African voice newspaper issue 491

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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ISSUE 491

SINCE 2001

B R I TA I N ’ S N O . 1 A F R I C A N N E W S PA P E R

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MADIBA

Ministry of Justice pledges crackdown on forced marriages

Drop Cap SEE PAGE 7

SEE PAGE 27

Be sure it’s a cough, not cancer – NHS warns

SEE PAGE 22

New weekly welfare limit may fall by another £116

By Alan Oakley

Hours after confirming that the controversial £26,000 per annum (£500 per week) benefits cap for couples and single parents is being rolled out nationwide, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has indicated he is giving consideration to lowering the cap even further.

Treasury sources say that if the current cap proves successful in getting people back to work, it could be lowered by a further £6,000 to £20,000 p.a. or £384 per week.

The benefits cap, which was introduced in the London boroughs of Haringey, Enfield, Croydon and Bromley in April, applies to people receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance, Child Benefit, Child Tax Credits, Housing Benefit and other key support from the Government. It does not apply to people who receive Disability Living Allowance or its successor, the Personal Independence Payment, or some other benefits, such as Industrial Injuries Benefit or a War Widow or Widower’s Pension.

Those in receipt of Working Tax Credits are not affected by the cap, but it will apply to those who get £59.75 a week Carer’s Allowance, to help them look after someone

with “substantial needs”, and people in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Monday, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has defended the current benefits cap of £500 a week, saying “a very, very significant number” of people had gone out to work in affected households within the four London boroughs where the cap has already been implemented. He added: “What the jobcentre staff have told us as we have been going round is that they have seen a genuine increase since they have alerted people to the fact that they are likely to be in the cap.

“This is both about saving money and, more particularly, about changing a culture that had left families, particularly large families, finding it easy and a reality for their lives to stay out of work on taxpayers’ benefits.”

Mr Duncan Smith said the “greatest effect” of the benefits cap would be in London and the South East.

“The key principle behind this all over the country is that those who work, those who are trying to do the best in their households, do not see others who are down the road, who are on benefits, on welfare, actually getting more than they do,” he said.

Continued on page 2

Lies, damn lies or statistics: Iain Duncan Smith made unsubstantiated claims that the welfare cap has already led to 8,000 finding work

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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UK heatwave warnings extended

The Met Office have extended the UK’s heatwave warning to “Level Three” for the South West, South East, London and the Midlands, as temperatures this week reached a high of 32.2C (89.9F) in London – hotter than Lagos, where this month’s peak has been 29C (83F).

According to the Met Office, “a Level 3 heatwave alert means people should be aware of the actions to protect themselves from the possible health effects of hot weather, and social and healthcare services are advised to take specific actions that target high-risk groups.

“Level 3 is triggered as soon as the Met Office confirms there is a 90% chance of heatwave conditions, when temperatures are high enough over threshold levels to have a significant effect on health on at least 2 consecutive days.”

Public Health England (PHE) have advised people to keep out of the sun between 11am and 3pm, and “avoid physical exertion.”

“The key message for healthy individuals is to follow public health messages on how to enjoy the sun safely by staying cool, drinking lots of cold fluids and checking on those you know are at risk,” said PHE’s Dr Angie Bone.

The warm weather is set to continue into next week with temperatures in the high 20Cs at the weekend before rising to 30C (86F) and above next week. There will also be an increased risk of thunderstorms.

There are lower warnings in the north of England, while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not included at all in the Met Office’s alert system.

News Business Secretary announces new programmes for employers to take on young disabled people Young people who are disabled will be given help to find sustainable paid employment through a new Supported Internship programme and a new Traineeship programme, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced today.

The Department for Education-funded Supported Internships will offer specialised employment-focused study programmes for young people aged 16 to 24 with complex learning difficulties and disabilities.

Offered through Further Education Colleges, the aim is to help trainees learn from expert career coaches while doing real jobs for a minimum of six months.

Employers are also set to receive support from the coaches, increasing their confidence of working with disabled young people and helping them to understand the business case for employing a diverse workforce.+ The new mainstream Traineeships programme will give 16 to 24 year olds the workplace experience and job skills that employers require and will be open to disabled young people with less complex needs. The Traineeships programme will available from August this year.

Speaking at the UK’s first National Disability Employment Conference, Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “Disabled people have a lot to offer British businesses but often their potential is largely untapped. If their employment rate matched that of the

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rest of the population, an extra two million people would be working.

“The Internship and Traineeships programme will help create a fairer society by putting young people with disabilities on meaningful career paths and give employ-

New weekly welfare limit may fall by another £116 Continued from front page

Publisher and Editor-In-Chief Mike Abiola Editorial Board Adviser Dr Ola Ogunyemi News Editor Peter Olorunnisomo Managing Editor Alan Oakley Sports Editor Abiodun Teriba Assist. Sports Editor Olubunmi Omoogun Arts Editor Golda John Columnists Ryan Holmes Ben Savill Photo Journalist Isaac Adegbite Graphic Designer African Voice UK Legal Adviser Nosa Kings Erhunmwunsee London Office: Unit 7 Holles House

Vince Cable claims the schemes will untap the economic potential of young disabled people

ers the opportunity to see what they can offer.

“With the ‘disability pound’ worth £80 billion to the British economy, there is a strong financial as well as social incentive for employers to recruit a more diverse workforce that understands the needs of all its customers.”

Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson, who is heading the Supported Internships, said: “Through the Children and Families Bill, our Special Educational Needs reforms will give children, young people and their parents much greater control over the support they receive from birth to 25 – allowing them to focus on their aspirations.

“We want to help young people wit complex learning difficulties make a successful transition into employment. Supported Internships, like the one I visited at Mid-Cheshire College, provide a fantastic opportunity to learn the skills they need for the workplace whilst working in a real job”.

According to the government, Supported Internships have been trialled over the last year in 15 Further Education colleges for 16 to 25 year olds with complex learning difficulties and disabilities.

The £3 million pilot was announced as part of the government’s formal response to the public consultation on its green paper “Support and aspiration: new approaches to special education needs and disability.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, Mr Duncan Smith rejected suggestions that jobs were not available for claimants who wanted to go back to work.

“The private sector has been providing jobs. Every week something like half a million new jobs are in the jobcentres and out in the universal job match that we have now produced.

“I believe that we are already seeing people go back to work who were not going to go back to work until they were informed of the cap. I believe that this will show, as we go forward, that people who were not seeking work are now seeking work because that is the way to avoid the cap.”

Mr Duncan Smith said he was right to claim that benefit claimants subject to the new welfare cap were being forced into work, despite being criticised by the government statistics watchdog for making the assertion.

The work and pensions secretary said: “I have a belief I am right,” as he published polling showing how popular the measure was with the public. He also denied claims that families subject to a cap would be made

homeless, arguing that “the homelessness figures have hardly moved at all”.

Duncan Smith was criticised by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for claiming the cap had led to 8,000 people finding work. He was told by the ONS it was not possible to find any causal link between the cap and those finding work.

Refusing to acknowledge that 8,000 finding work since the cap is not quite the same as 8,000 finding work because of the cap, an unrepentant Duncan Smith told Today’s listeners: “You cannot absolutely prove those two things are connected – you cannot disprove what I said. I believe this to be right. I believe we are already seeing people going back to work who were not going back to work until this group were capped.”

He hit back at presenter John Humphrys, who challenged him over comments by the leader of Haringey Council - where the scheme had been piloted - who said that 740 families in the borough had been severely financially disadvantaged by the cap but only 34 family members had found work.

“What you are doing - as always happens in the BBC - you are seeking out lots

of little cases from people who are politically motivated to say that this is wrong,” he said.

In a separate development, Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps has suggested child-related benefits for unemployed parents should be capped at two children. The minister also suggested unemployed people aged under 25 should be denied housing benefit so they continued to live with their parents for longer.

Talking to the Mail, Mr Shapps said: “Welfare should not be a way of life.

“If you are a working family and you have another child, you know it’s going to mean quite a severe impact on your living costs. Yet in the welfare system, it’s almost turned on its head, so additional children are actually recognised, with no limit.”

Addressing the housing benefit proposal, he added: “A young person who’s out of work is given an advantage over a young person who’s in work when it comes to moving away from their parents because of housing benefit.

“So there’s a bizarre incentive which means if you’re not in work you can more easily move out and get your own place.

That is a matter of basic fairness.”

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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News

Charity project bringing Kenyan culture to UK Ten teenage dancers from one of the roughest slums in Kenya will visit York next month, thanks to the charity efforts of a city shop owner.

Jeremy Piercy, who owns Shared Earth in Petergate, has been raising money for the past two years to help youngsters in the Mathare slum in Nairobi. His charity, Walk Against Crime, supports a community project in the slum, giving young people an alternative to crime and he is now set to welcome a group to York. It will be the first time the teenagers have been more than 15 miles from their homes in the Kenyan capital. They will perform in York from August 5 to 12, sponsored by the charity.

The project in Mathare organises football and dance classes to help keep youngsters away from crime in an area where violence, drug abuse and prostitution are severe problems. Thi Vu from the charity said: “The lives of more than 200 young people have been changed through dance, football and education.

“Not only does the project keep

young people from going into crime, but it also helps to rehabilitate criminals.”

Success stories include a teenager called Milton who had been a notorious gangster in the slum, but who became the manager of a jewellery workshop employing 30 people.

Seven of the 10 dancers have enrolled in a computer college in Nairobi for a 3 month course funded by the charity.

Mr Piercy visited Kenya in 2011 and was so impressed by the dancers that he invited a group to come to Britain to perform and raise awareness of the effect of poverty in much of Kenya. He has since been working to raise about £25,000 to fund the trip, including through coast-to-coast sponsored walks.

In York, the group will perform in a concert at the Spurriergate Centre on the evening of August 10 and they hope to busk in the city centre several times during the week.

Visits to York Maze, Whitby and the Jorvik Centre are also planned, and they are likely to meet the Lord Mayor.

Jeremy Piercy runs Walk Against Crime

Recorded crime “falls by 7%” in England and Wales The Office for National Statistics have claimed that crimes recorded by police in England and Wales fell by 7% between March 2012-March 2013. In almost all the main categories of crime – including violence – there were also reductions, although pick-pocketing, fraud and sexual offences have all risen.

Meanwhile, separate data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales showed the number of crimes had fallen 9% since a year ago.

The news comes amidst serious cuts to the size of the police force. The Home Office said the number of officers had fallen to below 130,000 - 4,500 fewer than last year.

Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the news. “We have asked them to do more with less resources. They have performed, I think, magnificently,” he said.

Speaking on his LBC radio show, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said falling crime figures were “one of the great triumphs of recent years” and “a great tribute to the police.”

Yet despite the wider drop in recorded crime, one of the main categories to rise was “theft from the person” - including pick-pocketing and snatching of bags and

mobile phones - up 9%.

Fraud offences have seen a considerable increase, rising by 27%. Officials suggested this was due to changes in the way fraud was recorded, with a more centralised approach. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said it also suggested that more fraud was being committed online.

Statisticians attributed the 1% rise in recorded sexual offences to what they dub the “Yewtree effect” – a reference to Scotland Yard’s operation set up after the Jimmy Savile scandal. They suggested the number of sexual offences reported could continue to rise over the coming months, as people come forward to report historic offences.

Labour also welcomed the figures, but said there was nonetheless “worrying evidence” that the service provided by the police was “being hollowed out” by the cuts to the force.

“The police are doing an impressive job in increasingly difficult circumstances... but ACPO have warned that the full effect of the cuts is not yet being felt,” said Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary.

“As the government has made it so much harder for the police, they should not try to take credit for the work the police and communities are doing.”

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Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Opinion

President Obama and African Gay stories

By Raynard Jackson

President Obama has concluded his three-country tour of Africa.

He visited Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania. Most presidential trips overseas have a pre-determined outcome: to sign an agreement, to promote a foreign policy objective, or to reward an ally, etc. Not so in this instance.

Obama seems to be living up to the title Newsweek magazine gave him last year, “First Gay President.” I am usually very measured when I write about our presidents out of respect for the office. But, I must confess, that President Obama was a total embarrassment on his trip to Africa.

Obama and his staff were told in no uncertain terms not to discuss homosexual entitlements when in Africa (these messages were communicated through diplomatic back channels). But, that’s exactly what Obama did. During his first stop to Senegal, Obama began to lecture President Macky Sall on homosexual entitlements during their joint press conference.

Obama referenced the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on homosexuality, “not simply a victory for the LGBT community but also a victory for American democracy…so my basic view is that regardless of race, regardless of religion, regardless of gender, regardless of sexual orientation, when it comes to how the law treats you, how the state treats you – the benefits, the rights and the responsibilities under the law – people should be treated equally. And that’s a principle that I think applies universally, and the good news is it’s an easy principle to remember.”

To President Sall’s credit, he provided a sharp retort: “Senegal, as far as it is concerned, is a very tolerant country which does not discriminate in terms of inalienable rights of the human being.

We don’t tell anybody that he will not be recruited because he is gay or he will not access a job because his sexual orientation is different. But we are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality. I’ve already said it in the past, in our cabinet meeting it is Senegal’s option, at least for the time being, while we have respect for the rights of homosexuals — but for the time being, we are still not ready to change the law.

“But of course this does not mean that we are all homophobic. But the society has to absolve these issues. It has to take time to digest them, bringing pressure to bear upon them, on such issues. It is just like the capital punishment. In our country, we have abolished it for many years.

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The first families, USA and Senegal

In other countries, it is still the order of the day, because the situation in the country requires it. And we do respect the choice of each country. But please be assured that Senegal is a country of freedom and homosexuals are not being prosecuted, persecuted. But we must also show respect for the values and choices of the other Senegalese people.”

Even in the country of Obama’s father, Kenya, there were some harsh words for Obama. Deputy President William Ruto told Obama to “respect Kenyans” and to refrain from criticizing their belief that homosexuality is a sin. He said, “No one should have any worry that Kenya is a God-fearing nation…President Obama is a powerful man, but we trust in God as it is written in the Bible, that ‘cursed is the man who puts trust in another man.’”

One of Kenya’s most influential religious leaders went ever further. Cardinal John Njue, president of the Kenyan bishops’ conference, said, “Let him forget and forget and forget…I think we need to act according to our own traditions and our faiths... I don’t think God was making a mistake when he created Adam and Eve and told them what to do…we must be proud of who we are. Those who have already ruined their society cannot come here to teach us on what we should do.”

There are 54 countries on the continent of Africa and in 38, homosexuality is illegal. The continent is very conservative in their values and morals. So, Obama’s comments were made with the full knowledge of how Africa would respond. I guess you could call it Obama’s Sister Souljah moment.

Obama’s comments were given with premeditation. It was no accident that he has nominated five people who are openly homosexual as ambassadors dur-

ing the month of June (homosexual pride month). The countries are: Dominican Republic, Australia, Denmark, Spain, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

I am very ashamed that a sitting president would go to an ally’s country and insult their values and morals just to kowtow to 2 percent of the U.S. population.

Raynard Jackson

If Obama would spend a fraction of the time that he spends legitimizing homosexuality around the world focusing on the Black unemployment rate or the murder rate in Chicago, maybe these issues would not continue to devastate our community.

Raynard Jackson is President & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm.

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News

British charity boss charged with Kenya child sex offences Police in Herefordshire have charged the director of a gap-year charity with a number of sexual offences said to have taken place in Kenya.

Police employed rarely used legislation, which allows UK nationals to be prosecuted in the UK for alleged sexual offences committed abroad, to charge Simon Harris of Pudleston, Herefordshire.

The charges were made under Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and are in connection with offences alleged to have taken place against two children in Kenya between 2003 and 2013.

He has been charged with attempted rape between May 2004 and December 2004 and non-penetrative sex in May 2013 on a boy aged between 13 and 15, and a further attempted rape of a different boy under the age of 16 between 2003 and 2004.

The allegations against Harris centre on time he spent in Gilgil, Kenya, where he has since 1981 been the director of the charity VAE, placing volunteer gap-year students and postgraduates from the UK in schools in poor, rural areas.

