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The book winds down with William starting his book tour and getting invested in his education. The book finally ends with William wondering what's next in his life.

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"If you want to make it, all you have to do is try."

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 15 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 15 "Rename"

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"The End, and What's Next?"

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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The world’s leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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Epilogue definition: a usually short section appended to the conclusion of a book or film. See examples of EPILOGUE used in a sentence.

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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The world’s leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

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What is a 'Venture Capitalist'

A venture capitalist is an investor who either provides capital to startup ventures or supports small companies that wish to expand but do not have access to equities markets. Venture capitalists are willing to invest in such companies because they can earn a massive return on their investments if these companies are a success.

Venture capitalists also experience major losses when their picks fail, but these investors are typically wealthy enough that they can afford to take the risks associated with funding young, unproven companies that appear to have a great idea and a great management team.

BREAKING DOWN 'Venture Capitalist'

Well-known venture capitalists include Jim Breyer, an early Facebook ( FB) investor, Peter Fenton, an investor in Twitter ( TWTR), Peter Theil, the co-founder of PayPal ( PYPL) and Facebook's first investor, Jeremy Levine, the largest investor in Pinterest, and Chris Sacca, early investor in Twitter and ride-share company Uber.

Venture capitalists look for a strong management team, a large potential market and a unique product or service with a strong competitive advantage. They also look for opportunities in industries that they are familiar with, and the chance to own a large percentage of the company so that they can influence its direction.

Brief History of Venture Capital in the U.S.

Some of the first venture capital firms in the U.S. started in the mid to early 1900s, around the time of the second World War. Georges Doriot, a Frenchman who moved to the U.S. to get a business degree and ended up staying to teach at Harvard's business school and work at an investment bank would go on to found what would be the first publicly owned venture capital firm, American Research and Development Corporation, or ARDC. What made ARDC remarkable was that for the first time, it was a firm that raised money from sources other than exclusively wealthy family's. For a long time in the U.S., wealthy family's like the Rockefellers or Vanderbilts were the ones to fund start-ups or provide capital for growth. ARDC's had millions in it's account from educational institutions and insurers.

Firms like Morgan Holland Ventures, and Greylock Ventures were founded by ARDC alums, and still other firms like J.H. Whitney & Company popped up around the mid 20th century. Venture Capital began to resemble the industry it's known as today after the Investment Act of 1958 was passed. The act made it so small business investment companies could be licensed by the Small Business Association that had been established five years earlier by then President Eisenhower. Those licenses "qualified private equity fund managers and provide(d)s them with access to low-cost, government-guaranteed capital to make investments in U.S. small businesses."

Venture capital, by it's nature invests in new businesses with high potential for growth but also an amount of risk substantial enough to scare off banks. So it's not too surprising that Fairchild Semiconductor (FCS), one of the first and most successful semiconductor companies, was the first venture-capital backed startup, setting a pattern for venture capital's close relationship with emerging technologies in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Private equity firms in that region and time also set the standards of practiced used today, setting up limited partnerships to hold investments where professionals would act as general partners and those supplying the capital would serve as passive partners with more limited control. Numbers of independent venture capital firms increased throughout the 1960s and 1970s, prompting the founding of the National Venture Capital Association in the early 1970s.

Dot-Com Bust

Venture capital firms began posting some of their first losses in the mid 1980s after the industry had become flush with competition from firms both in and outside the U.S. looking for the next Apple (AAPL) or Genentech. As IPO's from VC backed companies were looking increasingly unremarkable, venture capital funding of companies slowed. It wasn't until about mid 1990s that venture capital investments started back with any real vigor only to take a hit in the early 2000s when so many tech companies fell apart prompting venture capital investors to sell off what investments they had at a substantial loss. Since then, venture capital has made a substantial comeback, with $47 billion dollars invested into startups as of 2014.

Structure

A Venture capital firm, along wealthy individuals, insurance companies, pension funds, foundations, and corporate pension funds among others pool money together into a fund to be controlled by a VC firm. All partners have part ownership over the fund, but it is the VC firm that controls where the fund is invested, usually into businesses or ventures that most banks or capital markets would consider too risky for investment. The Venture capital firm is the general partner, while the pension funds, insurance companies, etc. are limited partners.

Compensation

Payment is made to the venture capital fund managers in the form of management fees and carried interest. Depending on the firm, roughly 20% of the profits are paid to the company managing the private equity fund while the rest goes to the limited partners who invested into the fund. General partners are usually also due an additional 2% fee.

Positions Within a VC Firm

The general structure of the roles within Venture Capital firm vary from firm to firm, but they can be broken down to roughly three position.

Associates usually come into VC firms with experience in either business consulting or finance, and sometimes a degree in business. They tend to more analytical work, analyzing business models, industry trends and subsections, while also working with companies in a firm's portfolio. Those who work as 'junior associate' and can move to 'senior associate' after a consistent couple of years.

Principal is a mid level professional, usually serving on the board of portfolio companies and in charge of making sure they're operating without any big hiccups. They're also in charge of identifying investment opportunities for the firm to invest in, and negotiating terms for both acquisition and exit.

Principals are on a 'partner track', and depending on the returns they can generate from the deals they make. Partners are primarily focused on identifying areas or specific businesses to invest in, approving deals whether they be investments or exits, occasionally sitting on the board of portfolio companies, and generally representing the firm.

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A venture capitalist is an investor who either provides capital to startup ventures or supports small companies that wish to expand but do not have access to equities markets. Venture capitalists are willing to invest in such companies because they can earn a massive return on their investments if these companies are a success.

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-Silicon valley was first called silicon valley because it was the center of technology and computers
-Silicon Valley grew mainly because of its proximity to Stanford University
-The single founder of Silicon Valley would be William Shockley

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"Africans bend what little they have to their will every day. Using creativity, they overcome Africa's challenges. Where the world sees trash, Africa recycles. Where the world sees junk, Africa sees rebirth.

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generous, stylish, and emotional

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William's career as a TED Global Fellow takes off and he starts to get back into schooling.

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"'The whole world needs to know this boy.'"

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 14 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 14 "Rename"

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"William's career takes off"

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What does TED stand for? What does TED represent?

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What does TED stand for? What does TED represent?

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TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. TED represents young, smart minds coming together to try to make the world a better place. Many of the people at TED conferences and TEDtalks are young people with aspirations to change the world and our understanding of it.

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Come and See why Windsor Chico Care Center has become the choice for skilled nursing and rehab services in the area. Our team of professionals understand the importance of creating a warm, comfortable environment for all residents. Let us show you how we help people recover from surgery, injury and serious illness.

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How William and his WIndmill Received Validation

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How William and his WIndmill Received Validation

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William and his creation received validation because they got a lot of positive attention because of it. It's because of his windmill that William got to come to America and speak at TED talks and get so much from Tom Rielly and people like him.

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

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- Generous
- Determined
- Professional

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William and Geoffrey build a radio tower with the windmill, William's mother catches a very serious case of malaria, and William teaches his village about the dangers of HIV and AIDS

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“In science we invent and create,’ I said. ‘We make new things that can benefit our situation. If we can all invent something and put it to work, we can change Malawi.”

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 13 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 13 "Rename"

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"William's experiences with malaria, HIV and AIDS"

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William's Role in Using Art to Raise Awareness of HIV/AIDS

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William's Role in Using Art to Raise Awareness of HIV/AIDS

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William created a short play about the dangers of HIV and AIDS, and how they can effect your family life and your normal day to day life. Doing so definitely would have increased awareness to how dangerous and deadly HIV and AIDS can be.

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-As of 2011, HIV had infected at least 10 percent of the population in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
-Many AIDS and HIV prevention programs have popped up in Africa, ones like the abstinence, be faithful, us a condom campaign.
-HIV and AIDS -related deaths in Africa are slowly decreasing, as each year the numbers of the deaths drop.

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Overview

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), is an ongoing, also called chronic, condition. It's caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, also called HIV. HIV damages the immune system so that the body is less able to fight infection and disease. If HIV isn't treated, it can take years before it weakens the immune system enough to become AIDS. Thanks to treatment, most people in the U.S. don't get AIDS.

HIV is spread through contact with genitals, such as during sex without a condom. This type of infection is called a sexually transmitted infection, also called an STI. HIV also is spread through contact with blood, such as when people share needles or syringes. It is also possible for a person with untreated HIV to spread the virus to a child during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding.

There's no cure for HIV/ AIDS. But medicines can control the infection and keep the disease from getting worse. Antiviral treatments for HIV have reduced AIDS deaths around the world. There's an ongoing effort to make ways to prevent and treat HIV/ AIDS more available in resource-poor countries.

Symptoms

The symptoms of HIV and AIDS vary depending on the person and the phase of infection.

Primary infection, also called acute HIV

Some people infected by HIV get a flu-like illness within 2 to 4 weeks after the virus enters the body. This stage may last a few days to several weeks. Some people have no symptoms during this stage.

