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DEC 01 - 15 2013
VOL 001 Nยบ47
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W O R L D A I D S D AY
By Nigel Ryan
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MISS ETHINIC IRELAND 2014 ATTACKED ROBBERY ON THE STREET OF DUBLIN P2
PRIDE OF AFRICA P6
KENYATTA, AFRICA AND ICC P10
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AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
NEWS
EDITORIAL ROBBERY ON THE STREET OF DUBLIN As I write this editorial piece, the current Miss Ethnic Ireland suffer pains in her wrist. Why? She was attacked by robbers on the street. They snatched her handbag forcefully, wounding her wrist. Unfortunately, the new queen and the newly crowned Miss Kenya Ireland left AfricaWorld office after briefing the press only to be attacked. Though the Garda responded but her bag was discovered nearby in flames with the contents.
Frankly, this is not the first time such has happened in the city centre. Phones are often snatched by bicycle riders while the owners make calls on pedestrian ways. Their targets are mostly elderly people, women and people that are vulnerable. Unfortunately, these robbers are teenagers the law seem to protect.
Although the Garda are doing their best but they must do more to stamp out fear from victims and others. In the light of these kind of attacks, everyone need to be vigilant especially in order not to fall victim.
Heart of the Matter - The Congo Series is back.
Come in. Uka.
W O R L D A I D S D AY W
orld Aids Day on Sunday 1st December saw activists, campaigners and well-wishers gather at The Front Lounge venue on Dublin’s Parliament Street. The event organised by Dublin Aids Alliance featured music from Jamie Nanci and The Blue Boys and attendees from as far afield as South Africa, Congo, Kenya, Zimbabwe and from the AfricanIrish community. Recently crowned Miss Ethnic Ireland 2014, Phokuhle Mafu from South Africa and FGM Ambassador Paulina Kwasniak from Poland both attended and took part in handing out red ribbons and welcoming guests to the proceedings. Dr. Erin Nugent of Dublin Aids A l l i a n c e welcomed the widespread support for this year’s awareness campaign but emphasized the work that still needs to be done on two fronts in particular. She stressed the importance of destigmatizing STI testing and the promotion of safe sex to reduce the prevalence of HIV in Ireland. “People who are diagnosed early and have access to treatment can expect the same life expectancy as that of HIV negative individuals. Furthermore, those that are on HIV treatment have a significantly reduced chance of transmitting HIV to other people,” she commented.
AFRICAWORLD & MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS Editor Ukachukwu Okorie Deputy Editor Martin Ekeocha Chief Reporter Paul Kelly
Graphic Design Mirco Mascarin Leandro Tonetto Oliveira Photography Alex Cavalcante da Silva
The campaign was supported by Dublin Lord Mayor Oisin Quinn who took an STI test himself to show his solidarity with the aims of the Aids Alliance objectives. The latest HIV report from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) shows there were 165 new HIV diagnoses in Ireland in early 2013 with 50% among men who have sex with men (MSM), 34% among heterosexuals and 4% among injecting drug users (IDUs). Seventy six percent were male and the median age was 33 years. Of the cases where CD4 count was known (in 71% of cases), 49% were diagnosed at a late stage of infection and 22% were severely
immune-compromised at the time of diagnosis. This compares to the 2012 data where 48% of new cases were diagnosed late and 24% were diagnosed very late where CD4 count was known (in 73% of
The Editorial team at AfricaWorld would like to point out that it is aware of the Millennium Development Goals and seeks to Published by Uyokanjo Media Services Ltd. 46 Parnel Square West 3rd Floor +353 87 637 3210 Dublin 1, Dublin City +353 1 873 0123 Republic of Ireland E-mail: africaworldnews@gmail.com
By Nigel Ryan
cases). In recent years, gay men are the population most severely affected by HIV in Ireland. Despite falls in HIV rates in recent years there has been a doubling of new HIV infections in the Middle East and North Africa since 2001. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worstaffected region in the world for HIV and AIDS infections. The UN estimates that 64 per cent of all people living with HIV live in the region, with an estimated 25 million people infected. A Lancet medical journal survey found many of the cases related to couples in long term relationships having unprotected sex with other partners. A recent Mater Hospital survey indicated that despite progress in recent years complacency about H IV and STIs in Ireland may be growing. A pilot study suggested a rate of three HIV cases in every one thousand residents. For anyone concerned about their HIV status or merely choosing to be responsible about this important aspect of their health, free STI testing is available at several locations around Ireland. In Dublin St. James Hospital offers a walkin service on certain days while the Mater Hospital has an appointment service. The Man2Man.ie website has information on testing for gay men. For those living outside the capital the ww.hse. ie provides comprehensive information on testing locations.
synergise its work in accordance with those aims wherever possible. Those goals are to improve issues of Education,
Health, HIV/AIDS, Gender Equalit y, Environmental Sustainability and Global Partnerships.
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DEC 01 - 15 2013
NEWS By Martin Ekeocha
DJIBOUTI Some 45 technical and physical referee instructors from12 French-speaking African countries are taking part in FIFA Futuro III instructor referee courses which launched in the horn of African country of Djibouti.
EGYPT A number of students torched a police vehicle near Egypt’s Cairo University on Sunday during a protest against the killing of one of their colleagues during an earlier protest, security sources told the state-owned news agency.
COMOROS Rain in Comoros brings flooding, crop damage, disease.
ERITREA At a seminar it conducted in Barentu, the NUEW reminded the need for reinforced governmental bodies and that of the society’s in extensive efforts being exerted as regards preventing and doing away with practices that could cause psychological and physical harm to women
ETHIOPIA The decision by the Government of Saudi Arabia to crack down on illegal immigrants is causing ripple effects at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Daily flights between the two countries have doubled to accommodate a rapid influx of Ethiopian returnees. An estimated 40,000 returnees arrived over the span of a few days and that number is expected to increase to 80,000.
GABON US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced plans by his country to provide $40 million in assistance to the Afr ican Union International Support Mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), MISCA, to help protect civilians and provide security throughout the country.
ZIMBABWE ZANUPF’s provincial elections, marred by accusations of vote rigging, came to an end Sunday with party chairman Simon Khaya Moyo emphasising all results were subject to ratification by the politburo.
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TRAFFICKING HYSTERIA AT ODDS WITH JUSTICE FIGURES
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By Staff Reporter
bagbe is just 16. Two years ago she was abducted from her hometown 30 miles outside of Lagos. Local men in her village promised her a better life, a good living and enough money to provide for her and the welfare of her family. Instead she found herself locked in house in a foreign land, beaten, abused and raped on a daily and nightly basis. Feeling her life to now be in ruins she contemplates an escape...through jumping from the roof of the house that is now her prison. If only, she thinks, I could end this misery. Human-trafficking. The term alone is enough to evoke horrific images of the kidnap, coercion and exploitation of the vulnerable. An abominable practice that some refer to as 21st century equivalent of the slave trade, with millions of people displaced, abused and destroyed for profit. And, you think it doesn’t happen in Ireland? Wrong answer. It does. And yet based on the latest Government figures it seems media hype and lobby group pressure has led to a gross distortion of the real situation.
