Plane Crash Never Caused Financial Loss-Rwandair Boss

Gertrude Majyambere
     
Kigali — Rwandair has said that it did not
incur any financial losses following its
plane crash that led to the termination of
a contract with Jetlink Express a week ago.

In an exclusive interview with
Rwandairs' CEO, Gerald Zirimwabagabo,
said the national carrier has managed
maintain its sales through the code
sharing agreements with Kenya Airways,
Ethiopian airline and SN Brussels.

"In a short period, we shall manage
the situation through code sharing
though we cannot bank on it
for a long period," he said.

Rwandair terminated its contract with
Jetlink, a Kenyan based company
following the latter's aircraft crash
on November 12 at Kigali International Airport
in which one passenger died.

Rwandair had leased two CRJ 50 seater
planes from Jetlink.

The two aircrafts were operating different
routes including flights to Entebbe,
Nairobi Kilimanjaro, Bujumbura
and Johannesburg.

Rwandair has also decided to acquire
another Dash8 from ALS Airline in Kenya
to supplement its private 37 seater Dash8 w
hich is now operating most of the routes
apart from Johannesburg.

The Johannesburg route is expected
to resume late next month.
 
Zirimwabagabo disclosed that Rwandair is
not liable to pay any money to Jetlink Express
because the fault was
not theirs (Rwandair).

"The contract provided for such
incidences (discontinuity)," he added.

The company is in the final stages
of purchasing its own two aircrafts
from Lufthansa Airline by
mid December, 2009.

According to Zirimwabagabo, Lufthansa
will be hired to do maintenance work
on Rwandair planes within Rwanda
to trim costs of flying them
outside the country.

The CEO pledged safety and best services
by hiring the most experienced
pilots around the world.

Link here
--
J-L K

Tanzania eyes regional swimming meet

The Citizen

By Majuto Omary Tanzania will compete at the Zone Four Swimming Championship slated for Nairobi, Kenya early next year, according to the Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA). The TSA's secretary general, Noel Kiunsi told The Citizen yesterday that the tournament would involve brilliant swimmers from South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. The outspoken official said other swimmers would come from Burundi, Egypt, Sudan, Mauritius, and the hosts, Kenya. Kiunsi disclosed that the TSA's executive committee would hold a meeting soon to discuss preparations of the looming event. According to him, they plan to pick 36 swimmers for the event that Tanzania will be participating for the second time. "Swimming has made tremendous strides of recent and we want to use this competition to s trengthen our team ahead of the Commonwealth Games," he said. Kiunsi added: "I hope through participating in such tournaments, our swimmers will gain wide experience and finally make the grades." He said plans were underway to organise multiple local tournaments in order to unearth raw talents. At present, the TSA stages the Tanzania Mainland Swimming Championship and Union Swimming Championship.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Kenya may regulate Internet pricing

EVELYNE NJOROGE

In what is probably an indication that

the government will regulate

Internet prices, the Communications

Commission of Kenya (CCK) has

said that the ongoing call charges

study will also contain

guidelines on connectivity charges.

CCK Director General Charles Njoroge

told reporters on Tuesday that

as much as the government would

want market forces to determine

the Internet charges, the bandwidth costs

are still out of reach for many Kenyans.

"We believe Internet costs are not

coming down as fast as possible and

we will be very keen to follow and

ensure that it is accessible and

the pricing in the market is right,"

he said.

However he made it clear that this

was being implemented as a last resort.

"We would not like to do price control.

However if there are issues of prices

that are not right, there are

always interventions," he added.

Information Permanent Secretary

Dr Bitange Ndemo kicked off

the debate in September when

he issued an ultimatum to the

Internet Service Providers to bring down

the prices in 30 days failure to which

the CCK would be forced

to regulate the charges.

The threat raised a hue and cry from

the operators who argued that

they were unable to cut the prices

abruptly as many were still relying

on the expensive satellite

capacity for back up.

However earlier this month,

Dr Ndemo expressed satisfaction

with the current connectivity prices

saying they had reduced to

at least Sh15,000 per megabyte.

"I must say that I'm happy.

The market forces are forcing

them down so I'm not very disappointed...

I'm just happy that my dreams

were realised within the period

that I promised," he had told

Capital Business and further

expressed optimism that

the prices would come down further.

The guidelines from a study which

was commissioned to review

the interconnection calls charges

are expected to be implemented

in March 2010 and it remains

to be seen whether the government

will follow through and enforce them.

Despite the Internet price standoff 

however, the PS said he expected

Internet penetration in the country

to rise bolstered by

the operationalisation of

the fibre optic cables that have

more than 2.48 Terabits per second.

At a CCK Stakeholders Consultative

Forum on ICT regulation, Dr Ndemo

said the broadband capacity was

huge and able to accommodate

much more traffic.

"Internet usage is bound to rise

above the current 3.6 million as

Kenyans enjoy better speeds and

higher data traffic," he said through

the ministry' Deputy Secretary of

Administration Henry Mung'asia.

He however acknowledged that this

development would bring with it

challenges such as cyber security due

to the transformation of media

and content landscape.

The PS however assured that they

were seeking proposals on how

to improve regulations contained

in the Kenya Communications

(Amendment) Act of 2009 to address

such issues and ensure that

the sector, which contributed about

Sh12billion to the GDP, continues

to make positive contribution

to the growth of the economy.

The Act is expected to be enacted

in January 2010 with the aim of

helping to leapfrog the country

into the digital era.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Pétanque groups meet for fun, fitness in Dallas

By STELLA M. CHÁVEZ / Special
Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Sarah Taquet, 11, stands poised on a
dirt field near White Rock Lake, knees
slightly bent, right arm raised,
steel ball in her hand.

"Up, up, up," yells Jean Edmond LaFont,
a man dressed in khaki pants and a
short-sleeve blue shirt that reads
La Boule Texane.

Sarah raises her arm more, swings it
back then forward and releases the ball,
which is the size of an orange and
weighs about a pound and a half.

It falls to the ground and rolls past
other steel balls. It's close but not
close enough to its target.

It's OK, LaFont tells her, and then
flings his own boule across the field.

At 70, LaFont is a veteran of
the game known as pétanque (pay-TAHNK),
a sport he grew up playing
in his native France. On most weekends,
weather permitting, you can find him,
other French expatriates and
Americans with ties to France playing
on a dirt field in Farmers Branch
or Winfrey Point at White Rock Lake.

They come for the challenge.
The objective: to land your boule as
close as possible to a smaller,
wooden ball known as the cochonnet,
or jack.

The game can be played by
two, four or six people with
each player receiving three boules.
Players must stand inside a circle
when it's their turn to throw.

The first team to reach 13 points wins.

"One of the fun things is the
element of chance," says Don Craig, 63,
an American who lived in France
and Spain, where the game
is also played. "There's a real
element of surprise."

Everyone's approach is different.
Some players crouch low.
Others stand up straight.
And some only slightly bend
their knees before throwing the boule.

Strategy is involved. For example,
a player can knock another
player's boule out of the way.
Teams collect points for each boule
that is closest to the cochonnet
and that is closer than
the opposing team's boule.

But players also come for the camaraderie.

"We joke. We talk about politics.
We talk about what happens
here and in France," says Sarah's father,
Nicolas Taquet, 40, who helped
organize a recent tournament
at Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake.

On this particular autumn afternoon,
they enjoyed home-cooked dishes
such as pâté and quiche, a variety
of cheeses and some French baked goodies.

Those not playing lounged in chairs
and talked to friends.
The atmosphere was relaxed.

Taquet says he didn't grow up
playing pétanque. It was mostly
a retired person's sport, he says.
But in 2004, five years after moving
to the United States, a neighbor
invited him to play
with the Dallas-area group.

"It was a very pleasant experience,"
he says. "It's not a sport
that requires a lot of training."

Ingrid Gayet, 27, who usually plays
the game when she vacations
in her native France, has a similar
approach to the game as Taquet.

"For me, pétanque is more
a fun game than a sport," she says.
"It's a good way to spend time
with friends and have fun."

Age is not a barrier, says
P.J. Mallette, 24.

"A lot of my best friends, I met them here,"
Mallette says. "Some of those friends
are in their 40s, 50s and 70s."

Mallette took up the sport when
he was a kid. He lived in Sonoma, Calif.,
at the time and stumbled upon
a group playing pétanque on
his way to a Little League baseball game.

At first they weren't sure they wanted
a kid to join them, he said. But
this group eventually took him under its wing.

Mallette became a talented player and
at 14 attended the junior world
championship in Thailand.

"Everybody knew me as
the Pétanque Kid."

Next month, he will participate in
a tournament to try to qualify for
next year's world championship in Taiwan.

Louis Vachier, 64, says the game has
evolved from when he was
a young boy. Back then, fewer women
played and the boules were
made of different materials.

Vachier says playing the game stirs
up fond memories of his homeland.
He recalls people from his village
playing boule on Sunday afternoons
after church in a field across
from his grandfather's bakery.

"It was like in the U.S. when
baseball season begins and you
hear the crack of the bat," he says.
"In pétanque, you hear the boules
hitting iron against iron all across France.
It was a sure sign that
summer was around the corner."

Lucette Cumming, 78, who jokes that
she had a boule in her hand as soon
as she learned to walk, is trying
to spread the word that the group
needs a designated field to play on.
Austin, Houston and El Paso have them.

Cumming says they've talked to
Dallas city employees about their needs,
but says they will probably have
to find a sponsor willing to put up
the money for a field of their own.
She says a designated field would
allow them to host larger tournaments
and invite teams outside of Dallas or Texas.

"There would be more people playing
if there was a common place
we could use every weekend,"
she says. "I wish this could become
a pastime for the Americans as well."

Stella M. Chávez is a Dallas-area
freelance writer. Reach her
at stellamchavez@me.com

Ready to play?

To reach the Dallas-area
pétanque group, e-mail Bill Baker
at tonrbill@gmail.com.

For a guide to pétanque groups
nationwide, visit
petanqueamericaopen.blogspot.com.

For an explanation of the game's rules,
visit www.petanque.org.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

One lab’s trash becomes a poorer one’s treasure

Prix d'Éducation Africain

Pour ONGs, écoles & collèges
1er prix $10,000, 50 prix $1,000

www.TeachAManToFish.org.uk

Green Lab Equipment

Proven alternative to freezers for
storing blood, DNA, clones, & more

www.genvault.com/index.html

COY Glove Boxes

Versatile, reliable, economical
glove boxes for scientific research

www.coylab.com

 

Local group ships to Africa, Latin America

By James F. Smith

Globe Staff

When Nina Dudnik arrived at

Harvard Medical School in 2001 to pursue

her doctorate, her eyes weren't drawn

to the marble hallways, the state-of-

the-art facilities, or the august faculty.

They were drawn to the trash.

Dudnik came to Harvard from Ivory Coast,

where she had worked for a year in

what passes there for a science lab,

a facility where she spent much of

her time rewashing test tubes and

scrounging up basic supplies.

It is the kind of stuff that labs

all over America toss out routinely.

Why not, she wondered as plunged

into her own research that fall,

find a way to connect the throwaways

of this country to the needs

of scientists in the Third World?

So she did.

With the help of a couple of

like-minded graduate students,

she enlisted dozens of science students

to scour the labs and rescue

unneeded microscopes, petri dishes,

beakers, centrifuges, ovens,

and vast numbers of test tubes.

With them, the nonprofit organization

she built, called Seeding Labs, has,

over the last six years, equipped

22 science laboratories at universities

in 13 Latin American and African countries.

Next month, her team will ship its

largest lab kit yet: A 20-foot container

crammed with $700,000 worth of

high-tech equipment will leave

for Kenyatta University in

Nairobi, Kenya, to outfit the entire

pharmacy and chemistry departments,

serving 3,500 students.

Seeding Labs has outgrown Harvard.

There are student chapters now at BU,

Yale Medical School, Mount Sinai

Medical School, and Albert Einstein

College in New York. And the collectors

are not only leaning on universities.

Dudnik now is tapping into

major biotech and pharmaceutical giants

in the Boston area, including Vertex,

Millennium, and Biogen, to donate

outdated but functional equipment

languishing in basement storerooms.

Since she graduated with her doctorate

in molecular biology in 2007, Dudnik, 33,

has made Seeding Labs a

full-time obsession, with even more

ambitious plans for the years ahead.

She received a $60,000 grant from

the Echoing Green Foundation in 2008

to pay herself a small salary and cover

her costs for two years; she hopes for

a grant in 2010 to allow her to keep growing.

"It's essentially running an international

supply chain - with volunteers,'' she said.

"My goal is for them not to be

such dumpster divers.''

She doesn't see this as charity. Rather,

it's a way to align the huge demand

abroad with vast surplus

inventories in Boston. The scientists

on the receiving end pick out what

they need for their labs from

an online inventory that Dudnik

has developed, and the recipients - whom

she calls fellows - pay 15 percent

of the market value to cover shipping

and other costs. The overseas scientists

also join in an online research exchange

and get training in using the equipment,

so the benefits go well beyond the gear itself.

She has done all this with volunteers and

one slightly paid intern from Northeastern,

as well as a devoted team of students.

"Someone told me early on, 'Never

underestimate the power of pizza

for student volunteers,' '' Dudnik said.

On a recent Saturday morning at

the Harvard Recycling Center in Allston,

it was too early for pizza, so there was

Dunkin' Donuts coffee and doughnut holes

for the volunteers sorting through piles

of donated material to assemble

the Kenyatta University shipment.

"It will be a huge step back home,''

said Martin Mwangi, a Harvard postdoctoral

student who got his master's degree

in chemistry from Kenyatta and is

on the Seeding Labs board.

"The stuff that we are gathering in

this room, and also from Vertex and

Millennium, is going to push the research

at the university about 20 years ahead.

In their wildest dreams they

couldn't have afforded this on their own.''

Mwangi was ticking off various items

to go into the container, including

something called an ultraviolet

transilluminator and a microtome.

If he had had such equipment when

he was doing his own master's

at Kenyatta, he said, "work that I did

over two years would have

taken me five or six months.''

Another volunteer, Harvard Medical

School neuroscience student

Samir Koirala, who is from Nepal,

has been helping Dudnik

collect used gear for three years.

"People in the labs know about us

from word of mouth, and whenever

they have something they

let us know, and we go and get it,''

Koirala said. "The goal is to make it

so that any lab that wants

to discard anything, they

immediately think of us.''

Remembering the struggle at

home for basics, he knows

the secondhand goods

will be welcome. "The level of ingenuity

in the Third World to reuse

things is so great. We send things that

a lab here would say, it's not worth

the expense to fix it. But people in

the Third World have this kind

of MacGyver mentality where

somehow or other you make it run again.''

At Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals,

Jugnu Jain, a research fellow working

on multiple sclerosis, helped track

down available gear for Dudnik.

So did Mike Korocinski, the lab equipment

guru who knows where all

the used microscopes are buried.

Jain said all the donated equipment

was still in fine shape, but with

technology changing so fast,

some of the machines had been set

aside because newer versions

work so much better.

Dudnik, who is from Evanston, Ill.,

got her undergraduate degree

from Brown. During her year in Ivory Coast

as a Fulbright fellow working at

a rice research laboratory, Dudnik saw

the aftershocks of the coup there

in 2000 and riots during an election.

She also spent time at the

main university science lab in Abidjan.

Her rice lab coped with

"pretty ridiculous conditions''

despite the important work it was doing.

"But it was luxurious compared

with the university.

The labs there were empty.''

She got Seeding Labs going toward

the end of her first school year

at Harvard, with the help of

fellow students Justin Yarrow

and Matthew Stremlau. They started

going door to door, and found

the pickings rich indeed - Harvard

alone has 400 science laboratories.

Yarrow had worked with the

Sustainable Sciences Institute

at Berkeley, which Dudnik described

as one of the few institutions

in the country that provide training

and resources to scientists

in the developing world. Seeding Labs

worked through the institute

to supply some of its first customers,

among them Dr. Hector Morbidoni,

who had studied at Albert Einstein

and was setting up a lab

to study drug-resistant tuberculosis

in Rosario, Argentina.

Morbidoni said by telephone that

the help from Seeding Labs

three years ago was vital in

kickstarting the lab at a time

of economic crisis in Argentina.

Paul Cruickshank, 27, a board member

who has been part of Seeding Labs

since 2006 and is getting

a doctorate in the history of science,

said poor countries are able to find

ways to send talented young scientists

abroad to study, but lack the resources

to exploit those brains, so too many

good scientists don't come home.

"One of our mottos is 'talent is everywhere

but resources are not.' This is trying

to distribute resources to

where they're really needed.''

James F. Smith writes about

Boston's global ties. His blog is

at boston.com/worldlyboston.

His can be reached

at jsmith@globe.com. 

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

The wind may carry a solution for Kenya

 The Washington Post

Desert will be site of major project to help boost energy supplies

Kenya built its first wind farm, above,
outside Nairobi. In January,
construction will begin on
a $760 million wind farm
in the Chalbi Desert.

By Christopher Vourlias

NAIROBI -- Kenya's Chalbi Desert is
a bleak, forbidding stretch of coarse sand
and ash-gray ridges broken by
clusters of tiny huts. It is also one
of the windiest places on Earth,
experts say, and it soon will be
the site of Africa's largest wind farm.
     
In January, a consortium of Dutch
and Kenyan investors will begin
construction on the $760 million project,
which envisions more than
350 wind turbines towering over
desert expanses near Lake Turkana
in northern Kenya. When completed
in 2012, the wind farm is expected
to boost the power supply in
this nation by almost 30 percent.

Kenya is one of the continent's greenest
countries, with nearly three-quarters
of its power coming from hydroelectric
and geothermal sources. But its efforts
to harness the wind have put it at
the forefront of a budding movement
in Africa, ahead of a global climate
change conference in Copenhagen next month.

Ethiopia inked a $300 million deal last year
with the French company Vergnet
to build a wind farm. Tanzania is
constructing two facilities that will
boost its power supply by nearly
10 percent. And South Africa,
the continent's largest economy,
hopes to complete 18 wind farms by 2014.

Kenya's first wind farm, in the
Ngong Hills outside Nairobi, began
feeding into the national grid in August.
Additional sites are being scouted
near Lake Naivasha, a popular tourist
retreat northwest of Nairobi, and in
the blustery northeast near Ethiopia.

"What you see in Africa is
a severe shortage" of power,
said Phylip Leferink, sales and
marketing manager for Vestas,
the world's leading supplier
of wind turbines. "They have an urgent
need for bringing up the capacity
as soon as possible."