Possible symptoms include:

Fever.

Headache.

Muscle aches and joint pain.

Rash.

Sore throat and painful mouth sores.

Swollen lymph glands, also called nodes, mainly on the neck.

Diarrhea.

Weight loss.

Cough.

Night sweats.

These symptoms can be so mild that you might not notice them. However, the amount of virus in your bloodstream, called viral load, is high at this time. As a result, the infection spreads to others more easily during primary infection than during the next stage.

Clinical latent infection, also called chronic HIV

In this stage of infection, HIV is still in the body and cells of the immune system, called white blood cells. But during this time, many people don't have symptoms or the infections that HIV can cause.

This stage can last for many years for people who aren't getting antiretroviral therapy, also called ART. Some people get more-severe disease much sooner.

Symptomatic HIV infection

As the virus continues to multiply and destroy immune cells, you may get mild infections or long-term symptoms such as:

Fever.

Fatigue.

Swollen lymph glands, which are often one of the first symptoms of HIV infection.

Diarrhea.

Weight loss.

Oral yeast infection, also called thrush.

Shingles, also called herpes zoster.

Pneumonia.

Progression to AIDS

Better antiviral treatments have greatly decreased deaths from AIDS worldwide. Thanks to these lifesaving treatments, most people with HIV in the U.S. today don't get AIDS. Untreated, HIV most often turns into AIDS in about 8 to 10 years.

Having AIDS means your immune system is very damaged. People with AIDS are more likely to develop diseases they wouldn't get if they had healthy immune systems. These are called opportunistic infections or opportunistic cancers. Some people get opportunistic infections during the acute stage of the disease.

The symptoms of some of these infections may include:

Sweats.

Chills.

Fever that keeps coming back.

Ongoing diarrhea.

Swollen lymph glands.

Constant white spots or lesions on the tongue or in the mouth.

Constant fatigue.

Weakness.

Rapid weight loss.

Skin rashes or bumps.

When to see a doctor

If you think you may have been infected with HIV or are at risk of contracting the virus, see a healthcare professional as soon as you can.

Causes

HIV is caused by a virus. It can spread through sexual contact, shooting of illicit drugs or use of shared needles, and contact with infected blood. It also can spread from parent to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding.

HIV destroys white blood cells called CD4 T cells. These cells play a large role in helping the body fight disease. The fewer CD4 T cells you have, the weaker your immune system becomes.

How does HIV become AIDS?

You can have an HIV infection with few or no symptoms for years before it turns into AIDS. AIDS is diagnosed when the CD4 T cell count falls below 200 or you have a complication you get only if you have AIDS, such as a serious infection or cancer.

How HIV spreads

You can get infected with HIV if infected blood, semen or fluids from a vagina enter your body. This can happen when you:

Have sex. You may become infected if you have vaginal or anal sex with an infected partner. Oral sex carries less risk. The virus can enter your body through mouth sores or small tears that can happen in the rectum or vagina during sex.

Share needles to inject illicit drugs. Sharing needles and syringes that have been infected puts you at high risk of HIV and other infectious diseases, such as hepatitis.

Have a blood transfusion. Sometimes the virus may be transmitted through blood from a donor. Hospitals and blood banks screen the blood supply for HIV. So this risk is small in places where these precautions are taken. The risk may be higher in resource-poor countries that are not able to screen all donated blood.

Have a pregnancy, give birth or breastfeed. Pregnant people who have HIV can pass the virus to their babies. People who are HIV positive and get treatment for the infection during pregnancy can greatly lower the risk to their babies.

How HIV doesn't spread

You can't become infected with HIV through casual contact. That means you can't catch HIV or get AIDS by hugging, kissing, dancing or shaking hands with someone who has the infection.

HIV isn't spread through air, water or insect bites. You can't get HIV by donating blood.

Risk factors

Anyone of any age, race, sex or sexual orientation can have HIV/ AIDS. However, you're at greatest risk of HIV/ AIDS if you:

Have unprotected sex. Use a new latex or polyurethane condom every time you have sex. Anal sex is riskier than is vaginal sex. Your risk of HIV increases if you have more than one sexual partner.

Many STIs cause open sores on the genitals. These sores allow HIV to enter the body.

Inject illicit drugs. If you share needles and syringes, you can be exposed to infected blood.

Complications

HIV infection weakens your immune system. The infection makes you much more likely to get many infections and certain types of cancers.

Infections common to HIV/AIDS

Pneumocystis pneumonia, also called PCP. This fungal infection can cause severe illness. It doesn't happen as often in the U.S. because of treatments for HIV/AIDS. But PCP is still the most common cause of pneumonia in people infected with HIV.

Candidiasis, also called thrush. Candidiasis is a common HIV-related infection. It causes a thick, white coating on the mouth, tongue, esophagus or vagina.

Tuberculosis, also called TB. TB is a common opportunistic infection linked to HIV. Worldwide, TB is a leading cause of death among people with AIDS. It's less common in the U.S. thanks to the wide use of HIV medicines.

Cytomegalovirus. This common herpes virus is passed in body fluids such as saliva, blood, urine, semen and breast milk. A healthy immune system makes the virus inactive, but it stays in the body. If the immune system weakens, the virus becomes active, causing damage to the eyes, digestive system, lungs or other organs.

Cryptococcal meningitis. Meningitis is swelling and irritation, called inflammation, of the membranes and fluid around the brain and spinal cord, called meninges. Cryptococcal meningitis is a common central nervous system infection linked to HIV. A fungus found in soil causes it.

Toxoplasmosis. This infection is caused by Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite spread primarily by cats. Infected cats pass the parasites in their stools. The parasites then can spread to other animals and humans.

Toxoplasmosis can cause heart disease. Seizures happen when it spreads to the brain. And it can be fatal.

Cancers common to HIV/AIDS

Lymphoma. This cancer starts in the white blood cells. The most common early sign is painless swelling of the lymph nodes most often in the neck, armpit or groin.

Kaposi sarcoma. This is a tumor of the blood vessel walls. Kaposi sarcoma most often appears as pink, red or purple sores called lesions on the skin and in the mouth in people with white skin. In people with Black or brown skin, the lesions may look dark brown or black. Kaposi sarcoma also can affect the internal organs, including the lungs and organs in the digestive system.

Human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers. These are cancers caused by HPV infection. They include anal, oral and cervical cancers.

Other complications

Wasting syndrome. Untreated HIV/AIDS can cause a great deal of weight loss. Diarrhea, weakness and fever often happen with the weight loss.

Brain and nervous system, called neurological, complications. HIV can cause neurological symptoms such as confusion, forgetfulness, depression, anxiety and difficulty walking. HIV-associated neurological conditions can range from mild symptoms of behavior changes and reduced mental functioning to severe dementia causing weakness and not being able to function.

Kidney disease. HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) is swelling and irritation, called inflammation, of the tiny filters in the kidneys. These filters remove excess fluid and waste from the blood and pass them to the urine. Kidney disease most often affects Black and Hispanic people.

Liver disease. Liver disease also is a major complication, mainly in people who also have hepatitis B or hepatitis C.

Prevention

There's no vaccine to prevent HIV infection and no cure for HIV/ AIDS. But you can protect yourself and others from infection.

To help prevent the spread of HIV:

Consider preexposure prophylaxis, also called PrEP. There are two PrEP medicines taken by mouth, also called oral, and one PrEP medicine given in the form of a shot, called injectable. The oral medicines are emtricitabine-tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (Truvada) and emtricitabine-tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (Descovy). The injectable medicine is called cabotegravir (Apretude). PrEP can reduce the risk of sexually transmitted HIV infection in people at very high risk.

PrEP can reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99% and from injecting drugs by at least 74%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Descovy hasn't been studied in people who have sex by having a penis put into their vaginas, called receptive vaginal sex.

Cabotegravir (Apretude) is the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved PrEP that can be given as a shot to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted HIV infection in people at very high risk. A healthcare professional gives the shot. After two once-monthly shots, Apretude is given every two months. The shot is an option in place of a daily PrEP pill.

Your healthcare professional prescribes these medicines to prevent HIV only to people who don't already have HIV infection. You need an HIV test before you start taking any PrEP. You need to take the test every three months for the pills or before each shot for as long as you take PrEP.

You need to take the pills every day or closely follow the shot schedule. You still need to practice safe sex to protect against other STIs. If you have hepatitis B, you should see an infectious disease or liver specialist before beginning PrEP therapy.

Use treatment as prevention, also called TasP. If you have HIV, taking HIV medicines can keep your partner from getting infected with the virus. If your blood tests show no virus, that means your viral load can't be detected. Then you won't transmit the virus to anyone else through sex.

If you use TasP, you must take your medicines exactly as prescribed and get regular checkups.

