Category Archives: World News

UN: Reject Nigerian Senate changes to law allowing girls’ under-age marriages — Youth & Children

Leave a reply

From: athmanabdallahmohamed

I strongly back the rejection! And I feel that we should all do to protect the rights of girl chald in Africa

………..
Mr. Athumani Abdulla Mohamed
Finance & Admin Officer
C.I.P.K – Mombasa
Mob: 0705863475

– – – – – – – – – – –

——– Original message ——–
From: Emmanuel Dennis
Date:
Subject: UN: Reject Nigerian Senate changes to law allowing girls’ under-age marriages — Youth & Children

AfricaFiles

Action: UN: Reject Nigerian Senate changes to law allowing girls’ under-age marriages
Act By: 8/1/2013
Sponsor: Eme Awa
Other Contact Info: mail@change.org
Action Site: Change.org

African Charter Article# 18: The State will protect the family as the natural unit and basis of society; the rights of women, children, the aged, and the disabled will be protected.

Summary & Comment: Under Section 29 (4a and 4b) of the Nigerian Constitution, a woman shall not be qualified for marriage until she is 18 years of age. The Nigerian Senate has proposed changing that provision to “a woman is deemed to be of full age once she is married,” irrespective of the age she did so. Please urge the UN to reject this change by August 1, 2013, when the petition is scheduled to be submitted to the UN. JS

——–

United Nations: Stop the Nigerian Senate from making under-age marriage the law!

Please sign this petition to protect many generations of Nigerian girl children, now and in the future, from sexual exploitation. Please urge the UN to reject this change by August 1, 2013, when the petition is scheduled to be submitted to the UN.

http://www.change.org/petitions/united-nations-stop-the-nigerian-senate-from-making-under-age-marriage-the-law?utm_source=supporter_message&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_message_notice

http://charlesegwuba.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/childnotbride-a-disjointed-and-ridiculous-law-by-the-nigerian-senate/

http://allafrica.com/stories/201307220337.html

World: Open Letter to Petition President Obama on Constant Crimes, Abuse and Violation on Human Rights with Destruction of Health and Nature through Environmental Pollution.

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Dear President Obama,

People from the Continent of Africa deserve fair Human Rights with better Trading engagement away from Politically Engineered conflicts that come as a result of corruption and impunity. People of Africa too have a right to enjoy benefits of peace and happiness and as well, engage in Trading under favorable conducive environment, just like other people from other parts from Industrialized progressive world. I say this because, the resources from Africa is in the world market where we are all consumers of the same; but looking back and considering the pathetic humanitarian situations at which the resources are acquired from Africa, it is extremely traumatizing. It then calls for moral conviction for which I am compelled to petition you, to face this matter boldly, resolutely without looking back and make firm and conclusive response which will save this pathetic situation and ultimately provide safety-net to the proposed Energy project you sold out during your recent trip to Africa.

Since UN Treaties are an internationally credible Law that are as valid as any other Constitutional Law of any Nation in the world, most United Nations ratified their treaties to conform with that of UN. We therefore expect The UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon to engage fairly and be fully committed to guiding member States to be in compliant with Policy Agreement of the UN Conventions or face the law.

Every piece of Africa’s land and every ounce of water are protected by the International and UN treaty rights, including treaty rights for specific countries such like Kenya, Congo, Tanzania or any other Nation in Africa, Asia or in Europe where inherent rights are honored and protected. All these rights (be it Human Rights, Governments Constitutional Rights, Trade Security or Climatic Environmental Change) contribute to effects on Environmental Rights that afflict human health adversely or destroys and pollutes Nature and consequently abuses human rights. Similarly, the same in extension are Agreements recognized within International and UN Treaty.

The People of Congo, South Sudan, Kenya and other parts of Africa, are constantly attacked from outside invasion from the likes of M23 Rebel Groups. This tends to negate natural development that involves good balanced practices needed for fair trading, with sustained job creation to engage the youth and women from Africa.

Since the unscrupulous International Corporate special business interest failed to do fair business deals in Africa, or consult favorably to engage mutually good business practices; the corrupt African Governments found reason to violate and evade their Responsibilities. As a result, they fail to commit mandated business for investment deals on a “Give and Take” to mutually benefit both stakeholders and the investors. But because of humanitarian grounds, and because victims have suffered irreparably, I petition you to engage good Allys to stop this idea of sponsoring Rebel Groups in Africa to kill, destroy, drive away and scare their own local people from their home establishments that results into extreme poverty and deaths instead of advancing development; thus paving ways for extreme business of greed.

Land, Waters, Oil or rare mineral resources, should explicitly be utilized within the acceptable legal framework of the United Nations International Treaty, where the same, through Legislative consultative system in the Government should provide security to public mandate, Land Rights, resource Rights or Taxpayers as obligated in the Jurisdiction …… and this therefore remain a question for Legal Justice system to pursue, remedy and inform.

As a matter of concern, the extremely traumatic of humanitarian situation in the Eastern DRC require urgent, bold, resolute, and morally inspired response by the United States with its Allys from other countries to work tin concerted efforts to bring life in Congo and in Africa to normality. The Regions in Eastern Great Lakes of East Africa are blessed with very good understanding people who love peace. These people are highly educated and can reason well. They are extensively informed and are ready to engage in secured progressive business. This cannot happen when peace and security that offers favorable, friendly and conducive environment to prosper is not assured.

In DRC Congo and South Sudan, 70 percent of the economy of these countries heavily depend on oil and mining, therefore, any initiative would have to take into account peoples welfare, security and health protection under Human Rights, security with preservation to preserve cultural livelihood of the people.

We must not under-estimate main purposes with reasons of Terror fighting in Congo and South Sudan. It is a well known fact that, Corporate Special Business Interest are determined to engage in their selfish greed that has caused pain and sufferings to others; and are unwelcomed failed practices that do not add value; which in the first place is the reason for Global Economic Collapse, the disease which is now spreading like bush-fire to Kenya and before long, the world will break into 3rd world war because, people have reached their limits.

Currently, sponsored Private Rebels are terrorizing people and Mercenaries who engage in serious Pirating, illegal Money Laundering, illegal transfer with sale of fire-arms as well with other sophisticated weaponry, Trafficking of child prostitution with Drug trading in the Great Lakes Regions has become the order of the day.

The states surrounding the Great Lakes – which include Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Kenya, and the DRC – have coalesced around these issues without proper management plan to develop a plan of action that requires effective coordination to ensure, there is credibility for security monitoring and as well the Rebel Groups are dismantled and driven out of Congo with their foundation completely destroyed.

To save a situation, a workable sustained process for solution must be established so that, those affected communities who are victims of circumstances get involved in Nation building and are compensated of their loses.

A targeted sustained development project instead of Aid that are short term and do not make any notable impact, must urgently be put to take effect in these regions, otherwise, those who conspired to create the mess for their advantage, would be the same beneficiaries fronting for the AID Funding, and as a result, there will be no tangible effective result for remedy that shall have been implemented……..”since the funding will have gone to those who planned for the damage in the first place”………Loose-ended spoon-feeding Aid to Africa is unsustainable and non-effective and this is where the Neo-colonialism breeds high suspecion in Africa……….What a double tragedy that would be after 50 years of Africa”s independence !!!

It is an open secret with credible documented reports both from the UN, African Envoys and by the NGOs stating that, although Governments in these regions face considerable challenges from the growing strength and sophistication of arms by these rebel groups in the Region, trading across borders only benefit the corrupt politicians with their network of Corporate Special Business Interest to a large extent, leaving out the Government to fall apart with its local people dug deeper into hopeless poverty which is greatly alarming.

It is unfortunate that, Pirating and smuggling is growing dangerously in leaps and bounds in and around the region and there is urgent need to stop these from getting out of control in Africa.

Need to Establish a Functioning Civil Society:

Management of Civil Society with Engagement of the Government to observe and follow the Constitutional policies for public mandate is crucial and very necessary. Since the Government is for the people, Civil Society have rights to be equipped with knowledge to organize themselves so to protect and preserve their Pivotal roles in the Society through engagements.

Civil society guarantee sustainability through popular participation to facilitate a functioning Democracy with good Governance that are established under Just Rule of Law; and by engaging and managing their affairs with humanitarian issues, the Civil Society are able to assist the government in managing their welfare in their Community Organization. Civil Society must equally be engaged in training in order to help with strengthening their government system to expedite service on time. When the Community is informed, they are able to manage their affairs effectively. Any other matters of human rights abuses and the need to protect Rights through policy enactment is a ways the Civil Society will preserve Africa’s minerals resource trading in a more beneficial and sustainable manner. This Natural Mineral Wealth do not last for ever, and it is our responsibility now that we engage to do the right thing.

Consequently, the information exchange encourage the civil society’s participation as Watch-dog that monitors the bad behavior of government employees with reason to re-call irresponsible elected Officials who fail to perform with integrity.

Moving forward in boosting education and strengthening security for civil society on the ground is extremely important and definitely essential.

The U.S. government, must support initiatives for Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania with peace initiative to create management re-organization to provide conflict-free supply chains. If more revenue is invested to legitimizing supply chains, Trading benefits for USA with their Allys will grow more in bounty than where we are presently. A greater substantial proportion of the problem will have been solved, paving ways for sustainable Trading processes in the Region to compete fairly and peacefully under conducive environment that has lesser challenges from terrorism and war. This is the only way to avoid Neo-colonialism.

Progress must be swift and fast so to establish proceedure for order and discipline to instil general rule where all Trading are done in mutually common good for all.

For this to happen there is need to establish a lasting impact that will bring solution. We must follow up on uniformity to Mineral Certification process on all types of Natural Mineral Resource business that involve Oil, Gold, Diamond, Titanium, Colta, Land, Water with observance of International Treaty with United Nations Conventions.

I await to hear from you favorable…..I beg to remain,

Sincerely,
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Point of Reference from latest news report why action is acutely important and extremely urgent:

Omollo,

Iko Jaluo moja kutoka Gem anaitwa Professor Rading a ver accomplished researcher and educationist. He did a lot of research work and tests on various areas in Kwale. Through him I came to know that Niobium an element so important on stainless steels, and Titanium the stuff they use for manufacturing bodies of Fighter jets which travel at 3times the speed of sound or Mach 3 is available in Kwale in trillions of tons. Infact Kwale holds one third of the total World Titanium.

Way back in 1998 a Canadian Company, which engaged that professor from Gem to do the reseach, was given a license by Baba na Mama Government, to start Mining. Unfortunately the company wanted to loot the area the way all Gentile Companies loot Minerals in Africa. The locals were not put in the picture. Tiomin (the canadian Company started evicting akina Mwana Iddi na Swaleh Bakarii without compensation. They resisted and later the case went to Court.

The Court’s resolution was that these Locals be paid good compensation to make them relocate. But Tiomin said that they did not have that kind of money at that time. With that argument the project came to a holt.

Sometime around 2004 Obako’s Government issued another Fresh license to Tiomin.. At that point Tiomin involved their Government by asking for a Loan from the Canadian Government to help offset the money going to the Locals as compensation. From then on it has been back and forth with no headway.

Now, if the Ching ling Ling were hoping to get into those mines then they are a little late because as I know it the Canadians already have the license. not through Kamwana but one which was issued by Moi and reissued by Kibaki.

