9 Jun 2011 21:02 Africa/Lagos
Unprecedented Int'l Meeting Releases Preliminary Vision for our Energy Future
WATERLOO, Ontario, June 9, 2011/PRNewswire/ --
- Global Energy Summit in Waterloo, Canada Offers Ideas for Action on Sustainable Low-Carbon Electricity
A unique, international summit of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and future leaders from around the world has concluded with the release of the Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 Communiqué. The event's preliminary report includes visionary proposals for transformative action to reduce the electricity-related emissions that drive global warming.
The full Equinox Communiqué is now available at: http://wgsi.org/files/EquinoxCommunique_June9_2011.pdf
The Communiqué identifies a group of technological approaches and implementation steps that have the potential over the coming decades to accelerate the transition of our energy systems toward electrification and, in the longer term, toward an energy future where our dependence on fossil fuels is greatly reduced.
"Given the right support, the six priority actions we have identified can catalyze change on a global scale, from the cities of the developed world, to the billions of people who live in towns and villages that lack adequate access to electricity to provide the central link to improvements in the quality of life," said summit advisor Professor Jatin Nathwani, Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy at the University of Waterloo and Ontario Research Chair in Public Policy for Sustainable Energy.
Can we low-carbon power the planet in 20 years?
Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 participants came together to intensely explore, discuss and propose how science and technology can catalyze the urgent change required.
With representatives from countries including Canada, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Nigeria, the USA, and more, the Equinox Summit embodied the realities, challenges, and hopes of the enormously diverse global community - from those living in the world's 21 mega-cities of more than 10-million inhabitants, to the one-third of humanity who survive without electricity.
An electricity roadmap for nations
The Equinox Communiqué is a brief snapshot of the ideas and visions developed by the Summit participants, who aimed to address the great complexity of transitioning to low-carbon electricity production. It provides a series of immediate, concrete opportunities for action by industry and governments, both locally and internationally. These ideas will be explored in more detail in a future document, the Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030.
The pathways described in the Communiqué include: accelerating implementation of technologies to enable the integration of large-scale renewable sources of power, such as wind and solar, into existing electricity grids; new ways to develop low-carbon transportation; ways to build energy-smart cities; and means of providing sustainable electricity to those who currently live without it.
The Equinox Communiqué compliments a comprehensive online video resource of archived lectures and discussions by world-leading thinkers on achieving a low-carbon, sustainable electricity future.
That resource includes:
- Summit participants expanding on their closed-door discussions in public forums (http://wgsi.org/video)
- The Summit's infographic-style benchmark clips ( http://www.youtube.com/user/wgsisummit)
- A photo-diary of the week's accomplishments ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgsisummit/)
What's next
The ideas outlined in this Communiqué will form the basis of a detailed document that will be produced in coming months - the Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030.
Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030 will paint a picture of the challenges faced by society in energy, detail forecasts from various global and national agencies for the likely state of affairs in 2030, and list the Equinox Summit's recommendations and proposals to address these.
Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030 will be aimed at informing, advising and inspiring science and technology influencers, industry leaders and governments globally. It will focus on how science and technology can contribute to the challenges faced. It will offer practical, real-world solutions - based on the latest scientific thinking - and offer recommendations for investment and focus, and for the coordination of national and international scientific and engineering efforts which may, over the next 20 years, help address energy challenges in a meaningful way.
Cover online
- Watch the archived Equinox Summit: Energy 2030's video content, including the Summit's concluding session at http://wgsi.org/video.
About the Equinox Summit: Energy 2030
The Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 was the inaugural event of the Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI), a non-profit partnership, founded in October 2009, between Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (http://perimeterinstitute.ca/) and the University of Waterloo. (http://www.uwaterloo.ca/) WGSI's mandate is to catalyze longterm thinking and solutions to the world's most fundamental social, environmental and economic challenges using science and technology. WGSI provides a rare opportunity for great minds to come together, share new ideas and collectively work towards a better future. For more information, visit http://wgsi.org.
TVO is the presenting media partner for the Equinox Summit: Energy 2030. For more information TVO, visit http://www.tvo.org.
For further information:
Media Contacts
Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 Media Centre (open until 9:00 PM ET, June 9, 2011) +1(519)569-7600 x7506
RJ Taylor
WGSI Communications Liaison
+1(519)569-7600 x5371
newsroom@wgsi.org
Source: Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Monday, June 13, 2011
Exclusive Interview With Thierry Ehrmann, the Founder and CEO of Artprice.com
13 Jun 2011 01:00 Africa/Lagos
Exclusive Interview With Thierry Ehrmann, the Founder and CEO of Artprice.com
PARIS, June 13, 2011/PRNewswire/ -- This 9-page interview explains how Artprice imposed itself as the world leader in art market information, and how it then became the 1st worldwide market place in volume for art works with its standardised market place. These 37 questions, sometimes uncompromising, enable to understand Artprice's incredible history in the last 20 years. The interview also provides a global analysis of art markets in the world, with China that is now the leading market place, its leading position being confirmed for 2011. In the course of this long interview, Thierry Ehrmann also review Artprice's adventure on the Stock Market, with the best scoring in Europe on a regulated stock market in 2005 and 2011.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20110609/461260 )
These 9 pages are available in English, for accuracy issues.
1. Could you remind us of how Artprice was created?
2. Who were these targets?
3. Could you continue with how Artprice was created?
4. So what is your added value on this documentary fund?
5. How do you produce your reference prices since a painting is by its very nature unique?
6. How have you been able to get around this problem in such little time?
7. What do you reply to those who ask "why does everyone go on Artprice?"
8. Is the money raised on the stock market, along with funds from the Serveur group and the Bernard Arnault group behind the success of Artprice acquisitions?
9. How do you manage reproduction rights for works on line?
10. Would it be possible to create another "Artprice"?
11. How are you sure you will do auctions?
12. How is it possible to be so behind, in terms of computerisation and the Internet in 2011?
13. Why have you chosen the Abode of Chaos, dixit the New York Times, as Artprice's headquarters, is that provocation or strategy?
14. How would you value Artprice?
15. Could you be clearer, with a specific example?
16. Even your critics are on Artprice?
17. What will be the level of commission you earn on the transactions?
18. Is Artprice ripe for a takeover bid?
19. Does Artprice have any competitors?
20. Is Artprice, being the world leader, abusing its dominant position?
21. Did you try and buy out Artnet?
22. It would appear that other DNS can access the Artprice databases...
23. Do you have any new clients?
24. How is Artprice's financial health?
25. With the volumes we have seen, why hasn't the declaration threshold been crossed?
26. What about the Chinese funds?
27. How long do you think it will be before the legislative course is completed for the Law on the liberation of auction sales?
