Advocates for Health Millennium Development Goals Unite to Demand World Leaders Honor Funding Commitments

21 Jul 2009 12:17 Africa/Lagos

Advocates for Health Millennium Development Goals Unite to Demand World Leaders Honor Funding Commitments

Found: Hundreds of Billions of Dollars to Save the Wealthiest Corporations Lost: Billions of Dollars of G8 Commitments to Save Millions of Human Lives

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented and historic show of unity, advocates for all the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have charged the leaders of G-8 countries with reneging on their commitments to health by chronically underfunding programs for AIDS, TB, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, and health systems strengthening across the globe.


The coalition of advocates demands that world leaders make the health of men, women, and children around the world as important a priority as the health of banks, Wall Street investment firms, and auto companies and calls on donor governments to partner with civil society to strengthen accountability from recipient countries.


"We are already seeing people die and families forced further into poverty by healthcare costs as a direct result of this global economic crisis," said Dr. Lola Dare, Executive Secretary of the African Council for Sustainable Health Development (ACOSHED). "The fickle policy decisions of world leaders and national government are further compounding these problems. The global health community is speaking with one voice on this urgent need. We can no longer permit the world to be distracted by false choices -- between one disease and another, between a mother's life and that of her children, between treating sick people now, in their home communities, and building sustainable health systems for the future to deliver basic health care that can save lives."


"Investments now in HIV and health broadly are fundamental prerequisites for global development," said Julio Montaner, President of the International AIDS Society.


The global economic downturn is leading to significant backsliding in governments' commitments to funding for health programs in developing countries. "The rhetoric by heads of state at this year's G-8 summit was, as usual, noble and righteous. They produced statements about their support for health systems strengthening, maternal and child health, and integrated health service delivery," said Gregg Gonsalves, a co-founder of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition. "But, as has come to be the unfortunate pattern, the financial commitments made by the most powerful of the world were unacceptably low or worse, not made at all."


"At least a million additional lives are in jeopardy because of this economic crisis. We are calling for the world's richest countries to support their words with concrete action and back up their promises with the money necessary to fulfill them," said Ann Starrs, President of Family Care International.


"We estimate that to meet the promised health needs of less developed countries would take an increased investment by high income countries and developing country governments of around $150 billion a year(1). The AIG bailout alone was $170 billion," said Brook Baker, Professor of Law at Northeastern University and Policy Analyst for the US-based Health GAP. "Or to look at it another way, for 36% of what countries have spent in one year on direct bailouts of corporate and financial interests, rich countries alone could fully fund the additional $944 billion that we estimate is needed from now through 2015 to meet all MDG and health systems strengthening needs in less developed countries." Developed countries have so far contributed over $2.5 trillion in direct bailouts and over $6 trillion in 'guarantees.'(2)


"All we seem to be getting from the bailouts so far is record level projected bonus payouts for Wall Street," added Gonsalves. "But we know with one hundred percent certainty that many more people will die in 2010 because of this bailout, probably 100 times as many as the 13,000 Goldman Sachs employees who are projected to get compensation of over $500,000 each."


The coalition of global health advocates demands that each G-8 country pays 100% of the commitments they have made for 2010 including: for Universal Access to AIDS treatment, prevention, and care; full funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as well as additional commitments made for maternal child health and health systems strengthening.


"The fact that governments have quickly passed legislation to bailout the banks and companies that created this global financial crisis proves that there is sufficient capital to support those whose lives have been most affected by the crisis. What is needed is sufficient will," said Donna Barry of Partners In Health in the USA.


The U.S. President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been flat funded for three years; the G-8 countries have underfunded the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by $4 to 9 billion; donor country promises to fund maternal and child health and sexual and reproductive health programs are wholly insufficient to the task; and no G-8 country has made sufficient commitments to contribute significantly to expanding and strengthening the health workforce, to supporting community-based prevention and care, or to strengthening health systems and health infrastructure.


