NUGGET (27 JUNE 2025)
Nuggets! (Bite size updates on the real important stuff related to Tech, Trends, Business and the Planet.)
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Look how clever we are! (Often by accident, but nonetheless.) Here is a great little video I stumbled across in my studies this month about medical innovation and it is worth watching. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01815-4
What happens to balls in space? Well, South Africa is sending some up, and in partnership with China!
This probably requires some explaining. The link to the video below will answer all, but in short, it is about exciting space news showing Africa is innovating off-world. Also, you will learn about our spaceballs (real thing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHNLpkPnPV8
Who is Greta Thunberg?
Gosh, so many young people I speak to have no idea! So here’s a brief overview.
Young Greta Thunberg was born in Stockholm in 2003 and began her climate activism by convincing her family to adopt greener lifestyle choices to reduce their carbon footprint. Then, at 15 years old in 2018, she made a bold pledge to skip school until after the Swedish elections to influence their outcome. She protested outside the Swedish Parliament, holding a sign that read “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (School Strike for Climate) and distributing informational flyers. Following those elections, Thunberg committed to continuing her weekly climate strikes every Friday until Sweden adhered to the Paris Agreement. She quickly became a global symbol of youth-led activism.
In 2018, she addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Her rallying cry of “How dare you!” to world leaders, perceived (and I have to agree with this) as ignoring the climate crisis, garnered worldwide attention. That same year, protests spread globally, with students participating in weekly strikes—the catalyst, this young lady!
By 2019, student protests in multiple cities involved over a million participants. Thunberg also made headlines at the UN Climate Action Summit, sailing from England to New York on a carbon-free yacht.
In 2023, she graduated from high school and continued her activism with increasingly assertive tactics, including disobeying lawful orders to disperse, which led to some arrests and court cases. Her activism extends beyond climate change to support for other causes like Ukraine, Palestine, Armenia, and Western Sahara.
Her rise to international fame has made her a leading figure in the climate movement, despite facing significant criticism… which I don’t think she cares about at all.
Love or hate, her impact on global awareness has been called the “Greta effect,” and she has received numerous awards, including being named Time magazine’s youngest Person of the Year in 2019.
Part of her global influence is attributed to her efforts to draw attention to various conflicts, including the Gaza situation, through her activism. Most recently, and at the time I prepared this article, she posted a video about her being kidnapped by Israeli forces while trying to get food into Gaza. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FDiz1o9rf/
Will we cure diseases like cancer, diabetes, or HIV in my lifetime?
Well, if I live as long as I want, then yes! Progress is being made all the time, and this month I learned about researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute in good old Down Under Melbourne, who have made significant progress toward a potential HIV cure.
Apparently, they have discovered a method to make the HIV virus visible (to our immune system) by using messenger RNA (mRNA) delivered in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to HIV-containing cells.
Their ‘breakthrough,’ published in Nature Communications, was previously thought to be impossible, but once again, we humans overcome the impossible — this time with a new type of LNP called LNP X, which enabled the delivery of mRNA into these cells.
Their findings must offer hope for a future HIV cure, (even though they still need to overcome the challenge of ensuring the visible virus is targeted by the immune system). Integration with other therapies might be the answer.
Data is a service, it is a business, it is essential for all future companies. Data is a resource of Africa, and one we can ‘keep’ in Africa. The African landscape is being shaped now, in my generation and yours, in ways few can fathom. There is money being made available for this. This article is an example of many proving that. Entrepreneurs, let’s get going! May this story inspire you: https://www.connectingafrica.com/data-centers/wingu-africa-secures-60m-to-fuel-east-african-expansion
Nigeria doing better than South Africa?
In what, you might ask? Well. TotalEnergies has sold its stake in Nigeria’s Bonga oil field to Shell for $510 million, marking a significant shift for Nigeria, which has historically depended heavily on oil imports despite being a major crude producer on the continent. Recent reforms, including the start-up of Africa’s largest Dangote Refinery and several modular refineries, have helped boost Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity, reducing reliance on imports. Since their operations began in late 2024, Nigeria’s fuel imports have sharply declined, with the country importing 3.1 million tonnes in early 2025. In comparison, South Africa imported 4.2 million tonnes, making it the largest fuel importer in sub-Saharan Africa. (I wonder how much of that has been for Eskom?). The Dangote Refinery is projected to save Nigeria up to $10 billion in foreign exchange in 2025.
Who was that?
Oh wait, it was nothing. But where did the money go? A major issue in South Africa is the phenomenon of ghost workers—non-existent and fraudulent individuals in our public sector. Over two million public sector employees are on the payroll, but many are not actually working (I know many of you are saying right now, you know this already!). What I mean is that they are either not attending work or perhaps even dead! Still, these salaries are being paid, leading to significant financial losses. Estimates suggest that tens of thousands of ghost employees cost billions annually. An example includes the R6.4 million paid to ghost workers in the Mpumalanga Department of Education.
