the scaling down of iron ore shipments from Liberia by China Union. These results of the crisis will be reflected in the inevitable economic slowdown, with a resulting decrease in tax revenues, increased borrowing and government expenditure. The crisis-hit agricultural sector will result in food shortages and price rises, with inflation caused by panic buying.

Huge sums of money will be spent by governments and NGOs to contain the outbreak and care for the sick and dying, but in purely monetary terms the cost to the economies of the affected countries will be far greater. Confusion and panic only adds to the disruption. Past outbreaks of deadly diseases, such as the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak show that they always provoke over-reaction. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Situation Report published in September 2014, Ebola’s fatality rate varies between countries and is difficult to assess, but is probably closer to the average of 53% calculated from collating the reports from all affected countries than the usually quoted figure of 90% seen in previous outbreaks. Governments have to tread carefully between working to limit the spread of Ebola, causing disruption to the economy by necessary restrictions on movement, and avoiding panic. This is best achieved by being open about the problem and the degree of success, and in encouraging a constructive and unified response from the public and businesses.

Credit: Freelance article by Gemma Green

Disclaimer: The views & opinions expressed in any guest feature article on our site are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions & views of Africa Business Review.


Follow Erika Amoako-Agyei: Erika Amoako-Agyei is an intercultural business consultant with regional expertise on the sub-region of Africa. She works with global managers, students and companies expanding into Africa.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Erika_Amoako
LinkedIn: contact Erika on LinkedIn
Facebook: Africa Business Review Face Page 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AfricaBusinessReview
Website: www. AfricaBusinessReview.net
Website: www.AfricaIntercultural.com