"The global economic situation cannot be used as an excuse to renege on financial commitments," said Kieran Daly, Executive Director of the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO). "Hundreds of billions of dollars, pounds, and euros magically appeared to bail out global financial markets and corporations. We do not want to believe that this bailout came at the cost of millions of human lives."


"The only way we will make real progress on meeting the MDGs is for donor countries to engage with developing country governments, and for developing country governments to commit financially and politically to revitalizing their national health systems to meet the challenges of HIV, sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, child survival and other health problems. Governments also can not forget that before 2015, they have other goals to meet, including UNGASS-AIDS 2010 and the Cairo Plan of Action," said Alessandra Nilo of GESTOS in Brazil.


Leaders representing advocates for more than 25 organizations focused on AIDS, TB, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health and primary health care came together in Stony Point, New York in May 2009 to initiate a partnership devoted to advocating for the universal right to health. A Declaration of Solidarity for a Unified Movement for the Right to Health was drafted at that meeting, and is being endorsed by health and human rights organizations around the world(3). This growing union of advocates, many of whom are signed on to this document, is now working in solidarity to hold the powers of the world accountable.


"We are all health and human rights advocates and we refuse to be pitted against each other," said Paula Akugizibwe of the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, "MDGs are simply categories of different needs that exist within the same human being. The same mother who needs ART to prevent the transmission of HIV to her infant also needs adequate nutrition and her children need clean water and immunizations. The same community that needs infection control for TB also needs it for influenza; and insufficient financial and human resources for health may prevent them from having any of these rights fulfilled."


Following is the initial group of health organizations supporting this statement:


A la Alianza Nacional "Campana por una Convencion Interamericana de los Derechos Sexuales y Derechos Reproductivos" - Bolivia


ABIA - Brazil
ACCSI - Accion Ciudadana Contra el SIDA, Venezuela,
African Council for Sustainable Health Development (ACOSHED)
African Council of AIDS Service Organizations (AfriCASO)
African CS Partnership for Health Systems Strengthening
AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa
AIDS and Society Research Unit, University of Cape Town
Aids Fonds
AIDS-Free World

Alianza Nacional de Grupos de Personas que viven con VIH o sida de Guatemala


Alianza Nacional de Hombres Gay, Trans y Hombres que Tienen Sexo Con Hombres (A-GTH) - Dominican Republic


Amigos Siempre Amigos (ASA) - Dominican Republic


Asamblea Nacional de ONG's y Organizaciones Sociales con trabajo en SIDA (ASOSIDA) - Chile


ASEPO - Uruguay
Asian Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS
Asociacion Nacional de Personas Positivas Vida Nueva - El Salvador
Asociacion Vida - Guatemala
Balance Promocion para el Desarrollo y Juventud - Mexico
BRAC
Caribbean Treatment Access Group
Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition
Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir - Mexico
Center for Health and Gender Equity
Central African Treatment Access Group
Centre for Health Sciences Training, Research and Development (CHESTRAD)
Centro de Informacion y Desarrollo de la Mujer - CIDEM.- Bolivia

Centro de Promocion y Defensa por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos (PROMSEX) -Peru


CNS Mujeres - Uruguay
Colectiva Mujer y Salud - Dominican Republic
Colectiva por el Derecho a Decidir - Costa Rica
Colectivo Feminista Mujeres Universitarias.- Honduras
Colectivo TLGB de Bolivia

Comunicacion, Intercambio y Desarrollo Humano en America Latina A. C. -CIDHAL A.C.


