Hasta La Gadget!

There is a river that runs through Bambari, one of the largest cities in the Central African Republic. The city’s Muslim community lives on one side of the river. The Christians reside on the other. 

The river is called Ouaka, and it has morphed from the life source of the fishing and farming community to a bitter dividing line.

Christians and Muslims lived together for decades in Bambari, and throughout the Central African Republic. But the sectarian bloodshed that erupted three years ago has wrenched the country apart.

The River Ouaka now demarcates a tense truce. Few venture over the river these days, for fear of sparking more of the reprisal killings that have repeatedly flared in this city since 2013.

Yet one group of Muslims and Christians in Bambari are trying to reclaim the river’s name as symbol of unity.

They set up the city’s only functioning radio station last year. After a public vote, they named it Lego Ti la Ouaka — which means “Voice of Ouaka” in Sango, the local language.

“The radio hopes to be like a kind of bridge over the river that could help people to be reconciled,” said Mathias Manirakiza, the Central African Republic director for Internews, the international media development nonprofit that helped the community establish the radio station.

The D.C.-based Internews has helped Voice of Ouaka secure about $340,000 in funding from a United Nations-managed pool of donor funds since November 2014, when the organization began laying the groundwork for launching the station. 

But those funds came to an end on Tuesday. Now the station’s ambitious journalists, who have fended off hostile militias and showcased ways to heal their country, face an uncertain future.

A Lifeline For Residents

Radio is the most accessible form of media in the Central African Republic, due to conflict, poverty and a lack of infrastructure. But all of Bambari’s radio stations had shut down by late 2014, following a year of horrific sectarian violence. A local militia had burned one station’s building to the ground, killing several civilians.

Since then, people in Bambari have sometimes been able to pick up national radio signals broadcasting from the capital. But most of the time, they had no media left to turn to.

“In places like the Central African Republic, there are large portions of the country that have no information at all,” Marjorie Rouse, Internews’ senior vice president for programs, told The WorldPost. “Community radio stations can provide highly local information… and an important platform for discussion and debate.” 

Without any functioning media in Bambari, rumors ran wild and stoked tensions in the city, said Adja Khaltouma Boulama, the president of Voice of Ouaka’s managing committee.

Bambari residents wanted a fresh start, and feared that reopening one of the old stations would only draw further attacks. So they approached Internews about opening a community radio station. 

“The community told us that they wanted to hear the voices of Bambari better represented,” said Boulama, who was elected by a group of community representatives to head the committee that oversees the station. “I wanted to do this for my country… so we could put rumors to rest and cultivate social cohesion between us, between Christians and Muslims, so that peace could return.”

Voice of Ouaka broadcasts for two hours each day. Most of its programs provide practical information about where to get aid and medicine, or communicate messages about peace and social cohesion. The station’s most popular program, “Kimbassa,” tells the stories of previously displaced people who have come home to Bambari.

“This is all really essential information in a humanitarian crisis,” Rouse said. “Displaced populations rely on information about services and where conflict is happening when making decisions about where to move, when to move and where to get humanitarian assistance.” 

‘Microcosm’ Of The Conflict

Bambari lies on the front line of the conflict that erupted in the Central African Republic in 2013. At the height of the violence, around 80 percent of the city’s estimated 60,000 residents fled their homes. The conflict has displaced nearly 1 million people across the country, around half of whom have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

A coalition of mainly Muslim rebel forces that ousted former President Francois Bozize in March 2013, called Seleka, was headquartered in Bambari. The coup prompted Christian militias to form a group called anti-Balaka, which fought the Seleka. Violence by the militias sparked a cycle of reprisal killings against Muslim and Christian civilians that left thousands dead.

The Seleka were formally disbanded in late 2013 and the U.N. declared Bambari a “weapons-free zone” last September, but warlords who were part of the group continue to wield power and control the local economy. Meanwhile, anti-Balaka forces keep vigilant watch over the Christian areas west of the River Ouaka.

The International Crisis Group has described the city as a “microcosm” of the conflict.

“Traditionally a dynamic economic center and mixing place for Central Africans… [the war] transformed a once peaceful city in a divided and dangerous territory,” Thibaud Lesueur and Mathilde Tarif wrote on the organization’s blog last year. 