In recent months two Roma children were removed from their families in Ireland due to suspicion that they had been abducted and trafficked into Ireland. Only after DNA tests and searches were conducted did the families have their names cleared and get their traumatized kids back. Around the same time another case hit the headlines. This time the public was alerted that a fourteen year old girl had been found on O’Connell Street after being trafficked and forced into prostitution in Ireland. In reality the woman was a twenty-five year old Australian who with a troubled past and a conviction for deception who had fooled the authorities by a refusal to speak. The story went on for over a fortnight until a photo was released and her family identified her. Soon after the Gardaí promptly assisted her by way of a one-way ticket back to her homeland. A 200K Euro bill resulted for the Irish exchequer. Regardless of cost issues there is evidently an alarm and heightened anxiety over human trafficking that has gone too far. Preliminary statistics show 45 Africans were suspected of having been trafficked here so far this year, with 32 of the cases originating in West Africa and 10 from the South. The Department of Justice Blue Blindfold reports have been issued annually since 2009 and classify victims based on case assessments by senior Garda officers. If the National Immigration Bureau ‘suspect the likelihood of trafficking’ an investigation follows and a protection and support service is implemented. Cases can either
be reported directly to the Garda or Project focus on men who go to strip referred to them by NGO groups working clubs or escorts as the main problem and in the area of trafficking. see the answer as the adoption of the ‘Swedish Model’. If implemented this In total 31 human trafficking would see those paying for sex services investigations have taken place in 2013, targeted. It is then assumed that the a fall from 37 last year and a record high numbers of people selling sex would of 69 in 2010. The cases since 2009 decline. have seen 16 convictions. Although the overall number of incidents is small and However such views have provoked has fallen, the relatively high number ridicule from other commentators. involving Africans is a continuing concern and people from the continent Hot Press author Jackie Hayden spent consistently make up the majority of the years working in support groups for total numbers. East and North African people affected by sexual offences and regions of the continent are implicated left due to concerns about a growing an in the fewest cases under the ‘Region of anti-male bias. Origin’ classification, while three people are suspected to have been trafficked “Suggesting that men are exclusively from Central African countries so far responsible for the existence of this year. prostitution is as unfair and as unrealistic as it would be to put the blame on women One hindrance to accurate media for what is more often than not a freely reporting of trafficking lies in the arranged transaction between consenting contested definition of the term itself. adults”. Some NGOs determine it to mean merely ‘the assisted transportation of a foreign He also ponders why campaigners national into a another jurisdiction’. never mention women who frequent While in the public mind and that of law male escorts or travel abroad to find enforcement to be trafficked must by younger men for sexual encounters. definition involve coercion, threat, abuse, etc. Hayden’s book A Man in a Woman’s World also raised considerable and Another issue is the ideological relevant questions about the influence background of the groups selected by of radical feminism on many NGOs’ the media for commentary. The perspectives. He found the outcome of Immigrant Council of Ireland and this influence to be problematical due to Ruhama are often the go-to spokespeople the scapegoating and blame of societal when a trafficking story breaks in problems on men under the rubric of Ireland. Both groups were founded by ‘patriarchy’. the Religious Sisters of Charity and have been criticized by some authors as Other commentators have focused on having an agenda that is incompatible the role of the media in generating with objectivity due to such links. hysteria regarding trafficking. Award winning Guardian journalist Nick Davies They have regularly issued criticism commented on the situation in Britain of the Irish government and Justice in 2009 by saying: Minister. In their view the State is not doing enough to address the area of ‘Stories of sex trafficking have been trafficking and in particular related to stripped of caution, stretched to their prostitution, which they believe is a most alarming possible meaning and much more serious problem than the tossed into the public domain.’ Department of Justice figures suggest. Notably, they count all foreign nationals Davies laments how poorly researched working as escorts as having been media reports feed into a cycle of trafficked by definition. It’s quite an misinformation and are taken up by assumption and one disputed by the politicians that provoke public alarm Gardaí. based on assumption rather than empirical evidence. As recently as 2006 Superintendent John McKeown of Operation Quest told It’s clearly time for more responsible Crime Reporter Nicola Tallant: journalism and a reality check to deal with the consequences of an unfounded “We have carried out an in-depth moral panic. Any case of trafficking is investigation into organized prostitution one too many but seeing victims around over the past 18 months and we have every corner due to the effect of ideology found no evidence of exploitation or is a move in the wrong direction. Let’s trafficking.” “The girls are working hope the real trafficking figures continue because they want to make money and to fall and for a safer, saner world for us Dublin is somewhere they can earn a lot all. of money.” The Turn Off the Red Light campaign and its UK counterpart The Poppy
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AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
COLUMN/NEWS
By Martin Ekeocha
ALGERIA Two Algerian detainees at Guantanamo Bay are fighting efforts by US President Barack Obama`s administration to transfer them to their homeland, fearing abuse, a lawyer has said.
ANGOLA Angola has been accused of “banning” Islam after shutting down most of the country’s mosques amid reports of violence and intimidation against women who wear the veil. Officials in the largely Catholic southern African nation insist that worldwide media reports of a “ban” on Islam are exaggerated and no places of worship are being targeted.
BENIN Benin’s minister for environment and forestry, Mr. Raphael Edou, says his country will look towards every relevant regional institution, including the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), to realize President Yayi Boni’s dream of getting each souls in his country plant a tree each year.
BOTSWANA The Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) has been established to auction diamonds as government wanted another “cash back” avenue other than the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DBGSS).
BURKINA FASO A project that supplied chickens, turkeys, sheep and pigs to small scale farmers, most of them women, has proven that with training, veterinary support and a nearby market, livestock are an excellent way to lift people out of poverty.
MAURITIUS
Flash Floods reported in Mauritius Flash Floods were being reported in parts of Mauritius early today. Short bursts of heavy rain in parts of the islands resulted in many areas being flooded. Fire Brigade and the Police were on alert and called to several affected areas.
LESOTHO Lesotho needs a clear government decentralisation policy that indicates what Basotho at the grassroots want, the Rwandan Local Government minister, James Musoni, has said.
HEART OF THE MATTER: SCROOGE MOBILES
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s Xmas draws nearer the offspring start hinting at their mobile upgrade requirements. Phone mad and crazy – plain and simple – in three generations time no doubt, mobiles will be part of the genetic makeup, growing and appearing from underneath sweaty palms ever eager for action. God bless the little snots. Xmas is near. The requisite pleading and bleating part of the ‘spirit’. “Oh your fifth mobile upgrade this year dear? No problem. As long as you shut the f*** up for the rest of Xmas? Deal or no deal?” Responsibly minded parents of such ferally minded consumer cadets might recognise the fetish, (Chambers Twentieth Century dictionary provides the following definition: fetish, n. an object believed to procure for its owner the services of a spirit lodged within it: something regarded with irrational reverence) mobilus phoneus for its enslaving properties and the irrational reverence accorded it (the average mobilus phoneus adherent looks at their fetish some 150 times per day!). Could Xmas be a fetish too?!
That’s bad enough. But the cryptoid, mobilus phoneus holds a dirty little secret or two in its manufacture. Fellow investigative hack, Peter Bradshaw reports, speaking of mobile phone manufacturers, “They all require the mineral coltan for electronic components, much of which is mined in a lawless eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose gangsters, warlords and rogue army units “tax” every aspect of this grisly industry. Coltan mining and mobile-phone use has effectively financed murder, intimidation and mass rape as a way of life.” Cue the Swedish scientist Anders Ekeberg, catalysing away in his Svenska laboratorium back in 1802. At some point he manages to isolate a rare, hard, blue-gray lustrous transition metal, tantalum (for the more science minded
By Max Uspensky
AfricaWorld readers, those of the empirical rather than rationalist mould – the electronic structure of transition metal atoms can be written as []ns2(n-1) dm, where the inner d orbital has more energy than the valence-shell s orbital. In divalent and trivalent ions of the transition metals, the situation is reversed such that the s electrons have higher energy. Consequently, an ion such as Fe2+ has no s electrons: it has the electronic configuration [Ar]3d6 as compared with the configuration of the atom, [Ar]4s23d6) Call me Chukwu.