Professor ile ya ktoka Gem likwisa fuanya analysis na kuthibitisa availability of several minerals way back in late 80s to mid 90s. Donge!!!

Also did you know that Kwale has the best sand for Casting of any kind be it process casting of Aluminum or steel or Cast Iron. Sand around Kwale town has 99.9% silica. Almost 100%. I personally tested this in a lab. Compare this to other Countries which do a lot of Casting like USA Germany, USSR. Egypt, South Africa etc. Their sand range from 65% – 90% silica

Jagem

President Uhuru Kenyatta steps into global mining power struggle

Updated Tuesday, July 30th 2013 at 17:29 GMT +3

It, by-and-large, has escaped the attention of the madia that Kenya has a resources asset far greater than the oil and gas find, about which there was so much fuss. Down in Kwale, under a wooded hill, sits a deposit of Rare Earths that is of global significance.

Rare Earths are in every mobile phone, in our modern light bulbs, in most modern technologies, and just as the world played a dance of Middle Eastern supremacy over oil and control of oil supplies, so China, more than a decade ago, spotted the power of controlling the Rare Earth market.

Rare Earths

The Chinese President laid out his country’s strategy to be the controller of Rare Earths as the Middle East had controlled oil. He spoke of it. It was spelt out in his speeches. And China moved. With large Rare Earth deposits of its own, it went on to acquire almost all of the world’s mines, in Australia, globally.

It secured more than 95 per cent of all the world’s Rare Earth supplies. No-one can make modern technology without Chinese-controlled Rare Earths, and, predictably enough, the prices have soared in recent years.

Now, Kenyan geologists have long known the country had Rare Earths, together with a handy little mineral called Niobium, also these days in big demand as a strengthener of steels. Geological surveys showed the Rare Earths in Kwale back in the 1950s — a sweet enough mineral asset to mean there was a time that global mining major, Anglo American, hacked a mine shaft into that hill and set out on the path of mining there.

But that international company gave up, unable to get mining go ahead in a country where mining has never happened NOT because the country isn’t packed with mineral resources, but because no mining company could ever manage the politics. Mining takes huge up-front investment. The surveys have to happen first, the mining, the processing plant, the processing, and finally, years down the line comes the first actual piece of revenue.

Investors have to back a mine, for years and in very large sums, to turn it into a revenue stream.

It’s not like selling Coca Cola, and it doesn’t work when the menu on offer is ‘put a lot of money in, but you may lose it all and never see a penny of revenue’. Mining investment takes SOME commitments.

Kenya has never offered that, leaving itself almost isolated in Africa as a country without earnings from natural resources.

But the Kwale thing was bigger still. It certainly sat there for decades undeveloped through a lack of will to convert into a government facilitated investment. A French company tried after Anglo American. Gave up.

Then a little ‘junior’ mining company — first a South African/Australian nexus, then merged with a Toront-listed mining company — began the journey.

That company got further than the others. They prospected and found the deposit was among the richest in the world, possibly the richest, in the percentage of Rare Earths held in the soil.

They also found that the deposit was larger than anyone realised. It now looks as if it may be the second largest in the world, after the world’s largest Rare Earth mine, in China, called Baotou.

But by now, there were more challenges than ordinary, routine, forever, political blockage of mining.

No one ever mentioned in China’s strategy for Rare Earths that it would be a supply dominated by China AND Kenya. The ‘ Kenya’ part wasn’t in the global plan.

Not that anyone has really focussed on that jigsaw puzzle as we gained lots of lovely grants and friendship from China, a free hospital, a beautiful Thika superhighway.

I asked a Chinese First Secretary last week why China had put so much into Kenya recently, and he told me, repeatedly, that it was a ‘beautiful’ country with interesting tourism and great weather.

So I guess China will be putting a lot into Croatia too, with its stunning coastline.

Of course, the truth is, China wanted that mine, and maybe it’s suicide of me to say it, but I think they had got it. Only then our new government was elected, and within three weeks our new President intervened, personally. China did not get the licence. The President met the Canadian-listed international miners, issued their licence, and they have now received their Environment Impact Assessment approvals. The fund raising is underway.

Changing future

And no-one, but no-one, seems to grasp how brave that was. There will be so much pressure over that mine. I’ve seen detailed figures estimating the resource at a worth of US dollars 95 billion — that’s 8 trillion shillings. It’s the biggest thing that Kenya has ever owned that the world wants.

But that resource is a Kenyan birth right. So I don’t care what tribe he’s from: our President just stood up to one of the most powerful forces in the world to harness it for Kenya, setting up an income stream in royalties, 80 per cent of which will go to Government, and our health service, and teachers’ pay, and so much more.

And I’m not sure anyone even noticed. But they should. Because that’s future changing.

And very brave indeed.

COMMENTS:

Rare-Earth DIGGER01 August 2013 3:37 PM

Looks pretty close. The revenue may look tiny in light of the bigger cake, however, that is a direct revenue. there are indirect revenues such as employment and infrastructure development, investments, etc.

twister31 July 2013 11:29 PM

It start low as the company recoup its huge invested, which is usually borrowed attracting huge interests, after some time the Gok will poket as high as 80%.

George k31 July 2013 6:35 AM

Why such a low percentage , someone should explain this

Paulo30 July 2013 3:31 PM

This article is full of praises but lacking in real focus. Praising China for giving us grants that we will end up paying back and being dependant on their input even in cases where we can do better by developing our local capacity is not the way to go. Also, the issue of mining is more complicated than just working out figures in billions and trillions of expected income/production. EIA have been political tools in cases where in the long run, the cost paid by the local population turns out to be far much greater.

Ekhisa30 July 2013 12:05 PM

I still think 80percent of 3 percent of 95b only comes to 2.8B USD leaving the mining company with staggering profits from these at 92B USD…So what is so transformational about that figure…I think the new President did well to stick it for Kenya but the royalties just doesnt make sense…I mean Kenya will only make 250B KES from mining worth of 8 trillion shillings…Not right

Lands officer linked to Sh954m fraud

Ministry of Lands headquarters in Nairobi. Former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.
By VINCENT AGOYA vagoya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, July 31 2013 at 21:44

In Summary

The former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.

A lands registrar has been summoned to court in a case where a widow claims she was swindled out of a Sh954 million ranch using false documents.

Ms Agnes Wangu Gerald Kuria has failed to honour “verbal” summons to honour the court date.

Wednesday, magistrate Peter Ndwiga issued summons after police complained she had ignored orders to present herself to investigators.

Ms Kuria has been enjoined in the case with former Kenya Pipeline Company boss Ezekiel Komen, former District Commissioner Benjamin Rotich, land registrar Tom Mainja and two others.

Ms Kuria has been accused of giving instructions on behalf of the chief land registrar to open green cards in the names of Ezekiel Komen, Eric Kibiwott Tarus, and Kipkorir Kuti for the transfer of land in Eldoret belonging to someone else.

She did this on December 22, 2005 while working as a lands registrar at Ardhi House, Nairobi, it is claimed.

Using positions

The former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.

Yesterday, the prosecution said it would amend the charges to include Ms Kuria and charge the suspects afresh.

The prosecution alleges the widow lost her land to powerful politicians during the Kanu regime.
It is alleged the politicians subdivided the land and sold it to more than 200 families who have put up commercial and residential buildings.

The widow claims her family bought the land from a white settler, Mr James Gear, on March 10, 1969 but in 2006 was told that “the government had taken it over and allocated it to poor families.”

The court yesterday extended the suspects’ bond of Sh500,000 and ordered them to appear Thursday.

A Summary of
United Nations Agreements
on Human Rights

Contents
Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

Convention Against Torture

Convention Against Genocide

The Geneva Conventions

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Convention on Eliminiation of Discrimination Against Women

Charter of the United Nations

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The UDHR is the first international statement to use the term “human rights”, and has been adopted by the Human Rights movement as a charter. It is short, and worth reading in its entirety — a summary would be about as long as the document itself.

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

This covenant details the basic civil and political rights of individuals and nations. Among the rights of nations are:

the right to self determination

the right to own, trade, and dispose of their property freely, and not be deprived of their means of subsistence

Among the rights of individuals are:

the right to legal recourse when their rights have been violated, even if the violator was acting in an official capacity

the right to life

the right to liberty and freedom of movement

the right to equality before the law

the right to presumption of innocence til proven guilty

the right to appeal a conviction

the right to be recognized as a person before the law

the right to privacy and protection of that privacy by law

freedom of thought, conscience, and religion

freedom of opinion and expression

freedom of assembly and association

The covenant forbids torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, slavery or involuntary servitude, arbitrary arrest and detention, and debtor’s prisons. It forbids propaganda advocating either war or hatred based on race, religion, national origin, or language.

It provides for the right of people to choose freely whom they will marry and to found a family, and requires that the duties and obligations of marriage and family be shared equally between partners. It guarantees the rights of children and prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, or language.

It also restricts the death penalty to the most serious of crimes, guarantees condemned people the right to appeal for commutation to a lesser penalty, and forbids the death penalty entirely for people under 18 years of age.

The covenant permits governments to temporarily suspend some of these rights in cases of civil emergency only, and lists those rights which cannot be suspended for any reason. It also establishes the UN Human Rights Commission.

After almost two decades of negotiations and rewriting, the text of the Universal Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was agreed upon in 1966. In 1976, after being ratified by the required 35 states, it became international law.

Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The protocol adds legal force to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by allowing the Human Rights Commission to investigate and judge complaints of human rights violations from individuals from signator countries.

Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

– This covenant describes the basic economic, social, and cultural rights of individuals and nations, including the right to:
– self-determination
– wages sufficient to support a minimum standard of living
– equal pay for equal work
– equal opportunity for advancement
– form trade unions
– strike
– paid or otherwise compensated maternity leave
– free primary education, and accessible education at all levels
– copyright, patent, and trademark protection for intellectual property

In addition, this convention forbids exploitation of children, and requires all nations to cooperate to end world hunger. Each nation which has ratified this covenant is required to submit annual reports on its progress in providing for these rights to the Secretary General, who is to transmit them to the Economic and Social Council.

The text of this covenant was finalized in 1966 along with that of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has not been ratified yet.

UN Convention on the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces (I)

Also called the first Geneva Convention

The first Geneva Convention focuses on the rights of individuals, combatants and non-combatants, during war. It is lengthy and detailed, perhaps because human rights are rarely at such risk as during war and, in particular, involving prisoners of war or enemy captives.

Convention against Genocide

This convention bans acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. It declares genocide a crime under international law whether committed during war or peacetime, and binds all signators of the convention to to take measures to prevent and punish any acts of genocide committed within their jurisdiction. The act bans killing of members of any racial, ethnic, national or religious group because of their membership in that group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, inflicting on members of the group conditions of life intended to destroy them, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and taking group members’ children away from them and giving them to members of another group.

It declares genocide itself, conspiracy or incitement to commit genocide, attempts to commit orcomplicity in the commission of genocide all to be illegal. Individuals are to be held responsible for these acts whether they were acting in their official capacities or as private individuals. Signators to the convention are bound to enact appropriate legislation to make the acts named in Article 3 illegal under their national law and provide appropriate penalties for violators.

People suspected of acts of genocide may be tried by a national tribunal in the territory where the acts were committed or by a properly constituted international tribunal whose jurisdiction is recognized by the state or states involved. For purposes of extradition, an allegation of genocide is not to be considered a political crime, and states are bound to extradite suspects in accordance with national laws and treaties. Any state party to the Convention may also call upon the United Nations to act to prevent or punish acts of genocide.

