We cover many serious stories in our blog with its focus on life in the Global South. We keep up with disease outbreaks. We write about life-threatening famines. We look at the plight of the poor. We have a special interest in the obstacles faced by women and girls.
We also look for stories that are surprising. Which brings me to a story about Africa and ice.
Maybe it's a cultural bias, but I didn't think ice sculpting was a thing in a country like Kenya, where snow and ice sit atop mountains but aren't generally part of the weather scene.
So I asked Michael Kaloki -- how did you get into ice art? In response, he wrote an essay about his unusual passion. It involves sending a message about climate change, recruiting others to share a vision that he was told is "crazy" -- and practicing in a hotel freezer! Spoiler alert: Kaloki went on to win a snow-carving prize!
It's not only a great yarn -- it's a reminder that sometimes even the unlikeliest of dreams can come true.
Marc Silver Editor, Goats and Soda
in the news
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Why China's 'zero COVID' policy is finally faltering For nearly three years, China has enforced incredibly strict rules to keep coronavirus transmission in check. But now they're facing a potentially deadly omicron surge.
WHO renames monkeypox as mpox, citing racist stigma "Removing 'monkey' removes the stigma that monkeypox comes with," a Nigerian physician tells NPR. But he questions why the World Health Organization will wait a year for the change to take full effect.
climate
Seid Mahamat Adam
A new kind of climate refugee is emerging They flee their homes not solely because of climatic changes that make it difficult to earn a living but also because of violence sparked by the competition for dwindling resources.
NPR interviews Tania León, who got a ticket from her homeland Cuba to the U.S. as part of the "Freedom Flights" program and went on to become an esteemed composer. She will be one of the Kennedy Center honorees at this Sunday's ceremony.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg are among the big investors in African tech businesses. Yet all that cash hasn't produced benefits for average citizens -- like a dependable power grid and internet access. Ifeoma Ajunwa, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, addresses the issue in a New York Times essay.
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