Trump's isolationism: threats and opportunities for Africa

Patrick Bond, University of the Witwatersrand

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Green Bay. (Evan Vucci, AP)

Donald Trump’s unexpected victory in the US presidential polls stunned many across the globe. The Conversation Africa’s business and economy editor Sibonelo Radebe asked Patrick Bond to unpack the implications for Africa.
What does a Trump victory mean for Africa?
The most catastrophic long-term consequence is climate change. This is because Trump is a denialist. He will give the green light to widespread fracking, coal and oil exploration. Africa will be the most adversely affected continent.
United Nations scientists estimate that nine out of 10 small-scale farmers are unlikely to farm by 2100 because of drying soils. Global warming plus extreme weather will also cause 180 million unnecessary African deaths by then, according to Christian Aid.
Under Trump, we can safely predict that Washington will no longer seek to control United Nations climate negotiations, as Barack Obama’s administration did. The WikiLeaks Hillary Clinton emails and State Department cables revealed blatant manipulation of the Copenhagen and Durban climate summits. Instead, Trump will simply pull the US out of the 2015 Paris agreement, as did George W. Bush from the Kyoto Protocol.
By good fortune, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change annual summit is underway this week in Morocco. The only logical move, if the delegates have any spine, is to expel the US State Department and establish the machinery for a major carbon tax applied to products associated with countries – the US especially – which raise emissions and threaten the survival of many species across the globe.
Trump also heralds a rise in US racism and xenophobia, parallel to the Brexit vote by the British white working class. Local solutions won’t be effective in either case for the simple reason that neither Trump nor Theresa May, the UK Prime Minister, are interested in the income redistribution required to benefit their economies.
And African elites who have – with a few exceptions – climbed over each other to please Washington, won’t find themselves welcome in the White House.
Hopefully the contagion of Trump’s racism – which will make life for Africans much harder – will be met by a major resistance movement including Africans from all walks of life in solidarity with various groups that stand to be oppressed of the US: women, African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims, environmentalists, progressives of all sorts. This movement can shape up in the same spirit as those that gave solidarity during the fight against apartheid.
What are the likely economic consequences?
Consistent with his isolationism, world trade stagnation will continue. In the case of Africa, Trump is likely to retract benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and reduce US aid.
That isolationism, in turn, could give Africans a chance to recalibrate what is now an excessive, self-destructive reliance on the export of oil and gas, minerals and cash crops. Africa must focus on localising its economies to be able to meet basic needs.
Trump’s hatred of what he terms the “globalists” is probably just hot electioneering rhetoric. It’s fair to predict that pro-corporate candidates will come forward as Trump allies to calm the crashing stock markets.
The “neoliberal” group of policy wonks who expressed disgust with Trump and favoured Hillary Clinton will quickly make inroads into the new administration. They will ensure that the continuing US dominance in Western-leaning multilateral institutions is not disturbed.
We can simply anticipate more brazen US self-interest, as witnessed during the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush regimes, with less of the confusing rhetoric promoted by Obama and his allies.
What US policies on Africa are likely to change? With what impact?
To be frank, we can only offer guesses. Trump said literally nothing about Africa during his campaign. He wants to “rebuild US military power,” which might include strengthening the Pentagon’s controversial Africa Command, known as Africom.
Economically, it is worth noting Trump’s close relations to the oil and gas industry which comes via Vice President Mike Pence. This suggests that multinational corporations in the extractive industries who desire more explicit imperial support for African adventurism will be served well by Trump’s bully-boy mentality.
What does this mean for multilateral institutions and how will this affect Africa?
The US’s role in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will become nastier given the veto power it enjoys, holding more than 15% of the voting shares. Trump will probably hire a brutal neoliberal as his IMF executive director, someone who will tighten the screws on Africa using Washington’s veto power. The leaders of two big African economies are desperate for IMF credits: Nigeria ($29 billion) and Egypt ($12 billion).
In relation to the United Nations, an interesting question comes to mind: should the UN leadership now sitting in Trump’s Manhattan East Side neighbourhood not develop a contingency plan to move UN headquarters out of the US? Trump promises to make life very hard for visitors who are Muslims, Libyans, Syrians and Mexicans – amongst others – so holding multilateral events in the US may soon be impossible.
The period ahead demands a very different multilateralism due to a number of expectations. The first is that Trump will sabotage the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and similar strategies to solve global problems, and wreck nuclear non-proliferation strategies such as the agreement that Obama painstakingly reached with Iran.
And the second is that three of the BRICS’ nationalistic leaders – Vladimir Putin in Russia, Nahendra Modi in India and Michel Temer in Brazil – can be expected to establish much closer ties to Trump. This is likely to affect the balance of power between geographical regions, added to which are the drift of Pakistan, Turkey and the Philippines away from Washington. Trump’s hatred of China is another indeterminate factor.
Regardless of the geopolitical manoeuvres, it’s time for “multilateralism-from-below” in which traditional progressive movements in civil society find common cause. This is the most serious threat to humanity, the world economy and environment we’ve seen in living memory.