The remainder of the Convention specifies procedures for resolving disputes between nations about whether a specific act or acts constitute(s) genocide, and gives procedures for ratification of the convention.

Convention against Torture

This convention bans torture under all circumstances and establishes the UN Committee against Torture. In particular, it defines torture, requires states to take effective legal and other measures to prevent torture, declares that no state of emergency, other external threats, nor orders from a superior officer or authority may be invoked to justify torture. It forbids countries to return a refugee to his country if there is reason to believe he/she will be tortured, and requires host countries to consider the human rights record of the person’s native country in making this decision.

The CAT requires states to make torture illegal and provide appropriate punishment for those who commit torture. It requires states to assert jurisdiction when torture is committed within their jurisdiction, either investigate and prosecute themselves, or upon proper request extradite suspects to face trial before another competent court. It also requires states to cooperate with any civil proceedings against accused torturers.

Each state is obliged to provide training to law enforcement and military on torture prevention, keep its interrogation methods under review, and promptly investigate any allegations that its officials have committed torture in the course of their official duties. It must ensure that individuals who allege that someone has committed torture against them are permitted to make and official complaint and have it investigated, and, if the complaint is proven, receive compensation, including full medical treatment and payments to survivors if the victim dies as a result of torture.. It forbids states to admit into evidence during a trial any confession or statement made during or as a result of torture. It also forbids activities which do not rise to the level of torture, but which constitute cruel or degrading treatment.

The second part of the Convention establishes the Committee Against Torture, and sets out the rules on its membership and activities.

The Convention was passed and opened for ratification in February, 1985. At that time twenty nations signed, and five more signed within the month. At present sixty five nations have ratified the Convention against torture and sixteen more have signed but not yet ratified it.

Convention on Eliminiation of Discrimination Against Women

This convention bans discrimination against women. The copy of the Convention on Women presently accessible through this page is a fully- indexed HTML document. A linked summary of the document will be written in the next few weeks.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

This convention bans discrimination against children and provides for special protection and rights appropriate to minors. The copy of the Convention on the Rights of the Child presently accessible through this page is a fully-indexed HTML document. A linked summary of the document will be written in the next few weeks.

Charter of the United Nations

The Charter of the United Nations contains some important human rights provisions, in addition to containing the framework for the organization as a whole. This is a fully indexed HTML version of the charter. A summary will be written at some future date.

Created on July 8, 1994 / Last edited on January 25, 1997

Italian firm to provide surveillance drone for U.N. in Congo

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

For You Information…….

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Italian firm to provide surveillance drone for U.N. in Congo
Michelle Nichols 5 hours ago PoliticsDemocratic Republic of the CongoUnited NationsSurveillance

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Thursday it has procured an unarmed surveillance drone from Italian defense electronics firm Selex ES, a unit of Finmeccanica, that will be deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming weeks.
It will be the first time the United Nations has used such equipment and, if the trial use by peacekeepers in eastern Congo is successful, officials and diplomats also hope the drones could be used by missions in Ivory Coast and South Sudan.

“Unarmed UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will allow our peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo to monitor the movements of armed groups and protect the civilian population more efficiently,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

“The selected vendor is the Italian company Selex ES. The UAV is known as the Falco and is designed to be a medium altitude, medium endurance surveillance platform capable of carrying a range of payloads including several types of high resolution sensors,” Nesirky said.

Thick forests, rugged terrain and the scarcity of roads on Congo’s eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda have complicated U.N. peacekeepers’ efforts to control the resource-rich area.

Congo and U.N. peacekeepers have been battling a year-long insurgency by M23 rebels. U.N. experts have accused Rwanda of sending troops and weapons across the border to support the M23. Rwanda denies the accusation.

“The deployment of the UAV is planned in the coming weeks,” Nesirky said.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, told Reuters earlier this month that the United Nations had signed the commercial contract for the surveillance drone on July 12, but did not initially name the company.

The United Nations has also deployed a 3,000-strong Intervention Brigade as part of its Congo mission. The brigade has been charged with aggressively neutralizing armed groups and is this week carrying out its first operation in eastern Congo.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, said on Tuesday its troops would disarm, by force if necessary, anyone other than members of the Congolese security forces found carrying weapons within the zone after a 48-hour grace period.

The United Nations has also set aside money to deploy surveillance drones eventually in Ivory Coast to monitor its border with Liberia following a recommendation by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a request from the West African country.

Ban has also suggested surveillance drones as an option for the U.N. Security Council to consider to boost the effectiveness of the world body’s peacekeeping force in South Sudan.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Vicki Allen)

POPE FRANCIS SAYS HOMOSEXUALS SHOULD NOT BE DISCRIMINATED

1 Reply

From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
MONDAY, JULY 30, 2013

One of our News Dispatch readers writes: “Father Beste homosexuality is a very sensitive and controversial issue. I read your homily on seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time you gave at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Siaya Township. Pope Francis also commented on it saying that homosexuals can and should be accepted into the Catholic Church, what is your take on this”?

Pope Francis had been asked by journalists on Monday as he returned from a triumphant weeklong visit to Brazil whether homosexuals should be discriminated against. He did not only say they should not be discriminated but also that he had no power to judge or condemn them.

He was quoted to have said: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” The pope’s comments were made during an 80-minute press conference with reporters on his flight back to Rome, his first meeting with press since he was named pontiff in March.

This was from the first reading on seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time Year C taken from Gn 18:20-32 .The reading talks of the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah as so great and grave. Verses 22-33 record Abraham pleading with the Lord to have mercy on Sodom and Gomorrah because Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his family lived in Sodom. But God is so angry with the sin that He must destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Kenya the Daily Nation on Monday on its cartoon captured the reading portraying that sleeping with cows, chicken, or dogs is worse than homosexuality. It was referring to incidences in Kenya where some people have been caught having sex with cows, chicken and dogs.

My understanding is that pope Francis wants to pass a message that homosexuals should not be discriminated. The second message here is that all of us are sinners so it would be a big mistake to condemn the gay communities.

As Emeritus Pope Benedict in his General Audience, 19 October 2005 said in Psalm 130[129] during his evening prayer – Sunday of week fourth, “Lord if you were to mark our guilt who would survive”?-it means that all of us are sinners and we must work towards getting away from it and not to condemn.

This text is used over and over at funerals, the text is first and foremost a hymn to divine mercy and to the reconciliation between the sinner and the Lord, a God who is just but always prepared to show himself “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin” (Ex 34: 6-7).

In John 8: 7 when the Pharisees kept on questioning Jesus, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone. This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him.

But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

Christ neither found fault with the law, nor excused the prisoner’s guilt; nor did he countenance the pretended zeal of the Pharisees. Those are self-condemned who judge others, and yet do the same thing.

Against the background that Pope Francis defended gays from discrimination. “The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this [orientation] but that they must be integrated into society,” he said.

“The problem is not having this orientation,” he added. “We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem.”

Francis had spent the previous week in Brazil participating in activities marking World Youth Day. His final mass Sunday — an open-air event on Copacabana Beach — was estimated to have drawn as many as 3 million people, The Times reported.

Pope Francis, in some of the most compassionate words from any pontiff on gays, said they should not be judged or marginalized and should be integrated into society, but he reaffirmed Church teaching that homosexual acts are a sin.

In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil, Francis also said the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women priests was definitive, although he would like them to have more leadership roles in administration and pastoral activities.

The Church teaches that it cannot ordain women because Jesus willingly chose only men as his apostles. Advocates of a female priesthood say he was acting according to the customs of his times.

On the question whether homosexuals should be denied the holy Eucharist, it brings us yet to another questions as to under what circumstances can a Catholic priest deny someone the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist?

It can be denied under the following circumstances: 1. The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist cannot be administered to members of other religions, and 2. The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist cannot be administered to those who voluntarily continue to live in grave sin. The church considers homosexuals to be living in grave sin therefore should not receive communion.

This reference is found in Canon Law # 844 §§1 to 5: Canon 844 §1 Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments only to catholic members of Christ’s faithful, who equally may lawfully receive them only from catholic ministers, except as provided in §§2, 3 and 4 of this canon and in canon 861 §2.

Canon 844 §2 Whenever necessity requires or a genuine spiritual advantage commends it, and provided the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided, Christ’s faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a catholic minister, may lawfully receive the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick from non-catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid.

Canon 844 §3 Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick to members of the eastern Churches not in full communion with the catholic Church, if they spontaneously ask for them and are properly disposed.

The same applies to members of other Churches which the Apostolic See judges to be in the same position as the aforesaid eastern Churches so far as the sacraments are concerned.

Canon 844 §4 If there is a danger of death or if, in the judgment of the diocesan Bishop or of the Episcopal Conference, there is some other grave and pressing need, catholic ministers may lawfully administer these same sacraments to other Christians not in full communion with the catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and who spontaneously ask for them, provided that they demonstrate the catholic faith in respect of these sacraments and are properly disposed.

Canon 844 §5 In respect of the cases dealt with in §§2, 3 and 4, the diocesan Bishop or the Episcopal Conference is not to issue general norms except after consultation with the competent authority, at least at the local level, of the non-catholic Church or community concerned.

This reference is found in Canon Law # Canon Law # 915. Canon 915 Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.

In the First Letter to the Corinthians, it states: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworhty manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” [1 Cor. 11:27-9]

Catholics who live in grave sin, such as in common-law relationship, practicing homosexuals, those who have not been to Church, nor received the Sacraments for over a year, etc… are unworthy of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ because they are not in a state of grace.

But this does not mean they should be discriminated simply because they are homosexuals. They are still in image and likeness of God and through His mercy they can be saved.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002

Gn 18:20-32 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/genesis/18:20

General Audience, 19 October 2005
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20051019_en.html

USA: Indecent

Leave a reply

From: Nita and Shaunna, Ultraviolet

Clear Channel–the largest owner of AM and FM radio stations–just booted ads for a women’s health clinic, claiming they were “divisive.” Tell Clear Channel that there’s nothing divisive about women’s health care.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/981?t=2&akid=531.6000.nsBV8f

Dear Readers:

Clear Channel–the largest owner of AM and FM radio stations, including the ones that carry Rush Limbaugh’s show–just booted ads for a women’s health care clinic in Kansas, calling them “indecent” and “divisive.”1

What’s indecent? Absolutely nothing–these ads are straightforward promotions of available health care for women. But apparently Clear Channel decided declaring that your clinic offers “highly qualified gynecologists” and “trusts women to make the best decisions for themselves” is too divisive. (see transcript below)

Their claims are ridiculous–and dangerous.

We cannot let a media corporation get between a woman and her right to critical health information. This story is starting to get attention in online media, including Jezebel, DailyKos, and the Huffington Post.2 If thousands of us speak out quickly, we can help generate a national media firestorm and Clear Channel will be forced to respond. Will you sign the petition telling Clear Channel to put South Wind Women’s Center’s ads back on the air and stop blocking Kansas women’s access to health care information?