Every day I learn something new (and on a good day, lots of new things), and then I need to decide if it will become a major influence for us. Home or Office.
Going around, the news this month was an outbreak of Foot-and-mouth disease (or FMD for short).
Heard of it before? Well, it is a contagious viral disease affecting livestock such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. It causes nasty fevers and blisters in their mouths and on their hooves, which means the poor animals struggle to eat and move around.
It spreads through contact with infected animals or contaminated environments. In Africa, especially in sub-Saharan regions, FMD is endemic, posing ongoing challenges to agriculture and trade.
South Africa experienced outbreaks in 2019 and 2020, and perhaps again in 2025? There are ongoing efforts focused on vaccination, biosecurity, and regional cooperation to control the disease, but I think this is an influence we learn to work and live with rather than attempt to eradicate.
Unfortunately, FMD has significant economic impacts, including livestock deaths, reduced productivity, trade bans, and control costs.
FMD mainly affects livestock and is rarely transmitted to humans, but I suspect the damages and losses will lead to increased costs that are passed on to consumers for end products. Farming isn’t easy… and this must be very frustrating, to say the least.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo passed earlier this year a new law to create the world’s largest tropical forest reserve. It will be a 2,600 km-long green corridor spanning 540,000 km² along the Congo River in the Congo Basin. I would love to visit even a small part of this in the future. The corridor aims to connect ecosystems, protect wildlife (including rare species like bonobos and okapis), and help regulate the global climate by absorbing greenhouse gases. The Congo Basin is something so special in Africa, home to extensive old-growth forests and critical peatlands. It’s really sad that it faces threats from deforestation, conflicts, and underfunding.
Bill Gates is offering around 200,000 million USD to Africa.
You cannot pay Africa out of poverty, even with the best intentions. I never feel good seeing a person having to hold out their hand for basic human needs.
Begging is not nice to witness, and even worse for the person doing it.
The exact amount of wealth stolen from Africa is difficult to determine precisely. Some reports suggest it is in the trillions of dollars. The African Union and global financial watchdogs estimate that Africa may have lost between $1 trillion and $2 trillion over the past few decades due to illicit financial activity. I personally believe these are gross underestimations.
Wealth has been drained (and stolen) through various means such as illicit financial flows, corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, international corporations, and resource exploitation over decades—wait, hundreds of years.
It is within our power to stop this abuse, and we must start with the officials who continue to sell this continent’s future for a profit for themselves.
So while I appreciate this offer by Bill, I would prefer Africa to be able to stand on its own feet.
Some more space news!
So… China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft has launched to collect samples from the quasi-satellite asteroid Kamo‘oalewa, which orbits near Earth but is not gravitationally bound to it. Their mission (should they wish to accept it) aims to analyze the asteroid, which may have originated from the Moon or the asteroid belt, perhaps providing some insights into the formation and evolution of small solar system bodies. Their spacecraft will approach the asteroid with three different sampling strategies, including hovering, brushing, or landing, and is scheduled to arrive in mid-next year for a nine-month study.
You can read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01672-1
There is an exceptional speech in this video, worth listening to. It echoes a number of thoughts I have bouncing around in my own mind. But… people do not read video descriptions. Please don’t be one of these people. Ibrahim Traoré is an absolute influence in 2025, and worth keeping an eye on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXw_PoltZ70
For those of you who don’t know, it’s Pride Month! I am not referring to a gathering of lions. Pride Month, sometimes specified as LGBTQ Pride Month, is a month-long observance dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ pride. I mention this because, no doubt, some businesses are wondering, what on earth do we have to do with this, or can we just ignore it? Why do some businesses, even some with the straightest management around, embrace this? Well, this article by me might answer that question, perhaps even make you happy? https://www.jeanpierremurraykline.co.za/boycott-lgbtqia-or-not/
Some don’t want to live in the future.
They don’t like how it sounds or how they imagine it might look. Well… that’s tough because there is no escaping it. The future really is already here, and I know lots of ‘future people’ say this, but I really, really mean it. Take 17 minutes—that’s not a lot—and please watch this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf2oqzDFnMo
Yes, we innovate in Africa! Here is an exceptional example to prove it! A first, a first EV Made in Kenya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaFF-4DKL9M
The End!
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Who is Jean-Pierre Murray-Kline?
Jean-Pierre is a South African serial e-entrepreneur, published author, and change champion who has worked in over 300 types of industries in some capacity or another. His own online businesses have generated millions of Rands and involved sectors such as law, web & app development, events & entertainment, property, technical services, media, and tourism.
He has traveled to over 180 cities worldwide and is extremely active as a business and environmental technologist. In addition to his own projects, he researches and consults on all things online: marketing, reputation, compliance, law, and e-security, and also offers strategy workshops and scenario sessions on future thinking with a key focus on technology, the environment, and global influences.
Jean-Pierre is often asked to be a guest speaker on a variety of subjects he continuously studies and writes about.
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