Use post-exposure prophylaxis, also called PEP, if you've been exposed to HIV. If you think you've been exposed through sex, through needles or in the workplace, contact your healthcare professional or go to an emergency room. Taking PEP as soon as you can within the first 72 hours can greatly reduce your risk of getting HIV. You need to take the medicine for 28 days.

Use a new condom every time you have anal or vaginal sex. Both male and female condoms are available. If you use a lubricant, make sure it's water based. Oil-based lubricants can weaken condoms and cause them to break.

During oral sex, use a cut-open condom or a piece of medical-grade latex called a dental dam without a lubricant.

Tell your sexual partners you have HIV. It's important to tell all your current and past sexual partners that you're HIV positive. They need to be tested.

Use clean needles. If you use needles to inject illicit drugs, make sure the needles are sterile. Don't share them. Use needle-exchange programs in your community. Seek help for your drug use.

If you're pregnant, get medical care right away. You can pass HIV to your baby. But if you get treatment during pregnancy, you can lessen your baby's risk greatly.

Consider male circumcision. Studies show that removing the foreskin from the penis, called circumcision, can help reduce the risk of getting HIV infection.

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Learn more about this potentially life-threatening infection that spreads through blood, sex and childbirth. Know how to prevent and treat it.

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a disease of the human immune system that is characterized cytologically especially by reduction in the numbers of CD4-bearing helper T cells to 20 percent or less of normal thereby rendering the subject highly vulnerable to life-threatening conditions (such as Pneumocystis ... See the full definition

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(haha I made a pun anyways)
- The first strange event to happen would have been the giant beast that was ravaging the villages. After it was killed, they couldn't burn the body or dispose of it.
- An old man was killed in the village by a young boy who claims he was killed because his head deflated in a witch soccer tournament.
William was blamed because his windmill was new and unknown in the village, and the people accused him of being a witch for making electricity from wind.

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DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Two former students from Burkina Faso have designed a mosquito-repellent soap, which they hope could be a simple and affordable solution in the fight to end malaria, but more funds are needed to test the idea, according to the startup behind it.

Moctar Dembélé and Gérard Niyondiko, the brains behind Faso Soap, were awarded a $25,000 prize for their invention in 2013 when they became the first African winners of the Global Social Venture Competition at the University of California Berkeley.

Yet Faso Soap must be tested to ensure it is safe for human use and effective at preventing malaria before it can be mass produced by soap manufacturers in Africa, said Franck Langevin, campaigns director for the Ouagadougou-based startup.

The soap, created from natural oils and plants, could prove successful in preventing malaria as it would be cheap and rely on existing habits of African households, Langevin said.

"People in Africa are very reluctant to change their habits, but soap is present in most homes, and is used for bathing, cleaning the house and washing clothes," he said.

The soap is designed to repel mosquitoes up to six hours after being applied, and once soapy water is thrown away on the street, hinder the insects from breeding in stagnant water.

"It is a simple and affordable weapon in the fight against malaria," Langevin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Last month, Faso Soap launched a crowd funding appeal for $113,000 to finalize the development of the soap with the aim of distributing it in six African countries hardest-hit by malaria by 2018, working with soap manufacturers and aid agencies.

Last year, there were 214 million cases of malaria worldwide with the mosquito-borne disease killing 438,000 people, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Jo Lines, reader of malaria control and vector biology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, praised the idea behind the soap, but said it would be dangerous to rely on an untested product to protect against malaria.

As a social startup, Langevin said Faso Soap has struggled to attract funding from donors, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations children's agency (UNICEF), prompting the inventors to turn to crowd funding.

World leaders committed to ending malaria by 2030 when they adopted the Sustainable Development Goals last year.

Europe last month became the first region to be declared malaria-free after reporting no indigenous cases in 2015, and a former WHO official said the world can eliminate the disease soon, but only with more investment to end and keep it at bay.

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Mosquito-repellent soap invention seeks to wash away Africa malaria threat

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Two former students from Burkina Faso have designed a mosquito-repellent soap, which they hope could be a simple and affordable solution in the fight to end malaria, but more funds are needed to test the idea, according to the startup behind it.

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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Biogas definition: any gas fuel derived from the decay of organic matter, as the mixture of methane and carbon dioxide produced by the bacterial decomposition of sewage, manure, garbage, or plant crops.. See examples of BIOGAS used in a sentence.

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William's biggest failed "what's next" was probably his biogas experiment, because it didn't work, and he ruined one of his mom's good clay pots.

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as hinted on page 224, grooving through life basically means that those people are drifters, living on ganyu and not doing much else with their life because they have no plan.

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William continues to make adjustments to his windmill, creating a step up transformer so he gets more voltage, and replacing the old bike chain with a belt so that it doesn't slip and he doesn't hurt himself trying to fix it.

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"'I know what I'm doing,' I said, lying."

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 12 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chapter 12 "Rename"

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"Fixing the Windmill"

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Two Adjustments/Edits Made to the Windmill

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Two Adjustments/Edits Made to the Windmill

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- William adds a step-up transformer so that more voltage can be harvested from the windmill's generator.
- William replaces the old bike chain with a new belt from the mills so that it no longer slips off and he no longer hurts himself trying to fix the bike chain.

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- The most common form of circuit breaker has a piece of metal inside that swells when it reaches a certain temperature. Once it gets hot enough, it swells to the point where it breaks the circuit and stops the flow of electricity. The swelling stops/goes down as it cools. This is called a bi-metal thermal circuit breaker
-  Some breakers also have something called GFI or GFCI which is ground fault interrupter or ground fault circuit interrupter protects people from electrocution. It is another form of circuit breaker that keeps humans from connecting to a ground source of electricity.
- Some circuit breakers must be reset manually but others do it automatically.

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Circuit breaker definition, Electricity.. Also called breaker. a device for interrupting an electric circuit to prevent excessive current, as that caused by a short circuit, from damaging the apparatus in the circuit or from causing a fire. See more.

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- Created the Faraday cage and Faraday suit, which allow electricity to pass over and around a person body without harming them, the suit is used for Tesla coil tricks
-  Faraday coined terms such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion, and discovered benzene
- Refused an offer to make chemical weapons for the British army

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- The ratio of the turns in the wires will increase the increase in voltage
- Step up transformers were created to reduce the loss of voltage over far distances
- Step-ups and step-downs can both function as the opposite of themselves, but there's no real reason for them to, as they can both be put in place.

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So far, we've observed simulations of transformers where the primary and secondary windings were of identical inductance, giving approximately equal voltage and current levels in both circuits. Equality of voltage and current between the primary and secondary sides of a transformer, however, is not the norm for all transformers. If the inductances of the two windings are not equal, something interesting happens:

transformer
v1 1 0 ac 10 sin
rbogus1 1 2 1e-12
rbogus2 5 0 9e12
l1 2 0 10000
l2 3 5 100
k l1 l2 0.999
vi1 3 4 ac 0
rload 4 5 1k
.ac lin 1 60 60
.print ac v(2,0) i(v1)
.print ac v(3,5) i(vi1)
.end

freq v(2) i(v1)
6.000E+01 1.000E+01 9.975E-05 Primary winding
freq v(3,5) i(vi1)
6.000E+01 9.962E-01 9.962E-04 Secondary winding

Notice how the secondary voltage is approximately ten times less than the primary voltage (0.9962 volts compared to 10 volts), while the secondary current is approximately ten times greater (0.9962 mA compared to 0.09975 mA). What we have here is a device that steps voltage down by a factor of ten and current up by a factor of ten: (Figure below)

Turns ratio of 10:1 yields 10:1 primary:secondary voltage ratio and 1:10 primary:secondary current ratio.

This is a very useful device, indeed. With it, we can easily multiply or divide voltage and current in AC circuits. Indeed, the transformer has made long-distance transmission of electric power a practical reality, as AC voltage can be "stepped up" and current "stepped down" for reduced wire resistance power losses along power lines connecting generating stations with loads. At either end (both the generator and at the loads), voltage levels are reduced by transformers for safer operation and less expensive equipment. A transformer that increases voltage from primary to secondary (more secondary winding turns than primary winding turns) is called a step-up transformer. Conversely, a transformer designed to do just the opposite is called a step-down transformer.

Let's re-examine a photograph shown in the previous section: (Figure below)

In case you were wondering, it is possible to operate either of these transformer types backwards (powering the secondary winding with an AC source and letting the primary winding power a load) to perform the opposite function: a step-up can function as a step-down and visa-versa. However, as we saw in the first section of this chapter, efficient operation of a transformer requires that the individual winding inductances be engineered for specific operating ranges of voltage and current, so if a transformer is to be used "backwards" like this it must be employed within the original design parameters of voltage and current for each winding, lest it prove to be inefficient (or lest it be damaged by excessive voltage or current!).

Transformers are often constructed in such a way that it is not obvious which wires lead to the primary winding and which lead to the secondary. One convention used in the electric power industry to help alleviate confusion is the use of "H" designations for the higher-voltage winding (the primary winding in a step-down unit; the secondary winding in a step-up) and "X" designations for the lower-voltage winding. Therefore, a simple power transformer will have wires labeled "H 1", "H 2", "X 1", and "X 2". There is usually significant to the numbering of the wires (H 1 versus H 2, etc.), which we'll explore a little later in this chapter.