Poulsen reveals the issue of conflict minerals in telecommunications in his most recent work, Blood in the Mobile. Associated website, w w w. bloodinthemobile.org states, “We love our cell phones and the selection between different models has never been bigger. But the production of phones has a dark, bloody side. The main part of minerals used to produce cell phones are coming from the mines in the eastern DRC. The Western World is buying these so-called conflict minerals and thereby finances a civil war that, according to human rights organisations, has been the bloodiest Often used as a substitute for platinum, conflict since WW2: during the last 15 years the conflict has cost the lives of more than 5 million people and 300 000 women have been raped. The war will continue as long as armed groups can finance their warfare by selling minerals. If you ask the phone companies where their suppliers get minerals from, none of them can guarantee that they aren’t buying conflict minerals from the Congo.” It truly astounds and staggers the imagination how under represented this whole issue is. Thus when those ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ gits bleat for their latest fetish, insert a copy of Frank Poulsen Piasecki’s DVD firmly in their gobs and send them on the next flight to Goma to dig their own coltan. As one of the chief narrators states in the documentary, “We must feel revolted by this situation. We are all human beings.”
tantalum’s main use is as a capacitor in mobile phones, computers and other electronic components. Occurring in the minerals columbite and tantalite, the two often found together, the generic term Coltan (actually a portmanteau where a Scrooge is a mobile phone upgrade combination of two or more words or this Xmas – consider the ghosts of morphemes are employed into one word) mobile phone production past present is the common word used. and into the foreseeable future. Stop the rot and the grot – Fairtrade in coffee, so Ten years ago, 80% of the world’s why not in mobile phones and computers? Coltan was sourced from Australia. Oh and if they ask for an XBox 360 too Today in a dramatic shift, 50% of Coltan – insert 2nd DVD firmly into the anal is now sourced in the Congo. cavity. Competition for its exploitation lies at the heart of the conflict in the region, A Chukwu Christmas to the Congo bringing misery, death and disease to and to one and all. millions. Danish filmmaker, Frank Piasecki
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DEC 01 - 15 2013
AFRICAWORLD
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COLUMN/NEWS By Martin Ekeocha
MOROCCO Foreign Secretary meets Moroccan Foreign Minister and reaffirms the strength of relations on 800th
By Abdul Yusuf
anniversary of first diplomatic contact.
MOZAMBIQUE Investigations are underway to determine what precisely caused the horrific plane crash that killed all 33 people aboard the Mozambican national airline plane that went down in the Bwabwata National Park in the Zambezi Region on Friday afternoon.
NAMIBIA A Labour arbitrator, Angeline Hagen, has ruled in favour of the Keetmanshoop Town Council in a case of unfair labour practice that was lodged by its former chief executive officer Paul Vleermuis.
NIGER The Super Eagles forward Emmanuel Emenike of Fenerbahce became badtempered on Sunday as his side almost lost at home to Besiktas 3-3. Emenike saw red when the visitors took the lead with 3-2. He then claimed a penalty dismissed by referee Cuneyt Cakir who saw nothing wrong with a wild tackle from Besiktas captain Tomas Sivok who then suffered a head-butt from the Nigerian when they squared up.
NIGERIA Scores of people including military personnel were killed as suspected Boko Haram terrorists early Monday attacked military facilities and civilians in Maiduguri, residents, government sources, and security personnel have said.
RWANDA Rwanda has a target of creating 3.2million jobs “off farm” by the year 2020, to this end, the Rwandan government started a programme of “Hanga Umurimo” [Create own jobs] through which individuals can be able to start own jobs with an aim of getting out of poverty.
TUNISIA The National Defence M inistr y “strongly ” condemned the aggression which targeted a military detachment, on November 27, 2013 in front of the Gafsa governorate premises.
WHY NIGERIAN MARRIAGES END DEADLY IN AMERICA MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY ABROAD
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ome people continue to wonder why some of these marriages end deadly. It appears that the gargantuan societal pressure of living a good life coupled with an undue burden from family members in Nigeria continue to exacerbate the already troubled many Nigerian marriages. Additionally, some Nigerian marriages in the Diaspora are steadily and surely growing out of love. Compounding the marital problem is the issue of infidelity on both sides.
No other Nigerian community has suffered more jinx of infidelity than the Dallas area Nigerians. The aspersion has permeated the fabric of what was once considered a cohesive community. This has broken the trust
worsened by the recent trend.
The latest trend is the annual visit— pilgrimage as some call it—the men pay to Nigeria in the month of December. While in Nigeria some of these men engage in a high risk behavior with flawed boldness and reckless and perhaps, shortlived excitement in the face of ravaging effects of AIDS. This reckless behavior is utterly deplorable.
Nevertheless, it’s not only dreadfully wrong, but also Sadly, infidelity has ruined sacrilegious for anyone to some Nigerian marriages in take the life of the other, America. Some of the recent especially his or her spouse. divorces have claims of There are other options to get infidelity as their primary out of a marriage besides causes of marriage travails. killing a spouse. Domestic Marital infidelity is causing a vast members of Nigerian community once violence is one of them; Nigerian majority of Nigerian marriages flagging had with each other. Sad still, the community everywhere must help stop with the inevitability of total collapse. infidelity among Nigerians has been this madness—domestic violence!
US PRESENTER IN SA HUNTING CONTROVERSY
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here have been calls for American TV presenter Melissa Bachman to be banned from South Africa due to her recent hunting expedition in the country. Twelve thousand SA nationals have so far signed the petition after they were outraged at Bachman killing a lion and other animals including antelope and a Zebra during her recent visit to the Maroi
Conservancy hunting park. Ms Bachman hosts the TV series Winchester Deadly Passion which showcases her hunting skills honed since childhood. Maroi Conservancy spokesman Lourens Mostert defended Ms Bachman and emphasised that hunting and killing lions is legal in South Africa. “If it isn’t right to hunt these lions, why does our
government legally give us permission?” he told The Times newspaper. “ Lions killed in South Africa are often exported Europe or America with an average of almost one thousand per year leaving SA for different destinations where they are often go on display as a an example of a hunters’ prowess or holiday souvenir.
HYDROGEN PHONE CHARGER ROLL-OUT
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he first new portable hydrogen cell mobile phone charges go on sale in Nigeria and South Africa this December. Following five months of pilot tests in Nigeria Manufacturer Intelligent Energy wants to flood the South African and Nigerian markets with 1 million devices by the middle of this month. The company’s Consumer Electronics Managing Director Amar Samra told Reuters “In emerging markets where the grids are not reliable and people are using (mobile phones) as a primary device, it is mission critical; if you’re out, you’re out”.
The devices work through a fuel cell ten per cent by the end of the current that involves hydrogen and oxygen decade. combing to provide energy with water The Upp devices will cater to the demand for charging that is often problematic due lack of proximity to the main grid access points and due to unreliable electrical supply services. Costs will depend on vendors but are estimated at $200 with each individual charge likely to be less than $1. Another Dubai based firm is to launch solar powered charging services in what’s likely as the only waste product. Half of all to become a competitive sector in coming Africans have a mobile phone according years. to estimates and there are predictions that smart phone usage will increase by
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AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
PEOPLE
Pride of Africa le h u k Pho fu a M
Phokuhle Mafu, is a second year student in Griffith College Dublin where she was awarded a scholarship to study fashion. She is 21 years old. She was born in South Africa and raised in Ireland. She was a part of the Griffith College Fashion Show, where she emerged a huge success. Pho has been a fashionista from a very young age. She strongly believes that fashion is her destiny, she has excellent understanding of the fashion world and she is very creative, ambitious and disciplined. Her collection was inspired from World War 2. Recently, she has started creating her own brand FADE FASHION.