He also runs an organisation called the Gilgil Trust, which aims to fund social projects in the town and give support to

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street children. He divides his time between his home in Gilgil – known as the “Green House” – and Herefordshire.

Harris was arrested at his home address on Monday following a joint West Mercia Police and Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) operation earlier this week in the East African state, which is still ongoing.

The operation came about as a direct result of information given to CEOP by a team from Channel 4 News.

The team alerted authorities in the UK after an investigation in Kenya earlier this year, which revealed a number of allegations.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, CEOP Deputy Chief Executive Andy Baker said: “We’re using powers that give us extraterritorial powers beyond the UK. “So if a UK citizen goes abroad and offends in this way against children - sexual offences - then we have the power to deal with them in this country.

“However, we do feel that it’s better if that justice is dealt with in that country ... but we will not shirk from bringing people back to the UK and dealing with them in this way.”

In the 10 years since the Sexual Offences Act came into being, there have been two successful prosecutions against

Gilgil, Kenya, where the offences are said to have taken place

other individuals. This investigation is the first time the relevant section has been applied to a case in Africa.

Harris appeared in Birmingham magistrates’ court on Monday, where he was denied bail. He will next appear at Birmingham crown court on 21 October.

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News

Ministry of Justice pledges crackdown on forced marriages The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to bring in tougher penalties for those who break a Forced Marriage Protection Order (FMPO), which uses civil law to protect those at risk of being forced into a marriage.

Forced marriage – legally defined as any marriage in which one or both individuals do not or cannot consent to the union, but are nevertheless coerced into it – is currently partially safeguarded against in the UK by pre-existing legislation against such offences as kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault, harassment, child cruelty, child abduction and various sex offences.

However, there is currently no legislation which makes forced marriage itself a crime.

At the moment FMPOs go some way towards this, by offering a specific civil remedy. FMPOs can be made by county courts for the purposes of protecting those at risk of being forced into a marriage, or even those who have already been forced.

Individual courts can include in an FMPO whatever restrictions it considers necessary. For example, provisions not to threaten, harass or use force against the person concerned; to surrender the person’s passport or other travel document; and not to enter into any arrangements for engagement or marriage of the person to be protected, whether civil or religious, in the UK or abroad.

Under current laws, the breach of an FMPO is treated as a civil contempt of court, and can thus be punished by either a fine or a custodial sentence of up to two years.

Currently, speedy enforcement for a breach depends on whether the court attaches a power of arrest to the order.

If a power of arrest is attached, a police officer may arrest without warrant a person suspected of breaching their order.

If no power of arrest is attached to the order and it is breached, the victim must apply to the civil court for an arrest warrant.

Soon, however, these safeguards are set to become far more stringent.

Under the new Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing (ASBCP) Bill introduced on 9 May, there are plans to have new measures implemented which will make both forced marriage and the breach of an FMPO a criminal offence.

The new offence of forcing a person to marry will be triable in a criminal court, carrying a maximum sentence of 7 years imprisonment, a fine or both.

Breaching an FMPO will likewise be triable in a criminal court, with a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment, a fine or both.

Work on the new legislation is being carried out by two government depart-

Over 500 Forced Marriage Protection Orders have been taken out since 2008, but the Ministry of Justice says that many are still unaware of their existence

ments, with the Home Office leading on the offence of forcing a person to marry, and the Ministry of Justice on the offence of breaching an FMPO. However, the ASBCP Bill must still complete its passage through both Houses of Parliament and receive Royal Assent before it can become law.

Discussing the proposed changes, Justice Minister and Conservative MP Damian Green said, “Forced marriage is abhorrent and little more than slavery. To force anyone into marriage against their will is simply wrong and this continued practice in modern Britain is a stain on our social fabric.

“That is why we are legislating to make it illegal.”

Between 2008 and 2012 a reported 491 FMPOs were taken out, of which two in 2012 were for persons under the age of 9.

The Ministry of Justice reports that in the past twelve months the greatest number of those taken out were in the North West, which made up 30% of the total figure.

16% were taken out in London.

Nevertheless, FMPOs remain an obscure legal process for most. This week a press officer for the Ministry of Justice admitted that while they “can be very helpful,” “many people do not know that Forced Marriage Protection Orders exist.”

While the various sections of the ASBCP Bill are still making their way through Parliament, those parts which seek to criminalise forced marriage will be widely welcomed by many former victims and campaigners, such as Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of the charity Karma Nirvana.

Sanghera, a Sikh from Derby, was the youngest of a line of daughters sent to India to marry men they had never met.

She ran away from home at 15 to escape a similar fate. When one of her older sisters later committed suicide to escape the do-

mestic abuse of her forced marriage, she set up the charity Karma Nirvana to raise awareness around the issue, which she dubs “a secret that shames Britain.”

“Forced marriages rob you of a childhood - our victims have the most horrific of crimes committed against them here in Britain. As cases increase so must awareness, legal remedies and a strong message to perpetrators,” says Sanghera.

“Strengthening Forced Marriage Protection Orders reinforces the serious ap-

proach we are taking to tackle these abuses. All these measures remind victims that forced marriages are a crime not part of culture, tradition and that they will be believed and supported if they report.”

Although the majority of forced marriage cases in the UK involve women with Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, the problem extends beyond those from Asian communities.

The charity Refuge claims that 2% of known forced marriages in the UK in 2008 involved families from Africa.

According to Refuge, victims of forced marriage from UK African families were most often those with a background in the North East of the continent, namely Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan. Refuge also cite at least one Nigerian case in the UK. For Karma Nirvana, the most crucial step to be taken is that which eliminates any “mistaken assumption” that the “cultural” backgrounds of those families involved in forced marriage – whether Asian, African, Middle Eastern or otherwise – somehow legitimate the act.

“It is not a cultural problem, it is abuse,” explained Sanghera in a 2011 interview with the BBC. “The sooner people start to regard forced marriage in the same way they do domestic violence the better it will be for those affected by it.”

The Ministry of Justice plans to move forced marriage from the civil to the criminal courts

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Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Isn’t it time Africa harnessed renewable energy?

While a renewable energy revolution has yet to take off in Africa, the seeds of a possible revolution are finally being sown. Large-scale wind and solar power projects are being developed in several countries and many governments now include renewable energy technologies in their power generation plans.

International financial organisations and donor groups are providing some of the funding, while the African continent is appearing on the radar for many global turbine and photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers for the first time.

Africa’s wind, geothermal, biomass and particularly solar power potential has been the subject of countless academic studies but investment had been limited until relatively recently.

The only countries really to source a significant proportion of their power requirements from renewables have been Egypt and Morocco, with wind farms, and Kenya, which has led the way in developing geothermal power plants. However, two developments have really changed the sector’s prospects: the availability of international funding and South Africa’s decision to source most new generating capacity from renewable energy over the next two decades.

Wind power The wind power sector is developing along rather different lines in Africa than in most other parts of the world. Governments usually subsidise wind farm power production through a system known as feed-in tariffs, while project size usually increases over time. Those projects that

Africa’s investment in wind turbine and solar photovoltaic technologies has been limited.

are under development in sub-Saharan Africa, however, are mostly funded externally and are surprisingly large for first incursions into the industry. For instance, in late April, the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a €115m loan to help fund the construction of the 300 MW Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in the northwest of Kenya.

The AfDB will also provide a risk guarantee to speed up development. The project is being developed by a consortium of Kenyan and Dutch investors, while Danish manufacturer Vestas is supplying 365 turbines with a capacity of 850 kW. In addition, the government of Spain has agreed to lend $178m to fund the construction of a 428 km transmission line to connect the project to the national grid. All electricity will be sold to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) under a 20-year power-purchase agreement at a cost of $0.10/kWh. African wind power potential is mainly concentrated in

coastal areas, including North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Indian Ocean states and South Africa. Substantial inland potential is limited to a handful of areas, including Chad, Kenya, Lesotho and Ethiopia. At the start of 2012, 50% of Africa’s commercial wind-power generating capacity was located in Egypt, with another 40% in Morocco and 5% in Tunisia.

A total of 44 GW of new wind-power generating capacity was completed around the world last year, taking the global total to 280 GW. Just 100 MW, or 0.2% of this, was installed in Africa, mainly in Ethiopia and Tunisia.

Egypt is expected to maintain its lead in the sector, as the ministry of electricity and energy has launched a tender for a 25-year build-own-operate (BOO) contract for a 250 MW wind power scheme. A power purchase agreement with Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) will be provided as part of the deal. Moreover, Cairo continues to guarantee access to the national grid for any new wind farms.

Solar energy The second-most-important renewable energy technology to date is solar photovoltaic (PV). Global installed PV generating capacity is expected to increase from 100 GW at the end of 2012 to 210 GW by 2015, suggesting that the technology is quickly catching up wind power in terms of popularity.

Indeed, although it is still more expensive,

PV production costs are falling more rapidly than those for wind power. Moreover, while Africa’s wind resources are concentrated in relatively few areas, the continent’s solar resources are spread across most of the continent and rank among the world’s most attractive.

Most PV generating capacity is located on very small projects, often on the roofs of buildings. However, larger schemes that utilise ground-based arrays are becoming increasingly common. For instance, the 15 MW Sheikh Zayed PV plant was completed by Masdar of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Mauritania in April, with $32m in funding from the UAE government. The project will increase the country’s generating capacity by 10%.

Mauritania’s President Mohammad Ould Abdul Aziz said: “This new solar power plant not only provides much-needed grid capacity for our people, it also proves that renewable energy can play a major role in the development of our country.” A combination of a long coastline and vast desert territory gives Mauritania an enviable combination of wind and solar resources.

The government of Ghana has been one of the first to introduce feed-in tariffs in Africa. Although substantial new thermal and hydro generating capacity is already under development, Accra is keen to diversify its generation mix and hopes to encourage investment in solar power capacity. UK firm Blue Energy has already announced plans to construct a 155 MW solar PV project in western Ghana, which would be easily the biggest solar power scheme in Africa.

First electricity is due by the end of 2015.

One of the biggest restrictions on solar and wind power development in Africa is the need for back-up capacity. Countries with a large proportion of wind power in their generation mixes generally need spare thermal generating capacity that can be brought on stream when required.

Most African states do not have sufficient total generating capacity to cope with peak demand and so they do not possess any back-up capacity.

South Africa miners in union shake-up

From Tuesday (July 16), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will lose the benefits and facilities associated with a majority-status union at Lonmin, after an application to prevent the company from terminating the recognition agreement failed.

The Labour Court ruled against the NUM on Monday and Lonmin will from Tuesday withdraw the recognition and benefits of full-time branch representatives and fulltime shop stewards, as well as offices and transport facilities.

The ruling places the NUM’s rival, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), in the driving seat at Lonmin, whose spokeswoman, Sue Vey, said the NUM would be “derecognised” as the majority union. It lost thousands of its members to the Amcu at Lonmin during August and September last year.

In April, Lonmin gave the NUM formal notice of its intention to withdraw the benefits and facilities previously granted to it on the basis of its majority status. NUM has cited intimidation and violence directed at its members as the reason for the shift in allegiance to Amcu.

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Lonmin has been trying to conclude a recognition agreement with Amcu for the category 4-9 bargaining unit in accordance with its majority status. They have failed to reach agreement and the matter is set to go to arbitration on July 29.

NUM last week brought an urgent Labour Court application to stop the termination of the recognition agreement it had with Lonmin, pending the outcome of a dispute it had referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on the same day. The CCMA referral claimed Lonmin transferred the NUM’s members to Amcu in contravention of the recognition agreement.

Labour Court judge Robert Lagrange on Monday struck the case off the roll for lack of urgency. He said he was satisfied that the NUM’s predicament was a result of it not exercising its rights in good time last year when it should have been apparent that it was losing members at an alarming rate.

NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said this was minor setback for the union.

Platinum producer Lonmin hit international headlines last August following the Marikana miners’ strike, in which over 100 disgruntled employees were shot (34 fatally) by South African police.

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Nigeria gets N2.5billion from EU

By Peter Olorunnisomo

The Federal Government of Nigeria is set to receive the N2.5 billion (approximately 12 million euros) from the European Union to boost the provision of quality infrastructure in the non-oil sector of the Nigerian economy.

At the agreement signing ceremony which held in Abuja a few days back, the EU’s Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Dr. David MacRae, pointed out the importance of enhancing an alternative revenue source to the Nigerian economy.

He added that “the EU attaches great importance to the diversification of Nigeria’s oil economy, the role of the private sector in the creation of employment and the improvement of the living conditions of all its citizens.”

The implementation of the project will be by technical section of the United Nations Development Organisation (UNIDO) under the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) project.

David Macrae EU Ambassador to Nigeria/ECOWAS

Specifically, the project will support the following: promulgation of a National Quality Policy (NQP), the establishment of a National Accreditation Body (NAB), providing equipment and training for the National Metrology Institute (NMI), to facilitate pri-

vate participation and support Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB), and ensure participation of Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and other stakeholders in the NQI through training and awareness creation on quality and consumer protection.

It is reported that the National Quality Infrastructure project will support the improvement and establishment of standards and quality control agencies in order to improve the quality of products and services exchanged in the Nigerian and international markets and thus boost the competiveness of the Nigerian private sector and the protection of its consumers.

It is expected that the NQI will also facilitate private participation and support conformity assessment bodies. It will bring on board the Consumer Protection Council and other stakeholders in the NQI through training and awareness creation on quality and consumer protection.

“The project is part of a wider financing agreement signed between the European Union and Nigeria to stimulate the competiveness of Nigeria and one of the many contributions brought by the EU to the people of Nigeria under the 2008-2013, 10th European Development Fund,” the statement added.

Released former CSO to Abacha to retire

By Peter Olorunnisomo

The recent round of news stating the fact that the former Chief Security Officer to Nigeria’s former Head of State and Commanderin-Chief of the Nigeria Armed Forces, Late Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, has been released from his, over a decade long, tribulation by his alleged involvement in the spate of assassinations including that of late MKO Abiola’s wife, did spark public reactions nationwide.

After this news various speculations have further made the rounds that he would be promoted and made a Brigadier-General, that he was still regarded as being in the services of the Nigeria Army was irksome to people who could not understand the rules in application, and the fact that the court seemingly let him off was innocuous to others.

However, news reports about speculations to his future in the Army was confirmed on Monday by military authorities that he was still in service following his acquittal last Friday of murder charges.

Rumours doing the rounds that the former CSO would be promoted to a Brigadier-General was also dismissed by the military, and instead, proffered that his case would be considered in line with harmonised terms and conditions of service of

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha the armed forces.

The Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Brig-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, described the rumour as false and erroneous.

He further clarified that there were professional procedures that should be followed and fulfilled before an officer can be promoted.

It was gathered that the former Chief Security Officer (CSO)to the late Head of State, may soon be retired from service with full benefits with the rank of Major which

he was wearing before he was charged with murder 14 years ago.

If this were to be so, he might get all his cumulative entitlements in the last 14 years that he had been in prison custody during his trial. This could make a case for the consideration for the payment of his entitlements despite the fact that he did not serve the military during his trial. The source opined that : “He was never retired in the first place but I assume he will be retired with full benefits with the rank of Ma-

jor. However, he will also stand the benefit of being paid his entitlements for all these 14 years and as well be free to contest elections.”

The news of his release and staffing in the army has led people to speculate about why Al-Mustapha was not retired or dismissed all these years, in line with military tradition and therefore avoid incidents that could negatively affect the Army’s image.

“I think with his age and years of service, he is automatically gone. By his age, he is gone; I mean his mates are now within the rank of Major General, which he has automatically been disqualified from attaining as he did not attend the necessary courses and examinations. However, since he was in prison all this while, which was not his fault, the best thing is to retire him.

“We were even wondering why his name has not been struck off the list when all these things were going on. Normally, he was supposed to have been retired or dismissed as the case may be during all these issues to avoid dragging the name of the Nigerian Army into the mud,” the source added.