The fact that voltage and current get "stepped" in opposite directions (one up, the other down) makes perfect sense when you recall that power is equal to voltage times current, and realize that transformers cannot produce power, only convert it. Any device that could output more power than it took in would violate the Law of Energy Conservation in physics, namely that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted. As with the first transformer example we looked at, power transfer efficiency is very good from the primary to the secondary sides of the device.

The practical significance of this is made more apparent when an alternative is considered: before the advent of efficient transformers, voltage/current level conversion could only be achieved through the use of motor/generator sets. A drawing of a motor/generator set reveals the basic principle involved: (Figure below)

In such a machine, a motor is mechanically coupled to a generator, the generator designed to produce the desired levels of voltage and current at the rotating speed of the motor. While both motors and generators are fairly efficient devices, the use of both in this fashion compounds their inefficiencies so that the overall efficiency is in the range of 90% or less. Furthermore, because motor/generator sets obviously require moving parts, mechanical wear and balance are factors influencing both service life and performance. Transformers, on the other hand, are able to convert levels of AC voltage and current at very high efficiencies with no moving parts, making possible the widespread distribution and use of electric power we take for granted.

In all fairness it should be noted that motor/generator sets have not necessarily been obsoleted by transformers for all applications. While transformers are clearly superior over motor/generator sets for AC voltage and current level conversion, they cannot convert one frequency of AC power to another, or (by themselves) convert DC to AC or visa-versa. Motor/generator sets can do all these things with relative simplicity, albeit with the limitations of efficiency and mechanical factors already described. Motor/generator sets also have the unique property of kinetic energy storage: that is, if the motor's power supply is momentarily interrupted for any reason, its angular momentum (the inertia of that rotating mass) will maintain rotation of the generator for a short duration, thus isolating any loads powered by the generator from "glitches" in the main power system.

Looking closely at the numbers in the SPICE analysis, we should see a correspondence between the transformer's ratio and the two inductances. Notice how the primary inductor (l1) has 100 times more inductance than the secondary inductor (10000 H versus 100 H), and that the measured voltage step-down ratio was 10 to 1. The winding with more inductance will have higher voltage and less current than the other. Since the two inductors are wound around the same core material in the transformer (for the most efficient magnetic coupling between the two), the parameters affecting inductance for the two coils are equal except for the number of turns in each coil. If we take another look at our inductance formula, we see that inductance is proportional to the square of the number of coil turns:

So, it should be apparent that our two inductors in the last SPICE transformer example circuit-with inductance ratios of 100:1-should have coil turn ratios of 10:1, because 10 squared equals 100. This works out to be the same ratio we found between primary and secondary voltages and currents (10:1), so we can say as a rule that the voltage and current transformation ratio is equal to the ratio of winding turns between primary and secondary.

The step-up/step-down effect of coil turn ratios in a transformer (Figure above) is analogous to gear tooth ratios in mechanical gear systems, transforming values of speed and torque in much the same way: (Figure below)

Step-up and step-down transformers for power distribution purposes can be gigantic in proportion to the power transformers previously shown, some units standing as tall as a home. The following photograph shows a substation transformer standing about twelve feet tall: (Figure below)

Substation transformer.

REVIEW:

Transformers "step up" or "step down" voltage according to the ratios of primary to secondary wire turns.

A transformer designed to increase voltage from primary to secondary is called a step-up transformer. A transformer designed to reduce voltage from primary to secondary is called a step-down transformer.

The transformation ratio of a transformer will be equal to the square root of its primary to secondary inductance (L) ratio.

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So far, we've observed simulations of transformers where the primary and secondary windings were of identical inductance, giving approximately equal voltage and current levels in both circuits. Equality of voltage and current between the primary and secondary sides of a transformer, however, is not the norm for all transformers.

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William adds the finishing touches to his windmill, and allows it to start working. He is ecstatic.

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"... working each day with joy in my heart."

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William has every part he needs for the windmill except for his generator. He continues to search for said generator.

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 10 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 10 "Rename"

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"The End of School, and the Beginning of the Windmill"

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-The bicycle frame is going to be a part of the frame for the actual windmill
-the dynamo will be the windmill generator
-a shock absorber and a bicycle wheel help the windmill actually turn to generate its power

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-Tried to sneak into school even when he hadn't paid his fees and knew that he could be expelled for continuing to attend
-Gathering parts for the windmill, and continuing to study windmills and how they worked so that he could create it, despite being unable to go to school

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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The world’s leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

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Two Scientists/ Inventors Who Were Ostracized/ Not Credited in Their Time

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Two Scientists/ Inventors Who Were Ostracized/ Not Credited in Their Time

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Ludwig Boltzmann- Basically defended the existence of atoms and how they applied to thermodynamics, which was incredibly controversial in the 1900s.
Gregor Mendel- Mendel discovered how genetics and heredity actually work, and how dominant and recessive traits work, specifically in pea plants. He was completely ignored until many years later, when other scientists finally decided to look through his research again.

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-There are some 'no fee schools' where students don't have to pay any fees for attending, and many organizations to abolish school fees
-Fees in Africa typically cost somewhere around 650$, which is enough to send 12 people (in this case girls) to school for the same price as one American student

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William is continuing to become more and more curious, and as he learns new things, begins to try to find creative ways to solve his own problems.

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"The scrapyard was incredibly quiet, and I was beautifully alone.'

# data[].attributes.headline
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 9 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 9 "Rename"

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I would rename chapter 9 of TBWHTW to 'Electromagnets and Windmills'

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the definition of electromagnetic energy

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Electromagnetic energy definition at Dictionary.com, a free online dictionary with pronunciation, synonyms and translation. Look it up now!

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Electroscope definition, a device for detecting the presence and determining the sign of electric charges by means of electrostatic attraction and repulsion, often between two pieces of gold leaf enclosed in a glass-walled chamber. See more.

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Diode definition, a device, as a two-element electron tube or a semiconductor, through which current can pass freely in only one direction. See more.

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Kinetic energy definition, the energy of a body or a system with respect to the motion of the body or of the particles in the system. See more.

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I personally think that the video brings up many very good points about the school system, and I think it connects to William because it mentions the faults in trying to educate students by forcing them through tests and common core just to determine their future based on the letter grade they got, no matter how or why they got it. It reminds me of when William's school valued its fees over its students and education, forcing them all to leave at one point due to hunger.

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The hunger crisis is finally acknowledged by the president 5 months after it begins, and it finally ends, as the crops planted earlier in the season finally ripen, and the Malawians can eat again.

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"That's right, Mister Geoffrey, we lived, we survived."

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 8 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 8 "Rename"

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"Dowe and Hope"

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What is Hopeful at the End of Chapter 8?

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What is Hopeful at the End of Chapter 8?

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Something that's hopeful is that all those who planted their maize and pumpkins at the right time now have food, the dowe is ready, and so are the pumpkins. The famine and hunger can end, and those who hadn't died can continue to survive and support their families again.

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-Cholera can kill within hours if left untreated
-Limited access to clean drinking water or drinking contaminated water can cause cholera
-Those with cholera should be under close surveillance
-Cholera's incubation period is short: only 2 hours to 5 days
-People with HIV and who are malnourished may be more vulnerable to cholera

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American British Scientific Cultural

noun

Also called A·si·at·ic chol·er·a [ey-zhee-, at, -ik , kol, -er-, uh, ey-shee-, ey-zee-]. Pathology. an acute, infectious disease, endemic in India and China and occasionally epidemic elsewhere, characterized by profuse diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, etc.

Veterinary Pathology. any of several diseases of domesticated animals that are characterized by depression, sleepiness, lack of appetite, and diarrhea. Compare fowl cholera, hog cholera.

noun

an acute intestinal infection characterized by severe diarrhoea, cramp, etc: caused by ingestion of water or food contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio comma Also calledAsiatic choleraepidemic choleraIndian cholera

An infectious, sometimes fatal disease of the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It is spread from contaminated water and food and causes severe diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration.

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Derived Forms

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Other Words From

chol·e·ra·ic [kol-, uh, -, rey, -ik], adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of cholera1

First recorded in 1600-05 in sense "gastrointestinal disease" and in 1800-05 for its current meaning cholera ( def 1 ); from Latin: "disease caused by bile," from Greek choléra; choler

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Word History and Origins

Origin of cholera1

C14: from Latin, from Greek kholera jaundice, from kholē bile

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Example Sentences

choler cholera infantum

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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Cholera definition: an acute, infectious disease, endemic in India and China and occasionally epidemic elsewhere, characterized by profuse diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, etc.. See examples of CHOLERA used in a sentence.

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Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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Epidemic definition: (of a disease) affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.. See examples of EPIDEMIC used in a sentence.