Cath erin e Wam bui
Catherine Wambui is a college student who loves reading, music and fashion. She was a finalist at the Miss Ethnic Ireland 2014. Catherine is currently Miss kenya Ireland and she loves doing charity works. The Kenyan Queen campaigned at World Aids Day 2013, helping with addiction to drugs, giving support and doing an 8 kilometer walk to support.
Miss Kenya Ireland 2014
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Miss Ethnic Ireland 2014
DEC 01 - 15 2013
AFRICAWORLD
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COLUMN/NEWS By Martin Ekeocha
3/3
LIBYA The UN Security Council has agreed in principle to a demand by its General Secretary to strengthen security measures at its Office in Libya, by sending a team of 225 officers in the North African country, the UN Office in Libya announced in a communiqué.
MADAGASCAR Election campaigns in Madagascar for the presidential runoff in December will begin on Friday to field the two competitors Jean Louis Robinson and Hery Rajaonarimampianina.
MALAWI President Joyce Banda has been accused of threatening the thriving democracy and press freedom according to an editorial comment in the Malawi News following the lawsuit which Joyce Banda Foundation has filed against Blantyre Newspapers Limited (Times Group), the publishers of Daily Times, Malawi News, and Sunday Times newspapers..
MALI French investigators have concluded that the death of two Paris-based reporters was partly due to an oil leak in their kidnapper’s car. The investigators said that the vehicle had to be abandoned, which led the kidnappers to fear being captured. In their panic, they murdered the journalists and ran.
MAURITANIA Mauritania’s ruling Union for the Republic Party has managed to win 37 parliamentary seats in the first round of the polls held last month, the independent election commission has announced. Opposition parties have managed to win 14 seats only, the commission added in a press conference.
ZAMBIA After more than a year of resting, David Lemon, the man who shocked the world by declaring to walk the entire length of the Zambezi, resumes part two of his Zambezi Cowbell Trek on April 18, 2014, from Siavonga where he left off.
CAPE VERDE Cape Verde, a tiny group of islands off West Africa bidding to become the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup, was thrown out of the competition Thursday for fielding an ineligible player in a qualifying match last Saturday.
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he evil of infidelity has wrecked our perennial bachelor’s life and that of his lover to the bone and marrow. As hypnotised, to him, she is truly the love of his life and they were so stuck on each other like white on rice. He is so emotionally and physically attached to her. They are inseparable even with the intervention of his close friends. And at one time the relationship threatened to head to the rocks and later things cooled off. Little did his close associates knew that it was just the beginning of their friend’s whirlwind romance and the chemistry between them had already fused and thus gave birth to love, romance and tons of sex. Our perennial bachelor heard several rumours from reliable sources of his fiancee’s infidelity and one time he’d seen facts and confronted her with them in which she couldn’t deny nor defend. She would always find her own way of comforting him as best as she could. She’d formed the habit of lamenting that his friends are trying to end the relationship that is existing between them. There came a time when the relationship developed a hitch and she broke up with him in which seems to them as a clean break. She told him that she needed space to hangout with her friends till she could decide rationally what to do. They texted everyday though, and she would tell him how she loves him and that guys are the last thing on her mind and she would never hook-up with one because she ain’t “desperate”.That she won’t even consider it and she loves him more than anything in the world. He believed her and trusted her. It has always been a norm for our perennial bachelor spending his weekends in the most exciting, fulfilling and fashionable way by partying or clubbing. During one fateful weekend, as the Saturday approached, all efforts for our perennial bachelor to tie-up with
HYPNOTIZED AND SEPARATED FATHER OF THREE CAUGHT IN A HOT AND WILD ROMANCE his ‘mummy’ or ‘mama’ failed, he took it upon himself the following day which was on early morning Sunday to visit his ‘mama’ without any notification. He’d been nursing the feeling of a foul play the previous day and something isn’t just right somewhere, and as soon as he arrived his ‘mama’s’ home, he sensed that his ‘mama’ has been cheating on him and this isn’t fair to him. When he got to her residence, he rang the doorbell several times before he could get a response. When she finally opened the door, it was unusual of her to stand by the way or block the doorway, which signified to him that she was not in any way expecting his presence at that hour. Our perennial bachelor was perplexed with her portrayal of attitude. As a gentleman that he was, he demanded to get some of his clothing that were stationed in the wardrobe of her bedroom. One does not need a soothsayer to tell him that there was something fishy and he was about to get the shock of his life and you could vividly attest to the guilt that was boldly written all over ‘mama’s’ face. She paved the space for him but vehemently refused him to proceed to
the bedroom and demanded he wait for her downstairs while she proceeds upstairs to get the stuff he needed. Our perennial bachelor refused and made his way upstairs with anger to get his stuff himself. Behold, the moment he stepped into the bedroom, he received the shock he’d expected and his thoughts were right. Lying down on his ‘mama’s’ bed was a dude half-naked, covered with a quilt and using the same laptop computer he’d
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only recently purchased for her as a gift. He was so shocked to his spine that he couldn’t think of how to handle the situation and rather he picked his clothes and left the premises like a flash of light with deep pain in his heart. He could not help but wondered and continued to ask the question what has he not done to please his ‘mama’ and why she lead him all this while like that and put him through hell? The fact that the dude was more than half naked in bed with her hooking up or possibly having sex made him sick to his stomach. The following weeks ahead, he couldn’t sleep nor eat. He felt so disappointed and as such couldn’t step out of his comfort zone for the rest of the weeks that he spent at home holidaying. He felt so depressed and cried all day and night. He found solace on binge-drinking all day and night. It took the intervention of his close friends to cheer him up and thus brought him back to life once again. His close friends comforted him and also advised him to move on with his life and his life must go on. His friends also advised and pleaded with him that on no account should he rekindle the relationship and noted that his ‘mama’ nearly sent him to an early grave during their melee - “If she is meant for him, she would come back searching and if she didn’t come back, she was never meant to be”. He also vowed never to accept her back in his life and that was the end of the relationship. To the utmost surprise of his close friends, our perennial bachelor later broke his vow and silence and is now back to the arms of his ‘mummy’ or ‘mama’ as he fondly calls her. This time around, he needs the intervention of the lord (Serious Deliverance) to get him off the hook. He is truly but surely under a spell. God will surely deliver him from the predicament that he has found himself in. Amen!
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AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
PHOTO NEWS
THE IGBO-HEBREW CONNECTION LECTURE On Saturday 23rd November, Rabbi Yehuda Tochukwu Shomeyr delivered a lecture on the Igbo-Hebrew Connection at Wynn’s Hotel. For video clips and more, see AfricaWorld TV
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DEC 01 - 15 2013
PHOTO NEWS
ANC IRELAND HOLD 2014 ELECTION FORUM ANC Ireland organised a forum for Cadres and South Africans on the reason to vote for the ruling party again
THE WORLD AIDS DAY World AIDS Day is held on 1 December each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide
to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988. In Ireland, Dublin Aids Alliance organised an event to mark the day.
MISS ETHNIC IRELAND & FGM AMBASSADOR FOR 2014 CROWNED
The United Friends of Ireland held its yearly Beauty Contest for Miss Ethnic Ireland and FGM Ambassador for 2014
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AFRICAWORLD
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10 AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
NEWS
By Martin Ekeocha
GAMBIA The Gambia government has reversed its decision to impose a ban on the importation of chicken legs into the country, saying in a statement issued last Thursday that the ban has been lifted with immediate effect.