28. Why haven't you moved away?
29. What have you got to say about the ISF (tax on fortune)?
30. Can we be thinking about rapid transition to the SRD Long Only?
31. Have you backtested your system for future on-line auctions?
32. How far has Artprice penetrated the Chinese market?
33. Did you have any difficulties in becoming world leader? You're sometimes criticised for your procedural attitude?
34. Can we hope for a dividend in the near future?
35. What will be the impact of the change of status after the law on the annual turnover figure?
36. Can we consider that at EUR30 we are only at the beginning of the story?
37. And to end with, what is your prediction for the future of Artprice?
Thierry Ehrmann:
With regard to our commitments, which at the time were very ambitious on the 1999 introductory prospectus, we have met them all, well beyond the prospectus actually, coming through the 2000 NASDAQ crisis, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the 2003 war in Iraq and the big financial crisis which began in 2007 and which is far from over. With this decade, which has been the most catastrophic in the past two centuries, I know of only very few companies listed on the regulated stock market which have come out alive, without increasing their capital and which, during this same period, have acquired an undisputed world-leader position. To close this interview, I sincerely believe that we have only seen 10% of the history of Artprice.
Full interview:
http://serveur.serveur.com/Press_Release/pressreleaseEN.htm#20110606
Source: http://www.artprice.com (c)1987-2011 thierry Ehrmann
Discover the Alchemy and the universe of Artprice: http://web.artprice.com/video/
Artprice is the world leader in art market information with over 27 million auction prices and indices covering over 450,000 artists. Artprice Images(R) offers unlimited access to the largest database of art market information in the world, a library of 108,000,000 images and engravings of art works from 1700 to the present day. Artprice continuously updates its databases with information from 3,600 international auction houses and provides daily information on art market trends to the main financial press agencies and to 6,300 press titles worldwide. Artprice offers standardised adverts to its 1,300,000 members (member log in) and is the world's leading market place for buying and selling works of art (source: Artprice).
Artprice is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Paris: Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF
Artprice releases: http://serveur.serveur.com/press_release/pressreleaseen.htm
The Art Market in real time by Artprice on Twitter: http://twitter.com/artpricedotcom/
Contact: Josette Mey - tel: +33-(0)478-220-000, e-mail: ir@artprice.com
Source: Artprice.com
Friday, June 10, 2011
Curb Violence Against Women, Girls While Preventing AIDS, Says UNFPA
9 Jun 2011 22:33 Africa/Lagos
Curb Violence Against Women, Girls While Preventing AIDS, Says UNFPA
PR Newswire
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., June 9, 2011
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., June 9, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Stronger action must be taken to change harmful gender norms and practices and to integrate the prevention of gender-based violence into anti-HIV efforts, said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
Addressing world leaders on behalf of the United Nations during the AIDS Summit today, Dr. Osotimehin underlined the need to sustain the current momentum on women, girls and HIV by increasing political support and funding, both at the global and the national levels.
"As the former head of the National AIDS Control Agency of Nigeria, the former Minister of Health, and, now, Executive Director of UNFPA," he said, "I can say with certainty that we will not be able to stop HIV and improve women's and girls' health until we empower women, advance gender equality and engage men and boys in this effort."
While the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is being integrated with sexual and reproductive health, Dr. Osotimehin noted that services did not "adequately address the needs and rights of women living with HIV in their full diversity and throughout their life-cycle." The limited access to female condoms, he noted, illustrates the need for more women-tailored HIV responses.
"I would like to stress that access to resources remains a critical challenge for scaling up gender-responsive HIV programming," concluded Dr. Osotimehin. "In fact, I think the biggest game changer that we need is increased commitment, political will and adequate resource investments to address gender inequality as part of the HIV response, translated into adequate resource investment."
In a related note, Dr. Osotimehin welcomed the strong political will demonstrated in Tuesday's United Nations Security Council resolution which underlines the need for more efforts to curb the epidemic in conflict and post-conflict situations.
"Addressing HIV and AIDS at the Security Council for the second time underscores the security implications of this issue and the urgency that Member States give to this global challenge," said Dr. Osotimehin. "We are hopeful that the new resolution will strengthen political resolve to provide HIV prevention programmes to uniformed services that are aligned with efforts to end sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings. UNFPA remains committed to this work and to promoting the right to sexual and reproductive health for all."
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.
Visit www.unfpa.org .
SOURCE UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund
CONTACT: Abubakar Dungus, +1-212-297-5031, dungus@unfpa.org; or Omar Gharzeddine, +1-212-297-5028, gharzeddine@unfpa.org
Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
10 Jun 2011
05:26 Une réunion internationale sans précédent fait paraître sa Vision préliminaire pour notre avenir énergétique
9 Jun 2011
Top Topics
IT Employment Continues to Grow In May; Rate of Ascent Slows
MMA and Google to Unveil New Global Mobile Research Study
Sarah Palin Documentary, The Undefeated, Coming Exclusively to AMC Theatres® on July 15th
Pets Really Are Members of the Family
TWO Calls on Comedian Tracy Morgan to Respond to Allegations of Anti-Gay Tirade Onstage in Nashville
Viva Riva, Beyond the Nollywood Fever and Palaver
Viva Riva, Beyond the Nollywood Fever and Palaver
This weekend as the Congolese gangster thriller Viva Riva opens in theatres in Los Angeles, U.S.A, it should be a wakeup call to Nollywood that what matters most is not the quantity of your movies, but the quality in Art and craft of filmmaking beyond the get-rich-quick syndrome of churning out cheap home videos of Nigerian comedies and tragedies from Idumota to Onitsha.
When Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s "Viva Riva" beat the best Nollywood movies at the 2011 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), many of the Nigerian filmmakers were humbled. But how many of them learnt the real lessons of the event? They preferred to rush back to their business as usual in Nollywood and having premieres of their amateurish flicks at the Silverbird Cinemas where their posing and posturing on the local red carpet is the best they have been able to achieve so far, while the man from the war torn Democratic Republic of the Congo has gone ahead of them to make history with his "Viva Riva" as the first Congolese feature to find distribution in the U.S. I wonder if any Nollywood flick has achieved that. And Congo where French is the main official language, plus four official indigenous languages: Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba from “400 different tribes with 400 different ways of thinking. And, there are more than 200 ‘living’ languages,” according to Munga, with no acting schools and no "Congowood". In fact for most members of the cast, it was their first film credit.