Tell Clear Channel that ads for women’s health clinics aren’t indecent or divisive.

http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/981?t=3&akid=531.6000.nsBV8f

Here’s what Clear Channel found so divisive:

At South Wind Women’s Center, our physicians are committed to providing quality reproductive health care in Wichita. Each physician is board-certified in family medicine or obstetrics and gynecology. Between them, they have over 50 years of experience and dedication, ensuring women are able to ensure the care they need when they need it.3

And South Wind Women’s Center was founded to reestablish full access to reproductive health care. The center provides high-quality medical care and trusts women to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. South Wind Women’s Center: entrusting women with their own medical decision-making.4

The radio industry is still recovering from the fallout after hundreds of advertisers dropped Rush Limbaugh’s show when he attacked Sandra Fluke for testifying before Congress about birth control.5 And radio industry insiders know another high profile fight about their meddling with women’s personal decisions isn’t going to go over well.

If enough of us speak out, we can send a strong message to Clear Channel, and others: Media corporations have no business getting between a woman and her right to critical health information.

Tell Clear Channel to stop blocking women from reproductive health care information.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/981?t=4&akid=531.6000.nsBV8f

Thanks for speaking out.
–Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Malinda and Karin, the UltraViolet team

Sources:
1. Clear Channel Won’t Run Women’s Center Ads Because They’re ‘Divisive’, Jezebel, July 26, 2013

2. Massive Media Company Pulls Ads for Famous Women’s Health Center, Jezebel, July 24, 2013
Clear Channel Pulls Ads for Women’s Health Clinic, Claiming They Are “Indecent”, DailyKos, July 25, 2013
Clear Channel Pulls Abortion Clinic Ads, Huffington Post, July 25, 2013

3. South Wind Women’s Center Ad 1

4. South Wind Women’s Center Ad 2

5. EXCLUSIVE: 140 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh [Update: 142], Think Progress, March 12, 2012
Rush Limbaugh Still Toxic For Advertisers One Year After Fluke Attacks, Media Matters, March 1, 2013

The Global Innovation Index 2013

Leave a reply

From: Yona Maro

Economic policy action is still focused on finding the right balance between reducing debt and supporting demand through stimulus spending. But questions remain: Where will future growth come from to drive the global economy? Where will future jobs come from? In this context, the importance of innovation cannot be emphasized enough. It is the policies fostering long-term output growth – especially policies that promote innovation – that can lay the foundation for future growth, improved productivity, and better jobs.

To guide polices and to help overcome divides, metrics are needed to assess innovation and policy performance. For this purpose, The Global Innovation Index 2013: The Local Dynamics of Innovation is timely and relevant. The Global Innovation Index (GII) helps to create an environment in which innovation factors are continually evaluated. It provides a key tool and a rich database of detailed metrics for 142 economies, which represent 94.9% of the world’s population and 98.7% of global GDP.
Link:
http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content.aspx?page=gii-full-report-2013

—
Find Jobs in Africa Jobs in Africa
International Job Opportunities International Job Opportunities
Jobs in Kenya Jobs in Kenya

Palestine Newsletter

Leave a reply

From: pal-tz.org

Newsletter 29 July 2013.doc

Palestine Information Centre (Tanzania)

Kituo cha Habari cha Palestina (Tanzania)

Newsletter

29 July 2013

————

Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations

(18 – 24 July 2013)

Israeli forces continue systematic attacks against Palestinian civilians and property in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)

A Palestinian boy was wounded in al-Bireh in the West Bank during an Israeli incursion.

Israeli forces have continued to use excessive force against peaceful protesters in the West Bank.

Sarit Michaeli, B’Tselem spokesperson, was wounded during al-Nabi Saleh protest, northwest of Ramallah.

Dozens suffered tear gas inhalation and sustained bruises due to Israeli soldiers’ attack.

Israeli forces conducted 50 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and a limited one in the Gaza Strip.

At least 25 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, were arrested.

Israel has continued to impose a total closure on the oPt and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

Israeli forces established dozens of checkpoints in the West Bank.

10 Palestinian civilians were arrested by Israeli forces at checkpoints in the West Bank.

A Palestinian civilian was arrested at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing.

Israeli forces have continued efforts to create a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem.

An Israeli court gave Siyam family an extension until 01 August 2013 to evacuate their house in al-Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the occupied city.

Licenses were issued to build 165 new settlement units in “Nabi Ya’qoub” settlement.

Israeli forces have continued to support settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

More demolition notices were issued.

The settlers set fire to 400 fruitful olive trees, south of Bethlehem.

The settlers continued their attacks on the Palestinian farmers and shepherds, south of Hebron.

4 settlers tortured a Palestinian woman, northwest of Ramallah, and put her life at risk.

EU Concerned by Israeli Restriction on its Activities in West Bank

BRUSSELS (WAFA) – The European Union Friday expressed concern by reports that Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon has ordered restriction on its activities in the West Bank and is going to prevent its members from entering Gaza through Israel.

Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said from Brussels that EU delegations in the area were seeking clarifications regarding these reports from the Israeli government.

Yaalon, whose ministry runs the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, apparently decided to restrict EU humanitarian activities and work in the occupied territories in retaliation for EU embargo on products made in the illegal West Bank and East Jerusalem Israeli settlements as well as individuals working with the settlements.

“The EU is concerned by reports in the Israeli media that the Israeli Minister of Defence has announced a number of restrictions affecting EU activities supporting the Palestinian people,” said Kocijancic.

“We have not received any official communication from the Israeli authorities. Our delegations on the spot are seeking urgent clarifications,” she added.

Military Orders Demolition of Homes, Water Well

HEBRON (WAFA) – The Israeli military government Saturday informed residents of a small village south of Hebron of its intention to demolish their homes and a water well, according to Rateb Jbour, from the popular committee against settlements in the south Hebron area.

He told WAFA that soldiers raided Mafqara village, east of Yatta, and handed residents orders to demolish their shack homes and tents as well as water well.

Israeli forces detain former Fatah fighter in Jenin camp

JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Friday detained a former Fatah fighter after raiding his home in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian Authority security sources said.

Israeli military vehicles raided the camp and detained 35-year-old Daoud Zubeidi, PA security officials told Ma’an.

An Israeli military statement said that soldiers and border police arrested “a Palestinian terrorist operative,” without giving his name or detailing the allegations against him.

Zubeidi’s brother Zakaria Zubeidi, the former head of Al-Aqsa in Jenin, is currently facing charges in a Palestinian court of taking part in a May 2012 shooting attack on the residence of Jenin governor Qaddura Musa.

Musa died after suffering a heart attack during the incident, and Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of people, including Zakaria Zubeidi, shortly afterwards.

Zakaria, a founder of Jenin’s Freedom Theatre, was released on bail in October.

Israelis injure Palestinian farmer in Gaza, report says

Israeli soldiers have injured a Palestinian farmer at the borders between eastern Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestine.

Residents living in al-Bureij refugee camp in the besieged enclave told Xinhua on Saturday that they heard gunfire near the borders, adding that Israeli troops opened fire at a farmer who was approaching the border.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli forces removed tents belonging to Palestinian activists on a property that is supposed to be part of an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

Israeli forces arrest citizens in Ramallah including a journalist

RAMALLAH — Israeli military forces at dawn Sunday stormed the town of Arura, north of Ramallah, and raided citizens’ houses under the pretext of “searching for wanted people.”

Local sources in Arura reported that the soldiers stormed and searched the houses of citizens Samir Aruri and Abdel-Rahman Khasib, and checked the identities of the inhabitants.

They said that the occupation detained journalist and activist Ahmed Aruri and Hamza Khasib, and transferred them to an unknown destination.

According to statistics, the occupation arrested during the last week more than 40 people from several cities in the West Bank.

—
Contact us: P.O Box 20307, 612 UN Road – Upanga West, Dar es Salaam Tel: 2152813, 2150643 Fax: 2153257 Email: pict@pal-tz.org Website: www.pal-tz.org

USA: what are ‘stand your ground’ laws?

Leave a reply

from; octimotor

In the USA, there has been a divisive highly covered in the media, Zimmerman court case. Some political activist groups have reacted to the case by criticizing a certain body of law. In seeking to know what the jargon referred to, I looked up that term in a brief web search. See below first paragraph of its description, and link to the rest.

-om-

– – – – – – – – – – –

Stand-your-ground law

A stand-your-ground law is a type of self-defense law that gives individuals the right to use reasonable force to defend themselves without any requirement to evade or retreat from a dangerous situation. It is law in certain jurisdictions within the United States. The basis may lie in either statutory law and or common law precedents. One key distinction is whether the concept only applies to defending a home or vehicle, or whether it applies to all lawfully occupied locations. Under these legal concepts, a person is justified in using deadly force in certain situations and the “stand your ground” law would be a defense or immunity to criminal charges and civil suit. The difference between immunity and a defense is that an immunity bars suit, charges, detention and arrest. A defense, such as an affirmative defense, permits a plaintiff or the state to seek civil damages or a criminal conviction but may offer mitigating circumstances that justify the accused’s conduct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law

Read rest of article

Kerry names Feingold special envoy for African region, including DRC

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Good People,

Russ Feingold failed to harmonize Kenya’s situation of 2007/8. Instead of giving a hearing to warring factions to solve a situation, he made the situation worse by favoring one group against the other thus dividing Kenyans Diaspora who worked so hard to bring the 2007/8 to order and put it on a path to peaceful resolution of their problems. It is therefore that, I am not convinced that he is the right person to be send as envoy to broker a delicate situation of the Great Lakes of East Africa, more specifically the Congo situation with Rwanda. I can see in advance that he will fall in favor of the M23 of Kagame for Rwanda Government and this will be very divastating……..

Russ favored, trusted and believed in everything said by the group of Salim Lome the advisor of Raila Odinga as Gospel Truth and whatever the warring group put forth were disregarded and ignored. He had a fixed mind and wouldnt budge or change opinion to pay attention for fairness.

I am also seeing a situation where USA stand to loose grips in Africa giving a wider berth of opportunity to Chinese if we make such mistakes………We have to be very careful how we engage with Africa……..more or so now that Africa is very shaky and are unstable in their economic standing with China who is encouraging corruption with impunity and where respect for sovereignty and territorial boundaries of neighbours are not respected according to the International Treaty with failure to observe International Human Rights Law.

Africa is presently facing massive situation of LAND GRABBING with the scramble of the worlds unscrupulous greed by Special Interest to Africa for illegal occupation.

If we fail to save Africa, we shall have failed to reinvented USA power in the world.

Kerry will have made the worse mistake ever in going ahead with this plan……….

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

U.S. News
Kerry names Feingold special envoy for African region, including DRC

Former Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., named special representative for Africa’s Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 2007 file photo. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch)
Published: June 18, 2013 at 3:05 PM
WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) — Secretary of State John Kerry named former Sen. Russ Feingold special representative for Africa’s Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Speaking with reporters at the State Department in Washington Tuesday, Kerry said “the ongoing crisis” in the region “continues to trouble all of us greatly.”

“We are convinced that we have to help the parties find a path to a lasting peace, to a permanent cessation of hostilities and to the disarmament and demobilization of M23, accountability for human rights abuses and finally a breaking down of the barriers that are standing between humanitarian aid and the civilians who need it.”

M23 is a rebel military organization also referred to as the Congolese Revolutionary Army.

Kerry said the region is “a high level priority” for him and President Barack Obama.

He said Feingold, a Democrat, was “the Senate’s leading advocate and expert on Africa” during his time in office.

“I’m very grateful that he has agreed to come back to government and to apply the expertise that he gained those years for the Obama administration and for the State Department.”