Power shortages have forced
blackouts from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
to Johannesburg this year, but
the shortages have been especially
acute in Kenya. A prolonged drought
has dried up riverbeds and crippled
the country's hydroelectric plants.
Officials have imported fossil fuels
as an emergency stopgap, raising
concerns among environmentalists.
Energy prices have soared.

The effects have been felt from
the industrial centers to the
sprawling shantytowns and
the suburbs of the capital.
Rationing has brought rolling
blackouts to Nairobi, and manufacturers
have been forced to scale down
production because of power cuts.
In the aftermath of last year's
post-election violence, the power
shortages have been a further burden
for a country struggling
to regain its footing as
East Africa's economic powerhouse.

"We are paying for the sins
of our leaders," said Geoffrey Machariah,
a taxi driver, who endures frequent
power cuts in his Nairobi home.
"Since last year, we are all suffering."

The Turkana project is this country's
most ambitious energy venture to date.
The site encompasses 25,000 acres
on the edge of the Chalbi Desert,
an area chosen for the "natural,
low-level jet stream" blowing south
from the Sahara and the
Ethiopian highlands, said Nick Taylor,
chief operating officer of
the Lake Turkana Wind Power consortium.
It is part of a broader initiative
to introduce nearly 500 megawatts
of wind power within five years.

Leferink, the Vestas marketing manager,
estimated that the Ngong Hills project
took two years to complete, whereas
"more traditional generating methods,
like coal-fired power plants,
need a long lead time to be realized."

However, the technology required
to build large-scale wind farms
involves substantial investment.
In addition to its on-site costs,
the Turkana consortium invested
in extensive road upgrades
to transport equipment from Nairobi
to the site, Taylor said.

But Hermann Oelsner, president
of the African Wind Energy Association,
said the long-term benefits outweigh
the short-term costs. "In the beginning
the cost appears high, but if you
calculate the electricity costs over
the whole lifetime of a project,
then it is cheaper than fossil fuels."

Sub-Saharan Africa still lags far
behind the developed world as
a source of wind power. But the prospects
south of the Sahara are improving,
in part because of access to better
and cheaper technologies,
and because of growing uncertainty,
in the face of climate change,
that traditional energy sources
will be sufficient to meet growing demand.

As governments turn to newer
technologies to shore up
their energy supplies, Oelsner and others
say wind will play an increasingly vital role.

"Wind will be a big part of the
energy mix . . . as we run out
of fossil fuels," he said.
"But we must start now."

Vourlias is a freelance journalist
based in East Africa.

Link here
--
J-L K

L'A380 traverse l'Atlantique

LEMONDE.FR avec AFP |    
 
Le premier Airbus A380 d'Air France,
qui avait décollé de l'aéroport parisien de
Roissy avec plus de 500 passagers
à bord, a atterri vendredi 20 novembre
à l'aéroport Kennedy de New York.
 
L'Airbus A380 a effectué sa première
traversée transatlantique commerciale.
L'appareil d'Air France, qui avait
décollé de l'aéroport parisien de
Roissy avec plus de cinq cents
passagers à bord, a atterri vendredi
20 novembre à l'aéroport Kennedy
de New York.

Ce vol marque le début de l'exploitation
commerciale de l'avion géant
par une compagnie européenne.
 
Parmi les passagers, près de
trois cent quatre-vingts avaient payé
un billet aux enchères, autour
de 1 000 euros pour un siège
en classe économique, dont
le bénéfice est destiné à
des œuvres de charité
 à destination des enfants.

Le résultat net des enchères a atteint
"plus de 300 000 euros", a annoncé
le directeur général d'Air France,
Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.

Les dirigeants de la compagnie, ainsi
que des invités étaient
également du voyage.

Parmi eux des dirigeants
d'entreprises françaises comme
le président de la SNCF, Guillaume Pepy,
le président du directoire de Safran,
Jean-Paul Herteman, ou encore
l'ancien PDG du groupe
d'électronique Thales, Denis Ranque.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Senate hold on ambassador threatens Boeing deal

Aubrey Cohen: Aerospace reporter

Boeing may lose a $7.5 billion jet fighter

sale to Brazil unless the

U.S. senator lifts a four- month

delay in confirming President

Barack Obama's nominee for

ambassador to the country,

Bloomberg reported Thursday.

"This will cost thousands of

U.S. jobs," Bernard Aronson,

who served as top envoy to

the region from 1989 to 1993,

told Bloomberg. "It's an insult

to Brazil to tell them they're

not important enough to have

an ambassador like so-called

advanced countries but that we

want them to buy

our planes over the French."

Aronson is one of nine ex-Assistant

Secretaries of State for the

Western Hemisphere who

yesterday sent a letter urging

Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla.,

to stop blocking a vote on

career diplomat

Thomas Shannon's nomination,

Bloomberg reported.

Aronson said the delay may

help France's Dassault Aviation SA

beat Boeing in the competition

to sell Brazil 36 warplanes.

Link here

--
J-L K

AfDB Approves Funding for Railway Project Study

African Development Bank
(Tunis)

AfDB Approves Funding for

Burundi-Rwanda-Tanzania

Railway Project Study

---

Tunis — The second phase of

the Dar es Salaam-Isaka-Kigali/Keza-

Musongati Railway project study will

cover the existing 970-km

Dar es Salaam-Isaka railway

link and its extensions.

The project is part of the East African

Community (EAC) priority investment

programme which attaches

great importance to multinational

poverty reduction projects,

through regional infrastructure

development and cooperation

among member countries.

The study will benefit from lessons

drawn from Phase I of the project

co-financed by the AfDB which

analyzed various rail alignments

with associated physical and

technical constraints, project

environmental and social impact,

economic and financial feasibility

and existing institutional framework.

The results were presented to

a development partners' and

private sector round table held

in Tunis in March 2009.

Phase II will focus more on deepening

the institutional framework and

structuring the project in the form

of a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

It will involve Analysis of the

project's socioeconomic benefits,

notably for the most vulnerable

people (women, children,

rural dwellers, etc.), in terms of

business development and

enhancement of economic

potential (particularly in mining,

industry and agriculture) as well

as facilitating the low-cost marketing

of goods and movement of people.

There will be a comparative analysis

of modes of transport (road, rail and

rail-road and lake-rail combination)

on the corridors to Rwanda and Burundi;

The third component comprises

environmental and social impact of

the future railway project (impact

of climate change on the project,

spread of sexually-transmitted infections,

including HIV/AIDS and the impact

of rail transport on public security)

as well as appropriate measures for

mitigating the negative impacts

during and after project implementation;

and finally, private sector participation

in financing the project and

managing railway infrastructure.

The project will provide the governments

of Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi

with data and decision-making tools

to facilitate mobilization of financing,

project implementation and

railway infrastructure management.

Four mining sites will be connected to

the Keza- Musongati Section by

50 km-branch lines.

The Project Impact Area (PIA) covers

Rwanda, Burundi and North-West

Tanzania (Shinyanga and Kagera regions),

with a population of 22.7 million,

53% of whom live below

the poverty line.

* 1 UA (Units of

Account) = USD 1.59 as

at 17/11/2009

Contacts

Lotfi Madani

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Farmers raise incomes from Intercropping

Tanzania Distilleries Limited board
chairman Arnold Kilewo clicks a
computer mouse during the
inauguration of the company's selling
point in Arusha.

By The Citizen Reporter

Growing coffee and banana plants together
can increase farmers' revenues by as
much as 50 per cent, researchers say.

They are encouraging coffee and
banana farmers in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi
and the Democratic Republic of Congo
to grow the two crops together,
an International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) statement has noted.

In 2005, IITA and the Ugandan National
Agricultural Research Organisation
were requested to evaluate the success
of a Usaid-funded Agricultural
Enhancement Programme.

Their finding was that Ugandan farmers
got nearly 50 per cent more income
from growing coffee and bananas
together than growing either crop alone.

"The study showed that when farmers
intercropped banana plants with coffee
in their fields, the coffee yield remained
almost the same, with farmers gaining
additional income from bananas.

This is despite a slight reduction in
the number of coffee plants to make
room for bananas," Mr Piet van Asten,
a scientist with IITA based in Uganda,
said in the statement.

The research, conducted in 2006/07,
showed that in the arabica coffee-growing
region around Mt Elgon, annual returns
per hectare averaged $4,441 for coffee
and bananas grown together compared
with $1,728 and $2,364 for bananas
and coffee grown alone respectively.

In the robusta-growing areas in South
and Southwest Uganda, annual returns
per hectare averaged $1,827 for coffee
plus bananas while farmers earned $1,17
and $1,286 for solely growing bananas
and coffee respectively.

"These results were spectacular: coffee yields
did not decline when intercropped
with banana plants compared
with when grown alone.

Therefore, all revenue generated by
the banana was a bonus to
the farmers," Mr van Asten explained.

Intercropping of coffee is not
a common practice in the region,
with some countries even
discouraging it for fear it will
reduce coffee yields.

However, many farmers in Uganda,
especially in densely populated areas,
have practiced coffee
intercropping for many years.

Mr van Asten said the two crops
complemented each other.
Coffee plants love the shade,
which is provided by the much
taller bananas. Also, with this set-up,
intercropped coffee also seemed
less potassium-deficient
than when grown alone.

"The increase in coffee yields is
most likely a result of the high
biomass turnover in the banana system,
resulting in more soil organic matter
and nutrients in a form more
easily available to the plants.

The increased canopy and self-mulch
reduce weed pressure and
the need to till. Tillage usually damages
both coffee and banana roots
which are normally shallow," he said.

According to him, bananas provide
farmers with food and a modest
but continuous cash flow
throughout the year.

Coffee gives a more substantial income
to farmers twice a year that can be
used to purchase additional
farm inputs and equipment,
improve shelter, and meet
family obligations such as
school fees for children.

Coffee is an important cash crop
for countries in the Great Lakes
where it is a major source of
foreign exchange revenue and
income earner for small holder farmers.

Bananas are important staple produced
all year round. Working under
an initiative called the Consortium
for Improving Agriculture-based
Livelihoods in Central Africa,
Mr van Asten and his colleague at
IITA are now urging farmers in
Rwanda, Burundi and DRC to
not only put bananas in their
coffee fields but to also put coffee
in their banana fields.

In Uganda, IITA and partner organisations
are exploring opportunities on how
to expand the benefits of this research
to the coffee farmers who still
practise monocropping.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Lake project also to cover Burundi, Rwanda

The Citizen

By Zephania Ubwani, Arusha

The World Bank supported Lake Victoria
Environment Management Programme
(LVEMP), launched in the mid-1990s,
will now be extended to Burundi and Rwanda.

Its second phase, initially confined to
Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya because
they share the vast water body, will now
cover the two states which became
members of the East African
Community in 2007.

Implementation of the LVEMP II started
last month after the signing of
financial agreements between Tanzania,
Uganda and Kenya and the World Bank
as well as between the Bretton Woods
institution with the EAC.

Under the World Bank's Adaptable
Programme Lending (APL)), the financing
arrangement for the eight-year programme
has been split into three parts.

APL1 has received support of the IDA
(the development arm of the World Bank)
amounting to $90 million (Sh119.2 billion)
for the initial four years.

This will only involve Tanzania ($ 32.5 million),
Uganda ($27.5 million) and Kenya ($30 million).

The component would also be financed
by the Global Environment Facility- GEF
($ 7 million), Swedish International
Development Agency -Sida ($10 million)
and borrowers (about $7.8 million
equivalent in local currencies).

EAC sources say the GEF and Sida support
would mainly finance activities at
the regional level where the project
would fall under the supervision of
the Lake Victoria Basin Commission
(LVBC), an institution under the EAC.

APL 2, with grant support of $30 million,
will bring Burundi and Rwanda
into the programme.

Its preparations are expected to be
finalised by December 31, this year.
Although they do not share the lake,
the two countries are within
the broader Lake Victoria Basin.

Other major projects being implemented
around the lake in collaboration with
LVBC are EAC/AMREF Lake Victoria
HIV/Aids Partnership Programme
(EALP) and the Mt Elgon Regional
Ecosystem Conservation
Programme (MERECP).

Yet another is the Lake Victoria Water
and Sanitation Project supported
by the United Nations Human
Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).
It covers 15 urban centres around
the lake, three from each partner state.

According to an EAC report, the project
consultants, Mr Mott MacDonald of UK,
have prepared draft investment plans
for the 15 towns.

Discussions were underway with
various development partners
to fund the investments, it said.

"The African Development Bank (AfDB)
has indicated an availability of $565 million
(Sh748.6 billion) for the purpose,"
said the report.

It will be presented to the EAC Council
of Ministers one of its
policy organs - meeting in Arusha.

The AfDB has also provided $495,000
for a detailed pre-investment
analysis/study of the Maritime
Communications for Safety
on Lake Victoria.

This is a project whose implementation
would be based on public/private partnership.

Last September the US Government
granted $3 million to the EAC to support
the management and conservation
of the Mara river basin as
a trans-boundary resource.

The project covers the famous
Serengeti National Park and
Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Truly Remarkable Academic Insights on Sarah Palin

[David French]

It has often been said that today's

rank-and-file conservative is

"anti-elite." I've always been uncomfortable

with that characterization because — in

my experience — conservatives are quite

respectful of certain kinds of elites,

like elite soldiers, elite athletes,

and talented musicians and other

artists (provided those artists don't

believe that their abilities also provide them

with unique insight into, say,

health-care policy or war strategy).

The elite that conservatives tend

to disdain is the contemporary

intellectual (or academic) elite,

not because intellectual excellence

isn't obtainable or worth respecting

but because we look at what

passes for academic thinking

these days and, frankly, it's

remarkably unimpressive.

Nowhere is this high-minded mediocrity

on better display than in the

near-universal disdain for Sarah Palin.

And today's Inside Higher Ed provides

a tremendous gift, a near-perfect

example of condescending nothingness

masquerading as insight.

Called "Palintology," the column,

by Scott McLemee, begins:

Important as it was, the campaign of

Barack Obama was not the only

history-making element of the

2008 presidential election.

With Sarah Palin, we crossed another

epochal divide. The boundary

between reality television and

American politics (already somewhat

weakened by the continuous

"American Idol" plebiscite) finally collapsed.

Her campaign's basic formula was

familiar: members of an ordinary

middle-class family turn into

instantly recognizable national

celebrities while competing

for valuable prizes.

This is good stuff. Let's begin with

a shot at reality TV and then deliver

the ultimate insult: that Sarah Palin

is like one of "those people," you know,

a member of the "middle class"

desperate for fame. How her emphasis

on her humble roots is any different

from John Edwards's "son of a millworker"

schtick, or Joe Biden's emphasis

(sometimes false) on his blue-collar ancestry,

or even our own prep school- and

Ivy League-educated president's emphasis

on the challenges of his upbringing

is left unexplained. I guess

intelligent people should just know

that Sarah Palin's emphasis on her

"every(woman)" identity was

somehow worthy of contempt.

But that's not all, of course.

I love this part:

I'm not sure what Sarah Palin's

favorite work of postmodern theory

might be (all of them, probably)

but she seems to take her lead

from Jean Baudrillard's Seduction.

Other political figures use the media

as part of what JB calls "production."

That is, they generate signs and

images meant to create an effect

within politics. For the Baudrillardian

"seducer," by contrast, the power

to create fascination is

its own reward.

What is Joe Biden's favorite work

of postmodern theory?

Nancy Pelosi's? (I'm pretty sure that

Barack Obama has a favorite postmodern

theorist because he seems to be

that kind of guy.)

And as for the power to create

fascination being "its own reward": What

evidence is there that Sarah Palin enjoys

this more than, say, virtually any

other public figure?

Politicians are notoriously addicted

to crowds and the limelight.

But I suppose other politicians are

mostly motivated by a desire

to serve the public, generating

"signs and images" for

"political" ends — but not Sarah Palin.

She has to be more cynical,

more self-regarding, right?  

Watching Palin respond to questions

about her book Going Rogue

(or not respond to them, often enough)

is, from this perspective,

no laughing matter.

She grows ever more comfortable

talking about herself. 

Forgive me, but I thought the book

was an autobiography.  

Is this too cynical?

I fear it may not be cynical enough.

For it assumes that Palin will

eventually be integrated into

her party's apparatus and turned

into a mouthpiece of old-school

Republican electoral politics — a

basic platform of tax cuts for

the rich and unregulated handgun

ownership for everybody else. 

Yep, that is the "basic" Republican platform.

Tax cuts and guns. I thought we were

all about "guns and religion." Tax cuts

replaced religion?

I'll have to update my talking points.

Of course Republicans have nothing

at all to say about foreign policy,

health care, abortion, marriage,

banking regulation, energy policy,

or any other relevant topic — it all

goes back to the "basic platform.

" Lower taxes and Glocks.

At this point, the column takes a bit

of a turn, lionizing the publishers

of Going Rouge, a collection of critical

essays about Sarah Palin.

Why lionize them?

Because — hold on to your hats — they

don't have much a budget, so they're

creatively using the Internet

to publicize their book.

That's a novel idea.

Please, tell me more.

But one can only lionize marginal

left-wing publishers for so long

before returning to the bogey(woman)

of the moment. I loved this bit:

But she is busy demonstrating

a strong intuitive grasp of how

mass media can be used — among

other things, to change the subject.

An example is the item Palin

posted on Facebook in early

August: "The America I know and love

is not one in which my parents

or my baby with Down Syndrome

will have to stand in front of

Obama's 'death panel' so his

bureaucrats can decide,

based on a subjective judgment

of their 'level of productivity

in society,' whether they are

worthy of health care.

Such a system is downright evil."

This was fantasy. But it was

effective fantasy. To borrow again

from Baudrillard, it seduced — abolishing

reality and replacing it

with a delirious facsimile.

I hate to "borrow again from Baudrillard,"

but this is a rich irony — coming

from a writer who just reduced

the entirety of Republican thought to

"a basic platform of tax cuts for the rich

and unregulated handgun ownership

for everyone else." Who, exactly, is

"abolishing reality and replacing it

with a delirious facsimile"?

The column ends thus:

Well, consistency is, after all,

the hobgoblin of tiny minds.

Sarah Palin is playing the political game

on a much grander scale — with

rules she may be rewriting as she goes.

With a first printing of 1.5 million

copies of her book, I don't know that

the intervention of an upstart press

can pose much of a challenge.

But OR Books deserves credit for

trying. Someone has to speak up

for reality from time to time.