Chineze Anyaene
Is it not amazing that the best film from Nollywood is "IJÉ the Journey", a New York Film Academy thesis feature film by Chineze Anyaene who has won 12 awards, including the Golden Ace Award at Las Vegas International Film Festival and the Melvin Van Peeples Award at the San Francisco Black Film Festival. In fact she even claimed that "IJÉ the Journey is the first standard Nigerian made Hollywood film" and do you blame her when like most people Nollywood is being mistaken as the best we can boast of from the Nigerian film industry since majority of our youths and even journalists are ignorant of the history of filmmaking in Nigeria and never knew that "Palaver" was the first Nigerian film shot in Jos, Plateau State, in 1904. But "IJÉ the Journey" is just one of the best Hollywood standard features done by Nigerian filmmakers who were making fantastic world class films for the cinema in the 1970s and 1980s. From Dr. Ola Balogun to Afolabi Adesanya and other notable veterans of the Nigerian cinema now mistakenly erroneously and ambiguously dubbed “Nollywood”. And I have already addressed this in my previous articles on Nollywood, so there is no need to over flog it again.
The once popular cinema culture is gradually being revived by Ben Murray-Bruce through his expanding Silverbird Cinemas and others building new cinemas all over Nigeria. And the real filmmakers are now redefining Nollywood by taking up the challenge of making features that can compete with the best in the world.
Majority of them have gone through the New York Film Academy. Faruk Lasaki, Kunle Afolayan, Stephanie Okereke, Chineze Anyaene, Chika Anadu and others who are going to take Nigerian films to compete with the best at the Cannes, Oscars and other major centres of the film world. But we need to address the problem of intellectual ignorance and professional arrogance plaguing Nollywood.
Many of the stakeholders are doing more harm than good to Nollywood by engaging in activities questioning the dignity and leadership of the Nigerian film industry.
They have also dragged their associations into partisan politics and promoting cash-for-vote and cash-for-news coverage sharp practices with many of them rubbishing and tarnishing the public image of the Nigerian film industry.
Piracy is still rampant and counterfeiting is being practiced by notable Nollywood stars who have been accused of copyright infringements like the desperate but futile attempts by a faction of Nollywood producers to hijack the duly registered Eko International Film Festival with the unethical support of their accomplices in public office.
My personal experience is quite revealing in the case of the counterfeiting of Eko International Film Festival by the mercenaries in Nollywood who have been abusing and misusing their professional associations for their greed and ego trips. But I have dismissed them since they have been found wanting in facing the real business of filmmaking and raking up ethnic differences and tribalism in their primordial divide and rule tactics to cause north-south dichotomy and east-west dichotomy in Nollywood when what matters most is promoting what is best for the Nigerian film industry and giving the necessary cooperation and support to those with the best intentions for the advancement of Nollywood, no matter your state of origin, in fact no matter where the person comes from, even from the moon or mars.
Only backward and narrow-minded people would be banging their office desk and going round the bend over why an Igbo should be the owner of a film festival in Lagos with the Yoruba name of "Eko"?
Would they also go bananas that my popular pen name "Orikinla" is Yoruba, because I am Igbo or question why I created "Òmó Iya Osùn" the mystical girl in "Boy Adam Floats Headless In The Thames"? Of course they are ignorant of the fact that my father grew up among the Yoruba Ijebus of Ogun State in the western region of Nigeria, became a Babalawo versed in Ifa Divination, was also an Ogun priest with an Ogun shrine in Obalende on the Lagos Island and was a prominent member of the Ogboni society. And he brought me up with deep knowledge of the mythology and mysticism of the Yoruba culture and religion until he passed on. I knew enough to be the first Nigerian artist to mount an installation of Ogun shrine and Opon Ifa in an Art exhibition hosted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on the campus of the University of Lagos in 1992, based on my late father’s paraphernalia of Ogun worship and Prof. Wande Abimbola’s book on Ifa Divination.
The search for knowledge knows no boundaries.
Before Oduduwa there was Ifa. And before Adam, our lord Jesus Christ existed and still existing as explained in the book of John 1:1 of the Holy Bible.
Only ignorant, uneducated and uninformed people will question why two Igbo men should be the founder and owner of Eko International Film Festival in Lagos or anywhere else in the world. Anyone could have been the founder, owner or whatever. What matters is not who discovered or founded a property, but how beneficial it is to you and me, regardless of class, colour, creed, tribe or race.
In conclusion, may I advise all the stakeholders, aficionados and well wishers of the Nigerian film industry to look beyond their local competition in Nollywood, put aside their evil greed and foolish pride and let us do our best to support whatever will benefit Nigeria and the rest of the world.
~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
Thursday, June 9, 2011
GSMA Announces mFarmer Initiative Fund
MOBILE WORLD LIVE
GSMA Announces mFarmer Initiative Fund
mAgri Programme Aims to Benefit 2 Million Farmers in Developing Countries by 2013
PR Newswire
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2011
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA, the body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, today announced at the inaugural mAgri Working Group in Cape Town, the launch of the mFarmer Initiative Fund, supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Fund will encourage mobile communications service providers, in partnership with other public and private sector agriculture organisations, to use mobile communications to provide information and advisory services to smallholder farmers in developing countries living on under US$2 per day. The mFarmer Initiative Fund, which is part of the GSMA's Mobile Agriculture (mAgri) Programme, will be available over a period of two years.
"There are over 2.3 billion people living on less than $2 day, a large number of whom are rural smallholder farmers in developing countries and who face many issues which inhibit their agricultural productivity and limit their incomes," said Chris Locke, executive director, GSMA Development Fund. "Through the mFarmer Initiative Fund, the GSMA Development Fund's mAgri Programme will accelerate the provision of high-quality agricultural information services through mobile and by 2013 we aim to provide two million farmers in developing countries with an invaluable and transformative business resource."
The GSMA Development Fund accelerates economic, environmental and social evolution through mobile technology. Within the Development Fund, the mAgri Programme exists to catalyse the deployment of mobile solutions benefiting the agriculture sector. To date, focus has been on engagement with mobile operators and their partners to prove the market opportunity of agricultural extension services through mobile to smallholder farmers and to understand which business models are most suitable.
Improvement in agricultural productivity directly increases food security and income of the agricultural population. Food security occurs when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. Currently, African agricultural output stands at a meagre 56 per cent of the world's average. The impact of this shortfall is enormous and can be attributed to a variety of reasons, including a lack of access to vital agricultural information, as well as training and advice on topics such as pests and diseases, weather and proven farming practices.