In his new role, Feingold will work on issues including cross-border security, and political, economic and social assistance, Kerry said.

Topics:John Kerry, Russ Feingold, Barack Obama

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/06/18/Kerry-names-Feingold-special-envoy-for-African-region-including-DRC/UPI-78231371582356/#ixzz2Zo9EqBV7

U.S.BISHOPS CAUGHT GIVING $2.7 MILLION TO ABORTION DRUG GROUP

Leave a reply

From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2013

Catholic Relief Services is in the midst of distributing a projected $2.789 million grant to one of the leading voices in the international abortion movement, LifeSiteNews reports. The U.S. Bishops’ foreign relief agency is distributing the funds to Population Services International, a $670 million organization that markets abortion drugs in the developing world.

This takes place barely a month when the Catholic Bishops in Kenya took a united stand against a series of advertisements by the pro-abortion lobbying group Catholics for a Free Choice promoting condom use in the country.

The advertisements read “Good Catholics use Condoms”, and have been seen on billboards across Kenya, as well as appearing in leading newspapers in the country. Cardinal John Njue, the Archbishop of Nairobi, who serves as president of the Kenya Episcopal Conference wanted those adverts pulled out.

It is also taking place at the time a Polish priest is contesting his removal from the position of pastor following a blog post in which he reportedly denounced the Polish bishops’ condemnation of the sins of abortion, euthanasia, contraception, and in vitro fertilization, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Fr. Wojciech Lemanski, 53, has been removed from his leadership position of the parish of Jasienica by Henryk Hoser, Archbishop of Varsovie-Praga, for “lack of respect and disobedience,” and for causing “serious damage and confusion at the heart of the community of the Church.” Fr. Wojciech Lemanski was reportedly removed for dissent.

Lemanski initially refused to vacate his parish, but has now decided to leave in accordance with canon law while disputing his removal with the Vatican. The temporary administrator sent to oversee the parish by the archdiocese was refused entry by parishioners supportive of Lemanski.

The removal follows a series of conflicts between Lemanski and the archbishop, which the priest claims were provoked by his work to commemorate the killing of Jews in Poland during World War II, a labor that was recognized by the Polish government in 2008. Archbishop Hoser denies the claim.

Jesuit professor Stanislaw Obirek supports Lemanski and is expressing hope that Pope Francis will support the priest in his struggle against Archbishop Hoser. “The priest Lemanski opposed the language used by the Polish church which is hurtful for people who think differently, particularly on the subject of in vitro fertilization, abortion, or homosexuality, a language of hate,” Obirek said, according to AFP.

Obirek believes that the conflict represents “a new stage in the confrontation between an open Chuch,” represented by Pope Francis, “and a closed Church,” represented by the Polish bishops.

On the U.S. Bishops’ foreign relief agency distributing the funds to Population Services International, when questioned about the grant, CRS initially claimed PSI had merely sold them mosquito nets to combat malaria, but when presented with more information, the Catholic agency acknowledged that the abortion giant took a decidedly more active role.

Founded in 1970 by porn baron Phil Harvey, who initially used his porn profits to fund PSI, the organization networks and trains local providers throughout the world to offer “safe abortion.” The group’s “charity” work largely involves “stimulat[ing] demand” for contraceptives and abortion drugs among the world’s poor and then selling them the products.

Asked on Friday to explain the grant, CRS communications director John Rivera told LifeSiteNews that in late 2011 they had purchased water purification packets from PSI in Panama to help with water contamination following a major tropical storm.

PSI is open about its promotion of abortion even on its own website. On its page about “reducing unsafe abortion,” the firm explains that it “works to increase access to WHO-approved medical abortion drugs.” Its website also mentions its provision of medical abortions in Cambodia and Nepal, noting that in Cambodia it launched the country’s “first safe medical abortion drug, known as Medabon.”

The website says their work in India focuses “both on the demand and supply side” of the medical abortion and IUD markets, explaining that they promote the use of the products by “target[ing] audiences with information and messages using inter-personal; mid and mass media.”

As with its controversial grants to the pro-abortion group CARE, CRS’ $2.7 million grant to PSI Guinea is “pass-through” funding, meaning that CRS acts as a principal recipient to a funding agency and then doles out part of the funds to sub-recipients.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002

Border blues – Why must African passport holders jump through hoops for a visa?

Leave a reply

From: This is Africa

Greetings friends,

Are African travellers the only ones forced to jump through hoops for a visa? It certainly feels like it sometimes, which is probably why the story of the Senegalese woman who told the French to stick their visa where the sun don’t shine struck such a chord with Africans all over the world. But how do we as Africans treat each other when it comes to travelling within the continent? To find out, read our latest piece ‘Border Blues’.

Enjoy .

Peace.

Siji Jabbar (Editor for This is Africa)

“WE WERE RAISED BY PEOPLE WHO HAD TEARGAS IN THEIR HEARTS”
http://funx.dmd.omroep.nl/x/c/?RY5bDoIwEEW34gbGykMMJv1wDa5gpAMzCVDSDjSuvoIx8fOe5JzczhZlnmx7ueVgy6Zq8miL_lpntqy63I1JKZ2VJUrEPkiH54nMJnHFETBoNI4UZTRF21aNSQSJAkFAieTg9YaF.DLulD0wOlDCMGAEmUGZJADTUYEhIOMU1acZZlTx868PPUWV7VjgZBO3Z7HvcVf3xp8dZnb26Vfl0_P79AMA83

Congo-Kinshasa: Army Advances in 4th Day of Battle

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Good People!

UN DRC Congo combined Army must keep on the good work of surging forward aggressively. This is the only hope for the dying souls of Congolese people………

For the sake of Human Rights, M23 must be driven out of DRC Congo into Rwanda once and for all. That is where they belong.

The stealing of DRC Congo Wealth and Resources to Rwanda must be put to a stop. Kagame and Museveni are not entitled to genocidely damage peace with Rights in the Great Lakes and get away with it. They must ultimately face the consequences of the same, since, time and again they refused to heed all round advice given to them and instead remained adamant and stubborn.

If this unilateral momentum is maintain for a little longer, very soon peace and stability for DRC Congo is guaranteed………and we all shall say, Halelluia, God is great, he heard our prayers……….!!!

Cheers !!!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Voice of America (Washington, DC)

EmailPrint Share
Congo-Kinshasa: Army Advances in 4th Day of Battle

By Nick Long, 17 July 2013

Related Topics

Rwanda: Rwanda – MONUSCO Mortar Rebut Dangerous
Conflict

South Sudan: Khartoum to Cut Oil – Minister
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army has continued advancing in a fourth day of fighting against M23 rebels near the eastern city of Goma.

The scene is a government army position at mid-afternoon Wednesday, just after the M23 had started targeting some nearby tanks.

“You men get forward,” the sergeant is shouting. “Where are you retreating for? Get in front of the tanks.”

For a moment, there was a brief panic as mortar bombs started falling, causing some casualties in a commando platoon.

“Take that man and get him out of here,” an officer shouts, pointing to a soldier who has just been hit.

But the incoming fire seemed to be heavily outweighed by the army’s outgoing fire with tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships that pounded the rebel positions.

After an hour or more of shelling on both sides, the commandos moved forward following the tanks.

An intelligence officer said the unit had advanced 300 meters by mid-afternoon. That rate of progress may speed up if, as United Nations sources report, the rebels are running low on ammunition.

The M23 is outmanned as well as outgunned, having only around 2,000 combatants, against an army that on paper numbers 100,000. Although the army faces many other armed groups, few of them support M23.

A civilian, Jules Akili, who traveled through the M23 zone on Wednesday before crossing over to the government side, told VOA he saw hardly any M23 soldiers.

He says he traveled from Rutshuru Centre a distance of about 40 kilometers, and saw only five M23 soldiers along the route, which was guarded by M23 police.

The Congolese army’s recent successes have prompted euphoric scenes in Goma, with civilians waving leafy branches staging victory runs on the outskirts of town.

Tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting who are living in camps around Goma are hoping the army can defeat all the rebels so they can return to their homes.

Women at a displaced peoples camp say they would be very happy to see their villages liberated from the rebels, and are hopeful the army can do it.

A Congolese journalist told VOA five government soldiers were badly wounded on Wednesday, and a local journalist also was hurt.

On Tuesday, the government said 120 rebels had been killed in the fighting since Sunday, a claim that could not be independently verified

A United Nations source Wednesday evening said the army had pushed back an M23 counter attack and was still advancing.

Nick Long sent this report from the front line, 12 kilometers north of Goma.

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com

Nigeria’s Economic Growth: AfDB approves up to US $150 Million Line of Credit to Fidelity Bank in support of Nigeria’s Economic Growth

Leave a reply

From: News Release – African Press Organization (APO)
PRESS RELEASE

AfDB approves up to US $150 Million Line of Credit to Fidelity Bank in support of Nigeria’s Economic Growth

TUNIS, Tunisia, July 17, 2013/ — The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) (http://www.afdb.org) approved today a US $75-million medium-term line of credit (LoC) to Fidelity Bank Plc to fund selected projects in sectors that are critical to Nigeria’s transformation agenda and economic growth such as infrastructure, manufacturing and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The LoC will be complemented by AfDB arranged-syndicated financing of up to US $75 million on a best-effort basis.

Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/african-development-bank-2.png

Fidelity Bank Plc is an indigenous universal bank that has been operational since 2001. It has over 200 branches and over two million customers located in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. It is thus strategically placed to tap into various sectors and ensure diversification of its client base. As at December 2012, Fidelity had a total shareholders fund amounting to US $1.04 billion. Fidelity is ranked among the top six banks in Nigeria by equity base and eighth in terms of deposits and totals assets. The LoC will complement Fidelity’s other fundraising efforts through deposits mobilization and financing lines from Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), commercial banks and proceeds from its recent bond issuance.

The AfDB’s LoC will contribute to bridging Fidelity’s financing gap by providing much-needed longer-term liquidity to meet its pipeline demands against the background of a financial market that has hitherto slanted towards short-term liquidity inhibiting access to medium- to long-term lending. This financing will allow Fidelity to better serve and fund its clients, increase the tenors of loans to subprojects and expand its loan portfolio, particularly in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors. Twenty per cent of the LoC proceeds will be dedicated to SMEs.

This LoC is in recognition of the positive impact of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s efforts to strengthen its supervisory framework, stabilize and instill confidence in the local financial system as well as improve liquidity and credit flows. This LoC sends strong signals that Nigeria’s financial sector has stabilized and confirms a return of confidence to the Nigerian banking sector. It is also symbolic of AfDB partnership role in supporting the private sector to play its rightful and important part in building the Nigerian economy. Moreover, it also highlights the AfDB’s commitment to supporting its Regional Member Countries and their governments in strengthening in their financial markets, diversifying their economies and revamping their infrastructure to facilitate stronger private sector participation and contribution to the economy.

Ultimately, this transaction will contribute to improved and longer term liquidity in the banking sector, increase government revenues, import substitution and job creation.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Contacts:

Sabrina Hadjadj Aoul, Senior Communications Officer, T. +216 71 10 26 21 / C. +216 98 70 98 43 / s.hadjadjaoul@afdb.org

Lilian Macharia, Principal Investment Officer, T. +216 71 10 26 81 / l.macharia@afdb.org

About the African Development Bank Group

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) (http://www.afdb.org) is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 34 African countries with an external office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 53 regional member states.

