BUGOBI, Uganda: As a Covid-19 surge overwhelmed Uganda earlier this year, Livingstone Musaala, who was forced to quit his teaching job following school closures, turned to coffin-making to pay the bills and help his community.
But few welcomed his initiative at first. Family members criticized him for capitalizing on a pandemic-fueled boom in his densely-populated hometown of Bugobi, 140 kilometers (90 miles) east of Kampala.
“Of all the business ideas you start selling coffins as if you wish people death?” Musaala recounted a relative asking him.
But the former mathematics teacher realized that he could make and sell coffins for a lot less than the exorbitant prices charged by other carpenters after demand surged due to Covid-19 deaths.
“It was a tough decision but people now appreciate it,” the 28-year-old told AFP, with Bugobi residents no longer compelled to travel long distances to find affordable coffins.
“At the height of the pandemic, we did brisk business, we sold between four to 10 coffins daily,” he said, earning between 150,000 to 450,000 shillings ($42 to $125) per coffin.
His success prompted some 30 teachers to join him, many of whom were left frustrated and penniless by the ongoing school shutdown.
Although coffins have proven to be their biggest seller, the teachers have also taken on other joinery jobs.
Some had already been trained in carpentry, but most have simply learned on the job.
Today, many say they have no intention to return to school, even if classes resume — something that spells even worse news for the East African nation’s rickety education system.
Some 15 million students have been out of school since the government sent them home in March 2020, and activists fear a surge in teen pregnancies and child labor as a result.
With no income to speak of, some schools have shut down for good, rebranding themselves as hotels or restaurants. Others have defaulted on loans as interest piles up, putting their future in doubt and adding to the uncertainty faced by out-of-work teachers.
“If I was given an option between teaching and carpentry, I would take the latter because it is ready cash,” Godfrey Mutyaba told AFP as his colleagues shuffled around for pieces of timber to put the final touches on a coffin.
“I liked teaching but due to poor pay, I won’t go back,” the father-of-two said.
On average, teachers working at private schools in Bugobi earn between $100 to $250 per month.
Despite strong sales, the newly-minted coffin makers have struggled to raise capital to buy equipment like electric saws, and are now confronting a new challenge as the pandemic begins to ease after death rates soared in June and July.
Nevertheless, even as coffin sales fall, Musaala has no plans to return to his old job and is turning his attention to making furniture instead.
“Covid-19 has taught me there is life beyond teaching,” the father-of-two said.
Ugandan teachers turn coffin-makers after schools shut
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Ugandan teachers turn coffin-makers after schools shut
- Family members criticised him for capitalising on a pandemic-fuelled boom in his densely-populated hometown of Bugobi
- The former mathematics teacher realised that he could make and sell coffins for a lot less than the exorbitant prices charged by other carpenters
Quirky livestream that lets viewers help fish is a hit with millions
- When viewers see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through
- Letting the fish through help them make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds
UTRECHT, Netherlands: The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a ” fish doorbell ” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds.
The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a website. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through.
Now in its fifth year, the site has attracted millions of viewers from around the world with its quirky mix of slow TV and ecological activism.
Much of the time, the screen is just a murky green with occasional bubbles, but sometimes a fish swims past. As the water warms up, more fish show up.
Without the help, native freshwater fish like bream, pike and bass can become backed up behind the lock and form easy prey for predators in the spring, when the lock is rarely opened for passing boats.
The bell is the brainchild of ecologist and concept developer Mark van Heukelum. He’s been happily surprised at the response, with millions of people from around the world tuning in over the years.
“I guess the combination of a good cause, a beautiful story and just a simple idea generates all this attention,” he said.
Anna Nijs, an ecologist with Utrecht municipality, was also amazed at the popularity of the concept around the world.
“We get a lot of fan mail from people who think it’s slow TV and they find it relaxing,” said Nijs. Besides, “they appreciate that they can actually do something to help.”
Spain reverses ban on hunting wolves in north
- An amendment stipulates that capture and killing of wolves may be 'justified' in the event of a threat to the Spanish agricultural production
- Conservation group Ecologists in Action called the reversal of the hunting ban 'irresponsible'
MADRID: Spanish lawmakers on Thursday voted to end a ban on hunting wolves in the north of the country, three years after its introduction by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority leftist government.
Spain declared Iberian wolves living north of the Douro river a protected species in 2021, extending an existing hunting ban that was in place in the south over the objections of farmers who argued that it would lead to more attacks on their livestock.
Controlled hunting of the species had been allowed until then in the region which includes Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and Leon, and Galicia where the vast majority of the country’s Iberian wolves live.
The reversal of the hunting ban was introduced via an amendment to a law on food waste and approved with the votes of lawmakers from the conservative main opposition Popular Party (PP), far-right Vox, Basque regional party PNV and Catalan separatists JxCat.
The amendment introduced by the PP stipulates that the capture and killing of wolves may be “justified” in the event of a threat to the Spanish “productive system,” namely agricultural production.
It removes the wolf from a list of wild species under “special protection” north of the Douro.
Conservation group Ecologists in Action called the reversal of the hunting ban “irresponsible” while animal rights party PACMA described it as “the biggest step backwards in wildlife conservation in years.”
Members of the Bern Convention, tasked with the protection of wildlife in Europe and some African countries, in December agreed to lower the wolf’s protection status from “strictly protected” to “protected.”
Grey wolves were virtually exterminated in Europe 100 years ago but their numbers have rebounded since then to the current population of 20,300, mostly in the Balkans, Nordic countries, Italy and Spain.