GHANA Three African business giants, Jospong Group, Scaw Metals Group and Guma Group, on Wednesday announced investing US$40 million in the Ghanaian economy.
GUINEA
Guinea has been commended by the UN Security Council for its peaceful elections last month but has called for restraint and calm as the Supreme Court clarifies the hotly disputed results.
GUINEA BISSAU China has offered 1,400 tonnes of rice to Guinea Bissau to help it address the problem of food shortage, an official source in Bissau said on Tuesday.
KENYA Rap trio, P-Unit were the stars of Saturday night’s Channel O Africa Music Video Awards held in South Africa at the Walter Sisulu Square, in Kliptown Soweto. Kenya’s P-Unit picked up the Most Gifted African East Video award and Most Gifted Ragga/Dancehall Video, for their hit video “You Guy (Dat Dendai).”
LIBERIA President Sirleaf Returns Home after successful visits to Middle East and Europe - assures Liberians she is well and ready to work in the people’s interest
WESTERN SAHARA The National Council (Parliament) star ted Saturday the autumn session for the year 2013, in the presence of the Prime M inister, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, the President of the National Council, Khatri Adouh, and members of the Government and National Council.
KENYATTA, AFRICA AND ICC
U
nless there is a rethink of the powers of the ICC, there is growing indignation in Africa against it and a conviction that it has become another weapon of the West to persecute the continent’s rulers. During the hustings leading to national elections held early 2013, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga told current President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to forget the presidency, sensationally alleging that the duo could not contest the seat because their hands were bloodied. Said Odinga in Kiswahili, Kenya’s national language: “Huwezi kuota kuwa rais wa Kenya na wewe una damu mkononi. Haiwezekani!” (You can’t dream of becoming the president of Kenya when your hands are full of blood. It’s impossible), the PM told delegates drawn from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the political party of which he is head This perennial contender for Kenya’s top seat was alluding to allegations that Kenyatta and Ruto were culpable for the pernicious intra-ethnic violence that wracked Kenya after controversial presidential elections results were announced late December 2007. President Kenyatta, right, and Vice President Ruto both face ICC charges To drive the point home Odinga’s secretariat at the time- he was a presidential candidate himselffollowed up the offensive with an 11 point caustic paid-up advertisement that ran in the local media. Of particular note was the seventh point, which emotively roped in the duo as having been the architects of the premeditated violence that officially mowed down 1,133 people and led to 650,000 others, been displaced from their land. Partially read the advert: “Crimes against humanity are worse than murder. Yet these suspects of crimes against humanity remain free to transverse the country holding ‘prayer meetings’- while Kenyan suspects of the lesser crimes of murder conduct their prayers only behind the forbidden walls of Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, often for years before their cases are heard.” Kamiti Maximum Prison is based in Nairobi and is infamous for holding prisoners of conscience during the reigns of the inaugural President Jomo KenyattaUhuru’s old man- and his protégé Daniel arap Moi. Also it is famously thought to be the penitentiary where “Major General” Dedan Kimathi - leader of the Mau Mau freedom fighters, an iconic rag-tag army that successfully brought closure to British imperial rule (1895-1963) leading to political independence- is said to have been hanged . Coincidentally Odinga served time here too for a suspected role in a failed putsch in 1982 which led to hundreds of deaths. To date the failed coup remains a sticking point in his chequered political career, spanning three decades. On balance meanwhile, the conflict that unfolded on December 27, 2007 lasting for over 59 days ending on February 28, 2008 was merely a
continuation of a rote occurrence that happens here during national elections beginning in 1990 when the clamour to adopt plural democracy, after a hiatus of 10 years, got traction. Praying for a reprieve for Kenyatta and Ruto? At the time, Moi was unpretentiously opposed to multipartyism, claiming that the political arrangement was alien to the African person and cautioned that if embraced the arrangement would trigger ethnic strife. Turned out that Moi at the time was a quintessential African Big Man who brooked no challenges to his reign and those individuals who dared to cross swords with him lived to tell terrifying tales. The ignominy of his 24-year rule reverberates to date with the phenomenon of intra-ethnic violence during the election cycle underlining how deep Moi’s primordial swagger continues to influence the national psychic, ten -years after grudgingly exiting from power. For example early this February the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), a quango, produced an illuminating report entitled: Why the Senseless Inter-Ethnic Conflicts in Kenya? and reported thus: “In 2010, concerned by media reports that communities were re-arming, KHRC embarked on a research to ascertain those claims and produced the report in 2011 titled ‘Recurrent Ethnic Violence and Claims of Communities Arming Ahead of the 2012 General Elections.’ At the time the report was produced the elections were expected to take place in August 2012 as per the provision of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.
This report details what appeared to be an arms race despite the events of 2008 being fresh in the minds of most Kenyans. What is baffling is that over the time, inter-ethnic conflict seems to be popping up everywhere. Equally puzzling is that nobody has been arrested and prosecuted in all these conflicts that often leave a trail of destruction and death. The question is, of what benefit are these conflicts to anyone? More importantly, who is fanning these clashes? Despite police reforms and reforms in various government bodies, why isn’t there any real action to deter the perpetrators of these conflicts?” Truth is, ethnic violence in Kenya during election periods has been a norm rather than an exception and some would argue, that the world has just arguably become conscious of the gravity of the problem. Yet the remnants of this ugly problem are ubiquitous.
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By Mordi.I.Michael
In the ‘90’s the country was awash with information that Moi’s henchmen had surreptitiously imported poisoned arrows complete with bows from Romania when that country was under the iron grip of Nicolae Ceausescu, a ruthless dictator who befriended the Kenyan leader and even got an invite to the State House, Kenya’s seat of power. Ceausescu and his wife Elena were shot dead by a firing squad on the Christmas of ‘89 for committing mass murder in their country. The arrows were apparently put into effect in the North -Rift region of Kenya where armed goons coalescing around the Moicabal carried out one of the first choreographed but unresolved genocide in this part of the world. Indeed International Rights groups, amongst them Amnesty International, have chronicled these atrocities but the justice system in east Africa’s biggest economy has somewhat skirted this issue to the dismay of the citizenry. Reason for this inaction, many believe is because the perpetrators and sponsors of the violence are normally well-heeled individuals with deep political connections. And that’s the reason sequel intra-ethnic violence routinely finds succor here, metamorphosing over time to become the country’s bugbear during elections. And exacerbating the scourge further has been the carefree attitude of officialdom that plays dumb to the sore specter of Internally Displaced People (IDP), some of whom have been out of their land since the early ‘90s. ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda: Has ICC become a tool of the West? A feeble attempt to address the causes and effects of these happenings took place for the first time in 2008 when an impotent Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), ostensibly styled along the lines of the life-changing South African TJRC was set up. But even before it got to work the commission was rocked by internal conflicts as the chairman, Bethuel Kiplagat, a former Moi -insider found himself on the receiving end of accusations that he had a role in the skirmishes that targeted members of Kenya’s Somali community in the early 80s, an accusation he denies. . In August 2013 the Commission wound up its business following a publication of its report which had little impact and little wonder that Kenyans were not reassured that the train of human rights abuses would halt. Then the IC C happened and for the first time Kenyans were optimistic that never again will they ever witness ethnic violence again on the scale that Kenyans had endured over time. It was assumed that an independent justice system unencumbered by the influence of local politicians would come to play. Then on December 15, 2010, Luis Moreno Ocampo then the Prosecutor of the ICC named six suspects, colloquially known as the Ocampo Six who included a retired Major General; a former Head of Public Service and Chairman of the country’s National Security Advisory Committee; a former Minister of Industrialization who were all later acquitted by the court. But not so for current President Uhuru Kenyatta; Deputy President William Ruto and a Radio journalist Joshua Sang, who remain indicted by the ICC. The court has, however, found itself in a quagmire since a perception emerged that western nations led by the US
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DEC 01 - 15 2013
NEWS By Martin Ekeocha
SIERRA LEONE The UN backed Special Court for Sierra Leone has handed over its cour thouse to the government, one of the final steps before the tribunal shuts down. The courthouse and surrounding court complex will now house the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone.