Convergencia de Mujeres - Honduras
Cordaid
Corporacion Chilena de Prevencion del SIDA (ACCIONGAY) - Chile
East African Treatment Access Movement (EATAM)
El Closet de Sor Juana, Mexico
Equidad de Genero: Ciudadania, Trabajo y Familia A.C - Mexico
Family Care International
FEIM - Argentina
Foro de Mujeres y Politicas de Poblacion - Mexico
Forum de Ong Aids do Estado de Sao Paulo - Brazil
Fundacion Arcoiris pro el Respeto a la Diversidad Sexual - Mexico
Fundacion Buenos Aires SIDA - Argentina
Fundacion Igualdad LGBT - Bolivia
Fundacion REDVIHDA - Bolivia
GAPA-SP
GAPA/RS - Brazil
GAPA/SP - Brazil
GESTOS - Soropositivity, Communication and Gender Issues - Brazil
GRUPAJUS - Brazil
Grupo De Antropologia Medica Critica Universidad Nacional De Colombia
Grupo de Informacion en Reproduccion Elegida (GIRE) - Mexico
Guyana Human Rights Association. - Guyana
Health & Development Networks (HDN)
Health care is not for Commerce - LAC
Health GAP
Helene De Beir Foundation - Belgium
Instituto para el Desarrollo Humano - Bolivia
International AIDS Society
International Civil Society Support
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS - UK
International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO)
INTILLA Asociacion Civil - Argentina
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC)
ITPC India
ITPC Nepal
ITPC RU - Eastern Europe/Central Asia
Jovenes Feministas Universitarias - Honduras

La Coalicion Internacional de Activistas dn Tratamientos (CIAT) - Latinoamerica


La Red de Voluntarios de Amigos Siempre Amigos (RevASA) - Dominican Republic


Latin American and Caribbean Council of NGO with AIDS Services (LACCASO)
Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (LACWHN)
LIGA Bonaerense de Diversidad Sexual - Argentina
Liga Colombiana de Lucha Contra el Sida - Colombia
Mujer y Salud - MYSU - Uruguay
National AIDS Committee - Guyana

Observatorio de Violencia Social y de Genero de la Sierra Norte de Puebla - Mexico


Partners in Health
Physicians for Human Rights
PLUS, International AIDS Coalition
Positive Action for Treatment Access (PATA) - Nigeria
Red Argentina de Mujeres
Red Argentina de Mujeres Viviendo con VIH-SIDA (RAMVIHS) - Argentina
Red Argentina de Personas Positivas (REDAR POSITIVA) - Argentina
Red de Personas viviendo con vih/sida- de Mar del Plata - Argentina
Red Latinoamericana de Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir - Latin America
Red por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos - Mexico
Redlac - Honduras
RESULTS USA
Senderos Asociacion Mutual - Colombia
SIDACTION
STOP AIDS NOW!
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)
Treatment Action Group (TAG)
West African Treatment Access Group
Women Won't Wait - Latin America


(1) Baker, B. The Long and Tortured Road to Adequate, Sustained, and Spendable Domestic and Donor Financing for Health. Available at http://www.icssupport.org/PDF/Discussion%20paper%20on%20Health%20Financing%20b y%20Brook%20Baker.pdf


(2) Grail Research, http://www.grailresearch.com/pdf/ContenPodsPdf/Global_Bailout_Tracker.pdf


(3)The full text of the declaration is available at: http://act.pih.org/page/s/declaration


Source: International Treatment Preparedness Coalition

CONTACT: Gorik Ooms, +27(0)727634603, or gooms@itg.be, Gregg Gonsalves,
+1-203-606-9149, or gregg.gonsalves@gmail.com, Kay Marshall, +1-347-249-6375,
or kaymarshall@mac.com, all for International Treatment Preparedness
Coalition

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News Video Documentary: The Life and Crimes of Bernie Madoff

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Nigeria: A New Beginning

Nigeria is starting to take a much more serious stance towards breaking from the issues of it's past. There is a very bright and talented pool of individuals equipped to make bold and impactful moves in today's tech business world. This event will bring the best and the brightest of Nigeria together for the first time to brainstorm on ideas and create new startups that will bring it's communities into success and abundance
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Startup Weekend Nigeria is part of the startups revolution of the successful Startup Weekend in America and our goal is to propel Nigerians into the dot-com bubble as dot-com companies did for America in the late 1990s when such awesome phenomenal startups like Amazon.com and eBay and others were launched and millions of new jobs were created.

