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[Arx]

Fortunately, things actually look like they're going upwards a bit at the moment. Admittedly they should never have been going down in the first place, but a lot of pus is draining out. Cleaning an infection is disgusting, but it's better than having it lurking under the skin festering.

No, not headed towards collapse - at least not fast. I live here, I'd notice that kind of thing. Definitely shady stuff going on, but not so the country is going to implode.

At that is the last that was heard of Arx before the Great Collapse of 2017, when South Africa fell in a bottomless pit after violently imploding, leaving a sole remaine a fire-preventing swimming pool floating in the air in an eldricht green glow.

Man, the fire pool meme is so 20...16? 15? We did eventually make him pay back some money I think.

[Sheb]

So apparently Grace Mugabe was granted diplomatic immunity in the end.

[Arx]

Yep, apparently the ANC are still spineless and/or allergic to accountability.

[IronyOwl]

No great shock there. As I recall they lauded Zimbabwe's last election results as totally legit bro, while most of the rest of the world decried them as openly fraudulent. Or weaseled around the language to get access to their diamonds, in Europe's case.

[martinuzz]

Kenia has declared war on plastic bags.
From now on, using a plastic bag can get you fined up to 32500 euros, or put in jail for 4 years.

The Kenian government does add that this measure is not specifically meant to target end consumers.
Enforcement will mostly target producers and distributors of plastic bags.

Tourists travelling to Kenia need not worry about the plastic bags given to them at airports or in flight. When arriving in Kenia, they can turn those in at the customs office without fear of penalty.

With this measure, the Kenian government wants to show it takes pollution of the ocean and earth by plastic residue very seriously.

Kenia is not the first country to ban plastic bags. In 2015, Uganda already did the same. In practice, big supermarkets have switched to other alternatives, but local stores and markets still supply plastic bags in abundance. Enforcement is hard. Critics fear the same will happen in Kenia.

In Rwanda, there is a succesful plastic ban. There's no plastic bags to be found there since it was banned. However, Kenia and Uganda are nowhere near as militarized and authoritarian as Rwanda.

[scriver]

I had no idea. Pretty cool.

[Cruxador]

Kind of makes me wonder what goes into the choice to ban the bags or to just reduce their use by mandating a fee, as in most of Europe and the US.

[Helgoland]

A fee is more difficult to enforce, I think.

[martinuzz]

Fee doesn't work, people just pay the 20 cents for a bag without second thought. There's some initiatives over here in the Netherlands as well to ban plastic bags, because fees don't work.

[Sheb]

Really, I'm surprised, over here, it really did cause a sea change in the way people bag their groceries. Apparently, they was a 70% reduction in plastic bag usage in the Netherlands.

[martinuzz]

I highly doubt that government report is very accurate. Perhaps they did research in a neighborhood with lots of well educated people.
Sure, since plastic bags went from being free to costing a few dimes, people use less plastic bags. But 70%? No, I cannot believe that. The vast majority of my fellow supermarket travellers I meet daily all still use the plastic bags.

[Arx]

There's legislation restricting how flimsy bags may be over here, to encourage reuse. It doesn't work fantastically.

Good on Kenya.

[Dorsidwarf]

I know that everyone I know stopped getting plastic bags for tiny purchases of a few items and only uses them for things you actually need a bag for (most don't bring their own bags even though they do keep them for reuse because they forget), and our bag tax is only 5p?

[scriver]

There's legislation restricting how flimsy bags may be over here, to encourage reuse. It doesn't work fantastically.

Good on Kenya.

I would like something like that for us as well, even if I can see how it would be hard to control. I also feel doing more against pointless conveniences such as not bringing your own bag or basket is definitely among the things we up here can afford to do for the environment if anything.

a sea change

Unrelated to politics, but I'm curious if that is a saying in French or just a typo?

[Sheb]

You had me double check, but no, it's a real english expression. Not sure where I picked it up, we have nothing like that in French.