He said: “The Nigerian Army as a professional force wishes to state that all administrative procedures are guided by extant administrative rules and regulations such as the Armed Forces of Nigeria Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service amongst others” Big-Gen. Attahiru added.

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Aregbesola, Wada seek peaceful co-existence

Governors Rauf Aregbesola of Osun and Idris Wada of Kogi States have called on Muslims to pray for the country’s peaceful existence during the Ramadan.

The governors made the call in their separate remarks at the annual Ramadan lecture organised by the Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society in Abuja.

Aregbesola, who chaired the occasion, described Ramadan as a season for sober reflection when the prayers of Muslims were speedily granted by God. He enjoined Muslims to use the holy month for spiritual rejuvenation and dedication to the peace, unity and development of the nation.

He said: “Ramadan is the best season on earth; it is a time when life is easier and our prayers granted faster. We must therefore avail ourselves of this opportunity and pray for the peace, unity and development of this nation.”

The governor, who decried the spate of insecurity and underdevelopment in the country, called on Muslims to be in the fore front of nation-building.

He stressed the need for Muslims to acquire both Islamic and western education, for them to make any meaningful change in the society.

He urged Islamic organisations like Al-Habibiyyah to continue to contribute their quota to national growth through lectures and advocacy.

Earlier, Governor Wada stressed the need for unity among Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic or religious creed.

He urged Muslims to use the Ramadan period to be closer to Allah and shun all manner of vices.

“We have to use this period (Ramadan) to be

united and faithful to God; we must do as much good to everyone and think of the unity, peace and progress of our country. We should think of how best we can move our nation forward,” he said.

The Kogi State Governor urged Muslims to use the period to feed and help the poor and needy in the society.

The Chairman, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Mallam Mohammad Bello, who delivered a lecture, urged Muslims to be upright in their endeavours.

“Ramadan is the right time for us to reflect on how to get things right; it is the duty of every Muslim to worship Allah according to the dictates of the glorious Qu’ran and the Sunnah,” he said.

He urged prospective pilgrims to hajj to have the right intention and follow the rules and procedure for pilgrimage.

Represented by Secretary of the commission, Dr Bello Tambuwal, he said NAHCON had been striving over the years to make hajj hitch-free in the country.

The Chief Imam of Al-Habibiyyah Mosque, Alhaji Fuad Adeyemi, said the organisation’s goal was to enlighten Muslims on Islam and contribute to national development.

He said it had introduced various programmes such as the Al-Habibiyyah food bank, zakat foundation, Arabic for beginners, street to school programme, to touch the lives of both Muslims and non-Muslims.

The lecture was attended by Islamic scholars, traditional rulers, politicians, civil servants and Muslims from all walks of life.

Source: The Nation Newspaper

From Right – Governor State of Osun , Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Hon. Commissioner for Land and Physical Planning, Arch Muyiwa Ige, United Nations Representative Habitat Programme Manager, Mallam Kabir Yari and Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Barrister Kolapo Alimi during the Official Kick Off Consultation for State of Osun Structure Plans Projects in nine Cities: Osogbo, Ile Ife, Ilesa, Iwo, Ede, Ejigbo, Ila Orangun, Ikire and Ikirun at Obokunbusi Town Hall Ilesa

Photos: Taofeeq Adejare

From left, Oyo State Governor, Senator Isiaka Ajimobi; Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Governing Council, Professor Wale Omole; Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his Deputy & Commissioner for Education, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori, during Inauguration of the 8th Governing Council of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (Lautech) at the Council Chamber Senate Building, Ogbomoso Oyo State

From Right – National Publicity Secretary Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Muhammed; Guest Lecture, Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola , Oyo State Speaker House of Assembly, Hon. Mosurat Sumonu and Action Congress of Nigeria, Governorship Candidate in Kwara State, Barrister Dele Belgore during the 7th Annual Ramadan Lecture Organized by Alhaji Lai Muhammed at Topmost Event Centre Oro, Kwara State 10

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Italy

Racist lawmaker forced to apologise for ape slur

Israel

Supermarket bombing campaign, 3 in custody

Tiv Ta’am’s owners have resisted pressure to go kosher to become the largest non-kosher food chain in Israel

Cecile Kyenge has lived in Italy for 30 years

An Italian senator has been forced to apologise after he said the country’s first black cabinet minister reminded him of an orang-utan.

In a speech at a rally in Treviso on Saturday (July 13), Roberto Calderoli, from the anti-immigration Northern League, said: “I love animals – bears and wolves, as everyone knows – but when I see the pictures of Kyenge I cannot but think of, even if I’m not saying she is one, the features of an orang-utan.”

Calderoli added that the success of Kyenge encouraged “illegal immigrants” to come to Italy, and she should be a minister “in her own country”, according to media reports.

Politicians, including some from his own party, lambasted Calderoli, with some calling for him to resign as Senate vice president. In an official statement and on Twitter, Prime Minister Enrico Letta said the comments were unacceptable.

“They go beyond all limits. Full solidarity and support to Cecile. Forward with your and our work,” Letta said.

For most of the day, Calderoli said he had no intention of resigning and offered only a qualified apology.

“I did not mean to offend and if minister Kyenge was offended I am sorry, but my comment was made within a much broader political speech that criticised the minister and her policies,” he said.

But after hours of nearly universal condemnation and extensive coverage by the international media, Calderoli

called Kyenge in the evening to apologise directly.

“I just spoke with minister Kyenge and I apologised,” Calderoli told state news agency Ansa.

Kyenge is campaigning to make it easier for immigrants to gain citizenship, and she backs a law that would automatically make anyone born on Italian soil a citizen. Last month, a Northern League member in the European parliament was expelled from the eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group for making racist remarks about her. Mario Borghezio had attacked Kyenge for wanting to impose “tribal traditions” in Italy as a member of a “bonga bonga” government, an apparent play on the so-called “bunga bunga” parties of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Opposition politician Calderoli, twice a cabinet minister under Berlusconi, has often caused offence. In 2006, he was forced to resign as reform minister after displaying a T-shirt mocking the Prophet Mohammad during a state news broadcast. The same year, after Italy won the soccer World Cup, he disparaged the opposing French team, which he said had lost because its players were “niggers, Muslims and communists”.

Before Calderoli’s apology, Kyenge told AGI news agency he should think of his responsibility as a senior Senate member. “I don’t want to address Calderoli the person, but as a representative of an institution: reflect on what you want to represent through your language,” she said.

Three men have been arrested by Tel Aviv police in connection to repeated attempts to bomb a supermarket in the centre of the city.

The first suspect was arrested on July 1 and remains in custody, while the other two were arrested on Sunday morning (July 14). The three men are suspected of being contracted by a third party to torch and, in a second incident, bomb the store.

Police would not comment on who the third party criminal figure is, adding that the investigation is still ongoing.

The two suspects arrested on Sunday, 26-year-old Eliran Vaknin of Hadera and Efraim Jerbi, 28, of Kfar Yonah, were brought to the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Sunday night, where they were remanded in custody until Thursday. During the court hearing police said they have forensic evidence taken both from the scene and the homes of the two suspects that implicates them in the crime.

Disaster was narrowly averted this March when a worker doing renovation at the central Tel Aviv branch of Tiv Ta’am discovered a suspicious package in the supermarket’s storage room.

Police attended the scene, cordoning off a wide span of the city centre stretching for several blocks in each direction. Police managed to disarm the bomb and took it in for a forensic examination, which turned up fingerprints belonging to the suspect arrested at the beginning of July.

The discovery of the bomb in March came only two weeks after the supermarket was partially torched, after arsonists used the store’s ventilation system to filter gasoline and fumes into the store. The store caught fire around 3 a.m., causing superficial injury to an employee and causing serious damage to the store. That incident followed at least one more suspicious arson attempt at the store in the months previous.

The suspects could potentially face charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, illegal possession of firearms and illegal use of an explosive device.

The Tiv Ta’am chain of over 30 stores is notable in Israel for stocking non-kosher products, including shellfish and pork, and for trading on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath.

Mexico

Brutal drug baron caught at border with accountant

Miguel Angel Trevino Morales is charged with killing of 265 migrants who refused to act as drug mules

Police in Mexico have captured one of the West’s most wanted drug barons.

Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias Z40, is thought to be the ruthless head of the notorious Zetas drug cartel in Mexico, which is allegedly responsible for large quantities of drugs and weapons that make their way into the US. The US State Department had been offering $5 million for information leading to

his capture.

“He had a reputation of leading the most vicious group in Mexico,” one law enforcement official told the Dallas Morning News. “This is a huge symbolic way to end his career.”

Trevino Morales’ capture is a big victory for Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto and his fight against organized crime. His capture may also strengthen the power of another powerful Mexican drug capo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel is a competitor to the Zetas and may now see an opening to push into the border city of Nuevo Laredo, a lucrative drug smuggling point, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Trevino Morales, 40, was captured by Mexican Marines who intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash on a dirt road in the countryside outside Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as the Zetas’ base of operations. The truck was halted by a Marine helicopter and Trevino Morales was taken into custody along with a bodyguard, an accountant and eight guns, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told reporters.

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News

Kenya to introduce ‘breach of promise’ law Men and women whose partners promise marriage but fail to deliver will be entitled to compensation if a proposed Bill is enacted in Kenya. However, they will have to convince a court that the promise was made and that they had suffered damages as a result of it not being fulfilled.

The Marriage Bill, which is set for formal introduction in Kenya’s National Assembly, seeks to consolidate the seven current laws on the institution. It also recognises polygamy, the payment of a dowry for customary marriages and also provides for the various grounds on which a couple can seek divorce. And itl regulates Christian, civil, customary and Hindu marriages, which were previously under separate laws.

Section 74 of the Bill says that even though a promise by a person to marry another person is not legally binding, the partners who feel they have suffered as a result of a broken promise can seek compensation.

Human rights lawyer Grace Maingi told reporters that this is not as harsh as it looks because a court would have to determine whether damages are due.

“If someone just promises today, it would not be binding unless the person who says they have been wronged takes the matter to court and has to prove beyond reasonable doubt to the court,” she said.

“That’s a protection or a safeguard in itself because the court looks at it in terms of whether or not there was a real promise and a real damage.”

The Bill, however, does not state in its clause on interpretation what a “promise to marry” is, meaning courts would have to determine that. Ms Maingi said that could possibly be done when amendments are introduced to the Bill in the National Assembly.

Overall, said the lawyer, the Bill is important and ought to be passed, with amendments introduced to correct offensive clauses.

“This Bill has been pending for way too long at the expense of the institution of marriage. Therefore, this is a great opportunity to ensure protection for all within the institution and growing from the Constitu-

Kenya’s betrothed may soon have recourse to the courts if their big day doesn’t go ahead

tion,” she said.

Ms Ruth Aura, who chairs the Kenyan chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, said the Bill protects widows from harassment by their in-laws.

This is because it stipulates that certificates of marriage would be required for all types of unions, spelling the end of the common come-we-stay arrangements.

Jail for ‘refugee’ who lied about genocide role A Rwandan woman, who arrived in the US as a refugee from the country’s genocide almost 20 years ago, has been jailed for lying about her role in the atrocities.

At her trial earlier this year, prosecutors accused 43-year-old Beatrice Muny 12

enyezi, who has been in the US since 1998, of commanding a roadblock where victims were picked to be murdered.

After she serves her sentence, Munyenyezi will be deported to Rwanda where genocide charges could await her.

More than three-quarters of a million people, mostly from the minority Tutsi ethnic group, were killed in Rwanda in 1994.

The Bill’s provision that every wife in a polygamous marriage would have a certificate is particularly good as each would live confident that they are legally married to the shared husband, Ms Aura added.

The Bill is also clear that marriage is a union between two adults of the opposite gender. This will disappoint those who Munyenyezi, who was convicted in February, wept as she was sentenced in Concord, New Hampshire to 10 years, the maximum term for the crime of false representation to United States federal authorities on Monday (July 15). She is believed to be the first person to be convicted in the US over the genocide.

During the hearing, Judge Stephen McAuliffe said Munyenyezi had “stolen the highly prized status of US citizenship”.

As the genocide was ending in July 1994, she fled to Kenya, where she gave birth to twins. She later entered the US as a refugee and settled in the north-eastern state of

would have hoped that there could be a way to legalise same-sex marriages.

“Marriage is the voluntary union of a man and a woman whether in a monogamous or polygamous union and registered in accordance with this (law),” it states right at the beginning.

It also criminalises incest by prohibiting marriage to a person’s grandparent, child, grandchild, sister, brother, cousin, great aunt, great uncle, aunt, uncle, nephew, great niece or great nephew. This would be punishable by imprisonment for a maximum five years or a fine not more than Sh300,000 or both.

The Bill provides for a couple to decide and register their marriage as monogamous, meaning any attempts to make it polygamous would be illegal. It also secures polygamous marriage by stating that it may not be converted to a monogamous one unless the husband has only one wife.

This would mean that a man who neglects his wives and pretends to be monogamous would be breaking the law.

Men who secretly marry additional wives could also be in trouble as the Bill states that before a man is allowed to take another wife, the current wife or wives will be required to give their approval. The notification of that marriage to the Director of Marriages is required to indicate whether the current wife or wives have been informed, whether they approve or disapprove and their reasons for approving or disapproving the marriage.

The proposed law requires those who are married in the customary way to notify the Director of Marriages of their marriage within three months after the rituals of their union are finished.

The draft had dropped a clause that caused jitters when the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution suggested that what is commonly known as a come-we-stay union would be considered a marriage after two years.

That draft had done away with the payment of dowry, but the current Bill recognises the prevalence of the traditional practice in many African communities. It says: “Where the payment of dowry is required to prove a marriage under customary law, the payment of a token amount of dowry shall be sufficient to prove a customary marriage.”

New Hampshire with the aid of relief agencies. She attended university and worked in a city government office.

But witnesses came forward who said that she had been a commander of a roadblock in the southern Rwandan city of Butare, where Tutsis were singled out to be killed.

Her husband, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, and his mother are both serving life sentences in Rwanda, where they were convicted of genocide charges.

Defence lawyers plan to appeal Munyenyezi’s conviction.

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Health

Failing hospitals to get task forces to tackle ‘mediocrity’

Following reviews of 14 hospitals with consistently high mortality rates, health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said that failure and mediocrity is ‘entrenched’ in 11 of the 14, which will be put into ‘special measures’.

The reviews, commissioned by the Prime Minister, were led by Sir Bruce Keogh, Medical Director of NHS England. Sir Bruce found that, while there were some examples of good care, none of the 14 hospitals investigated was providing consistently high quality care to patients.

Mr Hunt said: “I can announce that 11 hospitals will be placed into special measures to improve patient care. This means that they must implement all of the recommendations and external support will be provided to help them do this. The quality of leadership will be assessed and any senior managers who are not up to the job will be removed. And each hospital will be partnered with high performing NHS organisations to act as mentors.

“Under the new rigorous inspection regime led by the Chief Inspector of Hospitals, if a hospital is not performing as it should, the public will be told. If a hospital is failing, it will be put into special measures with a limited time period to sort out its problems.”

The 14 hospital trusts, between them, are said to have been responsible for up to 13,000 ‘excess deaths’ since 2005.

However, Labour Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said that ‘nowhere’ in the report did the figure appear. It comes following inquiries led by Robert Francis QC into the scandal at Stafford Hospital, where up to 1,200 people were found to have died as a result of poor care between 2005 and 2009. The Keogh Review will show that Stafford was not alone with its failings.

Mr Burnham, who was the last minister in charge of health under the former Labour government, accused the Government of cutting nursing jobs.

He said: “Seven of the 14 hospitals have between them cut a shocking 1,117 nursing jobs on this government’s watch. Unsurprisingly A&E performance has plummeted at all seven.”

In reply, Mr Hunt said: “The Keogh Review is the review Labour never wanted to have.”

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh said: “Higher mortality rates do not always point to deaths which could have been avoided but they do act as a ‘smoke alarm’ indicator that there could be issues with the quality of care.