Mobile technology offers new, cost-effective and scalable solutions to address these challenges. In developing countries, access to mobile phones is growing dramatically even amongst those at the base of the economic pyramid, providing a new and powerful channel of communication and the ability to link previously excluded rural communities to up–to-date information.
mFarmer Initiative Fund
The mFarmer Initiative Fund is designed to:
* Stimulate the development of mobile phone-enabled agriculture information and advisory services that are commercially sustainable;
* Build services that impact farmers' income and productivity;
* Reduce the barriers for operators to launch and improve mFarmer Services;
* Test and prove models for delivering agricultural information services via mobile phones; and
* Promote a culture of knowledge sharing in the mFarmer ecosystem.
The mFarmer Initiative Fund will support projects implemented in South Asia (India) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia). Whilst these are the target countries for disbursements, the mFarmer Initiative has the wider scope of sharing learnings with the mFarmer ecosystem. Disbursement decisions are made on a competitive, deadline-driven basis by an independent assessment panel. Grant recipients will have access to relevant agricultural information via an on-line database. Technical assistance will be provided to support the design and implementation of projects.
Eligible projects can qualify for funding if they can demonstrate the following criteria:
* The project will involve a mobile communications service provider in partnership or consortium with one or more organisations that are using, or planning to use, mobile communications to provide agricultural information and advice to poor smallholder farmers;
* The project will include the use of the mobile communications channel as a significant element of its delivery model;
* The project will directly result in significantly increased access to affordable agricultural information and advisory services by smallholder farmers who are living on under US$2 per day;
* The agricultural information and advisory services will provide information and advice of sufficient relevance, range and quality to be of utility to smallholder farmers;
* The project will involve a commercial business model for the provision of agricultural information and advisory services that will be sustainable after the period of grant funding; and
* The project will demonstrate how it will provide equitable access to female smallholder farmers.
Full criteria list and how to apply can be found at: http://gsmworld.com/mfarmer
About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Congress.
For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at http://www.gsmworld.com.
SOURCE GSMA
CONTACT: Abigail Faylor, +44 (0)2070 670 851, afaylor@webershandwick.com or press@gsm.org
Web Site: http://www.gsmworld.com
Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
9 Jun 2011
8 Jun 2011
14:29 African Union celebrates its first “African Border Day” with the aim of transforming African borders from barriers to bridges
Movie of the Month: The First Grader
Media Roundtable Discussion with Justin Chadwick, Director of the Movie, The First Grader from George Wada on Vimeo.
Justin Chadwick's remarkable film The First Grader is our movie of the month and when you see it, you would be be thrilled to agree with our choice.
Read the synopsis for a start.
Kenya, 2003: A radio DJ announces that the Kenyan government is offering free primary school education to all. Maruge (OLIVER LITONDO), an 84 year-old villager, hears this and decides he wants to educate himself. Arriving at his local school, with a newspaper clipping about this change in policy, he meetsJane (NAOMIE HARRIS), the school’s principal, and expresses his desire to learn. Her colleague Alfred (ALFRED MUNYUA), in an effort to get rid of him, tells him all pupils need two pencils and an exercise book.
The next day, Maruge returns, telling Jane he wants to learn to read. He has a letter from the “Office of the President” that he wants to understand. Exasperated, she tells him the school already has too many pupils. Later that night, she tells her husband Charles (TONY KGOROGE) about Maruge. Cautious of his own position, working alongside the government in Nairobi, he advises her to fight the battles she can win.
After cutting his trousers and turning them into shorts, Maruge returns to the school again. While Jane tells the school inspector Mr. Kipruto (VUSI KUNENE)on the telephone that she currently has five children to a desk, when Maruge re-appears, she relents. Alfred is reluctant, yet Jane is defiant, claiming Kipruto is not the head of the school. Allowing Maruge into her class, she seats him near the front – after he admits his eyesight is not so good – and begins to teach him, and her other charges, how to write the alphabet.
Plagued by memories of his time in Kenya in 1953, when he fought with the Mau Mau against the British, it even impacts upon Maruge in class, when Alfred scolds him for not keeping his pencil sharp. Made to sharpen it, he breaks down as he recalls a time when the British tortured him – using a sharp pencil brutally thrust into his ear. Apologising to Jane, saying it won’t happen again, Maruge later educates his fellow pupils, patiently explains about the fight for land that he and other Mau Mau undertook and teaching them the word for ‘freedom’.
Resentment brews over Maruge’s education. At home, people shout that he should stay away from the school, while in the playground, covert photographs are taken of him. Soon enough, the story that an old man is going to school hits the radio airwaves. Kipruto arrives, furious that he has learnt in the press that Maruge is attending his school. Jane tells him that Maruge fought against the British. She later learns from Maruge that the same soldiers killed his family.
Desperate to keep Maruge in school, Jane calls Charles, but he advises her not to go over Kipruto’s head. She wilfully ignores him, visiting the head of the education board to plead Maruge’s case. Her protests fall on deaf ears and Maruge is made to attend an adult education centre, where he soon finds himself surrounded by people with no ambitions to learn. He goes to see Jane, telling her he must learn to read because he wants to be able to understand the letter he’s been sent. Refusing to go back to the adult education centre, Maruge nevertheless must say his goodbyes to the children. Yet Jane offers him a reprieve – as her teaching assistant.
As the story breaks, the press descends on the school, surrounding Jane and wanting to question Maruge. He tells the reporters that the power is in the pen.
Nevertheless, his presence in the school is beginning to cause anger amongst the parents of the young pupils. One mother confront Jane, accusing her of seeking fame and fortune from all the attention, while another father proclaims to Alfred that the school is spending too much time on Maruge. Again, Kipruto arrives with the school in chaos, telling Jane that her special pupil cannot stay and that plans are afoot for the government to compensate the Mau Mau.
Resolute, Jane decides to teach Maruge to read after school has finished – despite receiving threatening phone calls. A delegation of politicians arrive at the school, keen to cash in on the free publicity surrounding Maruge, while secretly demanding that Jane cut them in on any money she has received. Events begin to spiral - people attack the school with sticks while Charles receives an anonymous telephone call, noting his wife is now out of control. Jane soon receives a letter that she is to be transferred to a school 300 miles away. Charles tells her that events surrounding Maruge are tearing them apart, explaining that he’s received calls claiming she has been unfaithful.