Startup Weekend Nigeria will propel the dotcom boom that will fast-track the MDGs for the realization of the ultimate goals of our Vision 2020.

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The Publisher/Editor
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Coming Soon: The Life and Crimes of Bernie Madoff

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GUINNESS®Announces More Acts for Arthur's Day 250th Anniversary Celebrations

PRESS RELEASE - EMBARGOED UNTIL 15th July 2009 15:00hrs GMT

GUINNESS ANNOUNCES MORE ACTS FOR GLOBAL CELEBRATION

Dublin, Ireland, July 15, 2009 /PRNewswire/ — GUINNESS® announces today additional line-up of Artists joining the Arthur's Day 250th anniversary celebrations on 24th September 2009. Joining previously announced artists including The Black Eyed Peas, Estelle and Kasabian are music industry legend Sir Tom Jones and some of the hottest acts today including Razorlight, Imelda May, Calvin Harris, The Kooks, Jamie Cullum, Sugababes and David Gray. Over 60 Artists will pledge to perform in Dublin and around the world including New York, Lagos, Yaoundé and Asia to mark this remarkable milestone.

The celebrations begin in Dublin at 17:59 local time with a global toast to Arthur Guinness to mark the 250 years since he signed the 9,000 year lease on the St. James's Gate brewery and kick off the beginning of the Arthur's Day global events. In Dublin thousands of people will be coming together to experience the live music events in over 30 venues across Dublin from intimate gigs in pubs to music venues and even a concert at the St. James's Gate brewery itself. One of the most historic buildings in the brewery, Hop Store 13, will become a live music studio for Arthur's Day where more than 2,000 guests from around the world will enjoy performances from global artists in honour of this remarkable milestone and the legacy that is Arthur Guinness.

At 17:59 in and around the world, consumers will be joined by Artists and celebrities including Sir Bob Geldof, Guy Ritchie, Carson Daly, Jerry Hall and Sophie Dahl as they take part in this once in a lifetime moment and raise a GUINNESS to Arthur and toast the Arthur Guinness Fund. Arthur Guinness and his family were responsible for some of the most well known acts of philanthropy in Ireland and to honour and continue this legacy we are establishing the Arthur Guinness Fund. The aim of the Fund is to enable and empower individuals with skills and opportunities to deliver a measured benefit to their communities. The Guinness & Co. will donate €6 million to the Arthur Guinness Fund which will be active from September 2009.

New artists joining the Arthur's Day lineup today are: Sir Tom Jones, Calvin Harris, Razorlight, Richard Hawley, Black Swan Effect, Republic of Loose, Imelda May, David Gray, The Hot Rats, Jamie Cullum, Sugababes, The Kooks, The Blizzards, Golden Silvers, Jay Jay Pistolet, Mick Flannery, Dirty Epics, The Chakras, Cherbourg, Eoghan Colgan, Hoarsebox, Nat Jenkins, Noise Control and The Chapters.

Notes to editors:
For detailed information about GUINNESS 250 and Arthur's Day visit www.guinnessmedia.com. This information is just two of thousands of photos, facts and video that helps to tell the unique and colourful story of GUINNESS. www.guinnessmedia.com is restricted for media access only.

The Arthur Guinness Fund is an internal fund created by Guinness & Co. which will be used by Guinness & Co. to create opportunities for communities in several countries around the World including providing skills for life and supporting social entrepreneurs. The Fund is not a separate charity but its monies are held separately by Guinness & Co. and will be independently audited.

The GUINNESS word and associated logos are trademarks.

