Leadership news

SATURDAY No. 456

Policeman Held For Gunrunning Dies In Cell NEWS, PAGE 69

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Cynthia Osokogu: ‘We Were Planning To Get Married Before Her Death’

PDP Congress: Intrigues, Power Tussle As Govs, Others Go For Broke

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1.11.14

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY

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Chibok Diary DAY 201

@leadershipNGA

Chibok Girls: 200 Days Of Failed Promises, Dashed Hopes > Page 2

Boko haram in new video

No Ceasefire Pact With FG Says abducted girls already married out

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40 killed in Gombe bomb attack

Vehicles in flames at the scene of the Gombe bus terminus bomb explosion, yesterday. photo by Abdullahi Maza

Withdrawal Of Security Detail: Tambuwal Takes Battle To Court

> Page 7

chibok diary 201 DAY

Leadership weeKeNd Saturday, November 1, 2014 CHibok tweets @nigerianblogger #BringBackOurGirls group wins case against ex-Abuja police chief, Mbu @FlorenceOzor 200 days in Captivity!

200 Days of lies!! 200 days of Failure!! All the FG is concerned with is 2015! @RepWilson We will not rest until all of our girls are home. @RepWilson Nigeria: Memories of Chibok Girls Loom As Borno Reopens Schools @EiENigeria 1 Community 1 School 219 girls missing 200 days. We will NOT stop saying #BringBackOurGirls! @equalitynow What kind of Nigeria will the Chibok girls come back to? @comradop 200 days! Faith rekindles our HOPE. #ChibokGirls rescue is our single demand. We don't need to obtain any permission @AishaYesufu Children in school! Those in Borno have not been in school for over a year.

Where is the EQUITY? @EiENigeria Oct 31. Day 200. Lekki, 3rd MB, Maryland - we reminded Nigerians that our girls are still missing! @LAdeleoso Day 200 and we have not forgotten the #ChibokGirls @HEDAgenda The life of one out of the 219 Chibok girls is equal to the live of all #Nigerians. #BringBackOurGirls Now! @Quinoh010 The victory for the #BringBackOurGirls group today is enormous and a landmark for Human Rights COMPILED BY agBO augustInE

Members of #BringBackOurGirls Group in a village square meeting in Abuja recently. PHOTO

BY OYEDELE OMOKAGBO

Chibok Girls: 200 Days Of Failed Promises, Dashed Hopes

By KAreeM HArunA, Maiduguri

When Boko Haram terrorists took away his daughter, Amina, alongside over 200 others into what is today adjudged as one of the world’s longest mass captivity, Mr Jonah Bulama never believed that he would spend a week waiting for his girl to be rescued and reunited with the family.

But over 200 days later, Mr Bulama could only express his shock and increasing disappointment that neither the government of his country, Nigeria, nor the foreign forces could help bring back his daughter and her other abducted classmates.

“It is just happening to us like a dream; everyday we wake up to look at the photograph of Amina and our emotions would soak in the moist of bitterness that we are alive and well but we could not do anything to help our daughters,” said Mr Bulama.

It was exactly on day 195 after the Chibok schoolgirls were abducted that Mr Bulama placed a call to LEADERSHIP Weekend’s reporter and his question was as chilling as ice.

“Is there anything good we expect to hear about our girls?” he asked in a very frail and sober voice.

“We have heard about the ceasefire, we

have been told over the media that our girls would be released a week after the ceasefire was announced but how can we be hopeful when the same people are still attacking and killing people; don’t you think these people are just playing with our emotions?” he asked.

Mr Bulama, just like many parents and relatives of the abducted girls feel the government has abandoned them to their plight and nobody seems to be talking to them.

“It is sad that no one is talking to us about our girls who were taken away, not in our homes, but in the custody of government and yet we are being ignored. Sometimes we feel abandoned because no one is talking to us about our abducted daughter - we only have you people in the media to talk to with the hope that you might have some inkling about what is going on.”

Mr Bulama isn’t the only one in this plight, many other parents are. As a matter of fact, not all the parents have the strength of Bulama in being able to pull through this harrowing experience of trauma and anguish. Many other parents - both fathers and mothers had long died of trauma while several others have become shadows of themselves as they now suffer post-trauma stress dis-

order (PTSD).

According to Dr Danladi, the medical officer of Chibok General Hospital, at least seven of the parents of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls who could not stand the trauma of their daughters’ continuous captivity in the hands of the Boko Haram terrorists have so far died.

“Presently, we can officially say that at least seven of the parents of the girls, mostly the fathers, have died of trauma, while we have over 10 confirmed cases of PTSD and several others who are suffering from trauma-induced hypertension.

“We have tried as much as possible to shield the news about Boko Haram insurgents’ attack from those with serious psychological ailment due to the absence of their daughters so that their conditions that we are managing would not worsen but all to no avail. In fact, one of the women with the worst case of PTSD had severally attempted to commit suicide but we had to prevent her,” said Dr Danladi.

The doctor explained that conditions of more of these parents would continue to deteriorate especially with the worsening spate of attacks and carnage being perpetrated by the Boko Haram terrorists except things improve.

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our stand Saturday, November 1, 2014

NFF: Let This Peace Be Permanent Nigeria barely escaped the sledgehammer of world football governing body, FIFA, as Justice Ambrose Allagoa of the Federal High court sitting in Jos, Plateau State, threw out the suit filed against the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) by the Chris Giwa-led board. With this judgement, the Amaju Pinnick executive becomes the authentic body to run the affairs of the Nigeria soccer house. If the rapprochement had not come on Thursday, Nigeria would have been ostracised from global football until May 29, 2015.

Counsel for the Giwa team, Mr Ardzard Habilla, after the ruling, said his client withdrew the case in the interest of Nigerian football and response to the appeal of wellmeaning Nigerians for an end to the crisis in the Glass House.

We find it pertinent to point out that since July 8 when FIFA suspended Nigeria over the sacked NFF executive committee following a court order in a case instituted

by Ruth Ebiabare Baribote, wife of a former Nigeria Premier League (NPL) chairman, trouble has not only been raining in NFF, it has been pouring. Aminu Maigari had an unfair dose of unpleasant acrimony and his administration became notorious for fraud. FIFA

was quite protective of him, taking exception to his detention for alleged civil offences.

We object to political meddling in the NFF, and stand committed to morality, legality and fairness in ensuring the independence of sports administration in the country. Why two parallel congresses of the NFF were held on August 26 and why crises trailed the September 4 election that returned Amaju Pinnick however remain a mystery to us. While we urge all stakeholders to toe the path of honour, sheathe their swords and follow due process, we condemn the shenanigans of those parading themselves as football administrators, but whose

Ag. Editor Catherine Agbo Deputy Editor Kazeem Akintunde Editorial Board Safiya M. Adamu, Chairman Christian Ochiama, Deputy Chairman Standards Aniebo Nwamu, Director ’Lara Olugbemi, Assistant Director

primary target is to satisfy their lust for power and gain unfettered access to the funds from the game of soccer. We wonder what the warring factions in the leadership of Nigerian football hope to achieve with rancour, disaffection and the disrepute they have put the country in over the last few months. The crises purely boil down to insincerity on the part of some persons. There is no doubt that the crises are fuelled by those who are benefitting from the humongous fraud taking place in NFF and those who would not want the investigations into the maladministration taking place there to see the light of day. Settling this court case, in our opinion, should not be an excuse to cover up the investigation into the arson at the Glass House at the height of the NFF crisis. We urge sports authorities in the country to diplomatically navigate the course towards ensuring a buyin from FIFA and end financial rascality and cheating of players and sponsors of soccer in the country. It would be a fitting tribute if the ‘combatants’ return from court to rededicate themselves to sports development beyond selfish interests.

Founder Sam Nda-Isaiah

Group Managing Director Azubuike Ishiekwene Group Executive Directors Michael Okpere Dr Kazeem Durodoye Divisional Directors Iyobosa Uwugiaren Salisu Alhassan Bichi General Managers Aminu Abubakar Sule Abdulmumin Balogun Zipporah D. Tanko Joy Adekanye

Leadership Holdings

Managing Director Abraham Nda-Isaiah Executive Director Nnamdi Samuel New York Office Mohammed Bello Shehu London Office Dr Bello Salihu Johannesburg Office Abiodun Oguntuase

LEADERSHIP is a national paper symbolically embedded in the nation’s capital.

We shall stand up for good governance. We shall defend the interest of Nigerian people even against their rulers, and we shall raise our pen at all times in defence of what is right. These are the values by which we intend to be assessed.

We shall never, ever for any reason forget the noble reason of our coming into being: For God and country!

4

my secret life

Saturday, November 1, 2014

I Used To Imagine Being A CNN Newscaster – Amina Sine, 29, Fashion Entrepreneur My parents are...Colonel and Maryam Zakari. My mother is late. She was originally from a Muslim family, while my Dad is a Catholic from a very large family. My mother was Fulani and had a lot of siblings; probably about 15 sisters and 10 brothers.

What I learnt from my parents... They taught me how to be liberal; to be a Christian.

My mother taught me courage, belief in myself and the fact that I can achieve whatever I want to achieve as long as I put my mind to it. My dad believes that you should always be grateful and learn to appreciate people.

The household I grew up in... was fun, with a lot of aunties and uncles around. No two weekends were ever the same.

In fact, it always seemed like there was an occasion because of how full the house usually was. There was a lot of cooking and chitchat and people always visited.

As a child, I wanted to...be a designer or a TV personality. I used to imagine being a CNN newscaster or like Abike Dabiri when she was into broadcasting.

My teenage pictures portray...a showstopper, a fun person and I was up-to-date on fashion. I was admirable; a lot of guys admired me. I didn’t really care about what people thought about me. Regardless, I was a very happy person.

You wouldn’t know it but... my friends tend to think I’m a pushover because I usually play the peacemaker. What they don’t know is that I am a tough person. They think I am a nice person, but I am not. I don’t and will not take nonsense from anyone. I am very firm. My friends did not also know that my surname was Suinner.

I really would like to be... more outgoing and less overt.

I am a very interesting person and usually the life of the party. People like to be around me, but I would like to be more secretive.

One special thing about me... is that I am very different from the average person. A lot of times, I am judged by my looks,

Handed The Nigerian Navy has handed over 65,000 litres of crude oil it recovered from suspected pipeline vandals to officials from the Lokoja station of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

Receiving the product, the NNPC Station chief in Lokoja, Mr. Idoko Ameh, thanked the Navy for collaborating in the fight against vandalism, calling for more of such synergy in future.

Visited Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji has visited the Diocesn Bishop of Lagos Diocesse and Dean Emeritus, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, The Most Reverend Dr Ephraim Adebola Ademowo.

The speaker who was accompanied by his wife, Pastor Mayowa, expressed appreciation to the Bishop for his support during the three years of his trial at the High Court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for money laundering.

Amina

but once you get to know me, you will see that I am nothing like what you expected.

One of my weaknesses is... softness. I am very emotional. I let my emotions get to me and it affects me negatively. It is something I would like to change because when you are open to a lot of people, they tend to drag you down.

What gives me joy...I think it is humility. It is hard to be humble when you are the focus. Being a strong, successful and independent woman also gives me joy.

Fashion to me is...the way you do things, assemble them or the way you like them being done.

The way you view fashion, that is your fashion.

I’m not a big reader, but... my favourite books are Joel Osteen’s ‘Breakthrough’ and Danielle Steel books because she makes me cry.

My favourite movies are... those by Tyler Perry and Danielle Steel.

The craziest thing I have done...was to go on a particular ride in a park in England. It

Expressed is a three-second ride. It takes you high up, spins you round and then the ride ends. I swore I would never go on the ride again, ever!

If I had a girl child...I would advise her to be mindful about sharing her thoughts and dreams because you can never really trust people. She should not have too many friends and she must remember that the only friend she has is herself.

When I look in the mirror, I see...a very strong person, a very powerful woman. I love life and want to see it for my-

self. You know it is hard seeing things when you are inside the box. People tell you this and that, but you just don’t see it from where you stand.

My life in five words...happy, strong, daring, understanding and lovable.

Five years from now...I hope to be settled with my kids and husband. I am also working towards owning a very big shopping complex which will have all sorts of stores with everything fashionable in them. I would also like to run a home for the less privileged.

A Life In SHORT Amina Sine is an entrepreneur and chief executive of Grandaughter, a clothing line and Meemylee Events and Productions.

She was born in Kaduna and had her primary and secondary education at Doregos Private Academy, Lagos.

She also studied at Southwark College and Middlessex Academy of Business Management, London.

Interview By Boboye onduku

Photo By Amina Sine

Over 2000 students of the National Open University Nigeria (NOUN), Abuja have expressed dissatisfaction at the inability of the school to hold an organised examination for them.

The students who gathered in groups at the examination centre were stranded following delays being experienced in writing the examination, because the school could not resolve various factors affecting proper examination of students.

Honoured The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria has honoured the immediate past governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi for his contribution to education during his tenure as the chief executive of the state.

Presenting the award, on behalf of his colleagues, the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, His Grace, Archbishop Anthony Obinna, explained that the decision to honour Obi was due to his phenomenal contribution to the advancement of Catholic education in Nigeria.

NEWS 5

Saturday, November 1, 2014

LIVING TO BE 100

One health tip daily Time to Exercise: Any Time!

We all know that exercise can prolong our lives, but many people say they simply don’t have the time. In our busy routines, it may be difficult to find an hour or two every day to go to the gym or take a fitness class. I tell them that there are many opportunities to exercise throughout their day.

My advice: take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Park your car a few blocks away from where you’re going. Cut the lawn with a manual mower. Sweep the floor with a broom instead of a vacuum. Wash dishes by hand rather than using a dishwasher.

Walk to get your newspaper don’t have it delivered to your door. Every bit of physical activity adds up!

Withdrawal Of Security Detail: Tambuwal Takes Battle To Court

By Kunle Olasanmi, Abuja, ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto, Olaolu Oladipo, Lagos and Bayo Oladeji, Abuja

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and his new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday dragged the federal government and six others before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, over the attempt to declare his seat vacant and the withdrawal of his security aides.

In a separate suit filed by the speaker through his lawyer, Dr Tunji Abayomi, he asked the court for a temporary order compelling the inspectorgeneral of police to restore his security detail, pending the hearing and determination of the case.

Tambuwal, in the other suit filed at the registry of the court through Jubrin Okutepa (SAN), wants the court to declare that the attempt to declare his seat as a member and honourable speaker of the House of Representatives vacant, is unlawful and unconstitutional.

Cited as defendants in the suit are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), its national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, inspector-general of police, the Independent National

Tambuwal Electoral Commission (INEC) and the attorney-general of the federation (AGF).

He further wants the court to declare that he remains a member and the speaker of the House of Representatives until the expiration of his current term of office on the June 5 2015.

Tambuwal also wants the court to declare that the withdrawal of his security detail when he has not been removed from office as speaker and member of the House of Representatives is illegal and unconstitutional.

He however prayed for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants ➔ CONTINUES ON PAGE 6

No Ceasefire Pact With FG

By Kareem Haruna, Maiduguri,

By Abdullahi Maza, Gombe and Muazu Elazeh, Katsina

Leader of the Boko Haram Islamist sect, Abubakar Shekau, has in a latest video released yesterday, denied claims of a ceasefire pact with the federal government.

Efforts to get the government’s reaction to the sect’s claim yesterday proved futile as military authorities declined comments on all enquiries that have to do with the ceasefire agreement.

This is just as the sect disowned one Danladi Adamu, said to be the secretary of the sect and has been in talks with the federal government on behalf of the sect.

Recall that the federal government had about a fortnight ago announced that it had reached a ceasefire agreement with the Islamist sect. Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh, who announced the ceasefire deal had also ordered field troops of the Nigerian armed forces to comply immediately.

Despite the ceasefire announcement, the sect had continued it’s attacks on states in the north eastern part of the country as well as abductions.

Shekau, the leader of the sect who has been thrice reportedly killed, speaking in the video, foreclosed the possibility of the abducted Chibok girls being released, saying they had already been married out to his fighters and added that the the war against the Nigerian state continues.

“We don’t know that imposter called Danladi Adamu, we have never mandated him or his like to speak on our behalf because in this war there is no going back.

“The issue of the girls is long forgotten because I have long married them off,” Shekau said.

Meanwhile, members of the #Bringbackourgirls group have expressed concern over the rising spate of insurgency in towns in the North-East zone despite the announcement of the ceasefire agreement by the federal government.

“Let no one pretend that we are not facing the most substantial threat to the integrity and existence of our country. What more extreme manifestations are we waiting for than the evidence of a rampaging group of terrorists carrying out heinous carnage in Mubi in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and Gombe barely two weeks after the Chief of Defence Staff publicly conveyed a stand down order to our troops who were in

Jonathan the front prosecuting the war?” the group said in a statement signed by 14 of its leaders.

40 killed in Gombe bomb attack In what could be described as a mockery of the peace treaty said to have been brokered between the federal government and leaders of the Boko Haram sect, a multiple bomb explosion this morning rocked the terminus of the state-owned transport company, Gombe Line in Gombe, the Gombe state capital.

At least 40 people were killed, while scores sustained various degrees of injuries in the multiple explosions that occurred at about 9.30am. It was also gathered that the blast occurred barely 15 minutes after a military patrol team left the area.

The bus station descended into chaos after the bombs went off, with several being injured in a stampede as people tried to flee the scene, a rescue worker said.

Though it is not clear whether the Boko Haram sect was behind the attack in Gombe, as no one had claimed responsibility as at the time of going to press, the attack bore the traits of attacks carried out by the sect in the past. The extremists have a record of targeting commuters at busy bus terminuses.

They include two in April and May this year on the outskirts of Abuja that killed nearly 100 people. An October 23 attack at a bus station in Bauchi State killed five people, with many again blaming Boko Haram.

Those who witnessed the incident said the bombs were planted by three men who drove into the bus park in one vehicle and then dropped bags packed

with explosives between the buses, which were filling up with passengers.

The suspected bombers, according to an employee of Gombe Line, Lawanti Aliyu, made to escape but were stopped in their tracks by a mob that apprehended them and attempted to lynch them before they were rescued and whisked away by security operatives.

Locals reportedly threw stones at the vehicles carrying security service personnel who rushed to the scene, apparently outraged by the fresh violence in the city, which has been attacked by Boko Haram in the past.

Spokesman of the state police command, Fwaje Atajiri who confirmed the incident, said, “They (the bombers) left the bomb inside one of the vehicles at the park. The blast went off at about 9:30am. Up till now we don’t know the number of people, but it’s a very busy park so many people would have died in such a bomb blast.”

A rescue worker, who requested anonymity, said eight bodies were found dead at the scene and brought to the Gombe Specialist Hospital.

An official of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) who spoke on the grounds of anonymity however put the casualty figure at 30, saying 30 dead bodies were found at the first count.

Another 34 were wounded, according to NEMA spokesman Manzo Ezekiel.

Gombe’s police chief Abdullahi Kudu said three suspects were arrested immediately after the blasts at the Gombe Line Station. The police chief said he believed the suspected attackers had ➔ CONTINUES ON PAGE 6

6 NEWS

Saturday, November 1, 2014

No Ceasefire Pact With FG ➔ FROM PAGE 5

travelled together from Yobe, where the insurgents are thought to be in control of several towns and cities.

Gombe shares borders with the three northeastern states under emergency rule since May 2013, namely Adamawa, Borno and Yobe and yesterday’s attack was just one in a series of attacks on the state this year alone. Early this year, precisely in April, a police station in Gombe metropolis was bombed, killing several people and leaving scores injured.

On June 5 2014, a suspected suicide bomber attacked a police armoured personnel carrier stationed outside a private residence of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo. The incident claimed a total of five lives. Three days later, a female suicide bomber and a soldier died in a blast near Military Quarter Guard, Gombe State.

On July 8 this year, the alertness of police officers helped to avert what would have been a devastating bomb explosion at a secondary school in Gombe State.

Meanwhile, the Gombe State governor, Alh Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo visited the scene of the blast shortly after he arrived from Abuja. He also visited the Gombe State Specialist Hospital and Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, where the victims of the incident were admitted.

The Governor called on the general public to remain calm, as the security operatives were on top of the matter to fish out the perpetrators.

He promised that the government would pay all the medical bills of the victims and said that already, about 26 of them had been discharged, while 15 others were still on admission at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe.

Ceasefire in doubt The federal government’s surprise announcement on October 17 that it had brokered a ceasefire deal with Boko Haram offered a sliver of hope that the brutal five-year uprising could be nearing an end.

The conflict, which Boko Haram says is aimed at creating an Islamic state in the northern

part of the country, has left an estimated 13,000 people dead.

But the violence has continued at a relentless pace and many have questioned the credibility of the so-called Boko Haram envoy reportedly negotiating with the government.

The government maintains that the deal is still intact and has voiced hope that apparent talks in neighbouring Chad will lead to a clear decline in violence.

But critics, who were suspicious of the deal from outset, say Nigeria has again been duped by fraudulent negotiators who have little or no influence over Boko Haram’s core leadership.

Gunmen Attack Katsina Village, Kill 6 Six people were reportedly feared killed and scores of houses burnt to ashes when suspected gunmen yesterday attacked Shinfidda Village in the Jibiya council area in Katsina State.

It was gathered that the gunmen invaded the sleepy community, which lies along the Katsina-Jibya road, at about

12 noon killing, maiming and burning down houses, shops and vehicles.

An eyewitness account said residents of the village scampered for safety when the attackers stormed the village wielding dangerous weapons including sophisticated guns.

Our source said the attackers, whom he claimed were suspected cattle rustlers on a robbery mission, were suspected to be living in the Dunburum Forest, a forest that spans Jibiya in Katsina, Zurmi in Zamfara and Birnin Gwari in Kaduna states.

“They killed many people including innocent children and old people and burnt houses. As I speak to you, I am in the bush where I ran to for safety,” our source said.

Another source told our correspondent that some youths of the village exchanged fire with the attackers, noting that some of the attackers were killed, but the rest ran away with their dead bodies.

Exact details of the number of people killed by the attackers were sketchy as at the time of filing this report, as our source

Badeh said residents needed time to ascertain the number, and the extent of damage caused by the attackers.

It was further gathered that a detachment of security personnel including police, soldiers and men of the security and civil defence corps, was drafted to the area to restore normalcy.

Attempts to get an official response from the spokesman of the Katsina State Police Command, DSP Aminu Sadik Abubakar were fruitless, as he did not respond to a text message and several calls put

Withdrawal of Security Detail: Tambuwal Takes Battle To Court ➔ FROM PAGE 5

from taking any steps to interfere with or infringe on his rights and privileges as the speaker of the House of Representatives and as a member of the House before the expiration of his term.

He also wants the court to give an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from accepting any nomination of candidates or organising a by-election for the purpose of replacing him.

Also, Tambuwal wants an order of mandatory injunction compelling the IGP and the AGF to restore his security detail and all other rights, benefits and privileges appurtenant to members of the House and the office of the honourable speaker.