Jane explains to Maruge that she is being transferred, and then undertakes an emotional goodbye to the children, who all bring her gifts. Meanwhile, Kipruto introduces the class’ new teacher. Enraged, the children padlock the school gate and throw missiles at her and Kipruto. Meanwhile, Maruge travels to Nairobi, heading to the Ministry of Education, where he confronts the board on behalf of Jane, showing them the scars he sustained as a young man tortured by the British.
Jane returns to the school, where Maruge is there to welcome her back. He wants her to read to him his letter, which explains he will be compensated for his time in the prison camps. As the film draws to a close, the radio DJ announces that Maruge – the Guinness Book of Records holder for the oldest person to go to primary school – will speak at the United Nations.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Majority of Americans want U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan now that Osama bin Laden is dead
8 Jun 2011 11:04 Africa/Lagos
52% - 35% Majority Believes U.S. Should Leave Afghanistan Faster Now That Bin Laden Is Dead
Majority also favors making aid to Pakistan conditional on cooperation on pursuing Al Qaeda and the Taliban
PR Newswire
NEW YORK, June 8, 2011
NEW YORK, June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new BBC World News America/Harris Poll finds that a majority of Americans (52%) believe that the United States should move to get its troops out of Afghanistan now that Osama bin Laden is dead. However, 35% believe that U.S. troops should stay according to the existing plans. Reasons why most people favor withdrawing U.S. troops may be that a 51% to 14% majority of adults are not confident that U.S. policies in Afghanistan will be successful, and only 19% see the Afghan government as either an ally or a friend to the U.S. and 36% see it as unfriendly and an enemy.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100517/NY06256LOGO )
These are some of the findings of a new BBC World News America/ Harris Poll of 2,027 U.S. adults surveyed online between May 31 and June 2, 2011 by Harris Interactive.
Other interesting findings in the poll include:
* A large 66% to 20% majority of adults believes that it was better to have killed Osama bin Laden than to have captured him;
* An even larger 66% to 18% majority believe that "if the United States has very reliable information that a nationally wanted terrorist or criminal like Osama bin Laden is located in a foreign country.... that we have the right to perform a military operation within that country without notifying the government";
* The public is split on the impact of the killing of bin Laden on world opinion, with 41% thinking that it has made the United States more respected and 41% thinking has made no difference. Only 7% believe that it has made the U.S. less respected;
* Israel continues to enjoy very strong support among Americans, with 41% of adults seeing it as a close ally and a further 30% as a friend;
* The fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt have done nothing to improve U.S. attitudes to its government. In fact those who see the government of Egypt as a close ally or friend (43%) are somewhat lower now than when this question was asked in 2009 (52%) and 2010 (49%);
* More people see Pakistan as unfriendly and an enemy (29%) than as a friend or ally (20%); and,
* Many more people see the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan as unfriendly and enemies (38% and 36% respectively) than as friends or allies (22% and 19%). Attitudes to these two countries are only marginally less negative than they are to the government of Syria (16% friend or ally and 38% unfriendly and an enemy).
So What?
The killing of Osama bin Laden has done little to change the generally negative attitudes of Americans to the role of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Only 14% of adults are confident that U.S. policies there will be successful, virtually unchanged since two Harris polls in June and October last year.
Perhaps the most surprising findings in this poll are that many more people regard the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq as unfriendly and an enemy than as friends or allies, even though they were brought to power as a result of the U.S. invasions and have been kept in power by the presence of US troops.
Click here for more details.
Top Headlines
52% - 35% Majority Believes U.S. Should Leave Afghanistan Faster Now That Bin Laden Is Dead
Confused.com Reveals 56% of Drivers Forget Where They Park
TripAdvisor Showcases America's Top 10 Wackiest Summer Events
Report Criticizes DEA for Failing to Address Online Pharmacy Problem
J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Customer Satisfaction with Airlines Increases for a Second Consecutive Year, But Gains Are Tempered By Dissatisfaction with Costs and Fees among Traditional Network Carriers
Zagat Releases 2011/12 Connecticut Dining Guide
Father's Day
E3 2011
Nigerian Mobile Commerce Innovator among 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows
Femi Akinde
Femi Akinde, the Nigerian Mobile commerce innovator and Founder of SlimTrader is among the 20 Members of 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows. The Seattle based Nigerian is the genius behind SlimTrader’s Mobiashara the first platform in Africa allowing consumers to shop for goods and services via their mobile phones through text.
Mr. Akinde has worked in a variety of high-level capacities at some of the most respected telecommunications and software firms in the world, including Gateway Communications, AT&T (Consultant), T-Mobile, and Microsoft. Over his telecommunications career, he has been a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for T-Mobile's mobile data platforms and wireless portals. He switched careers post MBA by joining Microsoft as a Senior Finance Manager on the TV, Video & Music Finance team. He resigned from Microsoft to start SlimTrader. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Electrical Engineering.
You can see the details of the other 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows in the following news release.
TED Names 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows
Mobile Commerce Innovator from Africa and Mental Health Activist from Bulgaria Among 20 Members of 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows Class
TED to begin accepting applications for next class of TED Fellows on June 13
PR Newswire
NEW YORK, June 7, 2011
NEW YORK, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, announces today 20 new members of 2011's TEDGlobal Fellows class. Founded in 2009, the TED Fellows program handpicks world-changing innovators from around the globe, and brings them to the TED stage -- literally and figuratively -- to raise international awareness of their remarkable work.
"I couldn't be more excited about our latest class of exceptionally talented women and men, mavericks from all over the world who embody the fellowship's commitment to diverse pursuits and geographies," said Tom Rielly, the founder and director of the TED Fellows program. "And we know the program works. After the first two and a half years, we are thrilled to witness the Fellows' post-conference transformation and accomplishment."
This year's Fellows hail from Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, China, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria, Poland, Rwanda, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, the UK and the US. The group includes the founder of SlimTrader, the first platform in Africa allowing consumers to shop for goods and services with their mobile devices; an investigative journalist working to expose the inhumane treatment of children and adults with disabilities and mental illness in the Balkans; and a Jordanian social media entrepreneur who is creating comics, animation, and games for the Middle East. See full list of the 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows below. For complete program information, please visit: http://www.ted.com/fellows.
All TED Fellows participate as full members of 2011's annual TEDGlobal Conference in its new home in Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as a three-day pre-conference event where they collaborate with their peers, learn new skills and deliver their own TEDTalks. The Fellows will continue to actively participate in the TED community throughout the year, telling their ongoing stories on the TED Fellows blog, contributing to TEDx events, receiving 1:1 professional coaching being featured in the online Fellows directory and participating in a private TED social network.