That’s why I was asked to carry out a ‘deep dive’ inspection of the care and treatment being provided by each of these Trusts.

“Not one of these trusts has been given a clean bill of health by my review teams.

These reviews have been highly rigorous and uncovered previously undisclosed problems. I felt it was crucial to provide a

Jeremy Hunt, MP clear diagnosis, to write the prescription, and, most importantly, to identify what help these organisations might need to support their recovery or accelerate improvement.

“Mediocrity is simply not good enough and, based on the findings from this review I have set out an achievable ambition which will help these hospitals improve dramatically over the next two years.

“As a result of the reviews, the NHS Trust Development Authority and Monitor have today placed all 14 Trusts on notice to fulfill all the recommendations made by the review about their hospitals. All will be inspected again within the next year by the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, who starts work today.”

Being placed into ‘special measures’ will mean that: • Each hospital will be required to implement the recommendations of the Keogh review, with external teams sent in to help them do this. Their progress will be tracked and made public; • The Trust Development Authority or Monitor will assess the quality of leadership at each hospital, requiring the removal of any senior managers unable to lead the improvements required; and • Each hospital will be partnered with high-performing NHS organisations to provide mentorship and guidance in improving the quality and safety of care.

Since 2010, each of the Trusts has seen substantial changes to its management, including a new chief executive or chair at nine of the 14. However, while some have improved, others have failed to do so, making today’s additional measures necessary.

Three of the 14 hospitals are not going into special measures. They are Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Whilst there were still concerns about the quality of care provided, the Foundation Trust regulator, Monitor, has confidence that the leadership

teams in place can deliver the recommendations of the Keogh review.

As well as specific action to support the 14 hospital Trusts, the Government will also legislate to make sure it will be no longer possible for failed managers to get new jobs elsewhere in the NHS. And, drawing inspiration from education where Super-Heads have helped to turn failing schools into outstanding ones, the NHS Leadership Academy will develop a programme that will identify, support and train outstanding leaders.

Jeremy Hunt said: “In its 65th year this government is deeply proud of our NHS.” He said doctors and nurses had never worked harder and that the problems were not typical of the NHS. Mr Hunt added: “The last government left the NHS with a system that covered up weak leadership.

“The last government also failed to prioritise compassionate care. The system’s reputation mattered more than individual patients. Targets mattered more than people.

“We owe it to the three million people who use the NHS every week to tackle abuse, incompetence and weak leadership head on. Mortality rates suggest that since 2005 thousands more may have died than would be expected at the 14 trusts reviewed by Sir Bruce.

“Each of the trusts has seen substantial changes to its management since 2010.

Failure and mediocrity is so entrenched in others that they have continued to decline.”

Sir Bruce has also set out a vision for where the NHS can get to within two years. This includes: • Making demonstrable progress to reducing avoidable deaths in hospitals • Patients and clinicians will have confidence in the quality of assessments made by the CQC, not least because they will have been active participants in inspections • No hospital will be an island – professional, academic and managerial isolation will be a thing of the past • Nurse staffing levels and skill mix

will appropriately reflect the caseload and the severity of illness of the patients they are caring for and be transparently reported

by Trust boards • Patients will not just feel like they have been listened to but will be able to see how their feedback is impacting on their own care and the care of others The review was commissioned after Sir Brian Jarman of Imperial College London, one of Professor Sir Bruce Keogh’s advisers, found that in some cases the high death rates stretched back to 2005.

Sir Brian said that he repeatedly warned the Department of Health over the course of a decade about the high death rates but was not listened to.

He said: “We felt we were banging against a locked door. They were denying out data even though there was no real reason. At the time there was pressure from Downing Street and pressure from ministers.

“The government was in the position of providing the health service and monitoring it, it was a conflict of interest. Ministers have an electoral interest in getting out good news.”

At the worst hospital, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, there were 1,600 more deaths than would have been expected over the past seven years.

At Tameside, which is about half the size of Basildon, there were more than 830 excess deaths. Christine Green, its chief executive, and Tariq Mahmood, its medical director, resigned just over a week ago ahead of the publication of the report. Several board members have also resigned.

The 14 hospital trusts with the worst mortality rates were: Basildon and Thurrock in Essex; United Lincolnshire; Blackpool; The Dudley Group, West Midlands; George Eliot, Warwickshire; Northern Lincolnshire and Goole; Tameside, Greater Manchester; Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire; Colchester, Essex; Medway, Kent; Burton, Staffordshire; North Cumbria; East Lancashire; and Buckinghamshire Healthcare.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh 13

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CRIME

Man jailed after pointing a gun at unarmed police

Yonis Abdinur

A man has been jailed after pointing a gun at unarmed police officers in Hillingdon.

Yonis Abdinur, (20), was imprisoned for five years for possession of a imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday 12 July 2013.

He had pleaded guilty at the same court on 13 June 2013.

On 8 April 2013, two Hillingdon borough police officers were on plain clothes patrol in an unmarked car in Dallas Terrace, Hillingdon.

The officers had reason to stop the Ford Focus that Abdinur was travelling in. The vehicle contained three occupants.

The officers identified themselves as police and began speaking to the driver and front seat

passenger when the rear passenger - later identified as Abdinur - exited the vehicle. As the officers began to explain why he was going to be searched, he produced a revolver-type firearm from a bag he was carrying and pointed it at the officers.

Abdinur shouted expletives and ran off. He was chased by one of the officers, during which Abdinur turned and pointed the gun at the officer again. Abdinur then ran off.

On 10 April 2013, in a joint operation between the Trident Gang Crime Command and Hillingdon borough officers, Abdinur was arrested and subsequently charged.

Detective Inspector Jim Newcombe, Trident Gang Crime Command, North Reactive Team, said: “This incident highlights the bravery of unarmed officers who in the course of their duties could be threatened by individuals with firearms at any time. After a full investigation by the Trident Gang Crime Command, Abdinur pleaded guilty to the offence.

“The firearm used in this incident remains outstanding but the investigation into its location continues. If anyone has any information relating to this incident then please contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”

Hillingdon Borough Commander Steve Kershaw said: “I am very pleased with the outcome of this investigation. The sentence reflects how seriously the court takes such matters. I am very proud of my officers and how they try to keep everybody safe in sometimes very challenging circumstances.”

Man guilty of Rainham murder

An HGV driver who stabbed a workmate on Saturday 19 January in Rainham and left his body lying in the lorry cab until it was discovered by colleagues was found guilty on Monday 15 July, of murder. He was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 12 years.

Ausras Maslovas, 45, of Alytus, Lithuania was convicted of murdering 49-year-old Petras Miernykas.

The court heard that the two men had shared a heavy drinking session in the cab of Maslovas’s lorry the previous evening. Shortly after 22:45hrs, a friend of Mr Miernykas went to the lorry and saw him lying on the bed at the rear of the cab, and Maslovas dozing in the passenger seat.

Soon after 08:00hrs the following morning, a workmate invited Maslovas into his cab for a coffee. He explained the fact that Mr Miernykas wasn’t there by stating he was sleeping after having drunk too much, but police now know by this point Mr Miernkas was already dead.

Maslovas attempted to clear up after his crime and even phoned his son asking him to deliver cleaning products to him as a matter of urgency. Colleagues

became suspicious when Maslovas said he couldn’t use his cab as someone he didn’t know was sleeping in it. Workmates managed to look through the cab window, and found Mr Miernykas’s body lying in the middle of the cab on the floor, face down.

The post-mortem examination found cause of death to be as a result of a single stab wound. Police later found the murder weapon - a 16cm-bladed kitchen knife discarded on nearby waste ground.

During his police interview Maslovas initially described the victim as a good friend. He said they had been drinking together in his cab that evening and both fell asleep and he woke up the following morning to find an unresponsive Mr Miernykas lying across his legs, and he realised he was dead. During his trial he went on to say he stabbed him in self defence.

Detective Chief Inspector Tim Duffield, of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said: “Maslovas sought to make out that his attack was self defence.”

However, the police investigation exposed a man who didn’t call for urgent medical help after the attack and then lied to Petras’s workmates as his body lay in his lorry cab, all the while hatching a plan to dispose of the murder weapon and attempt to destroy forensic evidence.

Siblings guilty in wine fraud investments

Dina Snelling

A brother and sister who ran a wine investment scam that netted them £5 million have been convicted alongside their cousin..

Southwark Crown Court heard how Daniel and Dina Snelling, set up Nouveau World Wines Ltd and Finbow Wines Ltd which started trading in June 2007 and September 2009 respectively. They used a sales team to cold call members of the public and promote two promising wine investment schemes.

Nouveau World Wines Ltd investors were told that their money would be spent on Australian wines which would be 14

Daniel Snelling

stored in Australia before being sold on for great profit two to three years later. Finbow Wines Ltd investors were told that they were purchasing Italian wine which would be shipped to China, South Africa and India.

After the victims’ appetites were whetted, they were sent glossy brochures and called back to close deals. They were also sent false documentation claiming the wine had been purchased when in reality only £478,000 was spent on wine. When victims pressed the Snellings for evidence of their investments, this wine was moved

between their accounts to fool them. Police believe that more than 100 people were duped - many repeatedly. Only one victim received a return but this was all part of a ruse to get him to reinvest the money.

While Daniel Snelling was director and sole shareholder of Nouveau World Wines Ltd, Dina Snelling performed the role of office director. When investors became too suspicious of them, the Snellings ceased to trade under this name and used victims’ money to create Finbow Wines Ltd. While Dina Snelling retained her role, Daniel Snelling stepped down as director to prevent arousing suspicion, instead taking control from behind the scenes. Their cousin, Rebecca McDonald, 43 (14.01.70) of Parkside Avenue, Bexleyheath was business development manager, overseeing the day-to-day running of Finbow Wines Ltd’s bank accounts.

The Snellings were in the process of moving to a third company - M2M - when police arrested them in an intelligence-led operation in March 2010.

Detective Inspector Paul Whatmore of the MPS Fraud Squad, said: “This was a callous family-run plot to dupe people out of their cash. The Snellings went to great lengths to fool victims” However, the vast majority of wine did

not exist, the investments were not made and the money was spent by the Snellings on nights out, designer clothes and jewellery, expensive accommodation, luxury cars and cosmetic surgery.

They are scheduled to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 9 September.

Police appeal for hospital escapee Police are appealing to the public for information as they attempt to trace a man missing from Lewisham Hospital.

Daniel Henry, 31, absconded from a secure unit at the hospital on 3 July and officers are increasingly concerned as he requires medication..

He was seen in Deptford at around 18.00hrs on Tuesday, 16 July, but also has links to other parts of Lewisham as well as Lambeth, central London and Camden.

Mr Henry is described as a light-skinned black man, around 5ft 11ins to 6ft tall.

Members of the public are advised not to approach and should call 999 in the event that they see him, quoting ref 13MIS021787.

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Sounds of Diaspora People of America

Why is big fish Serena suddenly swimming with sprats?

We are one: World Number 1s Novak Djokovic and Serena entertain the crowd

Following her disappointment at Wimbledon, Serena Williams will compete at The Collector Swedish Open in Bastad this week.

The Swedish Open is a relatively low category event in the tennis calendar; the world number one will be the only competitor present that features in the Top 20 on the WTA Rankings. In addition, it is a clay court event at a time when the clay court season is generally regarded as over for the top professionals, who are gearing up for the hard court season following a brief grass court ‘intermission’ that culminates with Wimbledon.

Many tennis pundits are questioning why Serena is bothering to compete at a level

of event she has apparently refused to take seriously throughout her career. Serena has never won or even reached a final at this level of event, largely because she has only bothered to enter five times.

Neither Serena nor her older sister Venus has ever shown enthusiasm for competing at anything but bona fide ranking tournaments. Serena’s 52 titles have all come at premier events or grand slams. Parallel interests, illness, injuries and, perhaps, indifference have conspired to limit opportunities for fans to see her on the small stage.

Despite going out at the quarter final stage at SW19, she is clearly still at the peak of her powers, having won 46 of 49 matches this season and become world number one for a record fourth time. It is doubtful Serena has suddenly decided she needs court time leading up to the hard court season - she arguably enjoys greater supremacy on hard courts, at the moment, than on any other surface.

One can only assume Serena is bored of the dearth of consistent serious competition and has decided, in a manner of speaking, to see the sights instead. I predict she is endeavouring to engrave her name on all the ‘minor’ trophies that have never concerned her before. Just for posterity, and if her social calendar will allow, I predict we could see her name on every trophy professional women’s tennis has to offer before her career ends.

Lauryn Hill starts prison sentence

Lauryn Hill, pictured before sentencing in May

Having reported for prison last Monday (July 8), Lauryn Hill has completed week one of a three-month sentence for failing to pay her income tax.

The musician and mother of six pleaded guilty last year to three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million from 2005 to 2007. The Grammy winning artist was sentenced to three months in federal prison, which she’ll serve at a low security female facility in Danbury, Connecticut.

Hill has sold 16 million albums, chiefly of her solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but when she appeared before a judge in May, she said that she lives modestly considering the amount of money her music has earned for others.

“Someone did the math, and it came to around $600 million,” she said at the time.

“And I sit here before you trying to figure out how to pay a tax debt? If that’s not like enough to slavery, I don’t know.”

The US attorney’s office said that the income in question was earned mainly from music and film royalties that were paid to companies she owned from 2005 to 2008.

According to the prosecutor, the sentence handed down “also takes into account additional income and tax losses for 2008 and 2009, when she also failed to file federal tax returns, along with her outstanding tax liability to the state of New Jersey, for a total income of approximately $2.3 million and total tax loss of approximately $1,006,517.”

After her three-month prison stint, Ms Hill, whose first five children were fathered

by Rohan Marley, son of Bob, will have to serve three months of home confinement and a year of supervised probation. She’ll also have to pay penalties, the taxes still owed and a $60,000 fine.

Jamelia keen to Voice her opinion

Jamelia (left) with Voice of Ireland co-judge Sharon Corr of 90s band The Corrs

British RnB singer Jamelia has said she would be keen to take the position of judge vacated by Jessie J on BBC’s The Voice.

The Birmingham-born songstress is currently a coach on the Ireland version of the show, The Voice of Ireland, but she’s now set her sights on the spare judging spot on the UK’s edition.

Speaking to Digital Spy, the Superstar singer said, “It’s definitely not something I’d say no to. Being a musician is what I love to do but I love working on TV; I love

the experience and I wouldn’t say no - I definitely wouldn’t say no to The Voice.”

After judging on the first two series, singer Jessie J announced her decision to leave the show earlier this year to focus solely on her music. Judging colleague Danny O’Donoghue has also recently decided to quit the show, which has suffered disappointing viewing figures since the initial excitement generated by its blind judging gimmick.

The Irish lead singer, whose act Andrea Begley won The Voice this year, has left to concentrate on his band, The Script.

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Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Gospel

STAY CONNECTED TO CHRIST

By Michael Adekoya

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” Col. 2;6

Dear Reader, It’s been reported that most of the world’s diamonds come from South African diamond mines. Presumably, the richest diamond mines are found there. But, it is said the mines there were discovered when some little boys were found playing marbles with shiny rocks — which it turns out to be diamonds. My friend, can you imagine? These children were holding incredible wealth in their hands, but to them they were just pretty rocks. They didn’t know what they had. Today, there are some of us like that spiritually: we don’t understand what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul begins the second chapter of Colossians by talking about the treasures found in the Lord Jesus Christ (Read Colossians 2:1-7).

Every passage of Scripture has a key that unlocks it, and the key that unlocks Colossians 2:1-7 is verses six and seven where Paul says: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, and as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” My friend, the way to know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that is hidden in Christ (the mysteries of God’s Kingdom and secret things of God) in 2010 and receive God’s best is to live, move and walk in

the Lord Jesus Christ, be rooted and built in Him and established in the faith, abounding in what we have been taught in God’s Word with thanksgiving. As you abide in Him, His Word must abide in you equally.

My friend, you expect Paul to say something very complicated to the Colossians and to us today.