In a 4- paragraph affidavit deposed to by Tambuwal himself, he averred that “On the 28th day of October 2014, the PDP and its national chairman threatened to forcibly remove me from office as the speaker of the House of Representatives adding that the threat was made public as reported by some national dailies of October 29”.

He further averred that the “House of Representatives and

the deputy speaker on October 30 began to strategise on how to unlawfully remove me from office as speaker of the House of Representatives.

“That I know that on the 30th day of October, 2014, the IG, at the behest of defendants withdrew my security detail thereby exposing me to danger of bodily harm all in their bid to forcibly remove from office,” Tambuwal stated.

The plaintiff also averred that he had become apprehensive that the defendants would use unlawful means to make good their threats if the court did not intervene to stop them.

In a separate suit filed by Dr Tunji Abayomi on behalf of Tambuwal, Abayomi prayed for a temporary order of court directing the return of the security aides of the speaker, pending the determination of the suit.

Abayomi also prayed the court for an order restraining the defendants from interfering with the rights and privileges attached to the office of the speaker, pending the determination of the suit.

The two cases are yet to be assigned to a judge.

Meanwhile, worried by the recent withdrawal of the security aides of the speaker,

IGP Abba a number of groups as well as youths in Sokoto State have continued to criticise the action of the inspector-general of police, Suleiman Abba and the ruling PDP, describing it as a brazen act of impunity.

Addressing newsmen yesterday at the Gyginya Hotel in Sokoto, a group of elders under the aegis of Forum of Elders of the All Progressive Congress in the state, termed the withdrawal of the speaker’s security aides as illegal, despicable and an assault on democracy.

Insisting that the Nigeria

Police and security agencies belong to everybody irrespective of party affiliation, chairman of the APC Elders Forum, Alhaji Arzika Tureta reminded the IGP of the need to be fair to all.

Citing the instances of Ondo State governor, Mr Olusegun Mimiko, who recently defected from the Labour Party (LP) to the PDP without his security aides being withdrawn, Tureta maintained that the speaker’s defection followed factionalisation in the state PDP. “As you are aware, Mimiko

left Labour party to PDP and celebrated it with his security aides and this harsh treatment was not meted to him.

“Let it also be on record that Tambuwal’s defection to the APC was sequel to the judgement of the Federal High Court, Sokoto, in the case of Ibrahim Magaji Gusau and two others versus Lawali Zayyana and 30 others, that there was a division within the PDP in the state,” he said.

Tureta therefore stressed that the court’s judgement justified the speaker’s defection to the APC and urged the IGP to, as a matter of urgency restore his security aides without further delay.

Earlier, the APC Youth Mobilisation Initiative (AYOMI), though its chairman, Alhaji Nura Harande Mahe, had criticised the action of the IGP, saying it was an insult on the morality and conscience of the Nigerian State and which goes to prove that the opposition is not entitled to security in the present democratic setting.

Nura further submitted that the IGP should be reminded that the primary aim of any leadership is the security of the life and property of its ➔ CONTINUES ON PAGE 61

news across the states 7

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Mubi Women Urge Jonathan To Stop Killings The Coalition of Mubi Women in Abuja has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to step up efforts to stop the wanton killing of innocent residents of their hometown, Mubi in Adamawa State by the Boko Haram sect.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the women said that they were constrained to draw the president’s attention to the desperate state of residents of Mubi following the obvious failure of the security operatives deployed to the town.

“We are constrained to draw Mr President’s attention to the fluid security situation in Mubi and neighbouring towns and villages, after the security operatives in the area absconded giving room to Boko Haram elements to overrun the entire area.”

The statement which was signed

by Hajiya Aji Bello on behalf of the coalition decried that citizens, especially women and children, are daily being turned into refugees as the terrorists move from one community to another, mounting their flags and branding all such ‘captured territories’ as extensions of their ‘Caliphate’.

For about two months now, according to the group, Madagali, Michika and all their environs have been under the control of Boko Haram and sadly, the security forces are fully aware of this fact.

By David Aduge-Ani, Abuja

Nomination Forms: It’s Not Yet Uhuru For Jonathan In 2015 - Ardo A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Adamawa State, Dr Umar Ardo has said that the picking of the party’s expression of interest and nomination forms by President Goodluck Jonathan meant very little to his re-election bid in the 2015 presidential poll.

He said as far as there are plethora of court cases challenging his eligibility to contest the said poll still pending in various courts in the country, Jonathan should not think he has crossed the hurdle yet.

In a statement he issued yesterday, Ardo who had always been vocal in challenging the eligibility of the president to seek re-election expressed shock that Jonathan allowed himself to be lured into collecting forms when legal actions against his eligibility to contest were still pending.

The statement made available to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND reads, “I am shocked that in spite of the litany of court cases challenging the eligibility of President Jonathan to contest the 2015 election, the president was still lured into picking the expression of interest and nomination forms.”

By Ejike Ejike, Abuja

States Not Obliged To Obey FOI Act – Court OLUGBENGA SOYELE, Lagos

The enforcement of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act suffered a huge blow yesterday as a Federal High Court in Lagos held that the 36 states of the federation are not under any obligation to obey the law.

Justice Okon Abang who gave this verdict while ruling on a suit filed by Legal Defence and Assistance Project Limited/GTE against six states, held that the FOI Act, being an enactment of the National Assembly, is only binding on the federal government and its agencies.

The judge while stating that states cannot be made to provide any information based on the act, held that the FOI Act was neither a residual law nor was it on the concurrent list of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Justice Abang pointed out that if it was the intention that the FOI Act should be binding on states, the Houses of Assembly of each of the 36 states of the federation should have been carried along in the process of the enactment of the law.

The judge further stressed that the Houses of Assembly of the states of the federation were empowered by the constitution to

make laws for their respective states, and not the other way round.

The applicant had dragged the Attorney General and commissioners of Finance of Lagos, Imo, Rivers, Abia, Akwa Ibom and Delta states before the court over their refusal to provide information requested under the FOI Act. The applicant had written to the states on December 12, 2011, requesting for information on the bond raised by the states in the capital market.

The applicant had requested for details of the amount raised and received by the respective states

from the Nigerian Capital Market through public offer or private placement between 2007 and 2011.

The applicant also requested for details of stockholders including individual or company or public entity that bought or acquire interest in the states’ bond or stock at the capital market of the respective states.

Besides, the applicant also requested for details of how the amounts received in the said capital market bond or stock were disbursed and utilised including date of disbursement and their beneficiaries.

R-L: Former Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly and governorship aspirant, Hon Terhemen Tarzoor and the directorgeneral of his campaign organisation, Hon Sylvester Tachin, when he picked the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) nomination form, recently. Photo by Catherine Agbo

PDP Mounts Pressure On Alamieyeseigha To Drop Senatorial Ambition OSA Okhomina, Yenagoa

Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Central Senatorial District of Bayelsa State have started mounting pressure on the former governor of the state, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha to drop his senatorial ambition.

According to the PDP leaders, though the former governor is qualified, he should abandon the ambition to run based on the decision to zone the Bay-

elsa Central slot to Kolokuma/Opokuma area of the state. They said the Southern Ijaw axis from which the former governor hails has produced a senator for two tenures.

One of the leaders and senatorial aspirant from Kolokuma/Opokuma, Mr Douye Diri, advised former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha to drop his senatorial ambition and play the father figure for the younger ones.

Diri who recently resigned as the

principal secretary to Governor Seriake Dickson, speaking after the submission of the party’s nomination form at the state party secretariat said that out of the three LGs that make up Bayelsa Central, two LGs – Yenagoa and Southern Ijaw had had shots at the Senate for 16 years with the exception of Kolokuma/ Opokuma.

According to him, “for Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, politically speaking, his declaration is actually very wrong.”

Akpabio Should Allow People Decide Their Next Governor – Bassey Bayo Oladeji, Abuja

With the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fixed for November 29, one of those jostling for the party’s ticket to succeed Governor Godswill Akpabio at the Uyo Hill Top Mansion, Obong Bassey Albert, has called on the governor to let people decide his successor.

Speaking at an interaction with journalists in Abuja, Bassey who hails from Uyo Senatorial District said, “I have been mentored by His Excellency, Governor Godswill Akpabio being the commissioner of finance for seven years. I was part of his success story; I was part of the un-

common transformation of Akwa Ibiom State. With due respect, I have what it takes to continue where my governor stops as an insider. I am in the best position to step into his shoes. I have what it takes to take the state to the next level.

My blueprint is ready and it would be unfolded in Uyo next week Thursday.

“As a human being, Governor Akpabio has the right to prefer any of us as his successor, there is nothing wrong with that but my appeal to him as a leader is to let the people of Akwa Ibom decide the next governor. He should let the internal democracy of our great party, PDP, be the method to be used to determine the next governor of the state.”

He recalled the roles he had played as the finance commissioner and said they were enough to help him build on the foundation already laid by the outgoing governor.

“As the commissioner of finance for seven years, I was part of the uncommon transformation in the state. I prepared and supervised the implementation of the budget for seven years. The increase in the internally generated revenue (IGR) from a paltry sum of N350 million monthly to N2 billion originated from my table, to the glory of God. His Excellency discovered me, nurtured me and I have justified the confidence he has in me,” he stressed.

short news El-Rufai Picks Form, Says Rescuing Kaduna Is Inevitable Mission The deputy national secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and governorship aspirant of the party in Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday picked his governorship nomination form.

El-Rufai who arrived the party secretariat in Kaduna in company of his supporters, said rescuing Kaduna state from the state of what he described as ‘low ebb’ is an inevitable mission that must be carried out to the latter.

He said, “we are here with my team to fill our expression of interest and nomination form to contest for the governorship seat of Kaduna State. We are driving because of our state is backward and ready to change it.

We are not contesting to make money for ourselves; we are not contesting for selfishness but contesting to re-build a new brand Kaduna State.

“Our prayer always to God is to give us the opportunity to serve but if it is not so, may God deny us and give to whoever pleases Him for unity, peace, development, justice and progress of our dear state.”

By Midat Joseph, Kaduna

8 news

Saturday, November 1, 2014

FIDA Nigeria Offers Free Legal Services To 1m Women

By Kunle Olasanmi, Abuja

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FederacionInternacional De Abogadas) FIDA Nigeria said it has offered free legal services to over one million women across the country in the 50 years of its existence in Nigeria.

FIDA in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday as part of activities to mark its golden jubilee in Nigeria, said the beneficiaries of the free legal services include women who went to court to enforce their political mandate, adding that in 2014 alone, FIDA Nigeria has provided free legal services to 120 indigent women to access justice, under the Social Development Fund, funded by the French Embassy.

“Also further to the support of Voices for Change (a DFID funded project), FIDA Nigeria is currently deeply committed to legislative advocacy for the passage of the Violence Against Persons Prohi-

bition bill at the National level, Kaduna and Enugu State. Furthermore with the support of the UN Women, FIDA Nigeria has set in motion, a very unique and important project- to provide access to justice for women living with/affected by HIV. FIDA Nigeria is concerned about the fate of these vulnerable members of our society and wants to identify with their problems. In recognition of the role of FIDA Nigeria over the years, in promoting and protecting the rights of women and children in Nigeria, FIDA Nigeria recently got support from Justice for All to strengthen her institutional capacity, so that she can continue her good work,” part of the statement read.

The association said in the statement that to commemorate its 50th anniversary, it commenced a 5-day long programme of activities yesterday with Jumat prayers at the National Mosque

rosemary l, formerly k nown as m o zo b a m r o s e m a ry u k a m a k a now wish to be k nown and addressed as h a r ry r o s e m a ry i s a ac . All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

Abuja and would hold a conference to commemorate this golden jubilee in Abuja, with the theme ‘celebrating 50 years of investing in women and children,’ adding that the conference will take stock of the progress of women and children in the last 50 years and make projections for the years ahead on topical issues in this area.

Other activities lined up for the event include community outreach to Karmo District in partnership with Medical Women Association of Nigeria & Women Optometrists today, to be followed by a thanksgiving service at ECWA Wuse 2, Abuja, on Sunday. Others are an exhibition tagged “FIDA Nigeria through the years”, to be followed by a cultural night, among others.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

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10 news

Saturday, November 1, 2014

EFCC Arraigns IITA DG, 3 Others Over N115m Scam

By Ejike Ejike, Abuja

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned the director-general of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Prof Benjamin Adefemi Ogunbodede and three others on a 17-count charge bordering on conspiracy, misappropriation and diversion of funds to the tune of N115 million.

Ogunbodede and the three other accused persons, Zaccheaus Tejumola, Adenose Clement and Jalekun

Omitowoju were arraigned before Justice Ayo Emmanuel of a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to the EFCC head of media and publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, “Ogunbodede’s ordeal started when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) IITA branch petitioned the EFCC, alleging that the director-general falsely claimed to have used the sum of N115 million to pay hazard allowance to its members in December 2013. They

also alleged that, he claimed to have used the sum of N15 million to harvest crops, when he actually spent N800,000.”

When the charges were read to them, they pleaded not guilty. Count One read, “that you Prof Benjamin Adefemi Ogunbodede, Zaccheaus Tejumola, Adenose Clement, Jalekun Omitowoju Yisau, Afribiz Viables Ventures, Allied Aque-Forte Ventures, Manifield Mercies Ventures, Agbeloba Agrotech Ventures Limited, Torosbury International

Agency Limited, Cradle Engineering Services Limited, Momm Limited, Al-Tora Allied Business, Arieco Trading Ventures, in June, 2011 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court conspired among yourselves to commit an offence to wit: conversion of the sum of N115, 750,000 which was derived from theft and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 No.11 and punishable under section 15(1)(a) of the same Act.”

short news

Borno’s Foremost Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Almiskin Is Dead The death has occurred of Sheikh Abubakar Almiskin, Borno’s foremost Islamic cleric.

Almiskin died yesterday at the age of 115 after a brief Illness.

He was a respected scholar of high esteem known within and around most parts of West Africa.

He is survived by many children and grand children.

One of his eldest sons is Professor Tijjani Almiskin, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Maiduguri and former chief executive of Nigeria Arabic College, Ngala in Borno state.

According to family sources, the remains of the deceased cleric would be buried today (Saturday) in Maiduguri after an Islamic funeral that is to hold by 4pm.

By Kareem Haruna, Maiduguri

Ajimobi Raises The Alarm Over Dwindling Federal Allocation The Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi yesterday raised the alarm over the dwindling and delayed federal allocation to states by the federal government.

The governor said that the state might not be able to pay the October salary to workers and carry out other financial obligations unless the situation is addressed.

While speaking with newsmen shortly after declaring open the 2014 National Council on Development Planning meeting held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan yesterday, the governor said that the allocation to the state had been reduced by almost 40 per cent, adding that the allocations were not being released as at when due owing to what the federal government described as a fall in the price of crude oil.

“The truth be told, the financial position of Oyo State as of now is not so good. But this is not peculiar to Oyo State as other states in the federation are also experiencing serious cash crunch.

“You will recall that at the APC forum held in Kwara State recently, we (governors) raised the alarm over the dwindling federal allocation to states. Even some PDP governors have also cried out over their inability to meet up with their financial obligations,” he said.

By Adebayo Waheed, Ibadan

Akwa Ibom gube hopeful, Larry Esin, acknowledging cheers and support from Akwa ibomites after addressing the people and party EXCOs of the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Zone, in Ikot Ekpene, recently.

Catholic Bishops Seek Partnership With FG On Education

By Igho Oyoyo, Abuja

Catholic Bishops have called for a partnership between the Catholic Church and the federal government to provide good, effective and qualitative education at all levels for Nigerians.

The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Most Rev Ignatus Kaigama, made the call yesterday at the second National Catholic Education Summit in Abuja.

Kaigama said such partnership would bring about grant-in-aids, the rehabilitation, equiping and return of the schools taken over from the church and others as well as the provision of educational infrastructure for educating the children.

According to Kaigama, even if the state had an excellent education sys-

tem, the Church would still run schools to teach and educate young ones, that at the moment, many dioceses are reorganising and strengthening their diocesan education commission and also setting up more schools at the secondary and tertiary levels.

He said, “all these efforts have been realised through local efforts. Government support to these laudable ventures is either very minimal or non-existent. This has not discouraged the church from her resolute attempt according to her limited financial means to provide quality education.

“We are all aware that the provision of quality education is expensive and because there is no government subsidy, in most cases, fees are regrettably charged to meet the demands of providing good education and this unfortunately puts

the cost of good education beyond the reach of many poor people.

“The solution to this is the pragmatic and substantial collaboration between the state and the Church. The cry of the poor people has made the need for this collaboration more urgent. It is hoped that we share with government, the commitment to provide good and effective education at all levels to our children and youth.

“In that regard, we have adopted the general principles and development of human persons in the wisdom, discipline and inspired by divine revelation, to serve humanity and the common good guidelines of Nigeria’s national policy on education while imbibing them with principles that make Catholic education a divine mission, a divine mandate and a humanitarian service.”

Physically Challenged Persons Make Case For Ogene’s Re-election

By Okechukwu OBETA, Awka

The Anambra State headquarters of the All Progressives Grand Alliance was yesterday literally thrown into a sober mood as scores of physically challenged persons accompanied the member representing Ogbaru Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and deputy chairman of the House Committee on

Media and Public Affairs, Hon Victor Afam Ogene to the party office to make case for his re-election.

One of the physically challenged persons, Edeh Favour, told journslists that the federal lawmaker had taken care of members of his group in a manner no political officeholder had done in the area, so they decided to accompany him to mount pressure on his party leadership to give

him nomination for his re-election.

“Hon Victor Ogene is a lover of the poor. He is humble and has taken care of the physically challenged since he went to the House of Representatives more than any other politician in Ogbaru. We want APGA to give him ticket so that he will go back to the House of Representatives,” he stated.

Ogene at the APGA’s office ob-

tained the party’s nomination form to seek re-election to the House of Representatives in next year’s general election.

He pleaded with the APGA leadership to conduct free and fair primaries warning that imposition of candidates would undermine the party’s chances of victory and the deepening of the nation’s democratic culture.

Outstanding MDAs Win Service Delivery Awards A civil society organisation, the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG), has presented service delivery awards to outstanding ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government in its 2013/2014 awards.

Speaking during the award presentation at the weekend in Abuja, the executive director of the group, Dr Chima Amada, said the yearly service delivery award which had its debut in 2011, rewards public institutions and agencies of government for effective service delivery.

Amada said, “our avowed goal of assisting the government and the people in ensuring that effective services are rendered by government institutions especially those that have been mandated on specific statutory functions is through the independent assessment, monitoring and evaluation of the quality of projects embarked upon by the various MDAs and rewarding them for such feats.”

He said that the institutions are assessed along with a public perception indicator where members of the public are allowed to vote under various social platforms, using key indicators such as transparency in conducting government business, accountability, policy and programme implementation, fiscal discipline and prompt response to correspondence, among others.

By Nkechi Isaac, Abuja

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Women and their children begging on the streets of Abuja

Need For Social Security System For Citizens Unlike many countries where citizens who cannot cater for their health, housing and welfare are catered for by the government, Nigerians who find themselves in such precarious situations are often left to their fate. GBENGA ADEBOYE, Abeokuta, ALO ABIOLA, Ado Ekiti and AGBO-PAUL AUGUSTINE, Abuja write on the need for the country to have a social safety net for its teeming population of poor citizens

T

he world of 67-yearold Mama Amina Bukar who hails from Damagum, Yobe State is nothing but a few square meters away from the Mararaba pedestrian bridge in Karu, Nasarawa State. She fiercely contests for space with other compatriots in the extreme poverty line to catch the attention of pedestrians walking on the bridge as she begs for arms.

Clad in what can be better passed for rags and sitting on a carton with a rusty plate in front of her, she waves at every passer-by for a token. Even in that condition, Mama Bukar maintains her faith as she covers her head and shoulder with a piece of shredded cloth to shield her skin from the scorching sun.

She told LEADERSHIP Weekend that she has been homeless for two years now after she was displaced by insurgents’ attacks in her community back in Yobe State.

Mama Bukar survives through the meagre hand outs she gets daily on the bridge that has seen many other beggars as well as traders and pedestrians competing for space. Her story is similar to other extreme poverty-stricken Nigerians who have turned the Mararaba-Aso junction into a sort of pilgrimage zone for survival.

All of them, as well as many other Nigerians are out of the social safety nets of the government across the country.

About a fortnight ago, LEADERSHIP Weekend reported the story of a 36-year-

old woman, Talatu Kaga who has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a form of cancer and requires funds to undergo treatment abroad. Talatu’s case is just one of several such cases.

Hardly any week passes by that there are no reports of such, of citizens battling various lifethreatening ailments, appealing for support from the public to meet their health demands.

They are completely on their own, many die without anyone to care for them while some are trapped in hospitals because of unpaid medical bills, with no idea of what to do.

When LEADERSHIP Weekend recently visited the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada in the Federal Capital Territory, an army of patients were seen trapped in

their hospital beds with several bills to settle. Some cannot afford even the basics of food and clothing, let alone paying bills. A list of already discharged patients was made available showing dozens still in hospital because of their inability to pay medical bills hanging to their names. Some of them have been abandoned by relatives who now see them as disposable burden.

“I don’t know what to do now because I have been discharged and cannot pay my medical bill,” said a discharged patient.

Some of the patients trapped are said to have bills ranging from N47, 000 to about N1 million.

Hospital staff said there is little they can do for the trapped patients in hospital as several CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

Many die without anyone to care for them while some are trapped in hospitals because of unpaid medical bills, with no idea of what to do

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Need For Social Security System For Citizens

Out of school children begging for alms for survival.

➔ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 calls for donation from the public yielded only poor results. The chief medical director, UATH, Dr Alabi Gbenga told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the hospital staff members have been donating from their salaries to assist some of the indigent patients in the hospital.

Social security for Nigerians is a big challenge to the various tiers of government leaving millions at the mercy of their creator.

The concept of social security is based on Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with states that everyone, as a member of a society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realisation through national effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the organisation and resources of each state, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Social security programmes of governments take care of the welfare of its citizens through assistance measures guaranteeing access to sufficient resources for food and shelter and to promote health and well-being for the population at large and potentially vulnerable segments such as children, the elderly, the sick and the unemployed. This is the system in other climes and it has been working.

In Nigeria, healthcare delivery has become the responsibility of both government and nongovernmental organisations.

Despite the involvement of the public agencies at all levels of government, the health needs of Nigerians are still at the mercy of private organisations and individuals that consistently source funds to meet the need.

The introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by the Federal Government years back was to provide affordable

healthcare services for the people but the scheme, from the reality on ground, has failed to achieve the purpose.

Speaking on the development, a sociologist at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Dr Theophilus Lagi said Nigeria has what it takes to lift the over 112 million of its citizens out of the corridor of poverty though the country is neither a capitalist nor communist state.

“We are living in a dog-eat-dog society where a few are wealthy at the instance of the vast majority of the people.

“There is a social dislocation when it comes to access to wealth and this is very clear when you move from Auta Balefi in Nasarawa State to Nyanya in Abuja, FCT, along the Abuja-Keffi highway. A lot of people live at the sympathy of others,” Lagi said.

