REGREENING ASSISTS WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

By Penny Cooper

Regreening, a word for reclaiming land from environmental hardship. The process is to vegetate an area, which in turn will soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Regreening can help the problem of Climate Change!

Let us consider “Justdiggit”. Justdiggit is a Dutch foundation whose goal is to restore degraded environments by implementing restoration programs, which take place in Africa. Their statistics of recovery and implementation are very reassuring, for example, 9.7 million trees regenerated, they use a technique to regenerate stumps rather than replanting.

The other benefits are to the environment, animals, and the local population. Regreening provides food for both animals and the human population. The environment benefits due to increased rainfall and water retention.

Something else Justdiggit talk about is bunding, the act of digging out a crescent shaped area, to remove the hard encrusted topsoil and then when it rains, the water is captured and causes growth in that bund. There are some massive regreening projects and not just in Africa.

I would recommend a visit to the Justdiggit website, https://justdiggit.org where you can learn much more about their greening projects in Africa, simply worded, and easy to understand.

In Burkina Faso, bunds are estimated to have helped to “regreen up to 300,000 hectares of land and produce an additional 80,000 tons of food per year, enough to feed half a million people”. This is in the Sahel, West Africa, statistics from a paper by John Magrath, Oxfam OGB Research Team November 2020. In Mali, 500,000 hectares of Mali’s Seno Plain have been regreened. Regreening is taking place all over Africa in areas which need recovery and where local rural life has been put under strain due to drought conditions.

Greening can also be known by another name of agroecology, agroforestry for example, includes trees and farming, whereby livestock can find shelter and food under the trees, and their faeces can act as fertiliser on the land for the trees and vegetation. This is obviously a big incentive these days with climate change being so high on the political agenda. The Ecofarm in Screveton mix trees and sheep grazing, an example of this kind of practice in England. The trees were planted by volunteers, over 4,000 trees, many donated by the Woodland Trust, this took a number of years, many of you may have volunteered to help with the planting, now they are established and share their space with sheep and their lambs.

For those of our readership who have contacts in rural areas in Africa, whom you know to be in hardship due to land conditions, perhaps this could be a way forward, regreening their land, maybe through bunding. The United Nations support this activity as part of their policy on climate change, signed in 2014, with countries pledging to restore 350 million hectares of degraded forestlands by 2030.

THE CAR CRISIS: HOW SUSTAINABLE IS YOUR VEHICLE?

By Tristan Best

A brief look into the fuel-powered car industry and its future here in the UK…

The government says it is committed to ending the sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 as we work towards a carbon free transport network. This means you will still be able to purchase cars made in 2030 and the years prior to the date, so inevitably, we will still continue to pollute the environment on a mass scale.

Does this mean the car business will have a boom in the coming years, where car manufacturers will push their plans forward to pump out the very last few types purely for the consumers to engulf? New sports versions, offroaders, hatchbacks and coupes… everyone will be foaming at the mouth when this comes, and the amount of cars on the road will increase, as even myself will take part. And so will you. When will we stop with our materialistic fantasies, and desires? Probably never – it might just be in our nature.

There are currently roughly 1.45 billion cars in the world, for now, and with the future ahead the sum will increase significantly. I estimate that we could have at least another 500 million new cars made by 2050, including electric, fuel-powered and dualpowered vehicles.

My friend, a mechanic, and I came up with a great solution: what if we could convert the cars on the road today into electric vehicles by removing the fuel engine and replacing it with an electrical battery or converter?

In idealistic terms I feel like this would be a great plan, but it would require a huge change for all of us here in the UK. All fuel stations should realistically be closed down and also be converted into fast charging stations.

If all the cars get transformed into electric cars, the world would be a much quieter place, with sports cars, trucks and more being almost fully silent. Could you imagine that?

6 MORE AFRICAN & CARIBBEAN TAKEAWAYS YOU SHOULD TRY -

By Sarah-Louise Elton

As we celebrate Windrush 75, here are some of the best spots in the city to find authentic, traditional Black cuisine…

The Tropixx Caribbean Restaurant

141a London Road

This restaurant boasts a wealth of fantastic reviews, varying from the celebration of its portion sizes to their exceptional dumplings.

Turtle Bay

1-5 Wardwick

Situated right in the city centre, Turtle Bay is widely known for its excellent fiery jerk inspired flavours in addition to its huge range of cocktails, all inspired by the Caribbean.

DUNNS RIVER

123 Pear Tree Road

This authentic Caribbean takeaway is very proud of its stew dishes. There is a recurrent opinion how tasty their dishes are with regulars refusing to try other Caribbean takeaways in the area.