On June 13, TED will begin accepting submissions for the next round of TED Fellows here. The Fellows program seeks individuals of age 21-50 (though anyone over age 18 is eligible) who demonstrate remarkable achievement in their field of endeavor. The program focuses on candidates from six regions: Asia/Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, though candidates from all regions are welcome.
The TED Fellows program is made possible by the visionary support of the Bezos family, the Harnisch Foundation, the Dhanam Foundation, the Kitchen Table Foundation and the Case Foundation among other donors.
Connect with TED Fellows at fellows [AT] ted [DOT] com, Twitter: @tedfellow, Facebook: facebook.com/TEDFellow, YouTube: youtube.com/tedfellowstalks, and ted.com/tedfellows.
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Long Beach, California, along with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.
TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world, and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.
TEDGlobal 2011, "The Stuff of Life," will be held July 11-15, 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. TED2012, "Full Spectrum," will be held February 27 - March 2, 2012, in Long Beach, CA.
TEDGlobal 2011 Fellows:
Manuel Aguilar (Guatemala) - Energy entrepreneur
Founder of Quetsol, an organization meeting the energy needs of the Guatemalan people with appropriate tech solutions.
Femi Akinde (Nigeria | US) - Mobile commerce innovator
Founder of SlimTrader, the first platform in Africa allowing consumers to shop for goods and services via their mobile phones through text.
Suleiman Bakhit (Jordan) - Comic creator + social media entrepreneur
Jordanian social media entrepreneur creating comics, animation, and games for the Middle East.
Yana Buhrer Tavanier (Bulgaria) - Mental health activist
Investigative journalist working to expose the inhumane treatment of children and adults with disabilities and mental illness in the Balkans.
Monika Bulaj (Poland | Italy) - Photo documentarian
Photographer + documentarian telling the stories of people and places in conflict.
Bilge M. Demirkoz (Turkey | Switzerland) - Particle physicist + educator
Particle physicist + educator currently working at CERN on the ATLAS experiment, looking for new physics.
Julie Freeman (UK) - Tech artist
UK based artist combining science, technology, and natural systems, in order to create work that "translates" nature.
Jose Gomez-Marquez (Honduras | US) Medical device designer
Director of the IIH (Innovations in International Health) Lab at MIT, inventing and deploying medical technology for global health.
Lars Jan (US) - Transmedia director
US based media artist and founder of Early Morning Opera, a multidisciplinary art lab creating works about "America right now."
Somi (Rwanda | Uganda | US) - Singer + cultural activist
East African soul-jazz vocalist + songwriter and founder of New Africa Live.
Christine Lee (US | China) - Bio-archeologist
American bio-archeologist working to uncover and better understand Mongolia's and China's ancient civilizations.
Jae Rhim Lee (US) - Scientific artist
Founder of the Infinity Burial Project, a project developing a unique strain of mushroom that decomposes and remediates toxins in human tissue.
Jon Lowenstein (US) - Documentary Photographer
Photographer specializing in long-term, in-depth projects around power, poverty, and violence -- also working to create a foundation committed to social justice through visual communication.
Sonaar Luthra (US) - Water testing innovator
Creator of Water Canary, a water-testing device that collects real-time water quality data from the field.
Nathalie Miebach (US) - Weather artist
Boston based artist using weather data to create sculptures and music.
Serge Mouangue (Cameroon | Japan) - Cross cultural designer
Tokyo based Cameroonian cross cultural artist + designer -- bringing both African and Japanese techniques into his work.
Alex Odira Odundo (Kenya) - Agricultural machinist
Kenyan inventor of the Sisal Decorticator, a device turning sisal plant into fibre, and the Sisal Twinner, a device turning sisal fibre into rope.
Genevieve von Petzinger (Canada) - Cave art researcher
Canadian doctoral student studying ancient geometric signs from the Ice Age.
Lucianne Walkowicz (US) - Stellar astronomer
Postdoctoral Fellow studying the effects of stellar activity on exoplanets with the Kepler Mission.
Jodie Wu (US | Tanzania) - Appropriate technologist
Founder of Global Cycle Solutions, an organization developing and selling appropriate tech in the form of bicycle add-ons.
Contact: Ben Kellogg, Group SJR, bkellogg@groupsjr.com, (917) 816-0831
SOURCE TED Conferences
Web Site: http://www.ted.com
Migrants Continue to be Vulnerable in Libyan Conflict
7 Jun 2011 16:46 Africa/Lagos
Migrants Continue to be Vulnerable in Libyan Conflict
GENEVA, June 7, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- IOM Press Briefing Notes
The on-going conflict and political stalemate in Libya has left migrants in a situation of continued vulnerability, with large groups stranded across the country.
During an assessment of the humanitarian needs in various parts of Libya, IOM staff reported on the plight of a large community of mostly African and Filipino migrant workers sheltering in two sites in the capital, Tripoli.
Staff say some of the migrants have been without jobs since the beginning of the crisis as their employers had left the country. Feeling they have nothing to return to, they stay on in Libya in the vain hope that they may receive back pay from their employers or find another job. Others have been left to take care of employers' properties but have not been paid since February.
The majority, from Ghana, Togo, Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon and other African countries, are unskilled and undocumented workers.
Like the others, they are dependent on whatever food and shelter people of goodwill from within and outside their community can provide with some basic food prices having increased by up to three times since the start of the crisis.
Although the numbers of migrants managing to flee Libya on a daily basis have slowed down in recent weeks, migrants continue to be stranded in towns and cities around the country.
The Malian Ambassador to Tripoli estimates between 8,000-10,000 of his compatriots remain in western Libya, mostly in Sabha, Gadames, Ubari and Murzuk, while the vulnerability of Sub-Saharan Africans in the eastern part of the country has led to Malians there fleeing into Egypt.
Thousands of Egyptian migrants are also believed to be still in the country, according to the Egyptian Ambassador to Tripoli. While most are thought to be in the south in cities such as Gatroun and Sabha, others are in places like Sirt and in need of evacuation.
As these reports emerge, IOM is continuing its efforts to access Gatroun where many Chadians are reported to be stranded. IOM interviews with Chadians who are returning home by truck reveal that many migrants have stayed as long as they could in Libya in the hope of being given months of unpaid wages. Lack of food and water was forcing them to finally leave.
Meanwhile, an eighth IOM mission to evacuate another group of migrants by sea from the port city of Misrata concluded late last week.
The mission, funded by the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, rescued 166 migrants, the majority from Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeriens, Chadians, Ghanaians and Sudanese. The rest comprised Palestinians, Moroccans, Egyptians, Tunisians as well as migrants from Jordan, Britain and Pakistan.
