Uganda is the world’s most banana-eating nation. Many people there rely on the fruit for eighty percent of their caloric needs. The average Ugandan eats about 500 pounds of the fruit per year, and in some villages, consumption is double that (by comparison, the average U.S. citizen eats 25 pounds of bananas annually.)
One problem with so many bananas: what to do with the peels? Allowing them to rot away is both unsanitary and a logistical nightmare, considering the vast quantities of banana skins Ugandans discard.
A contestant on a game show airing on the nation’s NTV network had a better idea: use the peels as a source of renewable energy. The proposal came on a television series called “Show Me The Money,” where young Ugandans present their ideas for environmentally-sustainable entrepreneurial projects to a panel of three judges. The program – like “American Idol,” but without the strangely magnetic idiocy of contestants singing “Over the Rainbow” to Paula Abdul – whittles the competitors down to a group of finalists. The banana proposal has made it to the top 15. Next week, it will face off against proposals to build an architectural model shop in Kampala, and another that would deliver anti-malarial drugs in the form of herbal teas.
The show will air three times weekly until December 5, when a winner will be declared and awarded a prize of 50,000,000 Ugandan shillings, or about USD $30,000. Runners-up will receive 15,000,000 shillings each.
The network continues to air “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Image: village bananas, from the “I’ve left Copenhagen for Uganda” blog.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman 