Climate and Energy Experts Speak Out on Trump’s Views

Disregard and plain denial of science threatens the planet, the economy and research itself

Donald Trump

The election of Donald Trump as the nation’s next president spurred celebration in some quarters and dismay in others, including among those concerned about the steady warming of the planet.The unrestrained emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases have altered the Earth’s climate, raising sea levels, impacting ecosystems, and increasingly the likelihood of extreme weather. In terms of numbers, the world’s temperature has risen by more than 1°F since 1900 and 2016 is expected to be the hottest year on record.
Though climate change was not a major topic in much election coverage—there were no questions on it during the three presidential debates—many climate scientists and policy advocates supported Clinton. They expected that she would continue policies enacted by the Obama administration, such as the Clean Power Plan and the signing of international agreements to limit warming.
Trumps comments on climate change have included calling it a hoax and warning that Environmental Protection Agency policies are costing the country jobs, though he has talked about the importance of maintaining clean air and water. He has suggested he will pull out of the landmark Paris agreement and scuttle the Clean Power Plan, as well as boost the domestic coal and oil industries.
While the U.S. is only one country, it is a linchpin to the viability of international agreements and to moving the needle on limiting warming.

The record-hot months of 2016 clearly stand out against the past 137 years. Credit: CLIMATE CENTRAL