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I don't think William did the wrong thing. I think Khamba was in pain and dying anyway, and William gave him a quiet, peaceful death. I think he was right to do it the way he did, a stone would have hurt, and leaving him alone gave him time to die without William having to watch.

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"Which seemed forever draped in turmoil" (141)
-hyperbole
"My heart dipped into my stomach" (146)
-metaphor (??)

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William uses a simile to say his hunger is 'like a great big balloon' that had swollen to fill his whole body, and finally popped, leaving him feeling completely empty inside.

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As the famine progresses, and people take desperate measures to make money, the president of Malawi claims that there is no famine, leaving the citizens to fend for themselves.

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"Some men are blind, but this one just chooses not to see"
-or-
"We were on our own."

# data[].attributes.headline
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 7 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 7 "Rename"

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"Hunger, Death, and Corrupt Politicians'

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Is Society Obligated to Take Care of the Weak and Sick?

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Is Society Obligated to Take Care of the Weak and Sick?

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I personally think that society is obligated to help the weak and sick to a certain extent. They don't need to cater to every need of those people, or maybe not even a lot of their needs, but they should try to help keep them alive, and provide them the necessary medicines or cures so that they don't die while suffering.

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-Malaria is spread by mosquitoes infected by parasites. Humans get the disease when the mosquitoes eat their blood
-Malaria typically breeds in warmer, wetter climates and seasons
-Malaria symptoms are similar to the flu, but without treatment, death comes quickly
-Malaria is not contagious
-Pregnant women and people not native to the area are more vulnerable to contracting malaria

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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The world’s leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

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William and his family are experiencing the effects of starvation on the citizens of Malawi, and how dangerous mob mentality can be

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"For days, my new sister didn't even have a name"

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 6 "Rename"

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Chapter 6 "Rename"

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"Desperation for Christmas"

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- Metabolism will start to slow down
- Starvation can cause dehydration
- Skin will begin to dry out and become stiff
- The body will have electrolyte imbalance

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Physiological definition, of or relating to physiology. See more.

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Previous Famine Information and Relief Attempts

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Previous Famine Information and Relief Attempts

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Famine takes root when farmers lose their means of production. In Africa, drought and war have forced huge numbers of peasants to sell off their animals and tools and abandon the land on which they depend, thus bringing local economies to a standstill. Grain yields in Africa declined by one-third per hectare over the last decade; food production is down by 15 percent since 1981. One out of every five Africans now depends on food aid. Interest payments on international loans now consume $15 billion per year. The continent's industrial base is functioning at only one-third of capacity. The incidence of famine among Africa's rural producers has in turn brought national economies to a halt.

While depleting Africa of more people than at any time since the slave trade era, the African famine of the 1980s continues to open the door to massive amounts of the aid that is serving to reignite local economies and stimulate national economies into the global system. As the provider of 50 percent of all economic and humanitarian assistance to Africa, the United States is setting the terms of "economic development" throughout much of the continent. A 1983 CIA report forecast the recurrence of famine in much of Africa through the 1990s and warned of the continent's vulnerability to socialist trends in the face of continued starvation. [1] Under the Reagan administration, economic development revolves around policy reforms designed to bolster private sector development. On his January 1987 trip to Africa, Secretary of State George Shultz spoke of a "new partnership between the US and black Africa based on a shared vision of free enterprise as the basis for economic development." [2] According to the World Bank, 22 of 34 low-income countries in Africa targeted for assistance by the Reagan Administration have initiated US-sponsored economic reforms, including withdrawals of government subsidies, devaluation of local currencies and decreased support to public sector initiatives. [3]

In Angola, Mozambique and Ethiopia, US policy aims at establishing some leverage over these countries' broader political orientation and especially their international alliances. Washington's approach exhibits three major variations on the Reagan Doctrine. Whether these variations demonstrate the flexibility of the doctrine or its fragility remains to be seen. At one end of the spectrum is Angola, where US policy seems determined to replace the ruling MPLA with the South African-backed UNITA. In Mozambique, Washington couples promises of aid to the Maputo government with indirect support for the contra-type rampages of the Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO), also sponsored by South Africa.

Once America's key ally in Africa, Ethiopia is likewise a logical candidate for a Reagan effort at counterrevolution. But in Ethiopia, perhaps because there is no opposition force like RENAMO or UNITA, American attempts to regain access have meant dealing directly with the central government. Between 1977 and 1983, US policy towards Ethiopia was shaped in reaction to the presence of the Soviet Union. This period was marked by dalliances with Ethiopia's hostile neighbors, Sudan and Somalia. The famine that struck in 1984 provided the opportunity to intervene more directly in Ethiopia's internal affairs. Although the administration repeatedly assured the media that "a starving child knows no politics," [4] it set up an Inter-Agency Task Force on the Africa Famine comprising representatives of the Department of Defense, the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, AID and the Department of Agriculture. [5] The Task Force, headed by General (ret.) Julius Bectin, would play a critical role in determining who ate and who starved in Africa's Horn. US economic support for Ethiopia, the temporary convergence of US interests with those of Addis Ababa and Washington's search for a viable anti-communist opposition force reflect a refining of Reagan Doctrine tactics in this instance.

War and Famine

When the African Sahel's annual rains dropped off in 1980-81, Ethiopia was still recovering from the 1973-74 famine that triggered the overthrow of Haile Selassie's imperial regime. The current famine is essentially a consequence of the unresolved armed conflicts that have afflicted much of Ethiopia's cultivable territory since 1974. Three years after the collapse of Haile Selassie, Swedish expert Lars Bondestam reported to the Disasters Preparedness Planning Programme of the new government's Relief and Rehabilitation Commission that "there is an inevitable risk of famine in Ethiopia." The causes, Bondestam wrote, included the dependence of the armed forces upon the rural peasantry for food, the continued development of a war economy, the loss of manpower to the military, and the disruption of markets and transportation by armed conflict. [6]

War now affects an estimated 43 percent of Ethiopia's land mass, and the incidence of armed conflict has increased over the last decade. [7] The opposition Eritrean and Tigrayan forces and the central government are today further apart than ever on the key questions of independence and autonomy. Armed conflict will likely continue into the foreseeable future, forcing all parties to operate within the confines of a war economy.

The militarization of the economy has made the government increasingly dependent upon the urban sector and cash crop producing rural sector. This means primarily the country's 700,000 or so rich peasants who produce coffee, the source of 60-70 percent of Ethiopia's export earnings, and fare far better than their subsistence-level compatriots who comprise 90 percent of the total population. Economic assistance has focused upon coffee producers and members of state farms, almost totally excluding the majority of the population which still produces grains on private land. [8] Although state farms account for less than four percent of the country's arable land, they consume over 80 percent of all agricultural credit available. According to a 1985 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, government-sponsored agricultural development in the plateau areas where 92 percent of the population resides is almost non-existent. [9]

In addition to the constraints of war, development was hampered by the sharp decline in bilateral Western assistance after 1977. Multilateral assistance increased, making Ethiopia the European Economic Community's number one aid recipient in Africa, and the country is scheduled to receive more World Bank concessional aid by 1990 than any other country. [10] But the United States took serious economic actions against the Ethiopian government following its alliance with the Soviet Union, using government repression of domestic opponents as an excuse. Washington has never provided development assistance to any of the insurgent areas. The Hickenlooper Amendment to the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibited any economic development assistance to the Ethiopian government as the price exacted for unsettled compensation claims. Washington steadily reduced the AID budget for PL 480 food aid to Addis Ababa, intending to phase the program out altogether by the end of 1983.

It now appears that the decrease in food assistance to Ethiopia and the failure to provide relief until the famine had reached catastrophic proportions was primarily a means of positioning the US for what was to follow. "In the coming years," stated former Secretary of Agriculture John Block upon his inauguration in 1980, "food aid will prove to be the most powerful weapon of the US." [11] In 1985, the US entered the battle in Ethiopia from a position of strength, and in that year made Ethiopia the largest recipient of AID emergency assistance in Africa.

Zones of Control

By the time famine took root in Ethiopia, distinct operational areas had been carved out as a result of the battles being waged by and against the central government. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) controlled much of the countryside in the northern regions of Eritrea and Tigray, while government forces maintained a significant military presence in the towns dotting the main north-south highway from Asmara to Addis Ababa. [12] Since 1975, the government had mounted an average of one major military offensive each year in this Northern Command.

When the annual rains failed for a fifth year in the summer of 1984, food became a key weapon of war on all sides. The majority of famine victims in Eritrea and Tigray resided in guerrilla-administered areas. [13] The objective of the two fronts was to contain the population within their zones of control, while government strategy revolved around drawing hungry peasants into the urban centers. The Ethiopian government clearly banked on the fact that international donors would follow past precedent and provide aid strictly through government channels. This required ignoring the fact that between three and five million starving people lived on the other side of the battle lines.