Press Contact:
Beth Davies
beth.davies.ryan@diageo.com

guinnessglobal@taylorpr.com

The Best Hospitals in America

16 Jul 2009 13:00 Africa/Lagos

U.S. News Media Group Announces 2009-10 America's Best Hospitals

-20th annual edition includes top hospitals 'Honor Roll,' rankings in 16 specialties, and exclusive web video series-

WASHINGTON, July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News Media Group, the nation's leading source of rankings and service journalism, today announced the 2009-10 publication of America's Best Hospitals, accessible today online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals and on sale at newsstands Tuesday, July 21.


Now in its 20th year, the multi-platform 2009-10 America's Best Hospitals guide is the most extensive hospital ranking to-date. It includes rankings of 174 medical centers nationwide in 16 specialties -- with full data available online for another 1,500 unranked hospitals. In addition, the Best Hospitals "Honor Roll" highlights 21 medical centers that were ranked at or near the top in at least six specialties.


The 16 ranked specialties are cancer; diabetes & endocrine disorders; digestive disorders; ear, nose, and throat; geriatric care; gynecology; heart and heart surgery; kidney disorders; neurology and neurosurgery; ophthalmology; orthopedics; psychiatry; rehabilitation; respiratory disorders; rheumatology; and urology.


"When the stakes are high, you want the best care you can get for someone close to you," said Avery Comarow, health rankings editor. "These are hospitals that are used to getting the sickest patients."


The 2009-10 Best Hospitals guide also includes a web video series on USNews.com where visitors can watch HealthiNation Chief Medical Editor Dr. Holly Atkinson interview Comarow and Dr. Bernadine Healy, U.S. News health editor, to capture their expertise and insight into the Best Hospitals ranking process. The videos take viewers behind the scenes of the rigorous selection process, include profiles of top winners across categories, and reveal what it takes for a hospital to be named one of "America's Best."


"Over the past two decades, America's Best Hospitals has proven to be an essential resource for consumers facing difficult healthcare decisions," said Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News & World Report. "With this year's Best Hospitals video series, we're not only bringing this topic to life, but also highlighting examples of hospital excellence and quality care."


Of the medical centers ranked in the 2009-10 America's Best Hospitals, 21 earned Honor Roll status, demonstrating excellence and breadth of expertise by ranking at or near the top in at least six specialties. The top hospitals in the 2009-10 Honor Roll* are:


1. Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore)
2. Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)
3. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles)
4. Cleveland Clinic
5. Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)
6. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
7. University of California, San Francisco Medical Center
8. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
9. Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University (St. Louis)
10. Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston)
10. Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC)

*For the full "Honor Roll" list, visit www.usnews.com/besthospitals.


In addition to the hospitals that appear in one or more specialty rankings in the print magazine, the 2009-10 America's Best Hospitals package includes an online consumer guide where readers can find information on more than 1,500 hospitals that qualified for rankings, but did not score high enough to be ranked (fewer than one-third of the 4,861 U.S. hospitals evaluated did qualify).


Methodology


The rankings in 12 of the 16 specialties -- all but ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation, and rheumatology -- are predominantly driven by hard data. There are four components: reputation, death rate, patient safety (new this year), and care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. In these 12 specialties, hospitals have to pass through several gates to be ranked and considered a Best Hospital:


1. The first gate determines whether a hospital is eligible to be ranked at all by requiring that it must meet any of three conditions: be a teaching hospital; have at least 200 beds; or have at least 100 beds plus at least four out of eight key medical technologies such as current-generation CT scanners and precision radiation therapy.


2. The second gate determines whether a hospital is eligible to be ranked in a particular specialty. To be eligible, the hospital had to either have at least a specified volume of certain procedures and conditions over three years, or had to have been nominated by at least one physician in the last three years of our annual specialist survey.


3. The third gate is whether a hospital does well enough to be ranked, based on its reputation, death rate, patient safety, and factors like nurse staffing and technology.


In the four other specialties -- ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation, and rheumatology -- ranking is based solely on nominations from the three most recent physician surveys.