In response to Tuesday’s landmark election, Climate Central reached out to climate, energy and policy researchers to see how they think a Trump presidency will impact climate research and efforts to limit future warming and mitigate what has already happened. We also asked what they think climate scientists should be doing in the coming weeks, months and years, including what they may personally be doing. Their answers have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity:Jennifer Francis, sea ice researcher at Rutgers University: If President Trump acts on statements he made during the campaign, we are likely to see any federal efforts to curtail fossil fuel burning go up in smoke. I fear that funding for any scientific research related to the environment will be further cut by an unrestrained science-phobic Congress, even as we become ever more confident of the myriad ways that climate change is costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars, contributing to food and international insecurity, and disrupting daily life. As an optimist, I hope that a President Trump will become more open-minded than the candidate Trump and allow facts to guide his presidential decisions. I also hope that as president he will take his grandchildren to visit our great national parks and see the beauty that will be destroyed if he ignores those facts.
Mother Nature did her share to influence this election by dishing up a smorgasbord of record-breaking heat, flooding, drought, and storms—yet, climate change was a non-issue. We know it's adversely affecting wildlife, agriculture, fisheries, outdoor sports, transportation, you name it—so clearly scientists of all stripes need to tell this story better. I will be redoubling my efforts to help people recognize impacts of climate change on their own lives, and also see the solutions that must happen to reduce the mess we leave for our children.
Jacquelyn Gill, paleoecologist at the University of Maine: We have just elected the only climate denying president in the free world, with a Young Earth Creationist vice president. It's hard to predict exactly how this will play out in terms of impacts to combat and mitigate against climate change, but one of the most immediate threats will be to the funding and agencies that support climate change research. Trump has gone on the record stating he'd cut funding for climate science, which will directly jeopardize ongoing efforts to understand how the climate system works, how to predict the impacts of climate change, and what the effective strategies for mitigation should be.
I worry that Trump's election will only rejuvenate the ongoing assault on climate scientists, both in terms of internet harassment and in Congress. In my opinion, scientists should be taking steps to protect the security of their online communications, their data, and their personal information. We should be supporting efforts like the Climate Legal Defense Fund. We should be careful about bringing new students into our labs while the future of science funding is so uncertain. We should be putting communication networks in place, reaching out to grant program officers, university administrators, and legislators, and doing what we can to advocate for the importance of our research and academic freedom at every level.
And even though it's scary, we need to be reaching out to the public, now more than ever. We need to find our own outreach communities and connect with those people, and to undertake efforts to humanize climate science. And we need to work with the folks who aren't scientists who are on the ground, on the front lines of climate change and climate justice, to make sure that we amplify their voices and pitch in where we can. This is going to be especially crucial for those of us who are in the most protected groups—white men especially.
Katharine Hayhoe, climate modeler at Texas Tech University: I work with cities, states, and provinces—helping them prepare for a changing climate, building resilience to the impacts we can't avoid, cutting carbon to reduce the impacts we can avoid. Cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, and even tiny Georgetown, Texas, are at the forefront of this global movement. A president hostile to climate policy may be able to affect federal and even international action: but they can't stop cities and that's where the momentum is. That's what gives me hope.
Andrew Hoffman, sustainable development expert at the University of Michigan: Trump's election throws the future of environmental policy, both in the U.S. and globally, into confusion.  His stated and tweeted positions on climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Paris climate accord, the Clean Power Plan and many other related issues suggest that the future of much of the programs and policies of the past administration, indeed many from administrations going back to President Nixon's formation of the EPA, are in question. That said, Trump's positions have been uneven (for example, while deriding some environmental policies, he has endorsed programs by the National Wildlife Federation to protect the Great Lakes; announcing "let's make the Great Lakes great again") and some seem to have been hastily announced (such as his tweet that climate change is a Chinese plot). Let's wait and see how his positions solidify in the coming days of his administration. One aspect of Trump's campaign has been his unpredictability.
I would also add that I wrote this essay to warn that he may be following a similar path that Reagan started down and had to stop. Reagan tried to stop the actions of the EPA and faced a latent interest among the general public on the environment that was aroused by his disregard for environmental policies.
Mark Jacobson, clean energy researcher at Stanford: I'm most concerned with how a Trump presidency will affect solutions to climate change, air pollution, and energy security. Fortunately, the cost of wind and solar are very low now and dropping still, and clean-energy technologies and startups are widespread, so we have momentum. At the state level, many states are moving to clean, renewable energy. It is still in the economic interest of Republicans and Democrats to expand clean, renewable energy. In fact, the five states with the highest fraction of electricity from wind are all "red" states that voted for Trump. Those countries that move faster toward clean, renewable energy will create more jobs, develop their economies faster, become more energy independent, reduce catastrophic risk, including terrorism, associated with centralized plants, and live healthier and longer, so this should be an incentive to keep moving in the right direction. Since most efforts to solve the problems have been at the state level over the past four years in any case (e.g., California, New York, and even inadvertently in Iowa and South Dakota with their expansion of wind), I am confident state and local steps can continue.
I will continue to do what I do, namely try to understand and solve the problems. There is nothing that an unsupportive president can do to stop my efforts.
Ralph Keeling, director of the CO₂ program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography: It's not easy to formulate responses at this point. It's clearly too early to tell what Trump will do to change the landscape on climate mitigation. For now we will be waiting to see how much his policies will be guided by the sometimes extreme views that guided his campaign—such as being in denial of the climate problem. It's certainly easier to be in denial from the sidelines than from being in the driver's seat, so there's hope that a more reasoned approach will follow.
The main step for the climate scientists is to keep working on the science. If we end up on a slower track on mitigating climate change, this just means we need a faster track on adaptation and preparedness. There's a lot on the plate of the scientists regardless.
Michael Mann, paleoclimate researcher at Penn State: A Trump presidency might be game over for the climate. In other words, it might make it impossible to stabilize planetary warming below dangerous (i.e. greater than 2°C) levels. If Trump makes good on his campaign promises and pulls out of the Paris Treaty, it is difficult to see a path forward to keeping warming below dangerous levels.
It is time for introspection and contemplation. I’m still in the process of letting this sink in.
Laura Tam, sustainable development policy director at SPUR: As a policy analyst and advocate for local climate action, I can tell you that the urgency of sub-nationals and cities to take action to go fossil-free is even more important, and we should set up our systems to do this without the federal government, and perhaps in spite of it. The demonstration of the viability of 100 percent renewables for all energy needs can happen here in California and when we demonstrate the economic and environmental superiority of this model, the nation will not be long to follow. It will become inevitable. A Trump presidency will make local and state action even more urgent.
David Titley, climate and weather risk researcher at Penn State: Many black swans have taken flight this year. One thing science teaches you is that systems frequently revert to the mean. So, as dark as everything looks at this moment for fixing our climate, we need to have hope that we won't realize the worst case. If there is a silver lining it's that Trump does not seem bound by whatever he has said previously. So perhaps he will see the wisdom or at least self-interest, in investing in non-carbon, U.S.-produced, energy.
The climate community has a huge challenge ahead, to frame this issue in a way that will resonate with the likely president-elect. It may not be possible but it would be negligent to not even try.