He noted that the absence of a clear social security system in the country has put the vulnerable members of the society in grave danger. He said, other climes not even as wealthy as Nigeria take good care of their aged people and the young. “We are not supposed to be experiencing such societal abandonment of people in Nigeria.”

Lagi suggested that to address the problem, government must be ready to restructure the current system in the country and to create policy that will fairly distribute the wealth of the nation among the people. He said the problem will get even worse as more people continue to fall into the poverty rank across the country and crimes will be on the rise.

Speaking on the need for a national social security scheme for the country, the commissioner for Health in Ekiti State, Prof Olusola Fasubaa said such initiative would be good for the country if allowed to see the light of day.

He said the NHIS introduced by the federal government few

years ago was designed to provide free health care to children of age 0-5 and to be extended to children of age 12 but noted that the people were not making use of the NHIS which could serve same purpose. He stressed the need for Nigerians to key into the scheme to access qualitative health care delivery.

Prof Fasubaa who pointed out that such national health social security scheme has revolutionised healthcare delivery in developed countries like Britain, USA, Canada and Japan said its introduction would stamp out poverty among the people.

In his contribution, Mr Kolawole Olusuyi said a health social security solely financed by the federal government would guarantee free medical services to the people.

Olusuyi who is a medical doctor said unlike the NHIS where the people contribute certain percentage of their resources with the government contributing 75 per cent, the care will be given at no cost. He said both the rich and the poor could be treated free of charge from the pool of money they have contributed into the NHIS. In Ogun State, like any other places in Nigeria, the issue of effective healthcare delivery is a burden many people bear alone without support through programmes of social security as obtainable in the developed world.

In the words of the public relations officer of the Joint Health Workers Union (JOHESU), FMC, Abeokuta, Otunba Tiamiyu Taiwo, authorities in the country should work on a comprehensive health care system that would cover all Nigerians.

"What we have in the country as far as healthcare is concerned should be improved upon. Ours is an economy that is largely dominated by the informal sector.

Nigerians trade in all manner of goods and because the informal sector is not that regulated, health insurance scheme for instance is strange to the people.

Even the educated Nigerians who have health insurance find it difficult to go for check-ups. That is why you find people coming down with all kinds of ailments that require huge amount of money to treat.

"Government needs to design health care packages like it is the practice in the developed nations though, even there, people still have challenges accessing the facility because it is costly. That is why the signature policy of President Obama is to open up healthcare insurance to over 40 million Americans against all odds. Americans fondly call it Obamacare. I believe our Nigerian government can

do that. President Jonathan can even make it part of his transformation agenda. It’s about making healthcare accessible and affordable to Nigerians,” he said.

Mrs Victoria Olapade, a retired nurse recounted her experience while in active service of how patients with critical health issues suffered.

"There were truly terrible situations. You would see a patient coming down with serious conditions like kidney problem and cancer. I remember the case of a woman with breast cancer.

By the time she was brought, she needed immediate treatment abroad, I think all she needed was about a million naira. To cut the long story short, we lost her. The husband was devastated. If there was a social fund for healthcare, she would not have died. One, she would had accessed the service before her ailment got to that life-threatening level and even at that level, she would still have survived because all that was to save her was surgery,” Olapade recalled.

Also contributing, the chairman of Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Ogun State chapter, Olayinka Folarin, called on the federal government to make healthcare a human right issue.

According to him, the Nigerian government should first have a database of everybody in the country for proper planning, not only in healthcare delivery but across all critical sectors of the country.

"Healthcare is a human right issue. Government should first have a database of all Nigerians to aid in planning. Once we have a comprehensive database, then government will know exactly how much is needed to execute which project. There have been many cases of dying people appealing for financial help, yet billions are lost to corruption every day. The money spent on frivolity can be spent judiciously on healthcare.

"Because of money, people remain with ailments until the situation is hopeless.

Governments at all levels should put in place, not only an effective healthcare system but, an affordable one so that Nigerians will not continue to die avoidable deaths. They talk about dividends of democracy, well only the healthy can enjoy anything. As the saying goes, a healthy nation is a wealthy nation," Folarin said.

With reports recently, credited to the minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi OkonjoIweala that the country will soon launch a social security package for its poor, it is the hope of many poor Nigerians that the announcement is not just an empty promise but becomes a reality.

All she needed was about a million naira. To cut the long story short, we lost her.

The husband was devastated.

Saturday November 1, 2014 ISSUE 94

Men’s Health

Deworming: How Apathy, Negligence Is Killing You

Why Men Die Younger

WOMEN:

Health Beauty Fitness Common Causes Of Burning Sensation In Breasts Ayurvedic Medicine:

BLOOD AND SKIN DISEASES Rumex crispus

14

Saturday, November 1, 2014

KIDS- HEALTH

R’S EDITO

NOTE

V

Managing Children With Special Needs

ery often, we read about diet plans for diabetics or obese people. However, we rarely come across the same for “children with special needs”. Most of these kids suffer from physical or mental disabilities, so their diet needs to be properly monitored. Here are simple and essential dietary tips for these children.

Ebola Success Story: Kudos To Nigeria It was a cheering news on Monday when the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Nigeria ebola free after the deadly disease was ‘imported’ into the country in August by Liberian diplomat Patrick Sawyer.

The successful containment of the deadly ebola virus was made possible by the prompt response of First Consultants hospital in Lagos where the index case was recorded. Just like every other Nigerian, I am particularly happy with the way and manner all hands were put on deck to ensure that this deadly virus was not allowed to spread because only God knows what would have happened considering our population of over 160 million. That would have been another harvest of deaths when the country is still battling to defeat the deadly insurgence that has left us almost helpless.

No wonder the Rui Gama Vaz, WHO director described Nigeria’s containment of Ebola is a ‘spectacular success story’.

One big lesson for all to learn from our success story is that we can achieve whatever we want as a nation by setting aside our differences. I believe that if this gesture is replicated in the fight against the present insurgency bedeviling the country terrorism will soon be a thing of the past.

1. Modify their diet by giving them food that has different textures and tastes. Also, include liquids like soup and semi-solid foods like puddings.

2. The diet should be suitable for the child.

For example, some children have insufficient enzyme activity in their gastrointestinal tracts, resulting in incomplete digestion of the proteins casein and gluten. Casein is found in milk and other dairy products. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and other grains. Children suffering from phenylketonuria need foods with low levels of phenylalanine.

3. Some diets help reduce the symptoms. A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids is important for the maintenance of normal brain function in adults and neural development in infants. Deficiency of DHA is linked to learning problems. DHA is found in salmon. Besides, it is also found in edible algae and green leafy vegetables and is useful in ADD/ADHD.

For epilepsy, a ketogenic diet is useful. With higher ketone levels often leading to improved seizure control. Folate and magnesium ,omega-3 and vitamin C is useful in autism.

4. Environment also plays an important role.

Mentally challenged persons react favourably when they have to eat in an attractive dining environment with a suitable background. The diet, besides being nutritionally adequate should also look appealing and satisfy the palate.

5. Get the child to engage in specialised breathing exercises and relaxation techniques to improve concentration. Yoga is also advisable, as it increases the body’s awareness and strength. But, make sure there is a trainer or someone accompanying them.

6. Malnutrition can worsen physical disabilities. Therefore, nutrition should be assessed and maintained properly. Intakes of healthy foods, like fruits, vegetables and milk can help decrease functional limitations in people with a disability.

7. The rehabilitation, should comprise medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition and psychology, for the proper development of these children.

Source :healthmeup.com

However, as we celebrate the defeat against EVD, there is still need to be vigilant for new cases. The war is not over yet until West Africa is ebola free, especially when we recall that about 9,000 people have been infected with Ebola, while about 4,500 had died mostly in worst- hit sister countries - Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

To the late Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, a heroine that will forever be remembered and others who lost their lives to the deadly ebola disease, I pray that your souls rest in perfect peace.

E-mail: miminaija@yahoo.com 08075300560(text only)

EDITOR: Raliat Ahmed-Yusuf Ag. GM CREATIVE DESIGNS: Chukwudi J. Nwabueze AG. EDITOR: Catherine Agbo

F ucnt s Fa

Fact 1: The average age children begin to use a microwave is seven.

Fact 2: A 3-year old Boy’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

Fact 3: Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.

families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.

Fact 7: The great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.

Fact 8: Childrens kneecaps only start to turn bony at 3 years of age, until that they are made of cartilage.

FOUNDER: Sam Nda-Isaiah

Fact 4: On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

Fact 9: Both boys and girls in 1600s England and New England wore dresses until they were about seven years old.

Chairman: Hajiya Ireti Heebah Kingibe GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR: Azubuike Ishiekwene GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Michael Okpere Dr. Kazeem Durodoye

Fact 5: Watching television can act as a natural painkiller for children.

Fact 6: In ancient Greece, children of wealthy

Fact 10: Children under the age of six are at the greatest risk for crushing or burning injuries of the hand.

1 billion people in the world are chronically hungry. 1 billion people are overweight… Mark Bittman

15

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Deworming: How Apathy, Negligence Is Killing You Deworming is a very common health problem which most people take lightly. Recent research shows that millions of people are infected with parasitic worms. Most experts opine that chronic lack of deworming (worm infestation) can lead to the host’s death. TUNDE OGUNTOLA writes on the need to deworm regularly as it is basically in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation.

D

eworming has attracted the attention of multinational organisation’s, public health officials, development experts, and others concerned with global health, with early studies suggesting positive effects. But, despite global campaign by multinational organization, worm

infestation has remained a public health concern as most people show little concern about worm infestation neglecting it detrimental consequence to the health According to Dr Mustapha Adams, Golgi clinic, Karu, Nasarawa state ‘’ Deworming is a process which helps get rid of worms that enter the human body. It basically combat the health and nutritional impact of helminth infections a group of parasites commonly referred to as worms which include schistosomes and soiltransmitted helminths. ‘’Periodic treatment (deworming) of children together with improvement of water and sanitation, and health education can reduce the transmission of worm infestation. Worm infestation Infections can cause cognitive impairment as well as tissue damage that may require

corrective surgery, he asserted.

A general physician, Dr Abiola Ajala has also advised parents to deworm their children periodically, at least every three months to prevent intestinal worm infestation.

Ajala, a paediatrician with optimal children clinic Surulere, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that children had a higher risk of worm infestations.

She said that worm infestation in children could cause severe malnutrition, poor learning abilities, poor physical development and reduce immunity which leads to children falling ill often. But, regular deworming improved a child’s nutritional status and growth which could otherwise be hindered by worm infestation.’’

According to her worm infestation was

preventable in children if regular and constant personal and environment hygiene habits were maintained. ‘’Worms are mainly contacted through unhygienic personal and environmental sanitary habits and also through contact with contaminated items or food. Parents are encouraged to develop consistent hygiene practices in their children such as regular hand washing, especially before and meals and after using the toilet. more so, It is important for them to also keep fingernails short and clean always because fingernails can secrete dirt,’’ she said.

To reduce the worm burden, WHO recommends periodic drug treatment (deworming) of adult and all schoolage children living in endemic areas and hygiene education, and the provision of adequate sanitation.

Why You Should Drink Lemon Water In The Morning Did You Know That?

Starting your day off with warm lemon water has a ton of health benefits and it’s been an Ayurvedic practice for a long time?

Supports Immune Function Citrus fruits like lemon are high in vitamin C and ascorbic acid. Vitamin C can help fight colds and the ascorbic acid helps iron absorption which also

plays a role in immune function.

Aids in Digestion Not only does the warm water help to stimulate the GI tract, but the lemons are believed to stimulate and purify the liver. It also helps digestive acids with digestion and elimination.

Alkalises the Body If your body is in a chronic pH

imbalance, it’s susceptible to disease.

Even though lemons seem acidic, they are extremely alkalising and a great way to ensure your pH balance is where it should be especially if your diet is heavy in meat, cheese and/or alcohol.

Helps Detox Lemon water is a natural diuretic, which means it helps your body flush

liquid and toxins along with it. The citric acid can also help maximise enzymes which stimulates the liver.

Keeps Skin Beautiful Chronic dehydration can leave skin looking dull, so start your day on the right foot with lemon water. Vitamin C plays a critical role in maintaining healthy skin and the antioxidants can combat aging factors.

16

WOMEN Fitness Beauty Wellness

Saturday, November 1, 2014

How to Increase Sex Drive After Childbirth

Common Causes Of Burning Sensation In Breasts Sex after childbirth becomes a daunting task for women who think they aren’t the perfect lover anymore. One needs to understand that childbirth is a traumatic process and the body needs time to heal, so you may need some time before you can get your sex life back to the way it was, before childbirth.

It is pertinent to note that burning sensation in breasts is bad for you and your wellbeing

B

urning sensation in breasts is referred to as the sensation of pins or needles being pricked to the breasts. It is basically, described as an embarrassing and very tiring situation which causes great discomfort in women.

Acknowledging the fact that allopathic medicine, some natural and herbal remedies can treat burning sensation in the breasts, it is pertinent to note that burning sensation in breasts is bad for you and your wellbeing and here’s is the main causes: Breast or nipple abscess This is one more possible cause of developing a burning sensation in the breast. It occurs when a painful pus or collection forms in the breast tissue or around the nipple, often due to bacteria infection. Sometimes it could be as a result of mastitis (inflammation of the breasts).

Mastitis The symptoms of mastitis are severe pain in the breast with a burning sensation, tenderness, and red swollen lump. This can lead to severity if not treated immediately with medical attention.

Mastitis is a result of ineffective removal of milk from the breast. This results in stasis in an area of breast tissue. This sets up an inflammatory process leading to pain, erythema and pyrexia. If it is not resolved the area becomes infected.

Diabetes High levels of sugar in the blood can be a potential cause for burning sensation in the breasts. This kind of burning sensation is not limited to the breast but spreads in the armpit region as well. Due to diabetes, nerves can stop performing their regular function thus bringing abnormal signals of itching and pain to the breast region. This kind of tingling pain can be cured

by many natural and herbal remedies.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer This is one of the major causes for burning sensation in the breast and also a rare one. The patients can feel a swelling on the affected breast and the reasons is obstructed lymph vessels due to the accumulation of lymph fluid in the breast.

Peripheral Nerve Damage This disorder of neuropathy can happen due to uncontrolled diabetes, or because of harsh medications and chemotherapy. Such occurrence of nerve damage leads to wrong signalling of pain from the brain, thus resulting in burning sensation in the breast for the patients whose nerves are damaged in the breast region. Further damage can be restricted by changing lifestyle, and using some natural remedies.

Paget’s Disease This is also one of the causes for burning sensation in the breast; Paget’s disease is a rare form of cancer in the region surrounding the nipple. The nipple starts flaking and gets extremely dry with a continuous burning and itching feeling; redness is also seen with soreness.

The patient should visit the doctor promptly to get properly diagnosed.

Gestation This cause is applicable for only pregnant women who are feeling such a burning pain after delivery. During pregnancy, different kinds of changes are seen in breasts, further changes are noticed while lactation.

Increased levels of hormones like progesterone and estrogen, constant formation milk producing cells and the milk ducts and the fat layers being created tends to enhance the breast size. Eventually, the breasts get sensitive to touch, leading to burning sensation.

Learn to get comfortable with yourself Remember you just gave birth and your vagina and your body need some time to heal, so stop berating yourself about the weight gain and stretch marks.

Instead, learn to love your body.

Stop being a multi-tasker Your sex life will go for a toss if you are exhausted after a day’s work. Ask for help, you don’t need to be superwoman all of the time.

Spice it up You need to initiate sex; your partner might think you are tired while attending to the baby. So try doing something suggestive, like wearing sexy lingerie or going naked to bed. Indulge in a lot of foreplay as it will increase your sex drive. You basically need to guide your man to what you want.

Exercise By exercising and getting physically fit, women begin to feel comfortable and confident. After childbirth, the weight gain may affect your self-esteem, so take up exercise and do it regularly to get your sex drive back on track.

Sleep vs Sex While new moms will choose sleep after a hectic day, experts suggest that a women should choose sex over sleep. Sex is great for stress relief and it will also calm your nerves, improve your mood and give you a sound night’s sleep.

close up 17

Saturday, November 1, 2014 What has Terry G been up to?

good at playing drums. My parents are pastors at Redeemed Christian Church of God, Peace Assembly Parish.

Music started from church for me and now I have taken it to the street and made a name for myself. I did back-up for FAZE of Plantashun Boyz.

I thank God; I’m here and my gift brought me success.

I have been working. Recently, I opened a factory where water is packaged for sale. We started last month and it has been good. We have some trucks now and we are planning to add more before the year ends. As for the music part, I’m dropping a video soon as it is characteristic of Terry G; I always drop 3 videos a year.

We also just shot a video for one of my artistes.

How can a “Church boy” and the son of pastors do your kind of music?

Music is business-don’t forget that. I was in the choir; though I was stubborn growing up. However, looking back, the Church was not ready for me. I’m not sure I would have lasted if I had ventured into Gospel music. It is a matter of choice. I still pray and I’m a Christian.

Does the water-packaging business come before your music?

Not really. But music won’t put food on the table for me forever. Man must look for means of making money and meeting needs. As they say, Omi o loota (Water has no enemy); so we are making clean water available to the people of Lagos. I have a good management doing all this for me. We have a staff strength of more than 20 and will get more people.

Again, on the music side, I’m currently shooting the video of one of my songs, Gbagbe Osi.

It seems a lot of successful secular artistes got their start from Church, your thoughts?

It is a thing of choice. The music from the Church is mainstream and strictly Gospel; and the Church maybe doesn’t understand our language as young, creative people in search of success. I honour my parents because they gave me the foundation.

You travel a lot, so who manages the day to day running of your company?

I have a good management team and my baby mama and fiancée manages this company for me. Her name is Mimi Omoregbe. I’m at rest that no one will steal my money because she is sound and good in business. Mimi, the mother of my son, is based in London and comes here often.

Your music is now a success story, how did you do it?

People are still doing good music here, but there is no buzz. It is the commercial music, which some people term ‘bad’ music, that is getting us the millions

My brother if I tell you say I know how, na lie I dey lie (laughs). I have been studying the industry and I have learnt to give the people what they want. I started with Rhythm and Blues and went to shoot my video in South Africa. The buzz I got from the song was not satisfactory, so I became frustrated and maybe that frustration led me to do the street music I’m doing nowthe Apako song.

Apako has given you a name and identity on the Nigerian music scene, what inspired it?

Apako is a slang in Benin which means ‘scope’. The song, Make I Nak You Apako is about a guy toasting a babe and scoping her. It means “let me scope you” or “let me yarn you that thing”. It is a slang we use in Benin and in AJ. I had to study the terrain and come out with such a song. If dem no accept my R&B, dem go accept my street music, which bonds with the people.

So what does the future hold for Terry G?

Terry G

Today’s Music Is Evil– Terry G Terry G has been in the music industry for just six years, yet he has created his own brand of street music. Born Gabriel Amanyi, the Apako master has also delved into the water-packaging business and in this chat with SAMUEL ABULUDE, the talented musician from Benue State bares his mind on his brand and how his creativity was borne out of frustration. This is vintage Terry G. Youths are now eager to go into music because of the glamour...

(Cuts in) We are talking millions here. Music is now paying off, unlike decades ago. ...But most of the songs Nigerians gyrate to have lewd lyrics, what’s your take?

You see, today’s music is evil.

We call it commercial music.

This is the music that brings the millions. People are still doing good music here but there is no buzz. It is the commercial music which some people term ‘bad’ music that

is getting us the millions. It is all about the business of music and the glam that accompanies it. I said before that I was doing good music before, but the buzz was not there. So, I researched what the need is and experimented with songs like Make I Nack You Apako and others. It is not easy doing music; recording a song is a piece of creativity and you just do it from your heart and await the feedback from listeners.

How did music come to you?

I learnt music in Church. I am the first child and was very

Only God knows that. Na Him know our tomorrow. I could become a pastor tomorrow. In fact, I want God to call me like Daddy, so that I’ll stop this drinking and smoking and also get money because pastors are rich now. Make God call me, I go leave all this (laughs).

What is your take on the music industry?

It is getting better. I have been here professionally for just six years, but I have been doing music all my life. I see Nigerian musicians making more money, with brands falling over themselves to get them to sign with them.

Any plans for marriage?

I will get married when the time is ripe. I’m enjoying my love life now and things are taking shape.

Any recent embarrassing moment?

Hmmm, well this one na Baba D-One gig, e take happen. I was on stage and was already performing. Behold light went off for about 5 minutes and I couldn’t continue. But my creative self came out and I started a drama; doing an aladura kind of singing- clapping my hands and singing... The crowd became ecstatic and they sang along until power was restored.

18 e-FEATURE

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Victor Olaiya

Osadebe

Flavour

Oliver De Coque

Is Highlife Music Going Extinct In Nigeria?

While the Nigerian music industry has become an industry to be reckoned with globally, Highlife music, which was once the favourite of many music lovers, is fast becoming a thing of the past. Patience Ivie Ihejirika writes.

H

igh life music came into prominence in Nigeria as far back as the 1950s.

The music genre gained popularity among the Igbo people in the southeastern part of the country through the Ghanaian highlife which was enjoyed by many in the country at that time.

E. T. Mensah, a Ghanaian who was the most popular highlife performer of the 1950s, toured the south-east frequently, drawing huge crowds of devoted fans.

Bobby Benson & His Combo was the first Nigerian highlife band to find audiences across the country. Benson was followed by Jim Lawson &

the Mayor's Dance Band, who achieved national fame in the mid-'70s, ending with Lawson's death in 1976.

Other highlife musicians also came to limelight during the period; including Prince Nico Mbarga and his band Rocafil Jazz.

However, after the civil war in the 1960s, highlife's popularity slowly dwindled among the Igbos, overtaken by jùjú and fuji. However, a few performers, such as Victor Olaiya, Stephen Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, Sonny Okosun, Victor Uwaifo, Celestine Ukwu, Oriental Brothers and Orlando Owoh, whose distinctive style fused jùjú and Highlife strived to

sustain the style.

Despite the commendable efforts of these musicians towards sustaining highlife music in the country, the practice and patronage of highlife music is believed not to have remained the same since the late 1960s.

Although highlife is still struggling hard to survive, it has been displaced in popularity.

Frantic efforts made to revive highlife music after the Nigerian civil war were unrewarding since highlife patrons switched commitment to other forms of music such as Juju, fuji and Apala.

All hope is not however lost as some performers like Chris Hanem of the Ozigizaga fame, Lagbaja, Bright Chimezie, Flavour N’abania and many other performers have introduced contemporary modes of Highlife music.

They just go about singing whatever they like in the name of music. I still prefer the old Highlife

However, highlife fans see contemporary musicians as trying to pass off pop music as highlife; this contention highlights the growing generational gap between the ‘old’ and ‘contemporary’ highlife musicians.