The worst of the fighting in the Central African Republic abated after a 2014 ceasefire, but tensions have repeatedly flared into violence.

In February, the country elected former mathematics professor Faustin Archange Touadera, who pledged to disarm militias and unite the population, as president. However, analysts say extending the government’s presence throughout the country after decades of weak state control will be a major challenge.

Fragile Peace

As in most of the country, peace is tenuous in Bambari: Local armed groups remain firmly in control, and the threat of violence hangs over the city.

Militants have mostly spared Voice of Ouaka from attack since it went on air in February 2015, although the station has had problems with looting and has suffered some collateral damage in the fighting.

The station’s journalists have worked hard to persuade local militias to leave them alone. Voice of Ouaka staff members met with both anti-Balaka and ex-Seleka leaders before they started broadcasting to ask them not to harass journalists or raid their broadcast studio. The dialogue continues today.

“We train the armed groups on the meaning of community radio, the need for protection of the media, and how they can identify us by our logos and equipment,” explained Theophane Patinvoh, Internews’ trainer who supervises the radio station.

Militants accused previous radio stations in Bambari of broadcasting hate speech, so Voice of Ouaka’s journalists are cautious about what they put on the air. They know a stray word by a journalist or listener could ignite communal tensions.

To address these risks, Voice of Ouaka does not broadcast live or allow call-ins. It avoids political programming, and Patinvoh vets all content before it goes live. The station hopes to relax these restrictions if tensions subside, and once the staff is more experienced.

“Hate speech can be quite subtle, and build over time,” Rouse said, noting that Internews has taken a similar approach when working in other areas of conflict, like South Sudan.  

An ex-Seleka militia leader called Voice of Ouaka during its first broadcast, but asked for more music instead of issuing threats, according to Internews. 

News Over Rumors

Last August, for example, a 19-year-old Muslim was decapitated in Bambari, allegedly by anti-Balaka militias. Deadly reprisal attacks pushed thousands to flee the city yet again, and rumors began to fly that one of Voice of Ouaka’s journalists had been killed.

While attacks raged around them, Boulama and other board members drove to the radio station to broadcast a message urging peace and to dispel the rumor that one of their own had been attacked. 

“Life in Bambari is deeply challenging and dangerous. … They live with enormous uncertainty and, in the midst of it, they maintain a radio station that communicates messages of peace,” Mat Jacob, the operations manager of Internews’ Africa Program, wrote about the experience of being in Bambari at the time. “I understand now, even better than before, what a feat of courage that is.”

A Glimpse Of A Peaceful Future

Voice of Ouaka also aspires to be a model of how to overcome the sectarian divide. The team of six journalists include Muslims and Christians; Boulama, a Muslim woman, heads the seven-member managing committee, and her deputy is a Christian woman named Marie Helene Nzapanede.

The fact that the community elected a multiconfessional managing board gives hope for resolving the crisis in the Central African Republic, Patinvoh said.

“You realize that the crisis is actually relatively recent and people in a given community know each other, have always lived side by side and are quite close,” he said.

“Everyone knows me here in Bambari, Muslims and Christians alike,” Boulama said. “It’s thanks to this trust that things work well.”

Uncertain Future

The long-term future of the radio station is precarious, however. The electricity supply in Bambari is limited, and the radio is powered by an expensive generator.

Staff members have come up with some creative proposals to keep the station afloat after the donor funding ends this week. They’re trying to drum up advertising and partnerships with local businesses and humanitarian groups, and offer Internet, photocopying and cell phone-charging services to residents from their office. Staffers have even explored setting up a small cafeteria on site.

Internews-supported radio stations located elsewhere on the continent also have had to experiment with novel ways to stay afloat — a station in the Democratic Republic of Congo even operates a rice-processing plant.

“Any community radio station in rural Africa finds itself in a tenuous day to day struggle for survival,” Rouse said. “But many, many of them do survive.”

But establishing a profitable business is a huge challenge in the Central African Republic, a country rich in resources but with one of the highest poverty rates in the world.