US election: World media digests Trump election win

"United States of Populism" says Spain's La Razon newspaper 

 

Global media has begun reacting to Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election with shock in some regions and a subdued acceptance of events in others.

As results showed a trend towards victory for the Republican candidate, some news outlets in the Middle East jumped the gun to tell their readers that he had already won.
European press, meanwhile, reflected shock and dismay as Trump took to the stage at his headquarters to accept victory.

Europe stunned by "Brexit 2.0"

Image copyright Frankfurter Allgemeine 

"Avenger in the White House" says Frankfurter Allgemeine of Germany 

"How could this happen?" reads a stunned headline on the website of German daily Die Welt; while Die Tageszeitung's website had "Brexit 2.0" as its main headline, later changed to "Victory of the horror clown".
"The avenger in the White House," reads the headline of an online commentary in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine that predicts that America's allies will have to "hold on tight".
"After Brexit, the old structure of the Western order has been dealt a new blow," it adds. "The anger of many Americans was clearly stronger than scruples about engaging in a dangerous experiment."
In France, a front-page editorial in conservative Le Figaro said America was "a country in need of reuniting". "Reducing divisions in America will be a tough task" for any incoming president, the paper says. It later published a piece called "From clown to president".
French business daily Les Echos didn't hold back in its criticism of Trump in their piece entitled "The new face of America". "Racist, populist, male chauvinist, arrogant and unpredictable. We do not know what is most terrifying in the personality of Donald Trump," the paper said.
Spain's La Razon newspaper lead with the headline "United States of Populism"; while ABC says "The new president will have to restore the pride of the country divided by two candidates with more capacity to generate tension than enthusiasm."

"Winter is coming" 

Poland's Rzeczpospolita conservative daily compared the result to Game of Thrones: "Winter is coming and you can't help it. We have woken up in the completely unpredictable world, and business does not like uncertainty"
In Ukraine, Inter TV told its viewers: "The nation was mentally ready to have Clinton as president. Therefore the numbers that we are seeing and the possible victory for Trump have shocked many people."
Another Ukrainian channel - One Plus One TV - said: ""It feels rather awkward and unusual to talk about this."
In Russia, state-run Rossiya 1 TV described Donald Trump's win as "a real sensation". Its Washington correspondent says, "It's a political earthquake in the US and the world, an historic fait accompli."
Another official channel, Rossiya 24 TV, reported that the rouble and oil prices have "fallen sharply" on news of the Trump win.