SOMALIA The United Nations envoy in Somalia today highlighted the urgency of appointing a new Prime Minister as soon as possible to maintain the progress made so far in the Horn of Africa nation, after incumbent Abdi Farah Shirdon lost a confidence vote in parliament.v
SOUTH AFRICA Dozens of Indonesian fishermen whose vessels were impounded by South African authorities for alleged illegal fishing say they were forced to work in slave-like conditions.
SOUTH SUDAN The number of people affected by floods continued to rise during the week, with close to 328,000 having been assessed as needing assistance. Of these, just under 200,000 people have been assisted so far, with responses ongoing across the country. Jonglei is the worst affected state, with over 127,000 people affected.
SENEGAL A Senegalese judge recently freed four women accused of breaking the West African country’s anti-gay laws, saying there was insufficient evidence to convict them of “improper or unnatural acts”.
SWAZILAND Coca-Cola has denied that it intends to take any lead in protecting the rights of workers in Swaziland from land-grabbing. This follows global reports that the international drinks company had promised to stop all business dealings with subsidiaries that were involved in land grabs, where land is taken from poor people in developing countries without their consent.
UGANDA A taskforce working on the deferred National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Bill has concluded its work and the paperwork is going to Cabinet in the near future. Dr Francis Runumi, the Commissioner for Health Services, said if all goes well the scheme will be operational in the year 2014.
were subtly opposed to the election of Kenyatta for the country’s top seat. To fire the first salvo was Johnnie Carson, the United States top diplomat for Africa and a former US ambassador to Kenya, who despite alluding to the fact that Kenyans were responsible for electing their leaders added a caveat: “choices have consequences.” Noting that “we live in an interconnected world,” Carson suggested that the choices Kenyans make in the election would have repercussions internationally. “People should be thoughtful about those they choose to be leaders, the impact their choices would have on their country, region or global community,” he told reporters back in the US. Asked about US attitudes toward Kenyatta specifically, Carson said: “Individuals have histories, individuals have images, and individuals have reputations. When they are selected to lead their nations, those images, histories and reputations go along with them.” That unsolicited advice seemed to have had an opposite effect, emboldening a sizable portion of the population to queue behind the Uhurufor -President- brigade. In the polls held in March 2013, Uhuru, 51 and Ruto, 46, reached a political coalition that just managed to push Odinga’s ODM into the wilderness with a wafer thin majority of 50.07 percent of the popular vote compared to Odinga’s 43.31 percent of the vote. The constitution requires a 50 percent plus one vote for an outright win. The polls also witnessed one of the biggest political fallouts in Kenya’s political history when Ruto decidedly opted to become Uhuru’s running mate. It was not lost to close Nairobi watchers that by making the move Ruto had irreparably ended Odinga’s chances of ascending to the country’s top seat. In the 2007 polls Ruto, apparently played a critical role in marshalling members of his Kalenjin ethnic group, numerically the third largest in the country, to vote as a bloc for Odinga in 2007. But the two fell out over the issue of the ICC with Odinga accused by allies of the Kenyatta -Ruto brigade of having a hand in the tribulations of the two. Exacerbating the feelings were the incriminating utterances by Odinga towards the build up to the election that somewhat created the indelible image of him being a vindictive politician. Understandably both Kenyatta and Ruto have since publicly stated that if anybody ought to be hurled to The Hague, Odinga ought to be leading the pack, based on the fact that when the violence happened, the latter was a presidential contender together with Mwai Kibaki and the two therefore ought to be liable for the violence that occurred. For the first time in the Kenya hearings, then chief prosecutor Ocampo led the cross-examination. He asked Kenyatta whether he thought the then opposition leader Odinga, had political or criminal responsibility for the violence because his defense placed Odinga at the center of the bloodshed. “I will not say that he was criminally responsible because I have no evidence of him supplying arms,” Kenyatta said. “I am claiming had he agreed to follow proper due process and go to court instead of calling for mass action, violence would not have broken out,” said Uhuru.
Kenyatta and Ruto are facing four and three counts of crimes against humanity, respectively, in connection with the 2007-2008 post-election violence in which 1,133 people were killed and 650,000 displaced. According to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), the body charged with conducting the polls but has since been disbanded for badly bungling the exercise, Kibaki emerged the winner with a 47 percent of the popular vote while Odinga turned out second bagging 44 percent. Of interest is that despite the ECK results the chairman of the ECK, Samuel Kivuitu, now deceased, bizarrely contended that it was impossible to tell who between Kibaki and Odinga won outrightly, further emboldening the belief that the poll results were cooked. The most severe episode of the conflict unfolded over 59 days between December 27, 2007, the election day and February 28, 2008. A political compromise, hammered out by the two protagonists led to a signing of a national accord, following mediation efforts by the African Union Panel of Eminent African Personalities chaired by Kofi Annan, former United Nations (UN) secretary general. But the schism witnessed in the elections was resurrected by the ICC cases with local warring factions taking predictable positions with eyes trained on the 2017 polls while the international community was disparate in its opinion. With certitude President Kenyatta has since become a fervent crusader for upending the ICC by giving the impression that the court is a star Chamber, created by imperialists and therefore is archaic. Said he during an extraordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State held on October 12 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “Western powers are the key drivers of the ICC process. They have used prosecutions as ruses and bait to pressure Kenyan leadership into adopting, or renouncing various positions. Close to 70 percent of the Court’s annual budget is funded by the European Union. “The threat of prosecution usually suffices to have pliant countries execute policies favourable to these countries. “Through it, regime-change sleights of hand have been attempted in Africa. A number of them have succeeded. The Office of the Prosecutor made certain categorical pronouncements regarding eligibility for leadership of candidates in Kenya’s last general election. Only a fortnight ago, the Prosecutor proposed undemocratic and unconstitutional adjustments to the Kenyan Presidency. These interventions go beyond interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign State. They constitute a fetid insult to Kenya and Africa. African sovereignty means nothing to the ICC and its patrons. They also dovetail altogether too conveniently with the warnings given to Kenyans just before the last elections: choices have consequences. “This chorus was led by the USA, Britain, EU, and certain eminent persons in global affairs. It was a threat made to Kenyans against electing my government. My government’s decisive election must be seen as a categorical rebuke by the people of Kenya of those who wished to interfere with our internal affairs and infringe our sovereignty.” Indeed even within western capitals opinion critical to the ICC has grown
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AFRICAWORLD 11