Thirty-six war-wounded casualties were evacuated to Benghazi with the migrants, bringing the number of people rescued from Misrata to about 7,200.
The IOM-chartered ship also delivered hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid and provided the logistics for the deployment of an IOM-led interagency assessment team to Misrata to assess humanitarian needs there after months of fighting.
So far, IOM has provided evacuation assistance to about 31,000 people from inside Libya including the Misrata operations. More than 9,000 migrants including Sub-Saharan Africans have been transported by road from Tripoli to the Tunisian border and nearly 15,000 from Benghazi in the east to the Egyptian border.
Since late February, IOM has helped nearly 144,000 migrants in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Chad and Niger with evacuation assistance back to their home countries.
As the crisis drags on, the numbers of people fleeing across Libya borders continue to mount steadily. More than 952,000 people have so far crossed into its six neighbouring countries or arrived in Italy and Malta.
Source: International Office of Migration (IOM)
Migrants Continue to be Vulnerable in Libyan Conflict
GENEVA, June 7, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- IOM Press Briefing Notes
The on-going conflict and political stalemate in Libya has left migrants in a situation of continued vulnerability, with large groups stranded across the country.
During an assessment of the humanitarian needs in various parts of Libya, IOM staff reported on the plight of a large community of mostly African and Filipino migrant workers sheltering in two sites in the capital, Tripoli.
Staff say some of the migrants have been without jobs since the beginning of the crisis as their employers had left the country. Feeling they have nothing to return to, they stay on in Libya in the vain hope that they may receive back pay from their employers or find another job. Others have been left to take care of employers' properties but have not been paid since February.
The majority, from Ghana, Togo, Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon and other African countries, are unskilled and undocumented workers.
Like the others, they are dependent on whatever food and shelter people of goodwill from within and outside their community can provide with some basic food prices having increased by up to three times since the start of the crisis.
Although the numbers of migrants managing to flee Libya on a daily basis have slowed down in recent weeks, migrants continue to be stranded in towns and cities around the country.
The Malian Ambassador to Tripoli estimates between 8,000-10,000 of his compatriots remain in western Libya, mostly in Sabha, Gadames, Ubari and Murzuk, while the vulnerability of Sub-Saharan Africans in the eastern part of the country has led to Malians there fleeing into Egypt.
Thousands of Egyptian migrants are also believed to be still in the country, according to the Egyptian Ambassador to Tripoli. While most are thought to be in the south in cities such as Gatroun and Sabha, others are in places like Sirt and in need of evacuation.
As these reports emerge, IOM is continuing its efforts to access Gatroun where many Chadians are reported to be stranded. IOM interviews with Chadians who are returning home by truck reveal that many migrants have stayed as long as they could in Libya in the hope of being given months of unpaid wages. Lack of food and water was forcing them to finally leave.
Meanwhile, an eighth IOM mission to evacuate another group of migrants by sea from the port city of Misrata concluded late last week.
The mission, funded by the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, rescued 166 migrants, the majority from Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeriens, Chadians, Ghanaians and Sudanese. The rest comprised Palestinians, Moroccans, Egyptians, Tunisians as well as migrants from Jordan, Britain and Pakistan.
Thirty-six war-wounded casualties were evacuated to Benghazi with the migrants, bringing the number of people rescued from Misrata to about 7,200.
The IOM-chartered ship also delivered hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid and provided the logistics for the deployment of an IOM-led interagency assessment team to Misrata to assess humanitarian needs there after months of fighting.
So far, IOM has provided evacuation assistance to about 31,000 people from inside Libya including the Misrata operations. More than 9,000 migrants including Sub-Saharan Africans have been transported by road from Tripoli to the Tunisian border and nearly 15,000 from Benghazi in the east to the Egyptian border.
Since late February, IOM has helped nearly 144,000 migrants in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Chad and Niger with evacuation assistance back to their home countries.
As the crisis drags on, the numbers of people fleeing across Libya borders continue to mount steadily. More than 952,000 people have so far crossed into its six neighbouring countries or arrived in Italy and Malta.
Source: International Office of Migration (IOM)
Fake Awoists Exposed!
Hannah Idowu Dideolu (HID) sitting as her great husband of blessed memory stands by her side in their good old days.
HID attacks fake Awoists
~ By Victor Oriola
YEYE Oodua Hannah Idowu Dideolu (HID) Awolowo yesterday, described the Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Nation, Sam Omatseye, as a hypocrite over his tirade against the Awolowo dynasty in his back page column in the newspaper last Monday.
A statement personally signed by the matriarch of the Awolowo family, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Compass, reads: “My attention has been drawn to an article in yesterday’s (Monday) edition of The Nation newspaper, written by one Sam Omatseye and titled ‘Awo family without an Awo’.
“Ordinarily, I do not join issues with uninformed individuals nor do I comment on articles written in uncouth and downright vile and violent language.
“Hypocrites that claim to be more catholic than the Pope or more Awoist than his family, when they, in fact, hobnob with so-called pariahs when it suits them and their pockets certainly do not engage my attention, usually.
“However, this piece, the latest in a long campaign of calumny against my person and family and which, if reports are to be believed, is the opening salvo of a fresh campaign apparently aimed at destroying and demystifying the Awolowo family, deserves an appropriate response, particularly since, we are informed, such campaign has been adopted as the preferred policy and strategy by a particular political party to consolidate its hold on its newly acquired political power base.
“At 95, I have lived long enough to expect common civility from younger ones, assuming that they received and imbibed proper home training. Having just lost my daughter less than two months ago, I also expect that normal people would spare me the kind of vitriolic attack that was unleashed on my person and my family, particularly as such an attack was entirely unprovoked.
“It is pertinent to mention here that, for all their protestations as the true children of Awo, the top hierarchy of the leadership of the ACN has not deemed it fit to offer me their condolences on the bereavement either by telephone, letter, or personal visit, up till now.
“I should certainly not expect anyone in their right mind to, in the same article, rake up the old wounds of the previous tragic loss of my first son and then proceed to question and, indeed, dismiss the notion that he could possibly have been fit to carry his illustrious father’s mantle. All in a bid to situate Mr. Omatseye’s ‘piper’ as the anointed heir of a heritage that can never be purchased.
“For the avoidance of doubt, my son Olusegun was a graduate of Cambridge University and he was called to the bar in the UK after a stint at the Inner Temple, where his father also studied. These are facts that are open for verification by anyone who wishes to do so.
