MIRACLE OF LIGHT

A volunteer in the pot with my Korean Dogwood
starter. Maybe it's a weed ...

For several weeks green tips have been pushing up through dark soil, straining toward sun’s light and reaching thirstily for rain drops. Unlike my deck plants which have been feeling each day’s increasing light since winter solstice, we humans often require a reminder such as the beginning or ending of ‘daylight savings time’.

NATURE IS OUR GUIDE

Governed by Mother Nature and her rhythms, humans have always been migrants whose ramblings were tied to sources of food.

Like perennials, the first hominids in Africa oriented themselves to light and moisture as we/they developed human brains capable of speech and reason. Understanding in every fiber of their being that they were part of nature, rooted and connected to all its dimensions, they followed the fish they needed for nourishment, going steadily eastward from Africa to the coasts of present-day Arabia, Iran, India, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, etc.

A perennial Hydrangea shares space
with a volunteer Cedar start.

Likewise, when the Saharan desert was a vast grassland, our hominid ancestors followed birds and animals north into what we know as the Iberian Peninsula on the western side of the Mediterranean Sea. On the sea’s eastern shore, bound to both fish and animals, hominids and Homo sapiens moved steadily through the Ancient Near East before following the Caucasus mountains into the Scandinavian countries, Russia and Siberia.

OUR FRIEND THE SUN

The sun is once again our friend. As in the long distant past, we humans are realizing that despite and because of all the marvels our brains have concocted, we are bound to nature for sustenance. Sun, wind, and water now power devices we use throughout day and night. Each in its own way is knitting humanity together in new and exciting mosaics.

When farms in Northern California, a primary breadbasket for North America,  encountered a short supply of water from the Colorado River, innovators began placing solar arrays over canals and drying land. 

Over canals, solar panels reduced water’s evaporation while providing a vast new source of electricity for homes and industry. 

Similarly, solar arrays placed over former vegetable fields now help hold moisture in the soil, making it both arable for crops and/or providing grassland for sheep and goats. Enormous solar arrays are producing electricity, replacing the toxicity of coal, gas and oil. 

Reaching for the light.

Areas in eastern Oregon and Washington, denuded of their once voluptuous forests and pristine waters, are finding new sources of income with large solar arrays. Similarly, small and medium sized solar arrays are bringing new life to rural areas of Africa once emptied out as people fled in search of jobs in urban developed areas. 

A small landowner, often female or elderly, can have a solar array that keeps enough moisture in the soil to grow food while also producing extra energy to sell to their neighbors. As knowledge of Agrivoltaics spreads around the world, we can expect out-migration to stabilize in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and South America.

SISTERS WIND & WATER

I’m not as familiar with windmills as I am with solar energy, but I have read that when placed offshore their underwater bases are providing places for new coral reefs to take hold. A food source and breeding ground for fish, coral reefs have become endangered around the world. 

Shoreside, windmills on land subject to intense winds are producing energy while partially stabilizing the soil. And no, they don’t kill any more birds than airplanes as their homing instincts have developed to search for stable places aloft for building their nests. 

Whereas we have depended upon dams to control water flow and produce electrical power, now it is possible to remove dams and allow fish and wildlife to thrive. While out in the ocean, desalination creates drinking water and wave power is producing energy.

Anticipating more light and warmth.

REFRESHED FROM WINTER’S DARKNESS

As we set our clocks an hour forwards this weekend, let us appreciate the early hours of morning darkness when thoughts flow like gentle rain. Awakening from REM sleep, pay attention to fresh mind-maps, your unique breeding ground for poems and creativity.

 PHOTOJOURNALISTS FOR GOOD

Cell phones for economic, political, and cultural power.

Alex Pretti, a VA nurse at a Minneapolis veterans hospital, was murdered with a cell phone in his hand while trying to protect a woman from the senseless violence of ICE. He has become a symbol of positive masculinity. 