No! The truth doesn’t have to be complicated to be deep. Listen!

Paul is talking here to them and to us today in very simple terms. You see, faith really is not so high that we can’t get up to it. As a matter of fact, sometimes it is so simple that some of us never get down to it. So let’s simply look at a deep truth that Paul is telling them and to us today as we are just starting the year 2010.

Paul doesn’t say walk with the Lord Jesus Christ or follow after Him. He says walk in Him. He says, “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord …” (Co 2:6) Paul is referring to when we begin our faith walk. It is Biblical principle that to walk in Christ, you have to be in Christ in the first place. My friend, God has best things for you in 2010.

But can you honestly say you have received Christ Jesus as your Saviour and Lord? Can you honestly say you have taken yourself off the throne and put Jesus Christ on the throne of your life, marriage, family, home business, ministry, career, desires or pursuits? That’s the beginning of the Christian walk.

My friend, your relationship with Him begins through faith and repentance. If you haven’t received Christ Jesus fully into your life,

Are you looking for a church? ­­

Not settled in any particular congregation?

Perhaps now is the time to pray about it If you are not yet saved try one of the following: Jubilee International Churchmeets at 2,30pm on Sundays at Kings Avenue, school, park hill. London SW4. Part of Jubilee International Churches worldwide. For information, you may call (020)8697 3354 New Wine Christian Church- 11am holds meeting at Ringcross Tennants club, Lough Road, Holloway, N7. a member of the Icthus fellowship

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worldwide. For more information call 020 7609 959 or 07957 757 663.

Praise Tabernacle- 10:30am holds meetings at 620 Western Avenue (A40), park royal Business centre, opposite Warner Bros. Cinema Complex, W3. part of The Redeemed Christian Church of God. For information you may call 020 8993 3010 New Life Christian Centre 10.30am & 6.00pm. meetings at Cairo New Road, Croydon. The church has

don’t expect the best from God in 2010. You have the grace now to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved (Rom 10:9) The Bible says, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom 10:10) As you receive Him, you have taken the first step on your walk in Him. Paul continues in verse 6, “So we walk in Christ the same way we received Him: by faith and repentance.” My friend, you may ask, “What is faith and what is repentance? To put it simply, faith is turning to Christ, and repentance is turning from self. Recently, a man asked me, “How do we keep on walking in faith and repentance daily?” Is that your question today? Listen! A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, but it does not end there. The Holy Spirit of God is constantly revealing to us our own personal bankruptcy and offering us the great riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Him who can help us walk in Christ Jesus daily.

My friend, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? (Eph 5:18) Hear me! What you need in 2010 is resurrected spiritual life! Paul says, “…if the Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you, He shall quicken your mortal body.” (Rom 8:11) Lots of people who are saved are not filled with the Spirit. Are you one of them?

Maybe you were once filled but other things have entered into your life and the oil has run low, run out

or run dry. I have Good News for you. All you have to do is to go to Christ Jesus today and ask Him to fill you again. He will do it! Don’t live a day in this year without the Holy Spirit if you want God’s best for your life.

Some people say, “Well, I took a stand for Jesus years ago.” I strongly believe that they didn’t take a stand, I think they’re stuck.

My friend, don’t take a stand and be stuck. You are to walk in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you stuck or are you walking in Christ?

What are the evidences in your life that you are continuing to walk in Him? Hear me! If you are so walking in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, the evidences will show in your life because you are going to walk like Jesus walks, talk like He talks and people are going to see Jesus Christ in you. Ask yourself these questions: “When people look at me, do they see Jesus? “ Does your spouse, kids, parents, neighbour, work-mate, school mate, business partners, political party members,

a bible school, primary, is involved in extensive mission work in Eastern Europe, Italy and India. For information you may call 020 8680 7671 Ruach Ministries - holds meeting at 9am, 11am and 6pm. For information you may call 020 8678 6888 International Central Gospel church - Battersea chapel, holds meetings on Sundays from 2.00pm. . For information you may call 020 8684 4934 Jesus Arena International- Sunday service at 11.00am at Broadwater farm centre, Adams road N17 The Bible Life Church UK- They meet on Sunday mornings at 2.30pm at St Giles Centre, Camberwell

Church Street, London SE5 Christ Apostolic church (Full Gospel & Pentecostal) Surrey Docks District 163 Ilderton Rd South Bermondsey London SE16 2UT. Tel. 020 7252 2086.

Time of worship: Sunday English service 9- 11.30am. Yoruba service 11.30 -2.30pm. Prophetic counselling: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 12noon- 5pm, Saturday only 5- 7pm.

Holy Cross Church InternationalSunday 10.am- 1 pm at Crown House 71-73 Nathan way London SE28 0BQ Tel: 07904 234 126, 07809 381 886 Times of service:Bible study: Thursdays 8pm. Night Vigil: Friday Forthnightly 12am

London Community Gospel Choir

church members, fellowship members or club members see Jesus in you?

My friend, the key to God’s best in 2010 – His salvation, life, liberty, victory, peace, joy, divine healing, prosperity, blessings, power or miracles – is to stay in Christ Jesus and walk in Him? Jesus is the boundary of our walk; we are to walk in Him. Some of the benefits listed in Galatians 5:22-23 that walking in Christ offers are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are the fruit the Spirit produces when we walk in Christ. Walking within the boundary of Christ offers you protection and provision also. How are we protected from the world, the flesh, and the devil by walking in Christ? Many people trust Christ for their eternal destination but not for strength to walk today. What a mistake! Listen! Are you walking in Christ daily? I pray you will do so in this year so that you will not miss God’s best for your life.

Remain blessed!

Sunday Service: Sundays 10am - 1pm Winners Chapel London- part of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, at Unit B1 Galleywall Trading Estate, South Bermondsey, London SE16 3PB meets Sunday 7am & 9am and 11am and Wednesdays at 7pm. For details call 020 7237 7894 CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH GRAVESEND, ST. AIDAIN’S CHURCH, ST. AIDAN’S WAY, GRAVESEND, KENT, DA12 4AG TEL. 01474 355 841, 07956 38 38 70 TIME OF WORSHIP: Wednesday Bible Study: 7:30pm to 9:00pm Friday, Night Vigil: 9pm to 11pm Sunday Worship: 12:30pm to 3:00pm

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Africa Newsround

Sudan

UN peacekeepers killed in Darfur

The United Nations announced this week that 7 of its peacekeepers have been killed in an attack in the Darfur region of Sudan, with a further 17 injured.

Christopher Cycmanick, a spokesman for UNAMID, a joint African Union-United Nations mission, said the incident happened near the mission’s base at Manawashi, north of Nyala. It is believed to be the worst ever single attack on the mission.

A UN statement said all the dead were Tanzanian. UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon condemned the attack and called on Sudan to investigate it fully.

Mr Cycmanick said the incident happened as the peacekeepers were on patrol about 25km (16 miles) west from a second UNAMID base at Khar Abeche, in South Darfur.

The patrol, made up of both police and military personnel, was moving between bases at the time, a distance of about 70km (44 miles).

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Cycmanick

said that a large group of armed men had attacked the peacekeepers and there had been an intense exchange of gunfire.

He said it was not yet known who the attackers were.

A UN statement said that the Secretary General was “outraged” to learn of the attack, adding that he “expects that the government of Sudan will take swift action to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

The UN estimates that more than 300,000 people have died in Darfur, mostly from disease, since rebels took up arms in 2003 against the Khartoum government. It further estimates that a total of 2,850,000 have been displaced, although the Sudanese government puts the figure at only around 450,000.

More than 16,000 UNAMID peacekeeping troops are currently based in the region.

Diplomats say the force, who have been operating in Darfur since 2007, are struggling with equipment problems, poor training of some contingents and the

Malawi

No progress over Lake Malawi dispute

Lake Malawi is the third largest lake in Africa and the ninth in the world

Malawi president Joyce Banda has declared that she will not accept any interim deal on a disputed boundary on Lake Malawi – Africa’s third largest lake – until the dispute over sovereignty is settled.

Malawi claims the entire northern half of the lake while Tanzania says it owns half of the that area. The southern half is shared between Malawi and Mozambique.

“My government is not at this time

willing to entertain any interim agreement on say, the environmental issues or Tanzania usage of the lake until the sovereignty issue is resolved,” Banda told a news conference.

“Malawi’s position is that we own the entire lake, except for a portion ceded to Mozambique in 1954 for mutually beneficial reasons. The law clearly supports that position,” she said.

Malawi pulled out of talks on the issue in October, accusing Tanzania of intimidating its fishermen. Negotiations reopened this year as the dispute was delaying exploration for oil and gas in the lake.

reluctance of some governments such as Egypt to send their soldiers into dangerous areas.

The force’s absence of a joint command has also been criticised, with concerns that this has hindered coordination and rapid deployment to conflict hot spots.

UNAMID troops have been operating in Darfur since 2007

Senegal

Mine-clearing hostages freed Nine Senegalese mine-clearing operatives taken hostage in May have been freed by separatist rebels in southern Senegal. Released to officials in Guinea-Bissau, they are due to be handed over to the Senegalese authorities this weekend.

The hostages, all male, were clearing mines for a South African firm which began working in August last year in the Senegalese province of Casamance, where separatist rebels have been fighting since 1982.

The government and rebels signed a peace pact at the end of 2004, raising hopes for end to the ongoing conflict in Casamance, which borders The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.

However, one faction of the Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces has continued to engage in conflict.

Cheikh Tidiane Dieng, the governor of the Ziguinchor region of Casamance, said he did not know if a ransom had been paid to secure the hostages’ release, the Associated Press news agency reports.

According to the AFP, rebel leader Cesar Adoute Badiate said that he was “freeing the bomb disposal experts in the name of Casamance.”

In May, Badiate already released three women who had been captured with the nine men “on humanitarian grounds.”

The 12 individuals, employed by the specialist de-mining company Mechem, were kidnapped on 3 May about 18 miles from the city of Zinguinchor.

Over the past five years there has been a drive to clear land mines from Casamance, where agriculture has been especially badly affected by their presence. Some settlements have lain abandoned for years and farmers have been unable to plant crops for fear of mines buried in the soil.

Mine clearing teams are crucial to the rebuilding of parts of Senegal’s troubled Casamance region

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Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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News

AUC urges partnerships to boost agriculture yield

African Countries have been called upon to strengthen partnerships that would provide the needed resources and technologies to support farmers on the continent to boost food production.

Mrs Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission (AUC), who made the call, said such partnerships were critical to ensure that farmers were well equipped with the right farming practices, through technological innovation, storage and market accessibility.

Speaking at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) pre-plenary meetings, a side event of the ongoing 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW), being hosted in Ghana, Mrs Tumusiime said because the need and demand for food was critical in the world, food production needed to be given a boost by all member countries.

The week-long programme, being attended by about 1,200 delegates, including ministers of agriculture, science and technology, researchers, farmers, extensionists, civil society and development partners, is being organised by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in collaboration with the Government of Ghana in Accra. President John Dramani Mahama was expected to open the Week on July 18,

Mrs. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, speaking at the 2010 signing of a Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) in Kinshasa, DRC

anchored by the theme: “Africa Feeding Africa through Agricultural Science and Innovation.”

Mrs Tumusiime said food and nutrition security remained key challenges in Africa as the demand for food continues to increase globally, putting much pressure on African farmers to increase food production. She said the African Union with its commitment agenda to transform the income of all Africans, would continue to support, particularly, small scale farmers and women farmers with the technologies

in improving food production.

Professor Idah Sithole-Niang, Chair, AATF Board, said the Foundation, established 10 years ago, was poised to discuss and combine technologies, partnerships and smallholders as the nerve centre of agriculture development in Africa.

“I believe encouraging utilization of technologies that have the potential for making a difference, enhancing goal-directed and focussed effective partnerships and keeping our smallholder farmers in sight will deliver results in our quest for better agriculture

in Africa”, Prof Sithole-Niang said.

Dr Denis Tumwesigye Kyetere, Executive Director, AATF in a presentation said various projects like Cassava Mechanisation and Agro Processing (CAMAP) machines being introduced in countries were helping most farmers to improve crop production. He said Nigeria and Zambia were among countries benefiting from the cassava mechanisation project, which helps in accelerating planting, harvesting and processing cassava crops and that other countries would soon be brought on board to help improve the lots of farmers. Another project being undertaken by the AATF is a seed distribution programme that ensures seeds are available at the right time, place, price and of the right quality.

Dr Mark Holderness, Executive Secretary, The Global Forum on Agricultural Research said public–private partnership was key in ensuring agricultural development in Africa. He said women, who form almost 50 percent of farmers in Africa, received 10 percent of incomes and five percent of technical assistance in agriculture, must also be considered and given the assistance needed to boost their production.

He called on Africa to invest more in agricultural production as well as modernised agriculture to help do away with the endless urbanisation and overpopulation in African cities.

Accra venue for 5th AYG Conference

This year’s 5th African Youth and Governance Conference (AYGC) has been launched in Accra, with a call on all stakeholders to make a contribution towards its success.

The conference, which is planned to coincide with the International Youth Day (IYD) 2013, is expected to provide another excellent opportunity to deepen global youth dialogue through their participation.

It will discuss the core issues facing Africa’s youth by calling and working with all stakeholders including African governments, development agencies, educational institutions, the private sector and the youth themselves to develop and implement appropriate policies and programmes to reap the benefits presented by the potentially large creative force of youth power.

About 250 youth delegates from over 35 African countries and African Diaspora, including youth delegates from the European Youth Parliament (EYP) and the Americas, are attending the three-day conference to be hosted by the Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF) from the 7th to the 9th of August, 2013 in Accra. The theme for the conference is ‘Youth Inclusive Governance: Harnessing Africa’s Demographic Potential.’

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday (July 16) to launch the conference, 18

Seth Oteng is Executive Director of the Youth Bridge Foundation

the Executive Director of YBF, Mr Seth Oteng, noted that given the right platform, training and exposure, the young African would be positioned to champion a sustainable development agenda in peace in Africa. Mr Oteng said the YBF was committed to working with partners such as the Statistical Service of Ghana in defining a road map for Ghana in relation to demographic trends and development.

In a statement to launch the conference, Dr Philomena Nyarko, Government Statistician, noted that without strong institutions and favourable economic policies to tap the huge potential of the youth, the prospects of Africa’s young population becoming the driving force behind the continent’s economic prosperity would be elusive, as large numbers of young adults could face

labour markets that would be unable to provide them with employment.

It was in the absence of an annual event to mobilise the youth of Africa together that the AYGC was established in 2009 as a continental platform for the critical discussion of issues affecting the development of the continent, in general, and the youth, in particular.

Since its inception, the AYGC has been organised with the collaboration of the Government of Ghana, through non-partisan multi-sector support from the Presidency, Ministries of Youth and Sports, Foreign Affairs and the Interior as well as support from the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), UN-Volunteer Programme, NEWMONT and Kenya Airways, among others.

On the other hand, the YBF, established in 2009, has gained wide international recognition, having been accredited in 2011 with UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Special Consultative Status, which confers on the YBF a number of privileges and obligations in promoting youth development.

The core mission of the YBF is to bridge socio-economic and political gap to ensure positive youth development.

Source: ISD (G.D. Zaney)

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Culture

The Kikuyu of Kenya

According to Kikuyu mythology, all of creation began at the summit of Mount Kenya.The icy peak was the realm of Ngai, the Supreme Creator, who descended from the heavens to his mountainous throne to survey his newly created lands. The mountain became Kirinyaga, his resting place, and it was from here that he called forth Gikuyu, the father of the Kikuyu people.

Ngai told him that all of the lands around Kirinyaga would be the home of Gikuyu and his children forever. He sent Gikuyu to grove of Fig trees, where he found a woman called Mumbi. This grove would become known as Mukuru wa Nyagathanga, the birthplace of all Kikuyu, still revered as a sacred place.