It further highlights the fact that the big names in highlife music in Nigeria belong to old generation and many of these big names are no more, including Chief Osita Osadebe, Oliver de Coque, Prince Nico Mbarga, Sam Akpabot, Orlando Owoh, Bobby Benson, Bala Miller, Inyang Henshaw and Cardinal Rex Lawson, Charles Iwuegbue, E.C. Arinze, Inney Uguseh, Celestine Ukwu, Eddy Okonta and many others.

It is against this backdrop of youth exclusion that the idea of generational gap seems to be located. Observers are also of the view that the young musicians may also look at the old generation as living in the past and may want to modify or re-interpret existing musical styles to suit the present day music.

This was actually practiced by the late MC Loph and Flavour N’abania in the remix of Osadebe’s song Osondi Owendii and others by Flavour.

Highlife, though modified, is still performed by these contemporary artistes but the issue remains its acceptance by legend highlife musicians who believe that the contemporary musicians are bastardising the style.

However, many music fans share this view, asserting that the modification of highlife by modern day artistes has greatly shifted the style from what it was known for.

According to Amara Chukwu, a bar operator in Abuja, the highlife of the days of Oliver De Coque or Osiita Osadebe cannot be compared with what obtains today as highlife music.

“Then, when you listen to Highlife music, you will be touched because the music had meaning but today, we listen to music that does not have meaning. They just go about singing whatever they like in the name of music. I still prefer the old Highlife,” he emphasised.

However, Highlife is still very much recognised. It exists and remains popular in different forms across different ethnicities and regions across the country. There is hope for highlife, especially with the recent surge in it’s popularity brought about by songs and videos like the Ada Ada video, for example, which won Flavour the Nigerian Music Video Award (NMVA) for Best High Life Video, among others.

BLITZ 19

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Chetanna Bags Best Indigenous Movie Award At GIAMA

By ANTHONY ADA ABRAHAM, Abuja

One of Nigeria's finest thespians, Chigozie Atuanya, a great talent in Nollywood, didn't just fulfill the wishes of his people as a celebrated son of Igboland by producing his first flick, a big budget blockbuster titled Chetanna, featuring Queen Nwokoye, Ebube Nwagbo, Ebere Okaro, Obi Madubuogwo and Chigozie Atuanya; the movie is first of its kind in Nollywood, promoting the igbo culture and tradition at its best.

Recently, Chetanna premiered in Virginia and Houston and it was a big event that attracted celebs in the US who were present to support their own in the movie industry.

GIAMA held an award ceremony in Houston, Texas, last Saturday to celebrate some

Atuanya

notable Nollywood thespians and movies. Chigozie Atuanya's movie, Chetanna, clinched the Best Indigenous Movie of the Year award, while actress, Rita Dominic grabbed the Best Actress of the Year award for her performance in Iyoro.

Producer and actor, Atuanya, who is presently in the US for the premiere of his movie and also celebrating the arrival of a baby girl delivered by his beautiful

wife, Jennifer, few weeks ago in the US, spoke on his recent award and the movie Chetanna. ''The category was a strong one. I was nervous and hopeful that it would outshine others.

So, when it was announced winner, my heart was filled with immeasurable joy that Chetanna, which is the first igbo movie premiered in USA in the history of filmmaking in Nigeria, has now proven its quality to everyone. Well, It was my first produced work and I feel so glad to be part of this project. It cost us millions of naira to produce the flick and also physical energy to get this result.

"We did the first premiere in the United States and we are considering premiering it in Nigeria next year, all things been equal. But the movie has been released officially into the market," he said.

Immaculate Drops Gogo Baby Video

By SAMUEL ABULUDE, Lagos

Project Fame first runner-up, Immaculate, is back with a bang. The vivacious singer has dropped the video of her debut single titled Gogo baby.

Since she excelled in the wave making reality show, Project Fame, the busty singer has been working hard behind the scenes.

With an undeniable prowess and song delivery, the talented Immaculate was signed under VIVACE Records, owned by

Immaculate

prolific music producer, TY Mix. Now, the video is out and it features veteran actor, Olu Jacobs and wife, Joke Jacobs in a cameo appearance. Young video director, Audru is the unseen hand behind the video.

Immaculate’s record label owner, TY Mix says that the dazzling singer has much to contribute to the music industry and her new offering, Gogo baby proves this- a danceable afropop single designed to connect the alluring songstress to her fans.

When OzzyBosco Met With Ejigbo LCDA Chairman

By SAMUEL ABULUDE, Lagos

When one wonder kid meets with another an illustrious government worker and a change agent then it is worthy of mention. This was the scenario when 7-year-old musician, OzzyBosco and his team paid a courtesy visit to the outgoing chairman of Ejigbo LCDA, Hon. Kehinde Bamigbetan in a colourful and eventful reception held at the LCDA secretariat.

OzzyBosco and his team

OzzyBosco Smile Foundation (OSF) were welcomed by an impressive crowd, which included children from various schools in the LCDA. The LCDA chairman could not hide his excitement, describing OzzyBosco, a TIGO Milk ambassador, as a rare gem and inspiration to children of his generation. Ozzy, alongside his dance crew dazzled all as he belted out his new single, You Reign, featuring Tee Mac and Midnight Crew.

OzzyBosco

Jakuzzi Releases 2 New Singles

By SAMUEL ABULUDE, Lagos

Young singer Jakuzzi has released two new singles titled Hero and Gbabe.

The two songs from his forthcoming album are fantastic songs that his growing fanbase will surely cherish. Both songs were produced by CashSon Boombeat.

According to Jakuzzi, Oluwaseun Paul Olaniyi, Hero is a conscious music about the struggles of a boy from the slums with many aspirations while Gbabe is a mid tempo song that will rock the clubs in the coming weeks.

Jakuzzi debuted professionally with Solidstar's One In A Million Remix in 2009 and ever since, he's

been working with established musicians and producers like Teeblaq, Base1, Cartiair, W4, Jay sleek, Sound Sultan, Yemi Alade, Frank D Nero and Poppito.

His music is a unique fusion of R&B, afro beat and indigenous rap that creates a feel of an established artiste. Jakussi is signed to Brooklyn World Entertainment.

Tiwa Savage

Yemi Alade

Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, Sheyi Shay, Others For ELOY Awards 2014

By SAMUEL ABULUDE, Lagos

The Exquisite Ladies of the Year (ELOY) 2014 Awards has got another corporate firm backing the event. Irish cream liqueur, Baileys has announced its partnership with the organisers, Exquisite Magazine in the area of sponsorship of the 2014 award ceremony.

13 musicians have been nominated for the Best Female Music Artiste award category at the ELOY 2014 Awards which promises to be classy, fun-filled and exquisite as the name implies.

For the Female Music Artiste award category, the nominees are Lola Rae, Seyi Shay, Chidinma, Waje, Mo’Cheddah, Ruby Gyang, Tiwa Savage, Omawunmi, Vicky Kimani, Yemi Alade, Cynthia Morgan, Eva Alordia and Emma Nyra.

Fashion Designer of the Year has 16 nominees and they include Didi Creations' Tina Ndidi Ugo; Okubanjo Ayotunde Omotola of YRC Nig; Ella and Gabby’s Adaobi Mgbudem; Iamisigo’s Bubu Osigo, A – Helen Apreala; Ejiro Amos Tafari of Ejiro Amos Tafari; Ogodor Republic’s Ify Ogodor; House Of Marie’s Joan Ibuzo; House Of Nwocha’s Ugonna Umero; Toyin Lawani of Elegante by Tiannah styling and six others.

Nominees for Make Up Artist of the Year are Joyce Jacobs for Joyce Jacob Beauty, Ngozi Oni for Beauty And The Beholder; Omobolanle Bolaji for Glamosphere; Omontese Akhetaumen of Beautycooks Studio; Bimtan Elufowoju of Faces Of Bodin; Mimi Suleiman of Mimi’s Makeover; Bahijjah S Bawa of Make Up By BeeJay and Bimpe Onakoya of Maybelline New York. Others are Mary Jane for Zaron

Beauty; Elaine Shobanjo for Shomya; Tosin Opaleye of Topal Touch; Tenny Coco Kashaam of Beauty By Coco; Anita Brows Adetoye of Anita Brows Beauty and Theodora Moyo of Doranne Beauty.

ELOY Awards which is in its sixth edition since 2009 is aimed at creating a hub for recognising great women who have grown from their humble beginning to become people other women admire and emulate. It also seeks to celebrate their success while rewarding their outstanding contribution to the society.

Liz Ashdown, head of Spirits, Marketing & Readyto-Drink (RTD) for Diageo Brands Nigeria disclosed this partnership recently saying it’s a great opportunity for Baileys to get involved again this year in view of the success recorded last year.

“Baileys is excited to be a part of this grand event that inspires, celebrates and toasts to the success of every Baileys woman out there. We are delighted to be able to partner with ELOY Awards again this year following the success of last year’s event and over the next few weeks, we will be releasing information on the different activities lined up prior to the awards ceremony in November,” Ashdown said.

Tewa Onasanya, publisher of Exquisite Magazine, organisers of the awards ceremony, informed that the criteria for selecting nominees for each of the 15 different award categories have been announced.

“The criteria for the ELOY Awards focuses on the character of the individual, her ability, achievements and how her work impacts the Nigerian society through direct and indirect leadership, service, commitment, integrity and we look forward to celebrating all nominees and winners,” she added.

20 scoop

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Solomon Nda–Isaiah Entertainment Ricochet

08116759802

nda_is@yahoo.co.uk

Bring Back Nigeria I’m not a member of the BringBackOurGirls movement, but as a well-meaning and patriotic Nigerian, I’m also praying for the release of not only the Chibok girls but also, other abducted Nigerians, all over the country.

There are many things that need to be brought back to life in Nigeria and this is one of the many reasons that informed the topic of this column last week.

I’ve asked often, “How can our nation be better and greater again when we keep on recycling the same old people in government, the same old people that are the architects of all the problems, troubles and sorrows we are facing today? They have been there and everything has been degenerating.

If we keep letting them come back, there will come a time when our lives would be akin to hell on earth.

Let us always pray that day never comes.

First of all let me start with my immediate constituency-the north, and also entertainment; we want entertainment to be brought back to life in northern Nigeria. The best way to describe entertainment in the north is that it is lack lustre.

Most states in the north can compete with other states in the country in whatever way, when it comes to entertainment.

However, since the beginning of the insurgency in some parts of the north and even in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, entertainment activities have waned.

I have either lived in or visited states like Kano, Gombe, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger, Taraba, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Sokoto and Abuja . They used to be fun places to be but today, all entertainment activities in these areas have been crippled. Many people are afraid of going out to have fun because many have tried it and they never came back alive or with complete body parts.

The truth is there is no way we can bring back entertainment without bringing back peace in our dear country. I have spent over 40 years on earth and what we currently experience has never happened; the civil war which was a full blown war lasted for want two years but the insurgency and insecurity we are facing in Nigeria has lasted more than five years!

If we really have good and credible leaders, no crisis, no matter how bad, should last more than six months or a year.

The current situation has lasted longer than necessary and the situation is worsening. May God have mercy on our leaders and

their followers who seem incapable of compassion; rather they are fighting tooth and nail to remain in power.

One thing we need to grasp is that we cannot bring back peace and every other thing I have talked about, if we do not first bring back unity. I grew up seeing Nigerians living as one, irrespective of where they came from but now, the reverse is the case.

Nigerians are divided along ethnic and religious lines and this is crippling our dear nation and has caused serious underdevelopment and many other draw backs which dent the country’s image.

We stand to gain nothing by being divided and we stand to gain a lot when we are truly united.

There are many things that need to be brought back to life. For example, in the past when people graduate from higher institution they got employment immediately.

Now, we have millions of educated Nigerians languishing. Some people who are skilled at a vocation or trade do not have access to loans to establish a business. Sadly, a few Nigerians in government have cornered the available money and resources in our country.

Let them please bring back employment for our youths; let them bring back good schools and good hospitals for our people; let them bring back good and accident-free roads; bring back our natural and human resources and revive every other sector that has been sick, feeble or dead.

Let them erase corruption and bring back God-fearing people to man the affairs and all the sectors of the country. How can they even erase corruption in totality when they are the ones involved? When someone uses billions of dollars to campaign as they are doing now, what do you expect when they get there?

I have been harping on government because we are in a politically-charged period and many politicians are out there deceiving people once again as they always do. At the end of the day, our country remains the same and we still live the same old lives in abject poverty, humiliation, frustration, suffering and dejection.

My peeps, let's think twice and stop recycling all these people. If they cannot do it for us and bring back all that we have lost, then I think one of us must do so; even much better, or what do we think?

This is food of thought for all well-meaning Nigerians. A word is enough for the wise. Have a lovely weekend peeps. Cheerio!

BBA: Will Sheila Survive The Battle Of The Boys?

By SAMUEL ABULUDE, Lagos

The tide in the Big Brother Hotshots house seems to be turning, if Monday night’s nominations are anything to go by. With six of the seven housemates evicted so far being women, there’s just one lady in danger this week – Botswana’s Sheila. The other six nominees are all men: Arthur; Frankie (both Rwandans); Kacey Moore (Ghana); Luis (Namibia); Mr 265 (Malawi) and Macky2 (Zambia).

With the evictions of Alusa and Laveda still sinking in, Big Brother started summoning the housemates to the Diary Room immediately after the live eviction show on Sunday, to make their nominations. At the end, Sheila picked up 10 nominations, with her housemates citing both her attitude and her manipulative nature as reasons. Macky2 was next with nine nominations, followed by Mr 265 and Luis with five and four respec-

Sheila

tively; Kacey Moore and Arthur with three each, two for Permithias and one for Nhlanhla and Samantha.

Monday’s Head of House task was as keenly-contested as ever.

First up, the housemates had to find red balls hidden in the garden, with the semi-finalists going on to race each other on cooler racing cars on the grass for the coveted title. JJ, Samantha and Sipe came tops in the ball search, before JJ

prevailed on the ‘track’ to claim bragging rights this week.

After Big Brother revealed the nomination results to the housemates on Monday evening, JJ was immediately summoned to the Diary Room to give his ‘add’ decision. He seemed to have made his mind up before his session, and named Frankie without hesitation.

Voting opened immediately after that decision, and runs until Sunday morning. The more you vote for your favourite nominated housemate, the better their chances of staying in the house and being named winner.

Sheila is a student from Gaborone in Botswana, currently studying for an AAT Diploma. She entered Big Brother Hotshots because she believes that "it's a platform for people like me who were born for the spotlight. It puts us out there to succeed in our careers – in my case, my music career".

Shuga Gets Top Hero Award

By SOLOMON NDA-ISAIAH, Abuja

The Music Technology Students Association of Nigeria (MUTSAN) of the Polytechnic Ibadan recently honoured Shuga (Akin Tofowomo), the leader of Shuga Band with the Top Hero Award.

The award is in recognition of his efforts "towards the development of classical old school music". The singer, who has led Shuga Band to become inarguably, the most popular musical band in Nigeria, said music is a platform life has given him to enrich lives and the award will spur him to do much more.

Speaking further on his award, Shuga said, “I feel honoured to have been given this award out of countless accomplished musicians; it shows that people appreciate what we do. Life is all about making impact. The most important part of

life is looking back and knowing that you did your best. I am in pursuit of greatness and this award is a challenge to do more and by God’s grace, the best is yet to come.

The singer has performed in over 500 shows, both locally and internationally. He has performed at a lot of high profile events, weddings and has also performed for top dignitaries and several presidents.

He is believed to be one of the best musicians to have come out of this part of the world.

Akin Tofowomo, popularly called Shuga, the son of Late Justice S. A. Tofowomo, has been described by many as friendly, large-hearted and reserved. He has a foundation called the Shuga Limb Foundation which aims to help those who are physically challenged. His foundation is inspired by his polio experience as a child.

Akin Shuga

‘Every physically-challenged person deserves a better shot at life, that’s what our foundation is into," he stated.

His musical influences are King Sunny Ade, Ayinde Bakare, Frank Sinatra and Hubert Ogunde.

O.C Ukeje, Bez Endorse Clean The Beach Campaign

By SAMUEL ABULUDE, Lagos

In keeping with its corporate social responsibility, Kinetic Sports, organisers of the international beach soccer tournament, Copa Lagos, held its annual 'Clean The Beach' day on Saturday 25th October, 2014.

Clean The Beach is designed to encourage public attention to the maintenance of clean and sanitary beaches and pleasant waterfronts, and is one of a series of events leading up to the 2014 edition of Copa Lagos.

The clean-up morning attracted celebrities and sporting legends including Peter Rufai (former Super Eagles goalkeeper), OC Ukeje, Kemi Adetiba, Bez, Temi Dollface, Osas Ighodaro, Bolanle Olakanni and Ono Bel-

Ukeje

lo amongst others.

Officials of lead sponsor 1960BET and long-standing sponsors, First City Monument

Bank (FCMB), Pepsi, Cool FM, Eko Atlantic and venue sponsors Eko Energy Estate under Orlean Invest, joined other beach soccer enthusiasts and members of LAWMA (Lagos State Waste Management Authority) in gathering waterfront garbage and waste materials from the Eko Atlantic City waterfront.

Clean The Beach is a prelude to Copa Lagos, Nigeria's highly entertaining international beach soccer festival, holding this year at the Eko Atlantic City, Victoria Island, in December 2014.

Copa Lagos 2014 will feature FC Barcelona Beach Soccer Team, with three of the biggest Nigerian clubs, including Enyimba FC, scheduled to play in The FC Barcelona Challenge.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Friday 7th Nov., 2014 from 6pm Full programme for the Media runs 7th Nov. – 9th Nov. 2014

22

Saturday, November 1, 2014

IP H S R E D you r LE A e u r e o y h t w e G ver y e r e p es a p News ur mobile phon paper go on yo N Mobile News with MT Service is currently available only to MTN subscribers

EDUCATION POLITICS WORLD NEWS

SPORTS

WEEKLY MONTHLY

Text LDW to 4900 to get daily news for 1 Week Text LDM to 4900 to get daily news for 1 Month

N30 N120

nly be o n a c e c Ser vi y customers enjoyed benable phones.

S o 3888 with MM t g n i t t e Text s get MTN to tings Data Set

23

Saturday, November 1, 2014

REPORT OF THE

TRANSFORMATION

AGENDA

zi go .N Dr joon Ok

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

ea Iw

The Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan has been hailed as successful in several areas like agriculture, power, roads, macro-economic stability, foreign-direct investment inflow, and the health sector, among others. Critics cite poverty, youth unemployment, insecurity and the contracting middle class as evidence that the Transformation Agenda is not working. So who and what do you believe? Welcome to the Situation Report.

la

.A Dr si de iA nm

wu kin na

Dr. O luseg

LEADERSHIP in a bid to provide a true and objective picture of the successes and challenges of the Transformation Agenda is publishing THE REPORT OF THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA as told by the key actors themselves in their own words unedited.

un A gang

Ministries, Paratatals and Agencies who have made impactful contributions to the Transformation Agenda are invited to tell their success stories in the REPORT OF THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA. Private sector companies and contractors who have successfully executed Transformation Agenda projects are also invited to show and tell their success stories in the historic REPORT OF THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA.

a

To participwiathteph:otographs, charts and graphs and call

n’s achievements along 6, Henry Ubimago: 08068640944, tio sa ni ga or e th le pi m co y Simpl 164 or 0809923124 7 Reginald Ibe: 08037880 6, Tosin Allen: 0805211670wspaper 76 52 45 06 07 : in am nj Be ne Adebayo nt Abuja resident a in m o d e th in it Show and tell

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

ISSUE 157 NovEmbEr 1, 2014.

tecHLIFe ForGet SeLFIeS, trY ‘dronIeS’ >43

GreAt UrBAn projectS ABdUL GAnIYU BeLLo

Community oriented businessman

GUY Scott

Africa’s first post-apartheid white leader

The 70-year-old Cambridge-educated economist is a genuinely popular politician who describes himself as ‘a white Zambian but not representing white interests’.

trended

StUFF

LIFeStYLed

IndULGe Ind

Ashton Kutcher accused of cheating on Mila Kunis with a make-up artiste

Annoying things people do in airports

Childbirth trends in China

Halloween costume for over a million dollars

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Know-all

THAT'S inSide THiS iSSue

32

BELIEVE THIS!

sTuff

Violent societies have more left-handed people most likely because lefties tend to have the advantage in fights.

28 TRENDED

31 DEspOTs AND DICTATORs

35 lIfEsTylED

30

29 TOp TEN STarTIng BLockS 27 PROUDLY NIGERIA

• Ganiyu Bello Community oriented businessman

28 TRENDED

• Ashton Kutcher accused of cheating on Mila Kunis with a make-up artiste

29 TOP TEN

• Hollywood's Shortest Marriages

30 WHAT'S UP

• Google boss breaks parachute jump record

STuFF

THE BIg STorY

31 DESPOTS AND DICTATORS • China’s Tzu-Hsi

32 STUff

• Annoying things people do in airports

33 fORBIDDEN kNOWLEDGE • Stage a coup

34 ARTICULATE

• The crystal-shaped Royal Ontario Museum

35 LIfESTYLED

• Childbirth trends in China 36 DOERS • 5 life lessons from Hillary Clinton’s style

37 GREAT URBAN PROJECTS

• Spectacular Brooklyn Bridge • The Paris sewers, underground city • Solomon’s Temple, world's first temple • Ancient Roman aqueducts • The majestic buildings of Venice • Magnificent Eiffel Tower • Ingenous Channel Tunnel • Gigantic Boston’s Big Dig • Famous London Underground

whAT's up?

THE rEguLarS

43 TEChlIfE

44 DREss sENsE BoXED

• Believe this • Fact Box, Do You Remember When? Strictly For JJCs 44 CULTURED! • Shocking Foodfacts • Etiquettewise, Superstitions, • Psychology Ideas, Useless Proverbs, Excusez moi Information, Business 45 DESIRABLES Blunder, Quick Quiz, 46 MINDfUL • Espionage, Discovered • Crossword, WordSearch, • Sounding Clever, Sudoku, Homework, Sounding Great, Spotlights, Bookshelf • Know Why, 47 A LA CARTE • Celeb Info, Teeny • Crazy Tricks, Gentleman's • Fascinating Facts, Words, Laugh-Out-Loud • Keepsakes, 48 BONUS PACk • Just Unbelievable, Fast • Seen & Overhead, English Forward Phrases, Keepsakes

43 TECHLIfE

• Click Click,

Buzzstop The US Navy Seal commando who fired the shots which killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is to reveal his identity in a Fox News television documentary next month, the network announced Wednesday.

A US nurse who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Africa took a bike ride early Thursday despite a state order to stay at home in quarantine.

Pope Francis, thought of by many as ‘too liberal,’ made headlines Tuesday when he declared evolution is real, contradicting the beliefs of many who argue evolution can’t be factual because God created the universe and all living things.

A Moscow court on Thursday ordered the nationalisation of a stake in an oil firm held by a detained oligarch Vladimir

Yevtushenkov, raising concern about signs of a state-orchestrated grab of assets.

Japan’s Crown Princess Masako attended a banquet for visiting Dutch royals on Wednesday in her first such appearance since developing a stress-related illness more than a decade ago.