Otherwise it will just disappear.

Let's see . . . a politician rises from a

small town, governs a small

(by population) state, and then runs

for high office in part by emphasizing

their humble roots. Nope, that's

never been done before.

I guess she really is "rewriting

as she goes." Thanks, Mr. McLemee,

for speaking up for reality.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

How Marriott Broke Down Customer Data Siloes ?

Integrating customer data from
multiple brands enabled the hotelier
to craft unique offers for
customers and exceed sales goals.
 

By Rick Swanborg

 

— CIO — Make every interaction
meaningful: It's the Marriott philosophy.

This is not an easy task given
the multitude of Marriott brands
and the plethora of campaign
management tools used
to contact customers.

By partnering with brand leaders
and marketing leaders, Marriott's IT
department built a unified framework
for engaging with customers.

The project enabled Marriott
to exceed its revenue goals
while sending customers fewer,
more targeted communications.

The Situation: With more than

3,200 properties operating under

19 brands in 67 countries, Marriott

needed a campaign management

platform that could scale across

brands, programs and marketing

organizations; integrate guest

communication preferences;

and efficiently serve offers

to millions of customers.

---

To read more on this topic
see: Get More from CRM: Activities
vs. Campaigns and The Keys
to Marriott's Success.

---

What They Did: A cross-functional team

of marketing leaders, brand leaders

and IT defined the experience

they wanted to provide to customers

across all Marriott regions, brands

and franchises. "We needed to fully

understand Marriott's marketing goals,"

says Mike Keppler, senior vice president

of sales, marketing and revenue

management systems. To accomplish

this goal, Marriott built a data

warehouse that provides sales

and marketing employees with

a "working memory" of the customer.

A data appliance provides

the computing power necessary

to very quickly parse large amounts

of disparate data about customers

collected in different hotel systems.

Statistical models derive and

present offers to customers based

on their past preferences

and behavior. Metrics gathered

from each campaign fuel

future campaigns and build upon

the working memory

about each customer.

Why It Was Unique: Marriott knew

its customers visited multiple brands;

for the first time, it had a way to tailor

its offers to how guests use

its different services. In the spring

of 2007, the first e-mail campaign

to use the platform was sent

to 3 million recipients. It included

2.9 million unique messages with

offers targeted to the recipients.

The campaign exceeded its

original revenue goals by

35 percent within six months

of deployment. The platform also

includes a Web-based self-service

tool for regional marketers,

cutting regional campaign

development from six weeks

to two days.

The Takeaway: A cross-functional

approach facilitated the creation

of an end-to-end business

process supported by

technology that provides balanced

marketing with relevant offers.

Rick Swanborg is president of

ICEX and a professor

at Boston University.

For more information,

visit www.icex.com.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Outcomes vs. Tasks ( Outsourcing)

What Matters Most
in Outsourcing: Outcomes vs. Tasks

No one who outsources IT
really cares about servers
or switches or man-hours.

They want business results.

Outcome-based outsourcing
promises to deliver those results,
but moving from input-based pricing
to outcome-based contracts
is easier said than done.

By Stephanie Overby

— CIO —

Outcome-based outsourcing is

the holy grail of IT services.

Both customers and providers

agree that if they can figure out

a way to tie sourcing strategy

to business results everyone

will be happier in the end.

The problem with many traditional

outsourcing arrangements is that

they focus on input rather

than output.

Just as U.S. health care reform

advocates criticize a system

that incents doctors to

perform tests and procedures

with few rewards for the

ultimate goal—a healthy patient,

some outsourcing reformers

say too many IT services deals

are myopically focused on

tasks or man-hours rather

than business results.

Outcome-based contracts—at

least, in theory—can

change that. "Paying for outcomes

is the idea of paying for

success toward a desired

result instead of paying for

individual items like servers

or programming hours,"

says Adam Strichman,

an independent outsourcing

consultant based in

Mechanicsville, Va.

"Nobody really wants servers,

or switches or a mainframe.

They generally want

a business outcome, such as

faster access to information

or an automated delivery system."

[ For more stories on

outsourcing pricing models,

see Offshore Outsourcing:

Introducing a New, Hybrid Pricing Model. ]

But devising outcome-based

outsourcing deals that satisfy

both the customer and the

vendor has proven difficult.

Time-and-materials contracts

remain the most common

outsourcing model in the industry,

particularly offshore, says

Sandeep Karoor, managing

director of outsourcing

consultancy Neo Advisory.

Fixed-price contracts run

a distant second.

Outcome-based contracts

account for, at most,

15 percent of new deals,

says Strichman, and they may

only apply to part of

the outsourced work.

Who's Outcome Is It Anyway?

Part of the problem with this

new paradigm, whereby

contracts are based on results

rather than resource consumption,

is in defining outcomes.

Every stakeholder has

a different desired end

state—or two or three.

The CEO wants happy customers

and shareholders or to be

the industry leader.

The CFO wants an increase

in profitability. The business

unit leader may desire

best-of-breed systems.

And the CIO?

He's got a whole list—lower costs,

better service levels,

increased customer satisfaction.

What may be the biggest

problem of all is that

the IT service provider has

very little control over

or connection to any

of those outcomes.

Outcome-Based
Outsourcing: Pros and Cons

Pros

• More cohesion of work being delivered


• Freedom from interviewing
  
• and monitoring individual staff members


• Ability to incent more
  
• innovative behavior from provider


• Potential for higher eventual
  
• savings as labor arbitrage
  
• is replaced by productivity
  
• and synergies between
  
• tasks as key savings drivers

Cons

• Lack of transparency into
  
• how work is being performed


• Little insight into costs
  
• of service (unless visibility
  
• into resource consumption
  
• is maintained)


• Additional administrative
  
• burdens associated with
  
• root cause analysis (if service
  
• is not being delivered
  
• as promised) and evaluation
  
• of service delivery from
  
• outcome-based perspective

--Source: Forrester Research

"The measure of success—or

outcome—has to be directly

related to the success or

failure of the

underlying services,"

says Strichman. "It sounds simple,

but it can be hard when

you start talking about

business outcomes.

The supplier cannot influence

things beyond the

supplier's realm of responsibility."

For example, the CFO may

want to tie the outsourced

application development of

a new product to the profitability

of that new product, but that

may be impossible.

The application development

provider could design

the world's best system

two weeks ahead of schedule

and a million dollars under

budget, but it has little

control over other

factors—such as marketing,

economic conditions,

bad management,

inept delivery managers,

bad press—that affect

the profit outcome.

"There are all types of

outcome-based pricing,"

says Strichman. "Sometimes

these models have

moderate success.

Often they have no

success whatsoever."

The most common business

outcome tied to IT services

deals to date is increased

customer satisfaction,

says Strichman, but that

may encourage the vendor

to construct customer

surveys that will deliver

the desired result.

"The belief is that by

tying metrics and pricing

to the success of the business,

both parties now have

their goals in alignment,"

says Strichman. "But the

reality is, alignment is not

enough; the vendor must be

able to influence a significant

portion of the costs which

influence the outcome

being measured. And

the metrics must make

sense related to the service.

Customer satisfaction may

have nothing to do

with the vendor."

Contracts focused on

desired outcomes at

the CIO level have a

concrete record of success.

With these types of deals,

a vendor takes responsibility

for "end-to-end" IT

service levels. "The vendor is

responsible to create

an entire system—design,

infrastructure, network,

programming, maintenance

and customer support/help,"

says Strichman. "These contracts

are not uncommon

and can work. But even

that is really, really hard to do."

Resistance on Both Sides

Beyond the ability to identify

and connect business

outcomes to IT services delivery,

another roadblock on

the journey to outcome-based

outsourcing is

cultural resistance—from both

the client and the vendor.

[ Outsourcing Definitions

and Solutions ]

Customers often are not

comfortable ceding the level

of day-to-day control necessary

to enable the vendor

to focus on outcome,

rather than service delivery.

"Considerable change

management is required

in the client's mindset

during the initial

delivery phases," says Karoor.

Handing over the reins

requires that the client has

enough self-knowledge

to be able to create realistic

outcome-focused SLAs,

not to mention a deep level

of trust in its vendor.

While Gartner has noted

that providers are moving

toward output-based pricing

models where services

support a process with

measurable outcomes,

buyers for the most part

still seek out the safety

of traditional outsourcing models.

Only more mature clients

are beginning to link

outsourcing outcomes to

business objectives,

says Gartner, which "typically

involves an evolved pricing

model developed after

relationships and trust

have been established."

Providers may resist

business-outcome focused

contracts because of

the risk they represent.

Although moving away

from input-based

pricing enables vendors

to deliver IT services as

they see fit, "the vendor assumes

much more risk for the

relative freedom of

choice [it gets] regarding

the means for implementation,"

says Strichman. Indeed,

the higher up the outcome

on the business value chain,

the more risk the provider assumes.

One Vendor's Approach

Symphony Services,

a Palo Alto, Calif.-based

provider of offshore IT services

in India and China has been

touting its "outcome certainty"

pricing model for software

engineering. "It commits us

to meeting mutually

agreed-upon goals," says

Neil Fox, Symphony

Services' vice president

of strategic consulting.

"If we don't meet them,

clients pay reduced costs

for our services."

The trick to outcome-based

outsourcing, says Fox,

is "linking contractually

guaranteed work by the vendor

to measurable client business

outcomes, such as improving

product line revenue,

raising customer satisfaction,

increasing product innovations

or reducing time to market."

For customers who want to

align vendor goals with

business goals, outcome-based

pricing can be the differentiator,

says Fox. But not everyone

is into the idea. "Some clients

opt out of our outcome

certainty-based contracts

because they want the most

simplified approach to managing

their outsourcing partner,"

says Fox. Those customers

sign more traditional

fixed-cost or time-and-

materials contracts.

Some customers shied away

from the strategically focused

outcome-based approach to

sourcing during the recession

when all eyes were on

cost-cutting, according to

Forrester Research principal

analyst Bill Martorelli.

Just 24 percent of outsourcing

customers said increasing

their use of output-based

pricing was a high or

critical priority, according to

a Forrester survey conducted

during the second quarter

of this year. Nearly one-fourth

(24 percent) said it was a

low priority, while 37 percent

reported that it was not on

the agenda. But Martorelli predicts

outsourcing customers' interest

in outcome-based outsourcing

will increase as

the economy stabilizes.

Other stories by Stephanie Overby
© 2009 CXO Media Inc.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

“Le XXIe siècle sera religieux ou ne sera pas.”

On répète souvent une phrase

attribuée à Malraux : "Le XXIe siècle s

era religieux ou ne sera pas."

En fait, l'auteur des Antimémoires

n'a jamais prononcé cette phrase.

Il a même précisé à

Pierre Desgraupes (Le Point,

10 novembre 1975) : "On

m'a fait dire : "le XXIe siècle

sera religieux". Je n'ai jamais dit

cela bien entendu, car je

n'en sais rien.

Ce que je dis est plus incertain.

Je n'exclus pas la possibilité

d'un évènement spirituel

à l'échelle planétaire."

Georges Verpraet, journaliste à

La Croix, rapporte les propos

du curé de Strasbourg, qui avait

fait dire à Malraux en 1973

dans L'Enfant du rire : "Le XXIe siècle

sera métaphysique ou

ne sera pas".

Huit ans plus tard, l'écrivain

André Frossard assurait avoir

entendu sur les lèvres

de Malraux: "Le XXIe siècle

sera mystique".

En réalité, Malraux était athée.

Comment remplacer Dieu,

se demandait-il?

C'est ce qu'exprime Tchen,

un des personnages de son

grand roman humaniste

La Condition humaine: "Que faire

d'une âme s'il n'y a ni Dieu, ni Christ?".

Le 23 novembre 1976,

ses obsèques n'eurent droit

à aucun honneur religieux,

mais plutôt à une étrange

cérémonie dans la cour carrée

du Louvre, devant la haute statue

colorée d'un chat.

Il y a donc tout lieu d'utiliser

cette citation avec

une grande prudence...

(Sources: Courrier International /

George Verpraet - La Croix)

voxdei

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Kenya combs forest for squatters

Children in the settlement known as
"Sierra Leone" stand before
forest land which has been
cleared for cultivation
Many of those evicted have
no where else to go

Officials have started combing
Kenya's largest woodland, the Mau forest,
to ensure squatters have left after
a deadline for their eviction expired.

Many of its rivers, which supply vital water,
have dried up and the government
wants to restore the eco-system.

Most of the region's 20,000 families
have left their farms, officials say.

But a BBC reporter in the area says
many had nowhere else to go and are
now living in squalid and desperate
conditions on the forest boundaries.

During the past 15 years, more than
100,000 hectares - one quarter of the
protected forest reserve - had been
settled and cleared.

The problem here is mental torture
Mau forest evictee

In pictures: Mau forest
Life dries up in Mau forest

The government has said it would
compensate settlers who could
supply title deeds to their land.

However, it is estimated that as few
as 1,962 families have genuine title deeds.

Much of the land was handed out
by politicians in the run-up to elections
and then re-parcelled and
sold on illegally.

The BBC's Ruth Nesoba in the Mau forest
said it has been raining heavily
and some of homeless evictees
were very angry.

"We've obeyed the government rules
and come out.

"But the problem we are facing here
is the problem of hunger, some are sick,
some have injuries, the problem here
is mental torture," a distraught man
told the BBC.

The government says the destruction
of the forest canopy has sparked
an environmental disaster downstream,
with millions of people
suffering from water shortages.

And the East African country has just
suffered its worst drought in years.

Officials now intend to replant the more
than 100 million trees felled
by the squatters and illegal loggers.

But environmentalists estimate that it will
be many decades before
Kenya rivers flow again.

Link here

--
J-L K

Première faille critique confirmée pour Windows 7

Systèmes d'exploitation

Sortie Windows 7 Le dossier complet

par Christophe Auffray, ZDNet France. 

Tags: Windows 7, Sécurité, Système

d'exploitation, Windows Server, Microsoft,

confirmer, détecter, full disclosure,

disclosure, évaluer

Sécurité - Microsoft a confirmé l'existence
d'une faille non corrigée dans le protocole
SMB de Windows 7 et Windows
Server 2008 R2.

L'éditeur reproche au chercheur
Laurent Gaffié d'avoir révélé
publiquement ce problème de sécurité.

En début de semaine dernière,

un chercheur en sécurité, Laurent Gaffié,

avait publié une preuve de concept sur

Full Disclosure afin de démontrer

la présence d'une vulnérabilité dans

Windows 7 et Windows Server 2008.

Mercredi 11 novembre, Microsoft indiquait

évaluer la faille. Quelques jours plus tard,

l'éditeur a émis une alerte pour confirmer

l'existence de cette vulnérabilité,

qui exploitée permet de provoquer

un déni de service sur un ordinateur vulnérable.

Microsoft rappelle son opposition

au Full Disclosure

Selon Microsoft, la faille de sécurité

découverte par Laurent Gaffié ne permet

pas de prendre le contrôle d'un ordinateur

à distance ou d'installer du code malveillant.

Aucune attaque exploitant ce bug de

Windows n'a pour l'instant été identifiée

indique l'éditeur sur son site Internet.

Un correctif est actuellement

en cours de développement.

Si les travaux de Laurent Gaffié ont permis

à Microsoft d'identifier une faiblesse

dans le code de son logiciel, l'éditeur

lui reproche néanmoins sa méthode

de divulgation, non-responsable.

D'après la firme de Redmond,

la divulgation publique expose

les utilisateurs à des risques.

Microsoft encourage les développeurs

et chercheurs à lui signaler directement

l'existence de failles de sécurité.

Cela lui permet ainsi de concevoir

un correctif sans que les utilisateurs

soient exposés à des attaques.

Toutefois, si des chercheurs pratiquent

le full-disclosure, ou divulgation totale,

c'est aussi afin d'éviter que les éditeurs

concernés dissimulent la présence

de failles (qui peuvent ternir leur image)

et ne les corrigent pas promptement,

laissant les utilisateurs dans

l'ignorance et vulnérables.

Christophe Auffray, ZDNet France.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Tips and Tools to Stay Safe and Sane

Drowning in Passwords ?

Another day, another password: Thanks
to Web-based apps, we're all
acquiring passwords at quite a clip.

How do you remember them all
while staying secure?

Here are some helpful tools and
strategies -- that don't involve
writing your passwords on sticky notes.
 
By  Bill Snyder

  CIO — Who the heck am I? Am I
shopper-Bill, flyer-Bill, reader-Bill,
buyer-Bill, potrero-Bill, or this that
and the other Bill on the 30
or more sites that comprise
my online life?

And which of my many passwords
do I need right now?

If you spend much time online,

you probably have the same

problem I do: How to remember

your ever-growing list of

online usernames and

passwords—and stay

secure at the same time.

[What's the latest in

Microsoft's War against

Google Apps?

See CIO.com's recent analysis

of where Office stands a

gainst rival Web-based apps. ]

You're savvy enough to know that

identity theft and illegal access

to personal and financial data

are real-world problems that

you want to avoid. But what are you

doing about it?

Odds are, not much, says

Andrew Jaquith, a computer

security analyst at Forrester Research.

"There are two classes of people; those

who seem to care about the security

of their accounts, and those who

act as if they don't."

Most people, he says, fall in

the later category.

If you're one of the majority,

your security strategy may be

nothing more than using

a single password for every site

you need to access. On the one hand,

the chances of it being stolen

aren't terribly high and you

probably won't forget it. But if it

is stolen, the malefactor will have

access to your entire online life,

including bank accounts and

maybe medical records.

Not a pretty thought.

It turns out that there are a number

of strategies that will help you

avoid that ugly scenario. Most of them

are simple, free or quite inexpensive,

and much more secure than

what you're doing now. But some

are just halfway measures that

could let you down in a pinch.

A Password Safe of Sorts

Let's start with my favorite.
A Windows program called RoboForm,
($29.95) from Siber Systems.
RoboForm stores your passwords,
usernames, personal information,
and the URLs of sites you visit
on its secure server. Your information
is protected by a master password
that you'll enter before
logging into a site. The program will
then log you in, and automatically
fill out the kinds of forms you need
to do things when shopping online.

If you typically work on two computers,
say one at home and one
in the office, you can synch
the two PCs and have your
passwords on both systems.

Until recently, RoboForm suffered

from the same flaw that most

password managers

suffer from:it was useless if you

were on a public computer.

That's a real problem if you're

traveling without your laptop and

suddenly realize you have bills

to pay via your banking site,

or want to make an online trade.