The ubiquitous cell phone gives everyone the option of becoming a photojournalist and thus a positive cultural and political force.

Showing the truth is a powerful force for good. It exemplifies solid social morality. The phone has become more powerful than the gun and made local citizens more influential than government officials.

Showing up in public to support one’s neighbors and documenting the physical abuse of Republican officials is as revolutionary as riding a horse from town to town spreading the word, “The British are coming!” to alert each local militia to stand up and protect their liberty. 

Meanwhile, the brand of Dumpster DJT has gone from ‘economic deal maker’ to Chaos / Confusion / Corruption and Hate / Greed / Violence.

Anyone linked to DJT is a representative of his brand. Voters in the United States of America, a majority of whom own cell phones, now know what the Republican party has come to represent … and it ain’t good.

 ZAMBIA TODAY 

Terry Bergdall, October 2025

Pamela and Terry Bergdall lived 18 years in Africa, engaged in village development work. After beginning as staff members at the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in Nairobi, Kenya, their final 13 years were in Zambia. Twenty-five years after his departure, Terry returned to Zambia. Below are some of his observations and impressions about noticeable change. 

Shopping Malls

in 2000, about the same time that I returned to Chicago, the first large modern shopping mall opened in Lusaka across from the show-grounds on the Great East Road. Now numerous large shopping malls can be found throughout the city. The one by the showgrounds has quadrupled in size with a huge, expanded parking lot. 

The Kabulanga neighborhood had a single grocery store -- Melissa’s (or MMM) -- though modest, it had the best stocked shelves in the city. During my years in Lusaka, it was the grocery store where I preferred to shop. Now the Kabulanga shopping area has spread over half a kilometer and is full of several large commercial businesses. MMM itself has moved into a much larger facility and rivals the supermarkets in physical size and inventory that I find in Chicago. 

A big surprise for me was a major new mall located directly across the street from the Co-op College where Pam and I both delivered training programs. During my time in Zambia it was far out of town and was reached by passing a long stretch of empty land and the city’s cemetery. Nothing else was nearby. Now it is the busy destination of many, many shoppers. These malls with busy shoppers are a huge contrast to long slow-moving lines outside small shops in the 1980s which were unavoidable for many people needing to purchase basics like ground maize and cooking oil. 

Franchise Restaurants

An even a bigger surprise than the malls was the explosion of franchise restaurants that have appeared “everywhere:” Nandos’s chicken, The Hungry Lion, Debonaire’s pizza, Steer’s burgers and steaks -- most of these, I suppose, being South African fast-food chains. The number of these places is comparable to the McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Pizza Huts, etc., that have overtaken American cities. KFC is one franchise that seems to flourish in both countries. I never expected to see this in Zambia. There also are many new flyover bridges on widened roads to accommodate the traffic to and from the malls and fast-food franchises. 

Middleclass Zambians

Besides the sheer number of these eating establishments and shopping malls, I was totally unprepared to see them fully occupied by middleclass Zambians with the necessary disposable income, especially in the more urban areas, to frequent them. And these changes are not only in Lusaka. On the road to Victoria Falls, we saw the same supermarkets and food franchises in district towns like Kafue, Mazabuka, Monze, as well as the regional center of Choma. 

As widely reported elsewhere, the Chinese are a dominant presence everywhere. One of the major sponsors of the annual “chiefdom” celebration that we attended while in Choma was a Chinese mining company. Their Chinese managing director delivered a major speech during the ceremony. 

Cell Phones

Cell phones are also everywhere in Zambia, including among those rural farmers who ride their bikes to market over-loaded with goods for sale. Telephone transfers of money are a major form of making payments. While we were in Choma, our host purchased a watermelon from a roadside vendor (i.e., an elderly woman sitting on a blanket as she attempted to sell a dozen watermelons and some cucumbers, tomatoes, and a few other vegetable) via a phone transfer of kwacha, Zambia’s currency. This is a very popular alternative to cash and credit cards.