“The difficult conditions that Bambari and Ouaka inhabitants have to face, including a large number of people are still living in internal displacement camps or with host families, don’t allow them yet to contribute to cover expenses of the radio that still needs support,” Manirakiza said.

However uncertain the station’s future may be, Manirakiza notes that it has already come along way.

“We felt that the radio could be destroyed within months, and the fact that the radio is still working now makes us feel very proud,” he said.

Willa Frej contributed reporting.

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This article originally appeared on DJBooth.

“White Iverson” is the single that started it all. The hypnotic smoothness of the instrumental mixed with Post Malone‘s tender vocals, catchy lyrics and infectious melody made it a song that was bound to be background noise across the world. More than a hit, it laid down the Post formula – minimal trap production that allowed his studio vocals to sink into the listener’s ear canal. Far from an artist you listen to for a world view or a perspective that expands beyond self-indulging rockstar living. Tears are wiped away with dollar bills, he sings about not dying young without somberness – more of a declaration of survival.

Looking for depth in Post Malone’s music is like looking for a wrinkle on Pharrell’s face. Post isn’t here to move our souls but to bring the easy-listening anthems you play when your mind needs a break from the complexities of life. I understand and accept this. He delivered this kind of carefree trap music all throughout 2015 without dropping a dud.

After a year of simply releasing singles on SoundCloud, Post Malone did something I didn’t expect – he released a mixtape. Chance The Rapper was the sun that overshadowed Post Malone’s moon when the two both released their projects on May 12. It was an eclipse, one big album intercepting and obscuring the illumination of another. An effect you expect when releasing against Beyoncé or Kanye or Drake, but it was Chance who proved to be a bigger giant despite being on a smaller platform. Post may have toured the world with Justin Bieber, released a huge summer single that soared to #14 on Billboard’s mountaintop, but none of that mattered – the talk about August 26 couldn’t be heard over the boisterous chatter that came with Coloring Book. Being overshadowed didn’t completely steal his thunder though. August 26, the first full-length release from Post Malone ever, is potentially a big deal.

When I first got around to hearing the mixtape, my gut-reaction was disappointment. The songs weren’t jumping out at me like the records he released throughout last year. The potential anthems like “Money Make Me Do It” and “Monta” didn’t feel big as “What’s Up” and “White Iverson.” You can hear the obvious Rae Sremmurd influence with “Git Wit U” and Jeremih completely steals the show on “Fuck.” Everything that may make Post Malone appetizing in small doses is harder to swallow when expanded beyond one song. Instead of delivering a project of bangers, it’s mostly a mixtape of potential. 

There’s very few new tricks the now old dog pulls out. The Fleetwood Mac-sampling “Hollywood Dreams/Comedown” is unlike every other song on the mixtape, a sunny record that shows his range, an interesting juxtaposition of trap and soft rock. Even the lyrics pulls you in, the songwriting has much more illustration guiding the narrative. The following transition to “Comedown” is much darker, the two songs are day and night. “Hollywood” is driving down Hollywood Blvd. with your sweetheart and a flask of vodka, while “Comedown” is doing drugs in your Hollywood hotel dealing with the paranoia and pressures that this life gifts you. I wouldn’t mind more music of this caliber. “Oh God” is another song that strays away from the rap roots. The strumming guitar and the country-esque singing seems much more Raury than Post Malone, the song isn’t a homerun but the diversity showcases how Post could expand into other genres if he masters crossing over. 

When Post was just releasing singles it was hard to measure him on the metric scale as a traditional one-hit-wonder. The current streaming era offered him a new way to make a living as an artist, but now that he’s released August 26, it makes you wonder about his future. For Post to maintain his position he has to keep churning out singles, because August 26 shows he doesn’t have a compelling album in him, not yet. 

FKi’s 1st, Post Malone’s producer and secret weapon, told VIBE in a new interview that the upcoming Post Malone album will win a GRAMMY. By now, we all know that a GRAMMY isn’t a trophy that represents the best music. Not at all. But it speaks to the high standard he’s holding the album to. There’s a big difference between being good and being great, the album will say a lot for what’s in store for Malone’s future.