Worldwide uncertainty

"Peso in free fall," says Mexico's El Universal 

 

In Mexico, newspapers are highlighting how the local currency is performing against the dollar. El Universal says the peso is on a "free fall". It adds the country "faces now one of the worst possible scenarios", as Trump promised to build a wall with Mexico, review the North American Free Trade Agreement and deport millions of undocumented migrants from the US.
Argentina's Clarin carries an opinion piece with the headline: "Donald Trump, an emerging neo-fascist who goes beyond the elections" on its front page. "The phenomenon is not circumstantial; it correlates with many European ultranationalist figures and grows in a serious moment of the world," Clarin said.
Elsewhere, an opinion piece in China's People's Daily newspaper said "uncertainty regarding economic and political policy will be huge if Trump is the next president".
However, the paper notes, it will make it easier for China to cope if Trump is elected, as he "has always insisted on abandoning ideological division and minimising the risks that unnecessary conflicts with other countries may bring to the US".
There was mixed reaction in India. While the Times of India tweeted "Congratulations, Mr President elect!", another paper, Daily News and Analysis stated bluntly: "This is the world's worst headline: Donald Trump is the new President of the United States".

'Earthquake'

In the Middle East, several news websites greeted their morning readers by announcing a Trump win before the results had been officially declared.

Al-Youm Al-Sabi of Egypt calls Trump's win a miracle 

UAE's Ittihad calls it for Trump 

Egypt's Al-Youm Al-Sabi carries a front-page picture saying: "Trump makes the miracle and wins the presidency of the USA".
UAE's Ittihad newspaper website went for "Political earthquake, Trump is the president of the USA" in a headline published while the results were still nominally in the balance.
Also calling the result early in the Middle East were Kuwait's Al-Watan ("Contrary to all expectations, Trump becomes the president of the USA", Bahrain's similarly titled Al-Watan and Iran's conservative Tasnim news agency.
One recurring theme across Arab-language media is that the election - whatever the result - would mean little change in the Middle East and in Syria in particular.
An analyst on pan-Arab Al-Mayadin TV summed up the general feeling: "Wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya continued regardless of who was in charge... I have not noticed any change that would allow us to say now that Republican policy would be worse or better for the Middle East".

"President Clinton," says one Turkish newspaper 

With the election too close to call overnight, it's hardly surprising that a paper went to print calling the wrong result. Turkey's Posta daily said that "the polls did not lie this time, and Hilary Clinton has become the first female president of the United States".

Jose Mourinho: Manchester United boss charged over pre-Liverpool referee comments

Mourino was asked about Altrincham fan Taylor's suitability as referee for the Anfield match

 

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has been charged by the Football Association for claiming it would be "difficult" for referee Anthony Taylor to officiate their game with Liverpool.
Mourinho added appointing Taylor for the 17 October match had put "pressure" on the Manchester-based official.
Managers are not supposed to speak about referees prior to matches.
Mourinho has until 31 October to respond to a charge of improper conduct and bringing the game into disrepute.
Taylor issued four yellow cards - all to Manchester United - in the 0-0 draw.
Former referees' chief Keith Hackett was among those to question the Professional Game Match Officials Limited's (PGMOL) decision to assign the match to Altrincham season-ticket holder Taylor, claiming it would be "intolerable" if he got a big decision wrong.
PGMOL stood down Leicester fan Kevin Friend in April when he was due to take charge of the Foxes' title rivals Tottenham in their game against Stoke.

Eric Bailly was one of four Manchester United players booked by Taylor

 

 

Mourinho foresaw the potential for the FA to take action against him when he spoke before the game, claiming that he "did not really want to say too much more on the matter. I have learned a lesson... by being punished so many times for my words about referees".
Managers were banned from talking about officials in the run-up to matches in 2009 in an attempt to prevent their comment from influencing decisions.
The Portuguese was given a one-match stadium ban and fined £40,000 in November after the FA backed referee Jon Moss' claims that the then-Chelsea manager refused to leave the officials' changing room and verbally abused him and his colleagues at half-time of a defeat at West Ham.
Mourinho was also fined £50,000 for claiming that referees were afraid to award penalties against his side last season after the Blues were beaten 3-1 by Southampton in October.