and seen as leading the chorus is former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer. “I think that people confuse the ICC with justice. I don’t care what the ICC decides in the Kenyan case, there will be no justice. There is no justice when it’s a political case. It was a case brought by politicians essentially failing to act because it was politics,” she says, adding “If somebody wants to feel empty justice, go right ahead and believe that the ICC represents that for you. The ICC is a broken institution.” Frazer said that the Obama administration should not peg US relations with Kenya on the ICC cases because Washington deals with countries with major outstanding issues. She cited Russia, which she said had committed atrocities in Chechnya, and China’s feud with Tibet and said that the US has its own problems in places like Iraq. “Who really are we? We are not in fact a party to the Rome Statute. Why would we undermine our national strategic interests in terms of the relations between the US and Kenya because of a very weak case which should not have been before the ICC in the first place?” she asked. In addition a former chief prosecutor of the ICC has condemned its cases against Kenya’s leadership warning that the indictments could damage the fledgling international justice system. David Crane, the US lawyer who built the case against Liberia’s former President Charles Taylor said his successors at The Hague had ignored political realities in pursuing the Kenyan prosecution, which he said “could be the beginning of a long slide into irrelevance for international law.” “I would never have indicted or gotten involved in justice for the Kenyan tragedy,” said Crane, a former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone, a precursor to the ICC. “It’s placed them in a situation where they are damned if they do or damned if they don’t.” Under the Argentinean lawyer Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor’s office pursued high-profile African leaders, including Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir - who has ignored its warrant - and a number of alleged warlords in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Crane said Moreno-Ocampo had a “political tin ear” and had been overly ambitious in his indictments. And as further proof of how Africa feels about the ICC, the African Union has since passed a resolution calling for immunity for all serving African Heads of State. In addition Kenya’s Parliament has voted to withdraw the country from the ICC and has urged the government to take steps to remove the country out of the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Kenya will become the first country to revoke its membership of the ICC if the resolution to suspend any links, cooperation and assistance to the court is executed. The process will take about a year to complete. ICC officials have cautioned that the action has no bearing on the trials of President Kenyatta and his deputy Ruto. MP’s of Kenya’s governing coalition Jubilee have said that the ICC was simply pursuing a neo-colonialagenda. MPs justified their calls for the cases to be tried at home by invoking the sovereignty and independence of the country Peter Kagwanja, a former Fulbright scholar at the University of Illinois remembers that the first time he paid serious attention to the ICC was in 2004, when officials in the foreign affairs ministry asked his advice on whether Kenya should accede to US demands not to hand over any American citizen to the ICC. Kagwanja says the attitude of the United States was so high-handed that “I advised, ‘tell America
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12 AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
NEWS/IT By Martin Ekeocha
CAMEROON Greenpeace Africa and the Oakland Institute are alarmed by the decision of the Cameroonian government to award US agribusiness company Herakles Farms a three year provisional land lease to develop a palm oil plantation in the South West region of the country.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC On 27 November 2013, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, Fidèle Babala Wandu, et Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo appeared before the single Judge of Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Judge Cuno Tarfusser, at the seat of the ICC in The Hague (The Netherlands).
CHAD China’s ambassador to Chad Hu Zhiqiang on Tuesday handed over antimalaria drugs worth over 680, 000 million U.S. dollars to Chad’s national medicine agency.
to go to hell.” During the reign of Kibaki, he, advised the government on how to deal with the Kenyan ICC cases. He tried unsuccessfully to slow down the process, a push that included lobbying members of the UN Security Council to request a delay. Kagwanja believes the ICC did not have sufficient grounds to get involved in Kenya and that, by doing so, it has hampered efforts to strengthen local institutions, including the courts. “We have a very strong faith in our ability to build our own institutions,” Kagwanja says. The ICC case may have sped up Kenyans’ battle against impunity, he says, but it has come at the cost of “national sovereignty and dignity.” Taking a different view is Mugambi Kiai, a Harvard-trained lawyer and the Kenya program manager for the Open Society Foundation’s Eastern Africa Initiative. Rather than hampering efforts to build strong institutions, he says, the ICC has actually aided them by showing that anyone-even Uhuru Kenyatta-can be put in the dock. He cites several examples of challenges he thinks would never have happened
without the ICC, including a case brought by members of the Samburu community, who claim that land sold by former President Daniel arap Moi actually belongs to them, and legal efforts to remove Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza for threatening a security guard at a local mall. “Boldness is like education,” he says. “Suddenly you do everything differently. There is a new boldness germinating, and it will become infectious.” But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has made a scathing attack on the ICC saying “I want to salute the Kenyan voters on one issue - the rejection of the blackmail by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and those who seek to abuse this institution for their own agenda.” But Kagwanja paints a much darker picture, claiming that the ICC has polarized politics and worsened hostilities between communities. When the ICC confirmed charges against the four Kenyans last September, he says, “Things fell apart and in a huge way. Central Kenya home to Kenyatta
became radicalised including within Nandi (home of Ruto). The AU during its last meeting made a clear pronouncement. Kenya is a victim of “politicised prosecutor whose powers are unchecked can become a highly destabilizing and dangerous factor in matters of peace and security.” But eminent African bishop, Desmond Tutu is of a contrary view. In an op-ed titled, Is Africa Seeking a License to Kill?, he lambasts those seeking to obliterate the ICC. “Those leaders seeking to skirt the court are effectively looking for a license to kill, maim and oppress their own people without consequence. They believe the interests of the people should not stand in the way of their ambitions of wealth and power; that being held to account by the I.C.C. interferes with their ability to achieve these ambitions; and that those who get in their way - the victims: their own people - should remain faceless and voiceless”
By Uchenna Onyenagubo
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE The senior United Nations official for the Great Lakes region of Africa has begun a week-long mission to help shore up peace efforts, visiting Tanzania, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The app advantage - Blackberry, bbm now everywhere
CONGO-KINSHASA The United Nations today called on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to take immediate action in light of alarming reports of disappearance and assassination of children and youth that coincide with a Government operation to tackle delinquency in Kinshasa.
COTE D’IVOIRE Cote d’Ivoire has been eliminated from the Under-17 World Cup, despite being the reigning African champions. The team lost 2-1 against Argentina after conceding 2 goals in the first half.
TANZANIAN Tanzania is to invest $7 billion in two new railway lines. The lines will run in the north from Tanga to Arusha and to Musoma and in the south from Mtwara to Mchuchuma to Ligang and to Mbambabay.
A
pps are wonderful innovation that has rejuvenated our perception of the mobile devices. There are many apps now that replaced major equipment and devices. I came across few lately and will mention some of them; AIT Mobile, TVC Nigeria, etc. Another good one with range of options is “naijaTV”. This apps offers variety of Television stations in Nigeria, giving you
time. I know many have the Sky or Dream box in their homes but you can now view them on the go. Unlike many apps that are unavailable across the notable OS platforms for smartphones, the “naijaTV” is not available on the iOS platform but can be downloaded on the Android platform. Talking about apps not available especially on the iOS (Apple) platform, if you ever try to acquire an app on your ipad for instance, please verify that the app is both available on iphone and ipad. The option is always indicated on the top menu. Some apps are only available on iphone rather than ipad but it is important to know that such app can also be downloaded on your iPad regardless. Once you experience this type of issue, just go to the top menu and select iPhone only and the iphone version of the app will be downloaded. The only difference with this iphone app on your ipad is that, its interface is small (wouldn’t fit the screen size of the ipad) by default but can maximise by selecting “2x” below the screen
One of such app will be the famous Blackberry Messenger otherwise known as “bbm”. The app is now available on non-blackberry smartphones. Downloading the bbm is possible on android, iOS etc. When you attempt to download on ipad; the search is returned as opportunity to view some Nigeria TV “NO” result. In this case, go to the top stations that you haven’t seen in a long menu list and select the iphone only.
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Performing this task will enlist the bbm as number one then, you are ready to download. The app works like the one on Blackberry phones; it automatically generates a PIN at start up but this after you have created an apple ID account. The PIN assigned to you provides you the opportunity to start “pinging” like a Blackberry phone user, invite friends through Facebook and your email accounts as well.