Michael Jordan is learning how to win without scoring a basket, reports said Tuesday. His Charlotte Hornets are winning and enter the season with high expectations.

Taiwan has banned its senior government officials from higher studies in mainland China, citing ‘national security’ as reasons, reports said Thursday.

NATO said Wednesday it had tracked and intercepted four groups of Russian

warplanes ‘conducting significant military manoeuvres’ in European airspace over the past two days.

The bodies of 150 members of an Iraqi Sunni tribe which fought Islamic State have been found in a mass grave, security officials said on Thursday.

Boko Haram fighters on Wednesday clashed with Nigerian troops in the country’s remote northeast, forcing thousands to flee, after two other attacks that further undermined claims of a ceasefire.

Sweden on Thursday officially recognised the state of Palestine, becoming the first major European country to do so, in a move hailed as “historic” by Palestinians but denounced by Israel.

Content Victoria Usman, Abisola Alawode, Love Adeyemi, Faith Kure DeSIGn/LAYoUt Matthew Akhabue ACTING EDITOR Catherine Agbo

group

FoUnDeR Sam nda-Isaiah GRoUP MAnAGInG DIReCto DIReCtoR Azubuike Ishiekwene GRoUP eXeCUtIVe DIReCtoRS Michael okpere, Dr Kazeem Durodoye FeeDbACK AnD MAILS Cognoscenti is published as an insert in LEADERSHIP Weekend. A number of the articles in this pullout are sourced from diverse sources.

Please do send your feedback and enquiries to cognoscenti@leadership.ng or send us a tweet @LeCognoscenti

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

StartingBlocks Nigeria has the fastest growing internet user rate in Africa. With 53 million of its over 150 million population active users.

afriCanFacts

THE PACESETTING PAGES South Africa has the highest population of Atheists in Africa.

baba Tela

Passionate politician

Proudly Nigeria abdul Ganiyu bello

Community oriented businessman Abdul Ganiyu Bello was a prominent community leader and a self-made business man. Though he was born in Oyo State, his contribution to the infrastructural development of Kano State can never be forgotten.

As a child, Abdul Ganiyu Akanbi Bello showed entrepreneurial talents, waking up at dawn to go to the forest to gather wood which he would then sell before going to school. The second of his mother’s children of three, he was strong as a child, a trait he carried way into his old age. He left Oyo when he was old enough and took the train to Kano, northern Nigeria to begin a life of his own away from familiar faces and voices.

Born on July 10, 1930, Bello had a short stint working with the Nigeria Police under the British rule in Nigeria in 1950 before resigning in 1958 to start his first hotel, Criss Cross Hotel which was built along Church Road in Kano in 1971. He also dealt in petroleum products and established the popular Criss Cross Petroleum Station in Kano and because of his business in fuel supply, he was made vicechairman of Independent Petroleum Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in 1990, a position he held until 2000.

Bello was a man who believed that a man’s religion could go a long way in determining his character, and so contributed to many Islamic causes including the construction of two Jumat Mosques built in Sabon Gari (non-native's settler area).

The first Mosque was built around 1982 at No man’s Land, Kano and it was commissioned by the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero. In early 2000, be built the second mosque called Ahammadiya Mosque along Emir Road for the Ahammadiya Muslims. He was also well known

Bello

for his generous donations in millions of naira to charity causes including the communities, Mosque and the Rotary International where he was a Paul Harris Fellow.

To relax, Bello loved sports and was particularly fond of Golf. He however contributed to many sports projects including sponsoring the Black Scorpion Football Club in the 1970s. He also exercised regularly using a stationary bike. Bello was

an advocate of unity in Kano. He encouraged the government to foster unity between the different tribes in Kano State. Furthermore, he asked the government to create an environment which would encourage Nigerians to stop tribalism and love each other. The true Nigerian held many chieftaincy titles such as Aare Egbe Omo Balogun Maiyegun of Ibadan land, Babasaiye of Owu, Abeokuta of Ogun State and Aare Bashorun Timi Agbale of Ede in Osun State. He was also given an honorary doctorate degree in business administration of Kenton University. He once received a Yoruba Ambassador's award for the north from the Central Council of Ibadan indigenes (CCII). In January 2006, Bello was the acting Oba of Yoruba Community in Kano State for 60 days. Speaking on his experience and on lessons learnt as the Oba Yoruba of Kano, he said, "like I told you, I had experiences in traditional leadership before. When I started acting on behalf of the Oba, I followed laid down procedures. There were issues I handled myself while others that already had the channels through which they could be disposed, I sent them to the relevant authorities.

You know the Yoruba traditional institution has its mechanism and laid down procedures, so it is the same and it is through the same organs that matters of importance and of concern to us as a people were settled". Bello was murdered a month to his 84th birthday on June 5, 2014 by unknown assailants in Kano.

STriCTly for JJCs What to do if you are contacted by scammers If you suspect that you have been contacted by a scammer, and have inadvertently given out your real details, then the best course of action is to send the scammer a polite email back basically telling them that after taking advice, you no longer wish to have any further dealing with them. Do not accuse them of being scammers, or give them any abuse. Let them know that you will be ignoring any future emails from them. It is important from then on to do exactly that - ignore their emails. Save yourself from any

further worry by just immediately deleting any of their messages to you. For your peace of mind don't even read them. The scammers will quickly get the message and move on. They cannot afford to waste time on people that they think won't pay up.

If you have given the scammer personal identification, such as a scan of your passport, or your banking details, then to cover yourself you would be advised to alert your local law enforcement. Get some kind of proof you have contacted them for

future reference. Scammers will often use the IDs of real victims in order to fool future victims that they are you for instance. It isn't unheard of that a real victim who has handed over a scan of their passport gets a call from the law a year or two down the line, to ask some embarrassing questions about why you have been trying to scam some little old lady in another country! It is a common fallacy that scammers ask for victims banking details in order that they can drain a victims accounts. This is not the case 99% of the time.

Baba Tela was born on December 19, 1959 in Azare, Bauchi Nigeria.

He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1982.

He has also attended various courses and seminars on Banking; Finance and Administration both in Nigeria and abroad. He commenced his working career as Financial Analyst with Masenterp Nigeria Ltd, in late 1983, and worked in various capacities and organisations until he became Special Assistant to the President on economy in 2001, a position he held until his election as Senator in 2002. . At the Senate, he served on several committees, including water resources, cooperation and integration in Africa and NEPAD. Respected for his business acumen, he also is the former Chairman of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA. He is a Non-Executive independent director of Zenith Bank plc. He is the chairman of the finance and general purpose committee of the Bank; Member of Board, credit committee of the Bank and member, Board of Directors Zenith Bank Gambia.

He was a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 2002 and 2003, and was further reelected for a second tenure from 2003 to 2007. At the Senate, he was the chairman Senate committee on communications, served on several other committees, including water resources; Cooperation and Integration in Africa and NEPAD and committee on special duties.

He also served as a Member of the Governing Council of the Federal University of Technology, Minna and Director, Coates Brothers (W.A.) Limited, among others.

Senator Baba Tela was also the former governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which merged to form the APC, in Bauchi State. He contested the election against the current Bauchi State Governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda. He has since returned to the PDP.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

StartingBlocks

2,000,000

22,000,000 Number of people worldwide at risk of contracting the Ebola virus.

Number of tourists that visit Turin, Italy every year.

The BuzzworThy sTuff oNLINe

Trended Ashton Kutcher accused of cheating on Mila Kunis with a make-up artiste They’ve just welcomed their first baby together but a new report claims Ashton Kutcher shared an ‘intimate embrace’ with a young blonde in the early days of his romance with Mila Kunis. The 36-year-old actor was first romantically linked to Mila, 31, in April 2012 but they only went public in July and make-up artiste Linn Massinger alleges she went back to Ashton’s Hollywood home that June after meeting him in a bar. Linn, then 21, told The Sun that after chatting for some time back at his place, ‘He just took my hand and took me upstairs,’ before they shared their ‘intimate embrace’. She provided the paper with pictures.

Jim Carrey's greatest insults from Tommy Lee Jones Tommy Lee Jones has fashioned an amazing career out of playing gruff, angry man and now there’s a new tale to add to the Oscar winner’s legend: His dismissal of his Batman Forever co-star Jim Carrey. As Carrey told Howard Stern recently, Jones had a grudge against his co-star before they even made it to set, because Carrey’s first Dumb and Dumber film had blown Jones’ passion project Cobb, a Ty Cobb biopic, out of the water at the box office. “I was really looking forward to working with Tommy so I went up to say hi and the blood drained from his face, in such a way that I realised that I had become the face of his pain or something,” Carrey remembered. “He got up, kind of shaking and hugged me and said ‘I hate you. I really don’t like you.’ And I was like ‘Wow, okay.

Funny web Tunnel vision: Indian bank heist sees culprits go underground

In an incident that seems to be inspired by the Bollywood blockbuster movie series Dhoom, burglars dug a tunnel measuring at least 30m long into the vault of a state-run bank in northern India, leaving local authorities, bank employees and account holders stunned. The daring theft was discovered when the bank, which is located in the Sonipat district of Haryana state, opened, Police Superintendent (SP) Arun Nehra told CNN. The burglary was meticulously planned and executed, with the tunnel dug from an unoccupied, nearby house extending to the bank and breaking the concrete floor of the vault.

Busted: Woman sprays chemist staff with breast milk in bizarre distraction theft Police in Germany are hunting a busty female who stole from a chemist - by spraying staff with her breast milk.

Police say the lactating bandit squirted the milk at employees to distract them so she could steal cash from the till. The woman, dubbed ‘The Milk Sprayer’ by police, had bought a 20 euro vacuum pump from the drugstore in the city of Darmstadt and paid for it with a 200 euro note. As the cashier gave her 180 euros in change the woman ripped open her blouse, pulled out her right breast and ‘sent a stream of milk into the face of the employee,’ according to police spokesman Ferdinand Derigs. ‘She then moved on to the second cashier and sent an eyeful in her direction too.

‘The staff and customers were frozen to pillars of salt, so unused as they were to this extraordinary act.’

Viral

Video of pre-wedding photo shoot ending in argument goes viral In a video that has been viewed more than 160,000 times, the groom is seen to have abandoned his fiancée after she showed up to their pre-wedding photo shoot wearing makeup that made her look like an elderly woman. Things quickly turned sour when the would-be-bride arrived on Dongmen Old Street in Shenzhen wearing an ‘old face’. A heated argument between the couple ensued, to the bewilderment of onlookers. The girl then asked her boyfriend if he would love her at 70-years-old.

If so, she said, then he would not mind taking the photos with her dressed accordingly, Shanghaiist reports. Witnesses say the groom demanded his girlfriend remove the makeup. When she refused, he yelled abuses, hurling his glasses onto the

ground before leaving the woman crying inconsolably in the street.

The woman deliberately applied the makeup to see whether her boyfriend would still be devoted to her when she grew old, she said. ‘He is such a philanderer and he used to have many girlfriends,’ she said.

Woman ‘catcalled’ 108 times as she walks around New York In what turned out to be an experiment for a non-profit group against street harassment, Hollaback!, one woman was catcalled 108 times as she walked through the streets of New York City over a 10-hour period. The catcalls (verbal harassment) ranged from phrases such as ‘hey beautiful,’ ‘hey baby’ and ‘smile’. The woman, Shoshana Roberts was wearing black jeans and a t-shirt as she walked through the streets while a male Hollaback! member was secretly videoing her throughout. She walked silently with two microphones in her hand.

The video showed Roberts received endless harassment from men on the streets, including one man who even walked alongside her for four straight minutes. Another man was infuriated by Roberts’ silence, and yelled out to her: “Somebody’s acknowledging you for being beautiful, you should say thank you more.” Roberts also received ‘countless winks and whistles’ which were not included in the count of 108. Hollaback! has since tweeted that Roberts has received rape threats on YouTube comments after the clip went viral on Tuesday.

STrange

The curious case of a boy who hasn’t felt hungry or thirsty in over a year 12-year-old Landon Jones, from Waterloo, Iowa, hasn’t felt hungry or thirsty since October 14, 2013. He went to bed on a full stomach of pizza and ice cream the night before, and when he woke up, he had simply lost all sensation of hunger and thirst. Instead, the once energetic kid has been sick and suffered dizziness ever since.

A year later, Landon’s parents are still baffled by his condition; they have no idea what is wrong with him or how to help him. “Landon always laughed, he was always very energetic, always wanting to ride his bike, wanting to go to the park,” said Mr Jones his

dad. “Then on October 14 of last year, he woke up and it stopped.

He lost all sensation of hunger; he lost all sensation of thirst.” Experts have speculated that the boy might be suffering from a malfunctioning hypothalamus the portion of the brain responsible for regulating hunger, thirst, body temperature, blood pressure and sleep cycles, but there isn’t any conclusive evidence to suggest this.

“They could do blood work, they could do all these tests, and those are all going to come back normal. But they cannot do a test for the hypothalamus,” Mr Jones explained.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

StartingBlocks In Greece, a driver's license can be taken away by law if the driver is deemed either 'unbathed' or 'poorly dressed.'

DUmBLaWs

10

It is ilegal to make coffins out of anything but nutshells or wood in Italy.

OF EVERYTHING THAT'S WORTH ITS SALT

HoLLYwooD'S SHoRTeST MARRiAgeS

Givens

Spears and Alexander

S/n Hollywood stars

Length

1

Zsa Zsa Gabor and Felipe DeAlba

1 day

2

Robin Givens and Syetozar Marinkovic

6 days

3 4

Britney Spears and Jason Alexander Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra

2 days 6 days

5

Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds

14 days

6

Mario Lopez and Ali Lanry

14 days

7

Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas

42 days

8

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humpheries

72 days

9

Colin Farrell and Amelia Warner

120 days

10

Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson

120 days

Rodman and Electra

Gabor and DeAlba

YouTube'S biggeST eARneRS, 2014

PewDiePie

BluCollection

DisneyCollectorBR

S/n name of YouTuber

Yearly income

Total views

1

PewDiePie

$8.47m

3.69 billion

2

BluCollection

$6.38m

1.38 billion

3

DisneyCollectorBR

$5.06m

1.51 billion

4 5

Smosh SkyDoesMinecraft

$4.50m $2.92m

4.6 billion 1.66 billion

6

Vegetta777

$2.59m

552 million

7

TheFineBros

$2.41m

1.41 billion

8

TheWillyRex/WillyRex

$2.31m

1.03 billion

9

BFvsGF/PrankvsPrank

$2.26m

1.31 billion

10

TobyGames/TobyTurner/ Tobuscus

$2.18m

2.87 billion

SHocKING

FoodFaCts

In Helsinki, Finland, instead of giving parking tickets, the police usually deflate tires.

Due to its high content of micronutrients called phenols which have antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties, olive oil can help cut your risk of stroke and heart disease.

Ports and resorts – mallorca 1. Ca la Fornells A pleasant resort of coves with turquoise water, sandy beaches and large, flat rocks on which to bask. Families flock here, and it’s good for snorkelling. Nearby Peguera has the nightlife.

2. Port d’Andratx One of the island’s choicest resort ports, frequented by the Spanish king and other stellar visitors. Most shops and restaurants are on the south side, with a smart sailing club on the north.

3. Port de Valldemossa More a cove than a port, the beach here is rocky, houses are made of rock, and rocky villas dot the hill. Getting here involves hair-raising hairpin bends down a cliff that’s subject to rockslides, especially after rain. The one restaurant, Es Port, is a treat.

4. Cala Deia A narrow, winding road from Deia leads to a picturesque cove surrounded by steep cliffs.

Getting down to the car park is the usual routine of narrow switchbacks.

5. Port de Soller The lovely bay offers calm waters for swimming. The resort hotels and nightlife venues cater to both young and old. Be sure to take a ride on the antique tram that shuttles to and from downtown Soller.

6. Port de Pollenca The family-friendly resort, situated 6 km to the east of Pollenca town, beside a pleasant bay, is an attractive place with a long, sandy beach. Many retired ex-pats live here.

7. Port d’Alcudia Big and a bit brash, this resort has it all, including what most visitors might prefer to do without – tacky fast food joints and too

Ca la Fornells

Port d’Andratx

many fluorescent lights.

Still, the beaches are good, and some of the restaurants excellent.

8. Cala Rajada Ideal for waters ports of all kinds, this is still a fully operational fishing port.

Fine coves and beaches nearby include popular Cala Guva, Cala Mezquida and Cala Torta, which allows nudists.

9. Platja de Canyamel If a tranquil resort is what you’re after, then this is the place. Even in high season, it remains quiet and family – oriented – just a long, curving sandy beach backed by pine forests, with a few tasteful hotels here and there.

10. Portopetro Although on the verge of being swallowed whole by Cala d’Or, this little fishing village has so far managed to retain its original flavour possibly because there is no beach and only one hotel.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

StartingBlocks

BY THE NUMBERS

HallowEEN

46

Percentage of American adults that carve a pumpkin for Halloween.

500

Number of seeds in an average pumpkin.

36

CELEBINFO

BOXOFFICESTATS

Prince William’s nickname in college was ‘P-Willy’.

20th Century Fox’s The Book of Life has made $48.8m in America alone since it debuted.

WHAT'S UP

IN-THE-NOW HappENINgS arOuNd uS

Google boss breaks parachute jump record One of Google's most senior executives has broken Felix Baumgartner's record for the highest parachute jump in history.

MIllIoN

Number of children that go ‘trick or treating’ every year.

50

Percentage of Americans that decorate their yards for Halloween.

10

Percentage of chocolate consumed by an average American Halloween.

72

Percentage of adult Americans that hand out candy on Halloween.

120

MIllIoN Number of American children and adults that dress up in costumes for Halloween.

9

BIllIoN

Pieces of candy corn sold annually at Halloween.

1.5

BIllIoN

Number of pumpkins grown annually in the US.

11.5

Percentage of the yearly grown pumpkins used up at Halloween in the US.

Alan Eustace, 57, a senior vice president at Google, during his record breaking leap from 41,148m.

Alan Eustace, 57, a senior vice president of Knowledge at Google, was lifted by a balloon filled with 35,000 cubic feet of helium, from an abandoned runway at an airport in New Mexico. A well-known computer scientist, he fell faster than the speed of sound and broke Baumgartner’s world altitude record set just two years ago by jumping from 41,148m. He returned to earth just 15 minutes after starting his fall. ‘It was amazing,’ he told the New York Times. ‘It was beautiful.

‘You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before.’

Mr Eustace cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device and plummeted toward the earth at a speed that peaked at more than 1287 kph, setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground.

‘It was a wild, wild ride,’ he said. ‘I hugged on to the equipment module and tucked my legs and I held my heading.’ Eustace broke several records, including national record for highest exit altitude; world and national record for free fall under a drogue chute; national record for vertical

speed.

Additionally, he became the second person to break the sound barrier outside an aircraft. Eustace was lifted to his peak altitude by a helium-filled scientific balloon while wearing a custom-made pressurised spacesuit. At over 41,148m, he began his dive, remaining in free fall for approximately 4.5 minutes before landing safely nearly 112km from his launch point.

‘I always wondered: what if you could design a system that would allow humans to explore the stratosphere as easily and safely as they do the ocean? ‘With the help of the world-class StratEx team, I hope we’ve encouraged others to explore this part of the world about which we still know so little.’ said Eustace.

A StratEx team goal was to develop a self-contained spacesuit system that allows for manned exploration of the stratosphere above 30,480m. Such a system has a wide range of applications in stratospheric science, development of spaceship crew egress and the study of suited aerodynamics above Mach 1.

Grant Anderson, President and CEO

Eustace

and co-founder of Paragon, said, ‘The experience and dedication of the StratEx team was ‘Together, Alan and the team extended human spaceflight to the stratosphere in an important step to solidify the safety of future human endeavours. ‘It is an honour to work with such an incredibly talented and accomplished group. ‘This has opened up endless possibilities for humans to explore previously seldom visited parts of our stratosphere.

The previous altitude record was set by Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who jumped from 39,044m on October 14, 2012.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Stuff

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Annoying Airport hAbits From little drama to major display, some people don't know when to stop!

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Childbirth in ChinA In China, everyone related to an unborn child want's it to be born healthy.

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hillAry Clinton Five lessons to learn from the President of Sass’ style and philosophy of life.

that will tickle your fancy

despots and dIctators

BIg Ideas

Humanism

china’s tzu-Hsi

Tzu-hsi, whose formal title was ‘Motherly Auspicous Orthodox Heaven-Blessed Prosperous All-Nourishing Brightly Manifest Calm Sedate Perfect Long-lived Respectful Reverend Worshipful Illustrious Exalted Empress Dowager,’ was a five-foot-tall Chinese imperial concubine famed for her beauty and charm, who became empress of China in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

At seventeen, Tzu-hsi, meaning kindly and virtuous, entered the service of the Chinese emperor as a concubine. When he elected to sleep with her, in order to prevent any weapons being brought to the room, an escort of eunuchs left her naked at the foot of the bed. Of all the emperor’s wives and concubines, only Tzu-hsi bore him a son. This fact resulted in the immediate exaltation of her prestige and position and her eventual accession to the status of Empress of the Western Palace. Her relations with the Emperor, however, were somewhat less than ideal. Apart from his suffering from venereal disease, she regarded him as weak and ineffectual and their relationship was strained by a continual power struggle. The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 signalled a turning point in her reign. The Boxer Rebellion was named after

Answer:

Where was the deepest oil well located before 2010?

Located in the Gulf of Mexico, Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible rig was the deepest oil well in the world till 2010.

QUICKQUIZ

the secret society of the ‘Righteous and Harmonious Fists’ who were poor Chinese who blamed Westerners and their imperialism for their poor standard of living. First organised in 1898, they may have been tacitly supported by Tzu-hsi’s government.

The Boxers attacked Western missionaries and merchants, as well as the compound in Peking where foreigners lived, beginning a siege which lasted eight weeks. In the throes of the fighting, the French cathedral was burned to the ground and, in the conflagration, hundreds of men, women, and children lost their lives.

Dragon Empress Tzu - hsi witnessed the fire from a hillside nearby, then ordered a halt to the bombardment because the noise was giving her a headache. “While the red-turbaned rioters she championed rampaged around the Celestial City yelling “Burn!

Burn! Burn! Kill! Kill! Kill!” she was engaged in painting delicate designs of bamboo on silk or arranging exquisite water picnics on the palace lake. While Christians were massacred, thousands of Chinese converts among them, she tended her four-inch-long fingernails, shielded with jade, and tottered round her gardens in jewel-encrusted shoes.

Let no one escape ... “she had ordered,” so that my empire may be purged.” At length, the 19,000 troops of the allied armies of the Western imperialist Powers captured Peking and ended the siege. Tzu-hsi decided to flee the city with the emperor. The Boxer Rebellion was over. At least 250 foreigners had been killed and China had to accept a humiliating peace settlement. In 1901, she returned to the city with a whole new outlook. She was now in favour of modernising China and making moral and social reforms. One of her major reforms was to outlaw slicing, a practice of killing people with thousands of small cuts. She considered the idea of constructing a railroad system in China but rejected it because she said it would be “too noisy.” In 1908, Tzu-hsi suffered a stroke. She was buried in sumptuous splendour, opulently smothered in diamonds. In 1928, revolutionaries dynamited her tomb and looted it while desecrating her body.