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US election: Trump camp on attack ahead of debate

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump  

and his team have come out fighting after a slew of attacks over his obscene remarks about women.

Mr Trump is due to meet his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the second presidential debate on Sunday night.
His adviser Rudy Giuliani said Mr Trump may well bring up Mrs Clinton's alleged role in discrediting women who accused her husband Bill of sexual abuse.
A 2005 recording of Mr Trump reveals him bragging about groping women.
At least 33 senior Republicans - including senators, members of Congress, and state governors - have withdrawn their support since the video surfaced on Friday.
Mr Trump tweeted a link to a video in which a woman accuses former president Bill Clinton of rape in 1978 while he was attorney general of Arkansas.
Mr Clinton has denied her claims of rape when they first emerged in 1999.

Some Republicans are calling for Mr Trump to quit the presidential race. Utah Senator Mike Lee said the Republican Party had to find another candidate or it would not win the White House.
"We've got candidates who can do it. There's still time to do it, but we have to actually do it," he told NBC's Meet the Press.
Mr Trump, who gave a video apology over the 2005 recording, has said there is "zero chance I'll quit".
A number of his supporters booed a party unity rally in Wisconsin on Saturday night, given by House Speaker Paul Ryan. Mr Ryan disinvited Mr Trump to attend the event after the tape revelations.


In his video apology, Mr Trump gave a hint that he would bring up more lurid allegations in Sunday's debate saying: "Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary Clinton has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days."
Mr Giuliani, former New York mayor, told US media that Mr Trump would not hesitate to describe Mr Clinton's abuse in criminal terms during the debate.
"Both sides have sinned, so how about we put that behind us?" he told NBC's Meet the Press.
Hillary Clinton's camp has not responded to the allegations.

The man behind the million-dollar

Alex Tew isn’t really known for following the crowd. His mantra has always been to see what everyone else is focusing on and to do the opposite.

In 2005, Tew was obsessed with one thing: making money, enough to pay his way through a three-year business management course at Nottingham University. For most young people, that would mean taking on a part-time job or going to the bank. But not for Tew, a 21-year-old budding entrepreneur from Wiltshire, England, who created the Million Dollar Homepage and peddled internet advertising space on it at $1 a pixel in 10 by 10 blocks.

At 21, Tew decided there was a better way to pay his way through university than a part-time job, so he created the Million Dollar homepage (Credit: Getty Images)

Tew says there were good reasons for choosing dollars over pounds: since dollars are “the closest thing to a universal currency,” he thought it would resonate better, reaching one million pounds would have been a lot harder (the British pound averaged $1.82 in 2005), and “it just sounded better” to him. “Everyone knows the phrase, ‘You look like a million dollars.’”

In four months, Tew had achieved success, fame — and his first million

“I had literally no money, and I was worried about university,” he says. “I just brainstormed this kind of crazy, get-rich-quick scheme that then took on a life of its own.”
In four months’ time, word of the page had gone viral and it sold out. Tew had achieved success, fame — and his first million. And he dropped out of university that December.
Advertisers ranged from The Times to Beer.com and online casinos. Tew says he wasn’t targeting any advertisers in particular, really just “anyone who wanted to buy pixels”.

The Million Dollar Homepage was a simple idea - sell ad space at $1 per pixel (Credit: Getty Images)

He also attracted a lot of envy. The main idea of the Million Dollar Homepage (selling pixels) was something anyone could have done. But Tew was the first to do it, which left a lot of people wondering why they didn’t think of it first.
Fast-forward 11 years and Tew is still doing things differently than most — and very differently than he was back in 2005. Today, he lives in San Francisco, far from his roots in southwest England, and is founder and CEO of start-up Calm, which offers a mobile app by the same name with numerous narrated relaxation and meditation programs designed to help relax and calm the user’s mind. The app also features visuals and audio of streams, rainstorms and waves.
“It’s kind of like having a sanctuary in your pocket,” Tew says.
The app is free, but users can choose to upgrade to a monthly, yearly or lifetime subscription, which gives them access to more guided meditations and options.
The business of calm
Tew isn’t alone in his quest to bring more calm into people’s lives. There is a growing list of competitors offering mindfulness and meditation apps, including Headspace, Buddhify and Smiling Mind. In 2015, the meditation and mindfulness industry brought in nearly $1bn, according to IBISWorld research. Last month, Huffington Post co-founder Ariana Huffington left her namesake media empire to take the helm of her new self-help start-up Thrive Global, aimed at reducing stress. It doesn’t hurt either that many notable figures, including Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Paul McCartney, are known meditation practitioners.