SOURCE
African Development Bank (AfDB)

Kenya: UHURU says OBAMA and CAMERON recognize him and RUTO as duly elected President and Deputy.

Leave a reply

From: maina ndiritu

Friday July 12, 2013 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has once again reiterated that his Jubilee Government is legitimate, and that him and Ruto are the duly elected President and Deputy President respectively.

Responding to questions from media editors, during a breakfast meeting at State House this morning, who sought to know his relationship with the West especially US and UK, considering that US President Barack Obama skipped Kenya on his 2nd tour of Africa, Uhuru noted that Obama and Cameroon both recognize the legitimacy of the Jubilee Government and that’s why they have never closed down Kenyan Embassies in their countries.

“I have not seen any single nation refuse to acknowledge the fact that we were duly elected by the people of Kenya and neither have I seen any Kenyan Embassy closed down,” said the President.

However, Uhuru noted that he will only engage with nations where Kenyan interests lie to spur the economy of the country.

—
Why should we not all live in peace and harmony ? we look up the same stars
, we are fellow passengers on the same planet and dwell beneath the same
sky , what matters it along which road each individual endeavours to reach
the ultimate truth ? the riddle of existence is too great that there should
be only one road leading us to an answer
*
*
*
QUINTUS AURELIUS SYMMACHUS
*

U.S. Senate: Label GMOs

Leave a reply

From: Senator Jeff Merkley

Below is an email from Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Senator Merkley started a petition on the MoveOn website, where anyone can start their own online petition.

–Senator Jeff Merkley

– – – – – – – – – – –

U.S. Senate: Support the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act. We deserve to know what’s in our food.
Sign the Petition!
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=291122&id=70962-21095459-NEIdRux&t=3

Dear MoveOn member,
Whether it’s corn on the cob, big juicy tomatoes, or a pint of raspberries, summer is a great time to eat whatever’s fresh off the farm—nature’s bounty at its finest.

But these days, it seems that food is a bit more complicated. Additives, preservatives, artificial flavorings—not to mention genetically engineered food. Maybe you want to eat 100% organic. Maybe you don’t mind some artificial something-or-other.

But there’s one thing I think we can all agree on: You should have the right to know and choose what’s in your food.

The big multinational food, chemical, and pesticide companies—like Monsanto, DuPont, and Dow—would rather keep you in the dark.

That doesn’t work for me, and it’s why I am supporting the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act.

Tell your Senators that you deserve the right to know what’s in your food.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=291123&id=70962-21095459-NEIdRux&t=4

The petition to the United States Senate says:

Whether you’re a 100% organic shopper or a fast-food junkie, every single one of us should have the right to know whether the food we’re eating has been genetically engineered. We call on the U.S. Senate to support the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act and pass it without delay.

Visit here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=291123&id=70962-21095459-NEIdRux&t=5

Thanks!

This petition was created on MoveOn’s online petition site, where anyone can start their own online petitions. Senator Jeff Merkley didn’t pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

Want to support our work? We’re entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/donate.html?cpn_id=44&id=70962-21095459-NEIdRux&t=6

SENT BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Invitation to meet the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya on Monday July 8th 2013

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

His Excellency Robert Godec the U.S. Ambassador
to the Republic of Kenya,

In the dialogue we are going to have with other Kenya’s Diaspora in the Diaspora, I wish to share and submit this concern proposal.

At First Ladies Dinner REMARKS in Tanzania. Mrs. Obama met with Laura Bush and talked about many good things how to maintain a perfect health for women. And in their trip to Africa, their mission engagement is based on Economic Partnership between Africa and America. Michelle Obama also quoted some of Obama’s top references on how important Women are to fulfilling good life in their own special ways to participate in economic engagement. Mrs. Obama quoted her husband’s talking points that you can measure how well a country does by how it treats its women. In other words, women’s health with economic engagements are mostly fundamental that must be in harmony when it is put to work together in a balance; and that the most important factors for development lay squarely on putting Education for girls crucial to the economic empowerment of women inclusively. The First Ladies recognizing the importance for giving prominence to educate girls is something that must be commended and supported by all and it is here that we all must engage to provide the empowerment of women in general, joining with the First Ladies of Africa. I therefore salute and congratulate the First Ladies Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Obama for opening doors to all of us to engage in Africa Vs. USA shared Partnership for development.

June 29, 2013

President Obama Announces the Washington Fellowship in front of an audience of more than 600 dynamic young leaders from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda where President Obama announced the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the new flagship program of the President’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Beginning in 2014, the program will bring more than 500 young African leaders to the United States each year for leadership training and mentoring. It will also create unique opportunities in Africa for Fellows to use their new skills to propel economic growth and prosperity, and strengthen democratic institutions. This is an engagement with larger scope for engaging Young African Leaders positively. It will go alongway with the girl’s educational empowerment for economic stability engagement.

The Washington Fellowship will:

Ø Invest in a new generation of young African leaders who are shaping the continent’s future.

Ø Respond to the strong demand by young African leaders for practical skills that can help them take their work to the next level in the fields of public service and business.

Ø Deepen partnerships and connections between the United States and Africa.

Ø Build a prestigious network of young African leaders who are at the forefront of change and innovation in their respective sectors.

Washington Fellows will primarily be between 25 and 35 years old, have a proven track record of leadership in a public, private, or civic organization, and demonstrate a strong commitment to contributing their skills and talents to building and serving their communities.

It promises good Leaders to the United States Beginning in 2014, each year the United States will bring 500 of Africa’s most promising young leaders to U.S. universities for training in public management and administration; business and entrepreneurship; and civic leadership. Training in each of these sectors will focus on the skills young African leaders need to run better ministries, start and grow businesses, and serve their communities. Within the next five years, the initiative aims to grow to 1000 young leaders each year.

Washington Fellows will spend six weeks at top American universities and colleges that will provide tailored training in the sectors above, leveraging top faculty, cutting-edge curricula, and local opportunities to impart practical professional and leadership training. Formal university training will be augmented by workshops, mentoring, and networking opportunities with leaders in each field, as well as internships across the United States.

For example, Microsoft will connect Washington Fellows with internships in their offices across Africa, including in Cairo, Tunis, Casablanca, Abidjan, Dakar, Accra, Lagos, Abuja, Luanda, Johannesburg, and Nairobi. Ethiopian Airlines will offer participants the opportunity to train at their business management and corporate governance platforms at its hubs around the world.

Washington Fellows will have access to dedicated funding opportunities to support their ideas, businesses, and organizations. More than $5 million in small grants will be awarded in the first three years by the U.S. African Development Foundation to Washington Fellows seeking to start their own businesses or social enterprises. The U.S. Department of State will invest an additional $5 million over the course of the program to help alumni establish or grow non-governmental organizations, undertake a project to improve their community, or work collaboratively to build the network of young African leaders, including reaching into underserved areas. USAID will establish regional hubs and coordinators to connect Washington Fellows to these opportunities and leverage over $200 million in ongoing youth programs and initiatives on the continent.

Sustaining a Strong Alumni Network

Washington Fellows will be a part of a vibrant network that will continue to connect them to new opportunities in Africa and to each other. Regular local and regional events and networking opportunities will sustain strong ties over the years as program participants assume leadership positions in their respective sectors. Participants will be required to mentor other promising young leaders, enhancing the impact and sustainability of the initiative, and growing the network to encompass other leaders, especially in disadvantaged communities.

FACT SHEET: The President’s Young African Leaders Initiative President Obama launched the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) in 2010 as a signature initiative that supports young African leaders as they work to spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across the continent.

Taking Action on the Continent

Engagement with young African leaders has become a key focus of U.S. engagement in sub-Saharan Africa and a priority for our embassies and USAID missions. Since 2010, U.S. Embassies have accelerated outreach to young Africans and scaled up programs to train and support aspiring business and civic leaders across the continent. The U.S. Government has created opportunities for young Africans to engage with U.S. Government officials, businesses, and citizens by establishing Embassy Youth Councils in 25 countries. High-level U.S. officials regularly meet with young leaders during their travel to the continent. In total, since 2010, the U.S. Government has held over 2,000 events across the continent aimed at developing the next generation of Africa’s civic and business leaders.

Committing Resources to Developing Young Talent

Currently USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network—a $25 million per year program—partners with African and U.S. higher education institutions, using science, technology and engineering to educate future leaders and research solutions for the greatest challenges in development. To further expand YALI, USAID will establish regional hubs to enhance leadership and training opportunities in Africa and better leverage over $200 million in ongoing youth programs and initiatives, such as university partnerships and vocational training, on the continent.

Other Departments and Agencies have reoriented their programs and strategies to contribute to the goal of empowering and providing opportunities for youth in Africa. The Department of Labor, for example, is investing in efforts to promote safe youth employment and business opportunities as alternatives to child labor, including a new $3 million program in Uganda to educate and train youth for quality jobs. The U.S. African Development Foundation is investing $5 million in training and placing thousands of Somali youth in paid internships and jobs, in addition to supporting small business start-ups.

Taking initiative to introducing the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is our concern and we must make this program succeed.

How Africa and USA must organize for Sustainable fair trading partnership

Stop and Eliminate Insecurity from Terrorism that is fueling Rebel groups with mushrooming of Mercenaries posing danger on Border Security, Arms Proliferation, ammunition and Terrorism with illegal Human Trafficking. This Proliferation of small arms and light weapons is increasingly growing in Africa and dangerously becoming a transnational organized crime where Rwanda and Uganda are constantly bullying and terrorizing East Africa with stealing of Migingo, and is threatening elimination of Congolese livelihood and survival. There is urgent need to stop child prostitution as it is destroying fundamentals fabric of moral discipline of African cultural values and tradition with destruction of Domestic Family unity. Stop Drug Trafficking, Stop money laundering, stop sale of fire-arms with sophisticated, dangerous and deadly destructive weapons to Africa, as this is expounding Civil Conflicts and is destroying lives. STOP LAND GRABBING (a situation where, some African family members engage in corruption with politicians and resorted to stealing and grabbing the ancestral family land where they stole and transferred family land with the help of corrupt Administration/local Chiefs and changed the Certificate of Land ownership to the politically correct individuals names in an illegal manner and not respecting dignity and value of cultural value of the community – a situation that must be addressed urgently and situation restored). With support of corrupt politicians sponsored by the greedy Corporate Special Interest is bound to create worse-case-scenario of disunity and fuel Civil War. It has been noted that, these greedy Corporate Special Interest do not value or respect the law that provide a harmonious good environment for peace and unity to thrive for all, but prefer to engage jungle rule that benefit their selfish and greed……..it is therefore that, they are enemies of Democracy that stand for good Governance with Just Rule of Law. As a result, they have provided open door for Chinese to engage in dangerous corruption in Africa but it is time this must stop and Law and Order begin to shape our lives for better.

The Corrupt situation in Africa is bad news for progressive development agenda to gain grounds better things. If joint effort can be put in Partnership Development Agenda that include recovery of stolen public wealth and resources, stop illegal sale of drugs from criminals and destroy terrorists’ camps or hideouts, we are sure terrorism with insecurity will be put to rest. But, despite efforts of security agencies working hard to restore peace, and the “merchants of Death” sponsored by corrupt politicians who steal public wealth and resources continues to engage in arms trafficking/ trading through covert and deceptive use of illegal trading, African borders of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Cameroon, Congo, Chad, and Niger Libya and Sudan will continue to be unsafe from organized terror gangs. Recently, the Comptroller General of Nigerian Immigration Services stated that the Service has discovered hundreds of illegal routes in Nigeria that link or lead to some neighboring African countries and are used by organized terrorist and Rebels……Things must begin to take the rightful course of action for meaningful Trading Partnership to succeed and Peace to be realized.