About the U.S. News Media Group


The U.S. News Media Group is a multi-platform digital publisher of news and analysis, which includes the monthly U.S. News & World Report magazine, the digital-only U.S. News Weekly magazine, www.usnews.com, and www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Money & Business, Education, and Public Service/Opinion, the U.S. News Media Group has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. The U.S. News Media Group's signature franchises include its News You Can Use brand of journalism and its "America's Best" series of consumer guides that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, health plans, and more.


Source: U.S. News Media Group

CONTACT: Liz Putze, U.S. News & World Report, +1-202-955-2136,
eputze@usnews.com, or Lucy Byrd, U.S. News & World Report, lbyrd@usnews.com


Web Site: http://www.usnews.com/

Nigeria's Largest-Circulation Newspaper Recognizes Role of World Congress of Families in Africa

16 Jul 2009 10:00 Africa/Lagos

Nigeria's Largest-Circulation Newspaper Recognizes Role of World Congress of Families in Africa: Pro-Family Message Will Be Carried To Europe, August 10-12

Registration Still Available For World Congress Of Families V In Amsterdam, August 10-12

WASHINGTON, July 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sun, Nigeria's largest-circulation newspaper, was fulsome in its praise of World Congress of Families for helping to organize the conference, "The World Congress of Families Dialogue of Civilizations," in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital, June 4-7.


The "Dialogue of Civilizations," hosted by the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage, brought more than 400 participants to the Musa Yar'Adua Centre, for what The Sun called "the first pro-family conference in Africa."


The paper described the event as "aimed at giving the Nigerian perspective to a troubled world lurching from one moral crisis to another."


The Sun noted that addresses included: "A Plan of Action on the Family in Africa," "A Christian View on Sexuality and Family," "Population Decline of the Developed World - A Lesson for Africa," "Pornography and the Family," and "A Plan to Defend the Family at the United Nations." Besides Nigeria, participants came from Cameroon, Ghana, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Netherlands and the United States.


WCF Communications Director Don Feder, who represented the Congress at the event, said, "We're pleased to have Nigeria's largest-circulation newspaper recognize the importance of the Abuja conference and the role World Congress of Families is playing in strengthening the pro-family movement in Africa."


The Abuja Conference was a preparatory-conference for the upcoming World Congress of Families V in Amsterdam, Holland, August 10-12. Representing the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage, Theresa Okafor will report on the Abuja conference at World Congress of Families V. The Amsterdam program on August 11th will focus on the families of Africa and other developing countries. Click here for the full program and schedule of speakers: www.worldcongress.nl/en/program/.


Participants and delegates can still register for WCF V online at www.worldcongress.org/WCF5/wcf5.reg.mem.htm. Click here. Student discounts and scholarships are available. Contact Simon Polinder at spolinder@gmail.com.


For more information on World Congress of Families V, go to www.worldcongress.org. Click here to read The Sun story: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/july/08/national-08-0 7-2009-05.htm .


Representatives of the media can register free for WCF V in Amsterdam with press credentials at www.nl.worldcongress.pl/?wl=en .


The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family


organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60


countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social


unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal


Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan


Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society


in Rockford, Illinois (www.profam.org). To date, there have been four World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and


Warsaw, Poland (2007). A fifth World Congress of Families will be held in
Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 10-12, 2009 (www.worldcongress.nl and
www.worldcongress.org).

Source: World Congress of Families

CONTACT: Don Feder, World Congress of Families, +1-508-405-1337,
dfeder@rcn.com


Web Site: http://www.worldcongress.nl/
http://www.worldcongress.org/
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/
http://www.nl.worldcongress.pl/
http://www.profam.org/

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Happy Birthday Our Dear Wole Soyinka

Prof. Wole Soyinka of Nigeria

Happy Birthday to Professor.Wole Soyinka, the first African Nobel Prize laureate in Literature who clocks 75 today. The great African dramatist, poet, novelist and essayist, we call our own WS, said he is not having any "Owambe" party and would rather address why President Barack Obama snubbed Nigeria, the so called Giant of Africa in favour of Ghana in his first official visit to sub-saharan Africa.