Among the fig trees, Gikuyu and Mumbi produced nine daughters- Wanjiku, Wanjiru, Wanjeri, Wambui, Wangari, Wacera, Waithera, Wairimu, and Nyambura. (Traditionally all Kikuyu girls should be given one of these names) The girls grew into beautiful young women, who each full moon wandered the lands around Kirinyaga in search of men so that they could bear children. They begged their father to appeal to Ngai for help. Finally he bowed before the Mountain, and Ngai commanded him to make sacrifice among the figs and light a fire.

The sacrifice of a goat beneath a fig tree is still considered a way to call rain in times of drought, but in this first case it was a different form of life sustaining rain that Gikuyu sought. After the sacrifice he plunged nine sticks into a fire, and prayed.

The fire erupted into an inferno, from which nine strong young men emerged.

Giving thanks, Gikuyu took them back to his daughters, and the nine marriages were blessed by Ngai.

Each of the daughters made her own homestead, and nine separate clans of the Kikuyu were born. the unity of these clans was known as the Nyumba ya Mumbi, in honour of their Mother. The peak of Kirinyaga has since remained the sacred home of Ngai. As at Riuki, all Kikuyu homesteads were traditionally built to face this Holy Mountain.

Actually, Gikuyu, gave birth to nine (plus one) daughters - the number 10 being significant in the culture. The married daughters and had their own families and retained a domineering role in Kikuyu society.

This has led to the current division of the Kikuyu into nine (plus one) family groupings. According to legend, the men grew tired of their treatment by the women and rebelled. This legend seems to represent a change in history from matriarchal to patriarchal organization, which also occurred with other Bantu peoples.

A Kikuyu Warrior

Uhuru Jomo Kenyatta on Kenyan stamp

Ancestors of the Kikuyu arrived in Kenya during the Bantu migrations of 1200-1600 AD. The Kikuyu developed from several continuous waves of migration and remigration within the area. The Kikuyu as such actually came to be by around 1800, and include some families from all the surrounding peoples.

One genetic line contributing to the Kikuyu is the Thagicu, thought to be the earliest Bantu settlers in the area, perhaps around 1200 AD. The Kamba also incorporate some of those people in the Thaicu of today, related to the Dhaiso (Segeju) of northern coastal Tanzania. It was in Mukurue division of Nyeri district where an identifiable beginning for the modern Kikuyu people is defined.

The key event was military conflict with and defeat of the Gumba people by the Mathira and Tetu people, allied with the Athi and the Maasai in the early 1800’s.

Settlement of the Nyeri plains took place after the British moved the Maasai from the area. The Kikuyu were in Kabete by around 1850, Ruiru about 1900.

The Kikuyus’ contact with the outside world came through missionaries and settlers. The name for the mountain around which they are settled, Mt. Kenya, is actually a Kamba word because it was a Kamba guide who led the first white person — when the person asked the name of the mountain, he gave him the Kamba name.

The Kikuyu responded strongly to missionaries and western education. Their proximity to the British colonial government in Nairobi and the settlers who desired the comfortable Central Highlands simultaneously gave them a great advantage and imposed on them the greatest burden of peoples under colonialism.

They had greater access to education and opportunities for involvement in the new money economy and political changes in their country. They also experienced the greatest cultural change because of both the opportunities and the oppression of their colonial masters. They developed a greater adaptability and used the British colonial system to overcome the system.

The Kikuyu traditionally were superstitious and today they retain some practices of traditions held over from the old times.

For instance, some Kikuyu still honor some traditional superstitions such as a taboo against whistling. The traditional belief was that this would call malicious spirits.

Only a few old people would still have this actual belief.

The Kikuyu believe the number 10 was unlucky, so even though their legend says Gikuyu had 10 daughters, they always say nine. When counting they used to say “full nine” instead of the word for ten. Nowadays this term is still used sometimes by old people or in a joking manner. The real word is still retained, ikumi.

It was likewise considered bad luck to speak openly about the coming birth of a child, because it was thought evil spirits

might take the child. Even now they are sometimes troubled by the European practice of baby showers and mention of the expected date of birth, and especially the idea of choosing or mentioning the expected baby’s name before birth.

The Kikuyu observe a unique ritual pattern of naming children, still followed strongly today. The family identity is carried on in each generation by naming children in the following pattern: the first boy is named after the father’s father, the second boy after the mother’s father. The first girl is named after the father’s mother, the second after the mother’s mother.

Subsequent children are named similarly after the brothers and sisters of the grandmother and grandfather, from eldest to youngest, alternating from father’s to mother’s family. as refugees are accepted into a clan the naming pattern will incorporate new lineages and integrate them into Kikuyu society and history. A Kikuyu marrying a non-Kikuyu will follow this naming pattern.

Because of the rapid changes in the social and material culture, this naming pattern is an extremely strong and important factor of Kikuyu identity. This practice also has the positive value of ceremonially and literally incorporating a non-Kikuyu into the tribal lineage.

Thus the names of the parents in the other ethnic group will be added to the next generation of Kikuyu descendants. This mechanism incorporates the “mixed” children into one of the existing Kikuyu lineages, while allowing the Kikuyu social structure to grow incorporate new lineages.

This facilitates the introduction whole new family lines while maintaining the same core structure and organization of Kikuyu identity.

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Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Arts

Theatre, Shows and Musicals

By Ryan Holmes

King Duncan. But to maintain his position, Macbeth must keep on killing – first Banquo, his old comrade-in-arms; then, as the atmosphere of guilt and paranoia thickens, anyone who seems to threaten his tyrant’s crown.

21 New Globe Walk, London, Greater London SE1 9DT

The American Plan Now-August 10th

Lenny Henry as Troy and Tanya Moodie as Rose

Fences Now- Sept 14th

Troy Maxson was once an extremely gifted athlete who was deprived of his shot at the big time and now struggles within regular society in Pittsburgh. Indignant of a world he believes has denied him chances at every turn, he vents his anger on his loyal wife and sports-obsessed son.

Fences, is one of the eminent American dramas of the 20th century, and winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Award, two Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Set between the Korean and Vietnam wars, it is essentially the story of a family trying to claw themselves from despair and what happens when a strong man is robbed of his dreams - a universal story which will strike a chord in everyone of us.

The Duchess Theatre, 3-5 Catherine St, London WC2B 5LA

Sound of Music July 25th -Sep 1st

Rachel Kavanaugh gave up her tenure at the helm of the Birmingham Rep last year; now, she’s flipping her attention to directing a new stage version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Nazis-and-yodelling classic.

It’s the Open Air Theatre’s traditional end of season musical blow out, but, surprisingly, this is the first time a Rodgers and Hammerstein-penned show has graced the Regent’s Park stage. Alongside Kavanaugh will be choreographer Alistair David and Olivier award-winning set and costume designer Peter McKintosh. While the acting talent comes from the Olivier nominees Charlotte Wakefield and Michael Xavier who will play Maria Rainer and Captain Von Trapp.

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, NW1 4NR

The Amen Corner Now- August 14th

As the gospel singing soars, Sister Marga20

ret, uncompromising pastor of her Harlem church, has a congregation already in mutiny against hardnosed leadership. Their resentment soon escalates with the return of her absentee husband, a jazz tromboneplaying sinner, and the wayward conduct of her formerly paragon, musical son. Charges of hypocrisy hang in the air and Margaret’s devout world looks perilously close to falling apart.

Beautifully expressed through the rousing beat of the gospel choir, the community’s sense of love, grief and spiritual survival will be given full voice in the National’s production of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner.

Olivier Theatre. South Bank, London SE1 9PX

Sweet Bird of Youth Now-31 Aug 2013

Kim Cattrall stars alongside acclaimed Broadway actor Seth Numrich in Tennessee Williams’ powerful and poetic play, Sweet Bird of Youth, directed by Olivier Awardwinner Marianne Elliott.

A fading Hollywood legend ravaged by the bitterness of failure and despair. Fleeing the disastrous premiere of her comeback film, Alexandra Del Lago travels incognito as The Princess Kosmonopolis seeking refuge in drink, drugs and the arms of Chance Wayne, an idealistic young dreamer turned gigiolo and hellbent on achieving his own movie stardom. A trip to Chance’s hometown in a bid to win back his childhood sweetheart sees their relationship of convenience unravel The Old Vic. The Cut London SE1 8NB

Macbeth Now- 13th October

When three witches tell Macbeth that he is destined to occupy the throne of Scotland, he and his wife choose to become the instruments of their fate and to kill the first man standing in their path, the virtuous

A tangle of ravaged dreams, broken souls, twisted motives and deceit, The American Plan takes place against a backdrop of the Catskill Mountains during a 1960s summer.

Lili Adler, the beautiful, fragile daughter of a wealthy German-Jewish refugee, meets Nick Lockridge, a handsome young stranger, and finds herself falling in love.

But when her overbearing mother learns of their relationship, she proceeds to poison the young man’s affection and Lili’s one chance to escape her mother’s control looks like being lost forever.

St. James Theatre, 12 Palace Street London SW1E 5JA

The Color Purple Now-September 14th

An unforgettable story of enduring love and triumph over adversity, The Color Purple is a landmark musical from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker.

This stirring family chronicle follows the inspirational Celie, as she journeys from childhood through joy and despair, anguish and hope to discover the power of love and life. With a fresh, joyous score of jazz, ragtime, gospel and blues, this European premiere is directed by John Doyle (Road Show at the Menier Chocolate Factory), adapted for the stage by Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winner Marsha Norman, with music and lyrics by Grammy award winners Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

The Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU

.A Season

in the CongoNow-August 24th

BAFTA Award winning director Joe Wright (Anna Karenina, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) directs Olivier Award winner Chiwetel Ejiofor (BBC2’s Dancing on the Edge, Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, Children of Men, Dirty Pretty Things) in the UK premiere of an epic retelling of a vibrant nation’s turbulent first year of freedom.

Even by the prodigiously visual values of the Young Vic, Wright’s production of French polymath Aimé Césaire’s 1966 sort-of-tragedy ‘A Season in the Congo’ is aesthetically pleasing stuff, a rainbow of song and dance, puppets and people, polyrhythms and sub bass, comedy and tragedy that spins and swirls like a tropical storm as it portrays the last years in the life of Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in vividly impressionistic brushstrokes.

The Young Vic, 66 The Cut SE1 8LZ

Meschac Gaba: Museum of Contemporary African Art Now- September 22nd

Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art is an immersive twelve-room installation, a ‘museum within a museum’, which is currently sprawling through Tate Modern Gaba has claimed that the Museum of Contemporary African Art is ‘not a model… it’s only a question.’ It is temporary and mutable, a conceptual space more than a physical one, a provocation to the Western art establishment not only to attend to contemporary African art, but to question why the boundaries existed in the first place.

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Arts

Ngugi wa Thiong’o Penpoints, Gunpoints, and Dreams Excerpts of an Interview

by Charles Cantalupo

Continued from last week

CC: Are you suggesting that writers and scholars make a deliberate choice of language and that there is no “sitting on the fence” concerning this issue amidst the struggle of African people for greater cultural, political and economic empowerment within a democratic space?

NWT: Yes. After much wavering, I came to this conclusion in my book, Decolonizing the Mind. But in Penpoints ...[and] Gunpoints I take a firmer position. I look at language and a whole history of interpretation over five hundred years. I trace the issue of plantation slavery and how language is used as a way within the plantation of keeping practical communication bound exclusively to itself. Not only are various African languages suppressed as a means of communication among the slaves. Colonial plantations themselves enforce their own language as a means of enclosure, be they English, French or Spanish. They never meet unless through conquest or reconquest. The colonizing power in Africa of Europe similarly keeps people bound to its languages. Yet the struggle of African people in the “New World” also takes the form of creating new languages. These people’s conditions of life also mean a struggle to construct the world in their own terms.

Thus we find Creole languages, patois and

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

much more. Africa should learn from that tremendous struggle to recompose a new world: to create new languages that owe their being to African languages. Colonizing principles are very clear about the role of language. The widespread practice of linguistic engineering would create a vast army of Africans whose interpretations in the languages of their colonizers would reinforce their power over their subjects. ...

NWT: The empowerment of African languages is clearly part of this process. If we look at the period in our history when questions of privatization and profit become the barometer for progress in society instead of class solidarity, what do we find? Consider Yugoslavia now with its ethnic massacres and when there was more emphasis on class solidarity. The moment we come to a

post-cold war de-emphasis of class begins a new period of ethnic fundamentalism. It corresponds to a puritanism of capitalism.

This fundamentalism of finance capital occurs within the same period of all sorts of other fundamentalisms, sometimes even in alliance with it, as in Christian-right fundamentalism; or in opposition to it. How do we fight against this force of fundamentalism, whatever form it takes, which seems to threaten people who often do not understand what is threatening them, as class solidarity has been de-emphasized in recent thinking in favor of national wars, ethnic and religious boundaries or whatever seems to present some kind of assurance and stability more readily known?

Art connects. It says that human beings are connected. Art says, “Look. We are connected. It’s like ecology. Human beings are connected: trees to animals to other human beings.” Art tends to say, “we live in one universe, you know?” Art seems to emphasize spirituality, the spiritual expression of human life.

CC: The role of art is to break through fundamentalisms?

NWT: Yes. To break boundaries and borders that separate.

Save Yahaya!

A Nigerian journalist, Yahaya Taidi, 48 yrs. is being managed for a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease 2nd degree to diabetic neuropathy.

Medical consultants in Abuja, Nigeria, where he is being treated at the Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre say the condition can lead to death if a kidney transplant is not done soon. Yahaya is undergoing a thrice-weekly haemodialysis at a cost of N105,000 weekly (N420,000 monthly) until he finds sufficient funds to undertake the trip to India where he will undergo a transplant operation to save his life. This will cost N7million (£28,000).

Just like the support of the National Judicial Service Commission, the Supreme Court, and other well-meaning Nigerians in

donations, the African Voice lends its voice in appealing to well-meaning individuals and corporate organisations everywhere to donate generously towards the early facilitation of his kidney transplant. He is married to a wife and three children who are indigent on account of managing his illness.

Donations can be made to Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Account No. 4701045358 in the name of Taidi O. Yahaya. Pls include your name and e-mail address/contact no. for acknowledgement purposes.

Please call African Voice Newspapers on 020 7274 3933 or e-mail africanvoicenews@ gmail.com and you will be guided to make your donations. Details of a UK aid account is not yet available as at press time.

21

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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News

Be sure it’s a cough, not cancer – NHS warns

By Peter Olorunnisomo

The Department for Public Health England has started an awareness campaign to educate all and sundry about the damage that lung cancer is increasingly achieving on the citizenry and residents in England.

This strategic initiative was emphasised when African Voice met with Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health, England recently. He stated that that lung cancer’s incursion into an individual’s life is so subtle that one does not feel threatened at by the early symptoms of its presence. This is because these are usually simple ailments that one feels are attributable to domestic context and so could be negated naturally or by a trip to the pharmacist’s.

He expressed concerns as well for people of the ethnic minorities who are likely to show a tendency for negligence of the early warning symptoms, just like others.

These symptoms which he advises should be reported to the GP, if nothing else but to be sure that it is not an indicator of lung cancer, include chiefly persistent cough that lasts beyond three weeks. Others are repeated chest infections, coughing up blood, breathlessness, weight loss for no apparent reason, persistent tiredness and aches or pain in chest/shoulder lasting for some time.

His department’s concern is buttressed by statistics which show that about 24,000 persons are diagnosed with lung cancer in England when it is already late. 15 per cent of these are diagnosed at the earliest stage and so enhancing the possibility of successful treatments. While it is

currently England’s biggest cancer killer, causing around 28,000 deaths each year, people with diagnosis at the ‘earliest stage are five times more likely to survive lung cancer for at least five years than those diagnosed at a late stage.’

Professor Fenton then made a point of stating that lung cancer does not respect any race of people and also that persons of the age of 50 years and above are usually prone to it. He adds that smoking constitutes a major risk factor for lung cancer but statistics indicate that around one in eight people with lung cancer has never smoked. He thus advised that people should mind making others passive smokers particularly children.

