Street Child In Senegal

The German newspaper ‘Reutlinger Nachrichten’ now wrote an article about the violation of human rights in the production of cashew and peanuts: Did you know that when being freed from their shells – to make them look as appetizing as the cashew we know from grocery stores – cashews secret a fluid that is damaging the human skin? Still this procedure is done usually in developing countries where workers are forced to peel these nuts without even wearing gloves. As this procedure doesn’t require much physical strength sometimes even children are forced to help. We could import the whole thing and then have the shell removed in an industrial country where safety regulations for workers are much better, but that would be expensive – transport and payment for workers alike.
In Senegal, Gambia and Nigeria the excessive production of peanuts and cashews causes erosion and thus a very bad harvest for many farmers and some sources of water dried out (albeit not completely).
Another problem in the production of peanuts and cashew is the excessive use of pesticides that kills off many bees and butterflies and thus is a threat to beekeepers who earn part of their living by selling honey.

‘Suedwestpresse’ says that to prevent the Corona-disease from spreading several African countries took different measures:
>Rwanda and Senegal forbid all public events.
>South Africa declared emergency.
>To visit Kenya you need to prove that you come from a Corona-free country. Plus Kenya and Nigeria both forbid public events.
>Madagascar cancelled all air traffic between Europe and them.
>Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia rely on their experience with Ebola about 9 years ago.

The German news show “ARTE Reportage” says that Senegal currently has the following problem: Fishermen from all around the world come here to do some illegal fishing – i.e. they don’t even have a license. Thus the fishing industry of Senegal slowly goes down. Many fishermen can’t even feed their families anymore. Coastguards try their best to control this situation, but there also are cases that escalated. One example is when a 19-year old Senegalese men borrowed a boat that belonged to his friend. He wanted to do some fishing to improve his family’s poor economies. Alas a coastguard shot him when he caught the young man off guard.

According to Web.de Ngor Dakar in Senegal is among the 20 most polluted places in the world as each day the flood brings plastic waste from industrial nations to this shore located to a least developed country. The fish fishermen catch becomes non-edible as it is contaminated with plastic particles and some of the waste drifting around the shores of Senegal even can damage their boats or their nets. In addition to that the plastic kills turtles and fowl both of which can cause disease when their carcasses get swamped to shore.

The German informative TV-show 360° – GEO Reportage now had an episode titled “Die alte Frau und das Meer” (The Old Woman and the Sea). It says that due to industrial nations exhausting the coasts of Venezuela, Senegal and others, fishermen from these poorer countries – Senegal even is a least developed country – hardly find enough pilchard to earn their living. There are days when the ship’s crew doesn’t catch more than three fish. European ships who go there to catch fish are very picky and throw back the fish that doesn’t meet our standards. Alas pilchards aren’t as dumb as you’d expect and these fish then join another pod that then will avoid the place where the fish which joined them once got caught.
In countries like Venezuela and Senegal fishermen can’t afford medical treatment or school for their children anymore as European and Nothern American hunger for pilchard destroys their fishing industry.