Friday, July 20, 2007

This is Poverty


Guinean students study under the lights of the Conakry airport parking lot in June. Though they are dim, the lights are among the few in the electricity-starved capital that are sure to be on in the evening

According to U.N. data, the average Guinean consumes 89 kilowatt-hours per year — the equivalent to keeping a 60-watt light bulb burning for two months — while the typical American burns up about 158 times that much.

"I used to study by candlelight at home but that hurt my eyes. So I prefer to come here. We're used to it," says 18-year-old Mohamed Sharif, who sat under the fluorescent beam memorizing notes on the terrain of Mongolia for the geography portion of his college entrance test.

-Kids in Guinea study under airport lamps

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