Humanism can broadly be defined as an intellectual attitude that puts human beings at the centre of our concerns.

The Greek philosophers before Socrates were primarily concerned with the nature of the universe, whereas Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, with their interest in politics and ethics, placed humans at centre stage.

In the European Middle Ages, intellectual effort was largely concerned with God and theology. But during the Renaissance there was a revival of interest in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which were largely secular in approach. Art, literature and scholarship all began to place the focus more firmly on human beings, although the existence or supremacy of God was rarely denied. With the beginning of the Scientific Revolution in the 16th century, people began to believe that human reason could fathom the workings of the universe. Today, the term ‘humanism’ often implies atheism, or at least a strongly secular attitude.

UseLess InForMatIon

National sing-a-longs The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.

The national anthem of the Netherlands, ‘Het Wilhelmus,’ is an acrostichon. The first letters of each of the fifteen verses represent the name Willem Van Nassov.

The Netherlands and the United States both have anthems that do not mention their countries’ names.

The japanese national anthem has the oldest lyrics/text, from the nonth century, but the music is from 1880.

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Stuff

Saturday, November 1, 2014 that will tickle your fancy

HISTORIFIC

The longest reigning monarch in history was Pepi 11, who ruled Egypt for 90 years from 2566 to 2476 BC.

SCIENTIFIC

Infants blink only once or twice a minute while adults average around 10.

Annoying things people do in airports Traveling without moving They make us feel like super people (If only we could always walk this fast!) and help us get to our gates without feeling like we just ran the New York City Marathon. Some travellers, however, apparently feel they were designed like a theme park ride, meant to be enjoyed arm-in-arm with their amour and shopping bags as they gawk at the exotic sights passing by at 1 mph.

Standing to the side to make room for travellers with a plane to catch remains an unattainable skill to an aggravating number of passengers.

Surprised by security Most veteran travellers glide through security checkpoints with little drama. Even travel newbies can read directions posted at said checkpoints and readily adapt. So what’s with the people who always look like they’ve been told the existence of alien life has just been confirmed when their litre-bottle of water is confiscated and they’re asked to take their laptop out of the bag before it goes through the scanner? More than a decade into the era of airport hyper-vigilance, the ‘security stumble’ remains perplexing airport behaviour.

Carousel crowding Would it hurt everyone to stand back from the luggage carousel a few feet? Alas, retrieving luggage is rarely so hassle-free; thanks to an impatient few who press their shins against the carousel like their bags won’t be coming back. Some even push aside the elderly and children with their carts to secure a space directly in front of the little door flaps the bags slide through, forcing the rest of us to shove through the scrum when our suitcases appear.

Purposely arriving late Ever show up at the airport late and have the check-in staff kindly

allow you to jump to the front of the line so you don’t miss your flight?

Ever do this multiple times, on purpose, knowing full well you’ll be allowed to skip the queue? Trust us, these people exist.

Trying to check overweight baggage The line at the check-in counter is so long and finally you make it to the front, only to be held up by the guy who’s shocked to find his 200 kg suitcase is over the weight limit and going to cost him a week’s salary to check. His next move? Frantically shuffling a few pairs of socks and a tube of toothpaste into another bag to get the weight down – ‘197 kg is cool, right?’ he asks.

Duty-free shadowing Sometimes it’s the airport staff that does annoying things. Example: overzealous duty-free shop employees. All we wandered in here for was a bottle of cheap vodka. We don’t need to be followed around and spritsed with perfume as a lady with immaculately applied makeup (in fairness, she does spend her days surrounded by expensive cosmetics) tries to upsell us on the smooth taste of a $2,000 bottle of whisky.

Seat-hogging Nothing beats the sweet bliss of not sitting next to someone when you’re waiting for a flight. We don’t want to bump elbows with others any more than others want to trade breathing particulates with us. But in a civilized society, seats are meant to have one thing and one thing only placed on them. Here’s a hint: that something isn’t suitcases, food trays or computers.

Holding up the immigration line Immigration desks simply aren’t happy places. People who hold things up by not filling in the details on their paperwork only make the experience more miserable for the

Weight

Baggages

Duty-free shop

Late arrival rest of us Taxi touting When you’ve just gotten off a 12-hour flight in a country you’ve never been to, even the simplest acts can be a challenge. Like finding transportation. Everyone needs to make a living, but we shouldn’t have to negotiate a phalanx of unscrupulous touts who skulk around arrival halls preying on the weary and confused, insisting on providing rides into town for quadruple the price of a regular taxi.

WORlD OF ESPIONAGE

quESTIONS yOu'll NEvER ASk

American spies use New Zealand’s embassies to collect intelligence Embassies belonging to the government of New Zealand are secretly being used by the United States as part of a worldwide network of intelligence-collection facilities, according to documents leaked recently.

The documents were released by Edwards Snowden, an American former technical expert for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), who is currently living in Russia and is responsible for countless leaks of classified information in recent years. The latest disclosure concerns Project STATEROOM, a highly secretive signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection programme targeting international Internet, radio and telecommunications traffic. The existence of the programme was disclosed in the summer of 2013 by Snowden, who told German news magazine Der Spiegel that it consisted of SIGINT collection facilities in nearly 100 US embassies and consulates in almost as many countries. According to the Snowden, STATEROOM operations are handled by a unit called Special Collection Service (SCS), which is jointly operated by the CIA and the NSA. In October of 2013, Professor Des Ball, an intelligence expert, claimed that Australian embassies served as collection sites for Project

Seat hogging

STATEROOM, by helping the SCS monitor the Asia Pacific region. Dr Ball said the Australian Signals Directorate was sharing information with the NSA as part of the UKUSA agreement (also known as Five Eyes), an intelligence cooperation network comprising agencies from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Canada and the United States. Now new documents made available by Snowden appear to show that New Zealand’s embassies and consulates around the world are also being used as part of Project STATEROOM. The documents date from 2003, and contain a synopsis of a number of NSA intelligence-collection programmes, along with their operational titles and status. The list, which is marked ‘Top Secret’ is titled ‘Exceptionally Controlled Information’, and contains several entries under the heading ‘STATEROOM’. Underneath the heading appears the description: ‘SIGINT from diplomatic missions abroad’. The document then states that ‘this activity is conducted by USA, AUS, CAN, GBR and NZ’. Although the existence of STATEROOM has been known for over a year, this is the first time that New Zealand diplomatic missions are specifically identified in documents as collection sites for the programme.

Is it ok to go out with my friend’s ex if my friend was the one who dumped the person?

It depends on how your friend would feel about dating her ex, and how you would feel about yourself if you did it. Even if your friend did the dumping, that doesn’t mean she didn’t really care about the person. She may still care for her ex, could have gone through a lot of pain in the breakup, or maybe would just feel betrayed if you went out with him. Ask yourself if you would like it if your friend went out with your ex. would it hurt to see them together? Would you still want to hang out with her? Treat your friend like you’d like to be treated- which may mean you need to find somebody else to date!

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

BRANDED

SPORTSFACT

Colgate is the number one seller of toothoaste and s world leader in oral care products.

SoundingClever

carious

(Of teeth and bone) rotted away from the Latin caries: decay. When talking, Oscar Wilde used to put one hand over his mouth to disguise his carious teeth from his interlocutor.

Paris hosted the first ever UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Stade de Reims-Champagne in the 1955/56 season.

FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

THINGS not everyone should know how to do

Stage a coup

Stuff

that will tickle your fancy

february 2001

spotlights

imprimatur

A person's guarantee that something is of good quality.

Kim Jong-il's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, is expected to assume control of North Korea on his father's death because he enjoys his father's imprimatur.

diuretic

A drug that causes one to pass water more frequently from the Greek dia: through, and ouron: urine (hence diourein: to urinate). Alcohol and coffee are the most commonly used diuretics.

reliquary

A container for relics from the old French relique: relic. Before admitting they would never fit her again, the fat woman tried on some outfits from her reliquary of 'thin' clothes.

SOUNDING GREAT truculence A disposition or eagerness to fight or act with bitter hostility. So it is proper that we assure our friends once again that, in the discharge of this responsibility, we Americans know and we observe the difference between world leadership and imperialism; between firmness and truculence; between a thoughtfully calculated goal and spasmodic reaction to the stimulus of emergencies.

FILM Sweet November

A man devoted to his advertising career in San Francisco one day meets a woman who is very different from the other women in his life and his life is changed forever.

First decide which kind of coup you would like: bloody or bloodless.

As the name suggests, a bloody coup involves a lot of blood, ricocheting bullets, looting, and general mayhem. However, a bloodless coup, though bloodless, is no walk in the park. Both types of coup require you to depose the established government quickly and decisively. You can’t manoeuvre yourself into power simply by baking cookies and offering them to the chief of the military (although this helps).

Choose your friends

If your social life consists of hanging around with your posse outside your local fast-food joint arguing about which DVD you are going to rent that evening, then you need to change your social circle. Before you can even think about staging a coup, you’ve got to get on a firstname basis with large sections of the armed forces, police, or National Guard. Your biggest drinking buddy should be someone like the chief of the armed forces, or, at the very least, a disaffected member of a government agency with access to a large stash of weapons.

Choose your country

You can learn a lot about a country from its proverbs. Which of these two countries do you think is ripe for a coup?

Motto A: “Money is power.”

Motto B: “Every time a donkey brays, it remembers something.”

The answer is, of course, B, typically a small Marxist dictatorship with a population of three million subsistence farmers. Country A is most likely an established

capitalist democracy. Stay away from democracies, even small struggling ones, as you’ll attract lots of unwelcome air strikes from other countries trying to prop up those in power. However, attacking a Marxist dictatorship will not invite Russian or Chinese hostility, so long as you can persuade them that you are pro-Russian or proChinese.

Cut above the neck

Shear off the top layer of government while leaving the old bureaucracy and infrastructure intact but don’t do it in haste. For example, if you have arranged for the US Marines to airlift the deposed president out of the country ‘for his own safety,’ make sure they do it on the day of the coup. Anything earlier looks suspicious.

Control communications

After the coup, you must control the flow of information in and out of the country. Seize the broadcast and paper media. Put the airport out of action by placing a bomb, car, or herd of goats in the middle of the runaway.

It’s a juggling act

Convince everyone else in the world that you are pro-them. That means showing democracies that you are pro-democracy (promise to provide for free elections, triple-ply toilet paper, and MTV) while simultaneously persuading autocracies that you are autocratic (free vodka). For example, if your first public act once you’re in power is a march past of tanks, karaoke, and cappuccino machines, you will convince everyone that you’re the person to be trusted.

MUSIC Eve

Who’s That Girl is the first single release from Eve’s second album, Scorpion and her fifth US single.

TELEVISION Power Rangers Time Force When a crimelord from the year 3000 finds that times are too tough, he goes back in time to 2001.

And the Power Rangers of year 3000 come back to battle him.

EVENT International ban

On the 2nd, due to concerns of mad cow disease, Canada began its ban on the importation of beef and beef products from Brazil.

BIRTHDAY Michael Bolton

Grammy Award-winning recording artiste, Michael Bolton, who specialises in love ballads celebrated his 48th birthday on the 26th.

DEATH Leslie Medley

English footballer, Leslie Medley, who was once top scorer in Tottenham Hotspur died on the 22nd at the age of 80.

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Stuff

Saturday, November 1, 2014 that will tickle your fancy

1 metre

Length of the largest flower in the world, the rafflesia arnoldi that grows only on the Sumatra and Borneo islands of Indonesia.

ARTICULATE

The crystal-shaped Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history based in Toronto, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America, attracting over one million visitors every year.

Established on April 16, 1912 and opened on March 19, 1914, the museum needed renovation and after an international search that attracted more than 50 firms, the Berlin-based Studio Daniel Libeskind was chosen in February 2002 to lead the Renaissance Royal Ontario Museum team. He has designed buildings around the world, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen and the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester. Inspired by the museum’s gem and mineral collection, architect Daniel Libeskind sketched the initial concept on paper napkins. The renovation and expansion project considered to be one of the most challenging construction projects in North America for its engineering complexity and innovative methods, the Lee-Chin Crystal is composed of five interlocking, self-supporting prismatic structures that co-exist but are not attached to the original museum building, except for the bridges that link them.

The exterior is 25% glass and 75% extruded-brushed, aluminium-cladding strips in a warm silver colour. The steel beams, each unique in its design and manufacture and ranging from 1 to 25 metres in length, were lifted one by one to their specific angle, creating complicated angle joints, sloped walls, and gallery ceilings. Approximately 3,500 tons of steel and 38 tons of bolts were used to create the skeleton, and roughly 9,000 cubic metres of concrete were poured. The building is 100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft in size.

The program of the Royal Ontario Museum provides a wonderful opportunity for dramatic new architecture and the creation of a great public attraction. The Crystal transforms the secretive and fortress-like character of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), turning it into an inspired atmosphere dedicated to the resurgence of the Museum as the dynamic centre of Toronto. The historical buildings, complemented by forward looking and bold architecture form an ensemble which regenerates the urban significance of the Museum, solving complex functional issues whilst simultaneously improving exhibitions, facilities, programming and amenities. Today, the museum is Canada’s largest field-research institution, with research and conservation activities that span the globe. With more than six million items and forty galleries, the museum’s diverse collections of world culture and natural history are part of the reason for its international reputation.

What is the difference between ‘mind’ and ‘consciousness’?

The term mind and consciousness have been used by philosophers, psychologists, neurologists and others for so long that distinctions between them have become hopelessly blurred. Some writers use the words almost interchangeably, some try to define them as totally distinct, others allow varying degrees of overlap. The general consensus, though, is that consciousness is the state of mind that recognises one’s own existence, while mind is the set of mental processes that the brain uses to process information and sensory input.

According to Antonio Damasio, in his book self comes to mind (2010), describe consciousness as ‘mind with a twist….

Since we cannot be conscious without having a mind to be conscious of’.

Water accounts for 45 to 50 percent of the body weight in adult females and 55 to 60 per cent of the body weight in adult males. Approximately 50 per cent of this water is in muscle, 20 per cent in the skin, 10 per cent in the blood and the remaining 20 per cent in the other organs.

Despite wide variations in dietary intake, the volume and composition of the body’s fluids are maintained in an extremely narrow range as we lose water. In other words, the amount of substance added to the body each day equals the amount eliminated or used by the body. This is called the balance state.

Are cell phones bad for us or might they be good for brain function?

Ever since mobile phones became popular in the early 1990s, there have been concerns, and stories that scares about cell phones being a health risk and even a possible cause of brain cancer. In February 2011, a study was published claiming to show that spending 50 minutes with a cell phone at one’s ear does change brain cell activity.

Were human sacrifices made at royal tombs in ancient Egypt?

Excavating the 5,ooo-year-old tomb of Pharaoh Aha-Mena in 1899-1900, the pioneering British archaeologist Flinders Petrie reported the discovery of an area to the east of the royal tombs he called the Greater Cemetery of the Domestics. This consisted of thirty-four smaller graves, which he believed contained the remains of the pharaoh’s servants. One theory is that they were put to death by poisoning at

the time of the pharaoh’s funeral, so that they could continue to serve him in the afterlife.

There is also some evidence that criminals or others may have been put to death during funerals as a sacrifice to the gods. While both these theories are consistent with an interpretation of inscriptions and also with some human remains found in the tombs, other explanations are also possible.

Why do people cry at emotional times?

KNOW WHY... ...you get bloated when you eat salty food

15,000

The average number of times a human being blinks in a day.

What buries its head in the sand?

Ostrich do not bury their heads in the sand, it would suffocate if it did. When danger threatens, ostriches run away like any other sensible animal. The myth about ostriches may have arisen because they sometimes lie down in their nest (which is a shallow hole in the ground) with their necks stretched out flat and scan the horizon for trouble. If the predator gets too close, they get up and leg it.

Tears come in three basic varieties: there are basal tears, which moisten the eye and protect it; there are reflex tears, which are shed to flush out the eye when it becomes irritated; and most puzzling of all are the eye emotional tears that flow when we are happy, sad, in pain, or otherwise overcome with strong feelings. Chemical analysis has shown that emotional tears are higher than the other types in manganese which is known to be connected with temperature, and prolactin, a hormone that regulates milk production. The natural painkiller leucine encephalin is also found in tears. Crying may thus help to balance the body’s stress levels and provide relief by preventing build-ups of these chemicals, and they may somehow be connected with the reduction of pain. Why this should all happen through tears rather than any of the other, probably more efficient, ways the body has of producing beneficial chemicals and expelling unwanted by-products has not been established.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Lifestyled

Childbirth trends in China Mother, father and the rest of the family want the pregnancy to pass fine and a healthy baby to be born. As in many other things in life numerous traditions have been created and are usually prejudices that became part of local culture.

According to Chinese customs, a husband should carry his bride over a pan of burning coals when entering their home for the first time. This myth has been performed to ensure she will have an easy, successful labour. This is where you insert a joke about men finally understanding the pain of childbirth, or something. Ancient Chinese myths and customs of pregnancy start shortly after a couple weds. Once pregnant, a woman guards her thoughts. It is believed everything she does and sees will influence her unborn child. According to old Chinese tradition, what affects a woman’s mind will also affect her heart and connect with the baby in utero. A pregnant woman reads good poetry, she doesn’t gossip, laugh loudly, sit on a crooked mat, look at clashing colours, or lose her temper. Many Chinese women will read beautiful stories before drifting off to sleep. And, sex is forbidden during pregnancy. Also, there are many ancient taboos regarding the food Chinese women eat during pregnancy. It’s believed that if a pregnant woman eats food that’s not properly cut or mashed, her child will have a careless disposition. Or if she eats light coloured foods, the baby will be fair-skinned.

Many also believe that no construction work should be done in the house of a pregnant women.

Hammering and sawing could lead to an abortion or fatal deformities. And, pregnant women should never attend funerals. During the pregnancy, in other to scare evil spirits, pregnant Chinese women may sleep with knives under their bed. Often a piece of paper cut to resemble a pair of scissors is hung from bed curtains and tiger skins are hung over the bed. Many believe it is unlucky to throw a shower for an unborn baby, therefore, the party comes after the little one arrives. The expectant mother’s own mother buys the child’s entire layette. A month before the baby is due, the maternal grandmother sends a package of clothing for her expectant daughter called tsue shen, or hastening the delivery. There is a white cloth inside the package with which to wrap the new-born.

The maternal grandmother waits three days after the baby arrives before she visits the new-born bringing all her clothes and baby equipment. Chinese women will often drink a strong herbal potion to ease the strain of labour. Custom dictates that women are not expected to fear the labour process, since birth is considered a women’s career to the ancient Chinese.

Chinese women traditionally labour in an armchair or futon. Once the baby is born they will often pray to the goddess who helped them conceive with an offering of sweet meats and incense.

Stuff

that will tickle your fancy

teeNy

Dating tips Dating someone new can be the most exhilaratingly sweet rush ever! You get an exclusive opportunity to get attention from, and give attention to, your crush you’ve been thinking about so much. In the beginning, it is all new and everything seems great.

You always say the right thing at the right time and looking fabulous while doing it. And, the two of you get to spend time together. But then, the questions start rushing in: How do my parents feel about me dating? What are my feelings for him? Where are we going to go? What am I going to wear?

And hope am doing the right thing?

Clearly, there is a lot to handle, but first: Talk to Your Parents about Dating Remember you need the approval of your parents to start dating. Yes, dating has changed, but talking to your parents about dating is important. Being open will strengthen your relationship with your parents and help you understand more about your feelings and dating as they ask questions and discuss their opinions.

Set Boundaries Setting boundaries is key to a healthy relationship. Don’t let anyone talk you into participating in activities you aren’t ready for. If anyone is pressuring you to do something you don’t want to do, get yourself out of the situation, and end the relationship. Respecting one another’s boundaries is a non-negotiable when it comes to dating.

Don’t Make Having a Boyfriend Too Important.

Most likely, you are not going to meet the guy you will spend the rest of your life with during middle school or high school. So don’t lose those friendships you have spent so long to build by cancelling plans and only hanging out with your boyfriend. Also, having a boyfriend shouldn’t be your prerogative. Channel your strength into doing something positive and lucrative. Put your brain to work!

On the order hand, there is this dreaded situation when you and your best friend have a crush on the same boy or girl. If that is the case, don’t abandon your friend for a boyfriend or girlfriend you won’t date for very long. The relationship could end and you could find yourself heartbroken with one less friend. When it comes to a relationship, take everything into account. Being infatuated could make you miss some red flags: his lack of commitment to exclusivity if you both agreed to it, keeping you a secret from his friends, consistently rescheduling dates. It’s important to take a step back every now and then to make sure the relationship is healthy from an outsider’s point of view, too.

Dating should be fun and you should treat one another with respect. If respect isn’t there, you aren’t dating the right person.

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Stuff

Saturday, November 1, 2014 that will tickle your fancy

SHOPAHOLIC

For a royal look get the 8.0-9.0 mm TripleStrand White Freshwater Pearl Necklace for just $4,000.00.

LADYLIKE

A lady never mentions her monthly period or the fact that she has cramps, except to the closest of friends.

fitnessdorm Balance body and mind

5 life lessons from Hillary Clinton’s style There are thousands of articles and countless books on ‘How to dress like Hillary Clinton’ that all distil down to one point: Hillary Rodham Clinton is the unequivocal President of Sass.

Hillary Clinton’s style sends powerful messages, silencing the United Nations with one flick of her fringe. A political, social and style leader, she is overall an unabashed Attitude Icon. What can we learn from the scrunchietoting philanthropist who emerged from the biggest sex scandal in American presidential history, sassier than ever?

Here are three life lessons learned through the Senator’s style: 1. Stick by your friends And no, we are not talking about that man. When the entire fashion world was courting the former First Lady, Hillary stuck by the designers she’d supported for years, namely Donna Karan and Oscar de la Renta. Unfazed by the allure of free couture, Hillary has committed to staying loyal to her true friends, rather than being a

fair-weather fashionista.

2. Back yourself It’s a fact: Hillary never met a pantsuit that she didn’t like. Were pantsuits at the height of fashion for the last 40 years that Hillary rocked them? No. However, she proudly identifies as a ‘pantsuit aficionado’ and a ‘hair icon’ in her Twitter bio.

Hillary once joked that her book would be called The Scrunchie Chronicles to celebrate her unwavering dedication to the universally-regarded daggy accessory.

3. Use every opportunity Rather than shun away from the attention, Hillary uses the public’s fascination with her style as a platform to talk about more important issues. During a recent Vogue interview, Hillary seamlessly segued from serums to Syria.

4. Focus on what you can change

Hillary was once quoted as saying: “I wish I was taller and thinner, but with hair you can do something about”. This pragmatism is evident in every one of Hillary’s pursuits; she identifies areas that need changing, and focuses on how to do it. Hillary chooses her battles wisely, which has been integral to her political success.