Without these concerns put as top priorities to be addressed urgently, we are faced with serious insecurity and attacks that which will destroy the whole world and the situation is now at boiling point.

Success Business Story Demands Conducive Environment:

Fair Trade is a system of directly sourcing products from developing regions and paying the people who create those products a fair price for them is a good fair way to share in Partnership. Fair Trade status is regulated by organizations that have set specific criteria and follow up to make sure that participating producers and buyers meet their standards. The Fair Trade label provides concerned customers with a guarantee that the workers who produce the products they buy are not being exploited, and that they also have the opportunity to benefit from community-based programs supported by Fair Trade industries.

Our mission is to improve the livelihoods and well being of disadvantaged producers by linking and promoting Fairness to sustain Trading Organizations, and speaking out for greater injustices that spoil for mutually good, balanced and fair business trading, without which business will remain to be controlled in the hands of a few and Economic stability cannot be realized.

We all need each other for fair management of Developing sustainable long lasting International market-Place that is secure and is reliable. Without security and with extreme poverty pushed to succumb Africa’s livelihood and survival is a handicap that we all must engage to eradicate for the sake of Love, Peace, Unity and Happiness in the world. As a result, we all must support Democracy to protect people’s constitutional law.

ü Building trust in fair trade

ü Speaking out for fair trade

ü Providing networking opportunities

ü Empowering the regions

Good Trading Practices must offer opportunities for:

1.Creating Economic innovation for progressive development

2.Transparency and Accountability

3.Fair Trading Practices

4.Payment of a Fair Price

5.Ensuring no Child Labor and Forced Labor

6.Commitment to Non Discrimination, Gender Equity and Freedom of Association

7.Ensuring Good Working Conditions

8.Providing Capacity Building for progressive development

9.Promoting Fair Trade Partnership

10.Respect and Protects the Environment

Fair Trading is the way to go between Africa and the USA. It is time to be fully engaged and we have no time to waste.

Sincerely,

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Balance of power: Ugandan flag still up on Migingo island

More than a year after the boundaries commission set out to map out a tiny Island in Lake Victoria, a solution seems unlikely. The standoff between Kenya and Uganda over Migingo continues with Uganda asserting its authority. Kenya has presence on the island but they play second fiddle to the seemingly superior Ugandans and that’s not all, the Kenya police at the island have had to deal with a number of administrative and procedural issues. NTV’s Ken Mijungu was at the island and reports on a territorial dispute that may not be easy to resolve.

INVASION OF CONGO By RWANDA AND UGANDA REVEALED IN DETAILS From 1996-2000

Published on May 5, 2013
Museveni, Kagame, (tyrants of Uganda and Rwanda) with the full support of US africom command, and the US states department planned and executed a wrongful invasion of the Congo that had led to multiple invasions of the Congo by those ruthless and bloody dictactors. It has led to more than 5 million death, the worse tragic crisis since World War II.

— On Wed, 7/3/13, Friends of the Congo
From: Friends of the Congo
Subject: Why President Obama Called Out Congo’s Neighbors Without Mentioning Names?
Date: Wednesday, July 3, 2013, 4:51 PM

Why President Obama Called Out Congo’s Neighbors Without Mentioning Names?

Why President Obama Called Out Congo’s Neighbors Without Mentioning Names?

President Barack Obama concluded his trip to Africa on Tuesday, July 2, 2013. After visiting Senegal and South Africa, President Obama’s last stop on his African tour was in Tanzania where he visited President Jakaya Kikwete. Both President Obama and Kikwete have made auspicious statements regarding the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Last week, President Kikwete called on both Rwanda and Uganda to enter into dialogue with their respective rebel militia who are present in the Congo instead of continuously utilizing rebel presence as a rationale for repeated interventions in the Congo.

On Monday, July 1, 2013 during his state visit to Tanzania, responding to a question from a Congolese journalist, President Obama said “The countries surrounding the Congo, they’ve got to make a commitment to stop funding armed groups that are encroaching on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Congo.”

President Obama’s response is fascinating in two respects. First, in spite, of sixteen years of intervention in the DRC by U.S. allies Rwanda and Uganda, which has triggered the deaths of millions of Congolese, President Obama still did not mention either country by name; he merely uttered the phrase “Congo’s neighbors.” Secondly, while the U.S. has repeatedly acknowledged that its allies, Rwanda and Uganda are funding armed groups in the Congo, it continues to arm, train, finance and provide diplomatic and political cover for both countries.

Philippe Bolopion of Human Rights Watch says it best when he observed in a New York Times commentary: “So how do you get away with arming a rebel force that attacks U.N. peacekeepers, rapes women and recruits children? You need powerful friends, and Rwanda has had one. Born from the guilt of the Clinton administration’s inaction in the face of the Rwandan genocide, and a recognition of Rwanda’s relatively efficient use of development aid, the United States has proven to be one of Kigali’s staunchest allies.”

It would stand to reason that as the U.S. calls on its allies to cease funding of armed groups in the Congo, the U.S. itself would cease funding of Rwanda and Uganda as long as they continue fueling the conflict in the DRC. In fact, U.S. law calls on the Obama Administration to do as much. Section 105 of Public Law 109-456, the law that President Obama sponsored as senator and co-sponsored by Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, authorizes the Secretary of State to withhold aid from Congo’s neighbors, should they destabilize the country. The Obama Administration has yet to fully implement this law.

Pressure has been mounting around Rwanda and Uganda’s support of militia gangs in the Congo. In light of the two UN Group of experts reports published in 2012, the United States government has said that “there is a credible body of evidence that corroborates key findings of the Group of Experts’ reports – including evidence of significant military and logistical support, as well as operational and political guidance, from the Rwandan government to the M23.” The administration response to the report has been a suspension of $200,000 of Foreign Military Financing provided to a Rwandan military academy and a phone call from President Barack Obama to Paul Kagame to discuss Rwanda’s role in the destabilization of the Congo. Unfortunately, these small steps have not been enough to stop Congo’s neighbors from intervening in the Congo, nor are they commensurate with the level of suffering the people of the Congo face daily due to the brutal killings perpetrated by militia gangs.

One of the key changes needed in U.S. policy in the Great Lakes Region of Africa is to cease its support of U.S. allies who are fueling conflict in the DRC. As he did in his 2009 trip to Ghana, President Obama repeated again during his Cape Town speech that “we are interested in investing not in strongmen but in strong institutions.” However, the US government’s continued support of strongmen in Rwanda, Uganda and DRC, stands in stark contrast to President Obama’s declaration in Cape Town.

A second key change required in US policy is for the U.S. to in fact support strong institutions and democracy both in the Congo and the region. The lack of democracy and democratic institutions and the militarization of the political space in the region have been a major driver of the instability in the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda. These structural changes in U.S. Foreign Policy are vital steps needed to advancing peace and stability in the Congo and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Despite the millions of Congolese who have perished in the past 16 years in what the United Nations says is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II, the response from the United States in particular and other global leaders has been lackluster at best in the face of what is arguably the greatest human tragedy at the dawn of the 21st century. The recently initiated “Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region,” is one such example; as it fails to hold Rwanda and Uganda accountable, lacks a serious justice component, did not include the Congolese people in its development and mistakenly argues that legitimizing Rwanda and Uganda’s looting of the Congo under the guise of trade and economic integration will bring stability.

The degree to which action has been taken, to hold aggressor countries like Rwanda and Uganda accountable has been a result of global pressure on world leaders by ordinary people. We have repeatedly seen the constructive role that global pressure can play in advancing peace in the Congo. Recently, the UN Group of Experts on the DRC leaked a report documenting reduced support for Rwandan and Ugandan militias in the Congo. This is a clear sign that the pressure on the U.S. and its allies Rwanda and Uganda needs to be sustained and stepped-up.

Obama the Africapitalist: Creating a Private Sector Development Model for the World to Follow (Op-ed by Tony O. Elumelu)

Leave a reply

From: News Release – African Press Organization (APO)
OPINION PIECE

Obama the Africapitalist: Creating a Private Sector Development Model for the World to Follow – Tony O. Elumelu*

Op-ed by Tony O. Elumelu, Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited

LAGOS, Nigeria, July 8, 2013/ — Op-ed by Tony O. Elumelu, Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited (http://www.heirsholdings.com):

Last week was the first time, in my memory, that a U.S. president came to Africa with investment at the top of his agenda and prioritised meeting with the continent’s business leaders, who are the true drivers of development. President Obama should be congratulated for his vision, and for providing the clearest proof yet that the rules of engagement with Africa are genuinely changing.

Photo Tony Elumelu: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/photos/tony-elumelu.jpg

The age of aid is ending. The type of aid that will help Africa most, and should receive the highest priority, is aid for business. I believe that the African private sector has the power to transform the continent through long-term capital investments, creating both economic prosperity and social wealth. I call this development approach “Africapitalism,” and without a doubt, it holds the most promise for the sustainable development of Africa.

So it was refreshing to see African businesses at the table, financing and investing as partners, and making sure that Africa asserts its proper role in this opportunity.

I can already feel the impact of Obama’s new dialogue with Africa. In interviews I had with international media covering his trip, aid and corruption were not the focus, thankfully. Journalists addressed topics like “capital,” “investment,” and “trade.”

The impact of this shift will be immense.

Power is the single biggest obstacle to Africa’s development, and as such, it is the most catalytic and strategic investment anyone can make in Africa. That is why President Obama’s focus is so timely—and so necessary. Doubling our generating capacity will double Africa’s GDP, and move us toward sustainable, domestically led growth. Given its economic importance, the power sector also presents an attractive investment opportunity for long-term investors: there is little competition, and so the return, when it comes, will be high. It will be similar to returns that early investors in African telecommunications realised before the sector became saturated and highly competitive.

As an investor I believe in doing well and doing good. Investing in the power sector meets both criteria. That is why Heirs Holdings has committed US$2.5 billion in investment that will expand our recently acquired Nigerian power plant at Ughelli, as well as develop new brown and green-field projects across Africa.

But filling Africa’s energy gap requires long-term investment and a huge capital outlay: it will cost US$1billion just to acquire the Ughelli plant and bring it up to its full installed capacity of 1000 megawatts. Given Africa’s huge capital requirements for the power sector, an initiative like Power Africa is essential for bringing together international investors and financial institutions to support Africa’s changing power paradigm.

Nigeria was one of only seven countries included in the program—countries at the forefront of power reform in Africa. The world-class privatization process personally driven by President Goodluck Jonathan demonstrates that Nigeria deserves that place. And it means that Nigeria’s power sector will have access to preferential terms and an unprecedented focus by funders looking to deliver on their public commitments under the Power Africa initiative. Power Africa also offers a model for the 47 African countries that did not make the initial pilot list. The continent will not close its energy gap unless more African leaders urgently reform their policies and encourage this kind of private sector-led investment.