RoboForm Online fixes that.

It is however, in beta form, and

a bit clunky, requiring a double sign

on and a few other minor annoyances.

But it does work (based on my try out)

and the company expects

to have a finished, and presumably

more polished, version out

within a few months.

There's also a version for the iPhone,

and it's possible to load RoboForm

onto a USB drive and take it

with you for use on public computers.

The company says the USB version

leaves no traces behind.

If you use RoboForm do not

forget your master password—it is

not recoverable. Although password

recovery is a common feature

on many Web sites, Siber Systems

decided that enhanced security

was more important than

potential inconvenience.

Tools for Mac Users

By the company's own admission,
RoboForm doesn't work
very well on a Mac (that's supposed
to change next year) but a similar
program called 1Password ($39.95)
from Agile Web Solutions,
offers many of the same features
for use on Apple hardware.

I haven't tried it out, but it's
earned good reviews and gets
nod from Forrester's Jaquith.

Users of various versions of
the Mac OS can also take
advantage of a built-in feature
called Keychain that offers
password management
on a single machine.

Another option that's similar

to RoboForm, Callpod's $29.95

Keeper utility, comes in versions

for Mac, Windows, and Linux users

(The vendor offers a 15-day free trial.)

A separate mobile Keeper version

serves iPhone and iPod touch users.

If you are a smartphone user,

the first step you should take

to stay safe is password protect

your whole device: See instructions

from CIO.com's Al Sacco on how to do it.

A Free Trick or Two

Don't want to spend money?

You could simply put your passwords
in a password-protected file.
If you use Microsoft Word, it's easy.
Simply go to Tools, then Options
and click the security tab.
You'll have the option to require
a password to open the file,
or just to modify it.

If you're traveling, you can put
that file on a USB drive.
But don't forget that password.
If there's a backdoor that will let
you recover the file without it,
I haven't heard about it.

Warning: Many security gurus,
such as Bruce Schneier,
don't advocate keeping this type
of file on your PC. (See this useful blog
post from Schneier for some more
advanced advice on crafting
and managing passwords. )

Most browsers, including

Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari,

can automatically fill in forms

and passwords for you.

That's certainly helpful and if

you're certain that no one else

has access to your computer,

it's not terribly risky.

However, if your teenager or

someone else does use your computer,

you could be in trouble.

A simple solution is to delete

saved passwords and forms

when you get done. In Firefox,

for example, go to "Tools," "Options"

and then the security tab and look

for the "saved passwords" button.

Click it and a list of saved passwords

and usernames opens up.

Simply delete all or some of them.

Other browsers have similar features.

Also remember that public computers

are often infected with malware, including

keyloggers that copy everything you type.

Password managers defeat them,

since the password is not

actually typed on the page.

Finally, Google and some other

online heavyweights are reviving

an old idea, a secure, single

password/username combo,

such as your Google or Yahoo ID,

that you could use for multiple sites.

Sun and other companies have

experimented with similar schemes,

but none ever got off the ground.

Maybe this attempt will be

the charm. But I'm not holding

my breath, and will continue to explore

password management options

that really exist. So should you.

San Francisco journalist Bill Snyder

writes frequently about business

and technology.

Follow everything from CIO.com

on Twitter @CIOonline.

Link here


--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Rwanda’s agriculture up despite global crisis

[Paul Kagame ]
 
The Independent
 
By Kelvin Odoobo
 
Rwanda's agricultural sector continues
to maintain an impressive growth
trend in the first half of 2009
in spite of taking a hard hit from
the current global economic downturn.

The Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI)
Ernest Ruzindana said that despite
an 8.12% reduction in export volume
the sector registered growth
in 2009.

In a presentation, Overview
of Achievements and Challenges
in the Agricultural sector,
January - June 2009, during
the Joint Agriculture Sector Review
at Laico Umubano Hotel in Kigali,
Ruzindana said agriculture
registered a 6.6% increase
in food production in Season B of 2009.

Rwanda experiences a short
rainy season from September
to November (Season A) and
a long rainy season from
February to May (season B).

The short dry season runs
from December to January
and the long dry season
from June to mid-September.

However at 2.9%, the reduction
in export earnings was much
smaller than the reduction
in total volume of exports.
Increases in yields stood
at 99% for maize, 43% for wheat,
 28% for rice and sweet potatoes.

More importantly was an
11% increase in bean production
which marks a significant
increase in protein supply to the population.

There was a also a significant
growth in milk production and
consumption during the first
half of the year during which
143.15 million litres, 11.2% increase,
contributed to the increase from
about 25 litres per person
per year consumption in 2008
to 29 litres/per person /year in 2009.

This is closer to the FAO
recommendation of 54 litres/person/year.
However the dairy sub-sector still
faces crucial challenges in
increasing milk production in
few collecting centres, low capacity
of milk processing plants,
lack of animal feeds,
artificial insemination services
and weak veterinary services.

The volume of coffee exported
from January to June fell from
4.92 million kilograms in 2008
to 4.27 million kilograms in 2009
while the value of coffee exports
fell further from US$12.05 to
US$9.5 million due to the fall
in coffee prices.

However, despite a fall in volume
of tea expected by 2.5%, earnings
from tea exports increased by
10.6% from US$2.06 million to
US$2.34 million during the same
period mainly due to the increase
of tea prices by 13.6%.

Ruzindana also said that investments
in higher-value products
are paying off.
The Rwanda government through
its policy of adding value
to agricultural products locally
to boost farmers' earnings has
seen the development of
special Rwanda coffee and tea brands.

The Minster of Agriculture
Agnes Kalibata said the proposed
Rwanda Agricultural Board which
will streamline the sector initiatives
and harmonise them with
various government institutions
was pending cabinet approval.

The new Rwanda Agricultural
Board will combine the Rwanda
Agricultural Research Institute,
Rwanda Agricultural Development
Authority and Rwanda Animal
Resources Development Authority.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

U.N. mulls exit strategy for Congo troops: diplomats

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -
The United Nations
is quietly preparing an exit strategy for
its troops in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, the biggest U.N. peacekeeping
mission in the world, diplomats
and officials said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity,
diplomats and U.N. officials said
President Joseph Kabila was putting
pressure on the U.N. and Security Council
ahead of the country's 50th anniversary
next year to come up with a plan
for ending the peacekeeping mission,
known as MONUC.

MONUC has been in the former Belgian
colony since 1999 to help the government
of Congo as it struggles to reestablish
state control over the vast central African
nation following a 1998-2003 war
and humanitarian disaster which have
killed an estimated 5.4 million people.

"It's partly a question of dignity,"
one Western diplomat told Reuters.

"Kabila's eager to show that
his government's reliance on U.N.
peacekeeping is decreasing.

It's understandable. No leader wants
to give the impression that he needs
U.N. peacekeepers to stay in power."

Kabila, who won the country's first
democratic election in four decades 2006,
is expected to run for re-election in 2011.

In response to the pressure from
Kinshasa, U.N. officials and diplomats
said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's next
report on Congo would recommend
the Security Council extend
MONUC's mandate for six months,
instead of a full year.

One official said this would give
MONUC time to "develop with
the DRC government proposals
for the future direction of MONUC,
including an exit strategy
with benchmarks detailing
critical tasks to be met
before the mission's drawdown."

Kinshasa's U.N. ambassador
Atoki Ileka told Reuters his government
would like to discuss an exit strategy
and favored the idea of setting
specific "benchmarks" that would
allow a phased withdrawal of U.N. troops
and peacekeepers from his country,
called Zaire until 1997.

The diplomats and U.N. officials
made clear the withdrawal of
MONUC's nearly 20,000 troops and
police from the mineral-rich country
would have to be done slowly.

NO HASTY EXIT

"I would be very surprised if
a withdrawal took less than two years,"
a senior U.N. official told Reuters.

Another U.N. official said
an additional 3,000 peacekeepers
approved by the Security Council
last year have not all arrived.

"We should get all our troops in
the DRC there before we start
pulling them out," another
U.N. official said.

For this reason, the renewed mandate
for MONUC the Security Council plans
to approve next month will keep
planned troops at unchanged levels,
diplomats said.

"The situation in the DRC remains fragile
and the peace process in the east
at great risk of unraveling," a U.N. official said.

"A hasty disengagement could jeopardize
the 10-year investment of the international
community in the DRC."

But there might be changes
in the new mandate. One idea being
considered is to shift MONUC's headquarters
from Kinshasa to the east,
where the mission is
most active, officials said.

The long-term plan is to have
a gradual shift away from
peacekeepers to civilian experts
focusing on reconstruction,
security sector reform
and fighting corruption.

Also needed are education and
training for the Congolese army,
which U.N. humanitarian affairs chief
John Holmes said has been guilty
of "horrific crimes" against civilians.

"Everybody wants the mission
to draw down at the right moment
and for the spending on peacekeeping
to be directed at peace-building,"
an envoy told Reuters.

"But we have to discuss how that
shift will be managed responsibly.
One obviously can't go for some
dramatic reduction in peacekeeping."

The U.N. estimates that some
1,500 people die every day in the east,
many due to disease and dirty water.

"Every six months it's an Asian tsunami,"
the outgoing deputy head of MONUC,
Ross Mountain, said last week.

Mountain made clear he thought it
was too early to start pulling out
peacekeepers. "I think their presence
is extremely important
for protecting civilians," he said.

But Holmes pointed to improvements
in some parts of the country. While there
are still around 2 million internal refugees
in camps in eastern Congo, he said,
hundreds of thousands have been
able to return home this year.

The key reason for the improvement,
Holmes said, was Congo's improved ties
with neighboring Rwanda,
the arrest of Tutsi rebel leader
Laurent Nkunda and the virtual
disbanding of his rebel militia.

Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in
Kinshasa; Editing by Todd Eastham)

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Kenya holds onto suspects, Ocampo gets pre-trial debut

  The East African

By FRED OLUOCH  (email the author)
 
Kenya will be the first country to have
its nationals go through the pre-trial
chamber process at the International Criminal Court.
 
This means the country will be offering
the Netherlands-based ICC, which was
constituted in March 2003, the opportunity
to prove its independence, demonstrate
to the rest of the world its ability to move
forward without a state referral, particularly
where the court may often be most needed,
like when state officials are
implicated in serious crimes.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
was the first country to have her national,
Thomas Lubanga, tried at the ICC.

The Kenyan government recently declined
to refer the post-2007 election cases
to the ICC, forcing its chief prosecutor,
Louis Moreno-Ocampo, to for the first time
invoke his powers under Article 15 of
the Rome Statute to move on his
own motion, or proprio motu powers,
to open investigations.

All the cases currently before the ICC
were either referred there by their
own governments or as a result of
the United Nations Security Council resolution.

Of all the four cases being tried or investigated
by the court, three of them — those of Uganda,
Central African Republic and DRC — were
referred by their own governments.

That of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
was referred by the UN.

Elizabeth Evenson, a counsel in the International
Justice Programme of Human Rights Watch,
however says Kenyan leaders could still
refer the situation to the ICC.

She argued that such a referral would
save this step and potentially
move investigations forward.

"Investigations and prosecutions by
the ICC will require the full cooperation
of Kenya's authorities, including on arrests.

Kenya's leaders need to signal
unequivocally that the ICC will have
their full support," Ms Evenson said.

The refusal by the Kenya government
to refer the cases to The Hague, even after
failing to establish a local tribunal,
is being interpreted internationally as
either fear of political repercussions
at home or tolerance of impunity.

Last December, President Mwai Kibaki
and Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed
to establish a special tribunal
to try these crimes.

Instead, just a few months later,
they failed to persuade parliament
to support the bill establishing
a local tribunal.

In July, a Kenyan delegation promised
Mr Moreno-Ocampo that either Kenya
would hold national trials or trigger
the ICC's jurisdiction by referring
the situation to the prosecutor.

An ICC investigation, however,
will not end the obligations
of Kenya's leaders.

Investigating and bringing to trial
those responsible for the most serious
international crimes during
the post-election period will take time
and will need the co-operation
of the authorities.

While a private member's Bill that seeks
to establish a local special tribunal
remains pending, Kenyan leaders have
not shown commitment to getting it approved.
 
Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara
drafted the Bill, which failed to be
debated by parliament last
Wednesday owing to lack of quorum.

Other African countries like Uganda,
Central African Republic and DRC took
advantage of Article 14 to refer cases
to ICC.

Uganda referred the case of
Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army,
while the DRC has the majority of referrals,
among them Lubanga, Germain Katanga
and Mathieu Ngudjolo.

Of late, there has been speculation within
the Kenyan political class that
the names of some of the suspects
have been struck out.

But the Kenyan Minister for Justice,
National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs,
Mutula Kilonzo, says such elimination
is a legitimate method of doing away
with unsubstantiated evidence.

But he insisted that the time for knowing
who will be charged is still
several months away.

Mr Kilonzo observed that Kenyans have
been preoccupied with names although
the issues the prosecutor is looking at
is whether international crimes
were committed in Kenya
and what type they are.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Newsletter ISHYO

 

NEWSLETTER ISHYO ARTS CENTRE     18 NOVEMBRE 2009 De 8h à 13h : Casting pour enfants de 6 à 16 ans, pour création d'une pièce de théâtre en français "La pierre à barbe", @ Ishyo Arts Centre (ex-cantine Caisse sociale Kacyiru) pour vous inscrire, formez le 02 55 10 88 87   15 NOVEMBRE 2009 Cinéclub :  A 15h pour les enfants : "MONSTERS VS ALIENS" suite de Monsters et Compagnie par les studios Pixar. A 17h et à 19h30 : "MOOLAADÉ" de Ousmane SEMBENE (résumé du film : http://www.asso-chc.net/article.php3?id_article=497). Entrée : 500 frw pour enfants et étudiants, 1000 frw pour les adultes   22 NOVEMBRE 2009 Cinéclub :  A 15h pour les enfants : "BASKET" A 17h et à 19h30 "KATANGA BUSINESS" de Thierry MICHEL (résumé du film : http://ks29982.kimsufi.com/ katanga-lefilm/film-dossier-de-presse_fr.html). Entrée : 500 frw pour enfants et étudiants, 1000 frw pour les adultes.   23 NOVEMBRE 2009 Concert Hip Hop par "Massive Tone", en provenance d'Allemagne, organisé par le Goethe Institut @ Ishyo Arts Centre (ex-cantine Caisse sociale Kacyiru) Pour infos : contactez Malik au 07 83 78 00 37, prix d'entrée 1000 frw, 500 frw pour étudiants.   DU 23 NOVEMBRE AU 23 DECEMBRE 2009 Ateliers artistiques pour jeunes de 9 à 18 ans, tous les lundi, mercredi et vendredi de 8h à 12h30, Danse Hip Hop, contemporaine, Théâtre, Arts plastiques, BD etc. @ Ishyo Arts Centre (ex-cantine Caisse sociale Kacyiru) pour vous inscrire contactez le 02 55 10 88 87 ou 07 88 63 52 65 ou envoyez un mail à ishyoasbl@yahoo.fr   LE 30 NOVEMBRE, 1er et 2 DECEMBRE A 19h30, deux spectacles nous viennent du Congo, plus précisément de Kinshasa! Par la Compagnie Tarmac des auteurs : "Huis-clos" et "La vie d'Abraham Plotz", entrée 2500 frw,1000 frw étudiants, infos au 02 55 10 88 87 ou  ishyoasbl@yahoo.fr   ACTIVITES HEBDOMADAIRES Danse Traditionnelle Rwandaise le jeudi 18H à 20H. Danse Contemporaine le jeudi 14H à 17H et le vendredi après-midi. Inscription par téléphone ou mail au 02 55 10 88 87     ______________________________________________________________ Itinerary / Itinéraire From Laico Umubano (ex-Novotel): On your way to the US Embassy, take the third street on your right - Then the 2nd on your right (follow Ishyo sign) - Then the 2nd on your left, and again - The 2nd on your right   Du Laico Umubano (ex-Novotel) en direction de l'Ambassade des États-Unis : Prenez la 3ème à droite (En face de la Présidence / OBK) - Prenez ensuite la 2ème à droite (suivre signalisation Ishyo) - Puis la 2ème à gauche - Et encore la 2ème à droite ______________________________________________________________ INFO: Monday-Friday 09:00 am - 01:00 pm @ISHYO or 02 55 10 88 87 or ishyoasbl@yahoo.fr   N'hésitez par à diffuser ce message à vos amis ! Feel free to forward this message to all your friends!

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Un adolescent américain innocenté grâce à Facebook

 ZDNet France.

Tags: Smartphone, Chiffres, Apple

Technologie - Accusé de vol à main armé,
un jeune américain de 19 ans a été
blanchi grâce à un « post » effectué
sur sa page Facebook une minute avant
que le crime ne soit commis.
La justice a admis la preuve
et libéré le jeune homme.

Rodney Bradford peut dire merci
à Facebook ! Ce jeune homme de 19 ans
vivant à New-York a été innocenté
grâce à un message publié sur sa page
du site de réseautage.
Il avait passé 12 jours en détention,
arrêté pour un vol à main armé à Brooklyn,
commis dans son quartier.

Déjà connu des services de police,
Rodney Bradford clamait cette fois-ci
son innocence, affirmant qu'il était ce jour là
chez son père à Harlem. Il avançait pour
preuve la mise à jour de son statut
sur Facebook avec un message envoyé
à sa petite amie une minute avant
que le crime ne soit commis.

Facebook a confirmé que ce message
avait bien été émis depuis l'ordinateur
du père de Rodney Bradford à Harlem.
Le procureur a alors ordonné la libération
immédiate de Bradford, précisant que
cette preuve ne faisait que corroborer
les alibis fournis par d'autres témoins.

Ce n'est pas la première fois que Facebook
est utilisé comme preuve par la justice.
Le mois dernier, une femme a été
incarcérée pour avoir envoyé un « poke »
à une personne que la justice lui avait
interdit de contacter. (Eureka Presse)

Par la rédaction, ZDNet France

Link here

--
J-L K

Central Africa's Tropical Congo Basin Was Arid, Treeless In Late Jurassic

 An ancient soil crack, called a clastic dike, from
alternate wetting and drying cycles
of seasonal rainfall.
(Credit: Image courtesy
of Southern Methodist University)

ScienceDaily   — The Congo Basin -- with its
massive, lush tropical rain forest -- was
far different 150 million to 200 million years ago.
At that time Africa and South America
were part of the single continent Gondwana.
The Congo Basin was arid, with
 a small amount of seasonal rainfall,
and few bushes or trees populated
the landscape, according to
a new geochemical analysis of rare ancient soils.