Meditation and mindfulness is popular in today's fast-paced world – and it's big business (Credit: iStock)

“Stress, anxiety and depression are [an] epidemic in our society, and people are looking for ways to manage these and improve their overall health and well-being,” says Mary Jo Kreitzer, the director of the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. “Self-care practices that people can do on their own and can be easily taught have great appeal.”

Technology traditionally is about improving efficiency, getting more done. Busy, busy, busy

The internet already is full of sites and apps helping people do more, so Tew is happy to keep pushing the opposite. “Technology traditionally is about improving efficiency, getting more done. Busy, busy, busy. And Calm is the total opposite,” he says. “It’s about actually finding some peace and quiet in this increasingly busy world.”
Teenage hobby
For Tew, Calm is something he had been thinking about in some form of another since he was 14, when he started meditating. “I was always interested in psychology and human development,” says Tew, who, even as a teenager, read everything he could on the topics, from improving memory to improving concentration and creativity. “Even then, I was thinking this should be available online. You should be able to go to a website that could teach you, guide you, through some relaxation techniques or mindfulness techniques.”
What Tew didn’t envision back then was the extent of the mobile-device revolution. “But timing is everything,” he says. When he founded Calm back in 2012, he envisioned it as a website. A year later, the company went mobile with an app. “I actually think it’s one of the reasons Calm is working for a lot of people,” he says. “It’s available on the go, and we always have our phones with us.”
Tew has clearly hit a nerve — Calm has six million users, and the company has been through three rounds of funding totalling $1.5m. Tew wouldn’t reveal specific figures but said they “are doing millions of dollars per year in annual revenue”.

Calm shows users videos of streams, rainstorms and waves to help them relax (Credit: iStock)

A long road
But it wasn’t a straight path to Calm for Tew.

I was just full of confidence, ideas and kind of forgot about the thing that I found really interesting

With his sudden fame and success from the Million Dollar Homepage, any ideas of a meditation website were put on the back-burner and replaced with new ideas for how to make a lot of money quickly. “The fact that it worked in four months and made a million dollars took me on a different path,” says Tew. “I was just full of confidence, ideas and kind of forgot about the thing that I found really interesting.”
He says he started thinking “in a different way”, which led him to a number of ventures which “didn’t really pan out.” First, he tried Pixelotto, a spinoff of the Million Dollar Homepage selling advertising space, then PopJam, a social network for sharing funny content, and One Million People, similar to his first success, just with photos instead of advertisements.

Now 32, Tew has come 'full circle' to create a business focused on mindfulness rather than entertainment (Credit: Alex Tew)

None succeeded the way he hoped. Eventually, Tew made his way to San Francisco when Michael Birch, a fellow Brit, friend and founder of social networking site Bebo, asked him to come work for him at his tech incubator Monkey Inferno. “I thought I would do something dramatically different,” Tew says.

He’s not scared to think big and wide, but [he] brings those ideas into focus and follows through with great determination - Michael Birch

Birch, who had met Tew through his brother in London, says he loved Tew’s energy and creative thinking. “Alex is an ideas man,” he says. “He's not scared to think big and wide, but [he] brings those ideas into focus and follows through with great determination.” Birch knew all along that Tew’s employment wouldn’t be that long-lived. “He moved to the US to work with me on some of my projects, but he never took his eye off the ball to build his own business.”
Less than a year later and Tew was off to start Calm. He had come full circle, he says. “I had been thinking about this really meaningful idea that could positively change people but then went on to do different things that were more orientated around entertainment — and perhaps a little less important in terms of impact they could have,” says Tew, 32. “Then, I really came back to the idea when I was much older.”