I look at his music like a pink Starburst – most people will say it’s their favorite flavor. Yellow doesn’t begin to compare and red can’t hold a candle in contrast. But despite the flavor, no amount of pink Starbursts will calm a starving stomach. You can barely chew it, let alone digest it. You don’t eat it because you’re hungry, it’s strictly for your sweet tooth – a place where it might get stuck in.

Among the new pack of singers erasing the lines between trap music and pop, Post knows his lane and stays in it. He makes pink Starburst music, able to be savored and enjoyed, but while he can certainly create a career consistently delivering a sugar high, you have to keep people from coming down. There’s a lot of moments in August 26 that will give you a sugar rush and others that will leave you plummeting back to the ground.

Post will have to step up to making Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup music if he hopes to keep listeners like me afloat.

By Yoh, aka Fleetwood Yoh, aka @Yoh31. Photo Credit to Zach Wolfe.

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By Emily Shugerman

This post originally appeared on Revelist.

Abercrombie — the brand that haunted your middle school days and made you think that wearing two polos stacked on top of each other would suddenly make you popular — is dying. And I am here to sing its eulogy from the treetops.

Abercrombie’s stock dropped 11% on Thursday — even more than originally predicted. That’s not exactly new for Abercrombie, which lost $63.2 million in its first quarter last year, and has yet to show steady improvement. A Google News search for the company turns up dozens of articles about the company’s decline.

Execs tried to shake things up starting in 2014, ousting their controversial CEO, Mike Jefferies. The company vowed to cut the sexy images from their bags, and removed the once-coveted moose logo from most of their clothing.

But these changes to Abercrombie’s “brand” don’t obscure what’s at its rotten core: A company set on propagating an outdated, unattainable image of perfection. I know, because I helped them.

I started working for Abercrombie my first year of college. My second week of school, two women approached me at the campus coffee shop and asked if I wanted to model for their company.

“We work for Abercrombie and Fitch,” they whispered, leaning in conspiratorially. It was my official invite to the ‘exclusive’ club Abercrombie has built.

I went to the interview, admittedly a little flattered at the request. Once there, I learned that “model” is Abercrombie code for sales associate — a title used so the company can legally hire and fire their front-of-house staff based on appearance. I arrived 20 minutes late to the group interview, told them I had no retail experience, and was still hired on the spot. Not as lucky were the three other (much more qualified) women at my interview, who had submitted applications instead of being “scouted.” I never saw them again.

A friend who worked at the company headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, confirmed that hiring at Abercrombie is based largely on looks.

“I was asked to go look at a group of people interviewing and see if they were attractive enough,” she told me. Later, when she applied to work at one of the retail stores, she was required to submit only a picture.

A “model’s” job is to stand in predetermined areas of the store — purportedly to assist customers, but largely to act as a human mannequin. As a model I was provided a uniform, which changed seasonally, but was always short on fabric.

Every aspect of my appearance was inspected — I was once sent to the back to scrub eyeliner off of my face because it violated the “natural” look they strove for.

Appearance approved, I was stationed at front of the store for hours on end, with nothing to do but spout pithy, store-fed “taglines.” I once complained to a co-worker about how I was always assigned the entrance position, where I stood shivering in my barely-there outfit. She told me I should take it as a compliment.

“You remember that picture they took of you your first day?” she asked me. I did. I had been told it was for record keeping. “They send that picture to the district manager. You have to be approved to stand at the entrance.”

I don’t say this to brag about my appearance. I wasn’t hired because I am any great beauty, but because I fit within the Abercrombie boundaries of what is acceptable: white, blond, tall, skinny. The company needs people like me working at its stores to attract people like me to shop at them — and to keep everyone else out.

Reflecting on it now, it is a frighteningly Donald Trump-esque business model. Both Trump and Abercrombie harken back to a mythical, by-gone era of American greatness, where the wealthy, healthy and white were celebrated, and everyone else was largely invisible. In Trump’s case, this is accomplished by building walls. In Abercrombie’s, it’s done by constructing strict “look” policies that only a select few can meet.

Samantha Elauf learned that the hard way, when Abercrombie denied her a job because she wears a hijab. So did thousands of Latino, Black and Asian employees who Abercrombie paid out in 2005 for denying them front-of-house positions. And so did I, when I learned that my membership to this privileged, front-of-house class was based on my willingness to act simply as decoration.