“Our expectations of Segun were tragically cut short and it is a cruel irony that a so-called Awoist has chosen to taunt me with this. With friends like this, who needs an enemy?
“Omatseye claims that, ‘in all his tribulations, the family (Awo) had was not his flesh and blood’.
“One of the basic tenets of journalism is that facts are sacred but comments are free. Perhaps it should not be surprising that Omatseye failed even in this. I would like to refer him to the dedication contained in Awo’s last book, first published in 1987 ‘The Travails of Democracy and the Rule of Law’. I quote: ‘To my children, Omotola, Oluwole, Ayodele, Olatokunbo. They also bravely weathered the fierce and howling storm from sixty-two to sixty-six; they suffered mental agony in silence; they provided besides sources of cheer for Papa and Mama, in the four-year long journey through the dark and dreary tunnel’.
“As for my personal role in my husband’s life before, during and after the crisis, I commend to Omatseye most of his publications, particularly ‘AWO’, ‘My March Through Prison’, and ‘The Travails of Democracy and the Rule of Law’.
“It is surely to the utter shame of a so-called avowed Awoist that he has exposed his absolute lack of any knowledge of Awo’s life. I would not be surprised if Omatseye was unaware, as many of his cohorts also appear to be, that I was the first person to use the broom as a party symbol when leading the party’s campaign for the Federal elections that were held during my husband’s incarceration.
“Omatseye’s dishonest claim of respect for Awo’s thoughts and opinions is further debunked by his notion that Awo was unable to correctly assess his wife of 48 years (at the time of his transition).
“The abject insult that was heaped on my person by Omatseye, for daring to rise above partisanship and pursue the common good has caused me the kind of pain that can only be dealt with by offering it to God, whose wheel of justice may grind slowly, but is guaranteed to grind exceedingly fine.
“I notice a reference to ‘dynastic curse’ in the article under reference. I totally reject that in my family, by the blood of Jesus and I decree, by His power, that any contrary pronouncement shall return to its sender.
“As for the Awo family’s non-attendance at recent inauguration ceremonies, as decent and dignified people we know that etiquette does not permit you to attend functions to which you have not been invited.
“My daughter, Awolowo Dosumu’s public career and foray into partisan politics had at various times in the past been described in disparaging terms on the pages of The Nation newspaper. The reference to her in the article under reference is, therefore, nothing new.
“I am glad, however, that, by Omatseye’s own admission and inference, all those who recently assumed governance in the South-West have done so by riding Awo’s coat tail. What baffles me, however, is the inverted logic that suggests that his own daughter had no right to his coat tail while these others do.
“The mantra when my daughter was contesting, which emanated from the same group that has now metamorphosed into the conquering army of the West, was ‘a o le sin Baba k’a sin omo’ (we cannot serve the father and the child) has obviously been jettisoned as many of the children and spouses of these same people have now emerged winners in various electoral contests. One law for the goose, another for the gander.
“Like her father before her, she has taken electoral defeat in her stride and has since returned to her profession as an Occupational Health Physician. In other words, she has moved on. It is about time that everyone else did too.
“In any case, Dr Awolowo-Dosumu’s role and activities at the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation since its inception in 1992 have been acknowledged and recognized, even internationally, by fair-minded people who are not so blinkered by their inordinate desire to ‘own’ a legacy that belongs to all that they become economical with the truth and unleash despicable propaganda against people who have done nothing to deserve it.
“Only two years ago, the series of activities organized by the Foundation attracted high-level national and international participation and were favourably received by the general public.
“I recall that some so-called Awoists refused to support the initiative on the pretext that the support of the ‘wrong crowd’ had also been invited. Of course, this did not prevent the full participation of these ‘purists’ in the fund-raising ceremony for Sir Ahmadu
Bello’s centenary celebrations, an event that was organised by the then governors of the Northern states, none of whom belonged to the party of ‘the perfect ones’.
“For clarification, I applaud the way in which the governors and all concerned rallied to the cause of celebrating Sir Ahmadu Bello, one of Nigeria’s founding fathers. I simply quote this example to highlight the breathtaking hypocrisy of these modern-day Pharisees.
“I believed then, and I still believe now that Chief Awolowo’s right to be honoured and celebrated, particularly in the territory in which he held sway and in which he performed the feats for which he will be forever remembered, should not be predicated on political party affiliation.
“As far as I am aware, Chief Awolowo has not founded any of the political parties existing in Nigeria today. His political associates, those who actually knew him personally and worked with him, can be found in several different parties. Let me remind Omatseye and others like him that Awo expounded the theory of dialectics in his last presidential address to the UPN at Abeokuta in 1983.
“His thoughts and ideas have been proved beyond any doubt to be the blueprint for Nigeria’s, even Africa’s development and it remains a source of joy to me to see and hear people from all political parties, using him as their roadmap to success in governance. Talk about vindication!
“I, and my family, refuse, therefore, to be hamstrung or blackmailed into going into the bondage of exclusive association with people who clearly resent and despise us and have made no secret of that fact.
“We applaud all those who have tried their best to approximate Chief Awolowo’s record of service and we extend our best wishes to those, including those in Omatseye’s list, who are just setting out on their journey of governance. We pray that they may succeed, even as Awo did. “To do so, however, they have to remain faithful to his ideals and work sacrificially, as he did, for the benefit of the people in whose trust they today they occupy high office and whose expectations have been raised that another Awo era has arrived.
“Finally, let me say this. When last I checked, there was no law in Nigeria that compelled anyone to go into partisan politics. Under a democratic dispensation, freedom of association is also guaranteed.
“Mr. Omatseye would, no doubt, balk at any suggestion that he should forgo any of his rights as a bona fide citizen of Nigeria, including the above-mentioned rights and liberties, under any circumstances. As my husband always used to say (and include in many of his writings), however, you must always concede the rights to others that you claim for yourself. This is an important lesson for Omatseye.
“To the uninformed, Chief Awolowo’s legacies begin and end with partisan politics. Those who know better, however, recognise that his legacies as a thinker, visionary and administrator hold far wider and more profound implications for, and potential to impact, posterity. My children know this and remain free to choose, individually and collectively, which aspect of their paterfamilies’ legacy they wish to promote and progress.
“My family fully recognizes, cherishes and welcomes the larger Awo family, regardless of status or location. But, we will not be harassed into associating with anyone or group, no matter how loudly they proclaim their self-righteousness.
“Let me end with one of Papa’s favourite quotes: ‘What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted! Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though lock’d up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.’”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)