The video below is a must view for all those who appreciate the genius of Soyinka.



Nigerians Report is wishing Prof. Wole Soyinka many more happy years of long life and peace of mind.

Americans Say Jackson's Death is Receiving Too Much Media Coverage

2 Jul 2009 19:57 Africa/Lagos

Americans Say Jackson's Death is Receiving Too Much Media Coverage

- More than one-third (39%) believe Farrah Fawcett's death is not receiving enough coverage -

FLEMINGTON, N.J., July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- A new national media study among 1,850 Americans revealed that the majority of respondents (63%) believe that Michael Jackson's death is receiving too much media coverage in comparison to the coverage of Farrah Fawcett's death.


(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071204/NYTU133LOGO )


The study was conducted by HCD Research using its MediaCurves.com(R) website on July 1, to obtain Americans' perceptions of recent celebrity deaths, with regard to the amount of media coverage they are receiving. To view detailed results go to: www.mediacurves.com.


While the majority of respondents (63%) reported that Michael Jackson's death is receiving too much media coverage, an even larger majority (80%) reported that they are engaged in the topic when they are exposed to it by the media. However, a slightly higher percentage of respondents (84%) indicated that they are engaged with the topic of Fawcett's death when they are exposed to it by the media.


Among the study findings:


"With regard to the topic of Michael Jackson's death, indicate whether or not you feel the media coverage is appropriate."


Total
Too much coverage 63%
Appropriate coverage 36%
Not enough coverage 2%


"Please indicate how engaged you are in this specific topic (Michael Jackson's death) when you are exposed to it in the media."


Total
Extremely engaged in the topic 13%
Engaged in the topic 29%
Somewhat engaged in the topic 38%
Not at all engaged in the topic 20%


"With regard to the topic of Farrah Fawcett's death, indicate whether or not you feel the media coverage is appropriate."


Total
Too much coverage 5%
Appropriate coverage 56%
Not enough coverage 39%

"Please indicate how engaged you are in this specific topic (Farrah Fawcett's death) when you are exposed to it in the media."


Total
Extremely engaged in the topic 11%
Engaged in the topic 32%
Somewhat engaged in the topic 41%
Not at all engaged in the topic 17%

About MediaCurves.com

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Niger Delta Crisis: Amnesty or Travesty of Justice

Amnesty or Travesty?


I have decided not to approve the so called Amnesty the Federal Government has given to the so called militants in the Niger Delta region, because the celebrated Nigerian Nobel Laureate in Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka already spoken my mind in his critical analysis of the anomie in Between Amnesty and Amnesia.

The recourse to Amnesty after the punitive campaign of the Joint Task Force (JTF) failed woefully is begging the question of the Niger Delta crisis and not a solution. The solution to the Niger Delta crisis is not a Herculean task if the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) wants to be truly honest and transparent.

The bloody battle in the Niger Delta over resource control is actually a power struggle between mercenaries of the oligarchy in Nigeria fighting over illegal oil bunkering in the oil rich states of the Niger Delta. Both the serving and retired top military officers are actively engaged in the criminal operation of illegal oil bunkering and the Nigerian Navy cannot deny this fact, because the tankers and barges used for illegal oil bunkering are not invisible in the territorial waters of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They are ruthless in their greed for political power and money that they have usurped the rights of the host communities and took over the reins of power in government to control the Nigerian Armed Forces and ruling party to plunder the mineral resources in the country.
They have shared the oil blocks and are now engaged in a do or die battle in illegal oil bunkering that fetches over $20 million daily.

President Umaru Yar’Adua knows the truth and the sooner he says the truth the better.
The most ridiculous is amount of N50 billion being projected for the conflict resolution as proposed in the presidential Amnesty. Before our very eyes, that N50 billion would be embezzled by the same mercenaries of the oligarchy in power in Nigeria and the devastated host communities would be left with the crumbs.
This so called Amnesty is a travesty of justice.
Who is fooling whom?