While this is part of the policy thrust and action of the NHS Be Clear on cancer campaign, Professor Fenton posits that “More needs to be done to raise awareness of the signs of lung cancer and overcome the fears preventing people presenting early to their doctors so that we can save more lives across all communities.

“Only by increasing awareness of potential symptoms, and encouraging people to visit their doctor sooner rather than later, will we see the number of early diagnoses, and people surviving the disease, start to rise.”

He admits the worry that about 19% of people aged 50 and above admit they have not visited their when they have had persistent coughs doctor in the past. A pre-disposition to this trend by others will rather create victims of cancer than help them to life if they are faced with the symptom.

He further stated that other organisations are enjoined to work with the NHS Department even as Cancer Research, UK

➜

Prof. Kevin Fenton, Director (Health & Wellbeing) PHE

had partnered on this programme in the past. He was keen that as many organisations and agency as could be relevant in

the campaign programme would be contacted or enjoined to co-operate towards the public sensitisation and outreach.

Chima Adichie wins American Literary Prize Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s third novel AMERICANAH has been awarded the 2013 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for fiction.

Chimamanda Adichie

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The Heartland Prize is a literary prize created in 1988 by the Chicago Tribune Newspaper.

According to Elizabeth Taylor, the literary editor of the Chicago Tribune, the prize is awarded yearly in two categories, fiction and non-fiction, to books that are concerned with American issues, causes and concerns.

“We loved AMERICANAH. It’s a powerful, resonant novel and we would be delighted to celebrate it and try to share it with a wider audience,” Taylor wrote.

“I’m very pleased,” Adichie said on

receiving news of the prize. “You never know what will happen when you write a novel. And for me, a Nigerian, to have written this book which is partly about America, and to receive this quintessentially American prize means that I have said something about America as seen through Nigerian eyes that Americans find interesting. I take that as a wonderful compliment. It reminds me of the ability of literature to make us become briefly alive in bodies not our own.”

Past fiction winners of the Heartland Prize include Jonathan France for his novel FREEDOM and Marilyn ne Robinson for her novel GILEAD The prize will be awarded on November 3, 2013 at an audience-attended event hosted in partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival in Chicago.

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Arts

Edinburgh Fringe: The poppy eyed artiste My very first, great stage experience was in the production of the play Kurunmi. It was one of those epic thrillers that was robust with the culture and philosophy of the Yoruba nation - the internecine intrigues and the political philosophy that governed the relationship between the monarchy and the army at that time in history.

Written by Ola Rotimi of blessed memory and directed by Hope Eghagha who at that time was in the throes of his doctorate studies and torn by his love of literature particularly poetry. It was then that I realised what Shakespeare had been telling me through my first love among his works, Macbeth.

I realised how the artiste must enter the different worlds other than his and how he must take away therefrom experiences which he couldn’t afford to pay for with his life.

So were the preparations for Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale. Not only had we taken the play to great lengths to localise it with the distinct flavour that was African but also retain the universality of the characters and themes. That it had very strong contemporary reality was not in doubt but the artistic interpretation was also invaluable to the production.

We were thus to hit the ground running which was becoming quite difficult.

It challenged belief, trust, creativity, ambition, and idiosyncrasies whether valid or not. All put together, the expectations of the group from the contact officials of the fringe was trusted to make the landing in Edinburgh soft.

We soon got rolling but it looked like we were soon going to be rolled over. The dressing room experience was different. I didn’t quite realise that we shared dressing

A scene from The Miller’s Tale: Wahala Dey o! The Miller playing to his bard

room with as many artistes or groups that would fill up each day from about 10am till 11.30pm. The producer of our play had by no means gone to more than great lengths for the esoteric costumes we brought which had to be handled differently and best laid out for next use.

Then there was the technical. Plotting lights had its own advantage(s) and disadvantage(s). You either ‘imported’ your lighting guru and or found one locally by some link or reference. This could be a pot-hole in the production because of the time it could take for your lighting to

burrow through the play from the console.

Need I say understanding the play for optimal realisation and effect could be sacrificed.

Nonetheless, the artiste, fulfilled or not in his/her own performance, found a challenge to be better, regardless, otherwise the whole goal of the pilgrimage to seek creative salvation in the eyes of the audience and perhaps the media, would be defeated.

The artiste got his break somehow though. You had a pass to watch other shows. Perhaps a give-back mechanism.

You got free tea or coffee or a glass of soft

drink to make sure that you are on your toes no matter how fatigued the day’s promotional campaign for your show might make you. You’ve got to move that toe!

Perhaps the feeling almost everyone takes away is from one’s self. That stream of consciousness that starts you on the high and roller-coasts you through the days’ performances and leaves you grilled for done in the summer barbeque of the festivity.

And at the last few hours, ‘counting the scalps’ of your accomplishment and trying to say if you will be back again and in what capacity.

Turning the Games into Gold: £10 billion economic boost from London 2012 The UK economy has seen a £9.9bn trade and investment boost from the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, one year into a four-year programme of activity and events.

The boost comes from businesses securing contract wins, additional sales and new foreign investment in the last year, since UKTI’s British Business Embassy at Lancaster House hosted a Global Investment Conference and a series of 17 business events – the largest such programme ever held in Britain.

Prime Minister David Cameron said:“This £9.9 billion boost to the UK economy is a reminder to the world that, if you want the best, if you want professionalism, if you want jobs done on time and on budget then you should think British.

22

“With companies across the country we are harnessing the Olympic momentum and delivering the lasting business legacy of the Games that will help make Britain a winner in the global race.

“But that’s not where the good news ends.

The games are also delivering a strong social legacy. Last summer, Games Makers changed the way Britain views volunteering. Since then, thousands of people have been inspired to get involved with their local sports clubs. Tonight in the park, Join In will launch a summer of events, which will unleash an army of 500,000 people up and down the country to turn up, take part and Join In.” Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “There is no doubt that the London 2012 Games proved a success story for British business. This has created a multi-billion

pound business springboard to take British expertise to the world, and UKTI is working hard to make the most of this significant opportunity.

“UKTI has embraced the challenge of delivering £11 billion of economic benefit from the Olympics. Reaching £9.9bn in the space of one year is an amazing achievement. I hope that companies of all sizes up and down the country follow suit and use the positive impact generated by the Games to reach out to new markets and grow their businesses.”

In the coming years, UKTI will continue to work to maximise the boost to jobs, trade and investment, strengthening its sector capability with the creation of the Automotive, Offshore Wind and Financial Services Investment Organisations.

Activities including the Graduate Entrepreneur Campaign will help to attract the bright-

est global entrepreneurs to the UK and help UK-based companies to access high value opportunities across the world in sectors such as sustainable cities, urban renewal and sustainable design as well as major sporting events. These include future Olympic and Paralympic Games and World Cups.

Preliminary UK annual investment figures announced in May showed that in the year of the Games, the UK maintained its position as the leading destination in Europe for foreign direct investment.

In London, figures published by the Mayor of London show that major projects secured in the last year such as the investment in Royal Albert Docks and Battersea Power Station have brought £4bn of new investment to the capital, including projects outside the scope of UKTI’s report.

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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News

Ethiopian fleet to keep flying after Heathrow fire Ethiopian Airlines has announced that it intends to continue flying its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, despite last week’s dramatic incident in which one caught fire at London Heathrow Airport.

The event led to major delays in UK air traffic after it caused the runways of Heathrow, the third busiest airport in the world, to be closed for one and a half hours.

Forty-two short-haul flights were cancelled entirely, with most passengers put on alternative flights or carriers to their chosen destinations.

No-one was injured in the fire, which took place while the aircraft was parked.

Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) are currently looking into the cause of the blaze. Initial reports suggest that the conflagration was unrelated to the plane’s batteries, previously the biggest point of concern: earlier this year all 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in

Firefighters at the scene last week

service worldwide were grounded after two incidents involving their batteries caused concerns that they could cause a fire. The planes eventually returned to the skies after

Zimbabwe forces won’t miss out despite early voting chaos

modifications were made.

In a statement this week, Ethiopian Airlines – which took delivery of four Dreamliners in 2011 – said: “we have not ground-

ed any of our aircraft.”

“The incident at Heathrow happened while the plane was on the ground... and was not related to flight safety.”

Other flight operators have similarly affirmed their commitment to the Dreamliner brand. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, who are due to make their newly delivered fleets of the aircraft operational over the next year, have not announced any reversal to their plans.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is marketed as a quiet, fuel-efficient aircraft carrying between 210 and 330 passengers on medium-range routes. It was due to enter passenger service in 2008 but it was not until October 2011 that it saw its first commercial flight, operated by Japan’s All Nippon Airways.

Ethiopian Airlines, which is so far the only African operator to make use of the Dreamliner, were the first to resume commercial flights with the craft after this year’s mass grounding.

Mozambique peace talks receive a guarded welcome

Approximately one million lost their lives during Mazambique’s 16-year civil war

Many commentators believe Robert Mugabe can extend his 33-year leadership one last time

Zimbabwean security personnel unable to cast their ballots during chaotic early polling this week will get another chance to vote on July 31, the country’s elections chief has announced.

Facing anger from police and soldiers who were unable to cast early ballots as planned, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) insisted they “will be able to vote” with the rest of the country in two weeks’ time. The vote will determine whether President Robert Mugabe’s 33year-rule is extended.

Early voting had been organised for police and soldiers slated to be on duty on election day, but thousands were unable to vote by the time the two days of polling closed on Monday evening (July 15). Election chief Rita Makarau apologised and blamed the disruption on problems printing the ballot papers.

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On Tuesday, scores of officers gathered in front of city hall in Harare, hoping in vain to cast their vote. The disorder drew condemnation from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, which hopes to end Mugabe’s grip on power.

“The process is chaotic and disorganised and has exposed ZEC as a body not ready to the task,” MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said Tuesday.

Security forces, which fall under President Robert Mugabe’s control, have in the past been accused of rights abuses, intimidating his political opponents and ballot rigging. Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba on Monday blamed the Movement for Democratic Change for the early voting problems. She claimed the commission failed to print enough ballot papers in time because the final list of candidates was submitted late.

Observers greeted progress in the latest peace negotiations between Mozambique’s government and former rebels with cautious optimism this week after months of renewed violence.

Simmering tensions between rebel groupturned-opposition party Renamo and the Frelimo government erupted into armed clashes in April -- more than two decades after the end of the southern African country’s civil war.

After 11 rounds of talks aimed at resolving the crisis, news finally came on Monday (July 15) that the government and Renamo had reached a partial agreement to change electoral laws -- an announcement that was broadly welcomed.

“This is a positive development. At last there is a basis for a compromise,” said Britain-based analyst Alex Vines, adding that it appeared the government was “serious about providing a face-saving mechanism for Renamo.”

“At last the government and Renamo start to agree!” said independent newspaper O Pais.

Both sides say they have made progress for the first time since talks started last December.

“Everything leads us to believe that conditions have been created for (an agreement) to be signed,” chief government ne-

gotiator Jose Pacheco told state-run Radio Mozambique.

“A good consensus prevails between the two parties on key issues,” said Renamo chief negotiator Saimone Macuiane.

But Renamo says it still wants clarifications before signing a 12-point agreement hammered out during exhaustive talks.

Without far-reaching changes to election laws, the opposition group has vowed to boycott municipal elections set for November as well as presidential polls in 2014.

Support for Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has slipped from 47.7 percent in the 1999 presidential election to 16.4 percent in the last vote, in 2009.

In June, the former rebel group attacked several vehicles, killing two civilians. The army retaliated by attacking a Renamo base, state media reported earlier this month.

Vines said the long-term sustainability of any agreement was doubtful.

“Renamo’s strategy in the past has been to demand concessions and then there is a period of co-existence and then Renamo begins demanding, again, concessions,” he said, adding: “The issue will flare up again in a few years. It is a pattern.”

Some one million people died in Mozambique’s 16-year civil war, which erupted soon after independence from Portugal in 1975.

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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News

UK gov’t to focus Africa HIV spending on prevention among teenage girls The UK government is set to invest £10.7 million in researching how to prevent female adolescents and prisoners - two of southern Africa’s most vulnerable social groups – becoming infected with HIV. The news comes shortly after the government announced that it is currently reviewing its funding for HIV/Aids programmes, which over the past three years has totalled £1 billion. The consultation period for the review is set to end on 21 July.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, international development minister and Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey & Wood Green Lynne Featherstone said that she considered the way funds have thus far been apportioned for HIV/Aids programmes has led to prevention being relatively neglected.

“The argument I have been making is that most of the resources are going to treatment,” said Featherstone, who last week was in Malawi, where 63% of people with HIV are receiving medication against the disease. “But all these things are very expensive. The emphasis has been on treatment,” she emphasised.

“Across the world, we have made huge strides in tackling HIV over the past dec-

ade. Yet new infection rates remain too high, particularly amongst adolescent girls.

It is a sad fact that this vulnerable group is being left behind.

“I want to see zero new infections, zero deaths from HIV/Aids and zero discrimination. This won’t happen unless we prioritise marginalised groups. This means addressing stigma, empowering women and girls, and reducing the violence against them that makes them so vulnerable to the epidemic.”

In Malawi, young women and girls are nearly twice as likely to become infected in Malawi as their male counterparts. Those in prison are also very vulnerable. Across southern Africa, it is thought that as many as 15% of prisoners are HIV positive.

Spending on antiretroviral drugs enormously surpasses spending on prevention in southern Africa, largely because treatment is highly successful and cost-effective since the prices of antiretrovirals dropped under pressure from campaigners and the involvement of generic pharmaceutical companies.

Yet behavioural change campaigns have not shared the same level of success.

The UK government’s HIV/Aids strategy review will look to preventing infection as a way to reduce costs overall: if infections continue to rise, the pharmaceutical

Lynne Featherstone MP says that the government aims to help prevent half a million new HIV infections in women by 2015

bills are logically set to increase also The strategy is intended to contribute to pre-

venting 500,000 new infections among women by the end of next year.

Egypt’s caretaker PM starts to build cabinet

Interim Foreign Minister Nibil Fahmy was Egypt’s ambassador to the US between 1999 and 2008

Hazem El-Beblawi, Egypt’s interim prime minister, has started the process of assembling a cabinet by making appointments to several key ministerial positions.

Nibil Fahmy, formerly Egypt’s ambassador to the US has been given the post of foreign minister, possibly a sign of the importance placed on the $1.3 billion of military aid the US provides.

Other key appointments include liberal economist Ahmed Galal, who has agreed to take on the role of finance minister and senior Judge Mohamed Amin el-Mahdy, who was appointed as justice minister.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei, who led the country’s main opposition group, the National Salvation

Front (NSF), has been sworn in as interim vice president.

According to NSF spokesman Khaled Dawoud, ElBaradei no longer heads the coalition. “He is now a vice president for all Egyptians,” Dawoud said.

The appointments came as the caretaker prime minister held a second day of meetings with candidates for his new armybacked cabinet. It is expected to have around 30 ministries and is likely to be unveiled within the next few days.

The cabinet will replace Egypt’s first democratically elected government under President Mohammed Morsi who was ousted by the military two weeks ago. The military has pledged to hold parliamentary elections in around six months.

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News Think tank accuses UK and US of Ethiopian human rights abuse Western development assistance headed by the UK and US is supporting forced evictions and massive violations of human rights in Ethiopia, says the Oakland Institute, an independent policy think tank based in California.

In two new reports published this week, “Development Aid to Ethiopia: Overlooking Violence, Marginalization, and Political Repression” and “Ignoring Abuse in Ethiopia: DFID and USAID in the Lower Omo Valley,” the think tank outlines how the Ethiopian government’s controversial “villagization” resettlement program to clear vast areas for large-scale land investments is funded largely by international development organizations.

“Development Aid to Ethiopia” proposes direct links between Western development aid – an average $3.5 billion a year, equivalent to 50 to 60% of Ethiopia’s national budget – and industrial projects that violate the human rights of people in the way of their implementation.