DEC 01 - 15 2013
AFRICAWORLD 13
FAMILY CORNER
P
oems
GE BY EVAN
LINE NG
OZI OMIN
Tell Me Why I Chose You From The 20
Tell me why I chose you from the 20 You that play football to entertain To win, to make a living And make the world a better place. Is it that you play like a team in a family? And bring all together in unity? Are other 19 not for the same reasons you play? Is it because you play?
I
Without physically hurting your rivals? Arsenal of Arsene Wenger! You gunners and fire that Shoot and blaze without killing You make my loving heart feel so good When a win or draw is the story and the news. Even when you win not The hope that you will win another day Makes my heart leap for joy And live in hope and enthusiasm
But tell me, why does your winning Make my midweeks and weekends So joyful even when I have Jesus My family and my friends around me? Is it because you make soccer a medication? For stress and high BP? The passion of a passionate fan Releasing positive powerful energy Like a hen gathers and protects her chicks From danger, you behave You lion that trains your cubs to attack And defend, to score and win You Wenger fathers your boys and sows to reap No wonder coaches lobby to buy your
boys You train and send your boys to all the clubs To make premiership so interesting And like a colossus and Iroko You spread your branches All over the premiership and champion league A million and one lines are not enough To describe how bonded we have become Over the years the bond gets deeper and deeper So deep that I always pray for you Tell me why I chose you from the 20 Is it because I have a family full of teenage boys?
By MAX OKAFOR
President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins
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Whose weekends are full of anticipation Of the action at the Emirate Stadium? Tell me why I chose to love you Arsenal And I will not continue to ask, As I do not want you to think I am lobbing For a ticket to Emirate Stadium. To watch my football heroes live Display their talents and unique skills. Tell me why I chose you out of the 20 Disciplined gunners! Fly Emirates! Up Arsenal!
14 AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
COLUMN
By Dunstan Ukaga
THE POLITICS OF SOUTH CHINA SEA AND HOW IT AFFECTS US.
C
hina’s launch of an “air defense zone” over the disputed islands at the South China Sea is causing worries and sending wrong signals to the world already. As AP reported previously, Beijing last week issued a map of the zone — which includes a cluster of islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China — and a set of rules that say all aircraft entering the area must notify Chinese authorities and are subject to emergency military measures if they do not identify themselves or obey Beijing’s orders. Various Japanese responded in a confused manner overnight, with neither JAL nor ANA sure whether or not to comply with China’s new demand which is merely the latest territorial escalation. How would this hasty foreign policy work is in doubt. According to Tyler Durden: “Yet the declaration seems to have flopped as a foreign policy gambit. Analysts say Beijing may have miscalculated the forcefulness and speed with
which its neighbors rejected its demands. “Washington, which has hundreds of military aircraft based in the region, says it has zero intention of complying. Japan likewise has called the zone invalid, unenforceable and dangerous, while Taiwan and South Korea, both close to the U.S rejected it.” To show China the US does not recognize such foreign policy, CNN last week reported that, in a direct challenge to China, or perhaps provocation, “a pair of American B-52 bombers flew over a disputed island chain in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, U.S. officials said last week, in a direct challenge to China and its establishment of an expanded air defense zone. ‘’The planes flew out of Guam and entered the new Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone at about 7 p.m. Washington time Monday according to a U.S. official. Defense officials earlier had promised that the U.S. would challenge the zone and would not comply with Chinese requirements to file a flight plan, radio frequency or transponder
information.The flight of the B-52s, based at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, were part of a long planned exercise called Coral Lightening. The bombers were not armed and were not accompanied by escort planes.’’ The politics of the South China Sea goes beyond mere rhetoric and the dispute is such a complex issue that involves many countries around the Pacific Ocean. Part of the difficulty is that the dispute has so many aspects or rather there are so many separate disputes. The territorial issue that receives so much attention is itself a plethora of different and overlapping claims. China and Vietnam claim sovereignty over the Parcel island chain, from which China evicted Vietnam in 1974, in the dying days of the Vietnam war. Taiwan, because she is called the “Republic of China” mirrors China’s claim, so that huge unresolved dispute also has a bearing on this one. The same three parties also claim the archipelago, to the south. But in the south, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei also have partial claims.
As complex as this issues of South China Sea seems, counties like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and even Laos claim ownership or part ownership of the sea. China, however, objected to that submission and tabled its own map, with nine dotted lines outlining its claim. Joined up, the dotted lines give it not just the two chains, but almost the whole sea. This is where the problem starts and affects the whole world. Blogging on The Economist, a writer identified as Banyan opines:”...China points to history. It says the map has been in use since the Republic of China published it in 1946, and, until quite recently, nobody minded. Indonesia, in turn, subsequently objected to China’s objection, which gave China a claim over some Indonesian waters, too. According to American officials, China has upped the ante by talking of its territorial claims in the South China Sea as a “core” national interest, on a par with Tibet and Taiwan. There is a huge amount at stake. Besides fisheries, the sea, particularly around the Spratlys, is believed to be enormously rich in hydrocarbons. The lure of such riches ought to make it attractive to devise joint-development mechanisms so that all could benefit. In practice, the resources potentially available make it even harder for any country to moderate its claim. The sea is also a vital shipping route, accounting for a big chunk of world trade. It is the importance of the freedom of navigation and of overflight that has given America its pretext for louder involvement. This was initially welcomed by the members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations when voiced at a regional forum in Hanoi in July last year, So fiercely did China object to America’s rather disingenuous offer of “mediation”, however, that some countries may now be ruing it.’’ Beyond these facts, the politics of the South China Sea hovers over two world super powers: The US and China. My point on this was affirmed by Banyan who writes:”China and
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America. In particular, America and China differ over whether military activities are permissible in another country’s EEZ. America insists they are. China objects to them and has on occasion harassed America’s spy planes and survey ships. Another issue that came up is between China and ASEAN. China and ASEAN reached a common “Declaration on Conduct” (DoC) in 2002 in an attempt to reduce the risk of conflict. But efforts to turn it into a formal and binding code have got nowhere, partly because of China’s anger at ASEAN’s attempts to develop a common approach. China argues that ASEAN has no role in territorial issues, and insists on negotiating with the other claimants bilaterally. ASEAN sees this as an effort to pick off its members one by one. It argues that its own charter forces members to consult, as they do before each working group on the code of conduct. Conclusively the risk of conflict in the South China Sea is significant. It goes beyond mere claims, politics and grandstanding. China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines have competing territorial and jurisdictional claims, particularly over rights to exploit the region’s possibly extensive reserves of oil and gas. Freedom of navigation in the region is also a contentious issue, especially between the United States and China over the right of U.S. Should China go solo and claim the territories, it will unleash a global catastrophe never seen in the world before. Pointedly, these countries that lay claim to the South China Sea, are traditional US allies. It would not be in the interests of China to enter into arms conflicts with these countries with the US. Given the growing importance of the U.S.-China friendship, and the Asia-Pacific region more generally, to the global economy, the United States, China and Japan have a major interest in preventing any one of the various disputes in the South China Sea from escalating militarily. These are the three largest economies. It serves them better and the rest of the world to maintain peace and order in the South China Sea.
DEC 01 - 15 2013
AFRICAWORLD 15
PRESS RELEASE
Roadmap to Integration 2013
Date: Tuesday 17th December 2013 Time: 11am - 1pm Venue: European Parliament Office Ireland, 43 Molesworth Street Dublin 2
This is the third annual Roadmap to Integration produced by The Integration Centre. This follow up edition offers the added bonus of being able to show movement in policy over time. As with the 2011 and 2012 reports, this Roadmap identifies the main blocks to immigrant integration in Ireland. Solutions are posited to problems and those responsible for putting these in place are indicated.
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16 AFRICAWORLD DEC 01 - 15 2013
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