I wish I could say that Abercrombie’s declining sales were evidence of America’s rejection of this mentality. I wish it signified a greater acceptance of diversity, and an acknowledgement of women’s virtues other than beauty. But as Donald Trump has taught us so well, it’s not acceptance or acknowledgement that talks — it’s money.

Hopefully in this case, plunging profits can shut Abercrombie up.

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A Utah apartment complex that ordered its tenants to “like” the property on Facebook is now backpedaling as the Internet lashes out against the bizarre requirement.

Tenants at City Park Apartments in Salt Lake City spoke out against the policy after finding a “Facebook addendum” taped to their doors last Thursday. Those who did not “like” the complex within five days of signing their lease would be found in breach of the agreement, KSL News reports.

Residents also had to let City Park Apartments post pictures of them and their guests on its Facebook page, and were forbidden from posting any negative comments about the complex on any public forum or page.

“I don’t want to be forced to be someone’s friend and be threatened to break my lease because of that,” tenant Jason Ring told KSL News. “It’s outrageous as far as I’m concerned.”

While residents were predictably angered, so were many social media commenters. Since issuing the addendum, City Park Apartments has racked up overwhelming negative reviews on Yelp — where it currently boasts a one-star rating — as well as on ApartmentRatings.com. An unofficial Facebook page for the complex also shows a 1.1-star rating. Some Facebook and Yelp users are going so far as to call the policy fascist.

A tenant lawyer who spoke to KSL News said the addendum was likely illegal because it potentially discriminated against the elderly, the poor and people who simply choose not to have a Facebook account.

The controversial addendum was intended to “provide some protection to [the apartment complex’s] residents and its owners from usage of photos on its Facebook page from all community events,” the Law Offices of Kirk A. Cullimore, representing City Park Apartments, told The Huffington Post in a statement on Tuesday.

The addendum that appeared on residents’ doors “went beyond” what the complex intended and was not carefully reviewed before its release, the firm stated.

“At no time was any resident in jeopardy of eviction or action from City Park for failure to sign the addendum or ‘friend’ City Park Apartments. City Park has not implemented the addendum nor is it requiring its residents to execute it,” the statement continued.

The complex also sent a letter to tenants on Tuesday to clarify that the addendum “went beyond the original intent,” according to a copy obtained by HuffPost. City Park Community Manager Ana Raphael signed the letter.

“While we openly encourage residents to follow the property Facebook page for announcements and feedback, this is not mandatory and an absence of engagement on Facebook in no way affects any residential lease agreement,” the letter stated.

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It really doesn’t matter where you live, even in colder or hotter climates, there are enough days during the year that you can take your indoor activities outdoors and enjoy beautiful landscaping and lifestyle features. Other than high dollar swimming pools and expensive hot tubs, much of the materials and labor that go into outdoor living spaces are not overly costly.

Creating relaxing, colorful and natural areas adds a new dimension to a home, and often will increase the value a high percentage of the costs of the improvements. You’re working with wood, stone, plants, soils and grasses to construct a natural getaway for your summer grilling or winter enjoyment of that perfect temperature hot tub water.

Decks or patios are high on the list of desirable outdoor entertaining areas. Put some plant boxes there for greenery, maybe a hammock for being lazy, and you’ll find that there are actually more outdoor enjoyment days than you thought.

It’s not just a daytime thing either. Lighting can add a whole new dimension to your water feature or deck. A late evening meal off the grill after the sun goes down and cools things off is fun.

If you’re not into a lot of maintenance, use locally hardy plants and lots of stone to create beauty without hassle. For wood decking, use composite materials that are weather resistant and do not require much care at all.

I was being conservative about the value of landscaping, as there are a couple of recent surveys out, one a Gallup Poll and the other from Smart Money that show you can actually get back more than you spent on landscaping when selling your home. Estimates say that you may increase the value of your home by as much as 5% to 15% with creative landscaping.

Have you found success in real estate investing by implementing different approaches? Have you struggled to take that first step? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below, or by finding me on social media:

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