US happiness sinks as more Americans eat alone: survey
- Finland ranked as the world’s happiest country for the eighth straight year in the World Happiness Report
- The United States fell to 24th place, its lowest score since the report was first published in 2012
HELSINKI: The United States fell to its lowest happiness ranking ever partly due to a rise in the number of Americans eating their meals alone, an annual UN-sponsored report said Thursday.
Finland ranked as the world’s happiest country for the eighth straight year in the World Happiness Report, with locals and experts thanking its grand lakes and strong welfare system for boosting its mood.
Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, once again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world.
The United States fell to 24th place, its lowest score since the report was first published in 2012, when it recorded its highest showing at number 11.
“The number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53 percent over the past two decades,” the authors said, noting that sharing meals “is strongly linked with well-being.”
In 2023, roughly one in four Americans reported eating all their meals alone the previous day, the report said.
“The increasing number of people who eat alone is one reason for declining well-being in the United States,” it said.
It also noted that the United States was one of few countries to see a rise of so-called “deaths of despair” – from suicide or substance abuse – at a time when those deaths are declining in a majority of countries.
The report surveyed people worldwide in 2022-2024, before US President Donald Trump’s shakeup of national and global affairs since returning to the White House in January.
Nordic countries all stayed among the 10 happiest, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland, which slightly extended its lead over runner-up Denmark.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica and Mexico entered the top 10 for the first time, at the sixth and 10th spot respectively.
The happiness ranking is based on a three-year average of individuals’ self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, as well as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.
“It seems that Finnish people are relatively satisfied with their lives,” Frank Martela, an assistant professor specialized in well-being and happiness research at Aalto University, said.
It could largely be explained by Finns living in “quite a well-functioning society,” he said.
“Democracy is functioning well, we have free elections, free speech, low levels of corruption and all of these have shown to predict higher levels of national well-being,” Martela said.
He added that the Nordic countries also all have relatively strong welfare systems – with parental leave, unemployment benefits and mostly universal health care – which also contribute to higher levels of well-being on average.
Eveliina Ylitolonen, a 23-year-old student in Helsinki, said she believed that Finns’ focus on enjoying beautiful nature could help explain the consistently high level of happiness in the Nordic country, known for its deep forests and over 160,000 lakes.
“Nature is an important part of this happiness,” Ylitolonen said.
Jamie Sarja-Lambert, a professional video gamer who moved to Finland from the United Kingdom, agreed.
“Seems like everyone is a lot more in touch with nature, going outside and socializing, more of a community,” he said.
This year, the authors of the happiness report said new evidence indicates that engaging in acts of generosity and believing in the kindness of others are “significant predictors of happiness, even more so than earning a higher salary.”
They also noted that in general “people are too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities,” and that “the return rate of lost wallets is much higher than people expect.”
Nordic countries also “rank among the top places for expected and actual return of lost wallets.”
US music industry posts 100 million paid streaming users
- The US music industry passed 100 million paid streaming subscriptions for the first time in 2024
- For the third year in a row, vinyl albums outsold compact discs, selling 44 million versus 33 million respectively
NEW YORK: The US music industry passed 100 million paid streaming subscriptions for the first time in 2024, according to the latest report from the Recording Industry Association of America released Tuesday.
The US industry’s total revenue last year increased three percent to $17.7 billion retail, the report said, up half a billion dollars from 2023.
Paid subscription services accounted for 79 percent of streaming revenues, and almost two-thirds of total revenues.
Yet streaming growth has slowed over the past five years — in 2024, it increased by less than four million subscriptions, compared to the jump from 2020 to 2021, when it spiked by almost nine million — a trend that has pushed music companies to seek growth elsewhere.
Universal, for example, has been touting a “Streaming 2.0” vision focusing on avenues like selling products to superfans.
Music revenues meanwhile fell two percent to $1.8 billion on ad-supported, on-demand services — examples include YouTube, Facebook and Spotify’s ad-supported version.
Indie darling vinyl posted its 18th straight year of growth, and accounts for nearly 75 percent of physical format revenues that total $2 billion, the RIAA said.
For the third year in a row, vinyl albums outsold compact discs, selling 44 million versus 33 million respectively.
Vinyl’s popularity has grown steadily in recent years, fueled by collectors and fans nostalgic for the warm crackle that emanates from Side A and Side B.
The annual report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents global record companies, is due on Wednesday.
Hungarian woman who kept over 100 cats in squalor jailed for animal cruelty
- The woman in her sixties was found guilty of causing “prolonged suffering to a large number of animals” by neglecting them, the court said
- The defendant failed to provide adequate food or water to the animals while keeping them locked up in her “faeces-contaminated flat“
BUDAPEST: A Hungarian woman who kept more than 100 malnourished cats and a dog in squalid conditions in her flat was sentenced to 10 months in prison for animal cruelty, a Budapest court said Tuesday.
The case sparked public outcry and is thought to be among the Central European country’s most serious animal abuse cases in recent years, local media reported.
The woman in her sixties was found guilty of causing “prolonged suffering to a large number of animals” by neglecting them, the court said in a statement.
The defendant — who did not show any remorse — failed to provide adequate food or water to the animals while keeping them locked up in her “faeces-contaminated flat.”
As a result of the neglect, the animals “suffered from external and internal parasitic diseases” and were deprived of “self-sufficiency,” it added.
The woman — who resisted arrest in 2019 and was taken into psychiatric care — has consistently denied neglecting the cats during the trial, and stressed she had helped a lot of animals in the past, independent news site Telex reported.
But some cats died in the flat and surviving animals had to be put down after being rescued due to suffering from a number of diseases, the article stated.
The case became public in Hungary after an animal welfare organization, Helping Angels — which assisted in rescuing the animals — shared photos on Facebook showing the flat’s filthy conditions.
Both the prosecution and the defense have appealed the ruling.