5. Don’t take yourself too seriously Being magazine fodder for decades, Hillary laughs along with the press, reportedly enjoying Amy Poehler’s imitation of her (signature pantsuit and all) on Saturday Night Live, Hillary, in her sternest tone was quoted by one fashion magazine as saying “I’m undaunted in my quest to amuse myself by constantly changing my hair”. Best of all, Hillary teaches us that she’s a woman, first and foremost. And one with admirable doses of attitude.

Exercise and beauty programmes complement the detox process, because they promote circulation, sweating, deep breathing and flexibility. On an emotional level, they help to foster a sense of restoration and renewal.

Detox your body

You can greatly enhance your vitality and general sense of well-being through a daily body care routine which you can easily carry out at home. Specific body treatments, from home spa therapies and natural hair and skin products to foot massage and aromatherapy, will leave you feeling pampered and nurtured as well as significantly improving the appearance of your skin and the efficiency of your body’s elimination processes. Regular exercise is essential, not just for detoxing your body but for a happy, healthy life and to keep the mind/ body balance in equilibrium at all times. Apart from stimulating sweating, improving general metabolism and overall detoxification, exercise increases your self-esteem, reduces stress and makes your body work more efficiently. They also increase the production of free radicals in your body, so it must be accompanied by drinking sufficient fluids and the intake of antioxidant foods or supplements.

Detox your mind

Many proposed tips and treatments also explore some of the various complementary therapies that abound to help promote good health and well-being, primarily through reducing stress levels. Stress has disastrous effects on your health - it affects how your body works and causes the production of harmful toxins.

You can however reduce stress, detox your mind and restore your inner harmony through a series of simple exercises using tools such as meditation and visualisation. Resting, relaxation and recharging are also important for detoxing.

Relaxation exercises help your body rebalance and prevent negative thoughts from interfering with the body’s natural processes.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Stuff

that will tickle your fancy

FASCINATING FACTS ANCIeNT CITIeS ThAT people STIll lIve IN Damascus, Syria Established: 10,000 BCE Population: 1.7 million Damascus was seat of Islamic power in the seventh century CE; later, the centre of the Muslim world moved to Baghdad. Alexander the Great conquered Damascus in the fourth century BCE and became its first western ruler.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria Established: 6,000 BCE Population: 380,000 This ancient city was once named Philippopolis, after Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great). It was a major Roman city before it came under the rule of Ottoman and became part of Bulgaria in 1885.

Fayyum, Egypt Established: 4,000 BCE Population: 310,000 The Greeks founded this city as ‘Crocodilopolis,’ so called because the area was the centre of the cult of Sobek, the crocodile god. It was famous for producing beautifully painted death masks of mummies.

Varanasi, India Established: 1100 BCE Population: 1.2 million Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges River, has produced many artists, writers, religious leaders and philosophers. The Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath, located near Varanasi.

Xi’an, China Established: 1100 BCE Population: 8.2 million The world famous ’Terra-cotta Army’ of some 8,000 life-size statues was discovered in Xi’an in 1974. The city is famous for its rock music.

Cholula, Mexico Sydney: Australia Established: 1788 CE Population: 4.5 million Sydney is the oldest city in Australia, but its only 504th oldest city in the world. Native people have lived in the area tens of millennia. The city is most popular for its opera in the Sydney opera house.

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THE BIG STORY

URBAN PROJECTS From King Solomon's Temple to New York's massive water tunnels, infrastructure experts say these are some of the grandest things ever built by human beings in cities the world over.

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Spectacular Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge was one of the first in the world to use steel suspension cables to hold up the roadway. The cables themselves, almost 16 inches in diameter, are woven from 5,434 individual wires.

The result was a far more sturdy bridge than the iron structures being built at the time. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 486m. It was originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, but it was later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge.

The bridge also paved the way for uniting Brooklyn with the rest of New York creating what would eventually become (and remain for decades) the largest city in the world.

Its construction was not without

tragedy. At least two dozen men lost their lives, including the bridge’s chief builder John Roebling, who died as a result of an infection from a crushed foot. After his death, his son Washington took on the role of chief engineer, but Washington himself suffered a debilitating case of the bends while working under the East River. Afterward, he used a spyglass to supervise construction from a bedroom overlooking the project in Brooklyn Heights. His wife Emily would convey orders to the construction crew, becoming what’s believed to be the first female field engineer. The towers of the bridge are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. The granite blocks were quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, under a contract with the Bodwell Granite Company, and delivered from Maine to New York by schooner.

The Paris sewers, underground city Prior to the 1830s, Parisians got rid of their waste like residents of most other big cities -- they either threw it holes beneath their homes or tossed it right into the street. Human waste, animal waste and food scraps would mix with the mud in a putrid brew that would fester and breed disease until a strong enough rain came to wash it away. In the middle Ages, up to a quarter of Europe’s population was killed by diseases linked to poor hygiene.

After a particularly bad cholera outbreak, the leaders of Paris ordered the construction of a citywide sewer system. Though modelled on the sewers of ancient Rome, the Parisian sewer was much larger in scale.

It contained walkways on either side of the main channel and was tall enough for workers to stand

upright. By 1870, over 482km had been constructed, making it one of the first large-scale modern sewers, according to sewer historian Jon Schladweiler. The project was so big it captivated the locals, who insisted on taking boat tours to see just how their money was being spent.

“They’d put on their Sunday best and float down the channel with all the sewage,” said Schladweiler. The sewer system is described in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel, Les Misérables “Paris has another Paris under herself; a Paris of sewers; which has its streets, its crossings, its squares, its blind alleys, its arteries, and its circulation, which is slime, minus the human form.” The sewer system plays a key part in H. L. Humes’ 1958 novel, The Underground City. Humes, an American novelist, was a cofounder of The Paris Review.

Other urban prOjects The Bosphorus Tunnel

Running under the Bosphorus Strait, the $1.1bn, 13km tunnel connects the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. It’s the world’s deepest submerged tunnel, and the first to connect two continents. It opened in October 2013 and has a capacity to carry 1.5 million people a day -- making the intercontinental crossing in about four minutes.

The Netherlands’ dikes

Roughly one-fourth of the Netherlands lies below sea level including large parts of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Dams had protected farmland from the sea since at least the Roman times, but large-scale building of dikes occurred around 1,000 AD, when people began draining marshland to farm and mine for energy-rich peat. At one

point, the country had over 1,200 miles of dikes, and men could be called upon at any time to shore up these defences in what was known as the ‘dike army’. In more modern times, other engineering projects like sea walls and flood gates have reduced the need for dikes, though the Dutch have continued to reclaim large swaths of land from the sea or lakes.

Shanghai’s skyscrapers

Chinese cities are developing at a pace and scale unmatched in human history. In Shanghai alone, more than 6,700 buildings 11 stories or taller were erected between 1990 and 2004 -- much of this done by state-controlled construction companies.

“They transformed a regional centre of government into an international centre

of business,” said Alan Mitchell, a cities specialists at KPMG. The Lujiazui Financial District has become so modern that it’s used

by Hollywood to depict futuristic cities.

Panama Canal There’s no sight quite like it anywhere on the planet - some 80km born of great sacrifice and incredible ingenuity. More than 100 years ago, workers carved the earth to make a trench as big as the expanse between Tampa and Bradenton. A man-made lake serves as the blood supply to the Panama Canal. Tens of thousands of tourists visit the Panama Canal every year to see first-hand how huge vessels pass through a narrow waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. The Panama Canal Authority says more than 1 million ships

have transited the waterway in the past 100 years and about 40 ships go through per day.

Karakoram Highway

The Karakoram Highway, also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was built by the governments of Pakistan and China. It was started in 1959 and was completed in 1979. The Karakoram Highway is the highest paved international road in the world. It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, located at an elevation of 4,693m. Connecting China’s Xinjiang region with Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan, the road is a popular tourist attraction. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

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Solomon’s Temple, world's first temple Solomon’s Temple was an early house of worship and an architectural novelty. Dating from around 960 BC, it was one of the first buildings ever constructed using a ‘prefab’ method, a system that remains popular today, according to Kathleen Lusk Brooke, co-author of Building the World, an encyclopaedia of engineering projects.

The temple is also an early example of cooperation between two nation states on a major urban project, when the neighbouring Phoenicians (from what is now Lebanon) helped the Hebrews with both materials and manpower. Indeed, the temple sits on the Temple Mount a holy site in Jerusalem that’s been claimed by at least three major world religions.

But perhaps its biggest contribution to urban development was what lay inside the Ark of the Covenant, which was said to hold the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments. This was one of the

first times humans had enshrined law instead of idols, said Lusk Brooke with the rule of law being an essential element for urban living.

The earliest source of information on the First Temple is the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). According to the biblical sources, the temple was constructed under King Solomon during the united monarchy of Israel and Judah. This puts the date of its construction in the mid-10th century BCE. Rabbinic sources state that the First Temple stood for 410 years. In the 6th century CE, the Temple was included on a list of seven wonders which included the Pharos of Alexandria and Noah’s Ark, compiled by Gregory, Bishop of Tours. Sir Isaac Newton (1642– 1727), the noted English scientist, mathematician and theologian, studied and wrote extensively upon the Temple of Solomon. Newton was intrigued by the temple’s sacred geometry and believed that it was designed by King Solomon with privileged eyes and divine guidance.

Ancient Roman aqueducts The Romans were master builders, and they took waterworks to a whole new level. Using specialised tools to measure distance and angles, at least 11 aqueducts were built into Rome.

They tapped fresh water sources like rivers, lakes and springs from as far as 96km away. Extra-hard concrete made with volcanic ash and the use of the arch were techniques the Romans perfected in building their water infrastructure. Cities and municipalities throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model, and funded aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride, an expensive yet necessary luxury to which all could, and did, aspire.

A whole cottage industry developed around water. Scouts charged with locating good water supplies looked for villagers with clean skin the thinking being that clean skin meant

clean water. Laws were written to deal with water disputes, laws that formed the basis of the modern legal water code. The Romans were so good at bringing in water that there was enough for each citizen to consume 200 gallons a day.

3Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable, and durable; some were maintained into the early modern era, and a few are still partly in use.

Methods of aqueduct surveying and construction are noted by Vitruvius in his work De Architectura (1st century BC). The general Frontinus gives more detail in his official report on the problems, uses and abuses of Imperial Rome’s public water supply. Notable examples of aqueduct architecture include the supporting piers of the Aqueduct of Segovia, and the aqueduct-fed cisterns of Constantinople.

Modern day urban Marvels Millay Viaduct (Millau, France) The world’s tallest cable-stayed road bridge has towers that are almost as tall as the Empire State Building and are 342m tall. The project was completed in December 2004 and was started to reduce the congested traffic between Paris and Barcelona during the summer vacation months. The Millau Viaduct was completed in an astonishing time of 3 years. But the most amazing part is the technique used to create the bridge due to its height of 274m. The roads were built on both side of the towers and then rolled out to the middle instead of the bridge being installed in sections.

The Venice Tide Barrier Project (Venice, Italy)

The world’s largest flood prevention project was the solution of 40 years of debating on how to prevent the city of Venice from sinking and keep it safe from flooding. The project was started in 2003 and consists of 78 rotating gates, each with an area of 6,500 square feet. The gates are large metal boxes that rest at the bottom of the sea and whenever the tide rises above 9m, the water is removed from the gates, causing them to float.

Three Gorges Dam (Sandouping, Hubei, China)

The world’s largest hydroelectric power station is also the world’s largest concrete structure. The dam is one and a half miles wide and creates electricity equivalent to

18 nuclear power plants. Besides power, the dam also provides increased shipping capacity and provides flood storage space.

Construction began in 1994 and commercial operations began in 2008. Despite being a marvel, the dam has created a lot of controversy due to ecological problems such as land sliding and the displacement of over a million people and flooding of archaeological sites.

National Stadium (Beijing, China)

The world’s largest steel structure is also called the ‘Bird’s Nest’. The Olympic stadium looks more like a work of art than anything else and was built for the 2008 Olympics and accommodates 80,000 people. The stadium consists of 41km of unwrapped steel and

is made of two independent structures that are set 15m apart. This wonder is also the world’s most energy-efficient and environmentally friendly stadiums in the world. The stadium was designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

Palm Islands (Dubai) This is the world’s largest man-made island.

The islands are located off the coast of the UAE in the Persian Gulf near Dubai.

Construction started in 2001, and making the islands involved mainly filling the seabed with sand. The project has added 514km of beaches to the shoreline of Dubai.

The islands will include luxury hotels, highend homes, theme parks and much more.

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The majestic buildings of Venice Venice may be known as the city of water, but it’s actually built on wood. Originally a chain of 70 or so marshy islands in a shallow lagoon, Venice’s early inhabitants built on the few pieces of solid ground. As the population grew, new arrivals had to create their own solid foundations.

By about 1,000 AD, they were driving solid oak logs - 4.5m or so long with a pointy end - into the soft mud and then building on top. “The system was brilliant,” said Deborah Howard, a former professor of architectural history at Cambridge who’s written several books on Venice. “As they grew, more and more land was reclaimed on each island, until they all joined up.” Howard

estimates that maybe 80% of the city now rests on these logs, which are protected from rot by the saltwater, becoming petrified and nearly as hard as stone. What endured was one of the world’s greatest sea-faring, trading and cultural centres.

Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. The city in its entirety is listed as a World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon. The name Venice is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. The city historically was the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the ‘La Dominante’, ‘Serenissima’, ‘Queen of the Adriatic’, ‘City of Water’, ‘City

of Masks’, ‘City of Bridges’, ‘The Floating City’, and ‘City of Canals’. Luigi Barzini described it in The New York Times as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”. Venice has also been described by the Times Online as being one of Europe’s most romantic cities. The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period.

Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

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Magnificent Eiffel Tower Now it may seem like a giant tourist attraction, but when work on the Eiffel Tower finished in 1889, it was a marvel of modern engineering. At 299m, nothing even remotely that high had ever been built (it stood twice as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza). Its curved design and iron lattice work were not just for aesthetics they were revolutionary at the time and ushered in the modern skyscraper era.

Initially criticised by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the mostvisited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011.The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.

The tower is 324m tall, about the

same height as an 81-storey building.

During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Because of the addition of the aerial atop the Eiffel Tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5m.

Not including broadcast aerials, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

As a global landmark, the Eiffel Tower is featured in media including films, video games, and television shows. In a commitment ceremony in 2007, Erika Eiffel, an American woman, ‘married’ the Eiffel Tower.

Her relationship with the tower has been the subject of extensive global publicity.

Ingenous Channel Tunnel The tunnel running under the English Channel also known as the Chunnel is one of only a few international tunnels and provides a direct rail link between London and Paris. The tunnel itself is actually three tubes two for trains and one for service vehicles. It is 49km long, with an average depth of 15m below the seabed. Its fastest trains hit 299km per hour. At its lowest point, it is 76m deep. At 37.9km, the tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world.

Though it opened in 1994, the idea was a long time coming. It was discussed by Napoleon in 1802, who proposed a tunnel with a mid-channel island ‘to breathe the horses.’

Over the next two centuries, several attempts were made to start construction, although the British often got cold feet. Plans for a cross-

Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802, but British political and press pressure over compromised national security stalled attempts to construct a tunnel. An early attempt at building a Channel Tunnel was made in the late 19th century, on the English side ‘in the hope of forcing the hand of the English Government’.

The eventual successful project, organised by Eurotunnel, began construction in 1988 and opened in 1994.. A 1959 proposal pegged the tunnel’s price at $100m. The final tab was $15bn. The tunnel carries highspeed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for automobiles and other road vehicles the largest of such transport in the world and international rail freight trains. At its lowest point, it is 75m deep. At 37.9km, the tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world.

Modern day urban Marvels The Large Hadron Collider (Geneva, Switzerland) The world’s largest and highest particleenergy accelerator has helped change modern physics. The accelerator is located underground in a 574-foot long tunnel with a circumference of 27km. The project was developed by CERN and completed in 2008.

The main purpose of building the LHC was to answer many basic questions of science and the universe as well as develop technologies such as medical imaging and electronics among many others.

Chandra X-Ray Observatory

The world’s most powerful x-ray telescope was launched by NASA on July 23, 1999 and

allows scientists to obtain x-ray images from high-energy regions of the universe.

The satellite was named after Nobel Prize winning physicist, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who discovered the maximum mass for white dwarfs. The Chandra is the third great observatory to be launched by NASA out of four.

The Bailong Elevator (Zhangjiajie, China) Built off the side of an enormous cliff in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China, The Bailong Elevator is the highest and heaviest outdoor elevator in the world. It is 326m high and consists of three doublestory glass elevators. The elevator takes two

minutes to ride from the base to the top, can carry 50 people in one trip with a total of 18,000 people daily. Construction of the elevator began in October 1999 and was finished in 2002 for public use.

The New Valley Project (Western Desert of Egypt) The largest development project in Egypt is also the most ambitious. The New Valley Project consists of building a massive irrigation system to reclaim a half-a-million acres of desert. The project started in 2005 and will transform 500,000 acres of desert into agricultural land. The New Valley Project’s intent is to create a second Nile Valley and is scheduled for completion in 2017.

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Gigantic Boston’s Big Dig Boston’s Central Artery Tunnel Project commonly known as the Big Dig is one of the largest urban highway projects ever constructed. It consists of a 13km tunnel under downtown Boston, two bridges, and four highway interchanges.

What made the project so complicated and expensive was that it was built under a functioning city. The major elevated highway it replaced needed to stay open throughout the construction process, as did subway tubes running through the tunnel’s path. To overcome this, engineers had to build temporary supporting bridges underneath existing infrastructure, and in some cases literally freeze the soil so the city would not collapse on itself. The project also included the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel (extending Interstate 90 to Logan International Airport), the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge over the Charles River, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway in the space vacated by the previous I-93 elevated

roadway. Initially, the plan was also to include a rail connection between Boston’s two major train terminals.

The official planning phase started in 1982; the construction work was done between 1991 and 2006; and the project concluded on December 31, 2007, when the partnership between the programme manager and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority ended.

Cost overruns and delays were legendary. When it was completed in 2006, the final price tag of over $15bn was nearly three times the 1991 estimate, when construction first began. But its effect on the city and urban planning in general was transformative. “It reconnected the city, and showed how you provide big infrastructure without taking people’s homes,” said David Luberoff, an urban land use consultant and co-author of Mega-Projects. “But it was expensive and complicated.”

Famous London Underground Opened in 1863, London’s subway came decades before underground mass transit projects in most other major cities. While the early trains were steam powered, by 1890 electric locomotives were running on the tracks. It was the first electric underground railway, and greatly reduced pollution in the tubes.

The London Underground (also known as the Tube or simply the Underground) is a public rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and parts of the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. The system serves 270 stations and has 402 kilometres of track, 52% of which is above ground. The network incorporates the world’s first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863 and is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and

Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, now part of the Northern line. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2012/13 carried 1.23 billion passengers, making it the twelfth busiest transit system, behind New York City, Paris, and Madrid, among others.

The Underground (including several fictitious stations has been featured in many movies and television shows, including Skyfall, Die Another Day, Sliding Doors, An American Werewolf in London, Creep, Tube Tales and Neverwhere. The Underground has also featured in music such as The Jam’s ‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’ and in literature such as the graphic novel V for Vendetta. Popular legends about the Underground being haunted persist to this day.

Famous urban building mistakes St. Francis Dam, 1928

Self-taught engineer William Mulholland built this LA dam on a defective foundation and ignored the geology of the surrounding canyon. He also dismissed cracks that formed as soon as the reservoir behind it was filled.

Five days later, it ruptured, killing 450 people and destroying entire towns (along with Mulholland’s career).

Kansas City Hyatt walkways, 1981

Walkways crisscrossing the hotel’s multistorey atrium collapsed, domino-style, raining debris and hundreds of people onto the packed dance contest below. The cause: grossly negligent design and use of beams that could support only 30 per cent of the load.

Vasa, 1628 Three hundred years before the Titanic, the Vasa was the biggest sailing vessel of its day.

The overloaded ship ruled the seas for all of a mile before she took on water through her too-low gun ports and promptly capsised.

North-eastern US power grid, 1965

A single protective relay tripped in Ontario, overloading nearby circuits and causing a cascade of outages that left 30 million homes without power for up to 13 hours. A fragile, redundancy-free design ensured that it would happen eventually.

McDonnell Douglas DC-10, 1970s

Nearly a thousand people around the world lost their lives while the kinks were

being ironed out of this 2630 kg competitor to Boeing’s 747. Blown-out cargo doors, shredded hydraulic lines, and engines dropped mid-flight were just a few of the behemoth’s early problems.

Firestone 500 tires, 1970s

These steel-belted radials allowed water to seep under the tread, which caused the belting to rust and the tread to separate, typically at high speeds. Dozens of deaths later, Firestone blamed consumers, and then recalled 10 million tires.

Purity Distilling Company tank, 1919

You got to keep your molasses somewhere – how about a rickety tank 50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter in the middle of Boston? The structure was painted brown to hide the leaks. Eventually it burst (possibly

exploding from fermentation), sending waves of molasses up to 15 feet high into the city and killing 21.

Skylab, 1973

America’s first space station was hopelessly damaged at launch because designers failed to account for the aerodynamics of the meteoroid shield and solar panels.

When crews weren’t busy making repairs, they complained of the extreme heat on board.

Citigroup Centre, 1978

Last-minute changes to structural braces of this Manhattan tower left it vulnerable to collapse in high winds. With a hurricane bearing down on the city, builders rushed to strengthen it by welding 2-inch steel plates over 200 weakly bolted joints.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

GAMETROPIC

GADGETED

Consumers spent $21.53bn on video games, hardware, and accessories in 2013.

The Vitamin C Showerhead is a luxury showerhead that will not only give you citrus aromatherapy, but contains Vitamin C concentrate that will promote healthier skin and nails.

TeChLiFe

Why can’t nobodies have lengthy Wikipedia profiles?

The answer is simple, they are not sufficiently notable. Such was the harsh, but undeniably fair, verdict of killjoy Wikipedia editors in response to the mighty 3,000-word life-story that amateur Scottish footballer Fraser Hobday put up about himself on the website.

Hurtful though it may be, the career of Hobday, who plays between the sticks for mighty Huntly FC in Scotland’s Highland League, was not deemed of sufficient interest or worth for such an in-depth factual resource. To add weight to the case that Hobday was not a person of importance or interest, many editors and commenters cited the fact that Huntly FC are not in a professional league; indeed you have to go several levels up the pyramid of Scottish football before you are guaranteed professionalism. And those of us who watch the Scottish Premiership

regularly might argue that the country’s top flight is far from copper-bottomed in this regard, but that’s another story. As it was, the career of Hobday, a 19-year-old parttime café worker, formed the basis of a remarkable 3,271-word biography, which was put up – very sweetly – by his sister. What it lacks, perhaps, in genuine notability it certainly makes up for in dry wit. Entries such as: “Fraser was involved in the Dunnottar Primary School football team from its establishment in 2005. He was picked at the first time of asking.” and “Hobday has played in the subsequent two league games, very much impressing in both despite losing 10-0 to Formartine United FC.” Someone suggested that Fraser, his sister, or both could definitely have an alternative career as comedy writers should the catering or

Click! Click!!