When the Ethiopian famine burst on the scene with the BBC's graphic footage from the Korem camp in Tigray in late 1984, three distinct relief operations existed. One channeled aid from the government-controlled ports of Assab and Massawa south to the government-run feeding centers along the main roads. The second and third operations both began at Port Sudan and entered Eritrea and Tigray at points along the eastern Sudanese border. These were run by the Eritrean Relief Association (ERA) and the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), respectively.

The bulk of international assistance entered the first pipeline, despite the late 1984 estimate that less than three percent of all famine victims were located in government camps. [14] Relief agency officials estimated in the fall of 1984 that less than 5 percent of the overall emergency needs in the guerrilla-held areas of Eritrea and Tigray were being met; in Tigray alone, the death rate soared to 1500 per day. At the northern tip of the famine belt, Eritrea was not as severely affected by the famine as were Tigray and Wollo to the south. Employing an extremely efficient infrastructure, ERA was able to maintain numerous temporary feeding camps with limited food rations.

REST was hampered by Tigray's rugged terrain and a grossly inadequate transportation system, which left it unable to regularly stock stationary feeding centers. While the government organized a campaign to resettle Tigrayans (and other northern Ethiopians) forcibly to the south, REST organized an exodus of over 200,000 farmers to emergency border camps in Sudan between October 1984 and April 1985. Despite ERA's camps and the REST migration, mass starvation occurred within the EPLF and TPLF zones. Hundreds of thousands were trapped on the densely-populated plateaus that characterize the northern famine belt. Shortages of supplies, hostile terrain and government refusal to allow airdrops of food aid into rural areas controlled by the guerrillas ensured that no assistance ever reached them.

Support for ERA and REST came mainly from European and Canadian sources, totaling about $70 million in the peak year of 1985, although two US-based agencies also channeled aid, including about $5 million in US AID funding, in 1985. [15] A February 1985 report in The Times (London) cited a "confidential Ethiopian government report" confirming "that more than three-quarters of the people in the famine-stricken province of Tigray are failing to receive food aid." [16] The little aid that was directed through the "back door" to the EPLF and TPLF areas was at constant risk of attack. While celebrities visited the urban centers of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Ethiopian military regularly bombed truck convoys moving into the EPLF and TPLF zones from Sudan. Nine of REST's feeding centers were bombed in early 1985. In January 1985, Ethiopian authorities seized the relief ship Golden Venture, and its contents - wheat from the Australian government for ERA and REST and a drilling rig desperately needed to bore water holes in rural Tigray. This was the third such seizure in less than six months.

The Sunday Times (London) estimated that because of the wars five million people were going without aid in the midst of the most massive relief effort in history. [17] The UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Western governments and the independent Brandt Commission made efforts to secure a safe passage agreement, whereby relief aid could be distributed in contested areas without obstruction by any of the contending armies. The EPLF and TPLF endorsed such an agreement as early as 1983, but the Ethiopian government claimed that there was no need for such an agreement since the government controlled every square inch of the country. [18]

Political Silence

For the progressive American relief agencies and media, the famine posed a dilemma: in the face of the Reagan administration's moves to equate "humanitarian" and "non-lethal" aid in its anti-communist crusade, aid to ERA and REST might serve as a potentially dangerous precedent for greater US assistance to Savimbi's UNITA and the contras in Nicaragua. Still others stated that support for ERA and REST would threaten relief programs on the government side. A number of agencies were lost in the political confusion and simply followed Washington's path to the government-controlled side of the battle lines.

The media and the relief agencies generally confronted the complexities of the disaster with public silence. The wars that caused the famine went unmentioned, as did the "back door" efforts to reach an estimated five million people via the Sudan. Media attention in the US focused almost exclusively on the Ethiopian government's Relief and Rehabilitation Commission when discussing the international relief effort. [19] The practical effect of the silence was devastating: while an estimated 50 percent or more of the total famine victims resided in guerrilla-held territory, ten times more aid was provided for those in the government-held zones.

A secret White House report of May 1984 shows that the US government was well aware then that a massive disaster was in the works in both guerrilla and government-held territory. The National Security Council?which maintained the right of final approval on all allocations of relief aid to Ethiopia - did not see US assistance as opportune until some five months later, in November 1984, by which time both the Ethiopian government and its opposition were in desperate need. [20] US assistance, channelled through the World Food Programme (WFP) and private US charities, began flowing into Ethiopia.

In early 1985, Vice-President George Bush flew to the Sudanese capital accompanied by AID Administrator Peter MacPherson and officials of the American-based Christian Broadcasting Network and Americares Foundation, both key players in the "private aid" network supporting the contra rebels in Nicaragua. Before his visit to Sudan, Bush had publicly threatened to expand US support for the cross-border operations into Eritrea and Tigray, provoking outrage from Addis Ababa. Bush and MacPherson held private discussions with Sudanese officials and proposed to CARE, a major implementor of AID-funded programs in Africa, that it build roads into the rebel-held hinterland and beef up ERA and REST's transport capacity by as many as 500 trucks. [21] All signs indicated that the EPLF and/or the TPLF might be tapped to serve as Reagan's contras in the Horn of Africa. In keeping with precedent, however, the administration went ahead and provided most of its aid through the Ethiopian government. US assistance to the guerrilla-held areas increased only slightly, and not in sufficient quantities to stem the flow of migrants or to reduce the death rate significantly. [22]

During 1985-86, Ethiopia received over one billion dollars in famine-related assistance. The US was the largest contributor. Of this assistance, over 80 percent was allocated to the government, despite the fact that it had physical access to less than half of the famine's victims. Only the most doctrinaire rightwing elements in the US opposed this. A Rand Corporation study commissioned by the White House and issued in December 1985 came out strongly against US support to the movements. "Catering to separatist delusions," or "tactical support of Marxist dissident movements on the argument that they are anti-Soviet...serves no purpose," wrote consultant Paul Henze. [23] Regional allies also encouraged US moves towards Addis Ababa. Israel's then-Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir advised a visiting US Congressional delegation that "Ethiopia [was] not lost to the West...pro-Soviet hard liners [are] present in the government but [are] not in control." [24]

Ethiopian officials reportedly informed the Congressmen that "Ethiopia is the only country strategically positioned in the region that operates independent of the Arab line, which creates a commonality of interests with the US." Egypt's Husni Mubarak voiced his desire for improved relations with Addis Ababa and pointed to his own curtailment of Sadat's program of support to the Eritreans. [25]

"Food for the North"

Still holding out promises of relief to insurgent areas, Bush departed Sudan for a UN meeting on the Africa famine in Geneva. There he negotiated a Food for the North Initiative with former Ethiopian Foreign Minister Goshu Wolde, with the blessings of General Bectin's Task Force in Washington. The US-based Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and World Vision International simultaneously ratified the agreement with the US embassy in Addis Ababa. It called for the delivery of aid to contested areas under Ethiopian government auspices. Stocked by the US State Department's Food for Peace program, six feeding centers were established in the heart of the northern war zones, three in Tigray and three in Eritrea. Each one was a key military garrison for the government.

The famine's demography did not appear to be central to their siting. Millions of starving farmers in the north were on the move.The objective of both sides was to "catch" or contain mobile populations in secured areas. The Food for the North Initiative goal was to distribute some $27 million in aid to 350,000 recipients in government camps. The program did satisfy the public demand for increased food aid to the contested region, but the result was an overall increase in displacement and a subsequent long-term decline in production. Peasants who fled to Sudan say they chose to make a 3-6 week journey to that country's refugee camps rather than to risk the danger of entering distribution centers manned by the Ethiopian army.

In Tigray the government set up feeding centers in two Ethiopian military garrisons and at Endeselassie in western Tigray, the area where the famine was least severe and where, due to its proximity to the Sudan, REST's relief operations were most successful. Here peasants were not given extra rations and encouraged to return to their villages; instead, they were maintained in enormous feeding centers and eventually resettled to the southern part of the country. The majority of those farmers who entered the government towns for food were lost to the movement. And Tigrayans continued to migrate into Sudan despite the relative proximity of food aid within Ethiopia.

The CRS feeding centers in Eritrea allowed farmers to enter government-held territory, receive food, and return to their villages in EPLF territory. The government evidently wanted to demonstrate some tolerance for Eritrean nationalism in advance of the formation of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, under which the present-day borders of Eritrea would be eliminated. [26] Eritrean peasants were relatively well-treated as they crossed the battle lines. More than this, the government "saved" them at a time when the EPLF had far less to offer. Almost 250,000 Eritreans nevertheless sought refuge in Sudan instead while ERA camps in the north and east ultimately fed more people than did the government's Food for the North sites. [27]

Barentu, one of the first CRS feeding sites in Eritrea, illustrates the close coordination of feeding programs with military objectives. Although nomads and local Kunama peoples in the area needed assistance, Barentu sits in one of the most thinly-populated sections of Eritrea. It is, however, a main road junction. In the summer of 1985, the EPLF captured Barentu in a surprise attack; as Ethiopian military forces withdrew, CRS withdrew along with them. When the government re-took the town some weeks later, CRS personnel reestablished the feeding program within hours.