When people say that your idea is kind of weird, that can be a good thing

But when Tew and co-founder Michael Acton Smith first pitched the idea of Calm to investors, it wasn’t met with universal acceptance or interest. “It was tough for the first round of fundraising because it was a different kind of thing and very different than traditional businesses. It’s not a hard-core technical business even though it has a lot of technical aspects to it,” says Tew. “So, at that time, it was a little challenging to convince people this was a good idea.”
But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, he says. “When people say that your idea is kind of weird or ‘I don’t get it,’ that can be a good thing. And I knew in my heart this was the right thing to do.

Source BBChttp://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160914-the-man-behind-the-million-dollar-homepage

First Eritrean female cyclist to race professionally in the United States

EritreanWom

We are pleased to announce a guest rider appearance at the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont on 2-5 September, thanks to the Amy D. Foundation race team.

A key element of the Team Africa Rising program is the identification, development and promotion of women’s cycling in Africa.  For the past month, the coaches at our HQ, the Africa Rising Cycling Center (ARCC) and home to the national cycling team of Rwanda, have been working with female cyclists from across East Africa for a month-long, high-altitude training camp.  Fourteen women from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Rwanda have taken part in an intensive training schedule to improve every aspect of their cycling skills, training, diet and preparation.
Yohana Dawit, a 24-year old Eritrean, is one of the most exciting members of this rising tide of female cycling talent. She has been in intensive training with us since mid-July and recently won the Rwandan Race for Culture Cycling Cup on 23 July. Due to the publicity of this high profile victory, Kimberly Coats (the Women's Program's Sporting Director) spoke with Michael Engleman of the Mission Sports Group in the US who was keen to connect Team Africa Rising with the US racing scene. They agreed on a guest rider position for Yohana at the famous Green Mountain Stage Race in September, riding for the Amy D. Foundation race team.
When Dan Dombroski, President and Founder of Amy D. Foundation, heard about Yohana he explained: "It's wonderful to see so much excitement around these African cyclists; we were moved by the potential to help, as it all aligns so well with developments we try to promote through Amy D. Foundation programming.  The invitation of Yohana was a function of circumstances including conversations with Amy D. Foundation board of directors and the Team Africa Rising staff.  Ultimately, our understanding is that Eritrea is supportive of their female cyclists, and so it seemed fitting to invite the Eritrean National Champion."
This race is a historical marker for our African women’s cycling program. Yohana will become the first female Eritrean cyclist to race at the professional level in the United States. The Green Mountain Stage Race is renowned for launching the careers of global superstars in our sport like Evelyn Stevens, currently representing Team USA in Rio. “Over its 17 year history the Green Mountain Stage Race has played host to many up and coming racers who have gone on to find success on the world stage as both professionals and Olympians. We are very excited to welcome Yohana as she represents the vanguard of African women in bicycle racing.” said Race Director Gary Kessler.  Yohana was thrilled to learn she would be racing in the US: “This is my dream, to become a professional cyclist. I am very happy and I want to show all women in sport in my country and Africa that they can reach their goals no matter how difficult.”
After successfully building a strong Rwandan men’s national team, which now boasts five Rwandan riders on European professional teams, and with a reputation that has spread across world cycling, Team Africa Rising is turning its attention in a major way to African women's cycling. For female cyclists, the current obstacles in the sport include lack of training, equipment, funding, international races on the continent and the one of the most significant barriers, cultural stigma. Although the odds are stacked against them, they have ridden anyway and are every bit as talented as the men if not more so. The level and potential of talent is truly world-class. Team Africa Rising's women’s' program will be the catalyst of change for female cyclists in Africa. Kimberly Coats explains: “This is exactly the breakthrough we need. We are grateful to the team at Amy D. Foundation and look forward to making our presence known to the world of women’s cycling. This is just the first step in an ongoing and exciting process to launch a full team in the near future.”