The geochemical analysis provides
new data for the Jurassic period, when
very little is known about
Central Africa's paleoclimate, says
Timothy S. Myers, a paleontology doctoral
student in the Roy M. Huffington Department
of Earth Sciences at
Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"There aren't a whole lot of terrestrial deposits
from that time period preserved
in Central Africa," Myers says. "Scientists
have been looking at Africa's paleoclimate
for some time, but data from
this time period is unique."

There are several reasons for the
scarcity of deposits: Ongoing armed conflict
makes it difficult and challenging
to retrieve them; and the thick vegetation,
a humid climate and continual erosion
prevent the preservation of ancient deposits,
which would safeguard clues
to Africa's paleoclimate.

Myers' research is based on
a core sample drilled by a syndicate
interested in the oil and mineral deposits
in the Congo Basin. Myers accessed
the sample -- drilled from a depth
of more than 2 kilometers -- from
the Royal Museum for Central Africa
in Tervuren, Belgium, where it is housed.
With the permission of the museum,
he analyzed pieces of the core
at the SMU Huffington Department
of Earth Sciences Isotope Laboratory.

"I would love to look at an outcrop
in the Congo," Myers says, "but I
was happy to be able to do this."

The Samba borehole, as it's known,
was drilled near the center
of the Congo Basin. The Congo Basin
today is a closed canopy
tropical forest -- the world's second
largest after the Amazon. It's home
to elephants, great apes, many species
of birds and mammals, as well
as the Congo River. Myers' results are
consistent with data from
other low paleolatitude, continental,
Upper Jurassic deposits in Africa
and with regional projections
of paleoclimate generated by
general circulation models, he says.

"It provides a good context for
the vertebrate fossils found in Central Africa,"
 Myers says. "At times, any indications
of the paleoclimate are listed
as an afterthought, because climate
is more abstract. But it's important
because it yields data about
the ecological conditions. Climate determines
the plant communities, and not just
how many, but also the diversity of plants."

While there was no evidence of
terrestrial vertebrates in the deposits
that Myers studied, dinosaurs were present
in Africa at the same time.
Their fossils appear in places that were
once closer to the coast, he says,
and probably wetter and more hospitable.

The Belgium samples yielded
good evidence of the paleoclimate.
Myers found minerals indicative of
an extremely arid climate typical
of a marshy, saline environment.
With the Congo Basin at the center
of Gondwana, humid marine air from
the coasts would have lost much
of its moisture content by the time
it reached the interior of the massive continent.

"There probably wouldn't have been
a whole lot of trees; more
scrubby kinds of plants," Myers says.

The clay minerals that form
in soils have an isotopic composition
related to that of the local rainfall
and shallow groundwater.
The difference in isotopic composition
between these waters and the clay minerals
is a function of surface temperature,
he says. By measuring the oxygen and
hydrogen isotopic values of the clays
in the soils, researchers can estimate
the temperature at which the clays formed.
For more information
see www.smuresearch.com.

Myers presented his research, "Late Jurassic
Paleoclimate of Central Africa,"
at a scientific session of
the 2009 annual meeting of The Geological
Society of America in Portland, Ore., Oct. 18-21.

The research was funded by
the Roy M. Huffington Department
of Earth Sciences at SMU,
and the Institute for the Study
of Earth and Man at SMU.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Eight Tips to Ward off Employee Theft

Attorney Sonya Smith Valentine

Loss prevention measures to reduce your liability

By Marcia Wade Talbert s Post

Since the beginning of the recession not only has

fraudulent activity increased, but the amount

of money lost to fraud has increased as well.

U.S. businesses lose 7% of annual revenue,

equaling $994 billion, to fraud, but small businesses

are even more vulnerable, according to

a report from the Association of

Certified Fraud Examiners.

Small businesses suffered both

a greater percentage of frauds (38%)

and a higher median loss ($200,000) compared

with companies that have 100 to 10,000 employees

that only suffered losses between

$116,000 and $176,000, according to the report.

Between the recession and loss due to fraud,

small business owners are under even

more pressure to stay profitable

and stay in business. Lawyer, accountant,

and identity theft expert Sonya Smith-Valentine

lays out eight steps that small business owners

should take to keep their assets

safe from in-house thieves.

Keep important items locked up. Make employees

who have access to sensitive information

lock office doors and file cabinets

at the end of the workday.

Keep the mailbox locked and limit

the keys to the mailbox.

Make sure all computers have

automatic password protection

and instruct users to log off when

they step away from their computers.

Put passwords on your bank accounts

so that only specific people

can order new checks.

Check employee references.

At a minimum, run a civil and criminal background

check on employees, and as your

business grows, hire bonded bookkeepers.

Even get background information

from building management about

cleaning crews that have access to your offices.

If an employee has anything to do with money,

check their credit report to learn about

their debts. "If their credit is really jacked up

and they are really hard-pressed for money,

they might not be the person you want,"

says Smith-Valentine.

Sign your own checks. If one person is doing

all the bookkeeping they might make payouts

to companies that you haven't

done business with.

They may set up a dummy billing system

to make it seem like you received

a bill for services and they are

just paying the bill.

If you sign checks yourself, you are more

inclined to pay attention to where

the money is going, and employees are

also less likely to embezzle,

says Smith-Valentine.

If the owner isn't available to sign the checks,

then require the signatures

of two different employees on checks.

Separate the responsibilities

of accounts payable employees.

Make sure the person who is paying

the bills (i.e. signing checks) is different

from the person who is logging

the information into the computer.

When you split the two job responsibilities

it becomes harder to manipulate the data,

says Smith-Valentine. Also, don't allow

the data entry employee access

to the mail. This will reduce

the data entry clerk's ability

to steal a check and cover it up.

Perform random audits of vendors

and clients. Let your staff know that

once every six months you will choose

a business that your company does

business with and randomly audit it.

Randomly choose checks from

your bank statements, find out who

the checks were made out to,

and then audit that company.

Consider hiring an outside accounting firm

to do this; it will put the employees

on notice that there are people

other than you watching them.

Encourage employee watchdogs. Implement

a process for employees to

anonymously report abuse and fraud.

Also let them know that they could

be rewarded if information

they provide leads to the arrest of an offender.

Purchase employee dishonesty

insurance coverage.

Taking time to detect fraud and

clean up the aftermath is time

you could be using to run your business.

You can purchase inexpensive

insurance plans to help defer some

of the costs that occur as

a result of fraud or embezzlement.

Encourage employees to take

vacation time. A lot of small business owners

are happy when their employees work

as much as possible. But

the embezzling employee will

never take off time. They come in early,

stay late, and they always want

to discourage you from looking up

information on your own, says Smith-Valentine.

"If something strange is going on,

it is probably going to pop up

while they are gone."

Resources:

Fraud Awareness Week

Small Business Fraud Prevention

Manual Anti Fraud Resources

Keep Swinging: An Entrepreneur's Story

of Overcoming Adversity and

Achieving Small Business Success

United States Secret Service Field Office

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Officer Exposes Police Corruption Using the Web

Vadim Isakov

On November 6, a police officer at
the Department of Internal Affairs in
Novorossiysk used his personal Web site
to address Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin and talk about
numerous problems police officers face in Russia.

In his video address available on
www.dymovskiy.ru and YouTube (part I and part II [RUS]),
Aleksey Dymovskiy is calm and meticulous.
He talks about diminishing police honor,
bribes, corruption and low pay
that poison lives of many police officers in Russia.
I think many people will understand me.
I want to work but I am fed up with
fictional plans when we are forced
to investigate crimes that don't exist.
I am fed up with fictional plans when
we are told that we need
to imprison certain people. I am fed up
with staged crimes designed
to put some people in jail.
Continuing with his revelations,
Dymovskiy admits putting an innocent person
in jail under the pressure from his supervisor:
The director of the Department of
Internal Affairs awarded me rank of the Major,
which I received in May, because
I promised him to put an innocent person in jail.
I'm not afraid to say that. I understand
that it can be punishable.
But it is the truth and I admit that.
Dymovsky also appeals to Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urging him
to investigate those problems and put
an end to the widespread corruption in the police.

The video hit a "viral" stage within hours
after its publication with several hundreds
of thousands of clicks on YouTube.
It was widely covered by the Russian
mainstream media and discussed
on the countless blogs. It is one of the first
examples when Russian citizens
successfully deploy new media platform
to draw attention of the government
toward hot issues in the country.

The novelty of "citizen video addresses"
in Russia is best indicated by
a cautious comment from one
of the most popular bloggers
in the country dolboeb:
A monologue with enormous force.
I won't be surprised if it turns out
to be a viral marketing.
The character is too out-of-this-word.
Another blogger marchenk writes:
None of us is an angel...
I wouldn't admire him [Dymovskiy] as
an honest policeman and the lover
of the truth (he admits himself that
he received the rank of major
for putting an innocent person in jail). [...]
However, sincere respect for bravery.
There are honest police officers after all.
Because of them, it makes sense
to push forward police reforms.

I hope to God his publicity gives him
protection and honest
consideration of his situation.
On Sunday, November 8, Rashid Nurgaliev,
the Russian minister of internal affairs,
announced the audit of police forces
in Novorossiysk. Meanwhile, Dymovskiy
has been fired "for libel and actions
that damage the honor" of the police.

In his interview to Russian radio station
"Ekho Moskvy," Dymovskiy said he
had been followed and was considering
sending his family to Moscow
for security reasons.

You may view the latest post at
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/09/
officer-exposes-police-corruption-using-the-web/

 

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Mandela Endures as South Africa’s Ideal

Pool photo by Themba Hadebe

Nelson Mandela at the inauguration of
President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria in May.

Nelson Mandela with his wife, Graça Machel,
and his grandson Ziyanda Manaway during
Mr. Mandela's 91st birthday in July.
 
By CELIA W. DUGGER

JOHANNESBURG — The icon is a very old man now.
His hair is white, his body frail. Visitors say
Nelson Mandela leans heavily on a cane when
he walks into his study. He slips off his shoes,
lowers himself into a stiff-backed chair and lifts
each leg onto a cushioned stool.

His wife, Graça, adjusts his feet "so they're
symmetrical, and gives him a peck,"
says George Bizos, his old friend and lawyer.
 
To Mr. Mandela's left is a small table piled
with newspapers in English and Afrikaans,
the language of the whites who imprisoned
him for 27 years. Family and old comrades
sit to his right, where his hearing is better.

His memory has weakened, but he still loves
to reminisce, bringing out oft-told stories
"like polished stones," as one visitor put it.

"There's a quietness about him," said
Barbara Masekela, his chief of staff after
his release from prison in 1990.

"I find myself trying to amuse him, and
I feel joyous when he breaks out in laughter."

Mr. Mandela, perhaps the world's most
beloved statesman and a natural showman,
has repeatedly announced his retirement
from public life only to appear at a pop concert
in his honor or a political rally.

But recently, as he canceled engagements,
rumors that he was gravely ill swirled
so persistently in South Africa that his foundation
released a statement saying he was
"as well as anyone can expect of
someone who is 91 years old."

Yet even as Mr. Mandela fades from view,
he retains a vital place in the public
consciousness here. To many, he is still
the ideal of a leader — warm, magnanimous,
willing to own up to his failings — against which
his political successors are measured
and often found wanting.

He is the founding father whose values
continue to shape the nation.

"It's the idea of Nelson Mandela that remains
the glue that binds South Africa together,"
said Mondli Makhanya, editor in chief
of The Sunday Times.

"The older he grows,
the more fragile he becomes,
the closer the inevitable becomes,
we all fear that moment.

There's the love of the man, but there's also
the question: Who will bind us?"

There is a yearning for the exhilarating days
when South Africa peacefully ended
white racist rule, and a desire to understand
the imperfect, big-hearted man who
embodied that moment.

Because of this, various historians
and journalists are at work on a
new round of books about Mr. Mandela.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation agreed
last month to sell publishers in some
20 countries the rights to a book,

"Conversations With Myself," based on material
from Mr. Mandela's personal papers — jottings
on envelopes, journals, desk calendars,
drafts of intimate letters to relatives
written in prison and documents from
his years as South Africa's first
democratically chosen black president.

"He was and still is an obsessive
record keeper," said Verne Harris, who has
been Mr. Mandela's archivist since 2004
and will knit together the excerpts with
Tim Couzens, a biographer.

"The oldest records we have in that collection
are his Methodist Church membership cards,
the earliest one dated 1929.
So he was 11 years old then."

There are telling nuggets in unexpected places.
In his prison years, the authorities gave him
a South Africa tourist desk calendar each year.

He typically recorded facts in it — his blood pressure,
or whom he met that day — but occasionally
he noted a dream, like one in which
his daughter Zindzi, whom he was not
allowed to see from when she was 3 years old
until she was 15, "asks me
to kiss her & remarks that I am not warm enough."

The book will also draw on 71 hours
of taped conversations that Mr. Mandela
had with Richard Stengel, who
collaborated with him on
his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom,"
and Ahmed Kathrada,
Mr. Mandela's prison comrade.

"One of the amazing, uncanny things
was his memory," said Mr. Stengel,who is
writing a memoir of his time
with Mr. Mandela, called "Mandela's Way,"
to be published in March.

"It was like he was watching a movie
of his life and then narrating it,"
Mr. Stengel, Time magazine's managing editor,
continued. "He would do voices
of his father, of his teachers, of his prison guard."

Eventually, after a team at the foundation
has catalogued the entire archive,
the foundation plans to digitize it
and put it on the Internet.
The vast bulk of it is not yet public.

Historians say they are not expecting
major surprises about Mr. Mandela's generally
well-known views, but hope to find
rare glimpses of the man.

Mr. Mandela is looked after by his wife,
Graça Machel, 64, the widow of a former
president of Mozambique and
a humanitarian activist.

"They behave like young lovers,"
Mr. Bizos said. "They hold hands."

Here in Johannesburg, it is not unusual
for residents of his neighborhood,
Houghton, to gossip about how
he is doing. Mr. Harris, seeking to douse rumors
that Mr. Mandela was deteriorating,
said he was still healthy but tired
of small talk with strangers.

"He can reminisce at great length
about things that happened years
and years ago," Mr. Harris said.
"But you know what old age is like.
Short-term memory starts
to malfunction and you have bad days."

His oldest friends, stalwarts of
the anti-apartheid struggle, still visit.
Mr. Bizos, who went to law school
with Mr. Mandela in the 1940s, said
Ms. Machel worried that Mr. Mandela
would be alone when she was out of town,
and eat too little without company.

So from time to time, Mr. Bizos
gets a call from their housekeeper
to come for lunch.
 
Mr. Mandela sits at the head of a large table,
with Mr. Bizos to his right.
They relish their favorite dish — oxtail
in a rich sauce — and talk about old times.
Mr. Mandela tells how he walked into
a law school class and sat next
to a white fellow with big ears,
who promptly changed seats to avoid
sitting next to a black man.

Mr. Mandela had wanted to invite
the man to their 50th reunion at the University
of the Witwatersrand in 1999,
but the man had already died.

"He repeats it from time to time,"
Mr. Bizos said. "He regrets he did not
have the opportunity to meet him.
He would have said to him,

'Do you remember what happened?
But please don't worry.
I forgive you.' "

Like a grown child for whom each goodbye
to an aged parent feels as if it may be
the last, South Africa seems to be
preparing itself for the final farewell
to its epic hero.

And Mr. Mandela seems to have
readied himself, poking fun at his infirmity.
Mr. Harris recounted a joke
he had heard Mr. Mandela tell and retell.

"When I die, I'm going to get up
to the gates of heaven, and they're going
to say to me, 'Who are you?'
" Mr. Mandela says. "And I'll say,
'I'm Madiba,' " he said, referring
to his clan name.

"And they'll say, 'But where do you
come from?' And I'll say, 'South Africa.'
 And they'll say, 'Oh, that Madiba.
You've come to the wrong gates.
You see the ones down there that
are very warm?
That's where you have to go.' "

Mr. Mandela's wish is to be buried
alongside his ancestors in Qunu,
on the eastern Cape, where
he spent the happiest years
of his boyhood.

In his autobiography, he describes it
as a place of small, beehive-shaped huts
with grass roofs.

"It was in the fields," he wrote, "that
I learned how to knock birds out
of the sky with a slingshot, to gather
wild honey and fruits and edible roots,
to drink warm, sweet milk from the udder
of a cow, to swim in the clear, cold streams,
and to catch fish with twine
and sharpened bits of wire."

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Suspicious Powder Sent To French, Austrian, Uzbekistan Consulates

Anthrax Scare: 
 
NEW YORK — Envelopes containing
suspicious powder were sent to three
foreign consulates in Manhattan on Monday,
but initial tests suggested the mailings
were a hoax, police officials said.

A field test done on the powder sent
the Uzbekistan Consulate came back negative
for Anthrax or any other dangerous substance,
New York Police Department spokesman
Paul Brown said.

Envelopes containing a powder were also sent
to the French and Austrian consulates.

All three envelopes had Dallas, Texas, postmarks,
and at least one contained a note
referencing al-Qaida, Brown said.

The potential threat prompted an emergency
response from federal and local authorities,
including hazardous material units that
decontaminated employees of
the consulates who handled the envelopes.

"The FBI is working with the NYPD to determine
the origin of these letters," said Richard Kolko,
spokesman for the FBI's New York Office.

"Our field office will follow all leads
to locate the sender."

Telephone calls to the consulates went
unanswered or were not immediately returned.

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Merkel achieves political success beyond her wildest dreams

The Irish Times - 
  
EUROPEAN DIARY: Angela Merkel's life story
is symbolic of the change that has
transformed Europe, writes ARTHUR BEESLEY

ANGELA MERKEL, who herself was among
the throngs that made their way through
the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, recalled last week
the restrictions of life in the communist bloc.

In a moving speech to the joint houses
of the US Congress in Washington,
the German chancellor told how simple things
easily taken for granted were
beyond the reach of her family.

Her mother, who had studied English
and Latin to become a teacher, was not
allowed to work in her chosen profession
in the German Democratic Republic.

The younger Merkel, for whom it was beyond
the imagination to even think about travelling
to America, created her own picture of the US
from films and books.

Some of those tomes were
smuggled from the west by relatives, just as
an aunt sent her a certain brand of jeans
from the other side of the frontier.

"The Wall, barbed wire and the order to shoot
those who tried to leave, limited my access
to the free world," she said.