The World Vision program in Tigray was halted in the spring of 1986, when a TPLF attack on a government military installation at Alamata resulted in the deaths of two Ethiopian nationals employed by World Vision. The attack earned the TPLF recognition as "terrorists" by the State Department, which claimed that this was an intentional TPLF move to rid the area of Western relief workers. [28] The TPLF responded by pointing to Alamata's military role and affirmed that Western relief workers were welcome in Ethiopia.

The US government portrayed the FFNI as a program feeding famine victims in contested areas, although each of the feeding centers was based in a government-controlled garrison. Neither the United Nations nor most American private agencies criticized the program. The UN issued a report in August 1985, endorsed by AID's MacPherson, stating that 75 percent of those people in need of food in Eritrea and Tigray were getting assistance. This observation was based on a three-day trip to four government-held cities; the delegation had no access to most of the contested provinces. [29] A move in Congress to apply economic sanctions against Ethiopia was thwarted by the UN report and ultimately defeated by a presidential decree.

"We Are the World"

At the onset of famine, the US government came under vocal attack for its miserly behavior towards Africa's starving and in particular for stalling aid to Ethiopia. By the time the famine had been declared over by the international agencies, the public mood became one of self-congratulation, reflected in the lyrics of "We Are the World" and the words of a Congressional report: "The message from Makelle [capital of Tigray] and from other areas of Ethiopia is that a major human catastrophe was avoided." [30] In fact, an estimated one million people starved to death in the guerrilla-held areas of Tigray and Eritrea due to a lack of assistance, with millions more forced off their land by migration and resettlement. [31] Death and migration have reduced the numbers in support of the two opposition movements. Food was the weapon and Washington was the quartermaster. The Ethiopian government was able to force hundreds of thousands of peasants out of guerrilla-held areas and into either government zones or neighboring countries, with considerable assistance from the West. (By March 1987, the great majority of Tigrayan famine migrants in Sudan had returned to the TPLF-held areas.)

US emergency aid to Ethiopia totaled $282 million and 432,000 metric tons of grain for 1985. This represented over half of all relief aid to Ethiopia. US aid to ERA and REST was less than $5 million in 1985. US aid to the government for 1986 dropped to $156 million. In 1987 Ethiopia still needs to import 450,000 metric tons of food. [32] According to Congressional findings, the relief effort has thus far produced a number of useful results: Ethiopian officials have acknowledged US generosity; Western media and agencies have gained entry into the country, with the result that "direct American operations and observations in Ethiopia have increased"; US Information Service and the American Embassy are again functioning in Addis Ababa; and Ethiopia has agreed to settle outstanding compensation issues stemming from nationalizations of the 1970s. [33]

The US has been able, and continues, to play all sides of the fence in Ethiopia. The leverage that Washington is now able to buy with food aid comes at a critical time for the EPLF and TPLF, which recently broke off years of cooperation and have entered into heated and divisive debates regarding, among other topics, the roles of the US and Soviet Union in the Horn and the most appropriate ideological path for the future. As long as famine prevails, the US will be able to maintain some leverage over all parties to the conflicts. Far from being simply a crisis requiring a humanitarian response, the African famine which began in 1982 bears grave political consequences for the Horn and for the entire continent.
Endnotes
[1] Washington Post, November 14,1985.
[2] Washington Post, January 9, 1987.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Press Briefing by Peter MacPherson on Aid to Ethiopia, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, November 16, 1984.
[5] Announcement by USAID to voluntary agencies at meeting of INTERACTION, New York, September 9, 1984.
[6] Lars Bondestam, "Expected Famine in Ethiopia," Disaster Preparedness Planning Programme, Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, Addis Ababa, October 19, 1977.
[7] From Robin Luckham and Dawit Bekele, "Foreign Powers and Militarism in the Horn of Africa," Review of African Political Economy 30 (September 1984).
[8] Paul Keleman, "The Politics of the Famine in Ethiopia and Eritrea," Occasional Paper No. 17, University of Manchester, March 1985.
[9] Special Report, Indian Ocean Newsletter, February 16,1985.
[10] Africa Economic Digest, April 15, 1983.
[11] Background notes, Oxfam America, 1981.
[12] At the time, the fronts claimed to control approximately 85 percent of the Northern Command comprising Eritrea and Tigray. Relief agency officials confirmed that it was not possible to travel outside of the government-held towns on the main roads. See The Eritrea Durrah Odyssey and Counting Quintals published by Dutch Interchurch Aid, The Netherlands, 1983.
[13] Testimony of Christian Aid to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament, November 28, 1984.
[14] Keleman, "The Politics of the Famine..."
[15] The two were Lutheran World Relief and Mercy Corps International.
[16] The Times, February 25,1985.
[17] The Times, May 5, 1985.
[18] As stated to the author by (former) Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Dawit Woldegiorgis in 1983 and confirmed to agency officials in private negotiations during 1984 and 1985. EPLF and TPLF endorsements of the various agreements were published.
[19] The Conrad Grebel Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies of the University of Waterloo, Canada, indexed 572 articles from the major media on the Horn of Africa between January 1984 and June 1986. Of these, 59 percent dealt with food or famine-related issues without mentioning the conflicts; articles mentioning the relief programs of ERA, REST or the Oromo Relief Assocition comprised less than 1 percent of the total.
[20] The Times, June 4, 1985.
[21] A divided Board of Directors at CARE eventually turned down the USAID proposal.
[22] By the end of 1986, USAID assistance to ERA and REST included the provision of food aid and only 60 trucks as compared to the 500 proposed for delivery through CARE.
[23] Rebels and Separatists in Ethiopia - Regional Resistance to a Marxist Regime, Rand Corporation, December 1985. Henze is former CIA station chief in Ethiopia and Turkey, and author of The Plot to Kill the Pope (New York, 1985).
[24] "Report of a Congressional Study Mission to Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, August 2-20,1985, to the Committee on Foreign Affiars of the US House of Representatives," December 27, 1985.
[25] Ibid.
[26] The People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was proclaimed in Addis Ababa in early 1987. The original plan for the PDRE divided Eritrea into three and combined it with regions to the south to form new administrative units. The recent announcement of the PDRE has not thus far included public documents regarding this redivision.
[27] Annual reports from the Eritrean Relief Association (ERA) for 1985 and 1986, and interviews with agency representatives (Norwegian Church Aid, Lutheran World Relief, War on Want).
[28] Washington Post, March 29,1986, and "US Terms Tigray-an Attack Indefensible," US Embassy, Addis Ababa, March 27, 1986.
[29] New York Times, August 4, 1985.
[30] "Ethiopia and Sudan One Year Later: Refugee and Famine Recovery Needs, A Minority Staff Report Prepared for the Use of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy to the Committee on the Judiciary of the US Senate," May 1986.
[31] It is impossible to calculate the number of deaths by starvation in the areas of Eritrea and Tigray not held by the government. On the basis of generally accepted totals of 1.5 to 2 million deaths in Ethiopia during the famine, the accepted numbers in need in Eritrea and Tigray from 1984-1986, and the amount of emergency aid delivered, the figure of one million appears realistic if not conservative. Due to a higher population density and the greater severity of the famine, death rates were higher in Tigray than in Eritrea.
[32] "Ethiopia and Sudan One Year Later...." Senate Judiciary Committee Report, May 1986; Annual Report 1985, Eritrean Relief Association; Annual Report 1985, Relief Society of Tigray; "Ethiopia Revisited," Africa Recovery Newsletter, No. 1, February-April 1987.
[33] "Ethiopia and Sudan One Year Later..."

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Ethiopia and the Politics of Famine Relief - MERIP

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Famine takes root when farmers lose their means of production. In Africa, drought and war have forced huge numbers of peasants to sell off their animals and tools and abandon the land on which they depend, thus bringing local economies to a standstill.

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The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is describing the unfolding food shortage in Malawi as critical, urging Presbyterians around the world to pray and support efforts to help people in need. In addition, our partner churches in South Sudan are continuing to deal with the threat of famine stalking the land in the wake of more than eighteen months of civil war and violence.

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-The food crisis in Malawi cause a lot of nutritional problems
-A lot of cultural changes also happened, many citizens gave up tradition to survive

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arvest should be the time for celebrations, weddings and full bellies in southern Malawi. But Christopher Witimani, Lilian Matafle and their seven children and four grandchildren had nothing to celebrate last week as they picked their meagre maize crop.

Last year's drought, followed by erratic rains, hit the village of Nkhotakota hard. But this year the rains never came and, for a second year running, the family grain store is empty. If they manage their savings carefully and eat just one small meal a day, they may just have enough food for two more months.