MARLEYZ

11 Curzon Street

Not only does Marleyz offer a selection of Caribbean cuisine, you are able to enjoy this within a bar-type restaurant jamming along to some reggae. This place also hosts events influenced by Caribbean culture. You are invited to come along and enjoy the good vibes.

JERK CO

1 Sacheverel Street

Their motto is ‘love jerk chicken, love the vibe’. That’s exactly what this place has to offer with a variety of jerk options on the menu, plus a nice seating area for you to enjoy your food and the atmosphere.

WHY DO MINORITY OWNED BUSINESSES FAIL?

By Saida Egeh

Lack of Training on Small Business and particularly minority owned businesses remains the major obstacle many start-ups and other small businesses are experiencing.

Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, contributing to job creation, innovation, and economic growth. However, many small businesses struggle to survive due to various challenges, including a lack of training. Without proper training, small businesses may not be able to operate efficiently, leading to financial instability and ultimately, failure. In this article, we will explore how the lack of training can impact the financial stability of small businesses and examine what Islington Council is doing to support black-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in their community.

Small businesses that lack training often struggle with inefficient operations. This can result in wasted time, resources, and money, leading to decreased profitability. Without proper training, employees may not know how to perform their jobs efficiently, leading to delays, missed deadlines, and dissatisfied customers. Additionally, untrained employees may need more supervision, which can take time away from other important tasks, further decreasing productivity.

A lack of training can also lead to errors in recordkeeping, billing, and inventory management, further contributing to financial instability. Small businesses that lack training may also struggle with ineffective marketing strategies. Without training in marketing and advertising, businesses may not know how to effectively reach their target audience, resulting in reduced sales and revenue. A lack of training may also lead to ineffective branding, messaging, and customer engagement, further decreasing the business’s financial stability.

The UK government and local authorities have recognized the importance of supporting blackowned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in their local community. They have taken several initiatives to help these businesses thrive. However, what makes level accessibility difficult is the lack of local business networks and grass roots initiative, that would support business make of these government initiatives and mobilise local business communities.

In conclusion, the lack of training can have significant impacts on the financial stability of small businesses. Inefficient operations, reduced productivity, ineffective marketing, high employee turnover, and missed opportunities can all contribute to financial instability and ultimately, failure.

However, various government initiatives to support black-owned SMEs demonstrate a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in the local economy. But skills gap, lack of access to digital systems, finances and research remains the most cited challenges many minorities owned businesses are to deal with.

Learn the terminology behind the most common day-to-day scams across the UK…

Why do people scam?

Scamming usually stems from two main reasons: poverty abroad or poverty in the UK. The common factor seems to be a lack of qualification or ambition, with people simply employing themselves and others in a field of skullduggery to take people’s hardearned money without a moral backlash.

In the UK alone, nearly £7 billion is stolen through fraud per year, and only one in a thousand cases are solved. It is a hard time for the law, as the criminals are constantly using different techniques to gain, escape and continue the cycle.

Phishing

Spelt with a ph- instead of the harmless f-spelt fishing, the fraudster uses this technique in hopes to lure unsuspecting people into their traps. Usually, the thief will email you portraying themself as a bank, asking for private information. Unfortunately, people unaware of the scam or the potential threats of the internet allow their personal information to fall into the wrong hands, leading to scammers taking loans in your name or even just taking the funds you already have – leading to shock and inevitable heartbreak.

Smishing

A variation of phishing in which mobile ‘SMS’ text messages are sent with a goal to receive your personal information.

Vishing

These are phone calls, which may be recorded, where usually the fraudster uses an urgent or angry tone. They will insist that they’re trying their very best to assist you; whether it’s to dodge a fine or even avoid arrest. Another common example of vishing is when the individual leaves you threatening voicemails, ordering you to call back, or be faced with penalties such as having your bank frozen or shut down completely.

Pharming

A link in your email that leads to a website that has intentions to steal your personal information when posing as a legitimate website.

Charity scams

Some scammers will try to trick you into paying them by making you assume that they are an official charity. They can reach out to you and thank you for your donation; initially to make you feel bad, and

Scams You Should Keep An Eye Out For In 2023

By Tristan Best

then make you want to follow through with an actual ‘donation’. They will use names that sound legitimate, but in fact, they are not. That is why it is fundamental to carry out rigorous research on the charity before your hard working cash goes to the wrong cause.

Courier scams

In basic terms, courier fraud happens when a fraudster contacts victims by telephone portraying themselves as a police officer or a bank official, using the ‘vishing’ method. The fraudster will then continue to ‘dazzle’ the victim with personal information such as their name and address. A witty user of the internet will instantly sense that something simply isn’t right when this is happening, but elderly people may unfortunately not know any better and end up handing over personal information that they really shouldn’t.