Merkel was 35 when the Wall came down,
releasing pent-up political force across
central and eastern Europe that would
swiftly bring the Soviet empire to heel.

Soon she would leave the world of physics
behind to devote herself, with remarkable
success, to politics.

"Not even in my wildest dreams could I have
imagined, 20 years ago before the Wall fell,
that this would happen," she said of her address
in Washington as leader of a reunited Germany.

"A person who has experienced such
a positive surprise in life believes
that much is possible."

The chancellor, who said elsewhere last week
that she did not at first believe the Wall's demise
would quickly lead to reunification, was host
last night of festivities to mark
the 20th anniversary of that seismic event.

A cascade of revolutionary change followed
the Wall's destruction, bringing half a continent
into the democratic arena and resetting
the parameters of the political world.

Among its results was the EU's historic
enlargement in 2004, when eight former
eastern bloc countries joined the union
(another two followed in 2007).

Thus there is no small irony in the fact that
EU politics is at present transfixed with
the appointment of the first president
of the European Council and
a new foreign policy chief.

The two jobs were created under the Lisbon Treaty
in an extensive package of highly detailed
institutional reform that was designed to make
the EU easier to manage following
enlargement and more democratic.

As EU leaders gathered in Berlin for
last night's festivities, they cannot but have
had names and respective merits
of potential nominees on their lips.

With Tony Blair's lustre dimming, the momentum
for the council presidency seems at present
to be with Belgium's haiku-writing prime minister,
Herman Van Rompuy.

That such a low-key figure, virtually unknown
outside his own country, should emerge
as favourite at this late stage says much
about the likely profile of
the eventual appointee, whoever
it turns out to be.

Although one vision for the job is that it
should go to a global figure capable
of projecting the EU and its political stance
on the world stage, leaders at present seem
keen to pursue an appointee with
an altogether more modest mandate.

Only with time will the merits of pursuing
that course be gauged, although it is already
clear that the EU and its members can
be crowded out with ease by the US and China
in debate and negotiation
on big issues such as the environment.

On the flip side, however, a low-key council
president devoted to chairing and
preparing meetings of EU government leaders
is unlikely to outshine major leaders such
as Merkel and her French counterpart,
Nicolas Sarkozy, on the world stage.

Now seeking to back a common candidate
for the post, they appear to have divined
the selection of just such
a nominee would be in their interest.

Whoever gets the job will be charged with
the mammoth task of steering EU leaders
through the Lisbon reforms when the treaty
comes into force next month.

Elegant they are not, as anyone who has tried
to read the document can attest.
Still, turning the lofty aims of democracy
into political and institutional reality
is never straightforward and
is fraught with compromise.

Amid the current celebrations, it seems rather
obvious, but no less important, to point out
that what the accession states now have
is a great deal better than what went before.

Countries suppressed for generations by
the yoke of communism and its
secret policemen are free and
governed by the rule of law.

Those societies are still poorer than the rest
of Europe, but economic ruin and political chaos
did not transpire when the old order passed away.

Merkel's was just one life among many millions
transformed by the change.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Pour fabriquer moins cher, la Chine aussi se délocalise

 Atelier chinois à Port-Saïd

Fatma AHMED et Ismaïl el-MOKADEM (AFP)

 
Une main d'œuvre bon marché, des investissements
détaxés et des exportations faciles: un groupe textile chinois
a trouvé en Égypte un havre encore plus
attractif que la Chine pour fabriquer des chemisettes.
 
Le Nile Textile Group, à capitaux chinois, s'est installé
dans la zone franche de Port-Saïd, à l'extrémité nord
du canal de Suez, avec une usine faisant travailler
600 personnes, 80% d'Égyptiens et 20% de Chinois.

Argument de poids pour amener les industriels chinois
à délocaliser: la possibilité d'importer
les matières premières sans taxes ni impôts,
pourvu que le produit fini soit exporté.

Une aubaine pour le Nile Textile Group, qui importe
60% de ses produits de base et expédie
hors d'Égypte, en particulier vers les États-Unis,
la quasi-totalité de sa production de vêtements
bon marché, étiquetés "made in Egypt"
au lieu de "made in China".

"Les zones franches égyptiennes permettent
d'exporter partout dans le monde pratiquement
sans restrictions", souligne Mohamad Abdel Samie,
directeur administratif du site.

Les salaires proposés sont assez faibles pour
concurrencer ceux des travailleurs chinois,
même si un système de primes de productivité
permet aux ouvriers égyptiens
d'arrondir leurs fins de mois.

"Dans les usines où les salaires sont fixes,
on gagne au plus entre 700 et 800 livres
(environ 85 à 100 euros) par mois.
Dans cette entreprise, on s'en sort
mieux qu'ailleurs", assure Mansour el-Saïd, un contremaitre.

Dans les ateliers éclairés au néon, bruissant
du cliquetis des machines à coudre,
les ouvrières égyptiennes portant le foulard
côtoient les techniciennes chinoises en blouse blanche.

Les panneaux d'instruction sont écrits en arabe
et en chinois. Pour la communication
au quotidien, "ils m'ont appris quelques mots
de chinois et ils apprennent l'arabe",
affirme une couturière, Leila Ali.

Quelque 950 entreprises chinoises sont installées
dans les zones franches égyptiennes,
représentant un investissement total
de près de 200 millions d'euros.

La plupart travaillent dans l'industrie (526)
ou les services (306), mais 31 se sont lancées
dans le secteur de l'agriculture et huit dans le tourisme,
selon les chiffres du GAFI, l'organisme
chargé des zones franches égyptiennes.

Le Forum Chine-Afrique, qui se tient dimanche et lundi
en présence d'une cinquantaine de pays
à Charm el-Cheikh, en Égypte, devrait permettre
d'accélérer le rythme, avec la signature
d'un accord sino-égyptien pour encourager
encore davantage les investissements.

Le développement spectaculaire des échanges
économiques entre la Chine et l'Afrique
ces dernières années est au cœur de ce sommet,
auquel participent le Premier ministre chinois
Wen Jiabao et le président égyptien Hosni Moubarak.

Selon les statistiques officielles chinoises,
les investissements directs chinois en Afrique
ont fait un bond de 491 millions de dollars en 2003
à 7,8 milliards fin 2008.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Fifa World Cup Trophy Arrives in Kigali

Rwanda:  

Bonnie Mugabe
 

Kigali — THE much-anticipated Fifa Coca-Cola
World Cup trophy arrived in the country
last night as it made the 34th stop on its African tour.

The golden silverware accompanied by
Coca-cola and Fifa officials reached Kigali international
airport from Bujumbura, Burundi on a Coca-cola
branded chartered plane at 19.00 hours.

The trophy was received by the Minister of Sports
and Culture Joseph Habineza, Ferwafa Vice President,
Vedaste Kayiranga, Bralirwa Managing Director
Sven Piederiet among others.

On arrival, the trophy was chauffeured right away
to Serena Hotel in the company of
Fifa and Coca-Cola officials.

The trophy which was hidden in a wrapping
could not be easily seen but will only
be displayed for public viewing
at Amahoro stadium today.

The authentic trophy is set to be officially
presented to President Paul Kagame
this afternoon at the national stadium.

Kagame is set to become the first Rwandan
to have his hands on the world's most
coveted sports icon.

Over 20 Heads of State and 70,000 fans have
so far given the Fifa World Cup trophy
a stirring welcome on its tour
of the African continent.

Only Heads of States and former winners
are allowed to handle the solid gold.

The trophy will leave the country on
Thursday to continue its tour to
neighbouring Kampala, Uganda.
 
The Fifa World Cup Trophy was first
used in 1974. Made of 18 carat gold with
a malachite base, it depicts
two human figures holding up the Earth.

The trophy stands 14.4 inches tall and is
made of 5 kg of 75% solid gold with
a base 5.1 inches in diameter containing
two layers of malachite.

Produced by Bertoni, Milano,
it weighs 6.175 kg in total.

The current holder of the trophy is Italy,
winner of the 2006 World Cup.

Shortly before the 2006 Fifa World Cup,
the trophy was briefly returned to Italy
for restoration before eventually
being awarded to the same country.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

intox Facebook payant?

Image © Keystone
 
 
Un hoax récurrent et connu qui inquiète
pourtant de plus en plus les internautes

Bertrand Tappy -
 
Le Matin Bleu

Les membres du site communautaire ont tous
reçu au moins une fois un message les avertissant
que la plate-forme créée par Mark Zuckerberg
allait perdre sa gratuité. Le ton est on ne peut
plus clair: «Tel que dit dans les médias, les concepteurs
du site Web ont l'intention de rendre payant
l'accès à leur site le 1er janvier 2009.»

Intrigué, un journaliste de Rue89 a enquêté sur
ces soi-disant sources médiatiques (un reportage
de la chaîne canadienne TVA et un article
du site Slate).

Il en ressort deux constats: soit les articles
ou reportages mentionnés ne font
jamais mention de Facebook, soit le passage
à l'accès payant est réel, mais en tant
que «stratégie que le site devrait
suivre pour survivre».

Il s'agit donc bien d'une rumeur.
Espérons qu'elle n'ait pas donné d'idées...

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

How to Create a Virtual PC on Windows 7

 

You're not supposed to be able to get XP Mode
without the right version of Win7, but if
you have a valid XP license, it works just fine.
Here's step-by-step instructions on
how to do it, plus tips for a safe, hassle-free install

By Kevin Fogarty

— CIO —

Windows 7 is already a big hit for Microsoft,

according to market-share tracker Net Applications,

which shows it rising past all the extant versions

of Linux and Windows except Vista and XP

and into fourth place hot on the heels

of the Mac OS X 10.5.

One of its most talked-about features is

a version of XP built right in to some editions,

so it can run in native mode on a virtual machine

all those applications that never made

the leap compatibility with Windows Vista.

Except XP Mode doesn't come

automatically; you have to install it.

And it doesn't come with

all editions of Windows 7.

[ For timely virtualization news and

expert advice on strategy, see

CIO.com's Virtualization Drilldown section. ]

Users running Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise

have to download both XP Mode and Virtual PC,

on which it runs. Those with Home Premium or

Starter are stuck; Virtual PC not only doesn't come

with those editions, Microsoft theoretically

doesn't allow Virtual PC to even run

on anything but Vista, XP or the three

more exalted editions of Windows 7.

That's not to say Virtual PC doesn't run there,

anyway, however. And, fortunately,

the installation procedure is the same

for Virtual PC whether you're licensed

for XP Mode or not.

[ For complete coverage on Microsoft's new

Windows 7 operating system -- including

hands-on reviews, video tutorials and

advice on enterprise rollouts-- see

CIO.com's Windows 7 Bible. ]

I loaded and ran it on a laptop running 64-bit

Windows 7 Home Premium on an Intel Core

2 Duo with 4GB of memory.

Here's how to get going:

Step 1: Check your Processor

Intel and AMD have both built hooks into

their processors that allow the host and

guest operating system (the virtual machine)

to trade off tasks more smoothly.

Virtual PC will work on chips that don't have

those hooks, but not well. Microsoft provides

a free utility to check your processor. Intel and AMD

have their own utilities as well, if you want

to double check. Intel Processor Identification

Utility; AMD Virtualization and Hyper-V compatibility Check.

Once you know if the silicon supports it, check to see

if your BIOS is set up to use those hooks.

Chances are, for most desktops and laptops,

it's not. Microsoft offers instructions

and links to specific manufacturers here.

Step 2: Download Virtual PC

Microsoft requirements call for a 400 MHz or

above Pentium-compatible processor, 35 MB of disk space

and Windows XP or Vista. There are 32-bit and

64-bit versions; Virtual PC cares about

the difference. The newest version of

Virtual PC supports USB peripherals and

are supposed to be able to support

64-bit operating systems within

the VM as well. Either way, get the right

edition for your machine.

Step 3: Build your VM

Once you've downloaded the installation package,

launch it and follow instructions. Then click

the Start menu and find Virtual PC. It will launch

a Wizard that offers the choice of opening

an existing virtual PC, creating one with

default settings or will walk you through the process

of configuring one yourself. Pick the latter to do

things like increasing the RAM available to the VM

from the default of 128 MB to a gigabyte, or raise

the default virtual-hard-disk size from 16 GB

to something with enough room for an OS and

any applications you want to run only within the VM.

The whole process takes less time than it

does to install most bits of freeware.

But that's only the configuration, not the VM itself.

Step 4: Launch and Provision

After configuration, the Virtual PC Console

remains onscreen while Virtual PC runs

in the background, taking up about

17 MB of memory just sitting there.

Clicking Start opens a command window

in which Virtual PC uses DHCP to try to

find itself an IP address. If you haven't already

provisioned an operating system image, it will think

about things for a while, then tell you

to go find a proper boot address.

To install the OS from a CD or ISO file, make sure

the window surrounding the VM — the actual VM,

which looks at this point like a DOS window,

not the console you used to set

the configuration — is the active window

on your machine. Then either insert the CD into the drive

or drag your ISO file onto the CD icon in

the Virtual PC command window. If you're loading

the OS from a CD, go to the menu bar

of the VM window, click on CD and tell it

to capture the physical CD drive.

My VM didn't like 64-bit versions of either

Windows 7 or Vista, but was fine with

a 32-bit version of XP Home Edition. The install takes

about as long as it would on a normal hard drive,

but instead of asking what partition of

your hard drive it should live in, it shows

only unpartitioned space on the virtual hard drive

you've already set up.

The install then proceeds normally, within

one window of your PC rather than

taking up the whole thing.

Warning: The VM doesn't know it's not the only

computer on your computer. So when you click

on anything in its window, will capture the cursor and

not let it go again, which would be really

embarrassing if anyone wandered in to see

why you were cursing at your laptop.

To free your cursor, hit the right ALT key.
If the VM is running in full-screen mode,
press right-ALT-ENTER.

After setup, walk through the configuration screen

and type in a valid Windows key

for the version of the OS you installed.

Step 5: Install Additions

Before you can do anything interesting

you have to install a set of add-ons that allow

Virtual PC to do things like share folders, share

the clipboard and drag-and-drop things

between the VM window and the host OS.

You have to install them separately,

using the VM window, not the Virtual PC Console.

Go to the Menu bar of the VM and click Action,

then pull down to Install or Update

Virtual Machine Additions. It will pop up

a window asking you to confirm,

and then disappear as if you were kidding.

To actually run the installer — which the VM

believes is either a CD or an ISO file — go to

the Start button, then choose Run and navigate

to what would normally be the CD drive,

where you'll find the Additions ISO. Open

the folder appropriate to your host OS and

run the application inside. Then reboot the VM.

Step 6: Load Applications

Like most things virtual, loading applications or

accessing data on the host machine is like

walking across a transparent bridge.

Once you know it's there, it's simple; until

you do, you're stuck.

The bridge in this case is the Shared Folder.

Just as with two physically separate machines,

you can exchange data or applications through

a Shared Folder that both have permission to use.

Create one from the VM window. Click on Edit

in the menu bar, pull down to Settings and look

for the Shared Folders icon toward the bottom.

Choose it, navigate to a folder on the host machine

that you can use to move documents or

application setup files between

your real and virtual machines, and click OK.

The shared folder becomes a network drive

for the VM. To launch applications, click

on Start, Run, and browse to the

"network drive" Z:\ , which retains the name

of the folder itself. Then just launch

the setup for the new application.

That's it. You're done. Well, almost.

Step 7: Stay Safe

Don't forget to install all the security updates
for the new OS and install whatever anti-virus
or other security software you have
on the host OS. The VM has to route
all its traffic through your (presumably)
secured host OS, but that doesn't mean
a ZIP file or other potential threat won't get
through and launch on the VM--

A few more warnings and tips from Steve Bass

of the useful and amusing TechBite newsletter,

author of PC Annoyances, and

former columnist for PC World.

• If you defrag your hard drive, exclude
  
• the humungous swap file the virtual PC creates
  
• (check Options in your defragger),
  
• or it will take forever to complete.
• Some virtual PC software — including
  
• VMWare's — let you save multiple versions
  
• on your machine; each can gobble gigabytes,
  
• however. Keep an eye on
  
• available disk space, especially on a notebook.
• Running Win7, XP and Linux on the same machine
  
• at the same time is cool, but unless
  
• your system is a monster, you'll spend
  
• more time waiting than computing.
• Finished with XP Mode or your Virtual PC
  
• for now?
  
• Shut it down to free up system resources
  
• for the rest of your work.

And another couple of warnings, from Bob Arnson,

who works for Microsoft on its App-V team,

but blogs as his own geek.

• When you launch a VM it still needs
  
• an operating system and applications,
  
• which take time to set up the first time around.
  
• You can clone your main OS with tools
  
• such as Acronis True Image, but it still takes time
  
• to do the install.
  
• Once you have the image, though, taking one
  
• VM down and launching another if much faster
  
• than reinstalling an OS or application
  
• on real hardware.
• The VM isn't a real machine, but it uses
  
• a real OS, for which you need a license.
  
• And if you want to connect a
•  cloned OS to a domain, you have to use
  
• a tool like SysReq software distribution utility.

Follow everything from CIO.com

on Twitter @CIOonline.

 Link here

 

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Fish war prompts thousands to flee

Photo: UNHCR
A UNHCR boat on Oubangui River (file photo

Tags: Conflict, Refugees/IDPs

KINSHASA, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) – At least 1

6,000 civilians have fled deadly clashes

in western Democratic Republic of Congo and

are now languishing, many without food or shelter,

in neighbouring Republic of Congo,

according to the UN and local officials.

"These villagers fled interethnic fighting [in Dungu,

Equateur Province] which has already claimed

47 lives and caused many injuries,"

said Francesca Fontanini, a spokeswoman

for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Equateur's police chief, Col Joly Limengo, told  IRIN 

that clashes had broken out last week

between members of the Lobala and

Boba communities over access to fishing ponds.

Those who fled are having problems with nutrition,

medical supplies and shelter, according

to Fontanini, citing the findings of an

inter-agency mission made up of officials

from UNHCR, other UN agencies,

the Interior Ministry and local NGOs.

"Villagers are still crossing [the Ubangi river]

to Republic of Congo. By yesterday [4 November],

more than 16,000 had done so.

Most did not take any provisions at all,

or only very few. They are housed in

municipal buildings or in the open.

There is either no health centre,

or insufficient medical supplies where

they are," she said.