As an entrepreneur, I know that attracting capital is not and has never been the problem. I have always believed that if the policies and environment are right, investment will flow into Africa. Investors need to know that the rule of law and the protection of property rights are assured—this is one of capital’s most important requirements. That is why I urge global leaders like President Obama to impress upon more African leaders that investment-led development requires more investor-friendly policies. I see a willingness in African leaders to seize these opportunities, but they need support and in some cases direction. The vision may be clear, but they may not know how to get there.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame is another positive role model for the continent—a progressive African leader who evinces both vision and commitment. Rwanda now ranks higher than any other sub-Saharan African country on global competitiveness, and ranks third in Africa overall. President Kagame and his team have created the sort of enabling environment that investors can only dream about elsewhere in Africa. For this reason, Heirs Holdings, Berggruen Holdings and 50 Ventures, chose Rwanda as the home for our East Africa Commodity Exchange (EAX), which will launch on July 15th.

The EAX will bring liquidity, transparency, and pricing power to farmers, while reducing lending risk to banks. The impact will be to create social wealth in local communities, and support development in the region. Like investments in the power sector, the EAX demonstrates Africapitalism in action: highlighting the huge development role of the African private sector. When I met with President Kagame last year, he immediately understood the significance of a commodity exchange for the East African Region, and he pushed hard to make it happen. The Rwandan government delivered on all its promises, which enabled our investor group to deliver on our promises: the right investment team, partnering with a supportive government, will improve the lives of farmers across the region.

By following these models—of Power Africa and the EAX—we can transform the entire African economy, starting with the power sector. One day, the 70% of Africans who don’t currently have access to consistent affordable power, will take it for granted that they can flick a switch and transform their homes, offices and schools. And they will remember Obama’s visit. Because with private sector involvement now guaranteed, that day will soon become a reality.

In Tanzania I shook hands with an Africapitalist, who also happened to be the most powerful man in the world. It was a hugely significant event for me, a life-long African investor, and I believe Obama’s visit was a significant event for Africa. It will refocus the world’s attention on investment in Africa. It is already changing perceptions and mobilizing international investors. It will even change the view of many African investors, who will realize that we must lead the way. Because if we come forward and show confidence in our continent by directing our savings into long-term investments in Africa, others will follow. This is one of the pillars of Africapitalism: Africans for Africa.

Obama’s visit was a milestone, one long hoped for, and one with lasting impact. It confirms that the age of aid is ending. It is now time for the private sector to lead.

* Tony O. Elumelu is Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited, and is the leading proponent of Africapitalism; the private sector’s commitment to the economic transformation of Africa.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Heirs Holdings.

For more information:

Moky Makura
Heirs Holdings
Email: moky.makura@heirsholdings.com
T: +234-1-277-4641

SOURCE
Heirs Holdings

POPE JOHN XXIII WAS AN ICON OF JUSTICE AND PEACE

Leave a reply

From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
MONDAY, JULY 8, 2013

Time Magazine describes Pope John XXIII as a revolutionary—a Pope of modernization who kept in continuity with the church’s past, yet made even the most enlightened of his 20th century predecessors seem like voices of another age.

John XXIII was one of the greatest popes in all of history. For him the gospel truly meant what the word itself means, “good news”. This good news filled him with joy, and he constantly radiated a true Christian joy to all around him.

He decried the “prophets of doom”, he wanted to dialogue with the world rather than condemn it, and he instinctively knew that praising one good thing in the life of either a person or a whole society achieves far more than condemning ten bad things.

John XXIII carried the office of pope with great dignity and distinction, the greatness of the office was never allowed to obscure his humanity. He possessed the “natural virtues” in abundance and the Christian and priestly virtues built on them.

John XXIII had the humility to know that he did not have all the answers to the problems facing the Church as it entered the new and difficult world of the 1960s. And so it was with his heart first and his head second that he instinctively turned to the collective wisdom of the whole Church and called a Council.

His emphasis on the importance of our basic humanity is reflected in statements of the Council that speak of qualities which are esteemed by all people and which make Christ’s ministers acceptable, such as “sincerity, a constant love of justice, fidelity to one’s promises, modesty and charity.

You cannot understand contemporary Catholicism without understanding Pope John XXIII. This is the man who did not only change the church, but also impressed the world with the friendliness.

John XXIII always emphasized on the importance of respect of human rights as an essential consequence of the Christian understanding of dignity and respect for humanity, that every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life.

Against the background that he issued his first encyclical letter on justice and peace, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) on 11 April 1963 to ensure that the rights of the people was protected at all the times.

In this work, John XXIII reacted to the political situation in the middle of the Cold War. It was issued only two years after the erection of the Berlin Wall and only a few months after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

He explains in this encyclical that conflicts “should not be resolved by recourse to arms, but rather by negotiation”, emphasizes the importance of respect of human rights as an essential consequence of the Christian understanding of humanity.

The first section of the encyclical establishes the relationship between individuals and humankind, encompassing the issues of human rights and moral duties. The second section addresses the relationship between man and state, dwelling on the collective authority of the latter.

The third section establishes the need for equality amongst nations and the need for the state to be subject to rights and duties that the individual must abide by. The final section presents the need for greater relations between nations, thus resulting in collective states assisting other states.

The encyclical ends with the urging of Catholics to assist non-Christians and non-Catholics in political and social aspects. Pope John XXIII issued eight Papal Encyclicals during his five-year reign as Pope. He ruled from his election on October 28, 1958 until his death on June 3, 1963. Two of his encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris and are especially important.

Encyclicals may condemn errors, point out threats to faith and morals, exhort faithful practices, or provide remedies for present and future dangers to the church. The authority of the encyclical varies depending on the circumstances and is not necessarily ex cathedra.

Because of his love for justice and peace Pope John offered to mediate between John F.Kennedy and Nikita Khruschev during the Cuban missile crisis. Both men applauded the pope for his commitment to peace.

During World War I, he did front-line service as a medic and chaplain in the Italian Army. A few years after the war he was sent as Vatican representative to Bulgaria, then to Turkey where, during World War II, he helped refugees from Nazi Germany.

He became Vatican nuncio in France, where he dissuaded General Charles de Gaulle from forcing the Holy See to remove 25 French bishops who had collaborated with the wartime, Nazi-collaborating Petain regime.

On 11 May 1963, the Italian president Antonio Segni awarded Pope John XXIII the Balzan Prize for his engagement for peace. It was the Pope’s last public appearance.

On 25 May 1963, the Pope suffered hemorrhage and required blood transfusions, but the cancer had perforated the stomach wall and peritonitis soon set in.

By 31 May, it had become clear that the cancer had overcome the resistance of Pope John. The Pope died of peritonitis caused by a perforated stomach at 19:50 (local time) on 3 June at the age of 81, ending a reign of four years, seven months.

He was buried on 6 June. He was known affectionately as “Good Pope John” and “the most beloved Pope in history” to many people. On 3 September 2000, John was declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul II. He was the first pope since Pope X to receive this honour.

Following his beatification, his body was moved from its original burial place in the grottoes below St Peter’s Basilica to the altar of St Jerome and displayed for the veneration of the faithful.

At the time, the body was observed to be extremely well preserved—a condition which the Church ascribes to embalming and the lack of air flow in his sealed triple coffin rather than to a miracle.

The 50th anniversary of his death was celebrated on 3 June 2013 by Pope Francis who visited his tomb and prayed there for a few minutes. Francis then addressed the gathered crowd and spoke about the late pontiff. On the following 5 July, Francis approved Pope John XXIII for canonization, along with Pope John Paul II.

Some participants at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) favored canonizing John XXIII by acclamation, in the tradition of the Church’s early centuries. But some conservative Council Fathers suspected the acclamation proponents were interested as much in Church politics as in piety.

They thought the endorsement of John XXIII pitted him against his immediate predecessor, Pius XII, contrasting the two popes, their personalities and policies.

The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints was less than enthusiastic about the proposal because it meant the saintmaking process was being snatched out of its hands by the Council participants.

The potential conflict over the proposal to acclaim John XXIII a saint was avoided when Paul VI announced that the process would be initiated simultaneously on behalf of Pius XII as well.

The decision was a vindication of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and also suggested continuity between the two popes: If Pope John had convoked the Council, Pius had done much to prepare it.

Blessed Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Roncalli on November 25, 1881, in Sotto il Monte, a village of 1200 inhabitants at the foot of the Alps. The Roncallis had lived there since 1429. The house where Angelo was born was called the “palazzo” but it was not much like a palace: the large family shared the ground floor with their cows.

“We were poor but happy with our lot and confident in the help of Providence…. When a beggar appeared at the door of our kitchen, there was always room for him, and my mother would hasten to seat this stranger alongside us.” Corinna Laughlin, Director of Liturgy.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002

British, UK terror suspect arrested in Tanzania

Leave a reply

From: Abdalah Hamis

Police in Tanzania said they have arrested a British national suspected of involvement in unspecified “terrorism activities” in the UK.

Iqbal Ahsan Ali was arrested in Tanzania’s southern Mbeya region suspected of trying to cross border to the neighbouring county.

He was found in possession of both British and Tanzanian passports, a crime in Tanzania which forbids dual citizenship.

“We have been in contact with our counterparts in the UK and they have confirmed that the suspect is wanted in their country for involvement in terrorism activities,” Robert Manumba, director of criminal investigations (DCI).

He said Mr Iqbal was also found to be carrying a laptop containing “seditious material” designed to cause “religious incitement”.

Mr Manumba said in a statement on Friday: “At the border he presented a Tanzanian passport, but when the immigration officers spoke to him in Swahili he was unable to communicate.

“That raised suspicions that led to him being detained for further questioning and in the course of that he was found with the UK passport.”

He continued: “We have been in contact with our counterparts in the UK and they have confirmed that the suspect is wanted in their country for involvement in terrorism activities.”

He said a Tanzanian man travelling with Mr Iqbal was also arrested and questioned.

Tanzanian officials said Assan Ali Iqbal was being held in connection with bombings in the north of the country. The Foreign Office confirmed the arrest and said it was offering consular assistance. (BBC)

Several people have been arrested on terrorism charges in Tanzania since bombings killed at least eight people in May and June.

Authorities in Tanzania, one of the region’s most stable countries, are concerned at the growth of an Islamist movement accused of indirect links to Somalia’s al Shabaab rebels.

Police said they had verified Ali’s British passport as being authentic. They said the Tanzanian passport he was carrying was a fake. – Reuters

USA President Misinterprets Climate Change Situation

Leave a reply

from: pwbmspac

USA President Obama recently issued statement in late June2013 calling for reduction of ‘carbon pollution’ from Fossil fuel fired electrical power generation plants. Groups such as MoveOn etc. have been fast to praise that statement.

We may well be facing climate change, and this may be a phenomena effecting the worlds across the entire solar system.

However, there is a problem – – that presidential statement presumes that human industrial and agricultural activity are significant or even leading cause factor in climate shifts, at least on this world, although that may be not valid here either.

Our civilization’s members likely will need, at high priority, to devise and shift technological details, so as to operate in the face of changing climate without grave difficulties. One of the most important aspects is in regards to avoiding reductions in food production abilities.

Such developments can be technologically and economically plausible, but only if investment resources are applied now with urgency to efforts of this type.

It specifically is NOT helpful to de-industrialize the USA, Europe, Japan, and at same time give nod to outsourcing those capabilities to China, because that nation has been demonstrating tendencies to be even less caring for environmental quality, inside or outside China, than western societies.

-pbs-