By August, said Irish charity Concern Worldwide, they and tens of thousands of other small farmers in southern Malawi will have completely run out of food, with no prospect of another harvest for at least seven months. With nothing to sell and no chance of earning money, Witimani, Matafle and family will starve.

"I am worried the children will starve to death. I don't know what to do," said Matafle.

"We need food. We are in a desperate situation," her husband added.

Countries are just waking up to the most serious global food crisis of the last 25 years. Caused by the strongest El Niño weather event since 1982, droughts and heatwaves have ravaged much of India, Latin America and parts of south-east Asia. But the worst effects of this natural phenomenon, which begins with waters warming in the equatorial Pacific, are to be found in southern Africa. A second consecutive year without rain now threatens catastrophe for some of the poorest people in the world.

The scale of the crisis unfolding in 10 or more southern African countries has shocked the United Nations. Lulled into thinking that Ethiopia in 1985 was the last of the large-scale famines affecting many millions, donor countries have been slow to pledge funds or support. More than $650m and 7.9m tonnes of food are needed immediately, says the UN. By Christmas, the situation will have become severe.

Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Madagascar, Angola and Swaziland have already declared national emergencies or disasters, as have seven of South Africa's nine provinces. Other countries, including Botswana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have also been badly hit. President Robert Mugabe has appealed for $1.5bn to buy food for Zimbabwe and Malawi is expected to declare that more than 8 million people, or half the country, will need food aid by November.

Serena Gadinala, from the in Neno district of Malawi, has tried different planting techniques but nothing worked and her crops continue to wilt. Photograph: Tamara van Vliet/OCHA

More than 31 million people in the region are said by the UN to need food now, but this number is expected to rise to at least 49 million across almost all of southern Africa by Christmas. With 12 million more hungry people in Ethiopia, 7 million in Yemen, 6 million in Southern Sudan and more in the Central African Republic and Chad, a continent-scale food crisis is unfolding.

"Food security across southern Africa will start deteriorating by July, reaching its peak between December 2016 and April 2017," says the UN's office for humanitarian affairs. The regional cereal deficit already stands at 7.9m tonnes and continues to put upward pressure on market prices, which are already showing unprecedented increases, diminishing purchasing power and thereby reducing food access. As food insecurity tightens and water scarcity increases due to the drought, there are early signs of acute malnutrition in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabawe.

For Coco Ushiyama, head of the UN's World Food Programme in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, just working out how to import a million tonnes of food, needed to support between five million and eight million people in Malawi over the next 12 months, is proving nightmarishly difficult. With no guarantees of money from donors, she cannot buy the food on the open market, or book ships and transport.

"We are very concerned. Last year, like many other countries in the region, Malawi had a double disaster with erratic rains and then floods which led into droughts," said Ushiyama. "Last year, 2.8 million people were affected. Then we had a deficit of 220,000 tonnes of food. This year, we are anticipating it will be four times as bad. The maize price is already exceptionally high.

"We are monitoring 50 markets throughout the country and already they are seeing abnormally high prices. We have very worryingly high admission rates for childhood malnutrition in health clinics. In some areas it is very serious already and it is likely to get much more serious. It will be a regional issue," she said.

The government has declared a disaster and will publish a new assessment of its needs in the next few weeks. The vice-president, Saulos Chilima, has said that about 1.3m tonnes of maize will be needed.

Politicians may talk of going on to the world market to buy a million tonnes of maize, but Ushiyama is unsure where it will come from. There is usually enough food in the region, but South Africa, which usually exports a million tonnes of food a year, will need to import 3.5m tonnes this year. Only Zambia may have enough food to export and it has imposed restrictions, she said.

"South Africa is in trouble. Nearby Zambia has had a better harvest than most countries but it has put export restrictions on its food. If we import it [from outside Africa], the food will take four to six months [to arrive]. We have learned from experience that the rains start in November so the roads will be terrible when the food is most needed and some lorry drivers will refuse to come. By November, we will need to have pre-positioned food in key areas. But to get it there by then means ordering the food right now," she said.

People are divide pulses among themselves at a United Nations World Food Programme food distribution centre in Chikwawa district, Malawi. Photograph: Tamara van Vliet/OCHA

Finding the cash to feed possibly 50 million people for eight or more months is the biggest problem of all, says the UN, because Africa's slow-burn crisis must compete with Middle East wars, refugees and natural disasters for attention. According to the UN, which is holding an unprecedented humanitarian summit this week in Istanbul, 125 million people worldwide need long-term assistance and a further 60 million have been forced from their homes by war, violence and disaster.

More than $1.5bn has been requested by southern African governments, says Ocha, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but less than a quarter of this has been pledged. Officially, the deficit is $677 million (87%) but this will grow when countries complete their assessments of the harvests in the next few weeks.

"The window for responding in a meaningful manner is closing rapidly," said Shadrack Omol, senior adviser to the UN children's fund, Unicef. "The concern is that slow-onset emergencies, like the one we are dealing with in southern Africa, do not get enough attention because they creep up on us."

John Makina, Oxfam country director in Malawi, said: "The donors just do not have the money; there is donor fatigue. Malawi has been hit by drought, then floods, then drought. The donors are getting tired of it. In 2015, Malawi alone needed $170m. In 2016-17, it will be far more.

"The full impact will be felt from October to March 2017. It's looking really bad. The most affected will be the poorest and jobless. They will end up selling what little they possess. The price of maize flour has already gone to 9,000 kwachas (£8.70) for 50kg. It will double again for sure," he said.

International development minister Nick Hurd, who has visited Mozambique, wants Britain to lead the humanitarian effort. But money cannot be given directly to the country following a corruption scandal, and the government must work through a consortium of NGOs, providing food vouchers, medical aid and food-for-work schemes.

"We cannot and will not stand idly by while millions suffer. Britain is playing a leading role in helping countries across Africa to cope with the impact of El Niño. Support for people affected by El Niño is important to Africa and also firmly in Britain's national interest," says Hurd.

In villages across southern Africa, people are fearful, unsure how they will survive. In Mozambique, where Britain is contributing £11.8m over three years, some food aid has arrived in the village of Mblalava.

A farmer tries to grow crops with the help of a United Nations supported irrigation scheme in the Neno district of Malawi. Photograph: Tamara van Vliet/OCHA

The women are ecstatic: "It's been two and a half years since we had good rain," said Rosita Chauque, a mother of three. "When the drought started we used to be able to find vegetables in the bush, but even these have gone now. We used to make and sell charcoal, but there are so many other people doing that now it's not possible. We have thought of leaving, but where to? We have no crops in the fields, no food for the cattle and nothing for ourselves. There is no water, no grass. People are selling their animals. They have no other resources. There is a lot of suffering."

"The situation is critical," said Abdoulaye Balde, the World Food Programme country director in Mozambique's capital, Maputo. "We are at the point of no return."

Droughts and "hungry seasons" are common throughout southern Africa, but the breadth of this year's crisis is very unusual, says Caoimhe de Barra, Malawi country director of Concern Worldwide. Her frontline workers see rural people already employing traditional coping strategies, including eating wild foods, taking children out of school, selling their animals and assets.

"Early action is key. If we can start supporting people now, we can save lives and prevent an even worse situation later this year. People are not currently dying of hunger but the overall health of the population will be severely affected by hunger-related illnesses. Malnutrition will blight the life chances of countless more Malawian children," she said.

The secretary general of the International Red Cross, Elhadj As Sy, who visited Malawi and Zimbabwe last week, said: "Much more needs to be done to support communities to survive and strive over the coming months. We met families who have received no external support and who are simply desperate. We need to urgently scale up our interventions to prevent this situation from becoming a catastrophe," he said.

Relief from Africa's long drought may finally be coming, says the World Meteorological Organisation, which is monitoring the temperature of waters in the Pacific. These are said to be cooling rapidly and are expected to be "neutral" by mid-June. That, says the UN, signals the coming end of the El Niño, the droughts and the worldwide heatwaves.

The effects, however, will not be felt in southern Africa until April 2017 when the next main harvest should be in. But, says the WMO, there may be a sting in the tale. There is a 50:50 chance that the continent will be hit from September by El Niño's climatic "twin", known as La Niña, which develops as the Pacific Ocean equatorial waters cool after an El Niño.

Instead of droughts, La Niña usually brings heavier monsoon rains in south-east Asia and much cooler and wetter conditions in southern Africa.

"We pray hard for rain and then we must pray harder that it stops. Is there no end of extreme weather?" said Malawian villager Richard Kapenda.

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Across Africa, the worst food crisis since 1985 looms for 50 million

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A second year without rain threatens to bring catastrophe for some of the poorest people in the world. Donor countries, in the grip of wars and refugee crises, have been slow to pledge funds. But by the time they do, it could be too late

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Traditional wedding and engagement ceremonies in Malawi. Customs and traditions explained by Local Malawian Chimwemwe Siyabu.

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Did you know how Malawian do engagements? This article explains the traditional Malawian wedding and engagement ceremony.