Officials in Equateur Province said they

had initiated dialogue between

the warring inhabitants of the villages

of Iyele and Muzala.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende said

there was more to the unrest

than an old dispute about fish.

"It's an insurrection. A certain Edo Bokoto,

who has been suspended from his post

of sector chief, has mobilized about 10 men

from his community to wanted to take control

of these fish ponds which belong to people

from these villages. They started to attack

people from outside their community," he said,

adding that seven policemen who intervened

in the fighting had been killed.

Equateur is the home province of erstwhile rebel

leader and former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba,

now awaiting trial for alleged

war crimes at the International Criminal Court.

ei/am/cb

Source: IRIN • humanitarian news

and analysis from Africa

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Travailler à Bukavu et vivre au Rwanda

par Yves Polepole

Rwanda, RD Congo
 

(Syfia Grands Lacs/RD Congo) Ils travaillent à Bukavu, à l'est

de la RD Congo, mais ils vivent à Kamembe au Rwanda

où les loyers sont moins chers et la vie plus facile.

Les jeunes Congolais sont de plus en plus nombreux

à se partager ainsi entre les deux pays,

témoignant du retour de la confiance entre les peuples.

''Si je ne trouve pas de maison à louer, je n'hésiterai pas
une seule seconde à vivre à Kamembe où les maisons
coûtent moins cher'', explique Anselme Kangeta,
un jeune journaliste bukavien bien connu.

Kangeta n'est pas le seul jeune à avoir une telle idée.
Ils sont toujours plus nombreux à travailler à Bukavu
et à vivre dans la ville rwandaise de Kamembe,
de l'autre côté de la frontière. C'est souvent pour payer
un loyer moins élevé que ces Bukaviens,
en majorité des jeunes, se décident à traverser la frontière.

En effet, les loyers ont pris l'ascenseur ces cinq
dernières années à Bukavu à cause, en grande partie,
de l'exode rural dû à l'insécurité dans les villages.
Selon une enquête de l'Institut national des statistiques,
réalisée en 2008, la ville compte plus de
600 000 habitants, presque trois fois plus que
dans les années 1980.

La présence de nombreuses Ong dans la ville est
aussi pour beaucoup dans cette augmentation.
Des propriétaires de maisons du centre-ville préfèrent
les abandonner pour y loger des bureaux
d'Ong internationales qui payent bien.

''On vit bien ici''
Depuis les années 1990, à la suite des guerres
à répétition, un climat de méfiance régnait entre
les habitants des deux villes séparées par la rivière.
La confiance a commencé à revenir en 2008 avec
la reprise des relations diplomatiques entre Kigali et Kinshasa.

Aujourd'hui, les Congolais qui se sont installés
à Kamembe disent bien vivre dans cette ville rwandaise.
''Je ne manque de rien en vivant ici. Je m'arrange
seulement pour être en règle avec tous les papiers
et il n'y a aucune tracasserie.

Je loge dans une maison de
quatre pièces que je paie 50 $ par mois
alors que la même maison en coûterait
200 à Bukavu'', confie Alfred Cubaka, jeune mécanicien
dans un des garages de la Monuc (Mission
des Nations unies au Congo). Un autre Bukavien,
rencontré au marché de Kamembe avec sa femme,
est du même avis :"Les divertissements qu'il y a à Bukavu,
on les trouve ici.
On peut sortir le soir pour prendre un verre ;
on peut faire du shopping ou du sport sans problème.
On vit bien ici !" Une opinion partagée par
la grande majorité des Congolais qui disent
apprécier la permanence du courant électrique et la sécurité.

Vivre dans deux pays
Les va-et-vient entre les deux pays sont ininterrompus
entre ceux qui vont se ravitailler à Kamembe
et les Bukaviens installés au Rwanda.
Deux mille Congolais franchissent chaque jour
la frontière selon un agent de l'Office des douanes
et accises (OFIDA). "Tous les matins, je prends mon bus
et je traverse la frontière pour aller au cours à Bukavu.
Le soir je m'arrange pour rentrer avant 18 heures,
quand on ferme la frontière'', raconte
un enseignant congolais qui vit au Rwanda.

La Communauté économique des pays des Grands Lacs
(CEPGL) a annoncé dernièrement l'ouverture
des frontières entre le Rwanda, le Burundi et la RDC
24 heures sur 24 d'ici fin 2009.
Une mesure qui pourrait faciliter la vie de ceux
qui vivent à cheval sur deux pays.

Côté Rwandais, on ne s'inquiète pas de cette ruée
sur les logements de Kamembe. ''J'ai des pièces
dans ma parcelle que je loue et j'ai vu un Congolais
qui est passé il y a une semaine
à la recherche d'un logement. Je lui ai donné mon prix.
S'il est d'accord, je ne vois pas ce qui m'empêcherait
de le lui donner'', lance un chauffeur rwandais
qui fait le trafic frontière Ruzizi- Marché Kamembe.

Pour les Rwandais, ces installations de Congolais
sont surtout un signe d'un retour
de la confiance entre les deux peuples.
À Bukavu, à l'occasion de la Journée mondiale
de l'habitat, le 5 octobre dernier, le chef de division
chargé de ce secteur, Robert Mondo,
a reconnu que la ville était saturée et a indiqué
qu'il est prévu de l'étendre vers le nord,
dans le territoire de Kabare.

 
Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

South Africa's cinematic history

By Susan King, Los Angeles Times staff

(MIramax)

It's a country with a rich and complicated
cinematic history. Over the years, South Africa
has served as both an inspiration and backdrop
for many compelling dramas, thrillers
and yes, comedies too.

Here are a few from decades past and present:
   

'Cry, the Beloved Country' (1951 and 1995)

The first adaptation of Alan Paton's 1948 novel
was a British production that starred
two American actors -- Canada Lee and Sidney Poitier.

Lee plays a poor black minister from the country
who travels to the city to find his missing son.
He discovers much more, including poverty
and suffering caused by an institutional oppression
that would later become apartheid.

Poitier plays a young pastor who comes to Lee's aid.
Because it was shot in South Africa, producer-director
Zoltan Korda told the authorities that his performers
were not actors but rather indentured servants,
thus enabling them to freely associate with the crew.

South African Darrell Roodt helmed
the 1995 version starring James Earl Jones.

'The Gods Must Be Crazy' (1980, 1984 in the U.S.)

(20th Century Fox)

The Sho tribe in the Kalahari Desert come in
contact with modern civilization in the form
of a Coke bottle dropped from a plane.
The slapstick comedy was made by South African
director Jamie Uys and financed with
South African government funds, but was released
as a Botswanan film because of
the international embargo against South Africa.

'A Dry White Season' (1989)

(MGM)

Martinique-born director Euzhan Palcy helmed
this drama set in 1970s South Africa about
the protests of schoolchildren in Soweto
who wanted to be educated in English, not Afrikaan.

The story unfolds around a white South African
(Donald Sutherland) who finds his suburban
existence upended when his
black gardener's son disappears.

'Bopha!' (1993)

(Bob Greene)

Morgan Freeman, who plays Nelson Mandela
in the upcoming "Invictus," directed this drama set
in 1980 South Africa about a police sergeant
(Danny Glover) who has a good relationship
with his white captain until he is ordered
to raid a secret meeting of students.

'Tsotsi' (2005) (Blid Alsbirk / Miramax) Set in the post-apartheid era, this Oscar-winning film written and directed by Gavin Hood focuses on a hard-bitten criminal teenager from a Soweto township outside of Johannesburg, who has grown up in poverty and despair. After shooting a woman in the stomach during a carjacking, he discovers a baby in the back seat. The decision to take the baby back to his home changes his life forever.

• Related Links
• South Africa in the Hollywood eye

Link here

--
J-L K

Deadly Gas Flows Add to a Lake’s List of Perils

The lake is divided between Congo and Rwanda,
often adversaries in the past
A sunrise seen from a boat on Lake Kivu
T. J. Kirkpatrick/Associated Press

 The New York Times

Goma Journal
 
By JOSH KRON
 
GOMA, Congo — It was 10 p.m. in early April when
Dieudonne Masha and a neighbor were walking home
along the shores of Lake Kivu after a round of drinking.
As the neighbor tells it, the two were confronted
by a pair of soldiers patrolling the area, who asked
to see their identity cards. Mr. Masha did not have his.
 
"He decided to make a run for it," said
the neighbor, Innocent Rwagatore.
Mr. Masha fled to a nearby rocky ditch.
When his body was found the next morning,
in the place where he had apparently
been crouching for hours, there were no signs of violence.

The city of Goma and the surrounding area
of eastern Congo hold many dangers,
including armed rebellions, famine and volcanic explosions.

But there is another, more mysterious threat
as well: large reservoirs of methane and
carbon dioxide lying deep beneath
Lake Kivu's surface and along its shores.

While the gases can be tapped for energy,
they can also kill. Mr. Masha is believed
to have died instantly when he hid in
an invisible bubble of carbon dioxide,
known as a mazuku, or "evil wind" in Swahili.

When Flavius Josephus, a first-century historian,
referred to the Sea of Galilee in ancient Judea
as an "ambition of nature," he could also
have been speaking of Lake Kivu.

A freshwater lake split between longstanding
adversaries, Congo and Rwanda, Lake Kivu is
a hub of commerce that sits in a seismically
active region, with lava occasionally
flowing into it from nearby volcanoes.

The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo near
the lake's northern shore in 2002 stimulated
new interest in the gas fields beneath
Lake Kivu's surface: 392 billion cubic yards
of carbon dioxide and 78 billion cubic yards
of methane slowly building toward a saturation point,
or potential release.

It could take centuries, scientists say, but some experts
argue that another eruption of Mount Nyiragongo
or nearby Mount Nyamulagira — Africa's most
active volcano — could set off a devastating gas release.

Similar events have been recorded at least
twice before, both times on lakes in Cameroon
during the mid-1980s. In one case,
over 1,700 people were killed.

But Lake Kivu is many hundreds
of times bigger, and scientists say
the amount of gases trapped underwater is larger.

The lake's rare chemistry has also presented

a financial opportunity. The World Bank has

earmarked over $3 million for delicate

gas extraction that could harvest

years of energy for the countries of

the African Great Lakes region, and it has been

promoted by Rwanda and Congo as

a centerpiece of the new and shaky peace

between the former enemies.

According to Rwanda's minister of energy,

nearly 60 companies have come forward

expressing interest in extracting gases,

particularly methane, from the lake.

The likelihood of a major gas release

remains unknown. Some of the scientists studying

the lake have been hired as consultants

for the big-money deals. But war and

a lack of resources — this stunningly

beautiful region remains one of

the poorest

in the world — also make the lake and volcanoes

difficult to monitor closely.

"The problems of the lake are not just

chemical, they are political," said Dr. Dario Tedesco,

a volcano expert who is writing

the United Nations' contingency plans

for Mount Nyiragongo's next eruption.

Still, the mazukus are a chilling and

constant reminder of the power

within the earth. According to Dr. Tedesco,

nearly 100 people like Mr. Masha die

each year from the carbon dioxide vents

along Lake Kivu's northern shore.

Stories of people feeling breathless

and lightheaded when swimming

in the lake are common, which could

contribute to the many drownings there.

In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide

in 1994, many died from mazukus that

sent clouds of gas into jam-packed

refugee camps along the lake.

"We've known for a long time," said

James Nzumuka, Goma's district mayor.

Signs displaying skulls and warning

of the mazuku danger are spread

around the area, and children have

been told to stay away from the lake.

At Goma's public beach, a rocky stretch

where motorcycles are washed and

baptisms performed, fishermen speak

of the many other perils of life by the lake,

telling stories of deadly piracy over

expensive nets used to catch sambaza,

a local sardine-size fish. Other boats,

overloaded, tip and sink. Swelling storms

have thrown others into the lake,

where, according to the National Geographic Society,

lightning strikes more frequently

than anywhere else in the world.

Many of the deaths seem preventable.

Every dry season Goma's children die,

not from thirst, but from drowning.

From June to August, when the rains stop,

so does the regular water supply to many

of the city's residents. In a summertime ritual,

children go to the lake to fetch

buckets of water. Many do not

know how to swim.

Such was the case for Marie Bazimuka's son

Abu Bakar, 11, who disappeared in July

while fetching water from the lake with a friend.

His body was found two days later,

near the spot where he had gone missing.

"During the dry season, the lake likes

to kill people," said Mrs. Bazimuka, who considers

herself deeply religious. "It's a kind of demon, a devil."

For Goma, which has struggled mightily

to form a semblance of a functioning government,

keeping track of the deaths is difficult.

A calamity division of Goma's police force,

which was established last year,

reported that nine bodies were found

in the lake last August; the mayor's office

recorded 14. Neither has a record of

Abu Bakar's death in July. According to Mrs. Bazimuka,

who said three other children died

the same day, most deaths are not reported.

"The best protection the government could give us
is to provide water," said Edward Wilondje,
whose son Fisto, 17, drowned after going
to fetch water in August 2006.
"It's always the same issue."

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

France’s identity crisis

By  Marissa Mooers | IDS

French politics is where it's at,
my friends. Forget "E! News"
and "US Weekly".

It seems that every day there is another scandal,
some high-ranking political figure has had
the skeletons in his or her closet
exposed once more and the media is all a clamor.

What high-ranking politician admits to sleeping
with underage male prostitutes?
(Culture minister Frederic Mitterand)

Which government official falsified bank documents
to get back at his bitter rival?
(Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin)

And what former president is facing trial
against charges of corruption, breach of trust
and misuse of public funds?
(Jacques Chirac)

Recently, President Nicolas Sarkozy decided
to shake things up, making news with
his announcement of the creation of
a new ministry of immigration and national identity.

Not the news you were expecting?
Me neither. But it seems that was exactly
the point. Look closer – things aren't always
what they seem, especially when it comes to politics.

During Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign,
he brought attention to the issue of defining
what it means to be French today.
The issue has been brought to the forefront
once more as congress prepares
to debate the issue during the next three months.

As globalization is an increasingly popular trend
in modern times, the diversity this brings can be
an asset in many ways. However,
it can also threaten a nation's distinctive identity.

France is having a bit of an identity crisis,
or so they say, and politicians are trying
to sort out what is at the core of France nationalism.

However, beneath the veneer of this seemingly
patriotic initiative, it seems that the heart
of the issue is more about
personal agendas than nationalistic preservation.

As the 2010 presidential campaign draws closer,
Sarkozy is attempting to steer attention away
from recent scandals and focus
on what is good for the country – or is he? 

Even members of Sarkozy's own party have
criticized his efforts, saying that this effort
to protect national identity is really
about the president securing right-wing supporters.

Other critics maintain that the debate of
France's identity is a ploy to distract the public
from the more gruesome stories
that have been frequenting the news in France.

Recently, Sarkozy has been involved
in several dealings that have
weakened his public support. 

And so the debate is heating up. What does it
mean to be French today?

How does a country with so many
immigrants maintain its culture
without being xenophobic?

It is certainly a worthwhile point
to consider, but it seems as
though politics are getting in the way once more. 

When Britney Spears had an identity crisis,
she shaved her head.
When France has an identity crisis,
Sarkozy tries to leverage the situation
for his own political gain,
and the issue at hand is becoming diluted. 

I propose that French politics take a page
from Ms. Spears' book.
What I mean is, let's get back to the basics.
Instead of getting caught up in power plays
and clashing egos,
maybe France would be better off with
a fresh start and with leaders
whose intentions are to help France,
rather than help themselves.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Nicolas Sarkozy should apologise for French Minister Pierre Lellouche's anti-British rant

Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst
and political commentator. He appears frequently on American
and British television and radio, including
Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR.
 
By  Nile Gardiner  

Pierre Lellouche, the outspoken French
Europe Minister, has ironically made
the strongest case yet from across
the Channel for a referendum
on the future of Britain's relationship with Europe.
His bizarre and hugely insulting rant
following David Cameron's unveiling yesterday
of the Tories' strategy on Europe underscores
exactly why the British public should
be given the ultimate say over Britain's relationship
with the EU – and the opportunity to
emphatically reject the kind of sneering
hectoring from over-zealous European officials
who are driven by a hatred
of Anglo-Saxon global dominance.

Who does Pierre Lellouche think he is
lecturing the British people over how
they should conduct their own foreign policy?
What gives him the right to dictate
the future direction of a sovereign nation?
It is exactly the kind of Gallic arrogance
displayed by M. Lellouche that has
prompted a wave of revulsion in the UK
over the prospect of the poisonous
Treaty of Lisbon coming into force.
The next Prime Minister should
take note – this is just the shape of things
to come once the revived EU Constitution
is enacted and British sovereignty
is further eroded.

Here are Lellouche's comments as

quoted by the Guardian:

"It's pathetic. It's just very sad to see Britain,

so important in Europe, just cutting itself out

from the rest and disappearing from the radar map ….

This is a culture of opposition …

It is the result of a long period of opposition.

I know they will come back, but I hope

the trip will be short…

They are doing what they have done

in the European parliament. They have essentially

castrated your UK influence in

the European parliament."

"I have told William Hague: go away for two

to three years, in your political economic situation

you're going to be all by your self and

you'll come back. Go ahead and do it.

That is my message to them …

You want to be marginalised?

Well, you go for it.

But it's a waste of time for all of us."

"It's not going to happen for a minute.

Nobody is going to indulge in rewriting

[treaties for] many, many years.

Nobody is going to play with

the institutions again. It's going to be

take it or leave it and they should

be honest and say that.

"It is a time of tumultuous waters

all around us. Wars, terrorism, proliferation,

Afghanistan, energy with Russia,

massive immigration, economic crisis.

It is time when the destiny

of Europe is being defined – whether or

not we will exist as a third

of the world's GDP capable of fighting

it out on climate, on trade, on every …

issue on the surface of the Earth."

"We need to be united, otherwise we will

be wiped out and marginalised.

None of us can do it alone. Whether you're big

or small, the lesson is the same.

And [Britain's] risk is one

of marginalisation. Irrelevance. Finally we have

institutional package, but it took 15 years of looking

at our navel and getting everybody

bored to death with sterile debate".

French President Nicolas Sarkozy should

issue an apology for the offensive

and downright rude comments of one

of his own senior ministers.

Frankly, there is something rather pathetic

about a representative of

the French government lecturing Britain

on being marginalised and irrelevant.

This from a country that refuses to send

a single additional soldier to

the battlefields of Afghanistan,

humiliatingly kowtows to the Russian bear,

and can barely make an international decision

without the permission of its larger neighbour in Berlin.