The report also argues that indirect support in the form of funding for infrastructure, such as dams for irrigation and electricity for planned plantations, likewise plays a role in repressing local communities by making the projects viable.

The think tank’s “Ignoring Abuse in Ethiopia” goes further, describing routine violence and coercion.

According to the report, the massive resettlement of 260,000 people of many different ethnic groups in the Lower Omo Valley – a UNESCO World Heritage site – has been fraught with controversy and has raised considerable alarm among international human rights groups.

Information around forced evictions, beatings, killings, rapes, imprisonment, intimidation and political coercion, has been shared with the Oakland Institute, and these tactics have been documented by the think tank as tools used in the resettlement process.

The report contains a number of first-person accounts from local people, many of which contradict those found by the reports made by Western development agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which called the allegations of human rights abuses “unsubstantiated.” “[The soldiers] went all over the place, and they took the wives of the Bodi and raped them, raped them, raped them, raped them. Then they came and they raped our wives, here,” said one Mursi man interviewed during the investigation.

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A tourist dancing with the people of Lower Omo

The Lower Omo Valley. a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Construction at the controversial Gbe III dam

Another man interviewed in the report added: “the Ethiopian government is saying they are going to collect us all and put us in a resettlement site in the forest.

We are going to have to stay there. What are the cattle going to eat there? They are our cattle, which we live from. They are our ancestor’s cattle, which we live from. If we stay out there in the forest,

what are they going to eat?”

In a press release, the Oakland Institute said: “It is worrisome that aid agencies rubber stamp development projects that are violating human rights. Worse, they have chosen to ignore the results of their own investigations.”

The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank whose stated aim is

to increase public participation and “promote fair debate” on social, economic, and environmental issues.

As of 2011, the Institute has unveiled a number of land investment deals in Africa that reveal what it calls “a disturbing pattern of a lack of transparency, fairness, and accountability”.

Speaking about the latest reports, Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute said: “Bottom line, our research shows unequivocally that current violent and controversial forced resettlement programs of mostly minority groups in Ethiopia have US and UK aid fingerprints all over them.

“It’s up to the officials involved to swiftly reexamine their role and determine how to better monitor funding if they are indeed not in favor of violence and repression as suitable relocation techniques for the development industry.”

The UK government has denied that aid money is being used to force people from their homes.

“Our assistance has helped millions of people in Ethiopia, a country that has suffered famine and instability over many decades,” read a statement by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

“We condemn all human rights abuses and, where we have evidence, we raise our concerns at the very highest level. To suggest that agencies like DFID should never work on the ground with people whose governments have been accused of human rights abuses would be to deal those people a double blow.”

The Ethiopian government has said it has been relocating people so it can develop the area and provide better services.

Its plan is to create sugar plantations in the Lower Omo Valley area which will be irrigated in part by its Gigel Gibe III hydropower project. The dam, which is set to be the largest in Africa and fourth in the world, has already caused much controversy.

The Ethiopian government says that the project must be completed in order to bring energy and development to the country.

Yet campaigners claim it will jeopardise already scarce water resources, and rob the indigenous communities of their livelihoods. They say the Lower Omo Valley is one of the most ecologically and culturally diverse areas in the world and home to eight different agro-pastoral communities.

In 2010 then-prime minister of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi said of those criticising the project: “They don’t want to see developed Africa; they want us to remain undeveloped and backward to serve their

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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News

Thursday, 18 July 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MADIBA

Against all odds, it has to be said, the family of Nelson Mandela are able to celebrate his 95th birthday with him today (Thursday) as, according to a family spokesperson, he “continues to improve” in hospital in Pretoria.

Weeks since South Africa’s first truly democratically elected president’s condition was considered so grave that many lobbied for any treatment that was keeping him alive to be withdrawn “to end his suffering”, his youngest daughter told reporters that her father is able to communicate and watch television.

Zindziswa ‘Zindzi’ Mandela told Sky News: “I saw him yesterday afternoon with my mother and he was watching TV with his little headphones and gave us a huge smile.” She added that the former president was responding to visitors with his eyes and sometimes his hands.

“You can see he is there in his eyes, the same energy and strength,” Ms Mandela said, adding she hoped he would be out of hospital “soon”.

If true, the news is remarkable in view of the fact that other members of the family claimed Mandela was in a “persistent vegetative state”, a claim refuted at the time by government representatives.

Schoolchildren throughout South Africa started the day by singing “Happy Birthday Madiba”. Jacob Zuma’s government will host a ceremony for the symbolic handing over of Mr Mandela’s new high-tech ID card, which will be received by Zindzi. The event is laden with poignancy in a country where pass books were a fundamental element. Black citizens were forced to carry pass books and limited to certain areas at certain times.

Zindzi, who was just 18 months when her father was sent to Robben Island, said the family was planning a special present for the former president on his 95th birthday.

She said on Wednesday: “Naturally it’s very difficult to come up with an ideal gift… So normally we just do huge, huge picture frames of all the family events and members of the family. We’ve got another huge collage to give him tomorrow.”

However, Ms Mandela said that a “true present” for him would be for the people around the world to each give 67 minutes of service to their communities, to match the 67 years the former leader gave to fighting for civil rights.

South African biker gangs will duly clean streets, volunteers will paint schools and politicians will spend 67 minutes on worthy projects.

Nelson Mandela

Elsewhere world leaders, pop stars and companies also plan to pledge their support for Mr Mandela.

“I will also be giving my 67 minutes to make the world a better place, one small step at a time,” said Sir Richard Branson.

Also in the UK, a giant portrait of Mr Mandela’s face has been etched into the English countryside to celebrate his birthday. Created in the form of a maze set into corn crops, The Quex Park Mandela Maize Maze in Birchington, near Margate, Kent, was the brainchild of Karen Botha and Dawn Tilley who have spent the past five years working on the design.

The maze, which always has an African theme to tie in with the Powell Cotton Museum, is owned by Ms Tilley and the designs are made by her brother Darren.

Ms Tilley, who runs a livery yard, said: “I opened the maze with Karen Botha who is now a director at the museum. She is from Zimbabwe and the Nelson Mandela design was her idea. We like to tie the maze in with the museum’s African theme and have used animal and native designs before. We thought Nelson Mandela was very current.”

A maze in Mandela’s image has been etched into the Kent countryside to commemorate his birthday

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Assifuah: It’s simply unbelievable

Ghana’s Ebenezer Assifuah, second right, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side’s second goal during the Under-20 World Cup 3rd place soccer match between Ghana and Iraq Saturday, July 13 2013 in Turkey. Photo by: The Associated Press.

Ebenezer Assifuah is not a name football fans across the globe are likely to forget in a hurry. The 20year-old grabbed six goals at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013 to finish as top scorer, helping fire Ghana to a third-placed finish and earning him the adidas Golden Boot award.

“I’m very happy that I scored my sixth goal in the match for third place against Iraq today,” a still-disbelieving Assifuah said in an exclusive interview with FIFA. com in the catacombs of Istanbul’s Ali Sami Yen Arena. “It was far from easy to get that many goals over the course of the tournament and I’m very proud of what I achieved.”

The No17 was an integral part of an extraordinary tournament turnaround for the Black Satellites. Even the most diehard fans would have struggled to believe the 2009 champions would reach the latter stages of the competition in the wake of two frustrating opening defeats against Spain and eventual winners France. Ghana’s breakthrough came in the third group game against USA, with Assifuah on target twice in a 4-1 success.

After a nerve-wracking wait, they sealed the last ticket into the knockout stages as the fourth best third-placed team.

Yet the drama did not stop there.

After going behind to Portugal, the West Africans fought back to win 3-2, setting the stage for Assifuah to shine in a nailbiting quarter-final against Chile. Not only did the fleet-footed forward score 30

Ebenezer Assifuah

the equaliser, he also hit the winning goal in additional time at the end of extra time to hand Ghana a 4-3 victory.

A proud test

Understandably, Assifuah has not yet had time to fully process the range of emotions encountered at Turkey 2013: “The tournament itself was fantastic and was a very interesting experience, but there’s no doubt it was a real test for me and the team. If you look back at our games and performances you can see what a challenge it was. That makes me all the prouder to have scored enough goals to win the Golden Boot and to have finished in third place with the team. It’s simply unbelievable.”

Assifuah’s penultimate strike came in the 2-1 semi-final defeat to France, be-

Ebenezer Assifuah

fore he added another in the 3-0 triumph over surprise package Iraq in the match for third place.

That goal edged him ahead of Portugal’s Bruma and Spain’s Jese as the tournament’s sole top scorer. In contrast to his prowling on-field persona, the imposing forward, who plies his trade for Liberty Professionals FC in his homeland, was reserved about whether his exploits would serve as a springboard to a glittering career: “It’s not up to me. With help from above I hope I can go far. That’s what I pray for.”

Given Assifuah’s unusual ritual of hopping onto his right foot as he enters the pitch prior to a game, the interview would not be complete without FIFA. com enquiring about it. “It’s nothing really,” he said, laughing. “I’ve been doing it since I started playing football. It’s a habit I don’t want to drop - it’s brought me a long way hasn’t it? I think it brings me luck.” On the back of his displays over the last few weeks, nobody can argue with that.

Friday, 19 July 2013 – Thursday, 25 July 2013

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Newcastle to off-load Ameobi

More clubs join Osaze chase

West Ham, Sunderland and Fulham have joined other EPL clubs for unsettled West Brom striker Osaze Odemwingie.

Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi celebrates with former team mate

Nigeria striker Shola Ameobi could find himself offloaded by Newcastle United before the start of the new EPL season.

The long-serving striker remains on a list of players who have been made surplus to requirements by new director of football Joe Kinnear.

The Chronicle understands that Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough are possible suitors for Ameobi’s signature this summer.

But while manager Pardew was happy to offer Ameobi a new deal last term, the

striker wanted to consider other options, with regular first-team football on his wish-list as he moves into the latter stages of his career.

It is believed that Ameobi’s departure would shave around £22,000 a week off Newcastle’s weekly wage bill.

And although Championship clubs wouldn’t be able to offer Ameobi that type of wage, they would be able to give him the security of a longer deal.

His current contract expires at the end of the coming season.

United remain in the hunt for two strikers this summer, but Kinnear has made no

Mulumbu impressed by West Brom ambition

secret of the fact that there would be tough decisions to be made on the outgoing front.

And that means that United could bring the curtain down on Ameobi’s 13-year career at St James’ Park.

Indeed, on his arrival Kinnear admitted that he would carry out a thorough review of the “strengths and weaknesses” at United.

The director of football has already sanctioned the exit of utility man James Perch, who signed for Championship side Wigan Athletic. And Newcastle’s quest for a new central defender may also trigger a further departure in Mike Williamson.

Haile highly inspires

Continued from page 32

Youssuf Mulumbu

The DR Congo international has spent four years with West Brom and has been impressed by the continual progress the club has made since he joined from Paris Saint-Germain according to Goal. com.

“I want to play in the best team I can, and I think at the moment West Brom match with that,” he told the club’s official website.

“Every year we just improve, we’ve got some decent players at this club like [James] Morrison, Jonas [Olsson] and

[Chris] Brunt and if you add some great players like Nicolas [Anelka], I’m looking forward to the start of the season.”

West Brom finished eighth under the stewardship of Steve Clarke last season, while local rivals Aston Villa only narrowly avoided relegation, and Mulumbu is eager to retain the bragging rights over their neighbours in the new campaign.

He added: “We’re under pressure because at the moment we’re the best team in the West Midlands, so we need to show it again this year, and I think we’re going to respond on the pitch.”

Haile Gebresilasse (Middle)

“Because of his inspirational talks I’m able to withstand the challenges on the track - he gives me fatherly advice,” said Metu, “He has made me understand that to become a great person in track and field or even in sports in general, you have to train your mind to cope with pressure.”

Haile told the sprinter, “If you cannot handle the pressure then I don’t think you can have the qualities to become a champion. I could tell that he was able to deal with the pressure and that’s why he set so many records. To have him as my mentor is a great thing and will always live in my memory.”

The 31-year-old forward has been looking for a route out of ‘The Hawthorns’ for some time, with a deadline day fiasco in January seeing him fail to secure a switch to Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace are in pole post to land him.

As a proven goal scorer at the highest level, it comes as no surprise to find that numerous clubs are readying an approach for his services.

It is understood that West Ham United, Hull City, Sunderland and Fulham would all welcome Osaze into their ranks - joining Crystal Palace in the chase for his services.

He still has a year left to run on his contract at West Brom, but he is being valued 2.5 million pounds.

He was recently kept away from the firstteam squad training on return for pre-season training fueling more speculations he is closer the exit door at his English club.

FIFA hands over Goal Project IV to Ghana FA

The Ghana Football Association on Monday commissioned its fourth FIFA Goal project the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence in Prampram.

The new project is a learning centre made up of a six classroom block.

The ceremony was attended by Ghana’s Minister of Youth and Sports Honourable Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi and and FIFA Development Officer in Charge of West Africa, Sampon Kablan as well as other executives of the GFA. The FIFA Goal Projects are aimed at bridging the gap between the developed and advanced European countries and the underdeveloped nations in Africa, Asia and South America to bring parity.

In 2011, the GFA signed up for the FIFA Goal IV Project which cost US$ 403,000 for the construction of a football academy which would have learning centres, pitches and offices for administrative personnel.

However, FIFA’s continuous assistance is set on certain criteria – prudent management, good governance and commitment to the realization of the targets.

Ghana’s start to the development of the technical centre at Prampram was built with a US $ 400,000 grant.

The Goal II Project was invested in the House of Football - the headquarters of the Ghana Football Association in Accra.

And the Goal III Project is a multi-purpose dining and conference facility plus kitchen.

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ISSUE 491

Newcastle to offload Ameobi SEE PAGE 31

Ethiopian Runner Dies Pregnant Professional Ethiopian marathon runner Meskerem Legesse, 26, of Westport, US who ran in the 2012 Olympics for Ethiopia, passed away Monday afternoon.

This is according to www.wnem. com.

Hamden emergency crews were able to deliver a baby after she died. She was eating lunch at the Chinese restaurant in the 900 block of Dixwell Avenue when she suddenly collapsed on the floor, friends told Eyewitness News.

Emergency crews performed CPR on Legesse, who was three weeks away from delivering her second child. She was taken Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Legesse died a short time later; however, the baby was delivered by hospital

staff. Legesse’s friends told Eyewitness News she was a professional marathon runner from Ethiopia but had to stop when she developed heart problems.

They said she was so careful with her second pregnancy, she only drank water: “She always tried to eat healthy and she always makes sure her son eats good,” said friend Fatima Sene. “I just don’t know what to say.”

Eyewitness News was told she had not been back to Ethiopia for nine years and was waiting for the birth of her second child so she could finally visit: “She wanted to see her mother, so I want to get her home,” Sene said. “I want to make sure she goes home.”

Friends said Legesse also has a 2-year-old son. Both children are now being cared for by their father.

Meskerem Legesse

Haile highly inspires

By Agency Reporter A CNN report says when Haile Gebresilasse speaks people listen.

The Ethiopian double Olympic gold medalist, who won the 10,000 meter title at four consecutive World Championships between 1993 and 1999, knows talent when he sees it.

series. I’m thinking of a way to develop my name and sports can help me achieve this.

I want to let the whole world know that I exist.”

Metu and Gebrselassie’s paths crossed at the G4S 4Teen Program, which Metu says is “all about helping the young athletes to develop their talent through financial back-ups.”

Continued on page 31

So when Haile labeled Nigerian sprinter Obinna Metu “a bundle of talent who has a very bright future because he is ready to learn,” people began to sit up and take notice.

Most of all Metu himself, who as the fastest sprinter in Nigeria is determined to emulate Haile’s success: “I want people to be hearing my name, I’d love to be famous,” Metu told CNN’s Human to Hero Haile Gebrselassie & Obinna Metu African Voice Newspaper is published by African Voice Communications. Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP. Tel: 020 7274 3933 Registered at the British Library as a newspaper. ISSN 1475-2166.Email: africanvoicenews@googlemail.com