Apptitude Poshmark helps you sell items you never wear anymore This app serves two purposes: Selling and shopping. When you’re tired of wearing last season’s statement necklace, you simply post your asking price and photos of the item. When someone (hopefully) buys it, you keep 80% of the profit. Then you have some petty cash to purchase other people’s gently used designer brands at steep discounts. The app gives you all the thrill of thrift shopping without spending hours and hours combing through clothing racks.

goalkeeping not work out. Still, his Wikipedia page was longer than that of Brazil superstar Neymar, and also that of England’s number one goalkeeper, Joe Hart. And in this day and age, that has to count for something, right?

With RetailMeNot, you’ll always know which stores are having a sale Before you buy anything online or instore, check RetailMeNot for coupon or promotional codes. Both the app and the site often list discounts that aren’t publicly advertised by the store. If you download the app, you’ll get reminders when deals are about to expire. There’s no coupon printing required — just show the cashier your phone at checkout to get the savings.

Forget selfies, try ‘dronies’ What comes in a white cardboard box, weighs little more than a kilogramme and can be purchased in a few clicks from Amazon? Few people would guess a drone a term that conjures up stealth strikes and spy movies. But that’s the point for DJI, a Chinese company that dominates the young but growing market for personal and commercial drones. It wants to make the airborne gadgets, if not soft and cuddly, at least unremarkable.

“It’s made of white plastic. It’s not scary. It’s pretty accessible to most people,” says Eric Cheng, DJI’s director of aerial imaging. The company’s ready-to-fly Phantom photography drone makes it a ‘global leader,’ in small unmanned aerial systems according to Frost & Sullivan, a research group. DJI believes drones like the Phantom will soon become another ‘camera in your bag,’ allowing photography enthusiasts to embrace ‘dronies’ with same fervor as ‘selfies.’ ‘It’s sort of an extension of the selfie stick really,’ says Cheng. ‘It’s an unlocking of the third dimension for camera positioning.’ Their latest four-propeller drone is equipped with a high-definition camera and a

for the upwardly mobile

RedLaser helps you get the best deal

Wi-Fi transmitter lets pilots watch the video streamed live to their smartphone that attaches to the controller. Mounted on a three-axis gimbal or stabilizer, the camera can be rotated while the drone hovers in place enabling it to capture stunning aerial images such as close-ups of a volcano.

The company was founded in 2006 by engineer and remote control helicopter enthusiast Frank Wang, who started out making kits for hobbyists before launching the Phantom range in 2013. It has expanded quickly, growing from 20 employees in 2009 to

2,500, who are mainly based at company headquarters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Operating at the cutting edge of a new technology is rare for Chinese companies, which are typically regarded as manufacturers of ideas and designs hatched in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. It’s the kind of company that China needs more of if it wants to make the transition from world’s factory floor to a home for innovative companies with global reach. Cheng says Shenzhen marries the best of China’s manufacturing prowess with a rich pool of design and engineering talent.

You have no excuse not to comparison shop with this handy app. When you’re looking for a specific item, RedLaser will tell you where it’s the cheapest. You’ll never overpay for anything.

‘Borrow’ other people’s internet with Wi-Fi Finder This one’s self-explanatory. The app spits out a map of all the free Wi-Fi locations nearby, which is hugely helpful when it’s the end of the month and you don’t want to get charged for going over your phone’s data usage limit. Use it wisely.

Can Facebook live up to the hype?

Speaking solely in Mandarin in front of a Chinese audience was probably really hard for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

But satisfying Wall Street’s extremely high expectations for his company may prove to be even more difficult. Facebook went public in May 2012 at $38 a share and wound up plunging to $17.55 a few months later due to worries that Zuckerberg had no mobile strategy for the social networking site. So in a little more than two years, the stock has more than quadrupled from its lows. Shares are up more than 45% this year alone.

It’s a stunning turnaround and it’s all

due to Facebook’s successful transition from the desktop to smartphones and tablets.

Facebook finished the second quarter with 1.07 billion mobile monthly active users. And mobile ads accounted for 62% of Facebook’s total advertising revenue. What this means though is that there is a lot of pressure on Facebook to keep posting insanely strong levels of growth.

Facebook is no longer viewed as a company that might become a big player in online advertising. It is a big player, especially in mobile. It’s essentially

a race between Facebook and Google.

Other companies, such as Microsoft, Twitter, AOL and Yahoo are all fighting for the scraps left behind by Larry Page and Zuckerberg. Shares are pretty expensive too, trading at nearly 40 times 2015 earnings forecasts. And investors can be unkind to Wall Street darlings who don’t live up to the hype.

Just look at Netflix, Amazon and Yelp.

Facebook is a much healthier company than any of those three though. But there are some similarities between Facebook and Amazon that could be troubling.

Zuckerberg, like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has shown a tendency to make bold bets that may not immediately pan out. For now, Wall Street is giving Zuckerberg the benefit of the doubt.

And they should. The purchase of Instagram has been a huge success for the company. But what if WhatsApp and Oculus, two big deals announced this year, are duds? Bezos is coming under pressure now because investors fear that Amazon is spread too thin. So the big challenge for Zuckerberg is to make sure Facebook can steer clear of the problems now plaguing Amazon.

44

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Cultured!

Culture

CULTURE

for the uninformed & clueless

SHOCK

There are islands in Polynesia where on festive days the local women set out to gang-rape men they find walking on their own.

Superstitions

Dresssense

Heather Graham flashes underwear in daring sheer skirt Heather Graham was in the mood to celebrate following the New York premiere of her new movie Horns on Monday.

The actress hit the after-party in the same glamorous ensemble she wore on the red carpet, and made sure all eyes were on her. Heather left little to the imagination in a black pencil skirt with a sheer panel on one side that stretched across the whole of her left leg. As well as flashing her lean limbs, the 44-year-old showcased a bit of her underwear in the barely there garment. Heather teamed the daring asymmetrical skirt with a boxy black crop top, leaving a sliver of toned midriff

on show, along with matching suede court shoes. She decided to forgo any accessories or jewellery, and wore her blonde locks in 1920s style romantic waves. Heather completed her look with peach blusher and scarlet lips, highlighting her youthful complexion. The Hangover star was joined by a mystery man, and possibly a new love interest, as they posed together while holding hands.

Inside the bash, which was held at Jimmy at The James Hotel, Heather cozied up with co-star Juno Temple. The Dark Knight Rises star, 25, picked a funky black tuxedo dress with yellow lapels, cuffs and pockets, along

Indulge

line. Overkill, The Giant Zombie-Killing Robot costume promises to turn the wearer into ‘a living legend’ and sells for $25,000. The robot-looking costume has laser effects, legs with stilts, a one-piece torso with LED lighting, controllable finger sheaths and a giant headpiece. It’s also equipped with a fan. The custom-fit Invisible Cowboy Premium Costume costs $2,500 and has a head that can move in all directions. While these costumes take Halloween spending to the next level, Americans will be celebrating the holiday in record numbers this year.

The National Retail Federation reported more than two-thirds of Americans will buy a costume and spend a total of $2.8bn on their outfits this year.

Of course, MorphCostumes has more affordable options. The company has more than 300 costumes with an average price of $30-$45.

uncommon history of common things Honeymoons are and always have been about the bride and groom getting away from it all – it’s just the reason behind getting away that has changed. In ancient Norse, the hjunottsmanathr was a period of time in which the groom took his abducted bride into hiding, ensuring that after a while her family would give up searching for her and the‘happy couple’could go and live with his tribe.

Giving early wooing techniques, it’s understanding that while in hiding the bride and groom each would daily be

given a cup of the honey wine known as mead. Thirty days of mead equals ‘honeymoon’. Not quite as romantic as the contemporary practice of taking a long trip to an exotic locale, but definitely, purposeful. The more relaxed the new couple became, the more likely they were to conceive, and the pregnancy cemented the union.

After renaissance, when both people were a little more sophisticated, post wedding‘honeymoon’period became fashionable as a way to allow the newly

Proverbs A spoon does not know the taste of soup, nor a learned fool the taste of wisdom.

– Welsh proverb Soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.

–bible proverb A prudent man does not make the goat his gardener.

– hungarian proverb

excusez-moi

Body language of the Austrians

Halloween costume for over a million dollars The Million Dollar Morphsuit is encrusted head to toe with 70,000 diamonds. While the costume is currently locked away in a vault in London, it can be purchased by anyone willing to shell out $1.6m. The price tag might be scary, but the costume is pretty glamorous. The company used its signature ‘morphsuit’ as the base – a skin-tight spandex suit that covers the entire body, including the head – and bedazzled the silver suit in diamonds of various carats. The costume is ‘a bit heavy’ and can be hard to see out of given all the bling, said Gregor Lawson, co-founder of MorphCostumes. “It’s probably not the most comfortable of our offerings, but if you roll the head part down, you can still be covered 90% in diamonds.”

For those not willing to shell out six figures on a costume, the company has other options in its high-end ‘WTF’

It is a belief in Italy that if you eat something and get into water within 3-4 hours, you will die.

Austrians conduct themselves with reserved, polite formality. Others may misinterpret Austrians’ body language as aloofness and unfriendliness.

Austrians consider eye contact very important.

Look people directly in the eye.

In the past, Austrians didn’t kiss, hug, or touch one another in public. Recently, especially in urban areas, more people are displaying affection.

Staring at strangers is an Austrian pastime. Don’t be offended or uncomfortable if Austrians stare at you.

Austrians do queue (stand in line), but they may stand very closely to one another, touch their neighbours, and shove forward.

Honeymoon married and supposedly chaste bride and groom time to become intimately acquainted without social obligations.

The concept of the honeymoon as a vacation originated in 19th-century Victorian England. Industrial revolutionera advances in transportation made it easier and exciting for newlyweds to board a train or luxury steamer and explore a new locale together. Although the direct translation of the word honeymoon in French is lune de miel, in France these trips were referred to as

voyages a la facon anglaise (English-style trips).

As travel methods have multiplied, and especially as air travel has become commonplace, honeymoon trips have multiplied. Fewer modern couples require the kind of reverse and isolation that was once shown to couples on their honeymoon, and so trips may even involve other friends or family, as well as many different kinds of activities, from wine-tasting evenings to sea-kayaking expeditions.

45

Saturday, November 1, 2014

TRAVELoGuE Canada’s capital Ottawa has plenty going for it. The city’s small size makes it manageable; its laid-back atmosphere makes it personable; and its abundance of museums and cultural sites makes it desirable for visitors all year round.

DESIRABLES

THE MUSTREADS AND LINGER-ONS

Guy Scott

Africa’s first post-apartheid white leader He has been called ‘a scaly old dude’ by George W Bush and derided as a ‘sick old man’ by Zambia’s opposition, but following Michael Sata’s death on Tuesday in a London hospital, Guy Scott assumed another title: Africa’s only white president.

Guy Scott became vicepresident of Zambia when Michael Sata won power in September 2011. The pair were old political allies and firm friends. Despite there being only 40,000 whites among Zambia’s 13 million people, there was little surprise over Mr Sata’s decision to appoint a white deputy - even though this raised the possibility of a white man becoming head of state, as it has indeed happened.

Mr Scott, a father-of-four, is genuinely popular, widely credited with rescuing Zambia from a food crisis caused by a drought when he was agriculture minister in the 1990s. Nonetheless, Mr Scott conceded that his election on Mr Sata’s ticket was not universally applauded. Opponents have cited his heritage as a reason why he should not hold high office in a former British Protectorate which won independence 50 years ago.

“I don’t think Michael thought it was a racial thing, he just thought it was a good idea,” Mr Scott told The Telegraph during an interview in 2012. “I’ve been involved in politics here for a long time. As a schoolboy I was involved in the liberation movement.”

As vice-president, Mr Scott enjoyed the consternation his appointment sometimes provoked. “You see people’s jaws drop, they think there’s been a mistake with the seating plan or something,” he said. “A white Zambian but not representing white interests, that’s the point.”

The colourful and plainspeaking 70-year-old was born in the town of Livingstone, beside the Victoria Falls, with a Scottish father and English mother.

His father had emigrated to what was then the British Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia in 1927, where he worked variously as a doctor,

Facts about Guy Scott • He was born on June 1, 1944, that makes him 70-years-old.

• His father was a member of parliament for the capital of Lusaka before independence.

• He is Africa’s first white president since apartheid.

• He is interim president, but it’s unclear whether he’ll be allowed to run since Zambia’s constitution says a candidate’s parents must be natives.

• Scott’s ancestry is Scottish • He’s married with children.

Scott

a politician fighting for African rights, a lawyer and a newspaper publisher.

Mr Scott Junior returned to Britain to study mathematics and economics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He later took a doctorate in cognitive science from Sussex University and lectured in robotics at Oxford. The government led by himself and the late Mr Sata is credited with restoring some of Zambia’s tattered infrastructure projects and spending more on health and education.

As vice-president, Mr Scott acted as a go-between for sharp-tongued president, popularly known as ‘King Cobra’, and his sometimes despairing ministers. ‘Being

vice-anything is difficult,’ he told the Telegraph in his mahogany-lined office in the capital, Lusaka, where he took calls from ministers and conveyed their problems to ‘The Boss’, as he called Mr Sata. ‘If you’re too proactive, you tread on the boss’s toes, and if you’re too inactive, you are a waste of space,’ said Mr Scott. He received the accolade ‘scaly old dude’ from Mr Bush when the latter visited Zambia to support a charity after leaving office.

Mr Scott now lives with his wife, Charlotte, on a farm outside Lusaka, where he has spoken of his wish to enjoy a peaceful retirement among the frangipani trees. Like the late president, Mr Scott has been dogged by rumours

of ill-health, including one suggesting that he was suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease.

As vice-president, Mr Scott had to worry about his personal security - and that

will be doubly true now that he is Zambia’s acting head of state. ‘It’s always going to be high-risk,’ he told the Telegraph in 2012. ‘You’re never quite sure to what extent they’re going to try do a Romania on you and take control of the country or if they’re going to just fall in.

For a while, my bodyguards had rockets set up at my house. Your private life goes out the window. I can’t go out for dinner anymore.’ But Mr Scott could not hide a certain gleefulness about the ‘boys’ toys’ that come with high office in poor African countries - in his case, a helicopter and two motorcades. Helping to run Zambia brought a ‘sheer sense of achievement’ not easily

Guy Scott and his wife, Charlotte Harland Scott with Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House

46

Saturday, November 1, 2014

MiNDFUL

RANDOM

for the LeISUreLY-MINDeD & thoUGhtfUL

FACTS

It took Russian writer Leo Tolstoy six years to write his classic book War & Peace.

LAST WEEK'S

CROSSWORD

BOOTS DRESS GLOVES HAT OVERALLS PANTS SANDALS SCARF SHIRT SHOES SHORTS SKIRT SOCKS SUIT SWEATER TIE UNDERWEAR VEST

SUDOKU CLASSIC

WORDSEARCH

WORDLADDER Can you climb the ladder and find the missing numbers?

?

295 ?

50 55 11

SUDOKUCLASSIC

16 4 9 3 See solution below

HOMEWORK FOR GROWN-UPS 1.In which country did The Sony company originate? a) Vietnam b) Japan c) South Korea 2. Which Bill formed Microsoft? a) Knightly b) Clinton c) Gates 3. Ottawa is which country's capital? a) Canada b) Grenada c) Australia 4. In which English City is Buckingham Palace? a) Sherrington b) Buckingham c) London 5. How many brothers

were in the original Jackson family line up? a) Five b) Six C) Seven 6. Fidel Castro led a communist revolution where? a) Bolivia b) Peru c) Cuba 7. In which country was a 2000 year old, life size terracotta army discovered? a) Laos b) China c) Bahrain 8. What is the capital of the US state of Alaska? a) Juneau b) Winnipeg c) Nouveau Answers

WORDLADDER SOLUTION

HOMEWORK

b) Japan c) Gates a) Canada c) London a) Five c) Cuba b) China a) Juneau

WORDSEARCH

Put each of the numbers 1-9 once in every row, column and 3x3 box

CROSSWORD

1. Block out (4) 3. Amaze (8) 8. Article of clothing (7) 9. Meaning of a word (5) 10. Board game (5) 11. An extreme attainment (6) 13. To the opposite side (6) 15. Upper deck of a ship (6) 18. Reptile (6) 20. Thick (5) 23. Nimble (5) 24. Look over carefully (7) 25. Got back (8) 26. Notable achievement (4)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

1. Prestidigitator (8) 2. Tennis stroke (5) 4. Planet (6) 5. Disregarded (7) 6. Pay close attention to (4) 7. Periodic population count (6) 9. Pouch (3) 12. Vanquished (8) 14. Precipitating (7) 16. Pungent edible root (6) 17. Look up to (6) 19. Simian (3) 21. Female relative (5) 22. Impartial (4)

SOLUTIONS

ACROSS

3(x3)=9(-5)=4(x4)=16(5)=11(x5)=55(-5)=50(x6)=300(5)=295(x7)=2065

DOWN

47

Saturday, November 1, 2014

a la carte

78%

Percentage of the human brain that contains water.

lady'S WORdS

When a lady has difficulty understanding a person who has a foreign accent or a speech impediment...

She does not say: “Isn’t there some kind of sign language you people use?”

“Don’t they speak English where you come from?”

“Wow! You must really have a hard time using the telephone.”

But she does say: “I hope you’ll pardon me as I want us to be able to have this conversation, but I’m having a hard time understanding you.”

This sort of remark suggests that it is the lady, not her new acquaintance, who has a

hOW tO ...

THE LOTS TO CHEW ON AND REGURGITATE

66%

problem. It also provides her with the opportunity, if there is a language barrier, to bring an interpreter into the conversation. If a speech impediment is involved, the lady may suggest that she and her acquaintance resort to pen and paper, hoping that, at future meetings, the lady will become better attuned to her friend’s speech patterns.

When a lady wants to determine the age of a social acquaintance.

She does not say: “What year did you graduate from high school?”

“Just how old are you?”

“I bet you and I are about the same age, aren’t we?’’

Shine shoes Percentage of time an average cat sleeps in their life time.

“How far away are you from retirement?”

“If you were a tree, how many rings would you have?”

But she does say: Nothing.

There are hardly any social circumstances that demand that a lady know another person’s age. Only when the conversation is related to shared experiences-and when knowing a person’s age might provide an interesting point of reference-should the subject even be broached even then, a lady is content with a general age range. No further specifics are required.

change yOuR WORld Think before you pour it down the drain There are pretty strict rules governing what can and can’t be tossed into our municipal dumps. Anything that is highly flammable, toxic, can accumulate in an ecosystem or could cause infection in people or animals is defined as hazardous waste. That’s

pretty wide net of nasty stuff, including all sorts of things we use every day in our homes. Hazardous waste disposal is handled by certain companies but they could sometimes cost more than the original worth of the stuff. Therefore, the first solu-

tion to this problem is to just hold on to whatever it is. You will almost certainly need it again sometimes down the line and these sorts of products don’t really degrade.

Just store it in clearly labelled containers out of the reach of children.

Leave everything better than you found it It’s the first basic campsite rule. It applies equally to houses, horses, picnic spots or young lovers. Leave them in better shape than you found

them. That means not only cleaning up the mess you made, but quietly sorting out a little of grime left by others too. And do it graciously. Don’t

focus on the person who did the damage, focus on the improvement that you’re going to be leaving. No one likes a martyr.

laugh–Out–lOud Tourism department What’s this daily charge for ‘fruit’?’’ the hotel patron asked the manger. ‘’we didn’t eat any.’’‘’ but the fruit was placed in your room every day. It isn’t our fault you didn’t take advantage of it.’’‘’I see,’’ said the man as he subtracted $150 from the bill. ‘’What are you doing?’’ sputtered the manager. ‘’ I’m subtracting 50 dollars a day for your kissing my wife.’’‘’ What? I didn’t kiss your wife.’’‘’ Ah,’’ replied the man, ‘’ but she was there.’’

Asia was by far my favourite destination,’’ the woman bragged at the party, though

she had never been out of the United States. ‘’ enigmatic and magical, beautiful beyond belief. And China, of course, is the pearl of the Asian oyster.’’ ‘’ What about the pagodas?’’ a man beside her asked. ‘’ Did you see them?’’‘’ Did I see them? My dear, I had dinner with them.’’

In panic, a traveller called down to the hotel’s front desk soon after checking in. ‘’ help!’’

He yelled,‘’ I’m trapped inside my room!’’‘’ What do you mean, trapped?’’‘’ Well, I see three doors, the first opens to a closet, and the second to

a bathroom, while the third door has a ‘do not disturb’ sign hanging on it.’’

A tourist was visiting New Mexico and was amazed at the dinosaur bones lying about asked the elderly Native American who was their tour guide how old the bones were. ‘’ exactly one hundred million and three years old.’’ The tourist then inquired of him how sure he was about his answer. ‘’ well,’’ replied the guide, ‘’ a geologist came by here and told me these bones were one hundred million years old, and that was exactly three years ago.’’

You don’t need to be a genius to shine shoes, but the first key is recognising that there is a distinct difference between shining and cleaning. For example, it is impossible to shine white shoes no matter what kind of leather. You can, however clean them with a variety of different cleaners and/ or a white cream. If you scratch a pair of white shoes, polish doesn’t help. You need to use a white spray to cover the spot. You should not polish beige or tan shoes either. Polish may give you a shine, but it does not clean scratches or stains. Light-coloured shoes need to be cleaned, and the colour reconditioned, by using spray, available at your local shoemaker.

When dealing with black, brown, medium, or dark shades of shoe, the technique is quite simple.

Begin by removing the dust from the shoes using a regular towel. If you have mud on the hedge- the continuous edge of the shoe, use a damp cloth to get rid of the muck. Once the dust, dirt and mud are removed, it’s time to clean but not yet polished-the shoe. Work with a cleaner (liquid, cream, or paste) that matches the colour of the shoes. Apply the cleaner with a shoeshine rag, which comes in three dimensions: small, medium, and large. A soft hand towel can be used as the shoeshine rag, or you can go to the store and request a cloth made specifically for shoe shining.

Once the cleaner is applied, use strong, fluid motions to work the rag up and down the length of the shoe, spreading the cleaner evenly throughout.

This should take about two minutes. Brush off the cleaner with horsehair brush. The combination of the rag followed by the brush brings up the shine.

Never use a nylon brush, which will spoil the leather and never give you a good shine. When cleaning the hedge, use the sole dresser reconditioning product.

If you want an even brighter shine, apply kiwi polish and work with the same technique. As for polishing, the last step of the process, you can use a rag, but small round-shaped brush is preferred because it makes the polish easier to apply and helps keep it off your hands. It also gives you more control over the amount of polish used, and so provides a more even polish. In total, a solid shoe shine should take about 7 to 10 minutes.