It's not hard to see why Paris is pushing

so hard for the new EU Constitution – after all

it is far easier to mask your own decline

as a nation under the cover

of a European superstate.

Tags: David Cameron, nicolas sarkozy,
Pierre Lellouche, Treaty of Lisbon

Link here

--
J-L K

Carly Fiorina to announce run for U.S. Senate

Photo: Carly Fiorina in September 2008. The former
chairwoman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co.
will formally announce her run for
the U.S. Senate.
Credit: Paul Sancya / Associated Press
 
L.A. NOW

Southern California -- this just in

Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina
will formally announce her run for
the U.S. Senate this morning at
a news conference in Garden Grove.

"Throughout my career I've brought people together,
and I've solved problems," Fiorina said
in a statement. "And that is what is needed
in our government today.

People who are willing to set aside ego
and partisanship and instead work
to develop solutions to our problems. …

As California's senator, economic recovery
and fiscal accountability will be my priorities."

Fiorina will face off against Assemblyman
Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) for the Republican nomination.

The GOP candidate would compete
against incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer,
who is seeking a fourth term.

"I look forward to engaging Carly Fiorina
on the issues Californians care about: out-of-control
federal debt, soaring government spending
on bailouts and stimulus, a pending
government takeover of healthcare,
and Barbara Boxer's huge energy-tax increase
disguised as cap-and-trade," DeVore said in a statement.                

-- Times staff

Column: If Fiorina opts for Senate bid,

will 'I' come before 'you'?

OC Register: Carly Fiorina: Why I'm running for Senate

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

Bipartisan Attack on International Humanitarian Law

Dr. Stephen Zunes

Stephen Zunes

Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco
   
Foreign Policy In Focus
   
www.fpif.org

In a stunning blow against international law

and human rights, the U.S. House of Representatives

overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Tuesday

attacking the report of the United Nations Human Rights

Council's fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.

The report was authored by the well-respected

South African jurist Richard Goldstone and

three other noted authorities on

international humanitarian law, who had been

widely praised for taking leadership

in previous investigations of war crimes in Rwanda,

Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere.

Since this report documented apparent war crimes

by a key U.S. ally, however, Congress has taken

the unprecedented action of passing

a resolution condemning it.

Perhaps most ominously, the resolution also

endorses Israel's right to attack Syria and Iran

on the grounds that they are "state sponsors of terrorism."

The principal co-sponsors of the resolution (HR 867),

which passed on a 344-36 vote, included

two powerful Democrats: House Foreign Relations

Committee chairman Howard Berman (D-CA)

and Middle East subcommittee chairman

Gary Ackerman (D-NY). Democratic majority leader

Steny Hoyer (D-MD) successfully pushed

Democrats to support the resolution

by a more than 6:1 margin, despite the risk

of alienating the party's liberal pro-human rights

base less than a year before critical midterm elections.

The resolution opens with a series of clauses

criticizing the original mandate of the

UN Human Rights Council, which called

for an investigation of possible Israeli war crimes only.

This argument is completely moot, however,

since Goldstone and his colleagues — to

their credit — refused to accept the offer

to serve on the mission unless its mandate

was changed to one that would investigate

possible war crimes by both sides in the conflict.

As a result, the mandate of the mission

was thereby broadened. The House resolution

doesn't mention this, however, and instead

implies that the original mandate

remained the basis of the report. In reality,

even though the report contained

over 70 pages detailing a series of violations

of the laws of war by Hamas, including rocket attacks

into civilian-populated areas of Israel,

torture of Palestinian opponents,

and the continued holding of kidnapped

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, there's no acknowledgement

in the 1,600-word resolution that the initial mandate

had been superseded or that the report

criticizes the conduct of both sides.

In fact, despite the report's extensive documentation

of Hamas assaults on Israeli towns — which

it determined constituted war crimes

and possible "crimes against

humanity" — the resolution insists that

it "makes no mention of the relentless

rocket and mortar attacks."

The Goldstone mission report — totaling

575 pages — contains detailed accounts

of deadly Israeli attacks against schools, mosques,

private homes, and businesses no where

near legitimate military targets, which

they accurately described as

"a deliberately disproportionate attack designed

to punish humiliate and terrorize

a civilian population." In particular, the report

cites 11 incidents in which Israeli armed forces

engaged in direct attacks against civilians,

including cases where people were shot

"while they were trying to leave their homes

to walk to a safer place, waving white flags."

The House resolution, however, claims

that such charges of deliberate Israeli attacks

against civilian areas were

"sweeping and unsubstantiated."

Both the report's conclusions and most

of the particular incidents cited were

independently documented in  detailed

empirical investigations released in recent months

by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,

and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem,

among others. Congressional attacks against

the integrity of the Goldstone report,

therefore, constitute attacks against

the integrity of these reputable

human rights groups as well.

Equating Killing Civilians with Self-Defense

In an apparent effort to further discredit
the human rights community,
the resolution goes on
to claim that the report denies Israel's right
to self defense, even though  there was
absolutely nothing in the report that questioned
Israel's right to use military force. 
It simply insists that neither Israelis
nor Palestinians have the right to attack civilians.

The resolution resolves that
the report "irredeemably biased"
against Israel, an ironic charge given that  
Justice Goldstone, the report's principal author
and defender, is  Jewish, a longtime supporter
of Israel, chair of Friends of Hebrew University,
president emeritus of the World ORT
Jewish school system, and
the father of an Israeli citizen.

Goldstone was also a leading opponent
of apartheid in his native South Africa
and served as Nelson Mandela's first appointee
to the country's post-apartheid Supreme Court.
He was a principal prosecutor in the
war crimes tribunals on Rwanda and
the former Yugoslavia, took a leading role
in investigations into corruption in
the UN's "Oil for Food" program in Iraq,
and was also part of investigations
into Argentina's complicity in provided
sanctuary for Nazi war criminals.

Having 80% of the U.S. House of Representatives
go on record attacking the integrity of one
of the world's most respected
and principled defenders of human rights
is indicative of just how far
to the right the U.S. Congress has now become,
even under Democratic leadership.

In doing so, Congress has served notice
to the human rights community that they
won't consider any human rights defenders
credible if they dare raise questions
about the conduct of a U.S. ally.
This may actually be the underlying
purpose of the resolution: to jettison
any consideration of
international humanitarian law
from policy debates in Washington.

The cost, however, will likely be to further
isolate the United States from the rest
of the world, just as Obama was beginning
to rebuild the trust of other nations.

Indeed, the resolution calls on
the Obama administration not only
"to oppose unequivocally any endorsement"
of the report, but to even oppose
unequivocally any "further consideration"
of the report in international fora.

Instead of debating its merits, therefore,
Congress has decided to instead pre-judge
its contents and disregard the actual evidence
put forward. (It's doubtful that any
of the supporters of the resolution
even bothered actually reading the report.)

The resolution even goes so far as
to claim that Goldstone's report is part
of an effort "to delegitimize
the democratic State of Israel and deny it
the right to defend its citizens and
its existence can be used to delegitimize
other democracies and deny them the same right."

This is demagoguery at its most extreme.
In insisting that documenting a given
country's war crimes is tantamount
to denying that country's right to exist
and its right to self defense, the resolution
is clearly aimed at silencing defenders
of international humanitarian law.

The fact that the majority of Democrats voted
in favor of this resolution underscores
that both parties now effectively
embrace the neoconservative agenda
to delegitimize any serious discussion
of international humanitarian law,
in relation to conduct by
the United States and its allies.

License for War?

Having failed in their efforts to convince
Washington to launch a war
against Syria and Iran,
neoconservatives and other hawks
in Washington have now successfully
mobilized a large bipartisan majority of
the House of Representatives
to encourage Israel to act as
a U.S. surrogate: Following earlier clauses
that define Israel's massive military assault
on the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip
as a legitimate defense of its citizens
and make the exaggerated assertion
that Iran and Syria are  "sponsors" of Hamas,
the final clause in the resolution puts
Congress on record supporting "Israel's right
to defend its citizens from violent militant groups
and their state sponsors" (emphasis added).

This broad bipartisan congressional mandate
for a unilateral Israeli attack on Syria and Iran
is extremely dangerous, and appears designed
to undercut the Obama administration's efforts
to pursue a negotiated path
to settling differences with these countries.

Misleading Accusations

There are other clauses in the resolution

that take quotes out of context and engage

in other misrepresentations to make

the case that Goldstone and his colleagues

are "irredeemably biased." 

One clause in the resolution attacks

the credibility of mission member

Christine Chinkin, an internationally respected

British scholar of international law,

feminist jurisprudence, alternative dispute resolution,

and human rights.

The resolution questions her objectivity

by claiming that "before joining the mission,

[she] had already declared Israel guilty

of committing atrocities in Operation Cast Lead

by signing a public letter on January 11, 2009,

published in the Sunday Times, that called

Israel's actions 'war crimes.'"

In reality, the letter didn't accuse Israel

of "atrocities," but simply noted that Israel's attacks

against the civilian infrastructure of

the Gaza Strip were "not commensurate

to the deaths caused by Hamas rocket fire."

The letter also noted that "the blockade

of humanitarian relief, the destruction

of civilian infrastructure, and preventing access

to basic necessities such as food and fuel,

are prima facie war crimes." In short,

it was a preliminary assessment rather

than a case of having "already declared

Israel guilty," as the resolution states.

Furthermore, at the time

of the letter — written a full two weeks

into the fighting — there had already been

a series of preliminary reports from

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,

and the International Committee of the Red Cross

documenting probable war crimes

by Israeli armed forces, so virtually

no one knowledgeable of international

humanitarian law could have come

to any other conclusion. As a result,

Chinkin's signing of the letter could

hardly be considered the kind of

ideologically motivated bias that should

preclude her participation

on an investigative body,

particularly since that same letter

unequivocally condemned Hamas

rocket attacks as well.

The resolution also faults the report

for having "repeatedly downplayed or

cast doubt upon" claims that Hamas used

"human shields" as an attempted deterrence

to Israeli attacks. The reason the report

challenged those assertions, however,

was that there simply wasn't any

solid evidence to support such claims.

Detailed investigations by Amnesty International

and Human Rights Watch regarding

such accusations during and subsequent

to the fighting also came to same conclusion.

As with  these previous investigations, 

the Goldstone report determined

that there were occasions when

Hamas hadn't taken all necessary precautions

to avoid placing civilians in harm's way,

but they found no evidence whatsoever

that Hamas had consciously used

civilians as shields at any point

during the three-week conflict.

Despite this, the House resolution makes

reference to a supposed "great body

of evidence" that Hamas used human shields.

The resolution fails to provide a single example

to support this claim, however,

other than a statement by

one Hamas official, which

the mission investigated and

eventually concluded

was without merit. I contacted

the Washington offices of more

than two dozen co-sponsors

of the resolution, requesting

such evidence, and none of them

were able to provide any. It appears,

then, that the sponsors of

the resolution simply fabricated

this charge in order to protect

Israel from any moral or

legal responsibilities for the more

than 700 civilian deaths.

(Interestingly, the report did find

extensive evidence — as did

Amnesty International — that

the Israelis used Palestinians as

human shields during their offensive.

Israeli soldiers testifying at hearings

held by a private group of

Israeli soldiers and veterans

confirmed a number of

such episodes as well. This fact

was conveniently left out of the resolution.)

In another example of misleading content,

the resolution quotes Goldstone as saying,

in relation to the mission's investigation,

"If this was a court of law,

there would have been nothing proven."

However, no such investigation carried out

on behalf of the UNHRC has ever claimed

to have obtained evidence beyond

a reasonable doubt, the normal criterion

for proof in a court of law. This does not,

however, buttress the resolution's insistence

that the report was therefore

"unworthy of further consideration

or legitimacy." What the fact-finding mission

did find was probable cause

for criminal investigations into

possible war crimes by both

Hamas and the Israeli government.

Another spurious claim of bias

is the resolution's assertion that

"the report usually considered

public statements made by

Israeli officials not to be credible,

while frequently giving uncritical

credence to statements taken from

what it called the `Gaza authorities',

i.e. the Gaza leadership of Hamas."

In reality, the report shows that

the mission did investigate such statements

and evaluated them based upon the evidence.

The resolution also fails to mention

that while Hamas officials were willing

to meet with the mission, Israeli officials

refused, even denying them

entrance into Israel. The mission had to fly

Israeli victims of Hamas attacks to Geneva

at UN expense to interview them.

The mission found these Israelis' testimony

credible, took them quite seriously,

and incorporated them into their findings.

The resolution goes on to claim that

the report's observation that

the Israeli government has

"contributed significantly to

a political climate in which

dissent with the government and

its actions . . . is not tolerated" was erroneous.

In reality, it has been

well-documented  — and has been

subjected to extensive debate

within Israel — that the right-wing government 

of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu

has interrogated and harassed

political activists as well as

suppressed criticism and sources

of potential criticism of actions by the Israeli military,

particularly non-government organizations

such as the dissident

soldiers' group Breaking the Silence.

No Accountability

The House resolution is particularly

vehement in its opposition to

the report's recommendation that,

should Hamas and Israeli authorities

fail to engage in credible investigations

and bring those responsible

for war crimes to justice, the matter

should be referred to the International

Criminal Court for possible prosecution.

The resolution insists this is

unnecessary since Israel "has already

launched numerous investigations."

However, Israeli human rights groups

have repeatedly criticized their

government's refusal to launch

any independent investigations

and have documented how the Israeli government

has refused to investigate testimonies

by soldiers of war crimes.

(At this point, the only indictments

for misconduct by Israeli forces

during the conflict have been against

two soldiers who stole credit cards

from a Palestinian home.)

The primary motivation for the resolution

appears to have been to block

any consideration of its recommendation

that those guilty of war crimes

be held accountable. Since the ICC

has never indicted anyone from

a country which had a fair

and comprehensive internal investigation

of war crimes and prosecuted those

believed responsible, the goal of Congress

appears to be that of protecting

war criminals from prosecution.

As a result, the passage of this resolution

isn't simply about the alleged

clout of AIPAC or just another example

of longstanding congressional support

for Israeli militarism. This resolution constitutes

nothing less than a formal bipartisan

rejection of international humanitarian

law. U.S. support for human rights

and international law has always

been uneven, but never has Congress

gone on record by such

an overwhelming margin to discredit

these universal principles so categorically.

This is George W. Bush's foreign policy

legacy, which — through

this resolution — the Democrats,

no less than their Republican counterparts,

have now eagerly embraced.

Stephen Zunes, a Foreign Policy in Focus
senior analyst, is a professor of politics
and chair of Middle Eastern Studies
at the University of San Francisco.

Link here

--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda

AFRICA: Turning to traditional medicines in fight against malaria

Photo: Allan Gichigi/IRIN
Peter, a clinical officer, treats a patient at
the Gongoni health centre in Malindi, Kenya (file photo).

Malaria Cure
Photo: Stephenie Hollyman/WHO

Malaria kills a million people
across Africa every year

NAIROBI, (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of
traditional African herbal medicines could
prevent some of the one million
malarial deaths on the continent, according
to specialists attending
a conference in Nairobi.

Many poor communities, especially
in rural settings, cannot afford
modern malarial drugs and many people
die due to inaccessibility of treatment.

"Malaria kills many people in Africa,
both children and adults, despite
the availability of free treatment
in certain African countries. While it is true
many governments in Africa,
with development partners, give
free pediatric treatment for malaria,
many still cannot access this facilities
and resort to home treatment,"
says Merlin Wilcox of the Research Initiative
on Traditional Antimalarial Methods
and the University of Oxford.

Some specialists at the ongoing
5th MIM Pan African Malaria Conference
in Nairobi said medicines drawn from plants
that abound in the continent could be
utilized to save many people, especially
those in poor settings, from malaria.

BN Prakash, a researcher with
the Foundation for the Revitalization
of Local Health Traditions, based in Bangalore,
said Africa could draw on experiences
in India where medicinal plants have been
used with great success
in the control of malaria-related deaths.

"Research in India has shown
a 5-10 times reduction in
malaria-related deaths among communities
who use traditional medicinal plants
like Guduchi [tinospore coeditdia],
a local medicinal plant
found in India," said Prakash.

Preserving traditional knowledge

Another speaker, Gemma Burford
of the Global Initiative for Traditional
Systems of Health, said while there had
been increased cases of loss of knowledge
about traditional medicinal plants,
student-led research could be used
to preserve knowledge and create
a database on these plants.
 
Treating malaria with commercial medicine
is expensive and not always viable;
hence the need for more research
into traditional, plant-based options

"When we carried out research involving
school children in rural Tanzania about
traditional Maasai medicines, we found out
that 48 percent of these children already
had knowledge about these plants.
We used [this knowledge] to create
a database for the purposes of preserving
the knowledge and these plants too," said Burford.

"It is important to note that many
malarial drugs are still bought from
commercial pharmaceutical shops
and not many of them are that cheap.
Costs also involve how easy or not it is
to access these government facilities,
especially in Africa where medical facilities
are far-flung," Burford said.

Educating the youth

Speakers at the conference called
on African governments to introduce
educational programmes that would
teach the younger generations
about the traditional methods
of treating malaria and other
diseases plaguing the continent.

"The biggest obstacle to use
of traditional medicines is lack of interest
from the youth and teaching them
about these medicines would be
the best way to let them appreciate their values.

Evangelical churches and development agencies
must also be persuaded to stop
fighting traditional African medicine
because modernity and tradition
can be married to provide
 a formidable force against malaria," added Burford.

Effectiveness and dangers

Doumbo Ogobara, director of the
Mali Malaria Research and Training Centre,
and a lecturer at the University of Bamako,
said there should be more research
to ensure the effectiveness
of traditional medicinal plants
in the treatment and management of malaria.

"More research must be directed
towards finding out the effectiveness
of these traditional medicinal plants
and their safety and efficacy
because initiatives on using them
could be counter-productive if this
is not done.

More emphasis therefore must be laid
on research for plant-based
prophylactics for malaria," said Ogobara.

Mahamadou Sissoko of the Centre
called for caution in taking
the traditional medicinal route, arguing
that many malaria-related deaths
have occurred even among communities
that have relied heavily
on traditional plants for treatment.

"People are dying even in places
where there is still widespread use
of traditional medicinal plants and
unless the efficacy of a traditional plant
on malarial treatment can be ascertained
through vigorous research,
we could have our backs against the wall.

Many traditional healers will abuse
this and give anything as medicine
so long as it is a plant - we must
urge caution," said Sissoko.

ko/mw

Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda